The Big Bang Theory

June 29, 2024 by Penny Gusner

The Big Bang Theory

Two exceptionally talented physicists who work at Cal Tech in Pasadena, California, are Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper. They work together, are closest friends, and live together, yet in each of these roles, Sheldon’s rigid, wildly eccentric, and unconventional ways consistently put their relationship to the test. Additionally, they have friendships with Rajesh Koothrappali, an astronomer, and Howard Wolowitz, a mechanical engineer from Cal Tech. The foursome reads comic books, plays video games, watches science fiction movies, and works on their various professional projects. They are all self-confessed nerds who have had little to no success in the dating department. After Penny, a beautiful woman from Omaha who dreams of being an actor, moves into the apartment across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon, Leonard’s second goal in life is to convince Penny to.

The Big Bang Theory Details

Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Chuck Lorre & Bill Prady
Showrunners	Bill Prady Steven Molaro Steve Holland
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
Opening theme	“Big Bang Theory Theme
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	12
No. of episodes	279 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Chuck Lorre Bill Prady Lee Aronsohn Steven Molaro Eric Kaplan Maria Ferrari Dave Goetsch Steve Holland
Producer	Faye Oshima Belyeu
Editor	Peter Chakos
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	18–22 minutes
Production companies	Chuck Lorre Productions Warner Bros. Television
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 24, 2007 – May 16, 2019

Cast and characters

• Johnny Galecki as Leonard Hofstadter: An experimental physicist with an IQ of 173, who received his Ph.D. when he was 24 years old. Leonard is a nerd who loves video games, comic books, and Dungeons & Dragons. Leonard is the straight man of the series, sharing an apartment in Pasadena, CA, with Sheldon Cooper. Leonard is smitten with his new neighbor Penny when they first meet, and they eventually marry.
• Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper: Originally from Galveston, Texas, Sheldon was a child prodigy with an eidetic memory who began college at the age of eleven and earned a Ph.D. at age sixteen. He is a theoretical physicist researching quantum mechanics and string theory, and, despite his IQ of 187, he finds many routine aspects of social situations difficult to grasp. He is determined to have his own way, continually boasts of his intelligence, and has an extremely ritualized way of living. Despite these quirks, he begins a relationship with Amy Farrah Fowler, and they eventually marry.
• Kaley Cuoco as Penny: An aspiring actress from Omaha, Nebraska. Penny moves in across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard. She waits tables and occasionally tends the bar at The Cheesecake Factory. After giving up hope of becoming a successful actress, Penny becomes a pharmaceutical sales representative. Penny becomes friends with Bernadette and Amy, and they often hang out in each other’s apartments. Penny and Leonard form a relationship and eventually marry.

Production

The first episode of the pilot of the show aired on September 24, 2007. The show’s second pilot was created in this manner. An alternative pilot was created for the 2006–07 TV season, however it was never broadcast. The present shape of the series was structured differently from the initial unaired pilot. Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons), who are named after Sheldon Leonard, a well-known producer, director, and actor in episodic television, were the only primary characters that remained in both pilots. The first scene of both pilots included Althea (Vernee Watson), a minor character that was mostly left intact. Two strong female characters were included in the first pilot: Gilda, a scientist, and Katie, “a street-hardened, tough-as-nails woman with a vulnerable interior” (played by Canadian actress Amanda Walsh).

After Katie splits up with a lover, Sheldon and Leonard offer her to live with them in their apartment. Katie’s presence threatens Gilda. Sheldon and Leonard were well-liked by test audiences, but Katie received poor feedback. The hit song “She Blinded Me with Science” by Thomas Dolby served as the theme music for the original pilot. The original pilot was not picked up, but it did allow the creators a chance to rework it and make a second pilot. After retooling the show to its final format, they brought in the remaining cast members. Penny, played by Kaley Cuoco, took Katie’s place. Although it hasn’t been formally released, the original unaired pilot has made the rounds online. Chuck Lorre remarked of the show’s development, “We did the.

Recurring themes and elements

The show spends a lot of time on science, especially physics. Like Bernadette and Amy, the four primary male characters work at Caltech and are involved in the scientific community. The characters routinely laugh about science and jest about scientific hypotheses or news (especially at the beginning of the show). Additionally, science has obstructed the romantic lives of the protagonists. When Leonard starts to endorse Sheldon’s position on string theory instead of loop quantum gravity, Leslie ends their relationship.Just as Leonard and Penny’s romance is beginning to blossom, Leonard splits when he goes with Sheldon, Raj, and Howard on a three-month study trip to the Arctic. Penny and Howard get envious of Bernadette’s interest in Leonard’s profession, which leads to Howard confronting Leonard and Penny.

Numerous eminent and well-known scientists have made guest appearances on the program because science is the central focus. In the second season, renowned astrophysicist and Nobel laureate George Smoot made a brief visit. In the twelfth season, chemical engineer and Nobel winner Frances Arnold played a self-portrait. In the fourth season, theoretical physicist Brian Greene made an appearance, as did astronomer, science communicator, and physics outreach specialist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who also made an appearance in the twelfth season.A brief cameo by cosmologist Stephen Hawking occurred in an episode during the fifth season. Hawking meets Sheldon and Leonard via video conference in the eighth season, and he returns in the 200th episode. NASA astronaut Michael J. Massimino repeatedly portrayed himself in the fifth and sixth seasons.

Release

September 24, 2007, was the US premiere of The Big Bang Theory on CBS. In September 2007, the show made its Canadian premiere on CTV. The show made its television premiere in the United Kingdom on E4 and Channel 4 on February 14, 2008. Although the Nine Network holds the rights to broadcast seasons nine and 10, the first seven seasons of the show debuted in Australia on the Seven Network and 7mate in October 2015 and also acquired the rights to season eight in 2016. Nine announced on January 22, 2018, that it had obtained the rights to Seasons 1–8.

The show was picked up for syndication in May 2010, mostly among Fox-owned and operated stations and other local stations, with the cable syndication rights held by Warner Bros. Television’s sibling network TBS. Old episodes started to air on September 11, 2011. The series is currently aired in primetime on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays on TBS, with evening broadcasts on Saturdays. The series is also locally syndicated on TBS’s former sister station in Atlanta on weeknights. It was stated that the syndication deal “set a record price for a cable off-network sitcom purchase,” though specifics of the agreement have not been made public. In Canada, the cable rights are held by sister network The Comedy Network, while CTV is the owner of national broadcast syndication rights.

Reception

The show eventually garnered a more favorable reception, despite a negative first impression. According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 81% of critics gave it a positive review. Based on reviews from 27 reviewers, the series has a score of 61 out of 100 on Metacritic, which indicates generally positive reviews. The show was voted #52 by TV Guide in their 2013 list of the 60 Greatest Series of All Time.

In its first season, The Big Bang Theory did not place in the top 50, coming in at number 68. In its second season, it placed 40th in the ratings. On September 21, 2009, however, The Big Bang Theory debuted with a then-series high 12.83 million viewers and garnered the highest rating of any CBS program that evening in the adults 18–49 demographic (4.6/10). For the 2010–2011 season, CBS moved the show from Monday nights, where it aired at various times for the first three seasons, to Thursday nights at 8:00 ET. This move put it in direct competition with NBC’s Comedy Block and Fox’s American Idol, which was the longest-running leading primetime show in the United States from 2004 to 2011. It rose to the top of the television ratings during its fourth season.

Merchandise

A Lego Ideas project that portrayed a living room scene in the style of mini-figures featuring the main actors qualified to be considered as an official set by the Lego Ideas review board on March 16, 2014, after it received 10,000 backers on the platform. Lego Ideas gave its approval to the design on November 7, 2014, and worked on improving it. An exclusive pre-sale for the set was held at San Diego Comic-Con International in August 2015, before to its official release.

Offshoots

Lorre claimed that the show had been lifted verbatim from a 2010 Belarusian television program by using his vanity cards at the conclusion of each episode. Тeоретики [ru] (The Theorists) is the official title of the show. It has “clones” of the main characters, a similar opening sequence, and the scripts appear to have been translated literally into Russian. Lorre vented his frustration and told of his conversation on possibilities with the Warner Bros. legal department. Any attempt to allege copyright infringement would be in futile because the company reproducing the episodes is managed by the government, according to the explanation given for the television production company and station’s strong affiliation with the Belarusian government.

The Big Bang Theory Images