The Big Bang Theory

From The Big Bang Theory Wiki

The Big Bang Theory is a CBS sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady that premiered on September 24, 2007.

Contents 1 Premise 2 Production History 3 Cast 3.1 Recurring Guest Stars 4 Opening Theme - History of Everything 5 Episode Information 5.1 Season 1 6 Season Two 7 DVD releases 8 References

[edit] Premise

Two male scientists in their twenties live together in a two-bedroom apartment, and work together at Caltech. Leonard Hofstadter is an experimental physicist, and Sheldon Cooper is a theoretical physicist. They live across the hall from current Cheesecake Factory waitress and aspiring actress/writer Penny. Leonard and Sheldon's intellect and awkwardness contrast with Penny's social skills and common sense.

In addition, Howard Wolowitz and Rajesh Koothrappali (Raj) are equally socially awkward. Howard is an engineer that lives with his mother, and Raj is terrified of talking to women. They spent much of their time hanging out with Leonard and Sheldon at their apartment.

[edit] Production History

The pilot episode, simply titled "Pilot", directed by James Burrows^[1], led to a 13-episode order on May 14, 2007.^[2] Prior to the premiere of the show on CBS, the pilot episode was distributed on iTunes free of charge.

On October 19, 2007 the show was picked up for a full 22-episode season, the first new comedy of the 2007-2008 season to be given a full season.^[3]

Production on the show was halted on November 6, 2007 by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.^[4]

On February 14, 2008, CBS officially picked up The Big Bang Theory for a second season along with eleven other shows for the 2008-2009 television season.^[5]

The show returned on March 17, 2008 with an earlier time slot^[6] and nine new episodes.^[7]

The second season premiered on September 22, 2008.

David Saltzberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, checks scripts and provides dialogue, math equations and diagrams used as props. He says he's more consultant than contributor.^[8] Executive producer/co-creator Bill Prady said, "In fact, we're working on giving Sheldon an actual problem that he's going to be working on throughout the (first) season so there's actual progress to the boards ... We worked hard to get all the science right." ^[9]

In a December 2008 Parade magazine article, creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady acknowleged that the two main characters are named after legendary producer Sheldon Leonard.

[edit] Cast

• Johnny Galecki as Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, PhD.
• Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper, PhD.
• Kaley Cuoco as Penny
• Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitz, M.Eng.
• Kunal Nayyar as Rajesh Koothrappali, PhD.

[edit] Recurring Guest Stars

• Mark Harelik as Eric Gablehauser, PhD.
• Sara Gilbert as Leslie Winkle, PhD.
• Sara Rue as Stephanie Barrett, M.D.

[edit] Opening Theme - History of Everything

Barenaked Ladies wrote and recorded the theme song, which describes developments the universe has undergone since the dawn of time. On October 9, 2007, a full-length (1 minute and 45 second) version of the song was released.^[10]

[edit] Episode Information

[edit] Season 1

#	Episode	Air Date	Timeslot
1	"Pilot"	September 24, 2007	8:30 P.M.
2	"The Big Bran Hypothesis"	October 1, 2007
3	"The Fuzzy Boots Corollary"	October 8, 2007
4	"The Luminous Fish Effect"	October 15, 2007
5	"The Hamburger Postulate"	October 22, 2007
6	"The Middle-Earth Paradigm"	October 29, 2007
7	"The Dumpling Paradox"	November 5, 2007
8	"The Grasshopper Experiment"	November 12, 2007
9	"The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization"	March 17, 2008	8:00 P.M.
10	"The Loobenfeld Decay"	March 24, 2008
11	"The Pancake Batter Anomaly"	March 31, 2008
12	"The Jerusalem Duality"	April 14, 2008
13	"The Bat Jar Conjecture"	April 21, 2008
14	"The Nerdvana Annihilation"	April 28, 2008
15	"The Pork Chop Indeterminacy"	May 5, 2008
16	"The Peanut Reaction"	May 12, 2008
17	"The Tangerine Factor"	May 19, 2008

[edit] Season Two

#	Episode	Air Date	Timeslot
1	"The Bad Fish Paradigm"	September 22, 2008	8:00 P.M.
2	"The Codpiece Topology"	September 29, 2008
3	"The Barbarian Sublimation"	October 6, 2008
4	"The Griffin Equivalency"	October 13, 2008
5	"The Euclid Alternative"	October 20, 2008
6	"The Cooper-Nowitzki Theorem"	November 3, 2008
7	"The Panty Piñata Polarization"	November 10, 2008
8	"The Lizard-Spock Expansion"	November 17, 2008
9	"The White Asparagus Triangulation"	November 24, 2008
10	"The Vartabedian Conundrum"	December 8, 2008
11	"The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis"	December 15, 2008
12	"The Killer Robot Instability"	January 12, 2009
13	"The Friendship Algorithm"	January 19, 2009
14	"The Financial Permeability"	February 2, 2009
15	"The Maternal Capacitance"	February 9, 2009	9:30 P.M.
16	"The Cushion Saturation"	March 2, 2009	8:00 P.M.
17	"The Terminator Decoupling"	March 9, 2009	8:00 P.M.
18	"The Work Song Nanocluster"	March 16, 2009	8:00 P.M.
19	"The Dead Hooker Juxtaposition"	March 30, 2009	8:00 P.M.
20	"The Hofstader Isotope"	April 13, 2009	8:00 P.M.
21	"The Vegas Renormalization"	April 27, 2009	8:00 P.M.
22	"The Classified Materials Turbulence"	May 4, 2009	8:00 P.M.
23	"The Monopolar Expedition"	May 11, 2009	8:00 P.M.

[edit] DVD releases

DVD Name	Release dates			Ep #	Additional Information
	Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
The Complete First Season	September 2, 2008	January 12, 2009	December 9, 2008[11]	17	The three disc box set includes all 17 episodes. The only extra feature is an 18 minute short entitled "Quantum Mechanics of The Big Bang Theory: Series Cast and Creators on Why It’s Cool to Be a Geek". Running Time 374 minutes.

[edit] References

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