The Big Bang Theory 

A woman who moves into an apartment across the hall from two brilliant but socially awkward physicists shows them how little they know about life outside of the laboratory.

Creators:

Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady

Stars:

Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco

Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 66 wins & 222 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Johnny Galecki	...	Leonard Hofstadter 256 episodes, 2006-2018
Jim Parsons	...	Sheldon Cooper 256 episodes, 2006-2018
Kaley Cuoco	...	Penny / ... 255 episodes, 2007-2018
Simon Helberg	...	Howard Wolowitz 255 episodes, 2007-2018
Kunal Nayyar	...	Raj Koothrappali 255 episodes, 2007-2018
Melissa Rauch	...	Bernadette Rostenkowski 185 episodes, 2009-2018
Mayim Bialik	...	Amy Farrah Fowler 179 episodes, 2010-2018

Storyline

Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper are both brilliant physicists working at Cal Tech in Pasadena, California. They are colleagues, best friends, and roommates, although in all capacities their relationship is always tested primarily by Sheldon's regimented, deeply eccentric, and non-conventional ways. They are also friends with their Cal Tech colleagues mechanical engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Rajesh Koothrappali. The foursome spend their time working on their individual work projects, playing video games, watching science-fiction movies, or reading comic books. As they are self-professed nerds, all have little or no luck with women. When Penny, a pretty woman and an aspiring actress from Omaha, moves into the apartment across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon's, Leonard has another aspiration in life, namely to get Penny to be his girlfriend.

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Plot Keywords:

friend | best friend | neighbor | nerd | sitcom | 

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Taglines:

When beauty meets the brains.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Official Sites:

CBS [United States] Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English Hindi Italian Russian Mandarin Klingon

Release Date:

1 May 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

TBBT

Filming Locations:

Stage 25, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Chuck Lorre Productions, Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

22 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

The name Hofstader was used before by Chuck Lorre, in episode 2.21, Dharma & Greg: It Never Happened One Night (1999), of Dharma & Greg (1997), where Kitty Montgomery, played by Susan Sullivan, receives the "Hofstader award".

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Goofs

In numerous episodes, Sheldon is heard to use the phrase "off of". Example - You get OFF a bus, not OFF OF. This is grammatically incorrect, and as such, would never be used by Sheldon Lee Cooper and his eidetic memory.

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Quotes

Leonard Hofstadter: [after a motorcycle accident, which no one asks him about] My leg is killing me, thanks for asking.

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Crazy Credits

One of the final cards to appear in the credit sequence is the vanity card for Chuck Lorre Productions. In keeping with his practice on "Dharma and Greg" and "Two and a Half Men", there is a different message on the card each week, written by Chuck Lorre himself.

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Connections

Referenced in Chelsea Lately: Episode #8.17 (2014)

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Soundtracks

History of Everything (The Big Bang Theory Theme)
Music & lyrics by Barenaked Ladies
Performed by Barenaked Ladies
Played during the opening titles

User Reviews

Another Heads and Tails

It's The Simpsons Syndrome all over again: a show that was great in the earlier seasons (in this case, primarily Season 1-3, which I rate as among the greatest put to television), entered a steady decline, and then jumped the shark. It's no great mystery; money has once again corrupted something good.

Like with the Simpsons, the show started off with a very solid base and great writing. It had to be well written in order for it to succeed. But as soon as it became a hit, the problems started. The first thing that happened was multiple guest appearances, largely for no practical or logical in-show reason (The Simpsons ring a bell?), which was then followed by changes in the writing to reach out to as many people as possible—demographics. You see, as soon as a show, or computer game franchise, or ANYTHING becomes famous enough, it can start branching out to more people in pursuit of more money. To do this, things have to change and, usually, these changes are for the worse. Greed gets in the way nearly every time.

In the case of TBBT, the changes were mainly designed to attract more female viewers.

The show's primary audience was originally sci-fi fans and technically minded people interested in science. News flash: that generally is not women. The show was funny because it had interactions between three desperate geeks, a genius with serious social problems, and their total opposite— a gorgeous female neighbour named Penny, who works at the Cheesecake Factory. A lot of people, male and female, enjoyed this dynamic, and there was a cleverness to the writing throughout. People more 'nerd' (a stupid word that insinuates being intelligent is a bad thing) oriented could understand the clever science references, as well.

That's all gone now. Beginning mainly Season 4 (although there were some silly individual moments beforehand), the show swamped the audience with brain-dead relationship story-lines, which a lot of women, sadly, find appealing. Also, dumb and relentless sexual references became the norm (in one scene, I kid you not, a main character goes to the bathroom to 'use her toothbrush'). 'Friends'-type crap is not what made TBBT great, but the writers don't care anymore. They want more money (and that includes the greedy cast. Look it up!). Sadly, like with The Simpsons, the show had no ending in mind when it started. There was no plan. Instead of a show that lasts a few seasons and has a respectable ending, we've got The Simpsons again—a show that just keeps on going, with no goal in sight, and with increasingly inferior writing to boot. I gave up with TBBT at the start of Season 9. Up until then, it was at least watchable. Now it's crossed over into insulting. The characters aren't even behaving remotely like they were in the first seasons, and the writers are waving a magic wand whenever they feel like it; for example, two of the main characters go from menial jobs to massive success in a very short period of time. But it doesn't matter, see. For every intelligent person that drops out, two status-quo loving, unimaginable dumb-asses have already taken their place.

This pattern happens an awful lot; there is nothing you can do except vote with your feet and watch the earlier seasons instead. It's sad that the characters were not done justice, all through the want of money instead of art. The show has become lazy, thick, and, even worse, predictable. It's over.