Last Man Standing (U.S. TV series)
Genre Sitcom
Created by Jack Burditt
Starring
Tim Allen
Nancy Travis
Alexandra Krosney
Molly Ephraim
Kaitlyn Dever
Christoph Sanders
Héctor Elizondo
Amanda Fuller
Flynn Morrison
Jordan Masterson[1]
Jonathan Adams[1]
Composer(s) Monte Montgomery
Carl Thiel
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 6
No. of episodes 130 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Tim Allen
Becky Clements
Marty Adelstein
Richard Baker
Rick Messina
John Pasquin
Producer(s)
John Amodeo
Shawn Levy
Cinematography Donald A. Morgan
Editor(s) Pamela J. Marshall
Camera setup Multi-camera
Running time 21 minutes
Production company(s)
21 Laps-Adelstein Productions
Double Wide Productions/NestEgg Productions (season 1)
Mr. Big Shot Fancy-Pants Productions, Inc. (seasons 2–4)
Lyonsberry Productions (season 5–6)
20th Century Fox Television
Distributor 20th Television
Release
Original network ABC
Picture format 720p (HDTV)
Original release October 11, 2011 – March 31, 2017
External links
Website
Last Man Standing is an American television sitcom starring Tim Allen that aired on ABC from October 11, 2011 to March 31, 2017.[2][3]
On May 10, 2017, ABC canceled the series after six seasons.[4]
Contents [hide]
1 Premise
2 Cast and characters
2.1 Main
2.2 Recurring cast
2.3 Notable guest stars
3 Episodes
4 Production
4.1 Development and casting
4.2 Filming
4.3 Cancellation
5 Reception
5.1 Critical reception
5.2 Ratings
5.3 Awards and nominations
6 Syndication
7 Broadcast
8 References
9 External links
Premise[edit]
The series follows Mike Baxter, a senior executive and director of marketing for an outdoor sporting goods store chain based in Denver, Colorado, whose world is filled with his wife, three daughters, and grandson.
Cast and characters[edit]
Main[edit]
Tim Allen as Michael "Mike" Baxter
Mike is a father of three daughters and the director of marketing for the Outdoor Man chain of sporting goods stores. He fervently supports traditional American values, is a Protestant and is politically conservative. Mike loves his daughters but says his favorite is Eve, the youngest and most athletic daughter, and whose political opinions and interests mirror his own. He is proud of her ability to excel at anything she tries, including school work, hunting, and playing sports. Mike often finds himself annoyed with Outdoor Man's young slow-witted employee Kyle, and with Ryan, his politically liberal son-in-law and the father of Mike's grandson Boyd. The video blog or "vlog" that Mike does for Outdoor Man is frequently used as a vehicle to rant about his political views. Mike is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and an amateur radio operator using the call sign KA0XTT.[5]
Nancy Travis as Vanessa Baxter, Mike's wife
Vanessa is a geologist working in the energy industry for a company that does hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking". In season four, Vanessa becomes frustrated with her job and decides to become a high school science teacher. Vanessa was ambiguous in her political views until season five, when she announces she is supporting Hillary Clinton for president, mainly because she thinks it will advance women's causes. She is also shown drinking wine frequently, and nearly as frequently mocked by Mike and her daughters about it. She is a graduate of Ohio State University. Vanessa has a tendency to put her foot in her mouth when around people of other races. Despite this, she and her African-American neighbor Carol Larabee seem to get along. Vanessa's humor tends to include puns.
Amanda Fuller (seasons 2–6) and Alexandra Krosney (season 1) as Kristin Beth Baxter, the oldest daughter.
Kristin, unlike her father, espouses more liberal beliefs. During her senior year of high school, Kristin became pregnant with her son, Boyd. She was a single mom living in the Baxter home until moving out in the season two finale. She began to reconcile with Boyd's father, Ryan, in season three, and the two get married between seasons four and five. Kristin worked at a diner until landing a job at an upscale restaurant run by a former co-worker at the end of season two. In season four, she becomes the manager of the new restaurant opened by Outdoor Man. Kristin tends to work extra hard in this new job to prove she did not get the position through nepotism, despite Mike and Ed frequently telling her she was qualified. Alexandra Krosney portrayed Kristin in the show's first season, but she was replaced by Amanda Fuller prior to season two for unspecified creative reasons.[6]
Molly Ephraim as Amanda Elaine "Mandy" Baxter, the middle daughter.
Mandy is nowhere near as intelligent as her sisters, but excels in social situations. Interested in fashion, she was one of the most popular girls at her high school. Mandy is very confident and creative, demonstrating traits found in her father. Unlike the rest of the family, she is usually lazy, conceited, and selfish, but occasionally displays moments of generosity and caring. She started dating Kyle in season 2. As of season three, she is attending a local college and working at the diner where Kristin used to work. Later that same season, she begins an online clothing business, selling her self-designed fashions which she assembles in the basement of her parents' house. Kyle asks her to marry him in season 5, the 100th episode. She marries Kyle in season six, but they have yet to move out of the Baxter home. Up until she turned 21, a running gag on the show was Mike, Vanessa, and occasionally Kristin snatching glasses of alcohol out of Mandy's hand, usually followed by Mandy making a lame excuse.
Kaitlyn Dever as Eve Baxter, the youngest daughter.
Eve is an intelligent, athletic tomboy and generally has the same interests as Mike, including camping, sports, guns, and the military. She is Mike's favorite daughter, and excels at her hobbies. She frequently outplays the boys in soccer and makes the boys' football team as their placekicker. She is well aware of being the favorite over her two sisters. Eve has also inherited her father's sense of humor, and her trademark sarcastic wit is frequently directed at clueless sister Mandy. Eve is a member of Army Junior ROTC and works toward gaining admittance to West Point. Her first attempt to do so is unsuccessful. In season six, Eve has decided to take a "personal year" rather than immediately attend college. She spends some of this time singing and playing guitar for money, but this proves to be unfruitful. During her gap year, Eve applies to the Air Force Academy in nearby Colorado Springs, and is accepted.
Christoph Sanders as Kyle Anderson, a young employee at Outdoor Man.
Kyle is universally recognized as a good guy. Kyle idolizes Mike, having grown up without a father figure. Kyle takes care of his grandmother who has dementia, and it is implied he grew up in her home. Kyle is often oblivious to social cues and is slow to catch on to the events happening around him. Kyle dated Kristin in season one and started dating Mandy in season two before proposing in season five, and marrying Mandy in season six.
Héctor Elizondo as Edward "Ed" Alzate, Mike's longtime boss.
Ed started a bait and tackle shop many years ago and hired Mike, who helped turn the shop into the 20-store Outdoor Man chain.[7] Ed is perhaps fifteen years older than Mike, but the two men bond over similar outdoor hobbies and shared conservative values. Mike regularly talks to Ed about the happenings in his home and occasionally seeks advice. Having been divorced four times, Ed's suggestions are rarely helpful. Ed is a Vietnam veteran, although he saw no combat in Vietnam, stating that he was a clerk in Saigon. He continues to help fellow veterans at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars hall with their Veteran Affairs paperwork. Ed is also a recurring target for jokes about his age, most often from Mike. It is revealed in season 6 that Ed has early onset dementia.
Flynn Morrison (regular, seasons 2–6) and Evan and Luke Kruntchev (recurring, season 1) as Boyd Baxter, Kristin's son.
Mike enjoys spending quality time with his grandson Boyd, and affectionately views him as the son he never had. Mike and Ryan often clash on how he should be raised. Boyd enjoys activities encouraged by both his father and grandfather.
Jordan Masterson (regular, seasons 4–6; recurring, seasons 2–3) and Nick Jonas (guest star, season 1) as Ryan Vogelson, Boyd's Canadian father.
Though Ryan initially fled when Kristin got pregnant, the two reconciled and got engaged at the end of season 3. Ryan holds staunchly liberal views, both politically and philosophically. He and Mike routinely clash over their fundamentally opposing values, especially when it comes to child-rearing. Many of Ryan's atheistic and liberal views are hypocritical, as Mike is often quick to point out. Ryan wishes to raise his son without religion and patriotism, but neither Mike nor Kristin allow this. His vegan diet, political correctness, views on discipline, and general sensitivity are an affront to Mike's beliefs. On rare occasions, Ryan agrees with Mike on what is best for Boyd's future, but this usually winds up creating rifts with Kristin or Vanessa.
Jonathan Adams as Chuck Larabee (regular, seasons 4–6; recurring, seasons 2–3), Mike and Vanessa's neighbor.
Chuck is a retired U.S. Marine and a veteran of the first Gulf War who runs a private security business and later takes charge of security for the Denver Outdoor Man. Chuck is an African-American, and often jokes with Mike about racial stereotypes. Mike and Chuck regularly exchange barbs as if they don't like each other. In reality, they are good friends, despite being unwilling to admit it. Vanessa sees right through their heated exchanges, often telling them to "get a room".
Recurring cast[edit]
Robert Forster as Bud Baxter (seasons 1, 3–4), Mike's widower father who is initially in the construction business, but later opens a marijuana store after it becomes legal in Colorado.
Erika Alexander as Carol Larabee (seasons 2–5), Chuck's wife and Mike and Vanessa's neighbor. She is also Vanessa's best friend. Vanessa often goes overboard trying to act racially open-minded around her, but usually ends up looking foolish and annoying Carol.
Carla Jimenez as Blanca (seasons 2–4), the Baxters' housekeeper who also helps Mandy with her fashion business.
Sarah Gilman as Cammy Harris (seasons 2–6), Eve's soccer teammate and extremely chatty best friend.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas as John Baker (seasons 2–3), Kristin's boss at a fancy restaurant where she works. Thomas also guest-starred as "Randy" (a nod to his Home Improvement character) in the season 4 episode "Helen Potts", with fellow Home Improvement co-star Patricia Richardson.
Christina Moore as April (seasons 1 & 3), Vanessa's air-headed and immature younger sister. She is always asking for money.
Danielle Bisutti as Michelle (season 1), Vanessa's friend and next-door neighbor; she is a meteorologist.
Tye Sheridan as Justin (seasons 3-4), Eve's fellow Jr. ROTC member and football teammate who becomes her boyfriend. The two break up in season 4.
Zachary Gordon as Andrew (season 3), Eve's nerdy classmate who worships her and desperately wants to be her boyfriend.
Joely Fisher as Wendi Gracin (seasons 3–5), Ed's meddling younger girlfriend, whom he meets near the end of season three. Ed routinely has to put her in her place, particularly when she tries to get involved in decisions pertaining to his business. Wendi deserts Ed offscreen between Seasons 4 and 5, but the two patch things up and reunite.
Jay Leno as Joe Leonard (seasons 5–6), a semi-retired auto technician from whom Vanessa buys a classic car for Mike. Joe later works in the repair shop at Outdoor Man, servicing ATVs and snowmobiles.
Travis Tope as Rob (season 6), Eve's boyfriend who is studying criminal justice at UC Boulder. He's a recovering alcoholic, which worries Mike and Vanessa when they first meet him.
Notable guest stars[edit]
Several notable guest stars have appeared throughout the series, including appearances made from cast members of Tim Allen's previous series, Home Improvement.[citation needed]
Jere Burns (4.22) as Victor Vogelson, Ryan's estranged father
Blake Clark (5.16) as Clark, the owner of a club in which Eve performed
Andrew Daly (1.16)
Bill Engvall (5.21, 6.7 & 6.18) as Reverend Paul
Michael Gross (3.19) as Mr. Hardin
Tony Hawk (1.12) as himself
Nick Jonas (1.10) as Ryan in his first appearance
Kim Kardashian (1.16) as herself
Richard Karn (2.9 & 2.17) as Bill McKendree. Karn portrayed Al Borland, co-worker and friend to Tim Allen's character on Home Improvement
Reba McEntire (5.19) as Billie Cassidy, Mike's college girlfriend
Frankie Muniz (1.18) as Richard
Cassandra Peterson (1.4) as Elvira
Patricia Richardson (4.12 & 5.17) as Helen Potts, the Baxters's widowed neighbor. Richardson portrayed Jill Taylor, the wife of Tim Allen's character in Home Improvement
Robin Roberts (5.17) as Teresa, a tank mechanic and Persian Gulf War veteran
Si Robertson (3.1)
Willie Robertson (3.1)
Mike Rowe (1.18) as Jimmy Baxter, Mike's younger brother
Jamie-Lynn Sigler (1.13) as Gabriella Alzate, one of Ed's five daughters
Tony Stewart (1.17) as himself
Paul F. Tompkins (1.2) as Chester McAllister
Episodes[edit]
Main article: List of Last Man Standing episodes
Season Episodes Originally aired
First aired Last aired
1 24 October 11, 2011 May 8, 2012
2 18 November 2, 2012 March 22, 2013
3 22 September 20, 2013 April 25, 2014
4 22 October 3, 2014 April 17, 2015
5 22 September 25, 2015 April 22, 2016
6 22 September 23, 2016 March 31, 2017
Production[edit]
Development and casting[edit]
Last Man Standing first appeared on ABC's development slate in late 2010 when writer Jack Burditt received a put pilot commitment from the network under the original title Man Up.[8] In January 2011, ABC green-lighted production of a pilot episode under the title Last Days of Man.[9][10] On February 18, Tim Allen, who had been attached to the potential series from the beginning, officially joined the project in the lead role.[11][12][13] At the end of March, Nancy Travis joined the cast in the leading female role as Allen's "smart and loving wife who doesn't miss much".[14][15][16] Soon thereafter, Héctor Elizondo came on board in a supporting role as the boss to Allen's character.[17]
Filming[edit]
On May 13, 2011, ABC picked up the pilot for the 2011–2012 television season under the new title Last Man Standing.[18] On May 17, 2011, ABC announced that the series would air on Tuesday nights at 8 Eastern/7 Central.[19] It debuted on October 11, 2011, with the first two episodes airing in a one-hour premiere.[20]
On November 3, 2011, the series was picked up for a full season of twenty-two episodes.[21] On January 12, 2012, the order was increased to twenty-four episodes.[22]
On May 11, 2012, ABC renewed the series for a second season set to air in the 2012–2013 season in November.[23][24]
On June 11, 2012, Tim Doyle was hired as the new showrunner of the series. Doyle was the third showrunner that the series had had since it entered production. Doyle replaced Kevin Abbott, who joined the staff as the showrunner mid-way in the first season. Abbott replaced series creator Jack Burditt, who was the showrunner for the first thirteen episodes. Unlike Burditt, who is no longer credited as an executive producer, Abbott continued to serve as an executive producer while showrunning the fellow ABC sitcom Malibu Country starring Reba McEntire. Both Last Man Standing and Malibu Country aired as a part of ABC's Friday night lineup for the 2012–2013 primetime television season.[25] On November 8, 2012, Abbott re-joined the Last Man Standing crew full-time, after a stint in rehab, and gave Nastaran Dibai full showrunning duties of Malibu Country.[26]
On June 11, 2012, it was announced that Alexandra Krosney (Kristin) was let go from the show for creative reasons.[27] Krosney was replaced by Amanda Fuller in season 2.[28] On June 19, 2012, it was also announced that twins Luke and Evan Kruntchev, who played the role of Boyd in season 1, would not be returning; they were replaced by Flynn Morrison in season 2.[29] The character of Boyd was also age-advanced from two years old to five years old.[30] Jordan Masterson plays Ryan, Boyd's father, in a recurring role beginning in season 2.[31] The role was previously played by Nick Jonas, who guest-starred in one episode in season 1.[32]
The second season initially received a 13-episode order. ABC announced on November 12, 2012, that an additional three scripts had been ordered.[33] On November 27, five more episodes were ordered to bring the second-season episode total to 18.[34]
On May 10, 2013, the series was renewed for a third season,[35] which premiered on September 20, 2013, and ended on April 25, 2014, after 22 episodes.[36]
On May 10, 2014, ABC renewed Last Man Standing for a fourth season, which premiered on October 3, 2014.[37] Allen and Elizondo guest-starred as their Last Man Standing characters in a crossover episode with the fellow ABC Friday sitcom Cristela.[38]
On May 10, 2015, ABC announced the show had been renewed for a fifth season. Last Man Standing had become a solid performer for the Friday night lineup at ABC, which with the help of Shark Tank and 20/20 has become the top network among adults 18–49 for the night. Leading off Friday night for ABC, the sitcom averaged a 1.8 rating in adults 18–49 and 8.2 million viewers overall, according to Nielsen's Live+7 estimates.[39][40]
On May 13, 2016, ABC renewed the series for a sixth and final season, which premiered on September 23, 2016.[41]
Cancellation[edit]
On May 10, 2017, ABC canceled Last Man Standing after six seasons, despite the series being the second most-watched ABC sitcom during the 2016–17 season (based on Live+7 figures), with ratings remaining mostly steady during its sixth season.[4] A rep for 20th Century Fox TV said cancellation decisions are made by ABC. "This was a scheduling decision," wrote Jori Arancio, senior vice president of ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios. ABC and its production partner for the show, 20th Century Fox TV, typically negotiate licensing fees prior to each season; however, the network decided to cancel the show without doing so. Also, the contract between 20th Century Fox Television and ABC for the show, in which 20th Century Fox Television covered the cost of production, had expired after six seasons. Had the series been renewed for a seventh season, ABC would have been required to pick up Last Man Standing's production costs, which the network was unwilling to do.[42]
The cancellation was met with outrage from the show's fans, many of whom took to social media to voice their displeasure and petition for another network to pick up the show.[43] It also happened some months after lead actor Tim Allen (who is also a real-life Republican) said in an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, possibly with tongue in cheek, that being a Republican in Hollywood is "like 1930s Germany. You gotta be real careful around here, you know. You’ll get beat up if you don’t believe what everybody believes.” His comment was widely criticized, especially his comparing the treatment of Republicans in Hollywood with Nazi Germany. This led many to believe that the show had been cancelled because of his statements.[44]
A viewer petition on the website Change.org calling for ABC to reinstate Last Man Standing had reportedly surpassed 140,000 signatures as of May 16. In a conference call with reporters a day earlier, ABC president Channing Dungey stated, "Last Man Standing was a challenging one for me, because it was a steady performer. Once we made the decision not to continue with comedy on Friday, it was just kind of that's where we landed." Dungey cited studio ownership, future creative direction, ratings and viewer engagement as all factors in her decision.[45]
Tim Allen voiced his displeasure with the cancellation, tweeting on May 16: "Stunned and blindsided by the network I called home for the last six years."[46]
With the petition to save Last Man Standing approaching 300,000 signatures on May 17, rumors circulated that Fox was seriously considering acquiring the series, as it already owns the rights through its production sibling, 20th Century Fox Television.[47] Variety later confirmed in an exclusive report that 20th Century Fox Television is actively shopping the series to other networks and streaming services in hopes it will be picked up for a seventh season.[48]
Reception[edit]
Critical reception[edit]
Last Man Standing stars Héctor Elizondo (left), Tim Allen and Christoph Sanders
Last Man Standing received generally negative reviews from critics. Season one has an approval rating of 14% on Rotten Tomatoes[49] and a score of 33 out of 100 on Metacritic.[50] The Hollywood Reporter commented: "A predictable sitcom with a stupid premise and bad acting."[51] Los Angeles Times: "The jokes and plots have been efficiently constructed, but most have no traction; they slide right off you, and the characters themselves seem disconnected from one another."[52] Conversely, Entertainment Weekly wrote: "When I look at the now-rounded softness of Tim Allen, and note once again how his sandpaper voice contrasts winningly with his hopeful eyes, it's impossible to plunge a shiv into this series."[53]
Season two scored 40% at Rotten Tomatoes.[54] Entertainment Weekly commented: "I think it's time the folks involved with Last take a closer look at All in the Family, in which the prejudice was built around real jokes."[55] The A.V. Club: "The problem with Last Man Standing's attempts to go political is exemplified by the first scene of the season première, which remains one of the most uncomfortable scenes of television I've ever watched ... doing its best to push buttons in the audience that don’t need to be pushed, as if it thinks what made [Norman] Lear’s sitcoms a success was the yelling or the mentions of social issues that people sometimes argued about."[56] Philly.com wrote about season three: "The unlikely comeback vehicle for Tim Allen, Last Man Standing on ABC, is a thoroughly traditional, absolutely charming sitcom. [...] Last Man is both economical and efficient, getting excellent comic mileage out of the most marginal bit players."[57]
The series was particularly popular among conservatives, many of whom viewed the show as a counterpoint to Modern Family, another 20th Century Fox sitcom that aired on ABC at the same time and featured more liberal ideologies.[42] A study conducted during the 2016 US Presidential Election found that it was the tenth most popular show on television with Republicans.[58]
Ratings[edit]
ABC's series premiere of Last Man Standing drew a 3.5 adults 18–49 rating. That was 9% better than the 3.2 adults 18–49 rating for the series premiere of No Ordinary Family in the same time-slot the previous year (which was two weeks earlier in the season). Season 2 of Last Man Standing premiered with a 2.0, down about 38% from its first-season premiere, but up about 18% from the previous season's finale.[59]
Season Timeslot (ET) No. of
episodes Premiered Ended TV season Rank Viewers
(million) Live + DVR
viewers
Date Premiere viewers
(million) Premiere 18–49
rating/share Date Finale viewers
(million) Finale 18–49
rating/share
1 Tuesday 8:00 pm 24 October 11, 2011 12.93[60] 3.4/10[60] May 8, 2012 6.62[61] 1.7/5[61] 2011–12 50 9.12[62] 9.76[63]
2 Friday 8:00 pm 18 November 2, 2012 8.07[64] 2.0/7[64] March 22, 2013 7.85[65] 1.6/6[65] 2012–13 53[66] 7.93[67] 8.34[68]
3 22 September 20, 2013 6.67[69] 1.5/6[69] April 25, 2014 6.10[70] 1.4/6[70] 2013–14 58 7.17[71] 7.92[72]
4 22 October 3, 2014 6.91[73] 1.3/5[73] April 17, 2015 6.16[74] 1.1/5[74] 2014–15 60[75] 8.18[75] 8.52[76]
5 22 September 25, 2015 6.26[77] 1.1/5[77] April 22, 2016 5.94[78] 1.0/4[78] 2015–16 56[79] 7.96[79] TBA
6 22 September 23, 2016 5.95[80] 1.1/5[80] March 31, 2017 6.06[81] 1.1/5[81] 2016–17 TBA TBA TBA
Awards and nominations[edit]
Last Man Standing was nominated for a 2012 People's Choice Award for "Favorite New TV Comedy", but lost to CBS's 2 Broke Girls.
Year Association Category Nominee / episode Outcome
2011 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards Top Television Series[citation needed] Carl Thiel (composer) Won
2012 People's Choice Awards Favorite New TV Comedy Last Man Standing Nominated
Kids' Choice Awards Favorite TV Actor Tim Allen Nominated
TV Guide Magazine's Fan Favorites Awards Favorite Comeback[82] Won
Young Artist Awards Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) – Supporting Young Actress Kaitlyn Dever Nominated
2013 Environmental Media Awards Television Episodic Comedy[83] "Mother Fracker" Won
2014 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards Outstanding Cinematography For A Multi-Camera Series Donald A. Morgan – "Eve's Boyfriend" Nominated
Syndication[edit]
On September 4, 2015, the series joined the CMT Network with a mini-marathon of episodes. On September 3, 2015, it was announced that ABC Family (now Freeform) had obtained syndication rights to the series, which began airing episodes on September 28, 2015.[84] Additionally, on May 15, 2015, it was announced that Hallmark Channel has obtained the rights to the sitcom and began airing the series in January 2016.[85] The first five seasons are also available for streaming on Netflix. The syndication of Last Man Standing was a major success in a time when few off-network reruns were becoming hits.[42]
Broadcast[edit]
Last Man Standing airs on Fox8, Network Ten and Eleven (previously aired on One) in Australia,[86] City in Canada and TV3 in New Zealand.[87] In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it premiered on October 9, 2012.[88] The second season premiered on January 30, 2014.[89]
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
Broad City
Broad City
Genre: Comedy
Created by:
Ilana Glazer
Abbi Jacobson
Starring:
Ilana Glazer
Abbi Jacobson
(Tony Danza---- Mr. Oh Eh. Eh Oh.)
Theme music composer: DJ Raff
Opening theme: "Latino & Proud"
Country of origin: United States
Original language(s): English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 30 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Ilana Glazer
Abbi Jacobson
Amy Poehler
Dave Becky
Tony Hernandez
Samantha Saifer
Producer(s)
Lilly Burns
John Skidmore
Running time 22 minutes
Production company(s)
Paper Kite Productions
3 Arts Entertainment
Jax Media
Comedy Partners
Release
Original network Comedy Central
Picture format 1080i (16:9 HDTV)
Audio format Stereo (2014–15)
5.1 surround sound (2016–)
Original release January 22, 2014 – present
External links
[comedycentral.com/shows/broad-city Website]
Broad City is an American comedy television series, created by and starring Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson. It was developed from their web series of the same name, which was independently produced from 2009 to 2011.[1] The creation of the web series began after Glazer received poor feedback on a project she and a partner had been working on. After expressing her frustration to Jacobson, the two decided to work on a project together, eventually creating the web series Broad City.[2] The series is based on Glazer and Jacobson's real life friendship, and their attempt to "make it" in New York.[3] Amy Poehler is one of Broad City's executive producers, and appeared in the webseries finale.[1] The series premiered on Comedy Central on January 22, 2014.[4]
The second season premiered on January 14, 2015[5] while the third season premiered on February 17, 2016.[6][7] The series has also been renewed for a fourth and fifth season.[8] On December 7, 2016, Glazer and Jacobson announced August 2017 as the premiere date for the fourth season, which is being shot in winter as opposed to the regular summer shooting schedule.[9]
Contents [hide]
1 Synopsis
2 Cast
2.1 Main cast
2.2 Recurring cast
3 Episodes
4 Production
5 Reception
5.1 Ratings
5.2 Critical reception
5.3 Awards and nominations
6 Home Media
7 Controversy
7.1 "Broad Fucking City" t-shirt incident
8 References
9 External links
Synopsis[edit]
Broad City follows Ilana and Abbi, two Jewish American women in their twenties, who experience adventures of carelessness and frivolity in New York City. Ilana seeks to avoid working as much as possible while pursuing her relentless hedonism, and Abbi tries to make a career as an illustrator, often getting sidetracked into Ilana's schemes.
Cast[edit]
Main cast[edit]
Jacobson (left) and Glazer (right) at Internet Week New York in May 2015.
Abbi Jacobson as Abbi Abrams,[4] a twenty-six-year-old woman from the Philadelphia Main Line. Like her best friend Ilana, she enjoys smoking marijuana, albeit less often. For the majority of the series, Abbi worked as a cleaner at a fitness center called Soulstice (a parody of, and named for Equinox[10] and SoulCycle[11]). She is eventually promoted to trainer and begins teaching fitness classes for senior citizens. She is also a struggling illustrator who dreams of quitting Soulstice to pursue art full-time. Abbi endeavors to find a balance between being a responsible, self-sufficient adult while being fun-loving and free-spirited like Ilana. She has a roommate who is never seen, although her roommate's freeloading boyfriend Matt, called by his last name "Bevers", is always around. Abbi has a huge crush on her neighbor Jeremy, but manages to embarrass herself every time she's around him. They eventually sleep together, but break up after an argument over a dildo. At the end of Season 3, she begins dating her boss Trey, but attempts to keep it a secret out of embarrassment. Abbi is the more level-headed of the two friends, but can lose her head when intoxicated or participating in competition.
Ilana Glazer as Ilana Wexler,[4] a twenty-three-year-old woman from Long Island. She is a slacker and marijuana enthusiast who is often oblivious to how others react to her self-absorbed antics. For the majority of the series, Ilana worked at a nondescript sales company called Deals Deals Deals, but rarely did any work and often took breaks lasting hours. She was disdained by her coworkers because of her lazy attitude, but her passive boss Todd kept her employed due to his submissiveness. She was finally fired after posting the bestiality video "Mr. Hands" to the company Twitter account. She shares an apartment with a gay immigrant named Jaime, and has an ongoing sexual relationship with Lincoln, a mild-mannered dentist. Ilana regards their relationship as "purely physical," much to Lincoln's dismay, although she often exhibits genuine caring for him. Compared to her best friend Abbi, she is more free-spirited and sexually liberated, but every escapade has unintended consequences—which usually impact Abbi, who is reluctantly dragged into Ilana's schemes.
Recurring cast[edit]
Hannibal Buress as Lincoln Rice, DDS – a successful pediatric dentist with whom Ilana has a recurring sexual relationship. He has romantic feelings for Ilana and wants to take their relationship further, but she is unreceptive to his advances. He is a funny, easygoing guy and often plays games and tells jokes with his dental patients. He is also a loyal friend to Abbi. In Season 3, he breaks up with Ilana to be monogamous with a new girlfriend.
Paul W. Downs as Trey Pucker – Abbi's boss at Soulstice. He is a genuinely nice guy and a hardcore health and fitness enthusiast. When he was 18, he made homemade masturbation videos under the name "Kirk Steele". For the majority of the series, he was oblivious to Abbi's desire to be a trainer and badgered her to clean things around the gym. Abbi and Trey began dating in Season 3, although Abbi attempted to keep it a secret out of embarrassment.
John Gemberling as Matthew "Matty" Bevers – Abbi's (always-absent) roommate's boyfriend who seems to never leave. He is a messy, disgusting freeloader who eats Abbi's food and lives in her apartment rent-free. In spite of this, he has been shown to have a sweet, sensitive side. He is oblivious to Abbi's disdain for him and considers them to be best friends.
Arturo Castro as James "Jaime" Castro – Ilana's gay drug-dealing roommate. Jaime is a Guatemalan immigrant who exhibits extreme guilt over what he perceives as wrongs he has committed against his friends; however, they are usually minor transgressions. He becomes an American citizen in Season 2.
Stephen Schneider as Jeremy Santos – Abbi's across-the-hall neighbor, on whom she has a big crush; he is polite and easy-going, but his mere presence reduces Abbi to nervous, regrettable behavior. Abbi and Jeremy eventually sleep together, but break up after she ruins his custom dildo.
Chris Gethard as Todd – Ilana's former boss at fictional web "deal" company Deals Deals Deals. He is generally submissive and ineffectual at attempting to curb Ilana's lack of commitment to the job.
Nicole Drespel as Nicole – Ilana's former co-worker, a serious worker who disdains Ilana and secretly documented her offensive activities in the office.
Eliot Glazer as Eliot - Ilana's gay brother who got a promotion at work requiring him to move to London, England.
Susie Essman as Bobbi Wexler - Ilana and Eliot's mom who lives on Long Island and loves high quality knock-off handbags.
Bob Balaban as Arthur Wexler - Ilana and Eliot's dad who lives on Long Island.
Episodes[edit]
Main article: List of Broad City episodes
Season Episodes Originally aired
First aired Last aired
1 10 January 22, 2014 March 26, 2014
2 10 January 14, 2015 March 18, 2015
3 10 February 17, 2016 April 20, 2016
Production[edit]
Glazer and Jacobson met when they both attended courses at the Upright Citizens Brigade. In February 2010 they started their own web series on YouTube, which proved popular. Amy Poehler became aware of the series and mentored Glazer and Jacobson, becoming executive producer when the show came to TV. When Glazer and Jacobson wrote the pilot script, their characters were named Evelyn Wexler and Carly Abrams[12] respectively, but ended up using their real first names instead. The pair continued writing most of the episodes together, with approximately half of the episodes to date bearing their names as writers.
Paul W. Downs, who produces and stars as Trey, has written several episodes on the series with Lucia Aniello, who has also produced and directed episodes on the series. Paul has written "Working Girls" (episode 1.3), "Knockoffs" (episode 2.4) and "Coat Check" (episode 2.9).[13]
Reception[edit]
Ratings[edit]
Since its premiere in 2014, Broad City has performed well, averaging 1.2 million viewers per episode, becoming Comedy Central's highest-rated first season since 2012 among the younger demographics, including adults 18–34.[14]
Despite initial commercial success and ongoing positive critical reviews, by March 2016 the show was receiving well under 1 million viewers, with less than 600,000 tuning in during the second week of the month.[15]
Critical reception[edit]
The show has received critical acclaim. Review aggregation website Metacritic noted season 1 received "generally favorable reviews," giving it a score of 75 out of 100, based on reviews from 14 critics.[16] Karen Valby from Entertainment Weekly described the show as a "deeply weird, weirdly sweet, and completely hilarious comedy."[17] The Wall Street Journal referred to the show as "Sneak Attack Feminism." Critic Megan Angelo quotes Abbi Jacobson, main star of Comedy Central's Broad City: "If you watch one of our episodes, there’s not a big message, but if you watch all of them, I think, they’re empowering to women.”[18] The A.V. Club critic Caroline Framke wrote that Broad City was "worth watching" despite its "well-trod premise," and that the series is "remarkably self-possessed, even in its first episode."[1]
Season 1 of the show received a 96% "Certified Fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews from 23 critics, with the site's consensus stating, "From its talented producers to its clever writing and superb leads, Broad City boasts an uncommonly fine pedigree."[19] The A.V. Club named Broad City the second best TV show of 2014 for its first season.[20]
Season 2 received positive reviews, with Metacritic giving it a score of 89 out of 100, based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."[21] Rotten Tomatoes gave the second season a rating of 100%, based on reviews from 11 critics, with the site's consensus: "Led by two of the funniest women on TV, Broad City uses its stars' vibrant chemistry to lend an element of authenticity to the show's chaotic yet enlightening brand of comedy."[22]
Season 3 received positive reviews as well, with Metacritic giving it a score of 87 out of 100, based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." [23] Ben Travers from Indiewire summarizes what he sees as the strengths of the first two episodes of season 3: "Each half hour feels as free-wheeling and wild as Ilana so boldly is, but also as meticulously put-together as Abby [sic] strives to be...the integration of its two creators attitudes into the core makeup of the series helps to illustrate how groundbreaking Broad City really is." [24]
Awards and nominations[edit]
Year Award Category Recipient(s) Result
2014 Critics' Choice Television Awards Best Comedy Series Broad City Nominated
Best Actress in a Comedy Series Ilana Glazer Nominated
2015 Critics' Choice Television Awards Best Comedy Series Broad City Nominated
Best Actress in a Comedy Series Ilana Glazer Nominated
Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series Susie Essman Nominated
2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards Best Comedic Performance Ilana Glazer & Abbi Jacobson Pending
Home Media[edit]
DVD Title Season Episodes Aspect ratio Running time Year
Season One 1 10 16:9 220 minutes December 2, 2014
Season Two 2 10 16:9 220 minutes January 5, 2016
Season Three 3 10 16:9 210 minutes January 10, 2017
Controversy[edit]
"Broad Fucking City" t-shirt incident[edit]
On March 23, 2015, college student Daniel Podolsky was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight which was grounded in St Louis after a gate attendant took issue with the Broad City t-shirt (which read "Broad Fucking City")[25] he had been given as a handout at Comedy Central's SXSW event. Initially receiving coverage on a local Fox affiliate, KTVI, the story was picked up by Glenn Beck's The Blaze[26] and quickly went viral, reaching the home pages of Buzzfeed, CNN, Vice News,[27] and was also featured as the Moment of Zen on The Daily Show. Ilana Glazer responded by tweeting, "I love you, daniel podolsky," along with a link to the Blaze's story.[28]
Genre: Comedy
Created by:
Ilana Glazer
Abbi Jacobson
Starring:
Ilana Glazer
Abbi Jacobson
(Tony Danza---- Mr. Oh Eh. Eh Oh.)
Theme music composer: DJ Raff
Opening theme: "Latino & Proud"
Country of origin: United States
Original language(s): English
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 30 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)
Ilana Glazer
Abbi Jacobson
Amy Poehler
Dave Becky
Tony Hernandez
Samantha Saifer
Producer(s)
Lilly Burns
John Skidmore
Running time 22 minutes
Production company(s)
Paper Kite Productions
3 Arts Entertainment
Jax Media
Comedy Partners
Release
Original network Comedy Central
Picture format 1080i (16:9 HDTV)
Audio format Stereo (2014–15)
5.1 surround sound (2016–)
Original release January 22, 2014 – present
External links
[comedycentral.com/shows/broad-city Website]
Broad City is an American comedy television series, created by and starring Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson. It was developed from their web series of the same name, which was independently produced from 2009 to 2011.[1] The creation of the web series began after Glazer received poor feedback on a project she and a partner had been working on. After expressing her frustration to Jacobson, the two decided to work on a project together, eventually creating the web series Broad City.[2] The series is based on Glazer and Jacobson's real life friendship, and their attempt to "make it" in New York.[3] Amy Poehler is one of Broad City's executive producers, and appeared in the webseries finale.[1] The series premiered on Comedy Central on January 22, 2014.[4]
The second season premiered on January 14, 2015[5] while the third season premiered on February 17, 2016.[6][7] The series has also been renewed for a fourth and fifth season.[8] On December 7, 2016, Glazer and Jacobson announced August 2017 as the premiere date for the fourth season, which is being shot in winter as opposed to the regular summer shooting schedule.[9]
Contents [hide]
1 Synopsis
2 Cast
2.1 Main cast
2.2 Recurring cast
3 Episodes
4 Production
5 Reception
5.1 Ratings
5.2 Critical reception
5.3 Awards and nominations
6 Home Media
7 Controversy
7.1 "Broad Fucking City" t-shirt incident
8 References
9 External links
Synopsis[edit]
Broad City follows Ilana and Abbi, two Jewish American women in their twenties, who experience adventures of carelessness and frivolity in New York City. Ilana seeks to avoid working as much as possible while pursuing her relentless hedonism, and Abbi tries to make a career as an illustrator, often getting sidetracked into Ilana's schemes.
Cast[edit]
Main cast[edit]
Jacobson (left) and Glazer (right) at Internet Week New York in May 2015.
Abbi Jacobson as Abbi Abrams,[4] a twenty-six-year-old woman from the Philadelphia Main Line. Like her best friend Ilana, she enjoys smoking marijuana, albeit less often. For the majority of the series, Abbi worked as a cleaner at a fitness center called Soulstice (a parody of, and named for Equinox[10] and SoulCycle[11]). She is eventually promoted to trainer and begins teaching fitness classes for senior citizens. She is also a struggling illustrator who dreams of quitting Soulstice to pursue art full-time. Abbi endeavors to find a balance between being a responsible, self-sufficient adult while being fun-loving and free-spirited like Ilana. She has a roommate who is never seen, although her roommate's freeloading boyfriend Matt, called by his last name "Bevers", is always around. Abbi has a huge crush on her neighbor Jeremy, but manages to embarrass herself every time she's around him. They eventually sleep together, but break up after an argument over a dildo. At the end of Season 3, she begins dating her boss Trey, but attempts to keep it a secret out of embarrassment. Abbi is the more level-headed of the two friends, but can lose her head when intoxicated or participating in competition.
Ilana Glazer as Ilana Wexler,[4] a twenty-three-year-old woman from Long Island. She is a slacker and marijuana enthusiast who is often oblivious to how others react to her self-absorbed antics. For the majority of the series, Ilana worked at a nondescript sales company called Deals Deals Deals, but rarely did any work and often took breaks lasting hours. She was disdained by her coworkers because of her lazy attitude, but her passive boss Todd kept her employed due to his submissiveness. She was finally fired after posting the bestiality video "Mr. Hands" to the company Twitter account. She shares an apartment with a gay immigrant named Jaime, and has an ongoing sexual relationship with Lincoln, a mild-mannered dentist. Ilana regards their relationship as "purely physical," much to Lincoln's dismay, although she often exhibits genuine caring for him. Compared to her best friend Abbi, she is more free-spirited and sexually liberated, but every escapade has unintended consequences—which usually impact Abbi, who is reluctantly dragged into Ilana's schemes.
Recurring cast[edit]
Hannibal Buress as Lincoln Rice, DDS – a successful pediatric dentist with whom Ilana has a recurring sexual relationship. He has romantic feelings for Ilana and wants to take their relationship further, but she is unreceptive to his advances. He is a funny, easygoing guy and often plays games and tells jokes with his dental patients. He is also a loyal friend to Abbi. In Season 3, he breaks up with Ilana to be monogamous with a new girlfriend.
Paul W. Downs as Trey Pucker – Abbi's boss at Soulstice. He is a genuinely nice guy and a hardcore health and fitness enthusiast. When he was 18, he made homemade masturbation videos under the name "Kirk Steele". For the majority of the series, he was oblivious to Abbi's desire to be a trainer and badgered her to clean things around the gym. Abbi and Trey began dating in Season 3, although Abbi attempted to keep it a secret out of embarrassment.
John Gemberling as Matthew "Matty" Bevers – Abbi's (always-absent) roommate's boyfriend who seems to never leave. He is a messy, disgusting freeloader who eats Abbi's food and lives in her apartment rent-free. In spite of this, he has been shown to have a sweet, sensitive side. He is oblivious to Abbi's disdain for him and considers them to be best friends.
Arturo Castro as James "Jaime" Castro – Ilana's gay drug-dealing roommate. Jaime is a Guatemalan immigrant who exhibits extreme guilt over what he perceives as wrongs he has committed against his friends; however, they are usually minor transgressions. He becomes an American citizen in Season 2.
Stephen Schneider as Jeremy Santos – Abbi's across-the-hall neighbor, on whom she has a big crush; he is polite and easy-going, but his mere presence reduces Abbi to nervous, regrettable behavior. Abbi and Jeremy eventually sleep together, but break up after she ruins his custom dildo.
Chris Gethard as Todd – Ilana's former boss at fictional web "deal" company Deals Deals Deals. He is generally submissive and ineffectual at attempting to curb Ilana's lack of commitment to the job.
Nicole Drespel as Nicole – Ilana's former co-worker, a serious worker who disdains Ilana and secretly documented her offensive activities in the office.
Eliot Glazer as Eliot - Ilana's gay brother who got a promotion at work requiring him to move to London, England.
Susie Essman as Bobbi Wexler - Ilana and Eliot's mom who lives on Long Island and loves high quality knock-off handbags.
Bob Balaban as Arthur Wexler - Ilana and Eliot's dad who lives on Long Island.
Episodes[edit]
Main article: List of Broad City episodes
Season Episodes Originally aired
First aired Last aired
1 10 January 22, 2014 March 26, 2014
2 10 January 14, 2015 March 18, 2015
3 10 February 17, 2016 April 20, 2016
Production[edit]
Glazer and Jacobson met when they both attended courses at the Upright Citizens Brigade. In February 2010 they started their own web series on YouTube, which proved popular. Amy Poehler became aware of the series and mentored Glazer and Jacobson, becoming executive producer when the show came to TV. When Glazer and Jacobson wrote the pilot script, their characters were named Evelyn Wexler and Carly Abrams[12] respectively, but ended up using their real first names instead. The pair continued writing most of the episodes together, with approximately half of the episodes to date bearing their names as writers.
Paul W. Downs, who produces and stars as Trey, has written several episodes on the series with Lucia Aniello, who has also produced and directed episodes on the series. Paul has written "Working Girls" (episode 1.3), "Knockoffs" (episode 2.4) and "Coat Check" (episode 2.9).[13]
Reception[edit]
Ratings[edit]
Since its premiere in 2014, Broad City has performed well, averaging 1.2 million viewers per episode, becoming Comedy Central's highest-rated first season since 2012 among the younger demographics, including adults 18–34.[14]
Despite initial commercial success and ongoing positive critical reviews, by March 2016 the show was receiving well under 1 million viewers, with less than 600,000 tuning in during the second week of the month.[15]
Critical reception[edit]
The show has received critical acclaim. Review aggregation website Metacritic noted season 1 received "generally favorable reviews," giving it a score of 75 out of 100, based on reviews from 14 critics.[16] Karen Valby from Entertainment Weekly described the show as a "deeply weird, weirdly sweet, and completely hilarious comedy."[17] The Wall Street Journal referred to the show as "Sneak Attack Feminism." Critic Megan Angelo quotes Abbi Jacobson, main star of Comedy Central's Broad City: "If you watch one of our episodes, there’s not a big message, but if you watch all of them, I think, they’re empowering to women.”[18] The A.V. Club critic Caroline Framke wrote that Broad City was "worth watching" despite its "well-trod premise," and that the series is "remarkably self-possessed, even in its first episode."[1]
Season 1 of the show received a 96% "Certified Fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews from 23 critics, with the site's consensus stating, "From its talented producers to its clever writing and superb leads, Broad City boasts an uncommonly fine pedigree."[19] The A.V. Club named Broad City the second best TV show of 2014 for its first season.[20]
Season 2 received positive reviews, with Metacritic giving it a score of 89 out of 100, based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."[21] Rotten Tomatoes gave the second season a rating of 100%, based on reviews from 11 critics, with the site's consensus: "Led by two of the funniest women on TV, Broad City uses its stars' vibrant chemistry to lend an element of authenticity to the show's chaotic yet enlightening brand of comedy."[22]
Season 3 received positive reviews as well, with Metacritic giving it a score of 87 out of 100, based on reviews from 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim." [23] Ben Travers from Indiewire summarizes what he sees as the strengths of the first two episodes of season 3: "Each half hour feels as free-wheeling and wild as Ilana so boldly is, but also as meticulously put-together as Abby [sic] strives to be...the integration of its two creators attitudes into the core makeup of the series helps to illustrate how groundbreaking Broad City really is." [24]
Awards and nominations[edit]
Year Award Category Recipient(s) Result
2014 Critics' Choice Television Awards Best Comedy Series Broad City Nominated
Best Actress in a Comedy Series Ilana Glazer Nominated
2015 Critics' Choice Television Awards Best Comedy Series Broad City Nominated
Best Actress in a Comedy Series Ilana Glazer Nominated
Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series Susie Essman Nominated
2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards Best Comedic Performance Ilana Glazer & Abbi Jacobson Pending
Home Media[edit]
DVD Title Season Episodes Aspect ratio Running time Year
Season One 1 10 16:9 220 minutes December 2, 2014
Season Two 2 10 16:9 220 minutes January 5, 2016
Season Three 3 10 16:9 210 minutes January 10, 2017
Controversy[edit]
"Broad Fucking City" t-shirt incident[edit]
On March 23, 2015, college student Daniel Podolsky was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight which was grounded in St Louis after a gate attendant took issue with the Broad City t-shirt (which read "Broad Fucking City")[25] he had been given as a handout at Comedy Central's SXSW event. Initially receiving coverage on a local Fox affiliate, KTVI, the story was picked up by Glenn Beck's The Blaze[26] and quickly went viral, reaching the home pages of Buzzfeed, CNN, Vice News,[27] and was also featured as the Moment of Zen on The Daily Show. Ilana Glazer responded by tweeting, "I love you, daniel podolsky," along with a link to the Blaze's story.[28]
Friday, March 24, 2017
The Big Bang Theory (Needs edit April 12, 2019 Friday)
The Big Bang Theory
Kaley is hot. Most men could see themselves in on of the male characters, but probably without the high IQ. If you're a guy and have a high IQ then that's great and sorry for the wedgies and swirleys and other experiences you may have had. Cuoco was also on that show 8 Rules for Dating my Daughter.....I hope I got that right. We all still miss John Ritter. His son is a whole different person but lets see how he does.
I was not a bully. I did have bullies.
Enough of the depressing talk.
Any man would be lucky to share time with Kaley. The other women on the show are fun too but I can't lie.... or is it "I cannot tell a lie."? Kaley would be great to be with.....You can interpret that however you want.
I just remembered a sad fact for The Big Bang Theory. Some time ago Wolowitz's mom died....well the actress who played the part. I don't remember seeing what happened with that part after that. You can update me.
I will try to do some more research soon.
Enjoy the information about the show. Check out the show on TV and DVD and YouTube and wherever else it's available.
Gotta go. My sister is having an episode.
**********The Facts**********
Genre: Sitcom
Created by:
Directed by: Mark Cendrowski
Starring :
Johnny Galecki
Jim Parsons
Kaley Cuoco
Simon Helberg
Kunal Nayyar
Sara Gilbert
Mayim Bialik
Melissa Rauch
Kevin Sussman
Laura Spencer
Theme music composer:
Opening theme "Big Bang Theory Theme"
Country of origin: United States
Original language(s): English
No. of seasons: 10
No. of episodes: 225
Production
Executive producer(s):
Producer(s): Faye Oshima Belyeu
Editor(s): Peter Chakos
Camera setup: Multi-camera
Running time: 18–22 minutes
Production company(s):
Distributor:
Release
Original network: CBS
Picture format: HDTV 1080i
Audio format: Dolby Digital 5.1
Original release September 24, 2007 – present
The Big Bang Theory is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom serve as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro. All three also serve as head writers. The show premiered on CBS on September 24, 2007. The series tenth season premiered on September 19, 2016. In March 2017, the series was renewed for two additional seasons, bringing its total to 12, and running through the 2018–19 television season.
The show is primarily centered on five characters living in Pasadena, California: Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, both physicists at Caltech, who share an apartment; Penny, a waitress and aspiring actress who later becomes a pharmaceutical representative and who lives across the hall; and Leonard and Sheldon's similarly geeky and socially awkward friends and co-workers, aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali. The geekiness and intellect of the four men are contrasted for comic effect with Penny's social skills and common sense.
Over time, supporting characters have been promoted to starring roles: Leslie Winkle, a physicist who dated Leonard and Howard; neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler, who joins the group after being matched to Sheldon on a dating website (and later becomes Sheldon's girlfriend); Bernadette Rostenkowski, Howard's wife (previously his girlfriend), a microbiologist and former part-time waitress alongside Penny; Stuart Bloom, the cash-strapped owner of the comic book store the characters often visit; and Emily Sweeney, a dermatologist who dated Raj.
Production
The structure of the original, unaired pilot, developed for the 2006–07 television season, was substantially different from the series' current form.
The only characters retained in both pilots were Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons), who are named after Sheldon Leonard. Althea (Vernee Watson) was a character featured in both pilots and the first series episode. Two female leads were Canadian actress Amanda Walsh as Katie, "a street-hardened, tough-as-nails woman with a vulnerable interior",and Iris Bahr as Gilda, a scientist colleague and friend of the male characters. Sheldon and Leonard meet Katie after she breaks up with a boyfriend and they invite her to share their apartment; Gilda is threatened by Katie's presence. Test audiences reacted negatively to Katie, but they liked Sheldon and Leonard. The original pilot used Thomas Dolby's hit "She Blinded Me with Science" as the theme song.
The series was not picked up, but the creators were given an opportunity to retool the show and produce a second pilot. They brought in the remaining cast and retooled the show to its final format. Katie was replaced by Penny (Kaley Cuoco). The original unaired pilot has never been officially released, but it has circulated on the Internet. On the evolution of the show, Chuck Lorre said, "We did the 'Big Bang Pilot' about two and a half years ago, and it sucked... but there were two remarkable things that worked perfectly, and that was Johnny and Jim. We rewrote the thing entirely and then we were blessed with Kaley and Simon and Kunal." As to whether the world will ever see the original pilot on a future DVD release, Lorre said, "Wow, that would be something, we will see. Show your failures..."
The first and second pilots of The Big Bang Theory were directed by James Burrows, who did not continue with the show. The reworked second pilot led to a 13-episode order by CBS on May 14, 2007. Prior to its airing on CBS, the pilot episode was distributed on iTunes free of charge. The show premiered on September 24, 2007, and was picked up for a full 22-episode season on October 19, 2007. The show is filmed in front of a live audience, and is produced by Warner Bros. Television and Chuck Lorre Productions. Production was halted on November 6, 2007, due to the Writers Guild of America strike. Nearly three months later, on February 4, 2008, the series was temporarily replaced by a short-lived sitcom, Welcome to the Captain. The series returned on March 17, 2008, in an earlier time slot and ultimately only 17 episodes were produced for the first season. After the strike ended, the show was picked up for a second season, airing in the 2008–2009 season, premiering in the same time slot on September 22, 2008. With increasing ratings, the show received a two-year renewal through the 2010–11 season in 2009. In 2011, the show was picked up for three more seasons. In March 2014, the show was renewed again for three more years through the 2016–17 season. Therefore, the series will at least reach 10 seasons. This marks the second time the series has gained a three-year renewal. In March 2017, the series was renewed for two additional seasons, bringing its total to 12, and running through the 2018–19 television season.
David Saltzberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles, checks scripts and provides dialogue, mathematics equations, and diagrams used as props. According to executive producer/co-creator Bill Prady, "We're working on giving Sheldon an actual problem that he's going to be working on throughout the [first] season so there's actual progress to the boards...We worked hard to get all the science right."
Several of the actors in The Big Bang Theory previously worked together on Roseanne, including Johnny Galecki, Sara Gilbert, Laurie Metcalf (who plays Sheldon's mother, Mary Cooper), and Meagen Fay (who plays Bernadette's mother). Additionally, Lorre was a writer on the series for several seasons.
Theme song
Single cover for "Big Bang Theory Theme" by Barenaked Ladies (2007)
The Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies wrote and recorded the show's theme song, which describes the history and formation of the universe and the Earth. Co-lead singer Ed Robertson was asked by Lorre and Prady to write a theme song for the show after the producers attended one of the band's concerts in Los Angeles. By coincidence, Robertson had recently read Simon Singh's book Big Bang, and at the concert, he improvised a freestyle rap about the origins of the universe. Lorre and Prady phoned Robertson shortly thereafter and asked him to write the theme song. Having been asked to write songs for other films and shows, but ending up being rejected because of producer's favor of other artist's song, Robertson agreed to write the theme only after learning that Lorre and Prady had not asked anyone else.
On October 9, 2007, a full-length (1 minute and 45 seconds) version of the song was released commercially. Although some sources identify the song title as "History of Everything", the cover art for the single identifies the title as "Big Bang Theory Theme". A music video was also released via special features on The Complete Fourth Season DVD and Blu-ray set. The theme was included on the band's greatest hits album, Hits from Yesterday & the Day Before, which was released on September 27, 2011. In September 2015, TMZ uncovered court documents showing that Steven Page sued former bandmate Robertson over the song, alleging that he was promised 20% of the proceeds, but that Robertson has kept that money entirely for himself.
Actors' salaries
For the first three seasons, Galecki, Parsons, and Cuoco, the three main stars of the show, received at most $60,000 per episode. The salary for the three went up to $200,000 per episode for the fourth season. Their per-episode pay went up an additional $50,000 in each of the following three seasons, culminating in $350,000 per episode in the seventh season. By season seven, the three were also receiving 0.25% of the series' back-end money. Before production began on the eighth season, the five main stars looked to renegotiate new contracts, with Galecki, Parsons, and Cuoco seeking around $1 million per episode, as well as more back-end money. Contracts were signed in the beginning of August 2014, giving the three principal actors an estimated $1 million per episode for three years, with the possibility to extend for a fourth year. The deals also include larger pieces of the show, signing bonuses, production deals, and advances towards the back-end.
In September 2013, Bialik and Rauch renegotiated the contracts they held since they were introduced to the series in 2010. On their old contracts, each was making $20,000–$30,000 per episode, while the new contracts doubled that, beginning at $60,000 per episode, increasing steadily to $100,000 per episode by the end of the contract, as well as adding another year for both.
In August 2014, Helberg and Nayyar renegotiated their contracts, giving them a per-episode pay in the "mid-six-figure range", up from around $100,000 per episode they each received in years prior. The duo, who were looking to have salary parity with Parsons, Galecki, and Cuoco, signed their contracts after the studio and producers threatened to write the characters out of the series if a deal could not be reached before the start of production on season eight. Parsons, Galecki, and Cuoco earn $1 million per episode.
In March 2017, the main cast members (Galecki, Parsons, Cuoco, Helberg and Nayyar) took a 10% pay cut so Bialik and Rauch could increase their earnings from $100,000 per episode to $450,000. This put Galecki, Parsons, Cuoco, Helberg and Nayyar at $900,000 per episode, with Parsons, Galecki and Helberg also receiving overall deals with Warner Bros. Television. Bialik and Rauch are not expected to get parity with the other five actors, though their contracts will be significant raises from their previous $175,000 per episode, with the possibility of more than $400,000 per episode.
Cast and characters
These actors are credited in all episodes of the series:
Leonard Hofstadter (portrayed by Johnny Galecki) is an experimental physicist with an IQ of 173, who received his PhD when he was 24 years old. His mother, Beverly (Christine Baranski), is a neuroscientist and psychiatrist who provided little, if any, nurturing when Leonard was growing up. Like all of the other major male characters, Leonard is a nerd who loves video games, comic books and Dungeons & Dragons. Leonard is also lactose intolerant. The straight man of the series, he shares an apartment in Pasadena with Sheldon. Leonard is smitten with his neighbor Penny when they first meet. They briefly date at the end of season 1 and the start of season 2, taking a break before beginning a stable romantic relationship in season 3. However, they break up at the end of season 3 when Leonard tells Penny he loves her and she is unprepared to reciprocate. Leonard also briefly dates Leslie Winkle (Sara Gilbert) and Stephanie Barnett (Sara Rue) in season 2, and in season 4, he becomes seriously involved with Raj's sister Priya (Aarti Mann), a successful lawyer, but she eventually returns to India and they break up in season 5 when she admits to having cheated on him. Leonard and Penny again begin a romantic relationship in season 5 and they eventually marry in season 9.
Sheldon Cooper (portrayed by Jim Parsons) is originally from Galveston, Texas. Sheldon was a child prodigy with an eidetic memory who began college at the age of eleven (after completing the fifth grade), started graduate studies at age fourteen and earned a PhD at age sixteen. A theoretical physicist researching quantum mechanics and string theory, he has two doctoral degrees: a PhD and an Sc.D. However, despite his IQ of 187, he finds many routine aspects of social situations and life in general difficult to grasp and navigate. His father died when he was fourteen, and his mother, Mary (Laurie Metcalf), is a devout Christian. He also has a twin sister, Missy (Courtney Henggeler). Sheldon has a poor grasp of others' feelings and little or no comprehension of nuances, often questioning others if a comment is intended as sarcasm. As a result, he is extremely tactless and acts wildly inappropriately much of the time. He is determined to have his own way, boasts of his superior intelligence and belittles his friends' accomplishments, making him appear petty and childlike. Sheldon has an extremely ritualized way of living (such as always sitting in the same spot on the sofa, or knocking on a door three times, each time saying the name of the person whom he is addressing) and a compulsion to complete things. He is also wary of germs and dislikes physical contact. Despite all these quirks, he begins a relationship with Amy Farrah Fowler in season 4. She officially becomes his girlfriend during season 5.
Penny Hofstadter (portrayed by Kaley Cuoco) is an aspiring actress from a town outside of Omaha, Nebraska. Penny moves in across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard in the series premiere. She attends casting calls and auditions, but is not very successful. To pay her bills, she waits and occasionally tends the bar at the Cheesecake Factory, although she often relies on the guys for free food, Wi-Fi and help paying her rent. After giving up hope of ever becoming a successful actress, Penny quits her job in season 7, and in season 8, she becomes a pharmaceutical sales representative with Zangen. This job finally allows her to gain financial independence. Penny attended, but did not graduate from, community college (She briefly goes back to school in season 6). She, however, has far more common sense and social awareness than the rest of the gang. Penny is also untidy and frequently consumes alcohol. Her maiden surname has never been revealed. In season 1, she dates Mike (Andrew Walker), whom she later dumps after he posts details about their sex life on his blog. She briefly dates comic book store owner Stuart Bloom in season 2, and during seasons 3 and 4 she dates Zack Johnson (Brian Thomas Smith), a handsome and friendly yet dim-witted guy, whom she married in Las Vegas, although they didn't think weddings in Las Vegas were real. In season 4, Penny becomes close friends with Bernadette and Amy, and they often hang out in each other's apartments or go out together.
Penny also has a close friendship with Sheldon, despite his quirks. After a brief date at the end of season 1, and a relationship and break-up in season 3, Penny and Leonard form a relationship in season 5 and eventually marry in season 9. Kaley Cuoco began being credited as Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting starting with the season 7 episode The Convention Conundrum following her marriage to tennis player Ryan Sweeting. Following the announcement of her divorce from Sweeting in 2015, Cuoco's name during the opening credits was converted back to its original name in the season 9 episode The Bachelor Party Corrosion.
Howard Wolowitz (portrayed by Simon Helberg) is an aerospace engineer. Howard is Jewish and lives with his mother, Debbie (Carol Ann Susi). His father left both of them when Howard was eleven and has not been heard from since, with the exception of a letter on Howard's eighteenth birthday, which he refused to open. In season 8, he discovers he has a half-brother, Josh (Matt Bennett). Unlike Sheldon, Leonard and Raj, Howard lacks a doctorate, earning him Sheldon's scorn. He defends this by pointing out that he has a master's degree in engineering from the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology and that the apparatuses he designs are launched into space, unlike the purely abstract work of his friends. He himself goes into space at the end of season 5, training as an astronaut and serving as a payload specialist on the International Space Station. He has a marked sense of humor, which Leonard and Raj occasionally appreciate. In the early seasons of the show, Howard fancies himself a womanizer and devises outrageous pickup lines, which have limited success with women. In season 3 he starts dating Bernadette, and although they break up off screen, they later get back together and then get engaged in season 4 and married at the end of season 5. In season 6, Howard finally moves out of his mother's house and moves in with Bernadette. Howard also has a tendency to waste money on toys and often argues with Bernadette over money because of his oddly low income as an engineer and her high income as a pharmaceutical biochemist, resulting in Bernadette often giving Howard allowances (which Howard calls a stipend). In season 8, Howard's mother dies (following Carol Ann Susi's death in 2014), leaving him devastated. He and Bernadette later move into her home.
Rajesh Koothrappali (portrayed by Kunal Nayyar)[44] is from New Delhi and is a particle astrophysicist at Caltech. Raj's family is very wealthy. Over the course of the series, he communicates with his parents, Dr. and Mrs. V.M. Koothrappali (Brian George and Alice Amter) via webcam. Raj is bashful around women and is unable to talk to them for the first six seasons (except for his mother and his sister) unless he drinks alcohol (or at least thinks he has drunk it) or takes an experimental medication. Unfortunately, the former causes him to behave outrageously and unpredictably, while the latter causes unforeseen side effects. Even so, he often has better luck with women than his overly-confident best friend, Howard. Raj also has very feminine tastes and often takes on a stereotypical female role in his close friendship with Howard but he insists that he is not gay. In season 4, his sister Priya stays with him and becomes Leonard's girlfriend (much to Raj's annoyance). In season 6, Raj meets Lucy (Kate Micucci), who also suffers from social anxiety and they begin a relationship. However, Lucy ends the relationship, as she feels pressured when Raj wants her to meet his friends. Afterwards, a heartbroken Raj finally speaks to Penny without having consumed alcohol and overcomes his selective mutism. In season 7, he begins dating Emily and their relationship later becomes exclusive. Raj also has a Yorkshire Terrier named Cinnamon and the gang often joke about how unusually close he is with his dog.
These actors were first credited as guest stars and later promoted to main cast:
Sara Gilbert as Leslie Winkle (recurring season 1, starring season 2, guest star seasons 3 and 9) – a physicist who works in the same lab as Leonard. In appearance, she is essentially Leonard's female counterpart, wearing black-framed glasses and sweat jackets. She is an enemy of Sheldon's, due to their conflicting scientific theories. Though each considers the other to be intellectually inferior, Leslie is much wittier than Sheldon, regularly calls him "dumbass" and usually bests him in their repartee. Leslie has casual sex with Leonard and later Howard. Gilbert and Galecki played the on-screen couple of Darlene Connor and David Healy in Roseanne. Gilbert was promoted to a main cast member during the second season, but was demoted back to guest star status because producers could not come up with enough material for the character. Gilbert left the series after season 3 to focus her efforts on The Talk, on which she serves as executive producer for CBS. Gilbert returned for the series' 200th episode.
Melissa Rauch as Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz (recurring season 3, starring since season 4) is a young woman with a high-pitched voice who is initially a co-worker of Penny's, paying her way through graduate school, where she is studying microbiology. Bernadette is of Polish origin and was raised Catholic. Her father Mike (Casey Sander) is a toughened retired police officer and she has four other siblings. Bernadette is introduced to Howard by Penny as a result of an agreement between Howard and Leonard that if either ever ended up with a hot girlfriend, he would get the girlfriend to introduce the other to "a hot chick." At first, they do not get along, apparently having nothing in common, until they find out that they both have overbearing mothers. During season 3, they date and then break up off-screen. They get back together and get engaged in season 4 and marry at the end of season 5. She gives birth to Halley in season 10. After successfully defending her doctoral thesis, she lands a high-paying research position with Zangen at the end of season 4 (her high income becomes a source of conflict between her and Howard in later seasons). Although generally a sweet and good-natured person, Bernadette has a short fuse and can be vindictive and lash out when provoked, often sounding like Howard's mother and intimidating her colleagues. She is also shown to have a competitive streak.
Mayim Bialik as Amy Farrah Fowler (guest star season 3, starring since mid-season 4) is a woman selected by an online dating site as Sheldon's perfect mate after Raj and Howard secretly set up an account using Sheldon's information, prompting Raj to comment, "We finally have proof that aliens walk among us!" Amy is from Glendale and is a fan of Little House on the Prairie. While she and Sheldon initially share social cluelessness, after befriending Penny and Bernadette, Amy eventually becomes more interested in social and romantic interaction and is more socially aware than Sheldon. Once she and Sheldon meet, she becomes, as Sheldon puts it, a girl who is his friend, but not his girlfriend. Their relationship slowly progresses to the point where Sheldon considers her his girlfriend and tells her that he loves her. Amy's sexual frustration in her relationship with Sheldon is a recurring topic in the series. Amy also believes she and Penny are best friends ("besties," as she puts it), a sentiment that Penny does not initially share. Penny eventually becomes a real friend, overlooking Amy's Sheldon-like qualities. Amy's admiration for Penny has at times bordered on physical attraction. Amy has a PhD in neurobiology (Bialik herself has a doctorate in neuroscience) and frequently uses monkeys in her research and experiments.
Kevin Sussman as Stuart Bloom (recurring seasons 2–5, 7 and 10, starring seasons 6, 8 and 9) is the mild-mannered, under-confident comic book store owner that the guys frequent. A brilliant artist, Stuart is a graduate of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design and though he is socially awkward, he possesses slightly better social skills than the rest of the guys. Unlike them, he is not a techno-geek. During Stuart's first appearance, the guys bring Penny along to the store and he manages to ask her on a date. They go out a few times, until Penny mistakenly calls him "Leonard" while they are making out, leaving him devastated. In season 4, Stuart implies he is in financial trouble and that the comic book store is now also his home. At Howard's bachelor party, Stuart uses his toast to tell Howard how lucky he is and compares it to his own situation of living in the back of his store. In season 6, he is invited to join the guys' group while Howard is in space. At the end of season 7, the comic book store burns down and he gets a new job caring for Howard's mother. The two become close and develop a strange relationship, much to the annoyance of Howard. He also briefly dates Howard's second cousin Jeanie (Kara Luiz), to whom Howard lost his virginity. After Mrs. Wolowitz's death in season 8, Stuart continues to live in her home, along with Howard and Bernadette, until he finds a place of his own in season 9.
Laura Spencer as Emily Sweeney (recurring seasons 7–8, starring season 9) is a dermatologist at Huntington Hospital who Raj finds on an online dating site. Emily went to Harvard and has a slightly alarming personality; she delights in the macabre and states that she likes her job because she can cut things with knives and likes Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas (whom she has a tattoo of on her shoulder) because she has lots of scars and her limbs had to be sewn back on. Prior to meeting Raj, Emily was set up on a blind date with Howard. He came to her apartment with food poisoning, ruined her bathroom and escaped out the window (Emily nicknames Howard "Clogzilla"). In season 7, after finding Emily's online dating profile, Raj has Amy contact her as his wingman instead. Raj barges in on Emily and Amy and becomes weirded out and leaves. Raj later bumps into Emily and she agrees to give him another chance. At the end of season 7, their relationship becomes exclusive. Emily shows a slight dislike towards Penny as she previously and drunkenly almost hooked up with Raj in season 4. In the season 9 episode 15 'The Valentino Submergence' Raj breaks up with Emily when he becomes infatuated with bartender and aspiring screenwriter, Claire (Alessandra Torresani). Then, after Emily leaves a gift for Raj, he goes to her apartment and they sleep together in 'The Application Deterioration'. Raj confirms they're still broken up in season 10, episode 5, 'The Hot Tub Contamination'.
Scientist cameos
As the theme of the show revolves around science, many distinguished and high-profile scientists have appeared as guest stars on the show. Famous astrophysicist and Nobel laureate George Smoot had a cameo appearance in episode 17 "The Terminator Decoupling", of the second season. Theoretical physicist Brian Greene also appeared on the show in "The Herb Garden Germination", episode 20 of the fourth season. Astrophysicist, science populizer, and physics outreach specialist, Neil deGrasse Tyson appeared in "The Apology Insufficiency", episode 7 of the fourth season. Cosmologist Stephen Hawking made a short guest appearance in the fifth-season episode "The Hawking Excitation" on April 5, 2012. In the episode, he meets Sheldon and points out a mistake in Sheldon's new Higgs boson analysis. Hawking also speaks on the phone at the end of the episode "The Extract Obliteration" with Sheldon but is not seen on-camera. In season 8 episode 14, Hawking video-conferences with Sheldon and Leonard after trolling their joint paper online. Hawking makes another appearance through a video call in season 9 episode 17 named 'The Celebration Experimentation' (the 200th episode). In the end of season 5 and the beginning of season 6, NASA astronaut Michael J. Massimino played himself multiple times in the role of Howard's fellow astronaut. In season 7, Bill Nye appears in an episode ("The Proton Displacement") in which Sheldon feels slighted by his childhood science hero, Professor Proton, hiring Bill to fill the void. Elon Musk appears in season 9's "The Platonic Permutation," where he and Howard volunteer at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving.
Recurring themes and elements
Science
Much of the series focuses on science, particularly physics. The four main male characters are employed at Caltech and have science-related occupations, as do Bernadette and Amy. The characters frequently banter about scientific theories or news (notably around the start of the show), and make science-related jokes.
Science has also interfered with the characters' romantic lives. Leslie breaks up with Leonard when he sides with Sheldon in his support for string theory rather than loop quantum gravity. When Leonard joins Sheldon, Raj, and Howard on a three-month Arctic research trip, it separates Leonard and Penny at a time their relationship is budding. When Bernadette takes an interest in Leonard's work, it makes both Penny and Howard envious and results in Howard confronting Leonard, and Penny asking Sheldon to teach her physics. Sheldon and Amy also briefly end their relationship after an argument over which of their fields is superior.
David Saltzberg, who has a PhD in physics, has served as the science consultant for the show for six seasons and attends every taping. While Saltzberg knows physics, he sometimes needs assistance from Mayim Bialik, who has a PhD in neuroscience. Saltzberg sees early versions of scripts which need scientific information added to them, and he also points out where the writers, despite their knowledge of science, have made a mistake. He is usually not needed during a taping unless a lot of science, and especially the whiteboard, is involved.
Science fiction media
Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Wil Wheaton has a recurring role as a fictional version of himself on the show
The four main male characters are all avid science fiction, fantasy, and comic book fans and memorabilia collectors.
Star Trek in particular is frequently referenced and Sheldon identifies strongly with the character of Spock, so much so that when he is given a used napkin signed by Leonard Nimoy as a Christmas gift from Penny he is overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude ("I possess the DNA of Leonard Nimoy?!"). Star Trek: The Original Series cast member George Takei has made a cameo, and Leonard Nimoy made a cameo as the voice of Sheldon's vintage Mr. Spock action figure (both cameos were in dream sequences). Star Trek: The Next Generation cast members Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton have had cameos as themselves, while Wil Wheaton has a recurring role as a fictionalized version of himself.
They are also fans of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and Doctor Who. In the episode "The Ornithophobia Diffusion", when there is a delay in watching Star Wars on Blu-ray, Howard complains, "If we don't start soon, George Lucas is going to change it again" (referring to Lucas' controversial alterations to the films) and in "The Hot Troll Deviation", Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar Galactica appeared as Howard's fantasy dream girl. The characters have different tastes in franchises with Sheldon praising Firefly but disapproving of Leonard's enjoyment of Babylon 5. With regard to fantasy, the four make frequent references to The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter novels and movies. Additionally, Howard can speak Sindarin, one of the two Elvish languages from The Lord of the Rings.
Wednesday night is the group's designated "comic book night" because that is the day of the week when new comic books are released. The comic book store is run by fellow geek and recurring character Stuart. On a number of occasions, the group members have dressed up as pop culture characters, including The Flash, Aquaman, Frodo Baggins, Superman, Batman, Spock, The Doctor, Green Lantern, and Thor.[78] As a consequence of losing a bet to Stuart and Wil Wheaton, the group members are forced to visit the comic book store dressed as Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and Supergirl. DC Comics announced that, to promote its comics, the company will sponsor Sheldon wearing Green Lantern T-shirts.
Various games have been featured, as well as referenced, on the series (e.g. World of Warcraft, Halo, Mario, etc.), including fictional games like Mystic Warlords of Ka'a (which became a reality in 2011) and Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.
Leonard and Penny's relationship
One of the recurring plot lines is the relationship between Leonard and Penny. Leonard becomes attracted to Penny in the pilot episode and his need to do favors for her is a frequent point of humor in the first season. Their first long term relationship begins when Leonard returns from a three-month expedition to the North Pole in the season 3 premiere. However, when Leonard tells Penny that he loves her, she realizes she cannot say it back. Both Leonard and Penny go on to date other people; most notably with Leonard dating Raj's sister Priya for much of season 4. This relationship is jeopardized when Leonard comes to falsely believe that Raj has slept with Penny, and ultimately ends when Priya sleeps with a former boyfriend in "The Good Guy Fluctuation".
Penny, who admits to missing Leonard in "The Roommate Transmogrification", accepts his request to renew their relationship in "The Beta Test Initiation". After Penny suggests having sex in "The Launch Acceleration", Leonard breaks the mood by proposing to her. Penny says "no" but does not break up with him. She stops a proposal a second time in "The Tangible Affection Proof". In the sixth-season episode, "The 43 Peculiarity", Penny finally tells Leonard that she loves him. Although they both feel jealousy when the other receives significant attention from the opposite sex, Penny is secure enough in their relationship to send him off on an exciting four-month expedition without worrying in "The Bon Voyage Reaction". After Leonard returns, their relationship blossoms over the seventh season. In the penultimate episode "The Gorilla Dissolution", Penny admits that they should marry and when Leonard realizes that she is serious, he proposes with a ring that he had been saving for years. Leonard and Penny decide to elope to Las Vegas in the season 8 finale, but beforehand, wanting no secrets, Leonard admits to kissing another woman, Mandy Chow (Melissa Tang) while on an expedition on the North Sea. Despite this, Leonard and Penny finally elope in the season 9 premiere.
Sheldon and Amy's relationship
In the third-season finale, Raj and Howard search for a woman compatible with Sheldon and discover neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler. Like him, she has a history of social ineptitude and participates in online dating only to fulfill an agreement with her mother. This spawns a storyline in which Sheldon and Amy communicate daily while insisting to Leonard and Penny that they are not romantically involved. In "The Agreement Dissection", Sheldon and Amy talk in her apartment after a night of dancing and she kisses him on the lips. Instead of getting annoyed, Sheldon says "fascinating" and later asks Amy to be his girlfriend in "The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition". The same night he draws up "The Relationship Agreement" to verify the ground rules of him as her boyfriend and vice versa (similar to his "Roommate Agreement" with Leonard). Amy agrees but later regrets not having had a lawyer read through it.
In the episode "The Launch Acceleration", Amy tries to use her "neurobiology bag of tricks" to increase the attraction between herself and Sheldon. In the final fifth-season episode "The Countdown Reflection", Sheldon takes Amy's hand as Howard is launched into space. In the sixth season first episode "The Date Night Variable", after a dinner in which Sheldon fails to live up to this expectation, Amy gives Sheldon an ultimatum that their relationship is over unless he tells her something from his heart. Amy accepts Sheldon's romantic speech even after learning that it is a line from the first Spider-Man movie. In "The Cooper/Kripke Inversion" Sheldon states that he has been working on his discomfort about physical contact and admits that "it's a possibility" that he could one day have sex with Amy. Amy is revealed to have similar feelings in "The Love Spell Potential". Sheldon explains that he never thought about intimacy with anyone before Amy.
"The Locomotive Manipulation" is the first episode in which Sheldon initiates a kiss with Amy. Although initially done in a fit of sarcasm, he discovers that he enjoys the feeling. Consequently, Sheldon slowly starts to open up over the rest of the season, and starts a more intimate relationship with Amy. However, in the season finale, Sheldon leaves temporarily to cope with several changes and Amy becomes distraught. However, in "The Prom Equivalency" he hides in his room to avoid going to a mock prom reenactment with her. In the resulting stand-off, Amy is about to confess that she loves Sheldon, but he surprises her by saying that he loves her too. This prompts Amy to have a panic attack.
In the season eight finale, Sheldon and Amy get into a fight about commitment on their 5-year anniversary. Amy tells Sheldon that she needs to think about the future of their relationship, unaware that Sheldon was about to propose to her. Season nine sees Sheldon harassing Amy about making up her mind until she breaks up with him. Both struggle with singlehood and trying to be friends for the next few weeks until they reunite in episode ten and have sex for the first time on Amy's birthday.
Howard's mother
In scenes set at Howard's home, he interacts with his rarely-seen mother (voiced by Carol Ann Susi until her death) by shouting from room to room in the house. She similarly interacts with other characters in this manner. She reflects the Jewish mother stereotype in some ways, such as being overly controlling of Howard's adult life and sometimes trying to make him feel guilty about causing her trouble. She is dependent on Howard, as she requires him to help her with her wig and makeup in the morning. Howard in turn is attached to his mother to the point where she still cuts his meat for him, takes him to the dentist, does his laundry and "grounds" him when he returns home after briefly moving out. Until Howard's marriage to Bernadette in the fifth-season finale, Howard's former living situation led Leonard's psychiatrist mother to speculate that he may suffer from some type of pathology, and Sheldon to refer to their relationship as Oedipal.[86] In season 8, Howard's mother dies in her sleep while in Florida, which devastates Howard and Stuart, who briefly lived with Mrs. Wolowitz.
Vanity cards
Like most shows created by Chuck Lorre, The Big Bang Theory ends by showing a vanity card written by Lorre after the credits, followed by the Warner Bros. Television closing logo. These cards are archived on Lorre's website.
The Theorists
Through the use of his vanity cards at the end of episodes, Lorre alleged that the program had been plagiarized by a show produced and aired in Belarus. Officially titled Теоретики (The Theorists), the show features "clones" of the main characters, a similar opening sequence, and what appears to be a very close Russian translation of the scripts.[88] Lorre expressed annoyance and described his inquiry with the Warner Bros. legal department about options. The television production company and station's close relationship with the Belarus government was cited as the reason that any attempt to claim copyright infringement would be in vain because the company copying the episodes is operated by the government.
However, no legal action was required to end production of the other show: as soon as the word got out that the show was unlicensed, the actors quit and the producers cancelled it. Dmitriy Tankovich (who plays Leonard's counterpart, "Seva") said in an interview: "I'm upset. At first, the actors were told all legal issues were resolved. We didn't know it wasn't the case, so when the creators of The Big Bang Theory started talking about the show, I was embarrassed. I can't understand why our people first do, and then think. I consider this to be the rock bottom of my career. And I don't want to take part in a stolen show".
Reception
Critical reception
In 2013, TV Guide ranked the series #52 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 55% approval rating for the first season based on reviews from 22 critics, with an average rating of 5.18/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Big Bang Theory brings a new class of character to mainstream television, but much of the comedy feels formulaic and stiff." On Metacritic, the season holds a score of 57 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
U.S. standard ratings
The Big Bang Theory started off slowly in the ratings, failing to make the top 50 in its first season (ranking 68th), and ranking 40th in its second season. When the third season premiered on September 21, 2009, however, The Big Bang Theory ranked as CBS's highest-rated show of that evening in the adults 18–49 demographic (4.6/10) along with a then-series-high 12.83 million viewers. After the first three seasons aired at different times on Monday nights, CBS moved the show to Thursdays at 8:00 ET for the 2010–2011 schedule, to be in direct competition with NBC's Comedy Block and Fox's American Idol (then the longest reigning leading primetime show on U.S. television from 2004 to 2011). During its fourth season, it became television's highest rated comedy, just barely beating out eight-year champ Two and a Half Men. However, in the age 18–49 demographic (the show's target age range), it was the second highest rated comedy, behind ABC's Modern Family. The fifth season opened with viewing figures of over 14 million.
The sixth season boasts some of the highest-rated episodes for the show so far, with a then-new series high set with "The Bakersfield Expedition", with 20 million viewers, a first for the series, which along with NCIS, made CBS the first network to have two scripted series reach that large an audience in the same week since 2007. In the sixth season, the show became the highest rated and viewed scripted show in the 18–49 demographic, trailing only the live regular NBC Sunday Night Football coverage, and was third in total viewers, trailing NCIS and Sunday Night Football. Season seven of the series opened strong, continuing the success gained in season six, with the second episode of the premiere, "The Deception Verification", setting the new series high in viewers with 20.44 million.
Showrunner Steve Molaro, who took over from Bill Prady with the sixth season, credits some of the show's success to the sitcom's exposure in off-network syndication, particularly on TBS, while Michael Schneider of TV Guide attributes it to the timeslot move two seasons earlier. Chuck Lorre and CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler also credit the success to the influence of Molaro, in particular the deepening exploration of the firmly established regular characters and their interpersonal relationships, such as the on-again, off-again relationship between Leonard and Penny. Throughout much of the 2012–13 season, The Big Bang Theory placed first in all of syndication ratings, receiving formidable competition from only Judge Judy and Wheel of Fortune (first-run syndication programs). By the end of the 2012–13 television season, The Big Bang Theory had dethroned Judge Judy as the ratings leader in all of syndicated programming with 7.1, Judy descending to second place for that season with a 7.0. The Big Bang Theory did not place first in syndication ratings for the 2013–14 television season, beaten out by Judge Judy.......bup bup bup......
A Final Note?....
I have seen a lot of the episodes but I'd like to see them all someday.
The Leonard character gives me hope. I've known a few chicks....women.....boss slaps me. They meant nothing to me.....When boss looks away I wink at the audience...... Is that like being naked on radio?......Nobody sees me so it doesn't matter.
I have ..... had a friend like Sheldon except my "friend" wasn't a genius ...or that smart. He was really annoying. One time he owed me $2 so he bought me a chocolate bar he liked instead of giving me the money. He wouldn't help pay for parking when we went clubbing. I used to pick him up from house way in the other direction..... ask me more about this guy. I might just make a sitcom with a character based on him.
I knew a bunch of Pennys. Only on TV? Well maybe someday. SLAP!!!!! I forgot the boss was here. She's better than all the chicks SLAP!!!! ...... women I've known.
My brain is frozen so I'll try to do more comparisons later...... me running after the boss, begging forgiveness.....wish me luck....What are these bedsheets and pillows doing here?...... Oh..... Oh wait she says she's just kidding......Yay ....We get to play checkers......our way......
Kaley is hot. Most men could see themselves in on of the male characters, but probably without the high IQ. If you're a guy and have a high IQ then that's great and sorry for the wedgies and swirleys and other experiences you may have had. Cuoco was also on that show 8 Rules for Dating my Daughter.....I hope I got that right. We all still miss John Ritter. His son is a whole different person but lets see how he does.
I was not a bully. I did have bullies.
Enough of the depressing talk.
Any man would be lucky to share time with Kaley. The other women on the show are fun too but I can't lie.... or is it "I cannot tell a lie."? Kaley would be great to be with.....You can interpret that however you want.
I just remembered a sad fact for The Big Bang Theory. Some time ago Wolowitz's mom died....well the actress who played the part. I don't remember seeing what happened with that part after that. You can update me.
I will try to do some more research soon.
Enjoy the information about the show. Check out the show on TV and DVD and YouTube and wherever else it's available.
Gotta go. My sister is having an episode.
**********The Facts**********
Genre: Sitcom
Created by:
Chuck Lorre
Bill Prady
Bill Prady
Directed by: Mark Cendrowski
Starring :
Johnny Galecki
Jim Parsons
Kaley Cuoco
Simon Helberg
Kunal Nayyar
Sara Gilbert
Mayim Bialik
Melissa Rauch
Kevin Sussman
Laura Spencer
Theme music composer:
Barenaked Ladies -- Every time I went to a concert I just saw a bunch of ordinary guys playing music. I never saw any barenaked ladies....... Wait.... my boss is whispering in my ear......Oh.... That's the name of the band. Never mind. Their music is great though. It's sad that changes were made or happened. I will definitely try to learn more about the band and the members.....hee hee ..... I said member.
Opening theme "Big Bang Theory Theme"
Country of origin: United States
Original language(s): English
No. of seasons: 10
No. of episodes: 225
Production
Executive producer(s):
Chuck Lorre
Steven Molaro
Bill Prady
Steven Molaro
Bill Prady
Producer(s): Faye Oshima Belyeu
Editor(s): Peter Chakos
Camera setup: Multi-camera
Running time: 18–22 minutes
Production company(s):
Chuck Lorre Productions
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television
Distributor:
Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Release
Original network: CBS
Picture format: HDTV 1080i
Audio format: Dolby Digital 5.1
Original release September 24, 2007 – present
The Big Bang Theory is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom serve as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro. All three also serve as head writers. The show premiered on CBS on September 24, 2007. The series tenth season premiered on September 19, 2016. In March 2017, the series was renewed for two additional seasons, bringing its total to 12, and running through the 2018–19 television season.
The show is primarily centered on five characters living in Pasadena, California: Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, both physicists at Caltech, who share an apartment; Penny, a waitress and aspiring actress who later becomes a pharmaceutical representative and who lives across the hall; and Leonard and Sheldon's similarly geeky and socially awkward friends and co-workers, aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali. The geekiness and intellect of the four men are contrasted for comic effect with Penny's social skills and common sense.
Over time, supporting characters have been promoted to starring roles: Leslie Winkle, a physicist who dated Leonard and Howard; neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler, who joins the group after being matched to Sheldon on a dating website (and later becomes Sheldon's girlfriend); Bernadette Rostenkowski, Howard's wife (previously his girlfriend), a microbiologist and former part-time waitress alongside Penny; Stuart Bloom, the cash-strapped owner of the comic book store the characters often visit; and Emily Sweeney, a dermatologist who dated Raj.
Production
The structure of the original, unaired pilot, developed for the 2006–07 television season, was substantially different from the series' current form.
The only characters retained in both pilots were Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons), who are named after Sheldon Leonard. Althea (Vernee Watson) was a character featured in both pilots and the first series episode. Two female leads were Canadian actress Amanda Walsh as Katie, "a street-hardened, tough-as-nails woman with a vulnerable interior",and Iris Bahr as Gilda, a scientist colleague and friend of the male characters. Sheldon and Leonard meet Katie after she breaks up with a boyfriend and they invite her to share their apartment; Gilda is threatened by Katie's presence. Test audiences reacted negatively to Katie, but they liked Sheldon and Leonard. The original pilot used Thomas Dolby's hit "She Blinded Me with Science" as the theme song.
The series was not picked up, but the creators were given an opportunity to retool the show and produce a second pilot. They brought in the remaining cast and retooled the show to its final format. Katie was replaced by Penny (Kaley Cuoco). The original unaired pilot has never been officially released, but it has circulated on the Internet. On the evolution of the show, Chuck Lorre said, "We did the 'Big Bang Pilot' about two and a half years ago, and it sucked... but there were two remarkable things that worked perfectly, and that was Johnny and Jim. We rewrote the thing entirely and then we were blessed with Kaley and Simon and Kunal." As to whether the world will ever see the original pilot on a future DVD release, Lorre said, "Wow, that would be something, we will see. Show your failures..."
The first and second pilots of The Big Bang Theory were directed by James Burrows, who did not continue with the show. The reworked second pilot led to a 13-episode order by CBS on May 14, 2007. Prior to its airing on CBS, the pilot episode was distributed on iTunes free of charge. The show premiered on September 24, 2007, and was picked up for a full 22-episode season on October 19, 2007. The show is filmed in front of a live audience, and is produced by Warner Bros. Television and Chuck Lorre Productions. Production was halted on November 6, 2007, due to the Writers Guild of America strike. Nearly three months later, on February 4, 2008, the series was temporarily replaced by a short-lived sitcom, Welcome to the Captain. The series returned on March 17, 2008, in an earlier time slot and ultimately only 17 episodes were produced for the first season. After the strike ended, the show was picked up for a second season, airing in the 2008–2009 season, premiering in the same time slot on September 22, 2008. With increasing ratings, the show received a two-year renewal through the 2010–11 season in 2009. In 2011, the show was picked up for three more seasons. In March 2014, the show was renewed again for three more years through the 2016–17 season. Therefore, the series will at least reach 10 seasons. This marks the second time the series has gained a three-year renewal. In March 2017, the series was renewed for two additional seasons, bringing its total to 12, and running through the 2018–19 television season.
David Saltzberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles, checks scripts and provides dialogue, mathematics equations, and diagrams used as props. According to executive producer/co-creator Bill Prady, "We're working on giving Sheldon an actual problem that he's going to be working on throughout the [first] season so there's actual progress to the boards...We worked hard to get all the science right."
Several of the actors in The Big Bang Theory previously worked together on Roseanne, including Johnny Galecki, Sara Gilbert, Laurie Metcalf (who plays Sheldon's mother, Mary Cooper), and Meagen Fay (who plays Bernadette's mother). Additionally, Lorre was a writer on the series for several seasons.
Theme song
Single cover for "Big Bang Theory Theme" by Barenaked Ladies (2007)
The Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies wrote and recorded the show's theme song, which describes the history and formation of the universe and the Earth. Co-lead singer Ed Robertson was asked by Lorre and Prady to write a theme song for the show after the producers attended one of the band's concerts in Los Angeles. By coincidence, Robertson had recently read Simon Singh's book Big Bang, and at the concert, he improvised a freestyle rap about the origins of the universe. Lorre and Prady phoned Robertson shortly thereafter and asked him to write the theme song. Having been asked to write songs for other films and shows, but ending up being rejected because of producer's favor of other artist's song, Robertson agreed to write the theme only after learning that Lorre and Prady had not asked anyone else.
On October 9, 2007, a full-length (1 minute and 45 seconds) version of the song was released commercially. Although some sources identify the song title as "History of Everything", the cover art for the single identifies the title as "Big Bang Theory Theme". A music video was also released via special features on The Complete Fourth Season DVD and Blu-ray set. The theme was included on the band's greatest hits album, Hits from Yesterday & the Day Before, which was released on September 27, 2011. In September 2015, TMZ uncovered court documents showing that Steven Page sued former bandmate Robertson over the song, alleging that he was promised 20% of the proceeds, but that Robertson has kept that money entirely for himself.
Actors' salaries
For the first three seasons, Galecki, Parsons, and Cuoco, the three main stars of the show, received at most $60,000 per episode. The salary for the three went up to $200,000 per episode for the fourth season. Their per-episode pay went up an additional $50,000 in each of the following three seasons, culminating in $350,000 per episode in the seventh season. By season seven, the three were also receiving 0.25% of the series' back-end money. Before production began on the eighth season, the five main stars looked to renegotiate new contracts, with Galecki, Parsons, and Cuoco seeking around $1 million per episode, as well as more back-end money. Contracts were signed in the beginning of August 2014, giving the three principal actors an estimated $1 million per episode for three years, with the possibility to extend for a fourth year. The deals also include larger pieces of the show, signing bonuses, production deals, and advances towards the back-end.
In September 2013, Bialik and Rauch renegotiated the contracts they held since they were introduced to the series in 2010. On their old contracts, each was making $20,000–$30,000 per episode, while the new contracts doubled that, beginning at $60,000 per episode, increasing steadily to $100,000 per episode by the end of the contract, as well as adding another year for both.
In August 2014, Helberg and Nayyar renegotiated their contracts, giving them a per-episode pay in the "mid-six-figure range", up from around $100,000 per episode they each received in years prior. The duo, who were looking to have salary parity with Parsons, Galecki, and Cuoco, signed their contracts after the studio and producers threatened to write the characters out of the series if a deal could not be reached before the start of production on season eight. Parsons, Galecki, and Cuoco earn $1 million per episode.
In March 2017, the main cast members (Galecki, Parsons, Cuoco, Helberg and Nayyar) took a 10% pay cut so Bialik and Rauch could increase their earnings from $100,000 per episode to $450,000. This put Galecki, Parsons, Cuoco, Helberg and Nayyar at $900,000 per episode, with Parsons, Galecki and Helberg also receiving overall deals with Warner Bros. Television. Bialik and Rauch are not expected to get parity with the other five actors, though their contracts will be significant raises from their previous $175,000 per episode, with the possibility of more than $400,000 per episode.
Cast and characters
These actors are credited in all episodes of the series:
Leonard Hofstadter (portrayed by Johnny Galecki) is an experimental physicist with an IQ of 173, who received his PhD when he was 24 years old. His mother, Beverly (Christine Baranski), is a neuroscientist and psychiatrist who provided little, if any, nurturing when Leonard was growing up. Like all of the other major male characters, Leonard is a nerd who loves video games, comic books and Dungeons & Dragons. Leonard is also lactose intolerant. The straight man of the series, he shares an apartment in Pasadena with Sheldon. Leonard is smitten with his neighbor Penny when they first meet. They briefly date at the end of season 1 and the start of season 2, taking a break before beginning a stable romantic relationship in season 3. However, they break up at the end of season 3 when Leonard tells Penny he loves her and she is unprepared to reciprocate. Leonard also briefly dates Leslie Winkle (Sara Gilbert) and Stephanie Barnett (Sara Rue) in season 2, and in season 4, he becomes seriously involved with Raj's sister Priya (Aarti Mann), a successful lawyer, but she eventually returns to India and they break up in season 5 when she admits to having cheated on him. Leonard and Penny again begin a romantic relationship in season 5 and they eventually marry in season 9.
Sheldon Cooper (portrayed by Jim Parsons) is originally from Galveston, Texas. Sheldon was a child prodigy with an eidetic memory who began college at the age of eleven (after completing the fifth grade), started graduate studies at age fourteen and earned a PhD at age sixteen. A theoretical physicist researching quantum mechanics and string theory, he has two doctoral degrees: a PhD and an Sc.D. However, despite his IQ of 187, he finds many routine aspects of social situations and life in general difficult to grasp and navigate. His father died when he was fourteen, and his mother, Mary (Laurie Metcalf), is a devout Christian. He also has a twin sister, Missy (Courtney Henggeler). Sheldon has a poor grasp of others' feelings and little or no comprehension of nuances, often questioning others if a comment is intended as sarcasm. As a result, he is extremely tactless and acts wildly inappropriately much of the time. He is determined to have his own way, boasts of his superior intelligence and belittles his friends' accomplishments, making him appear petty and childlike. Sheldon has an extremely ritualized way of living (such as always sitting in the same spot on the sofa, or knocking on a door three times, each time saying the name of the person whom he is addressing) and a compulsion to complete things. He is also wary of germs and dislikes physical contact. Despite all these quirks, he begins a relationship with Amy Farrah Fowler in season 4. She officially becomes his girlfriend during season 5.
Penny Hofstadter (portrayed by Kaley Cuoco) is an aspiring actress from a town outside of Omaha, Nebraska. Penny moves in across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard in the series premiere. She attends casting calls and auditions, but is not very successful. To pay her bills, she waits and occasionally tends the bar at the Cheesecake Factory, although she often relies on the guys for free food, Wi-Fi and help paying her rent. After giving up hope of ever becoming a successful actress, Penny quits her job in season 7, and in season 8, she becomes a pharmaceutical sales representative with Zangen. This job finally allows her to gain financial independence. Penny attended, but did not graduate from, community college (She briefly goes back to school in season 6). She, however, has far more common sense and social awareness than the rest of the gang. Penny is also untidy and frequently consumes alcohol. Her maiden surname has never been revealed. In season 1, she dates Mike (Andrew Walker), whom she later dumps after he posts details about their sex life on his blog. She briefly dates comic book store owner Stuart Bloom in season 2, and during seasons 3 and 4 she dates Zack Johnson (Brian Thomas Smith), a handsome and friendly yet dim-witted guy, whom she married in Las Vegas, although they didn't think weddings in Las Vegas were real. In season 4, Penny becomes close friends with Bernadette and Amy, and they often hang out in each other's apartments or go out together.
Penny also has a close friendship with Sheldon, despite his quirks. After a brief date at the end of season 1, and a relationship and break-up in season 3, Penny and Leonard form a relationship in season 5 and eventually marry in season 9. Kaley Cuoco began being credited as Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting starting with the season 7 episode The Convention Conundrum following her marriage to tennis player Ryan Sweeting. Following the announcement of her divorce from Sweeting in 2015, Cuoco's name during the opening credits was converted back to its original name in the season 9 episode The Bachelor Party Corrosion.
Howard Wolowitz (portrayed by Simon Helberg) is an aerospace engineer. Howard is Jewish and lives with his mother, Debbie (Carol Ann Susi). His father left both of them when Howard was eleven and has not been heard from since, with the exception of a letter on Howard's eighteenth birthday, which he refused to open. In season 8, he discovers he has a half-brother, Josh (Matt Bennett). Unlike Sheldon, Leonard and Raj, Howard lacks a doctorate, earning him Sheldon's scorn. He defends this by pointing out that he has a master's degree in engineering from the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology and that the apparatuses he designs are launched into space, unlike the purely abstract work of his friends. He himself goes into space at the end of season 5, training as an astronaut and serving as a payload specialist on the International Space Station. He has a marked sense of humor, which Leonard and Raj occasionally appreciate. In the early seasons of the show, Howard fancies himself a womanizer and devises outrageous pickup lines, which have limited success with women. In season 3 he starts dating Bernadette, and although they break up off screen, they later get back together and then get engaged in season 4 and married at the end of season 5. In season 6, Howard finally moves out of his mother's house and moves in with Bernadette. Howard also has a tendency to waste money on toys and often argues with Bernadette over money because of his oddly low income as an engineer and her high income as a pharmaceutical biochemist, resulting in Bernadette often giving Howard allowances (which Howard calls a stipend). In season 8, Howard's mother dies (following Carol Ann Susi's death in 2014), leaving him devastated. He and Bernadette later move into her home.
Rajesh Koothrappali (portrayed by Kunal Nayyar)[44] is from New Delhi and is a particle astrophysicist at Caltech. Raj's family is very wealthy. Over the course of the series, he communicates with his parents, Dr. and Mrs. V.M. Koothrappali (Brian George and Alice Amter) via webcam. Raj is bashful around women and is unable to talk to them for the first six seasons (except for his mother and his sister) unless he drinks alcohol (or at least thinks he has drunk it) or takes an experimental medication. Unfortunately, the former causes him to behave outrageously and unpredictably, while the latter causes unforeseen side effects. Even so, he often has better luck with women than his overly-confident best friend, Howard. Raj also has very feminine tastes and often takes on a stereotypical female role in his close friendship with Howard but he insists that he is not gay. In season 4, his sister Priya stays with him and becomes Leonard's girlfriend (much to Raj's annoyance). In season 6, Raj meets Lucy (Kate Micucci), who also suffers from social anxiety and they begin a relationship. However, Lucy ends the relationship, as she feels pressured when Raj wants her to meet his friends. Afterwards, a heartbroken Raj finally speaks to Penny without having consumed alcohol and overcomes his selective mutism. In season 7, he begins dating Emily and their relationship later becomes exclusive. Raj also has a Yorkshire Terrier named Cinnamon and the gang often joke about how unusually close he is with his dog.
These actors were first credited as guest stars and later promoted to main cast:
Sara Gilbert as Leslie Winkle (recurring season 1, starring season 2, guest star seasons 3 and 9) – a physicist who works in the same lab as Leonard. In appearance, she is essentially Leonard's female counterpart, wearing black-framed glasses and sweat jackets. She is an enemy of Sheldon's, due to their conflicting scientific theories. Though each considers the other to be intellectually inferior, Leslie is much wittier than Sheldon, regularly calls him "dumbass" and usually bests him in their repartee. Leslie has casual sex with Leonard and later Howard. Gilbert and Galecki played the on-screen couple of Darlene Connor and David Healy in Roseanne. Gilbert was promoted to a main cast member during the second season, but was demoted back to guest star status because producers could not come up with enough material for the character. Gilbert left the series after season 3 to focus her efforts on The Talk, on which she serves as executive producer for CBS. Gilbert returned for the series' 200th episode.
Melissa Rauch as Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz (recurring season 3, starring since season 4) is a young woman with a high-pitched voice who is initially a co-worker of Penny's, paying her way through graduate school, where she is studying microbiology. Bernadette is of Polish origin and was raised Catholic. Her father Mike (Casey Sander) is a toughened retired police officer and she has four other siblings. Bernadette is introduced to Howard by Penny as a result of an agreement between Howard and Leonard that if either ever ended up with a hot girlfriend, he would get the girlfriend to introduce the other to "a hot chick." At first, they do not get along, apparently having nothing in common, until they find out that they both have overbearing mothers. During season 3, they date and then break up off-screen. They get back together and get engaged in season 4 and marry at the end of season 5. She gives birth to Halley in season 10. After successfully defending her doctoral thesis, she lands a high-paying research position with Zangen at the end of season 4 (her high income becomes a source of conflict between her and Howard in later seasons). Although generally a sweet and good-natured person, Bernadette has a short fuse and can be vindictive and lash out when provoked, often sounding like Howard's mother and intimidating her colleagues. She is also shown to have a competitive streak.
Mayim Bialik as Amy Farrah Fowler (guest star season 3, starring since mid-season 4) is a woman selected by an online dating site as Sheldon's perfect mate after Raj and Howard secretly set up an account using Sheldon's information, prompting Raj to comment, "We finally have proof that aliens walk among us!" Amy is from Glendale and is a fan of Little House on the Prairie. While she and Sheldon initially share social cluelessness, after befriending Penny and Bernadette, Amy eventually becomes more interested in social and romantic interaction and is more socially aware than Sheldon. Once she and Sheldon meet, she becomes, as Sheldon puts it, a girl who is his friend, but not his girlfriend. Their relationship slowly progresses to the point where Sheldon considers her his girlfriend and tells her that he loves her. Amy's sexual frustration in her relationship with Sheldon is a recurring topic in the series. Amy also believes she and Penny are best friends ("besties," as she puts it), a sentiment that Penny does not initially share. Penny eventually becomes a real friend, overlooking Amy's Sheldon-like qualities. Amy's admiration for Penny has at times bordered on physical attraction. Amy has a PhD in neurobiology (Bialik herself has a doctorate in neuroscience) and frequently uses monkeys in her research and experiments.
Kevin Sussman as Stuart Bloom (recurring seasons 2–5, 7 and 10, starring seasons 6, 8 and 9) is the mild-mannered, under-confident comic book store owner that the guys frequent. A brilliant artist, Stuart is a graduate of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design and though he is socially awkward, he possesses slightly better social skills than the rest of the guys. Unlike them, he is not a techno-geek. During Stuart's first appearance, the guys bring Penny along to the store and he manages to ask her on a date. They go out a few times, until Penny mistakenly calls him "Leonard" while they are making out, leaving him devastated. In season 4, Stuart implies he is in financial trouble and that the comic book store is now also his home. At Howard's bachelor party, Stuart uses his toast to tell Howard how lucky he is and compares it to his own situation of living in the back of his store. In season 6, he is invited to join the guys' group while Howard is in space. At the end of season 7, the comic book store burns down and he gets a new job caring for Howard's mother. The two become close and develop a strange relationship, much to the annoyance of Howard. He also briefly dates Howard's second cousin Jeanie (Kara Luiz), to whom Howard lost his virginity. After Mrs. Wolowitz's death in season 8, Stuart continues to live in her home, along with Howard and Bernadette, until he finds a place of his own in season 9.
Laura Spencer as Emily Sweeney (recurring seasons 7–8, starring season 9) is a dermatologist at Huntington Hospital who Raj finds on an online dating site. Emily went to Harvard and has a slightly alarming personality; she delights in the macabre and states that she likes her job because she can cut things with knives and likes Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas (whom she has a tattoo of on her shoulder) because she has lots of scars and her limbs had to be sewn back on. Prior to meeting Raj, Emily was set up on a blind date with Howard. He came to her apartment with food poisoning, ruined her bathroom and escaped out the window (Emily nicknames Howard "Clogzilla"). In season 7, after finding Emily's online dating profile, Raj has Amy contact her as his wingman instead. Raj barges in on Emily and Amy and becomes weirded out and leaves. Raj later bumps into Emily and she agrees to give him another chance. At the end of season 7, their relationship becomes exclusive. Emily shows a slight dislike towards Penny as she previously and drunkenly almost hooked up with Raj in season 4. In the season 9 episode 15 'The Valentino Submergence' Raj breaks up with Emily when he becomes infatuated with bartender and aspiring screenwriter, Claire (Alessandra Torresani). Then, after Emily leaves a gift for Raj, he goes to her apartment and they sleep together in 'The Application Deterioration'. Raj confirms they're still broken up in season 10, episode 5, 'The Hot Tub Contamination'.
Scientist cameos
As the theme of the show revolves around science, many distinguished and high-profile scientists have appeared as guest stars on the show. Famous astrophysicist and Nobel laureate George Smoot had a cameo appearance in episode 17 "The Terminator Decoupling", of the second season. Theoretical physicist Brian Greene also appeared on the show in "The Herb Garden Germination", episode 20 of the fourth season. Astrophysicist, science populizer, and physics outreach specialist, Neil deGrasse Tyson appeared in "The Apology Insufficiency", episode 7 of the fourth season. Cosmologist Stephen Hawking made a short guest appearance in the fifth-season episode "The Hawking Excitation" on April 5, 2012. In the episode, he meets Sheldon and points out a mistake in Sheldon's new Higgs boson analysis. Hawking also speaks on the phone at the end of the episode "The Extract Obliteration" with Sheldon but is not seen on-camera. In season 8 episode 14, Hawking video-conferences with Sheldon and Leonard after trolling their joint paper online. Hawking makes another appearance through a video call in season 9 episode 17 named 'The Celebration Experimentation' (the 200th episode). In the end of season 5 and the beginning of season 6, NASA astronaut Michael J. Massimino played himself multiple times in the role of Howard's fellow astronaut. In season 7, Bill Nye appears in an episode ("The Proton Displacement") in which Sheldon feels slighted by his childhood science hero, Professor Proton, hiring Bill to fill the void. Elon Musk appears in season 9's "The Platonic Permutation," where he and Howard volunteer at a homeless shelter on Thanksgiving.
Recurring themes and elements
Science
Much of the series focuses on science, particularly physics. The four main male characters are employed at Caltech and have science-related occupations, as do Bernadette and Amy. The characters frequently banter about scientific theories or news (notably around the start of the show), and make science-related jokes.
Science has also interfered with the characters' romantic lives. Leslie breaks up with Leonard when he sides with Sheldon in his support for string theory rather than loop quantum gravity. When Leonard joins Sheldon, Raj, and Howard on a three-month Arctic research trip, it separates Leonard and Penny at a time their relationship is budding. When Bernadette takes an interest in Leonard's work, it makes both Penny and Howard envious and results in Howard confronting Leonard, and Penny asking Sheldon to teach her physics. Sheldon and Amy also briefly end their relationship after an argument over which of their fields is superior.
David Saltzberg, who has a PhD in physics, has served as the science consultant for the show for six seasons and attends every taping. While Saltzberg knows physics, he sometimes needs assistance from Mayim Bialik, who has a PhD in neuroscience. Saltzberg sees early versions of scripts which need scientific information added to them, and he also points out where the writers, despite their knowledge of science, have made a mistake. He is usually not needed during a taping unless a lot of science, and especially the whiteboard, is involved.
Science fiction media
Star Trek: The Next Generation actor Wil Wheaton has a recurring role as a fictional version of himself on the show
The four main male characters are all avid science fiction, fantasy, and comic book fans and memorabilia collectors.
Star Trek in particular is frequently referenced and Sheldon identifies strongly with the character of Spock, so much so that when he is given a used napkin signed by Leonard Nimoy as a Christmas gift from Penny he is overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude ("I possess the DNA of Leonard Nimoy?!"). Star Trek: The Original Series cast member George Takei has made a cameo, and Leonard Nimoy made a cameo as the voice of Sheldon's vintage Mr. Spock action figure (both cameos were in dream sequences). Star Trek: The Next Generation cast members Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton have had cameos as themselves, while Wil Wheaton has a recurring role as a fictionalized version of himself.
They are also fans of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and Doctor Who. In the episode "The Ornithophobia Diffusion", when there is a delay in watching Star Wars on Blu-ray, Howard complains, "If we don't start soon, George Lucas is going to change it again" (referring to Lucas' controversial alterations to the films) and in "The Hot Troll Deviation", Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar Galactica appeared as Howard's fantasy dream girl. The characters have different tastes in franchises with Sheldon praising Firefly but disapproving of Leonard's enjoyment of Babylon 5. With regard to fantasy, the four make frequent references to The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter novels and movies. Additionally, Howard can speak Sindarin, one of the two Elvish languages from The Lord of the Rings.
Wednesday night is the group's designated "comic book night" because that is the day of the week when new comic books are released. The comic book store is run by fellow geek and recurring character Stuart. On a number of occasions, the group members have dressed up as pop culture characters, including The Flash, Aquaman, Frodo Baggins, Superman, Batman, Spock, The Doctor, Green Lantern, and Thor.[78] As a consequence of losing a bet to Stuart and Wil Wheaton, the group members are forced to visit the comic book store dressed as Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Batgirl, and Supergirl. DC Comics announced that, to promote its comics, the company will sponsor Sheldon wearing Green Lantern T-shirts.
Various games have been featured, as well as referenced, on the series (e.g. World of Warcraft, Halo, Mario, etc.), including fictional games like Mystic Warlords of Ka'a (which became a reality in 2011) and Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.
Leonard and Penny's relationship
One of the recurring plot lines is the relationship between Leonard and Penny. Leonard becomes attracted to Penny in the pilot episode and his need to do favors for her is a frequent point of humor in the first season. Their first long term relationship begins when Leonard returns from a three-month expedition to the North Pole in the season 3 premiere. However, when Leonard tells Penny that he loves her, she realizes she cannot say it back. Both Leonard and Penny go on to date other people; most notably with Leonard dating Raj's sister Priya for much of season 4. This relationship is jeopardized when Leonard comes to falsely believe that Raj has slept with Penny, and ultimately ends when Priya sleeps with a former boyfriend in "The Good Guy Fluctuation".
Penny, who admits to missing Leonard in "The Roommate Transmogrification", accepts his request to renew their relationship in "The Beta Test Initiation". After Penny suggests having sex in "The Launch Acceleration", Leonard breaks the mood by proposing to her. Penny says "no" but does not break up with him. She stops a proposal a second time in "The Tangible Affection Proof". In the sixth-season episode, "The 43 Peculiarity", Penny finally tells Leonard that she loves him. Although they both feel jealousy when the other receives significant attention from the opposite sex, Penny is secure enough in their relationship to send him off on an exciting four-month expedition without worrying in "The Bon Voyage Reaction". After Leonard returns, their relationship blossoms over the seventh season. In the penultimate episode "The Gorilla Dissolution", Penny admits that they should marry and when Leonard realizes that she is serious, he proposes with a ring that he had been saving for years. Leonard and Penny decide to elope to Las Vegas in the season 8 finale, but beforehand, wanting no secrets, Leonard admits to kissing another woman, Mandy Chow (Melissa Tang) while on an expedition on the North Sea. Despite this, Leonard and Penny finally elope in the season 9 premiere.
Sheldon and Amy's relationship
In the third-season finale, Raj and Howard search for a woman compatible with Sheldon and discover neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler. Like him, she has a history of social ineptitude and participates in online dating only to fulfill an agreement with her mother. This spawns a storyline in which Sheldon and Amy communicate daily while insisting to Leonard and Penny that they are not romantically involved. In "The Agreement Dissection", Sheldon and Amy talk in her apartment after a night of dancing and she kisses him on the lips. Instead of getting annoyed, Sheldon says "fascinating" and later asks Amy to be his girlfriend in "The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition". The same night he draws up "The Relationship Agreement" to verify the ground rules of him as her boyfriend and vice versa (similar to his "Roommate Agreement" with Leonard). Amy agrees but later regrets not having had a lawyer read through it.
In the episode "The Launch Acceleration", Amy tries to use her "neurobiology bag of tricks" to increase the attraction between herself and Sheldon. In the final fifth-season episode "The Countdown Reflection", Sheldon takes Amy's hand as Howard is launched into space. In the sixth season first episode "The Date Night Variable", after a dinner in which Sheldon fails to live up to this expectation, Amy gives Sheldon an ultimatum that their relationship is over unless he tells her something from his heart. Amy accepts Sheldon's romantic speech even after learning that it is a line from the first Spider-Man movie. In "The Cooper/Kripke Inversion" Sheldon states that he has been working on his discomfort about physical contact and admits that "it's a possibility" that he could one day have sex with Amy. Amy is revealed to have similar feelings in "The Love Spell Potential". Sheldon explains that he never thought about intimacy with anyone before Amy.
"The Locomotive Manipulation" is the first episode in which Sheldon initiates a kiss with Amy. Although initially done in a fit of sarcasm, he discovers that he enjoys the feeling. Consequently, Sheldon slowly starts to open up over the rest of the season, and starts a more intimate relationship with Amy. However, in the season finale, Sheldon leaves temporarily to cope with several changes and Amy becomes distraught. However, in "The Prom Equivalency" he hides in his room to avoid going to a mock prom reenactment with her. In the resulting stand-off, Amy is about to confess that she loves Sheldon, but he surprises her by saying that he loves her too. This prompts Amy to have a panic attack.
In the season eight finale, Sheldon and Amy get into a fight about commitment on their 5-year anniversary. Amy tells Sheldon that she needs to think about the future of their relationship, unaware that Sheldon was about to propose to her. Season nine sees Sheldon harassing Amy about making up her mind until she breaks up with him. Both struggle with singlehood and trying to be friends for the next few weeks until they reunite in episode ten and have sex for the first time on Amy's birthday.
Howard's mother
In scenes set at Howard's home, he interacts with his rarely-seen mother (voiced by Carol Ann Susi until her death) by shouting from room to room in the house. She similarly interacts with other characters in this manner. She reflects the Jewish mother stereotype in some ways, such as being overly controlling of Howard's adult life and sometimes trying to make him feel guilty about causing her trouble. She is dependent on Howard, as she requires him to help her with her wig and makeup in the morning. Howard in turn is attached to his mother to the point where she still cuts his meat for him, takes him to the dentist, does his laundry and "grounds" him when he returns home after briefly moving out. Until Howard's marriage to Bernadette in the fifth-season finale, Howard's former living situation led Leonard's psychiatrist mother to speculate that he may suffer from some type of pathology, and Sheldon to refer to their relationship as Oedipal.[86] In season 8, Howard's mother dies in her sleep while in Florida, which devastates Howard and Stuart, who briefly lived with Mrs. Wolowitz.
Vanity cards
Like most shows created by Chuck Lorre, The Big Bang Theory ends by showing a vanity card written by Lorre after the credits, followed by the Warner Bros. Television closing logo. These cards are archived on Lorre's website.
The Theorists
Through the use of his vanity cards at the end of episodes, Lorre alleged that the program had been plagiarized by a show produced and aired in Belarus. Officially titled Теоретики (The Theorists), the show features "clones" of the main characters, a similar opening sequence, and what appears to be a very close Russian translation of the scripts.[88] Lorre expressed annoyance and described his inquiry with the Warner Bros. legal department about options. The television production company and station's close relationship with the Belarus government was cited as the reason that any attempt to claim copyright infringement would be in vain because the company copying the episodes is operated by the government.
However, no legal action was required to end production of the other show: as soon as the word got out that the show was unlicensed, the actors quit and the producers cancelled it. Dmitriy Tankovich (who plays Leonard's counterpart, "Seva") said in an interview: "I'm upset. At first, the actors were told all legal issues were resolved. We didn't know it wasn't the case, so when the creators of The Big Bang Theory started talking about the show, I was embarrassed. I can't understand why our people first do, and then think. I consider this to be the rock bottom of my career. And I don't want to take part in a stolen show".
Reception
Critical reception
In 2013, TV Guide ranked the series #52 on its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 55% approval rating for the first season based on reviews from 22 critics, with an average rating of 5.18/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Big Bang Theory brings a new class of character to mainstream television, but much of the comedy feels formulaic and stiff." On Metacritic, the season holds a score of 57 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
U.S. standard ratings
The Big Bang Theory started off slowly in the ratings, failing to make the top 50 in its first season (ranking 68th), and ranking 40th in its second season. When the third season premiered on September 21, 2009, however, The Big Bang Theory ranked as CBS's highest-rated show of that evening in the adults 18–49 demographic (4.6/10) along with a then-series-high 12.83 million viewers. After the first three seasons aired at different times on Monday nights, CBS moved the show to Thursdays at 8:00 ET for the 2010–2011 schedule, to be in direct competition with NBC's Comedy Block and Fox's American Idol (then the longest reigning leading primetime show on U.S. television from 2004 to 2011). During its fourth season, it became television's highest rated comedy, just barely beating out eight-year champ Two and a Half Men. However, in the age 18–49 demographic (the show's target age range), it was the second highest rated comedy, behind ABC's Modern Family. The fifth season opened with viewing figures of over 14 million.
The sixth season boasts some of the highest-rated episodes for the show so far, with a then-new series high set with "The Bakersfield Expedition", with 20 million viewers, a first for the series, which along with NCIS, made CBS the first network to have two scripted series reach that large an audience in the same week since 2007. In the sixth season, the show became the highest rated and viewed scripted show in the 18–49 demographic, trailing only the live regular NBC Sunday Night Football coverage, and was third in total viewers, trailing NCIS and Sunday Night Football. Season seven of the series opened strong, continuing the success gained in season six, with the second episode of the premiere, "The Deception Verification", setting the new series high in viewers with 20.44 million.
Showrunner Steve Molaro, who took over from Bill Prady with the sixth season, credits some of the show's success to the sitcom's exposure in off-network syndication, particularly on TBS, while Michael Schneider of TV Guide attributes it to the timeslot move two seasons earlier. Chuck Lorre and CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler also credit the success to the influence of Molaro, in particular the deepening exploration of the firmly established regular characters and their interpersonal relationships, such as the on-again, off-again relationship between Leonard and Penny. Throughout much of the 2012–13 season, The Big Bang Theory placed first in all of syndication ratings, receiving formidable competition from only Judge Judy and Wheel of Fortune (first-run syndication programs). By the end of the 2012–13 television season, The Big Bang Theory had dethroned Judge Judy as the ratings leader in all of syndicated programming with 7.1, Judy descending to second place for that season with a 7.0. The Big Bang Theory did not place first in syndication ratings for the 2013–14 television season, beaten out by Judge Judy.......bup bup bup......
A Final Note?....
I have seen a lot of the episodes but I'd like to see them all someday.
The Leonard character gives me hope. I've known a few chicks....women.....boss slaps me. They meant nothing to me.....When boss looks away I wink at the audience...... Is that like being naked on radio?......Nobody sees me so it doesn't matter.
I have ..... had a friend like Sheldon except my "friend" wasn't a genius ...or that smart. He was really annoying. One time he owed me $2 so he bought me a chocolate bar he liked instead of giving me the money. He wouldn't help pay for parking when we went clubbing. I used to pick him up from house way in the other direction..... ask me more about this guy. I might just make a sitcom with a character based on him.
I knew a bunch of Pennys. Only on TV? Well maybe someday. SLAP!!!!! I forgot the boss was here. She's better than all the chicks SLAP!!!! ...... women I've known.
My brain is frozen so I'll try to do more comparisons later...... me running after the boss, begging forgiveness.....wish me luck....What are these bedsheets and pillows doing here?...... Oh..... Oh wait she says she's just kidding......Yay ....We get to play checkers......our way......
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