The Maternal Capacitance (9 Feb. 2009)

Sheldon hits it off with Leonard's psychoanalyst mother, but she drives Leonard and Penny to the bottle.

Director:

Mark Cendrowski

Writers:

Chuck Lorre (creator), Bill Prady (creator),

Stars:

Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Johnny Galecki	...	Leonard Hofstadter
Jim Parsons	...	Sheldon Cooper
Kaley Cuoco	...	Penny
Simon Helberg	...	Howard Wolowitz
Kunal Nayyar	...	Raj Koothrappali
Christine Baranski	...	Beverly Hofstadter

Storyline

Leonard is dreading a visit from his mother, famed scientific psychoanalyst Beverly Hofstadter. She has always driven Leonard crazy, much like Sheldon does now. It isn't surprising as Beverly and Sheldon are very much alike. Because of their similarities, Sheldon and Beverly hit it off. Beverly, however, extends her scientific psychoanalytical criticisms toward Howard, Raj and Penny, in addition to her son, the latter two who are driven to drink. In drowning their self-doubt in alcohol, Leonard and Penny have a special connection. Sheldon and Beverly also contemplate having a special connection.

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Plot Keywords:

brain scan | rock band video game

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 February 2009 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Chuck Lorre Productions, Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

21 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

With 13.11 million viewers, this show was the most watched of the second season.

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Goofs

When Leonard serves his mother tea, the handle on the tea cup changes positions. Beverly grabs the handle with her left hand, but in the next second she is holding the handle with her right hand as she brings the cup to her mouth. The handle switches from left to right multiple times for the remainder of the scene.

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Quotes

Leonard Hofstadter: You want to talk about not getting love from a parent - you know what I used to do when I was little for some sensation of human contact?
Penny: Yeah, you grabbed your penis and wouldn't let go. Your mother told me.
Leonard Hofstadter: Of course she did. When I was ten years old, I made myself a hugging machine.
Penny: A hugging machine?
Leonard Hofstadter: Yeah. I got a dressmaker's mannequin, I stuffed it with an electric blanket so I would be warm, and built two radio-controlled arms that would hug me and pat me on the back.
Penny: That is so sad.
Leonard Hofstadter: You...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #240 A wise man once told me that we are all God in drag. I like that. Sometimes when I'm in a public place or sitting at a stop light, I'll watch people walking by and I'll silently say to myself, "He's God. She's God. He's God. She's God." Before long I always find myself feeling a warm sense of affinity for these strangers. The experience is even more powerful when I do this while observing a person who is clearly suffering. On occasion I'll test my little spiritual practice by turning on Fox News. Within minutes I become an atheist.

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Connections

References Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

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Soundtracks

"Any Way You Want It"
(uncredited)
Written by Steve Perry and Neal Schon
Performed by Christine Baranski and Jim Parsons

User Reviews

The Laugh Frequency

This is easily the funniest episode yet. The LPM (laughs per minute) number is astonishing, boosted greatly by a masterclass stone-face performance by veteran comedienne Christine Baranski, whom most may remember for her role of Maryann Thorpe in "Cybill". The years have not dulled her talent of delivering absolute killer dialog while maintaining a twitch-less face world class poker players would envy. She interacts with the younger talent seamlessly, and together, they create magic. However, after the first ten minutes had passed in a breeze and the commercial break (we only have one during "half-hour" shows here in Finland) started, I began fearing the second half would not be able to maintain the LPM of the first half...

Guess what? It doesn't. And that is not the only problem. This *could* have been a full 10/10, but falls 1 point short because of not only the LPM dropping during the second half, but also for the sequence that starts with Leonard and Penny talking in private, and from there onwards sadly follows every cliché involving main characters whom the viewers want to see ending up together, but the writers keep coming up with excuses to postpone said event in the fear that with "the tension" gone, the show would be ruined. Hasn't anybody seen "Mad About You"? That show lasted 7 seasons (161 episodes) without loosing quality, for crying out loud!

People who rated this 10/10 then don't seem to realize the episode could be better and therefore does not deserve a 10/10. It is *very* hard to pull off a true 10/10 sitcom episode, but it is possible. Perhaps the greatest sitcom ever, the British "Coupling" (of which a limp American remake was made and it predictably failed) managed to pull of more of those than any other show. For peerless, inventive writing and masterful comedic performances, see episodes like "Sex, Death & Nudity" (1.3), "Inferno" (1.4), and "The Cupboard of Patrick's Love" (1.6) - and that's just examples from the *first* season out of four!