The Big Bang Theory aired from September 2007-? on CBS.
Leonard and Sheldon ( Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons) were brilliant physicists, the kind of "beautiful minds" that understood how the universe worked. But none of that genius helped them interact with people, especially women. All this began to change when a free-spirited beauty named Penny ( Kaley Cuoco) moved in next door. Sheldon, Leonard's roommate, was quite content spending his nights playing Klingon Boggle with their socially dysfunctional friends, fellow CalTech scientists Wolowitz and Koothrappali( Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar). However, Leonard saw in Penny a whole new universe of possibilities... including love.
A Review from Variety
The Big Bang Theory
(Series -- CBS, Mon. Sept. 24, 8:30 p.m.)
By BRIAN LOWRY
Taped in Los Angeles by Chuck Lorre Prods. in association with Warner Bros. Television. Executive producers, Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady; producer, Michael Collier; director, James Burrows; writers, Lorre, Prady.
Leonard - Johnny Galecki
Sheldon - Jim Parsons
Penny - Kaley Cuoco
Howard Wolowitz - Simon Helberg
Rajesh Koothrappali - Kunal Nayyar
"The Big Bang Theory" doesn't conjure up many big laughs, but its colliding elements do generate enough little ones to become another promising addition to CBS' Monday sitcom lineup. Less "Revenge of the Nerds" than a grown-up "Malcolm in the Middle," the series boasts appealing leads in Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons and actually builds jokes around the notion of being smart, albeit socially backward. Although CBS hasn't set the world ablaze ratings-wise Mondays beyond "Two and a Half Men," this "Two Men and a Hottie" should fit right in with the more middling successes in that four-stack.
As with "Men," which also comes from producer Chuck Lorre, the premise here is hardly bone-rattling: Two big-brained science types share an apartment, only to have their pristine little world of chalkboards and quantum particles thrown into a tizzy when an attractive blond waitress named Penny ("8 Simple Rules'" Kaley Cuoco) moves in across the hall.
It's hard not to root for a sitcom that employs a "science consultant" and whose heroes are named Sheldon (Parsons) and Leonard (Galecki), who watch the "Battlestar Galactica" DVD commentary, play "Klingon Boggle" and talk bluntly about "masturbating for money," having just visited a sperm bank for high-IQ donors.
For newly single Penny, it's like taking up residence next to "those 'Beautiful Mind' genius guys." Leonard is instantly smitten, whereas Sheldon -- a glass-half-empty type if there ever was one -- can't see a potential relationship ending any way but badly, were one to happen at all.
As directed by James Burrows, there's a sweetness to Sheldon and Leonard's awkwardness, and given a sampling of their friends, they might be the cool ones in the group.
That said, there are some qualms surrounding how long the producers can mine the Leonard-Penny aspect of the show, a shallow vein if there ever was one. More promising is the interaction among the key duo and their Mensa-worthy friends.
Fortunately, Lorre has exhibited an ability to keep unearthing funny bits on "Men" with little more than his cast and a couch-- a welcome reminder that even in the troubled world of TV comedy, good writing and well-defined characters don't require gimmicks or "very special episodes."
As with "How I Met Your Mother," "Big Bang" consciously populates its cast with younger characters, presumably the better to hit the lower half of the 18-49 demo, as CBS gradually tries to "youthify" its profile.
That sounds logical in theory (especially since "Dancing With the Stars" has tango-ed off with part of the older audience), but TV development traditionally adheres to a simpler equation -- the one that states while elaborate formulas look good on paper, sitcom survival generally boils down to the basics of execution.
An Article from USA TODAY
There's a science to CBS' 'Big Bang Theory'
By Gary Strauss, USA TODAY
Revenge of the nerds?
Not quite. But geek heaven abounds on CBS' The Big Bang Theory (tonight, 8:30 ET/PT), one of the rare TV sitcoms to employ a physicist.
The science must be working: The freshman series is one of the fall season's few to gain traction, building audience from its How I Met Your Mother lead-in and averaging about 9 million viewers. CBS has already extended the show for a full season.
Bang's premise is basic fish-out-of-water buddy comedy, with a twist. Physicists/roommates Sheldon and Leonard (an homage to the legendary TV producer) are serenely comfortable in their pocket-protectored lives. But the two come unstrung when comely waitress Penny (Kaley Cuoco) moves in next door. She's no rocket scientist, but the sweet blond bombshell has plenty to teach the naive pair about life.
"Leonard and Sheldon are kind of rock stars in their world of science, but God knows they have a lot of growing to do when it comes to social graces," says Johnny Galecki, who plays Leonard.
But the science gets some attention, too. David Saltzberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California-Los Angeles, checks scripts and provides dialogue, math equations and diagrams used as props. He says he's more consultant than contributor.
"Physicists love to nitpick, so for the 100 in the 10 million people who might watch the show, I try to get it as close to 100% accurate as I can," he says. "But if I try to suggest a funny line, there are all sorts of reasons it doesn't work." He does sometimes slip in an inside joke, though, such as the answers to a UCLA graduate class exam.
"Very often, we'll write a speech and say 'science to come,' " says executive producer Chuck Lorre. "Saltzberg fills it in. He's a terrific guy with a great sense of humor."
The cast also spent time at UCLA hanging with students and faculty, "stealing little bits of mannerisms and wardrobe," says Galecki, best known for playing Sara Gilbert's boyfriend on Roseanne. (Gilbert has a recurring role on Big Bang.)
Jim Parsons, who plays über-geek Sheldon, says spouting the scientific dialogue "can be a major pain in the (posterior). When we tape, I have to make sure I get up an hour earlier than I need to. I sit down with a physics dictionary."
A recent kiss was described as a "bio-social exploration with a neurochemical overlay."
Lorre and co-creator Bill Prady developed Bang off Prady's experiences as a computer programmer in the 1980s. "Bill told me these extraordinary stories about these insanely intelligent men who had unbelievable difficulty operating in the mundane world — geniuses who had trouble figuring out how much to tip a waitress," Lorre says.
Galecki and Parsons concede they're both a bit geekish in real life, qualities that help them relate to their characters. Galecki was largely tutored on-set from the third grade. His scientific knowledge is negligible, he says, but he understands what it's like to be an outsider.
So does Parsons, who was raised in football-crazed Texas but favored theater. Parsons says science isn't his strong suit, either: He once failed a meteorology class.
"None of this works if it's not relatable," he says, "if you don't see a bit of yourself in the characters."
A Review from USA TODAY
'Big Bang Theory' both smart, funny
By Robert Bianco,
USA TODAY
Every sitcom doesn't have to be a work of genius.
Obviously, we'd all like to see another Frasier, Seinfeld or Mary Tyler Moore. But until that happy day arrives, most of us would be content with a show that gives us characters and actors we like, some jokes that make us laugh and a premise that promises to keep the supply coming.
At the moment, no producer is better at filling those needs than Chuck Lorre, creator of Two and a Half Men and co-creator of Bang. He may have a habit of letting his jokes skew toward the vulgar, but he also has a habit of creating laugh-out-loud funny shows with great casts and clear premises — all on display here.
The solid if well-worn setup is that of the beauty among the beasts, or in this case, geeks. Math geniuses Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons) have been content to spend their days in their apartment working on formulas and playing Klingon Boggle. Then Penny (Kaley Cuoco) moves in next door and Leonard invites her over to lunch — and the equation of their lives changes.
If Bang is going to win you over, it will happen soon after that invitation, when Penny plops onto Sheldon's favorite spot on the couch. Everything that works best in Bang is right there: Cuoco's slightly confused, sweetly bemused response; Galecki's mix of longing and exasperation; and Parsons' fresh, show-stopping take on socially out-of-whack brilliance.
As you'd hope for a show about smart people, Bang makes a host of smart decisions, including the introduction of two other characters (Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar) who make Leonard seem suave in comparison. It's also wise enough to turn much of the half-hour over to Parsons, who gets most of the best lines and makes them even better.
To make characters register quickly, pilots tend to draw them with overly broad strokes. Penny could be a tad less ditzy, and it would be nice if the boys used their intelligence to help her, rather than just confuse her. While Galecki is a fine actor, it doesn't feel like he has quite found his character yet — some of his choices are a bit too creepy to support a long run.
Still, here's another of Lorre's habits: His shows tend to get better after the pilot. This may not be the sitcom breakthrough for which we've all been hoping, but Lorre has produced a first episode that leaves you eager to try the second.
These days, maybe that does count as genius.
A Review from Seattlepi.com
The Big Bang Theory" hits CBS Monday nights
You have no doubt read about CBS's desire to create "buzz" this fall. This week we get a few examples of what ol' Tiffany's definition of buzzworthy, cutting-edge programming happens to be. But Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre's new comedy, "The Big Bang Theory," does not belong in that number.
"Big Bang Theory" airs Mondays at 8:30 on CBS (KIRO/7), and it's exactly what you'd expect from the network's Monday night comedy block.
If you're in the habit of spending your Monday nights with CBS's efficient comedies, the brainy banter in "Big Bang Theory," delivered with the speed and precision of a coked-up kingpin firing his favorite automatic weapon, will suit you just fine.
But this sitcom probably won't make other people go looking for it except in times of need, which is fine. In the same way "Two and a Half Men" is easy to drop in on every so often because it can always be relied upon for a laugh, "Big Bang Theory" looks like it'll grow into a solid occasional diversion for the rest of us.
Truly Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons) are a comedy duo for the Microsoft age, physicists and geniuses in a world that seems to be getting dumber and more difficult to navigate with each passing day. The appearance of a new neighbor named Penny (Kaley Cuoco), who happens to be hot, friendly and considerably dimmer than Leonard and Sheldon, upsets the delicate biosphere they've created in their apartment.
Sheldon attempts to keep Leonard tethered to reality, reminding his pal at every opportunity the producers can shove in there that Penny is and never will be a realistic romantic option. But their wingmen, Howard (Simon Helberg) and Rajesh (Kunal Nayyar), give him hope. Howard awkwardly hits on Penny at every turn, making Leonard look like a veritable Romeo, while Rajesh can't even bring himself to look at her.
Within minutes of meeting the guys, this waitress at the Cheesecake Factory (writing a screenplay about ... take a wild guess!) is asking them if she can shower in their apartment, giving them an opportunity to see her in nothing but a towel. This is after an awkward trip to a sperm bank for geniuses that, glory be, sets up this fantabulous exchange.
Penny: "So, what do you guys do for fun around here?"
Sheldon: "Well, today we tried masturbating for money."
Wow! Not only are the characters geniuses, so is the level of creativity that goes into the script!
Granted, don't expect things from "Big Bang Theory" and you'll enjoy it. This is a comedy that does what it's supposed to do, which is to make you smile and giggle at the appropriate points. Be that as it may, the pilot never ascends beyond the level of being cute and nice.
Maybe that's enough for you. There's something to be said for easy laughter on a Monday night. Still, you also may wish the writers spread the jokes around more evenly, perhaps giving Cuoco a little more to do than smile sweetly and look confused when the guys start talking about alternate universes and using strange terms such as "parallax distortion."
The setup is so simple that The WB has already done it's take on it -- geeks meet beauty, touching off inadvertently comical situations (except, of course, that in this case they're meticulously planned and intentional) and a period of emotional growth. Lorre once and again demonstrates his talent for loading his script with withering one-liners, usually delivered by Sheldon.
Parsons plays his part to deadpan perfection, always ready with the perfect ka-BOOM smackdown to dash the hopes of Leonard, the more optimistic of the two. Leonard is a single guy who just wants to have a life outside of his small circle of Klingon Boggle champions, whereas Sheldon, more than being resigned to his fate, embraces it.
His combination of anal retentiveness and bitterness carries the show. However, that's quite a load for one actor to shoulder in what is supposed to be an ensemble comedy. One also wishes there was more kindness in the show, both to Cuoco's character and to these guys. The geniuses never flog Penny with their intellect, but neither does she give them much in the way of proof that anything substantial percolates beneath that kind veneer.
Provided the ratings aren't too terribly shabby (they'd have to be worse than "The Class," which crawled through an entire season before getting axed), CBS is likely to give "Big Bang Theory" and its producers time to perfect the formula. And while it's unlikely to be a great leap forward for the sitcom genre, odds are it'll keep the Monday night block chugging along.
From TV Entertainment Week in Review
September 25, 2007
The Big Bang Theory: Series Premiere
By Sally Cohen-Cutler
In the world of the sitcom, it's a rare animal that favors intelligent humor over slapstick stupidity. However, it is an even more odd duck that can balance the two to make a happy combination of silly and smart. Though not perfectly, The Big Bang Theory approximates this equilibrium and comes up with a cute and totally laughable new TV series.
The premiere episode opens up with an overtly lowbrow humor setup - two awkward and overly intellectualized nerds at a high IQ sperm bank. Though the dialogue between Leonard and Sheldon does not exactly take the high road, they still manage to simultaneously slip in jokes about differentials and integrals. As I chuckled at the same crack that my calculus professor might have made in my 9 AM class the day before, I also realized that you didn't need to know what the boys were talking about to find their back and forth amusing.
That's the beauty of The Big Bang Theory. As a college student studying all the nerdy concepts the boys harp on, their jokes are funny to me because they're so close to home. But the same super dorky attitude cracks a high school jock up, for an obvious reason: nerds are easy to laugh at. But Leonard and Sheldon's confidence about their excess smarts and their completely believable odd couple chemistry makes laughing at them feel okay. It's almost as though they know how absurd they are, but they're oddly proud of it.
Case in point, when the boys come back from their ill-fated sperm bank journey, they invite over their pretty new neighbor, Penny. In doing so, they manage to awkwardly imply that they're a gay couple, discuss the laxative qualities of Indian food, and show Penny their respective "white boards" of work. As they squabble over whose research is more important and impressive, the show slips in more jokes about string theory that have the same double punchline - the actual jokes about strings theory's multiple universes and the underlying joke that they're actually fighting about string theory.
And if you felt bad about laughing about the uber-dorks, you can also laugh at the ditzy archetype, Penny, who apparently doesn't understand the implications of walking out of a bathroom in a towel. She's a screenwriter, writing a story that's suspiciously close to her own fairly dull life, but in her day hours, she works as a hostess at the Cheesecake Factory. Played innocently and moreover, sweetly, by Kaley Cuoco, Penny's character only works because she doesn't seem to have a mean bone in her body. She doesn't take advantage of Leonard and Sheldon, though she certainly could, but rather treats them as new friends. When she asks them to do her a favor by picking up her TV from her ex-boyfriend's, she feels so terrible about the outcome that she takes them and all their friends out to dinner.
That's right, Penny willingly puts up with Leonard and Sheldon's friends, the group of boys who come over to play Klingon boggle and watch taped lectures of Stephen Hawking. Wolowitz, a red turtlenecked dork who looks like he belongs in a bad 80's movie, attempts to woo Penny with his multiple language knowledge, while Koothrappall is forced to ignore her. Because he doesn't speak to girls. Ever.
When Leonard and Sheldon return both pantsless and TV-less from a harrowing experience with Penny's ex-boyfriend, they find her being asked out on an online quest by Wolowitz. The scene is so absurd and silly, but even funnier because of the kid you do know who would think a girl could be wooed by an online "pad" that he designed all by himself. And if Wolowitz was just a little bit smoother, he would be that smarmy guy who sleeps with everyone. Except that he's a huge dork, and goes for Penny by explaining how to kick back while engaged in an online quest. Meanwhile, in the opposite direction of humor, Leonard and Sheldon stand in the doorway with no pants.
The nuances of The Big Bang Theory help it rise above common sitcom status. The boys, their friends, and all their quirks all play off of Penny with humor and good-natured wit. While they could really use to lose the laugh track, the laughs coming from the other side of the television were definitely genuine on my part.
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