The Big Bang Theory

For the cosmological model, see Big Bang.

The Big Bang Theory
File:BigBangTheoryTitleCard.png The Big Bang Theory Title Card
Created by	Chuck Lorre Bill Prady
Starring	Johnny Galecki Jim Parsons Kaley Cuoco Simon Helberg Kunal Nayyar
Opening theme	"The Big Bang Theory" by Barenaked Ladies
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Chuck Lorre Bill Prady Lee Aronsohn
Producers	Steve Molaro Mike Collier Faye Oshima Belyeu
Editor	Peter Chakos
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	22 minutes (Without Commercials) 30 Minutes (With Commercials)
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	September 24, 2007 – present

The Big Bang Theory is an American comedy series created and executive produced by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. The pilot was directed by James Burrows.

Produced by Warner Bros. Television and Chuck Lorre Productions, the series was greenlit and given a thirteen-episode order on May 14 2007. It premiered on September 24 2007 on CBS. The show is also broadcast in Canada on A-Channel, in India on Zee Cafe, and in Latin America on Warner Channel. It will also be broadcast in the United Kingdom on Channel 4 and in Australia on the Nine Network..

The series is about two socially inept prodigies in their 20s who are living across the hall from a beautiful girl with a questionable intellect. When one genius falls for the girl, the other tries to discourage his interest because he believes his friend is chasing a dream he'll never catch.

On October 19 2007 the show was picked-up for a full 22 episode season, the first comedy of the 2007/08 season.

Production on the show was halted on November 6, 2007 due to the 2007 Writers' Strike.

Les Moonves, President of CBS, announced on December 4, 2007 that The Big Bang Theory will be renewed for a second season (2008-2009) along with fellow freshmen drama Moonlight.

Cast

• Johnny Galecki as Leonard Leakey Hofstadter
• Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper
• Kaley Cuoco as Penny
• Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitz
• Kunal Nayyar as Rajesh Koothrappali

Notes

Several of Johnny Galecki's co-stars from his previous sitcom, Roseanne, guest star in the series, including Sara Gilbert as Leonard's secondary love interest (a similar role to the one she played on Roseanne) and Laurie Metcalf as Sheldon's mother.

The sitcom itself takes place in Pasadena, California, but the audience very rarely sees the characters venture outside of the apartment building. Most of the action takes place in Leonard and Sheldon's apartment, Penny's apartment, the hallway adjoining the two apartments, the staircases leading up to and above the hallway, and the lobby of the apartment building. It seems that the elevator is always out of order and that whenever we see Leonard and Sheldon traveling from outside their building to inside their apartment, the audience is able to see them as they walk up three flights of stairs. Also, the white boards that Sheldon and Leonard use for jotting down scientific theories and hypotheses hang in their apartment and have different information on them in each episode.

The show was criticized very early on for its presumed use of canned laughter, though the show is taped in front of a live studio audience.

The character names Sheldon and Leonard are a tip of the hat to classic TV producer and actor Sheldon Leonard, who was involved with The Dick Van Dyke Show, I Spy, and many others. Sheldon Leonard is best known onscreen for his gangster role in Guys and Dolls.

The dynamic between Sheldon and Leonard also harkens back to Neil Simon's The Odd Couple.

Theme Song

The band Barenaked Ladies sing the theme song, "The History of Everything", which describes the progress the human race has made since the dawn of time. During the theme, visual illustrations of such progress are shown and as the last line of the theme is played, it cuts to a scene of Leonard, Sheldon, Howard Wolowitz, and Rajesh Koothrappali gathered around Penny while they eat take-out, with the title card superimposed over them.

On October 9, 2007 the Barenaked Ladies released a full length (1 minute 45 seconds) version of the song.

Characters

Main Characters

Leonard Hofstadter, PhD

Leonard Hofstadter
''The Big Bang Theory'' character
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Chuck Lorre Bill Prady
Portrayed by	Johnny Galecki
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Title	Leonard Hofstadter, PhD
Occupation	Physicist
Nationality	American

Leonard is a physicist from Caltech who rooms with Sheldon in their rundown apartment building, in which the elevator always seems to be out of order. He keeps a whiteboard in their living room on which he works on theoretical physics. While Sheldon's genius seems to be focused primarily in math and science, Leonard is insinuated to be proficient in literature and history as well as the sciences; he is able to solve a woman's crossword puzzle in seconds, the answers being mostly literature based, e.g. Vladimir Nabokov. It is also insinuated that Leonard's IQ is not as high as Sheldon's; Sheldon scoffs at Leonard's whiteboard theories as common enough to be "scribbled on the wall of every men's room at MIT." Almost all the equations on Leonard and Sheldon's boards are not real mathematical equations, as most of them are too simple and make no real physical sense. Leonard feels at home with his genius colleagues, but wants more socially. He is reluctant to let Penny know about his recreational activities (such as Klingon Boggle) and is probably reluctant to even partake in such activities in the first place, because although he secretly likes them, he doesn't like to be seen as a nerd. He also dislikes his friends' habit of rattling off different trivial facts, something to which all the other geniuses enjoy both listening and participating. Sweet but sarcastic, Leonard also seems to be the most well-adjusted one of the group; he is quick to try new things apart from his nerd friends and, between Sheldon and him, is the only one who feels that he "should do something" when Penny begins to recount her recent breakup. Despite his attempts to reject his nerd status, he certainly is one, with his Star Wars hygiene products and his ability to blurt out the wrong things in front of women, such as when he's trying to invite Penny to lunch and mentions that curry is a natural laxative. He falls head over heels for Penny within seconds of spotting her and while at first it seems like lust rather than love, by the end of the pilot episode he has already announced to Sheldon, "our babies will be smart and beautiful." Sheldon, however, is quick to add, "not to mention imaginary."

Sheldon Cooper, PhD

Sheldon Cooper
''The Big Bang Theory'' character
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Chuck Lorre Bill Prady
Portrayed by	Jim Parsons
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Title	Sheldon Cooper MSc, PhD
Occupation	Physicist
Family	Mary Cooper (Mother)
Nationality	American

Sheldon is Leonard's best friend, roommate, and colleague, who appears to have Asperger Syndrome and obsessive compulsive disorder. He's a physicist like Leonard and also keeps a whiteboard in the living room for scientific theories and has a Master's degree and 2 PHD's. Unlike Leonard, he embraces his genius fully and doesn't mind sharing details of his life that Leonard finds embarrassing, such as their main weekend activity being Klingon Boggle tournaments until 1 AM. It's insinuated that Sheldon's genius is concentrated fully on science and that his IQ is higher than Leonard's; he tends to question Leonard's theories and has a larger background full of behavior common to child prodigies. When he was a child, he conducted experiments involving the height of stairs and deduced that if a step on a staircase is 2 millimeters off or more, a person is always likely to trip (this resulted in his father breaking his clavicle). At age 14, he dabbled in lasers and this resulted in his being sent to boarding school; it is heavily implied in a CBS promotional clip that the government took Sheldon's laser away and hushed the college professor who witnessed the experiment. Sheldon graduated high school very early; he asks Penny, in complete disbelief, "It took you four years to get through high school?!" He told Penny he was eleven years old when he was going to college. Sheldon also has common qualities associated with being a prodigy, such as an inflated ego, social ineptness, and an inability to identify emotionally with others. He fails to understand not only the simplest sarcastic jokes made by Leonard, but also regards Penny's sadness over her break up with blatant disgust. That isn't to say Sheldon doesn't have a conscience; he's simply more likely to do what's scientifically ethical (not donate to a "high IQ sperm bank" because his sperm won't guarantee high IQ offspring) rather than morally and socially ethical (break into Penny's home to organize her things). Sheldon also remains unswayed by Penny's beauty. He sneaks in during the night and cleans it up because he can't stand being in the same hallway with something so disastrous. Also, he refuses to sit anywhere other than his designated spot on the couch. He is calculating and cynical, believing that Leonard is only setting himself up for disappointment as he continues to crush on Penny.

Penny

Penny
''The Big Bang Theory'' character
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Chuck Lorre Bill Prady
Portrayed by	Kaley Cuoco
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Waitress at The Cheesecake Factory
Nationality	American

Penny is Leonard and Sheldon's new neighbor across the hallway and is, as described by Wolowitz, a "cheesecake-scented goddess." This description is fairly accurate, considering Penny is a waitress at the local The Cheesecake Factory. She is also writing a movie about a girl from Lincoln, Nebraska, who travels to Los Angeles to become an actress but ends up working at the Cheesecake Factory instead. When Leonard asks if the movie is autobiographical, she replies no because she's from Omaha, Nebraska. The reason Penny is in the apartment building in the first place is because she recently split with her boyfriend of four years, Kurt, and was thrown out of their place. She says she still loves him but wants custody of their television set. The shower in her apartment is currently broken, much to Leonard and Sheldon's friends' delight (she now uses Leonard and Sheldon's shower and tends to wear nothing but a towel). She's either ignorant of or all too aware of her effect on the boys, because within minutes of meeting them, she asks Leonard to retrieve her television set from her ex-boyfriend's apartment, which he immediately sets out to do. It is not known if Penny returns Leonard's affections. It is rather clear, however, that she at least seems to enjoy Leonard's company, and rather dislikes Sheldon. She is messy and disorganized but appears to like it that way. Whenever Penny goes on a rebound relationship, she picks up an attractive man and then has 36 hours of meaningless sex over the course of a weekend; afterward, the relationship deteriorates.

Supporting Cast

Howard Wolowitz

Howard Wolowitz
''The Big Bang Theory'' character
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Chuck Lorre Bill Prady
Portrayed by	Simon Helberg
In-universe information
Nickname	Wolowitz
Gender	Male
Religion	Jewish
Nationality	American

Wolowitz is faculty at Caltech's Department of Applied Physics who often hangs out at Leonard and Sheldon's apartment. He designed a satellite that is currently orbiting a moon of Jupiter taking high-res photos. He doesn't show signs of discontentment like Leonard, but rather is confident enough to try to woo Penny with his knowledge of languages, of which he knows six. Most of the languages were revealed in only the matter of one episode; in revealed order, they are English, French, Mandarin, Russian, Arabic, and Farsi. Hitting on Penny in different tongues has become a regular occurrence; one which angers Leonard greatly. Wolowitz also knows Klingon because as Sheldon stated, they all played Klingon Boggle together.

• Wolowitz is a fan of Stephen Hawking and likes to watch tapes of his lectures, preferably ones prior to 1985, "before he became a 'creepy' computer voice" (Hawking lost his voice due to a tracheotomy performed after a life-threatening bout of pneumonia and now communicates using a voice synthesizer).
• Wolowitz may not be as competent a polyglot as he believes. In The Dumpling Paradox a waiter at a Chinese restaurant, speaking to Leonard, Sheldon and Rajesh, refers to Wolowitz as "your annoying little friend who thinks he speaks Mandarin."
• Wolowitz spends a large amount of time playing MMORPGs like World of Warcraft, where he plays a night elf hunter with a pet tiger named Buttons.

Rajesh Koothrappali

Rajesh Koothrappali
''The Big Bang Theory'' character
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Chuck Lorre Bill Prady
Portrayed by	Kunal Nayyar
In-universe information
Nickname	Raj
Gender	Male
Family	Dr. V. M. Koothrappali (Father) Mrs. Koothrappali (Mother)
Nationality	Indian

Koothrappali is Wolowitz's best friend and yet another genius. He has a thick Indian accent and, like Wolowitz, a love for Stephen Hawking. He approaches women in the exact opposite way of Wolowitz: he is so shy that he is unable to speak to them. His social anxiety around women seems to be indicative of selective mutism. When Penny speaks to him, he voices a lengthy inner monologue, sometimes reminiscing of his native customs and even singing.

Secondary Cast

Kurt (Brian Wade) (two episodes): Kurt is Penny's ex-boyfriend. He is a typical intimidating bully and not only has custody of his and Penny's old apartment, but their old television set as well, which Penny wants very badly. When Leonard and Sheldon try to retrieve the TV for her, he takes their pants and forces them to go home pantless. Penny left him because he cheated on her.

Leslie Winkle (Sara Gilbert) (two episodes): Leslie is another physicist who works in the same lab as Leonard. Leonard tries to ask her out because he considers her to be in his league (indeed, she is his female equivalent, glasses and all) and they decide to kiss to see if they have chemistry. Leslie feels no sparks and no date occurs. Leslie usually doesn't shave her legs and only started recently to imply sexual availability. She eventually responds to his advances and the two engage in sexual intercouse, but she reveals that she only desires sex infrequently while distracted by a difficult project and subsequently dumps him. Leslie plays the violin in a string quartet.

Mary Cooper (Laurie Metcalf) (one episode): Mary is Sheldon's long suffering Southern mother. She has given birth to two children besides Sheldon, both apparently Sheldon's intellectual opposites, who are, "... dumb as soup." As Mary describes them. Mary herself isn't book smart but is very wise; she appears to be an extremely good mother and is the only one who has ever been able to control Sheldon (besides the government). She is a very religious Christian. Sheldon's father has long since passed on and he is mentioned as being incredibly foolish.

Episodes

Further information: [[:List of The Big Bang Theory Episodes]]

U.S. Television Ratings

Standard Ratings

In the following summary, "rating" is the percentage of all households with televisions that tuned to the show, and "share" is the percentage of all televisions in use at that time that are tuned in. "18-49" is the percentage of all adults aged 18-49 tuned into the show. "Viewers" are the number of viewers, in million, watching at the time. "Rank" how well the show did compared to other TV shows aired that week.

Unless otherwise cited, the overnight rating, share, 18-49 and viewing information come from Your Entertainment Now. The weekly ranks come from The Programming Insider, unless otherwise referenced.

2007–2008 (Mondays 8:30PM)

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating	Share	18-49	Viewers	Weekly Rank
1	"Pilot"	September 24, 2007	6.0	9	3.7/9 (#3)	9.57 (#3)	#37
2	"The Big Bran Hypothesis"	October 1, 2007	5.5	8	3.4/8 (#2)	8.58 (#2)	#44
3	"The Fuzzy Boots Corollary"	October 8, 2007	5.3	8	3.4 (#2)	8.36 (#2)	#44
4	"The Luminous Fish Effect"	October 15, 2007	5.4	8	3.2/8 (#3)	8.15 (#4)	#49
5	"The Hamburger Postulate"	October 22, 2007	5.6	8	3.5/9 (#2)	8.72 (#2)	#44
6	"The Middle-Earth Paradigm"	October 29, 2007	5.7	8	3.6/9 (#2)	8.92 (#2)	#45
7	"The Dumpling Paradox"	November 5, 2007	6.1	9	3.8/9 (#2)	9.67 (#2)	#38
8	"The Grasshopper Experiment"	November 12, 2007	5.9	9	3.8/9 (#2)	9.39 (#2)	#36

Ratings Competition

Further information: [[:Mondays in the 2007-08 Television Season]]

The Big Bang Theory currently airs against fellow freshmen shows Chuck on NBC and Aliens in America on The CW. It also airs against Prison Break on FOX and the top rated show on ABC, Dancing with the Stars.

External links

• CBS.com - official site
• "The Big Bang Theory" Fan Site
• Videos related to "The Big Bang Theory"
• Videos on YouTube
• French Fan Site