The Big Bang Theory TV Show

The Big Bang Theory TV Show is best television show, Klingon Boggle, and a 1974 Stephen Hawking lecture are all mentioned in The Big Bang Theory premiere. They have one other trait in common, too: They’re all more pleasurable ways of spending your time than this lamebrained sitcom.

Leonard (Roseanne’s Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons) are nerdy physicists whose fingers seem to have left their noses just moments ago. Across the hall is Penny (8 Simple Rules’ Kaley Cuoco), a blond bimbo who doffs her clothes in the first 15 minutes of the pilot and works at the Cheesecake Factory — the mere mention of her career choice is apparently guffaw-worthy, according to the laugh track. Throw in Leonard’s Beauty and the Geek crush on Penny and you’ve pretty much got the premise. To call this a one-joke sitcom would be a stretch.

Even if you’re not sensitive to Cheesecake Factory barbs, there’s not much to like here. The dialogue — ”I can’t look at you or your avatar right now” — falls flat. A few episodes in, the writers are already performing acrobatics with the script in order to get Penny and the dorkasauruses to mouth-breathe the same air. As for the plotting (Sheldon insults his boss, Sheldon is fired, Sheldon is rehired), let’s just say you don’t need an advanced degree to follow it.

The cast is apt enough; Parsons, in particular, does a nice take on Frasier’s Niles. But overall, Leonard and Sheldon earn a grade they’ve probably never seen before.

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.

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Some of the most provocative writing on broadcast television can be found on CBS on Monday nights. It airs for a combined duration of about two seconds.

The writing comes in the form of what many in the industry call “vanity cards” - an image flashed on the screen at the end of a TV show. Usually, the cards just identify a show’s creator or production company. But Chuck Lorre - a writer and executive producer of the sitcoms “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory” - uses the airtime as a public diary.

Shown at about 8:29 p.m. and 9:29 p.m. Eastern time, his Chuck Lorre Productions vanity cards feature an essay - usually about 100 to 200 words - on subjects such as meddling network executives, Hollywood culture and his own family drama. The messages can’t be read in full as they air, because they’re shown so briefly, but they can be read by viewers who have DVR technology with a pause button on their remote control. The cards have attracted a cult following, as well as the attention of network executives.

In one recent message, the 55-year-old Lorre wrote: “I received a phone call from a mid-level CBS exec who began the conversation by saying he wanted to give me a head’s up. Having been in this business a while I knew ‘head’s up’ is code for ‘we’ve decided to s- you.’ ”

In a message to his late father, Lorre wrote, “I want to apologize for despising you for reasons I still don’t understand.”

Another card says: “Don’t hug men while shaking their hand. Enough already with that. The shake/hug (shug?) is probably something Roman guys did when their empire was in decline.”

Lorre says, “My vanity cards are like liner notes on an album.”

The network reviews each one before it airs, and has censored three of the last 40 cards. A CBS spokesman said those cards “didn’t meet our broadcast standards,” but declined to be more specific.

The hand admits to being a bit sore. “I get a kick out of most of - most of - what he does at the end of the show,” says Leslie Moonves, president and chief executive of CBS Corp. “If someone wants to give me two hit television shows, they won’t hear from me - except for when I’m going to get in trouble with the FCC.”

Lorre has brought the network success. “Two and a Half Men,” starring Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer, is the highest-rated sitcom on television this season, attracting an average of 12.9 million viewers per episode, according to Nielsen Co. His newcomer, “The Big Bang Theory,” attracts an average of 8 million viewers.

Last week CBS presented its lineup of new and returning programming to advertisers and reporters.

A CBS spokesman says both of Lorre’s shows will return.

Two nerds move in next door to a hot chick and mirth ensues. It sounds like the idea for a bad sitcom. And you know what? You’re right! Or half right, anyway. The Big Bang Theory is a sitcom, but it’s actually not half bad.

Tonight’s repeat, from March, shows what a sitcom can do when it doesn’t overreach its flimsy premise and, more important, remembers to bring the funny.

The plot is typical sitcom fluff: Penny, the attractive single-next-door played with a tricky combination of naïveté and hard-as-nails emotional smarts by Kaley Cuoco, wants her new friends to hear her sing in a low-rent production of Rent.

Sheldon, the uptight physics geek played with an almost frightening intensity by Jim Parsons, and Leonard, the carefree physics geek played by Johnny Galecki, will do almost anything to get out of what they know will be a horrific evening (”If cats could sing,” Sheldon says of Penny’s voice, “they’d hate it, too”).

They come up with a simple plan: lie, and when that doesn’t work, lie again.

A complicated lie is an old TV comedy gambit, of course, but in the hands of series creators Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn, who wrote the script for tonight’s episode, there’s nothing old about it. (CBS, 8 p.m.)

Taken, Leslie Bohem and Steven Spielberg’s sprawling 10-part generational miniseries about three families’ encounters with extraterrestrial beings, gets a fresh airing on Space. Don’t assume it’s only for sci-fi geeks: there are moments of real human drama here. And yes, that’s Dakota Fanning as the pint-sized tyke with special abilities who appears in later episodes. (Space, 9 p.m.)

You’ve no doubt heard of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but have you heard of Mr. & Mrs. bin Laden? Yes, it’s true. Tonight’s Passionate Eye documentary profiles the curious marriage between the fourth son of Osama bin Laden and a British granny and five-time divorcee twice his age. If they really are a sleeper cell, their secret is out. (CBC Newsworld, 10 p.m.)

For “The Big Bang Theory,” exec producer Chuck Lorre knew what he had in actor Johnny Galecki. The two worked together on “Roseanne” in the early ’90s.

What startled him, however, was how seamlessly relative newcomer Jim Parsons handled the science-heavy dialogue while at the same time hitting all his comedy beats.

“The first time he auditioned, he was so startlingly good, I needed for him to come back again,” Lorre explains. “I had to see it wasn’t a fluke.”

Lorre, who exec produces with Bill Prady, has been around sitcoms for much of his professional life, working with folks such as Brett Butler (“Grace Under Fire”) and Cybill Shepherd (“Cybill”). Although those shows might’ve worked in delivering laughs, behind the scenes it was anything but funny.

Now Lorre feels blessed with the success of longtime fave “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory,” two shows that work entirely different portals of Lorre’s brain — and with comedy casts that come to work, and not to create drama.

“Each show has their own unique voice, and you don’t want to confuse them,” Lorre says. “There’s an innocence to these characters and a lack of carnal intent. What’s wonderful about working with a live audience is that if the dialogue is inappropriate, they’ll tell you.”

Working with a studio audience in comedy today is a bit out of fashion. Shows such as “30 Rock,” “The Office” and “Entourage” might get all the buzz, but their single-camera setups don’t necessarily make them funnier than shows shot in the traditional sitcom way.

“It’s both a blessing and a curse in giving autonomy to your studio audience,” he says. “They keep you honest. You can’t bullshit yourself as to when a line is good, and when it’s not.”

On the last episode of The Big Bang Theory, “The Nerdvana Annihilation,” Leonard and his boys chipped in to buy an original time machine prop from the 1960 film classic The Time Machine.

None in the group was more excited about the geeky purchase than snobby Sheldon, who seemed to think his big brain was the only one large enough to grasp the full possibilities of owning such a unique piece of memorabilia.

It’s a safe bet his viewpoint changed drastically, though, after he experienced a series of episode-ending dreams, all featuring the infamous cannibalistic Morlock species from the classic H.G. Wells book.

Check out what Sheldon saw after the jump.

NOTE: If you require closed captions, you can enable that feature on the video player by clicking the CC symbol in the top right-hand corner.

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Original Air Date: May 12, 2008

This episode is all about Leonard’s birthday. When Penny learns his parents raised him without ever giving him a birthday party — they believed in celebrating achievements, not his passage through the birth canal — she becomes determined to throw him one.

Penny’s plans for a surprise party require Sheldon to buy a gift, an act the genius is initially opposed to since he approves of Leonard’s parents’ no-party mindset and respects Leonard’s claims that he doesn’t want a party; Howard to get Leonard out of the apartment long enough for the others to set up; and Rajesh to stay behind in the apartment decorating and greeting guests until the rest of the gang returns.

When Howard stops by, Leonard is determined to stay at home and finish his game of Halo. The only way to lure him out is for Howard, who’s allergic to nuts, to pretend he accidentally ate a peanut. This trick gets Leonard to the hospital, where a nurse refuses to play along with Howard’s game.

Meanwhile, Penny is at the electronics store helping a reluctant Sheldon — who doesn’t understand the concept of picking out and purchasing presents — buy his roommate a gift. He ends up assisting customer after customer after customer when one asks a question, and to encourage him to leave, Penny has to find a real employee to threaten Sheldon with calling security.

Penny and Howard talk while she’s at the store, and she promises to introduce Howard to her “easy” friends if he follows through at the hospital. Psyched, Howard eats a granola bar with peanuts for real in order to have a genuine allergic reaction and get medical attention that will delay Leonard, who’s ready to leave because he thinks Howard is pretty much okay.

Howard’s ploy works … too well, and by the time he’s released and the two get back to Leonard’s apartment, the party has been over for an hour. Leonard figures out what’s going on anyway before they enter to find a shirtless Rajesh singing Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors,” and his disappointment over missing his first birthday party is probably lessened when Penny kisses him on the lips.

RESOURCES: The Big Bang Theory Website

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Comedian Simon Helberg geeks out over curries and his role as debonair nerd Howard on CBS’ The Big Bang Theory.

Geek chic is definitely at the core of CBS’ new comedy The Big Bang Theory, a show about two nerdy physicists whose lives are turned upside down when a pretty girl befriends them. None of the characters on the show are more chic than Howard Wolowitz, a friend of lead characters Sheldon and Leonard who uses multiple languages to (attempt to) seduce women.Howard is played by Simon Helberg, a comedian with an extended credit list that includes Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Joey, and Arrested Development. Helberg spoke with TV.com about his role in Big Bang Theory, how he spent his strike, and independent comedy.

TV.com: How did you get involved in the show? Did you have to audition like everyone else, or did they come after you?

Simon Helberg: Oh, gosh, I wish I was cool enough to tell you that they just came to my door in the middle of the night and made me a nice little offer. But no, I had to audition. But then they came to my door in the middle of the night and made me an offer. So yeah, I auditioned and then it wasn’t that arduous of a process. I got it not too long after and had to wait a little while before we shot. But yeah, it was great. I mean, it was an exciting thing to be a part of, still is.

TV.com: So did the casting call say it was looking for a suave nerd and you said, “That’s me?”

Simon Helberg: I have an agent that judges me like that. I could never put myself into that category. I would take nerd out of that. Suave, handsome, bilingual, trilingual. I did get a call that was along the lines of, “You might be perfect for this ridiculously nerdy guy.” And I guess I won’t take it personally that I got hired.

TV.com: What can we expect from the next episode, “The Loobenfeld Decay”?