The Cooper-Hofstadter Coffee Table Proof

Leonard_and_Sheldons_Coffee_Table_by_Wil_Wheaton

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As I walked from the comic shop set down to the bowling alley set today, I passed the set for Leonard and Sheldon's apartment, which is in the center of the stage. I gawked at it the way you do when you're a fan of the show and can't believe you're actually close enough to actually walk through it, and my eyes fell on the coffee table. I saw a lot of things that could have been on my own coffee table, so I decided to grab a picture (those are my Chucks in the lower right corner.)

I took this picture because this is more than just a nifty glimpse behind the scenes. This is an example of the attention to detail that is everywhere on every set of The Big Bang Theory. It would be really easy to just toss a few random magazines and soda cans there, because it's very unlikely that they'll ever be seen in this much detail, but at every level of production, they make a concerted effort to ensure that everything is authentic. I mean, how many of you looked at this and thought, "Hey, that could be my coffee table!" I see a lot of hands going up, and that's why I took this snap.

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71 thoughts on “The Cooper-Hofstadter Coffee Table Proof”

  3. I think I need to get me a subscription to Mental Floss immediately…wait, are those Peppridge Farm cookies?!? *distracted by the delicious*
    I love behind-the-scenes pictures like this. It’s fun to see all the little details that bond into one big atom of awesomeness. 😀

  7. I don’t have room for a coffee table, but I hope you don’t mind – I borrowed this photo for my computer desktop when you Tweeted it earlier!
    Thanks for the peek of the set!

  9. When you tweeted that picture earlier I thought I should subscribe to Mental Floss. Everyone tells me it is a great site and I should check it out and I would love it but I am not really one for electronic reading. Except for this blog and Phil, Shane’s and John’s blog, I don’t remember to regularly check sites unless someone makes a point to direct my attention to it. And forget feed readers, again if it is not directly in my face, I forget about it (tis why my gmail has 1000s of emails in it that will never get read and I use Thunderbird to autodownload emails with non-web based email addresses. Yes I know I can set up gmail that way but I don’t see the point).
    Hopefully there are more people like me that will keep paper print still alive cause it is my preference. My brain doesn’t like e-reading at all for some reason. Totally off topic I know, but seeing this picture made me think maybe I should have it delivered to my door so that it is my face and I remember to read it.
    Now on topic, the attention to detail (besides being awesome) must really help to immerse yourself into that reality.

  14. That’s pretty rad.
    The link to Bill Prady’s picture you shared on Twitter sent me to a broken image. Any way you might post that yourself? My interest is piqued but to no avail!

  16. You can see the detail even from the audience seats, which surprised me. The wife and I spent time between scenes trying to spot stuff; I remember the Halo 3 special edition helmet especially.
    When we went to the taping of The Bozeman Reaction (“I am the master of my own bladder!”), the other thing I was surprised by about being in the audience was how hard we actually had to work. In all the time I’ve been out here, that was the first time I’d been in the audience. It’s surprisingly challenging to be ‘on’ for three hours or more. The guy they’ve got doing warmup is great, though, and obviously the show is funny enough to keep laughing at over all the takes. I was beat by the time I got home, but I certainly wouldn’t mind going again sometime.
    Also, tightest crew ever. Watching them change setups was great. They give me production warm fuzzies.

  23. Awesome. Love that they’re pimping Tim’s chips. Didn’t realize they were popular outside of the NW. They need to add an O’Reilly book in there somewhere. Thanks for posting the snapshot. Bazinga!

  24. and my eyes fell on the coffee table.
    *headdesk* Now I won’t be able to sleep because of the image of your eyes falling out of their sockets and hitting the table with a gooey horrible *plop*. Thank you. Must find the brainbleach now.
    Really Wil, I cannot believe you just did that. For gods’ sakes, you’re a writer. *shakes finger*

  27. The stage is essentially a rectangle, with the sets and the audience seats facing each other down the long sides. Some of the sets, like the lobby, the restaurant, and the laundry room, are actually next to the seats, but the audience can see them on monitors.

  28. Neil Gaiman ftw.
    Seriously. I don’t know a proud geek who doesn’t have one on his/her table *eyeballs her current selections under the spare screwdriver set*

  30. Yeah, it was really messy. Luckily, I replaced my optic nerves with bungee cords, so they snapped right back into place.

  33. I just took a closer look at the table. Is that some kind of big clockwork gear? That’s awesome! Sort of reminds me of the wagon-wheel table from When Harry met Sally.

  35. I’ve marveled a great deal at their ability to dress a set. My friend likes to remind us that she and Sheldon have the same Klingon-English dictionary.

  36. I get the candy and snacks, sure. But what are those mental_floss things?
    They’re either prop internet tablets opened on the mental_floss website, or else it seems like they’re some sort of rectangular pieces of… processed plant pulp or something? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that kind of thing before.

  37. No wonder I love this show! Detail is everything, even if it never makes it on camera! My coffee table’s hand-me-down wood, but reading genre similar and my cookies are Pepperidge Farm Chessmen, I’m partial to actual, black licorice, the -ex took the Klingon dictionary, *pout* but I can’t wait to see this episode!

  38. I’m flabbergasted that no one has yet mentioned that HIDEOUS rug!
    The nerd periodicals and literature are great, and the snacks make me want a nosh, but then I look past all that and see that terrible carpet *shudder*.
    And Wil’s feet remind me that I need to get a new pair of Chucks. 😀

  39. It looks like part of an old industrial power board.
    The metal strip on right would be connected to the mains electricity, then you have all the individual fuses running off it, and you’d connect the wires for individual circuits to the other end of the fuse.
    That’s what it looks like from the photo you linked.
    Hard to tell as not a good pic.

  40. Exactly! They wouldn’t care about the rug… it was probably a hand-me-down from someone’s ancient aunt. Again… a great choice for the characters!

  43. I think the rug is great, and way more apropos than what an ancient-aunt would hand down (I picture flowers, ugh!). The design looks almost 8-bit to me, and very geometric (hello, geeky!) and the colours are bold and edgy, perhaps borderline tacky, which to me has geek written all over it.
    I’ll say it: I’d buy a rug like that for my livingroom.

  44. This reminds me of that Memories of the Futurecast, where you talked about spending hours learning the layout of the Okudapads, so you could actually be pressing the correct buttons – that kind of detail that it’s possible to ignore, but folks like yourself (and me!) really groove on.

  45. Ah, thank you! Wish I wasn’t on the wrong continent…
    Oh, have you seen there’s an @evilwilwheaton now? Not much content yet, though.

  47. The awesome Graham Linehan (writer of Father Ted and the IT Crowd) has put out a shout for the last two series of The IT Crowd (youtube it) for suggestions to dress the set which works amazingly well, it gives that extra layer of authenticity since it’s the geeks who suggest their favourite toys/clothes/posters etc
    See here
    http://whythatsdelightful.wordpress.com/2010/02/14/hive-mind-engage/
    and here
    http://whythatsdelightful.wordpress.com/2008/08/12/be-my-hive-brain/

  48. Tim’s Cascade Style! *drool* Gods, I haven’t had those since I left WA and came to CO. Boulder chips are good too, but just not the same.

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