She has a temper, sure, but no one’s perfect and they need her to have some conflict with him for comedic purposes.
I worked for a “Sheldon”. Except he had all the socially inept parts but none of the parts I might have connected with like Science Fiction or gaming. That was a very bad year.
I’ve never made a habit of watching the show, but have enjoyed it when I’ve found it on the DVR for the in-jokes and the performances by the Sheldon and Lenny characters, and for Kaley Cuoco (who’s super-dreamy and pretty good at delivering a funny line).
That’s because you’re a geek, and you like “geek cute” instead of just “cute.” :)
Seriously though, the women line up in the same way. Penny is the “non-geek,” Bernadette is the “geek” who can actually communicate in a mostly normal way (but has her own version of Howard’s ability to be awkward), while Amy is the “Sheldon” of the women in terms of social ability (though they have set her up to be far less asocial than Sheldon).
They’ve basically matched the same continuum of women with the corresponding continuum of men, except in each case, each woman is probably a step more toward “normal” than her corresponding man.
Eh, no argument.
Huh! That’s an interesting observation.
A couple years ago, we took our kids to the National Science Expo at the DC Convention Center.
Mayim Bialik (Amy Farrah Fowler) was there as one of the “celebrity” speakers. Lots of fun to see her: obviously she is a lot more articulate and personable than her on-screen persona, but she’s also drop-dead gorgeous in regular clothes and a decent hairstyle. Bialik was famously a research neurophysiologist before she got back into acting, and she spoke very passionately about the field and the research she was involved in in the time between Blossom and BBT. Amusingly, she seemed kind of neutral about the show in general – she said she enjoyed doing it and that it gave her a lot more time during the year to spend with her kids, but that she missed the research world… i.e., the type of stuff her character sort of does on the show.
Good news for Big Bang Theory fans!
Bad news for people not looking forward to the apocalypse.
You can probably count on one hand the number of spin off comedies (or dramas either) that have made it big.
I’ve never watched it, but I’ve seen occasional minutes because part of an episode sometimes gets recorded in error. It looks putrid enough to be a Chuck Lorre show. Is it?
I’d say this is true for the last 15-20 years. You have outliers, but it’s pretty rare to spinoff a show successfully outside of CSI now.
Man, the 70’s and 80’s were chock full of spinoffs though. Some of them turned out to be arguably better than the show the characters originated from.
I was really hoping this thread was being bumped to note it’s cancellation. Now I read this bile is EXPANDING? Gah.
I know I have probably said this a few times in this very thread.
But, look up big bang theory no laugh track, and you get a good feel for how the show’s writing is.
Basically, say a quirky nerdy thing, and get a laugh. Not really much more than cheap laughs. I have seen a few full episodes of the show, and it definitely isn’t the most awful show ever made, it is just kind of tacky and one-note. The actors are all genuinely very funny. And some of the episodes have some fun storylines. Sheldon using pavlov’s technique to get Penny to “act nice” to him was neat. Basic sitcom stuff with a sciency twist. But, it just doesn’t go far enough. Basically the same goes for any other Chuck Lorre show (outside of Roseanne, which he basically got a credit on because the network let him, it was Roseanne’s show) They are all just so bland.
For the nerdy equivalent in a much better written and directed show, look at the IT crowd.
Let’s see. Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy, The Jeffersons, Gomer Pyle… Yep. Seems you’re right.
I enjoyed the early seasons, but the the show has long jumped the shark.
Sure, it’s classic Chuck Lorre. I don’t think I’ve liked a single show he’s been the lead for, but I can’t argue with his results. With the exception of Frannie’s Turn (whuh?) the guy makes ratings gold.
@Timemaster_Tim, if you’re going that far back, you’re forgetting a ton of shows from the Norman Lear era. Heck, Good Times is technically a spinoff from Maude! The mom on Good Times was a maid on Maude.
Norman Lear was the 70’s Chuck Lorre.
How dare you.
Well, I just mean in terms of his ratings success and presence on TV. The guy’s creations dominated the 70’s. Believe me, I’ll take a Jeffersons or Good Times any day over Two and a Half Men or Big Bang Theory.
Norman Lear actually had something to say with his shows.
Oh, alright, we cool.
Oh yeah. Wow! There’s no way I’d put Lear in the same talent pool as Lorre.
The only thing they have in common was the gift of tapping into what the TV audience wanted.
I like the Big Bang Theory, but it really has become formulaic, even more than it was before. Each show still has a few good laughs, but the rest is kinda meh. But the wife likes it and Cuoco is nice to watch.