The Big Bang Theory (Edited Version)

The Big Bang Theory is an American sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, it aired on CBS on September 24, 2007, and ended with its twelfth season on May 16, 2019.

Setting
Set in Pasadena, California, the show is about three fictional Caltech geniuses, one an experimental physicist, Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, and the other are two theoretical physicists, Sheldon Lee Cooper & Joshua Jason Williams, who live across the hall from an attractive blonde waitress and aspiring actress, Pennelope "Penny" Teller-Hofstadter (whose last name remained unknown until the name 'Penny Teller' was seen on a package she received, in season 2, episode 18, "The Work Song Nanocluster"). Leonard and Sheldon's geekiness and intellect are contrasted for comic effect with Penny's social skills and common sense. An aerospace engineer, Howard Joel Wolowitz, and a particle astrophysicist, Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali, are their equally geeky and socially awkward co-workers and friends. They are the kind of "beautiful minds" that understand how the universe works, but none of that helps them interact with people, especially women. As the show develops, each male finds his female counterpart, though Raj is single at the end of the series.

Production
The show was produced by Warner Bros. Television and Chuck Lorre Productions. In March 2009, it was reported that The Big Bang Theory had been renewed for a third and fourth season by CBS. In August 2009, the sitcom won the best comedy series TCA award and Jim Parsons won the award for individual achievement in comedy.

When the third season premiered on September 21, 2009, it ranked as CBS's highest-rated show of that evening in the adults 18–49 demographic (4.6/10), along with a then series-high 12.83 million viewers.

By September 2009, The Big Bang Theory aired on CBS on Mondays at 9:30 ET after Two and a Half Men, another show produced by Lorre. On May 19, 2010, it was announced that CBS would be moving the show to Thursdays at 8:00 ET for the 2010–2011 schedule; a position it stills holds as of October, 2013. On January 12, 2011, CBS announced that the show has been renewed for an additional 3 years, extending it through the 2013–2014 season. Several members of the cast stated that the show definitely has the potential to run for 200 episodes. The eighth season of The Big Bang Theory was confirmed on March 12, 2014, after a 3-season deal with the network which renewed the series through its tenth season, meaning that it would now run until at least 2017. The CBS network hinted that there would be a season 11; however, the actors publicly stated that they would be glad to continue as long as it's fun working on the show.

On March 20, 2017, CBS announced that The Big Bang Theory had been renewed for two more seasons after season 10. At the start of season 12, CBS announced that it would be the show's last season after Jim Parsons decided to not return.

The show was taped at Stage 25, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios, 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA (until it was out of production)

Main Cast

 * Johnny Galecki as Dr. Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, Ph.D. – Leonard is an experimental physicist with an IQ of 173 who received his Ph.D. when he was 24 years old. He shares an apartment with colleague and friend Sheldon Cooper. The writers immediately implied a potential romance between him and neighbor Penny, and their sexual tension is a frequently explored drama. Twice they were a couple and eventually became engaged, then finally got married in season 9. In "The Veracity Elasticity", Sheldon moved out leaving 4A to Penny and Leonard.
 * Jim Parsons as Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper, B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D., Sc.D. – Originally from East Texas, he was a child prodigy who began college at the age of 11, after completing the fifth grade. As a theoretical physicist, he possesses a master's degree, two doctorates, and an IQ of 187. He exhibits a strict adherence to routine; a lack of understanding of irony, sarcasm, and humor. This action may sometimes appear as lack of humility when he's just being himself. These characteristics are the main sources of his humor and the basis of a number of episodes. Sheldon shares an apartment with Leonard Hofstadter. At the end of the third season he met Amy Fowler beginning a very slow relationship with her eventually becoming his girlfriend and potential fiancée. In "The Cohabitation Experimentation", Amy and Sheldon tried living together and then decided to live together. In season 11, they became engaged and are married in the season finale of season 11. Together Sheldon and Amy published a paper on super-asymmetry and it was confirmed by some Fermi-Lab physicists.


 * Joshua Williams as Dr. Josh Lee Cooper, B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D., Sc.D. – Originally from East Texas, he was a child prodigy who began college at the age of 11, after completing the fifth grade. As a theoretical physicist, he possesses a master's degree, two doctorates, and an IQ of 187. He exhibits a strict adherence to routine; a lack of understanding of irony, sarcasm, and humor. This action may sometimes appear as lack of humility when he's just being himself. These characteristics are the main sources of his humor and the basis of a number of episodes. Sheldon shares an apartment with Leonard Hofstadter. At the end of the third season he met Amy Fowler


 * Kaley Cuoco as Penelope "Penny" Hofstadter – Penny is the attractive blonde, "born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska", who lives across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard. She hopes for a career in acting, and has been to casting calls and auditions, but has not been successful thus far. To pay the bills, she was a waitress at The Cheesecake Factory until she retired. but she liked something about Leonard. They went through two separate relationships finally getting engaged in May 2014 and married in September 2015. In September, 2014, she took a job as a pharmaceutical salesperson after becoming engaged to Leonard. Sheldon then tried living together with Amy and then formalized it moving out of 4A giving Lenny their own place. Penny also surprised Leonard that she did not want any kids, but this changes in the finale when Penny became pregnant.
 * Simon Helberg as Astronaut Howard Joel Wolowitz, M.M.E. – Howie works as an aerospace engineer with NASA. He is Jewish, and lived with his mother. Unlike Sheldon, Leonard, and Raj, Howard lacks a Ph.D. He defends himself by pointing out that he has a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the apparatus he designs are built and launched into space, unlike the purely abstract work of his friends. He provides outrageous pick-up lines and fancies himself a ladies man with suitably unimpressed reactions from Penny; however, he has shown limited success with other women. He is a polyglot and has an unhealthy relationship with his over-protective mother. Through Penny he met a cute girl named Bernadette Rostenkowski whom he eventually married. Howard also was sent into space by NASA to the International Space Station. His mother passed away and Howard and Bernadette moved into the family home. In season 9, Howard learned he was going to be a father and again in season 11. He has a boy that they named Neil Michael Wolowitz.
 * Kunal Nayyar as Dr. Rajesh Ramayan "Raj" Koothrappali, Ph.D. – Rajesh, who originally comes from New Delhi, India, works as a particle astrophysicist at Caltech. He is very shy around women and is physically unable to talk to them unless he drinks alcohol; however, he has had much better luck with women than his overly confident best friend Howard. His parents, Dr. V. M. Koothrappali and Mrs. Koothrappali, were seen via webcam. In the third season, he worked for Sheldon because his research had run into a dead-end and he does not want to return to India. At the end of the seven season after a relationship with a quirky broken woman named Lucy, he finally got over his inability to speak to women. In season 7, he met a dermatologist named Emily Sweeney and began a relationship with her and then met a screenwriter/bartender named Claire, and is torn between them. During "The Hot Tub Contamination", Raj admitted that he was no longer seeing either woman at their request. In season 11, Raj became more confident and got a job as a host of a planetarium show. In season 12, Raj realized his instinct haven't helped him and he asks his father to arrange a marriage for him. He met an Indian woman named Anu, they hit it off and schedule a Valentine's Day wedding. Later they wonder what they were doing so they cancelled the wedding, but agreed to date to get to know each other better.
 * Melissa Rauch as Dr. Bernadette Maryann Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, Ph.D. – She is a microbiologist. Formerly, Bernadette was working her way through grad school as a waitress at The Cheesecake Factory, where she befriended Penny, and they eventually became a trio with Amy. Penny introduced Bernadette to Howard. She was upgraded to main cast status in the episode "The Hot Troll Deviation". She and Howard got engaged in the "The Herb Garden Germination". In season 4, she won a Ph.D. and joined the other doctors in mocking Howard for having only a master's degree. She's married with Howard just before he went into space at the end of season 5. Outwardly sweet, Bernadette refused to tolerate Howard's often childish and embarrassing behavior and has become a stabilizing force in his life. She went to work for a pharmaceutical company that makes her a lot of money, much more than Howard does, and in season 6, when she found out that he and Raj spent $5,000 on a 3D printer to make figurines of themselves, she cut him off from their money and put him on an allowance. In season 7, she and Amy started to go out without Penny occasionally and bond over science-related topics. In season 9, she and Howard moved into the house of her late mother-in-law. In "The Valentino Submergence", Bernadette revealed that she had been pregnant, although Howard was unaware of this until "The Positive Negative Reaction". She has a daughter Halley in season 10 and is pregnant with a son Neil in season 11.
 * Mayim Bialik as Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler, Ph.D. – She first met Sheldon in the season 3 finale through Raj and Howard, and is very similar to him, except that she is more open to social interactions and thus more susceptible to conventional behavior. She became close friends with Sheldon in season 4, and became his girlfriend in season 5, though Sheldon is extremely slow to progress the physical aspect of their relationship. By the season 5 finale, they had been progressed to holding hands though Amy is inching Sheldon toward a deeper relationship which gradually started to become intimate in season 6 ending in some "intercourse" game-play between their Dungeons and Dragons characters. In season 7, Sheldon began kissing her on the lips for the first time. In the season 7 finale, she is extremely upset at Sheldon leaving Pasadena. Amy also forms a quirky friendship with Penny, whom Amy frequently refers to as her "bestie," and becomes Bernadette's maid of honor at her and Howard's wedding. At the end of season 8, feeling that her relationship with Sheldon wasn't going anywhere, Amy told him that she needed time away so she could figure out what to do about their relationship. In season 9 Sheldon pushed her and she formally broke up with him. After exploring dating, she realized that she still wants Sheldon who asks her to again be his girlfriend. On her next birthday, they lost their virginity to each other, and she later found out about Sheldon's engagement ring when his Meemaw comes for a visit. In "The Cohabitation Experimentation", Amy and Sheldon tried living together and then decided to live together. In season 11, she and Sheldon became engaged and are married in the season finale of season 11. Also both Sheldon and Amy are very excited about their theory and working together on super-asymmetry of string theory. They submit their paper and it gets confirmed by some Fermi-Lab physicists.
 * Kevin Sussman as Stuart David Bloom – He is a mild-mannered, under-confident individual who runs the comic book store that the men frequently visit. He is also a geek, but he has a talent for drawing, and is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design. During Stuart's first appearance, the men brought Penny along to the store and he managed to ask her on a date. They go on two dates until Penny mistakenly calls him "Leonard", leaving him devastated. As Stuart runs a comic book store, he has vast knowledge of comic books and superheroes. In the Season 4 episode "The Toast Derivation", he implied he was in financial trouble and that the comic book store is now also his home. At Howard's bachelor party during "The Stag Convergence", Stuart uses his toasting turn to tell Howard how lucky he is and compares it to his own situation of living in the back of his comic book store. In Season 6, he is invited to be part of the men's group while Howard is in space. Sheldon is not very accepting of this due to Stuart's art degree (which he considers inferior), but relents after Stuart offers him a 30% off discount in the comic book store. Stuart becomes close friends with Raj while Howard is in space, moving in with him and looking for girls together. At the end of season 7, his comic book store has a bad fire. Stuart moves in with Howard's mother to take care of her when she breaks her leg, and after the two bond, she invites Stuart to live in the home. In Season 8 he reopens the comic book store with money from Howard's mother. After her death he continues living in the house now owned and occupied by Howard and Bernadette who secretly want him to move out. He does move out in "The Sales Call Sublimation", but moved back in when Halley Wolowitz was born. At the end of season 11, Stuart seems to be getting close to his new assistant store manager Denise and they become a couple.
 * Laura Spencer as Dr. Emily Sweeney, M.D. – She is a dermatologist at Huntington Hospital whom Raj finds on an online dating site. Emily went to Harvard, and is shown to have a slightly alarming personality; she is shown to delight in the macabre when she states that she likes her job because she can cut things with knives, and likes Sally from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (whom she has a tattoo of on her shoulder) because she has lots of scars and her limbs had to be sewn back on. Despite spooking them a bit she gets along with most of Raj's friends, except Penny whom she has not forgiven for "sleeping" with Raj years ago in "The Roommate Transmogrification". Not wanting to be alone, Raj has declared his love to her even though she does scare him. She eventually begins participating in activities with the group. Just before Valentine's Day, Raj breaks up with her so he can date another woman named Claire, but she turns him down and he tries to get back with Emily but she rejects him. Later Raj and Emily hook up and get back together after she leaves a tearful message and Raj is now seeing both of the girls, Emily and Claire, at the same time. During "The Hot Tub Contamination", Raj admitted that he was no longer seeing either woman at their request.
 * Wil Wheaton as himself - TBA

Reocurring Guest Stars

 * Sara Gilbert as Leslie Winkle (2007-2010, 2016)
 * John Ross Bowie as Barry Kripke (2009-2019)
 * Margo Harshman as Alex Jensen (2012-2013)
 * Laurie Metcalf as Mary Cooper (2007-2019)
 * Christine Baranski as Beverly Hofstadter (2009-2019)
 * Joshua Malina as President Siebert (2011-2012)
 * Mark Harelik as Eric Gablehauser (2007-2008)
 * Kate Micucci as Lucy (2013, 2016-2017)
 * Aarti Mann as Priya Koothrappali (2010-2011, 2016)
 * Laura Spencer as Emily Sweeney (2014-2017)
 * Alessandra Torresani as Claire (2016-2017)
 * Rati Gupta as Anu (2018-2019)
 * Lauren Lapkus as Denise (2018-2019)

Production history
The show's initial pilot, developed for the 2006–07 television season, was substantially different from its current form. Only Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons and Joshua Williams were in the cast, and the female lead, Katie, was envisioned as "a street-hardened, tough-as-nails woman with a vulnerable interior". Katie was played by actress Amanda Walsh They also had a female friend called Gilda (played by Iris Bahr). The show's original theme music was also different, using Thomas Dolby's hit "She Blinded Me With Science". The show was not picked up, but the creators were given an opportunity to revise the show, bringing in the remaining leading cast and retooling the show to its current format. The original unaired pilot has never been released on any official format, but copies are available on the Internet. On the evolution of the show, Lorre said "We did the 'Big Bang Pilot' about two and a half years ago, and it sucked, but there were two remarkable things that worked perfectly, and that was Johnny, Jim and Joshua. We rewrote the thing entirely, and then we were blessed with Kaley and Simon and Kunal." As to whether the world will ever see that original pilot, maybe on a DVD, Lorre said "Wow that would be something, we will see. Show your failures..."

The second pilot of The Big Bang Theory was again directed by James Burrows, who did not continue with the show. This reworked pilot led to a 13-episode order by CBS on May 14, 2007. Prior to its airing on CBS, the pilot episode was distributed on iTunes free of charge. The show premiered September 24, 2007, and was picked-up for a full 22-episode season on October 19, 2007.

Production on the show was halted on November 6, 2007, due to the Writers Guild of America strike, returning on March 17, 2008, in an earlier time slot and with nine new episodes. After the strike ended, the show was picked up for a second season airing in the 2008–2009 season, premiering in the same time slot on September 22, 2008. With increasing ratings, the show received a two-year renewal through the 2010–11 season.

David Saltzberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles, checks scripts and provides dialogue, math equations, and diagrams used as props. According to executive producer/co-creator Bill Prady, "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." The lead characters are named Sheldon and Leonard after actor, director, and producer Sheldon Leonard.

With the exception of the Pilot, the title of every episode starts with "The", and is then is followed by a descriptive word and a scientific term or principle. The writers have used 169 different scientific terms in the episode titles throughout the entire run of the series. The term "reaction" was used seven times, "excitation" was used six times and "hypothesis", "implementation", "insufficiency", "polarization", "reverberation" and "vortex" were used five times each.

In February 2019 as the show's production wound down, their home on stage 25 was officially named "The Big Bang Theory Stage."

On April 30, 2019, production of The Big Bang Theory ceased with the taping of the final episode. The last one was not filmed before a lived audience partly due to the emotional impact on the actors as they finished twelve years of working together.

Production costs
For the first three seasons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Jim Parsons & Joshua Williams the four main stars of the show, received at most $60,000 per episode. The salary for the three went up to $200,000 per episode for the fourth season. According to their contracts, their pay per episode will go up an additional $50,000 per episode in each of the following three seasons, culminating in $350,000 per episode in the seventh season. In season 8–10, the three main stars were earning $1 million per episode. Kaley is the highest paid series star on television when including her commecial work.

In September, 2016, Forbes Magazine announced the highest paid actors in television. Jim was the highest followed by the other male members of the cast. Kaley was number two in the industry behind ABC's “Modern Family” bombshell Sofia Vergara. Simon and Kunal make $750,000 per episode in 2016, while Mayim and Melissa make $100,000 each. In 2017 the five original cast members took $100,000 pay cuts per episode so that Mayim Bailik and Melissa Raunch could have raises.

Opening Theme - History of Everything

 * Main article: The History of Everything

Barenaked Ladies wrote and recorded the show's theme song, which describes the history of the universe and the Earth since the dawn of time (according to the eponymous theory). Ed Robertson, a lead singer and guitarist in the band, was asked by Lorre and Prady to write a theme song for the show.

Having been asked to write songs for other films and shows only to have them rejected in favour of another artist's, Robertson agreed to write a theme only after learning that he was the sole writer that Lorre and Prady had asked. He drew inspiration from Simon Singh's book, Big Bang, which he had just finished reading.

On October 9, 2007, a full-length (1 minute and 45 seconds) version of the song was released commercially. In a 2010 issue of TV Guide, the show's opening title sequence ranked #6 on a list of television's top 10 credits sequences, as selected by readers.

Episodes

 * Main article: List of The Big Bang Theory episodes

DVD releases
Template:Clear

International Broadcast

 * Main article: International broadcasts

Syndication
In May 2010, it was reported that the show has been picked up for off-network syndication, mainly among Fox's O&O group and other local stations, with Warner Bros. Television's sister cable network TBS holding the show's cable syndication rights. Broadcast of early episodes began airing in September 2011. TBS now airs the series in prime-time on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, with evening broadcasts on Saturdays (TBS's former local sister station in Atlanta also holds local weeknight rights to the series).

Although details of the syndication deal have not been revealed, it was reported the deal "set a record price for a cable off-network sitcom purchase." CTV holds national broadcast syndication rights in Canada, while sister cable network CTV Comedy Channel holds cable rights.

Online media
Warner Brothers Television controls the online rights for the show. Full episodes are available at tv.com, while short clips and recently aired full episodes are available on cbs.com. Full episodes are also available on Sohu.com in China. In Canada, recent episode(s) and pictures are available on CTV.ca.

Awards and nominations
See Series Awards.

U.S. standard ratings
The Big Bang Theory has been highly rated since its premiere. During its fourth season, it became television's highest rated comedy, just barely beating out eight-year champ Two and a Half Men. However, in the age 14-49 demographic (the show's target age range), it was the second highest rated comedy, behind ABC's Modern Family. The fifth season opened with viewing figures of over 14 million.

UK distribution and ratings
The show made its UK debut on Channel 4 on February 14, 2008, bringing in an average audience of 1.0 million viewers. The second episode, shown the following week, also received 1.0 million. For the third episode an average of 1.1 million tuned in. The show is also shown as a 'first-look' on Channel 4's digital offshoot E4, and brings in 400,000 viewers on average. The fifth episode received 880,000 viewers. After the first five episodes, the average number of viewers continues to hover around the 1 million mark. Episode 13 was watched by 1.3 million viewers and was the most watched episode.

In December 2008, Virgin Media made the first nine episodes of the first season available to watch on its TV Choice On Demand service, and the rest of Season 1 was made available in January 2009.

As of December 5, 2009, all 23 episodes of Season 2 were also made available on Virgin Media TV Choice On Demand Service, but both seasons have now been removed.

The third season began airing on E4 and E4 HD on December 17, 2009, at 9:00 p.m., but was on hiatus between February 25, 2010, until May 6, 2010, when the final 11 episodes of the season aired.

Season 4 began airing on E4 on November 4, 2010, at 9:00 p.m. It drew 877,000 viewers, with a further 256,000 watching on the E4+1 hour service. This viewership gave the show an overall total of 1.13 million viewers, making it E4's most watched program for that week. E4 broke season four after 12 episodes in January 2011. Season four returned on E4 from June 30, 2011, for the remaining episodes.

The fifth season began airing at 8:00 p.m. as part of E4 comedy Thursday's as a lead-in to Perfect Couples in the UK.

Canadian ratings
The Big Bang Theory started off quietly in Canada, but managed to garner major success later on in further seasons. The season 4 premiere garnered an estimated 3.1 million viewers across Canada. This week is the largest audience for a sitcom since the series finale of Friends. The Big Bang Theory has pulled ahead and has now become the most watched show in Canada.

Gallery
For gallery of images, see here.