The Big Bang Theory is one of the longest running sitcoms of all time. The show has clocked up 279 episodes and has been hitting viewing figures of around 20 million or there abouts since its seventh season.
Things almost didn’t get off the ground with a failed pilot. But like any good scientists, the producers, led by showrunner Chuck Lorre, tinkered and tested, removing characters and changing personalities to find the perfect formula for comedic longevity.
The magic all started when struggling actress Penny (Kaley Cuoco) moved into the apartment opposite scientists Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki). Throw in a couple of memorable friends in the shape of Raj (Kunal Nayyer) and Howard (Simon Helberg) and you have comedic rocket fuel. The show also managed to stay fresh with the additions of Amy (Mayim Bialik) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) in season 5.
Now after 12 years the show will end its staggering run when the final episode airs in May 2019.
During that time there have been revelations about pay, including the news that leads Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki receive $1 million per episode, on set relationships and numerous guest stars.
These behind the scenes photos show that there was plenty of fun to be had on set. However, like any sitcom that’s been on the air for a substantial amount of time, they also show that there’s a whole industry behind-the-scenes tweaking every joke, making sure every detail is right and getting the science spot on.
Here are 20 Behind-The-Scenes Photos That Change Everything About The Big Bang Theory.
20 200 Big Bangs
The Big Bang Theory hit a major milestone when it got to its 200th episode.
Most network TV shows have long since left the schedules by that point, but after 9 years on air, TV’s favourite collection of nerds were still raking in the viewers.
The episode was also a huge milestone for Sheldon, who allowed his annoyed friends to throw him a birthday party for the first-time ever.
Sheldon should count himself lucky for the A-list turnout for party, although we don't think that Sheldon would see it that way. Not only did Stephen Hawking sing him happy birthday, but the original Batman, Adam West, was on hand to deliver some serious shade on Ben Affleck’s recent performance as the caped crusader (“What’s an Affleck”).
19 Cast read throughs
Getting the perfect calibration of laughs on The Big Bang Theory is a serious business. One of the most important steps to ensuring a script is in as good as condition as possible is the cast read through.
Before any episode goes into production the cast and writers sit down to read through the script together. With only 5 production days per episode, the writers need as much time as possible to fine tune the script before it goes into filming.
Changes might be insignificant, like a few tweaked lines, or, more than likely, they could be substantial edits, with producer Chuck Lorre telling Variety that "20% to 30% of the script will be brand new by the time we shoot it."
18 Jedi in the house
The Big Bang Theory isn’t short of the odd cameo from a galaxy far, far way. After all, this is the show where James Earl Jones and Carrie Fisher met in person for the first time.
Someone who’s no stranger to the celebrity cameo is Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill. The former Jedi even showed up on the show’s season 11 finale to officiate at the wedding of Sheldon and Amy.
Of course, that didn’t stop cast members from getting their own photos with the science fiction legend, including Kunal Nayyar, who plays Raj.
One super-fan who was particularly excited by Hamill’s visit was Mayim Balik, who went so far as to make a video where she exclaimed: “Mark Hamill’s here! He’s here. He’s on our stage, he shook my hand… I can’t handle it! I can’t sorry… I thought I could keep it together, but I can’t!”
17 Stephen Hawking on set
Stephen Hawking was one of the greatest physicists who ever lived. His seminal book A Brief History of Time opened up quantum physics to a wide audience and he is rightly considered as one of the brightest minds of the twentieth century alongside figures like Albert Einstein.
Despite all that, Hawking’s still had plenty of time for a celebrity cameo, with Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Simpsons and 7 appearances on The Big Bang Theory all on his IMDb profile.
On the show he would play a self-centred version of himself, whether that’s needling Sheldon over his erroneous theories on the Higgs Bosan particle, being a bad loser on the online game Words With Friends, or not inviting Howard out to a pizza party for proving him wrong about The Matrix.
16 200 episodes of Penny and Leonard
Few shows have had the longevity of The Big Bang Theory. Fewer still have managed to maintain the on and off again relationship trope between main characters. Think Rachel and Ross in Friends or Pam and Jim in The American Office.
Yet, the unlikely relationship between Penny and Leonard has been a main plot point throughout the show’s long-run. Since getting together, they’ve been through Leonard’s dealings with Penny’s Tarzan-like ex-boyfriends, Leonard kissing another woman and even his honest opinions on her acting.
By the 200th episode, the two were still getting over the fallout from their ill-fated Vegas marriage.
However, all’s well that ends well and the two tied the knot for real on season 10 premiere “The Conjugal Conjecture”.
15 Sheldon meets Spock
Sheldon Cooper is a big Star Trek fan. This Trekkie is such a big fan that he even dreams of Star Trek, especially when he’s procrastinating over opening Leonard’s mint in box Spock toy.
This devotion is not shared by actor Jim Parsons who had never seen an episode of the iconic 60s sci-fi television series or its numerous spinoffs. You’d never have guessed it as Parson’s is a totally convincing Trekkie, especially when his character has dreams about that Spock doll.
However, that didn’t stop Parson’s from hanging out with the late, much-missed Leonard Nimoy when the actor appeared in episode "The Bath Gift Item Hypothesis", with both giving a textbook Vulcan salute.
In the episode, Penny presents Sheldon with a signed napkin from the actor. This earns Penny a rarely seen Sheldon hug.
14 Jim Parsons and Mayim Balik on set
Mayim Balik joined the show as a cast regular on season 4, along with Melissa Rauch, and is now firmly established as fan favourite. The relationship with her on-screen husband Jim Parsons looks to be a good one, with plenty of pictures of the two of them goofing around on set.
While there's no doubt that the fledging relationship between Amy Farah Fowler and Sheldon Cooper is probably the romance of the decade, if not century so far, it’s been a long courtship. There’s been some ups and downs, and sometimes viewers must have asked themselves what does Amy really see in Sheldon.
Now that the final season of the show is upon us, there’s only a few more chances to enjoy Amy and Sheldon’s unlikely romance.
13 Round of applause
They should applaud themselves. The Big Bang Theory is the first television show to be given a back-to-back three series order from network CBS.
This was despite the first season’s run being disrupted by the writers strike back in 2008, which led to the show being pulled and then put back on the air at a new timeslot when it returned.
Since then, the show has been pulling in around 20 million viewers on a weekly basis. Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon on the show, puts its popularity down to the lack of character arcs on the show.
Sure, the characters date, fall out, and even marry, but they pretty much have remained the same loveable fanboys and girls that appeared when the show first appeared.
Viewers tuning into the show know exactly what to expect, as Parsons told New York Magazine: "People have so many choices on TV now, so no one’s asking for you to marry us. You can enjoy our show without a weekly appointment.”
12 Celebrity wedding guests
The Big Bang Set was awash with talent for the filming of the season 11 finale, most of it out of this world.
Pitching up for the wedding of Amy Farrah Fowler and Shelton Cooper were Kathy Bates and magician Teller as Amy’s parents, and Jerry O’Connell and Will Wheaton among the congregation.
Mark Hammill himself was on hand to marry the pair as a favour to Howard for finding his dog. Showrunner Steve Holland described to Variety landing the Star Wars icon: “Mark was everything you’d want him to be. He was hilariously funny… It was really just a dream come true.”
The episode also had a bittersweet note with Sheldon receiving a pocket watch from Stephen Hawking sent before the great physicist’s passing.
11 Game of nerds
No one would recommend wielding a sword to wake up your co-star, but then again The Big Bang Theory set is abound with toys and props from countless movies and TV shows, usually scattered around Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment.
Maybe Galecki was getting his own back. Kaley Cuoco told The Hollywood Reporter that during her downtime on set she catches up on box sets, including Games of Thrones, a show that has no shortage of weapons.
In fact, during the episode “The Russian Rocket Reaction”, Leonard and Sheldon even decide to start a fantasy sword collection, which might explain where Galecki found the hardware.
Apparently when binging on the latest news from Westeros Cuoco is oblivious to her fellow cast mates, which might explain Galecki taking rather medieval action to wake his co-star.
But it’s all in good nature, hopefully.
10 Penny and Leonard hooked up for real
While it took Leonard and Penny a few seasons to hook up, it turns out the actors playing them were also having their own relationship.
Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco had a secret two year relationship behind the scenes, with many totally oblivious.
3 years after they split, Galecki opened up to CBS Watch on why the two kept the relationship on the down low, saying: “I just don't like to speak about it. And not because I'm trying to be enigmatic; I just worry that it will conflict with people's acceptance of Leonard and Penny.”
However, it all turned out well in the end, with the two remaining friends after splitting, with Cuoco telling CBS in 2017: “He’s one of my best friends and one of the closest people I've ever worked with."
9 The gang meet Data
Things went very Star Trek The Next Generation in season 5 episode “The Russian Rocket Reaction”, where Leonard decides to attend a party with Sheldon’s arch enemy, Will Weaton.
Not only did recurring guest star Wheaton make an appearance but Brent Spiner, who played everyone’s favourite android Data, also joined in on the fun.
Spiner shows up at a party that the gang attend with Wheaton, continuing the running gag that all former Star Trek actors, other than Wheaton, are desperate for money. Initially Sheldon was reluctant to attend but is persuaded by the promise of meeting one of his Star Trek heroes.
The Next Generation references don’t stop there. Alice Krige, who played the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact, is also referenced by Raj at the party.
8 Kaley Cuoco’s broken leg
Kaley Cuoco broke her leg during a horse riding lesson, with the horse Cuoco was riding being spooked and throwing the actress to the ground. Cuoco got up and laughed the fall off. However, the horse wasn’t done. Turning around it tried to jump over Cuoco and landed on her left leg.
Cuoco told Ellen DeGeneres what happened next: “Then I looked, and I’m like, wow, my foot’s facing me… And I was like, that’s not normal.”
Watching the show, you’d have no idea that Cuoco’s leg was wrapped in a humongous pink cast. In fact, the producers decided not to write Cuoco’s broken leg into the show. Instead, Penny became a bartender, which allowed her to be shot from the waist up. It also led to one an amusing scene where Sheldon became an unlikely barfly.
7 Howard achieves lift-off
The season 5 finale “The Countdown Reaction” was literally out of the world. Caltech engineer Howard got to fulfil his boyhood wish and blast off into space.
Of course, this would make him an insufferable bore in season 6 but at least he got to have one up on Sheldon.
Sitting beside him on launch day was real-life astronaut Mike Massimino. The former astronaut was on hand to offer technical pointers and was impressed with the level of detail that went into making the launch scenes as realistic as possible, telling Space.com: “The detail to the set, to the costumes — what we were going to wear — they wanted everything, the patches, the name tags that we were going to wear, every little detail to look as authentic as possible”
6 The set is vast
Stage 25 on the Warner Brothers’ Burbank is home to The Big Bang Theory. The vast set can be changed to reflect the many different locations on the show: the various apartments, Stuart’s comic book store, the cheesecake factory. One thing it can’t do though is be on multiple floors.
That's why the stairs the characters walk up and down lead to a wall and, no matter what floor they’re on, it’s the same pair of elevator doors.
There’s also great attention to detail to the different locations
. The comic book store is kept up to date with the latest releases, Sheldon and Leonard’s apartment is filled with actual textbooks, and there’s even an original Chewbacca action figure sitting proudly beside Sheldon’s laptop.
5 Learning lines
Keeping on top of the script must be a challenge for the cast of The Big Bang Theory, with its quantum sea of complicated scientific jargon. No wonder the writers include sidebars in the scripts explaining these terms, although the cast look like they have to have a couple of read troughs on set to let their lines sink in.
Luckily Jim Parsons, who plays theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper has some tricks up his sleeve. Not only is the actor "good friends" with Dictionary.com and Wikipedia, but he’ll also use note cards to write out the more complicated terms. Although this in itself is a bit of work as he told Daily Actor: “I do note cards all week. And in longhand, I write out all my lines again and again and again. And on the weekends, I drill them.
4 Actual scientists for the science
David Saltzeberg (right) is the brains behind much of the science you see on The Big Bang Theory. Originally, producers asked the UCLA professor to show them around real-life student apartments while the show was still in its developmental phase.
Since then Saltzeberg has gone on to become the show’s principal scientific advisor. He’s the one who makes sure the white board equations are correct and actually reflect current scientific trends.
Each script comes to Saltzeberg with the words “Insert Science Here” literally written where some brainy dialogue needs to go. He’s also always on set for each live recording should the producers have a question or need to check the accuracy of jokes rewritten on the go.
Although he’s only had one joke actually make it to the show. When a character describes a fight Sheldon’s just had with another scientist as a misunderstanding, Sheldon cries “A little misunderstanding? Galileo and the pope had a little misunderstanding!”
3 Not that nerdy in real life
The cast of The Big Bang Theory don’t actually look like nerds in real life. That might not come as surprise, being that they are actors and all, but after more than a decade on the air the actors are pretty synonymous with their characters.
Some of them even look pretty dapper walking up the red carpet in their tuxedos or in the numerous selfies that they post to their Instagram accounts.
That’s not to say that the actors are dolts. Mayim Balik has some legitimate academic chops with a bona fide PhD in neuroscience from UCLA (her character Amy Farrah Fowler is also a neuroscientist).
Handy as Balik occasionally helps out when some scientific advisor is needed on things like what kind of microscope would they be using, or how thin sample slices should be.
2 Star Trek Meets Star Wars
The worlds of Star Trek and Star Wars rarely cross, with the one huge exception of J.J. Abrams directing instalments of both franchises. Things don’t have to be that way on The Big Bang Theory, where fandoms often collide.
When Sheldon and Amy got married Mark Hamill was at hand to officiate, while Sheldon’s arch-nemesis Will Wheaton sat in the audience. Luke Skywalker? Wesley Crusher? In the same room? Only on The Big Bang Theory.
However, Hamill looks like he’s using some powers that are distinctly on the dark side of the force in this photo with the erstwhile Starfleet cadet. Maybe Luke’s recent change into a morose brooding figure in The Last Jedi rubbed off on Hamill.
1 Testing the jokes
Sitcom writing is a hard thing. Sure, there's the writers' room where a team of the best comedic talent work up scripts until they are a near-perfect mix of jokes and drama. Then there's the cast read through, which carries with it another round of fine tuning.
However, the only time that the producers of The Big Bang Theory will know if their jokes are a catalyst for maximum laughter is when they are performed in front of a live audience. If a joke works, then Eureka! But if a joke falls flat then it will be worked on and retested on the audience.
Sometimes different punchlines might be tested out or their will be slight tweaks to lines to achieve the greatest comedic effect. On a show like The Big Bang Theory there can't be any risks of a dud line or sight gag falling flat.
Although spare a thought for the audience who have to sit through numerous retakes of the same scene.
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Which of these behind-the-scenes The Big Bang Theory photos is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!
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