Talk:Howard Wolowitz
New TBBT character articles
I'm in the midst of creating the new articles for the main TBBT characters, as was discussed briefly on the "List of TBBT characters" talk page previously. I have a limited time to work with at the moment, and after my edits there are still a lot of cite errors on the new articles due to cites not being complete (as they were simply copied from the original article). I will continue to fix these issues later today into tomorrow, but in the meantime welcome all other users to assist in the transition.
The original article, List of characters in The Big Bang Theory, can either be merged into The Big Bang Theory, or better yet, changed to incorporate the new articles (i.e., the full descriptions are removed in favor of shorter descriptions, and the list of secondary/tertiary characters remains. I recommend the latter, which I will do upon return to editing tomorrow. Thanks. — `CRAZY`(lN)`SANE` 17:36, 14 March 2009 (UTC)
Restructuring the article: new sections
The articles of the main characters, Leonard Hofstadter, Sheldon Cooper, Penny (The Big Bang Theory), Howard Wolowitz, and Rajesh Koothrappali, are growing in size but without a proper structure. I propose creating standard sections in which to put information: Personality, Family, Work, and Relationships. I believe the show centers mostly around these topics, so the information would fit nicely. I'm not saying these are the only sections that will ever be used, but they are a good start; perhaps they will need to be modified in the future. Also, let's keep the content complete but encyclopedic; there is no need for an indiscriminate collection of information. 189.175.178.189 (talk) 15:42, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
Referencing episodes
I suggest using this format to reference the episodes
<ref name="S01E01">{{Cite episode |title=Pilot |episodelink=List of The Big Bang Theory episodes#ep1 |series=The Big Bang Theory |serieslink=The Big Bang Theory |airdate=September 24, 2007 |season=1 |number=1}}</ref>
as suggested in Template:Cite episode.
The "episodelink" field includes the link to the appropriate episode in this way List of The Big Bang Theory Episodes#ep1. The number in "#ep1" refers to the continuous episode number in the series, not within a season. For example, The Griffin Equivalence is episode 4 of season 2, but it is referenced as List of The Big Bang Theory Episodes#ep21.
The citation in the actual article may very well be in "horizontal" format.
<ref name="S01E01">{{Cite episode|title=Pilot|episodelink=... etc.
This has already been implemented in List of characters in The Big Bang Theory. 189.175.178.189 (talk) 15:42, 22 December 2009 (UTC)
Howard's proficiency in languages
Although in the show Howard has mentioned to speak fluently 5 languages (in the Pilot he mentions French, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic, and Persian), the show writers haven't explored much his proficiency.
In The Dumpling Paradox (Season 01, Episode 07, see List of The Big Bang Theory episodes#ep7), when Leonard, Sheldon, and Raj went to their usual Chinese restaurant, the waiter referred to Howard as "their annoying friend who thinks he can speak Mandarin".
In another episode (I'm not sure which), Howard addressed Penny in Russian but, according to some people, he had a really bad pronunciation.
In The Jiminy Conjecture (Season 03, Episode 02, see List of The Big Bang Theory episodes#ep42) Howard also mentions having studied Latin.
These events may suggest that Howard's status on languages is not clear, and that he may not be fluent in the languages he mentions, however this is not a definite proof.
Right now the accepted principle is that the fictional character Howard is fluent in 5 languages, and 6 if the fictional Klingon language is included, as mentioned in The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary (Season 03, Episode 05, see List of The Big Bang Theory episodes#ep45).
I only want to point this out so that editors of the Howard Wolowitz article don't arbitrarily change the text to say that Howard speaks or doesn't speak correctly a certain language based on small errors in the show. Remember that Howard is a fictional character, so within the fiction he may be fluent, no matter what we think about him as spectators.
If somebody wants to write "Howard is not fluent in Russian" a reference to the episode where this was stated within the fiction, or a reference to an interview with the show creators or writers acknowledging this is necessary. Otherwise, it's just unverifiable content. 189.235.132.118 (talk) 22:56, 25 December 2009 (UTC)