This Friday, I'm moderating the Big Bang Theory panel at Comic-con. The entire cast will be in attendance, as well as series creators Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre. We only have an hour, which always goes by faster than we think, so I'm going to start out with a handful of my own questions before I invite questions from the audience.
While preparing my questions, I've talked to some friends of mine who are fans of the show, and I also thought that I had a unique opportunity to reach out to a larger audience, right here on my blog.
So: If you could ask the cast and creators of The Big Bang Theory something about the show, what would it be? What are you interested in knowing from them?
Ask your question in a comment here, and I'll take some of them with me to the panel this Friday.
Edited at 8:52am 7/22: Wow, over 200 questions and comments! Awesome. I used your questions to get some idea of what fans of the show (well, this is a small sample size, but you're the ones who responded, so you get to speak for the entire audience) wanted to know. I picked out a couple of specific questions from some of you, too.
You can keep commenting here, but any questions you ask I won't be able to use, because I have to get on the road in about 15 minutes, and my questions are now chosen and locked in. But, sincerely, thank you for taking the time to contribute here; I feel more confident and secure about moderating this panel now than I did 24 hours ago.
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The writers have already published a Google calendar with the characters’ (read: Sheldon’s, lol) schedule! http://wiki.the-big-bang-theory.com/wiki/Schedule has the link
I REALLY love TBBT. And my husband, who has a physics and math degree, does too. I’m a college professor and I know a lot of this type of guy. But the writers are missing a hugely funny avenue in not exploring what REALLY goes on at in an academic lab. Why don’t they do a little research in that area? They’ve got the college environment pretty badly wrong up to now. They treat it like these guys never see any students.
Raj wouldn’t get fired if his grant ended, for example – that’s not how universties work! – they’d put him back in the classroom, beause THAT’S WHAT COLLEGES HIRE PhDs to DO, even big name colleges in California, private or otherwise.
I’m curious if they will ever have more Star Trek actors on the show like Patrick Stewart, Leonard Nemoy, William Shatner or Brent Spiner for example.
3 questions:
1- Why does there HAVE to be a love interest in the show? I know those contrived conflicts are standard issue but wedging it in whether it fits or not is annoying.
2- Why is EVERYONE at the university so over-the-top eccentric? Surely there would be a few colleagues that were just mildly quirky- like on Numb3rs (or was that why it was canceled).
3- Is the ratio of women to men with advanced degrees on the show statistically equivalent to real life situations?
Were any scientists harming in the making of BBT?
If we have evil Wil Wheaton can we see his nice twin from a parallell universe? One who loves his mee maw?!
Would there ever be a TBBT movie?
How often do people send in photos or claim to know someone like Sheldon?
Has it always been your secret goal to create the bueprint for a pr0n movie?
Will the elevator ever be fixed….OH
And can we get Betty White on one episode to play Me Maw
What was their favorite toy as a kid?
Is there a chance to see The Big Bang Theory movie ?
I less-than-three this suggestion!
To be fair they all crack their share of ethnic/social economic/cultural style jokes. Sheldon cracks a lot of southern cultural reference bazingas. Howard owns the Jewish jokes, Penny the bimbo jokes and “straight man” of the cast and all of them are all over geek culture.
I would say it is pretty equitable 😉
Two questions for the creators:
1) Why are you so f*ckin’ genious? Ahahah
2) Do you think that Sheldon character could fall in love with someone? I read some forums and blogs, and people say that this someone should be Penny. Please, DON’T! I think that Penny and Leonard are like “Rachel and Ross”!
One question for Jim and Kunal:
Can I have your phone? ahahah 🙂
One question to Wilw:
You are not a regular member of the cast because they didn’t offer to you a good contract, or what? ahah
Why do the guys wear 3 or 4 layers of clothing and the girls wear next to nothing? (I want to see more geek skin!)
I was totally appalled at the reference that Sheldon made for Ubuntu. I mean seriously what is up with all the Mac’s and the serious lack of technical jokes. I would only see Sheldon as a FreeBSD user. Maybe Leonard might use Linux or one of the dumber cast members. But Sheldon? no way! All paths of geekdom end at FreeBSD as my professor used to say. There are so many FOSS and GNU/Linux jokes to be made on that show and after 3 seasons we finally get one Linux/UNIX reference . . . UBUNTU!! For crying out loud! FAIL FAIL FAIL. Honestly I quite watching the show after that. True geeks hate this show and I always stuck up for it. Now I regret ever doing so. Only if they had Richard Stallman, Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Brian Kernighan as guest stars would that show be worth redeeming to true geeks. Hell even David Korn’s hillarious story about embarrasing the Microsoft spokesman at the USENIX conference.
http://www.unix.com/whats-your-mind/33991-windows-korn-shell.html
Or get Linus on there and have Sheldon recite Linus jokes
http://www.slayerx.org/2008/02/27/linus-torvalds-facts/
Anything besides stupid wii jokes and World Of Warcraft jokes. I mean come on? you really think the Sheldon’s of the world’s lives are filled with video games, comic books and Star Trek TOS? . . . maybe TNG or Voyager 🙂
Has the show stopped being so insulting to true geeks everywhere? I admit the show was funny the few times I watched it, but while there are many geeks out there like the guys on the show…there are MANY more who are not these “stereotypes” and it is offensive to brand geeks even more as socially inept.
Will they ever add a cast member to address this? If so, I would start watching the show regularly.
These guys all work at a university. Do none of them teach? Will the show ever deal with that?
Are the actors and writers aware of the UK’s own geekcom, “The IT crowd” and are any of them fans?
I believe you can access streaming episodes legally if you live in Canada; no such luck for those of us in the states, eh.
When will Evil Wil Wheaton get his own spin-off show?
Do the cast members have any input on how their characters are developing? AND Are we going to see more character development for Raj and Howard? Thanks, Will!
Can you please, please do away with the laugh track? It makes your show unbearable to watch.
Never mind the Belarus government TV ripoff “The Theorists”, what do you think of “Big Bang Theory XXX”?
Has working on a show about geeks made you “geekier” IRL? If so, what geeky thing are you now into that would have horrified your previous self?
1.)Who was your childhood hero? Real or fictional.
2.)how does working on Big Bang Theory affect your Nerd Factor?
Would it be possible to see a cross-over with Simon Pegg and or Nick Frost, potentially as their characters from the upcoming movie Paul?
Both Simon and Nick are part of one of the best brit-coms ever… Spaced. Seek it out if you have not already born witness to its genius.
When will Wolowitz’s Mom finally let him have friends over without her approoval.
What was your inspiration for the personalities of the 4 “nerdy” main characters? Real life geeks? Stereotypes? Past experience?
Will they bring in a love interest for Raj? I have an idea that he could be at the comic book store looking at some favorite new issue and a girl makes some geek/nerd comment/criticism and Raj begins to argue with her before he realizes he’s talking to a girl 🙂 their love of comics bring them together…
Will Evil Wil Wheaton be a regular character?
How do you walk the line between making a character comedic, and exaggerated, while still making them believable?
What would be the dream guest star for the writers as well as the actors?
What would be the dream guest star for the writers as well as the actors?
Husband: Hey, Wife, you’re on Ravelry, right? One of the comments on Will’s blog talks about Ravelry and has awesome sock pictures.
Son: Mom, you keep asking me what hand-knit socks I’d wear. Hint.
Me (thinking): How hard would son work for these?
Good question but Penny’s apartment is smaller and if the US is anything like the UK, research scientists really don’t make that much, although slightly more than waitresses.
A fuseboard. This has been asked and answered here before. (IIRC after Wil’s second appearance)
That would be awesome. Howard mentions in The Plimpton Stimulation that he’s a Dungeon Master.
Who of Sheldon or Leonard is the Captain Future/Edmond Hamilton fan?
Leonard told penny once that sheldon was a lab accident away from becoming a supervillain. i think it would be cool to play with that, even if it was a leonard nightmare. how would they deal with sheldon if he went completely nuts
do you consult real nerds to write the episodes or you yourself are extremely nerds?
Is the “Heidelberg Institute” in episode 11 of the 1st season related to a real institute? As a matter of coincidence the cuisine at our canteen was not very good (this fortunately changed).
To the cast: What is it like working with Chuck Lorre? He seems crazy…in a good way!
or Sheldon wearing several layers *in bed* with what looks like a down duvet on top.
Mentioning bedwear, how is Penny not turned off by Leonard wearing socks in bed?
I’d love to know what everyone’s theory is on why Howard always wears that little alien pin.
When you would show the nerds atending an anime convention and maybe drawing poor penny there?
Also, when a character (maybe sheldon or wollowitz) would make a joke about the twilight saga?
Agree with this. They’ve worked so hard to show the full gamut of geek guys, but geek girls seem limited to the socially painful and the physics smart. I’d love to see them challenge some of the girl-geek problems like they do the guys’: playing dumb so a boy will stay with you, being “the hot one” and always needing geek attention, wow I could go on forever . . .
Yeah I considered that, but Penny is working parttime as a waitress at Cheesecake Factory. You don’t make that much waitressing. As a Ph.D research scientist you make a significant amount. PLUS they are sharing the apartment versus Penny paying for her own. Though she does seem to have possibly a studio versus their two bedroom it still seems a bit odd. 😀
What do I have to do to become a writer on this show? I’m willing to do almost anything. Except for that.