Penny and Sheldon

The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons on Twitter, parakeets, and Star Trek by Michelle Kung

During a panel at the Paley Center in Manhattan earlier this week, Jim Parsons — who plays uber-nerd Dr. Sheldon Cooper on CBS’s popular sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” — shocked the audience when he revealed that (gasp) he hadn’t seen any of the “Star Trek” movies. He also shared that, yes, he meticulously memorizes all of his jargon-heavy dialogue (even what he doesn’t understand) and relies on YouTube to help give him context about some of the famous sci-fi in-jokes his character utters (like Admiral Ackbar’s “It’s a trap!” from “Return of the Jedi”).

Both Judy Greer and Mayim Bialik (of “Blossom” fame) will be guest-starring as female eggheads this month. Are the writers determined to give Sheldon a girlfriend?

Judy plays a scientist that Sheldon’s invited to stay at the apartment, and she’s very similar to him on first blush. However, he quickly realizes she’s much more in touch with using her sexuality than he is, and his opinion of her drops from peer to just ordinary. Mayim’s character is much closer to matching Sheldon’s personality. They’re not mirror images, but they’re certainly talking at each other. I say this – because their meeting in the finale episode is so brief — I literally do not know where that scene is going. It’s the final scene and we only exchange four lines, so I guess it’s our version of a cliffhanger. The intent, I think is to carry over the story to next year, but your guess is as good as mine.

Bill Prady, one of the show’s Executive Producers, is an avid Twitter user, and frequently tweets with fans when each episode airs.

No one has a grip on these actual characters more than Bill does. A lot of that comes from his experience [as a computer programmer]. As such, he just knows as well as anybody why these geniuses are saying what they’re saying. I would be horrible at Twitter. I wouldn’t know the answer to fans’ questions half the time — and the patience involved! I couldn’t imagine. I did have a Twitter account that I tried for a couple days, but found I had nothing to say. There are some interesting facts I could share, but I don’t want to share that part of myself.

For your first major acting role since starting “The Big Bang Theory,” you’ve signed up for “The Big Year,” a comedy about three birdwatchers (played by Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black) trying to spot as many species as they can in one year.

I grew up with two different parakeets — one that lived for five years, and one that lived for 13 years — so I always had a bit of an attraction to birds and it’s an oddly good fit to be in a movie about birdwatchers. When my agents first told me there was this movie about birders, I didn’t understand what that meant and thought they were actually saying bowlers. I ended up reading for two parts, neither of which I ended up getting, but they handed me another role: I’m going to play a birdwatcher who runs an aviary blog.

Given the success of the show, are you being offered more parts in films and other projects?

I want to say no, but it’s hard for me to judge because I’m not going in on more auditions. My hiatus timeline is so minimal, there’s only a select number of projects that I can go in for. I feel we did made more of a push this year. I’m a little sick in that regard because I enjoy going in and auditioning. There are also situations where you’re taking meetings, but I never know what to say that’s going to make them want to cast me. Though I could imagine things I could say for them not to want to cast me. Honestly, I’d rather just audition.

Is your current gig what you were expecting when you first moved to L.A.?

When I first started out in Houston, it was theater or bust. And I loved it. I still love it. And then I went to undergraduate and graduate school for acting. My choices in projects have all been character or role-based, and on a financial level, it’s obvious: as an actor on a TV series, I get a wonderful paycheck, and a consistent paycheck, which doesn’t always happen when you’re doing theater or movies. Both are hard in their own ways. Theater doesn’t pay as much and your show will come to an end, and nothing’s for sure in movies, unless you’re a huge star. Any money I’m making now, I’m trying to be frugal with it. Though when I was living in New York, I was fighting for the paycheck and I even enjoyed that to a certain degree. I don’t miss cashing unemployment checks and am not stupid enough to say that, but yes, to a degree, I enjoy the rat race aspect of it.

The theory behind The Big Bang Theory’s big bang by Nicholas White

It is Tuesday afternoon, and inside Stage 25 on the Warner Brothers studio lot, there's a buzz of excitement. It's either that or a medical emergency. This is home of The Big Bang Theory, one of TV's hottest sitcoms, and through the clutter of cameras, lights and crew, Simon Helberg, one of the show's stars, is having what appears to be a panic attack.

Helberg, who plays geeky engineer Howard Wolowtiz, is pacing by himself off stage, shaking his hands and walking in an apparent trance. As a show aide watches, it's clear he's not having a freak out but rather getting loose before a pivotal scene with guest star Summer Glau, the super-hot babe from Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles. After the director yells action, Glau rejects advances from the nerdy engineer, who reacts with an assortment of facial tics that expose a vulnerability guaranteed to wring both discomfort and laughter.

He then asks for a picture of her with him for his Facebook page, which she obliges but does not smile. It's funny — painfully so — a genius comedic moment on a show about the comic neediness and nerdiness of young geniuses. "You're kind of making an ass of yourself," Helberg later says of his job.

But it's worth the embarrassment. The series, which is about two Cal Tech prodigies in physics who share an apartment and live across from a gorgeous blond, stems from the fertile and funny brain of executive producer and co-creator, Chuck Lorre, whose prime time resume includes Two and a Half Men, Roseanne, Cybil and Dharma and Greg. "When we get the script," Helberg adds, "it's almost like you can just see it."

In addition to Helberg, The Big Bang Theory stars Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, and Kunal Nayyar, and between scenes, the cast hangs out together, sipping coffee and trading stories as if they were pals in an office with neighboring cubicles on a coffee break. In reality, such as it is, they're the stars of TV's number two rated sitcom, in other words a genuine hit, and yet instead of ego or stardom, they seem to enjoy the quiet confidence of ordinariness.

"We're in a bubble here," says Nayyar, who plays Ph.D. Rajesh Koothrappali. "We come to work, hang out, do our thing, and it's hard to look from the outside and say it is a bona fide hit. The media and critics are now beginning to talk about it. But it's not a show like Gossip Girl or something that's always in U.S. tabloids. We're not in that sort of public eye. We're blessed."

They're not likely to end up in the tabloids either. "It's the most sober and celibate cast I've ever worked with," says Galecki. "It's a healthy group especially for a young cast."

Take Parsons, aka the ultra-wordy Sheldon Cooper. The Houston-born actor, whose previous credits include seven episodes on Judging Amy, can rattle off 1,000 words of dialogue without a sweat. He's obsessive about maintaining a clean dressing room — it's legendary among his castmates — and he has a preference for herbal teas. "There's not a lot of jokiness that goes on the set, maybe surprisingly so," he says. "There's a seriousness about the funny."

Jim Parsons: I [recently] got called nerd stud. I've never heard that before. I think it's a fabricated idea. If there's any true to it, I guess I'm happy! Maybe over my hiatus, I'll get a personal trainer. Next year, Sheldon can be in a Speedo: an experiment to see if his skin can adjust to new weather conditions. I think people would be taken aback if Sheldon was ripped, like, "What the hell"?

Kaley Cuoco: Smart is the new sexy: I think it always was, but now we're bringing it out a little more. As smart as these guys are, that's why people watch.

Bill Prady (Executive Producer/Co-Creator): People often say, "Are you making fun of Leonard and Sheldon?" My answer is: spend a half hour in our writers' room. We're not making fun of them. We are them. All of their quirks and passions come from us. Logically, if this is the nerdiest show on television, that would make us the nerdiest writers in television. Therefore, we would like to say it's the coolest show on television, and the coolest audience.

Kunal Nayyar: Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady said they never set out to create a show about nerds. They set out to create a show about incredible minds. Their lifestyle is nerdy, and I would presume all of us have that side to us. There is a part of everyone that has that.

Simon Helberg: People watch it because they can relate to being an outsider or underdog. It feels like a little secret that you have.

Johnny Galecki: Initially, critics said it was going to be a dumb show making fun of smart people. I'm really proud that it never was that. I watch some shameless, mindless reality TV. I also watch 60 Minutes, Dateline, and CNN constantly. I don't think that high numbers for relatively mindless television means the audience is dumber.

During another break in the action, Parsons and Cuoco provide a tour of the set and crack jokes about the numerous Justice League dolls sitting on window sills and Post-It reminders on a bedside calendar. Cuoco, an ace tennis player in real life, points to one of three set ping-pong tables, bragging that she dominates as set champion and warning that sharing paddles is strictly prohibited. For comedic effet, she jokes that she likes to read comic books naked.

Parsons explains a five-foot-tall, multi-colored strand of DNA in their living room. Physics books line shelves. Mathematical formulas are written on white boards. The only formula not visible is the one that's made this show a ratings hit. Last year's writers strike gave the then-new series chance to gain its footing, and since the show's return for season two last fall and CBS' fashioning of Monday into a must-laugh night of comedy, it's seen a steady growth to where it has been pulling in 13 million viewers. "There are still people that don't know about it yet," says Helberg.

Simon Helberg: There were five or six weeks in a row where every week we're growing. They put us after Two and a Half Men, and we slowly jumped up after that. It's not like Friends where they were a commodity, and it was like an empire. It's nice to be able to live a normal life and still feel like people are excited about it.

Kunal Nayyar: Every week, we started having 500,000 more viewers, 500,000 more viewers.

Kaley Cuoco: I think the show has always been a huge word-of-mouth show. I run into people that just started [watching], because they air it on the planes. They tell their friends. It started in recent months. It's shown in the ratings. All of a sudden, people caught on to what it was. I literally think it's people going, "Oh my God, you have to watch this show, it's so funny." People just started watching. I've never seen a show do this before. It's crazy.

Johnny Galecki: I think it's still turning because we're growing. With all due respect to marketing and publicity, people are really finding it on their own. It seems to be more word of mouth. When people discover something on their own, they appreciate it more, as opposed to being bombarded by billboard campaigns or something stuffed down their throats. It took a little while to find it and the writers strike. It's evolving slowly but surely.

Jim Parsons: One of the best things that happened to us is we came back after the strike. It was really hard for shows, especially hour-long dramas. We were able to get back up and running again. Not only did we do 17 new [shows], but we had a new library to rerun that summer. I feel that was the punch that helped going in. It felt the launch of a second season, instead of a re-launch or a 1.5. So much is intangible of what people are going to take to. I don't know why they take to something or don't. Shows you hate go for years. You don't know why this whole [group] of people likes something you don't or vice versa. That's something I can look at as tangible. I know that helped. There is no way it didn't.

Bill Prady: I think if you look back, it's when the show came back last year after the Writers Strike. You anecdotally came to be aware that people knew the show. People say, "What do you do for a living?" I would mention the show, and everybody knew what I was talking about. This year we've been steadily building every week. We had a great opportunity to be at 9:30 because of the President's speech and have a whole new group of people watching the show. It's nice to know that you're not crazy that something you think is something turns out actually to be something.

Some history. Premiering in September 2007, The Big Bang Theory was the creation of Roseanne and Two and a Half Men veteran Chuck Lorre and Dharma & Greg producer Bill Prady. It was conceived as, perhaps, the anti-Two and a Half Men, which has often been maligned (by shows such as Family Guy) for milquetoast easy laughs. The Big Bang Theory, with its brainy dialogue, was an apparent contrast...even if the sitcom conventions give it a mainstream familiarity. Even episode names are multi-syllable: The Maternal Capacitance and The Financial Permeability.

The Big Bang Theory premiered to 9 million viewers in 2007, making it TV's 37th highest rated show. Despite a nearly five-month lapse in new episodes, the show bounced around between 7 and 9 million viewers for all of its 17-episode first season. Its second season premiered in September 2008 again to 9 million viewers. In weeks since, it has gradually increased to now being TV's 15th highest rated show. For many people, may still sound like a remote show on The Discovery Channel or History Channel. "We're a sitcom that has a fan base that treats the show the way a sci-fi fan base treats their shows," Bill Prady says. "There's a kind of passion in our fans that you don't usually see in 30-minute comedies. They're like Battlestar Galactica or Star Trek fans."

A nerdy comedy's winning formula by John Jurgensen

BURBANK, Calif. — During a recent taping of CBS's "The Big Bang Theory," the opening scene featured some unlikely dialogue for a prime-time comedy, including references to galactic dark matter and high-energy positrons. Almost as unusual as the science jargon: the live studio audience laughing at it.

Comedies are facing a tough crowd on broadcast television. Just four comedy series were introduced on the major networks this fall, and only three of those have survived. Now, with a potential actors strike looming, networks are increasingly drawing on nonunion reality shows. The group of midseason network shows slated for early 2009 doesn't feature any new comedies. Traditional sitcoms, in particular, have fallen out of fashion as networks ditched the laugh track in recent years for "dramedies" such as "Desperate Housewives" and fresher formats in the vein of the mock documentary "The Office." In this setting, staging sitcoms for live audiences has the co-creator of "The Big Bang Theory," Chuck Lorre, feeling like "the last guy standing in a dodgeball game."

The show, which revolves around two socially challenged physicists and their comely female neighbor, has sprouted into a hit. Among viewers ages 18 to 49, "Big Bang" currently outranks all comedies launched in the last two years, according to the Nielsen Company. It debuted in fall 2007, part of a lineup of shows whose season was cut short by last winter's writers strike. Few bounced back. But "Big Bang" has hit a string of series-high ratings this season. The show airs its final new episode of the year Monday night before returning with new shows on Jan. 12.

The dwindling of sitcoms in prime time doesn't mean America's collective sense of humor has radically changed. "Sitcoms are like the American car industry — there's still great potential there, but the question is how do they succeed when people have gotten used to all the other options," says Michael Kantor, creator of "Make 'Em Laugh," a six-part documentary on the evolution of American comedy that will air on PBS next month. "With all the innovative single-camera comedy programs and the documentary-style filming, the laugh track really feels like it's from another era."

Whiteboards often appear on the "Big Bang" set, scrawled with arcane equations, but the formula the show itself follows is far simpler. The central characters, Leonard (played by Johnny Galecki, who starred on "Roseanne" as a teen) and Sheldon (newcomer Jim Parsons) are "brilliant in how their minds work, but inept in ways the normal civilian takes for granted, which is hopefully where we mine a lot of comedy," Mr. Lorre says.

In "The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis," the episode taped the week of Thanksgiving, the duo's neighbor Penny (Kaley Cuoco) proposes an exchange of Christmas gifts. Sheldon debunks the holiday he describes as "the ancient pagan festival of Saturnalia," and tries to shun her present, which will require from him "a gift of commensurate value and representing the same perceived level of friendship," he says. "It's no wonder suicide rates skyrocket this time of year." Sheldon is then forced into alien territory — a bath and body store — to shop for gift baskets with Spock-like logic.

Sheldon is the main engine for the show's geek dynamic. He has a huge I.Q. but no aptitude for social niceties nor discernible interest in the opposite sex. Mr. Parsons, tall and thin with an elfin face, plays him haughty and hyper, often pitching his voice into a squeak of indignation or alarm. Sheldon's roommate Leonard yearns for social acceptance and — in another engine for the show — a romantic shot with Penny. For her part, Penny is at ease in the world, a sucker for hunks and, in her often mortified response to the guys' brainy antics, a proxy for viewers.

"It's a good device, juxtaposing that culture of nerds," says George F. Smoot, a "Big Bang" fan who's particularly familiar with that social segment; Dr. Smoot is a physics professor at Berkeley whose Nobel Prize-winning research helped shape the actual Big Bang Theory. While the characters' awkward social tics are "a little overdrawn," he says, he appreciates how the show represents a population whose job it is to think rigorously. Dr. Smoot was invited to make a cameo on "Big Bang" this season, but his teaching and travel schedule got in the way.

In the show's original pilot episode, the Penny character (portrayed by a different actress) was a hard-drinking woman with a caustic attitude toward the nerds next door. It didn't work. "The audience hated her because they were so protective of these little lambs," Mr. Lorre says. In a rare move, CBS ordered a second pilot. Mr. Lorre and co-creator Bill Prady rewrote the script, transforming Penny and adding two more scientists to the ensemble: Howard (Simon Helberg), a randy aerospace engineer who lives with his mom, and Rajesh (Kunal Nayyar), who goes mute in the presence of women.

Like the show itself, however, these characters haven't become household names — no Kramers or Phoebes here. That helps illustrate how the parameters for a hit have shifted for network comedies as audiences have splintered, pulled away by cable television, the Internet and other entertainment options. This week, at its highest ratings so far, "Big Bang" pulled in just over 10 million total viewers. For comparison, Mr. Galecki reflects back on his days on "Roseanne" in the 1990s: "We were bummed if we were under 28 million."

Now, the closest thing to a "Seinfeld" or "Friends," at least in sheer numbers, is "Two and a Half Men," the Charlie Sheen sitcom anchoring the successful Monday comedy block that "Big Bang" kicks off at 8 p.m. Also co-created by Mr. Lorre, "Two and a Half Men" averages about 14 million total viewers; out of the 25 top-ranked shows, it's the only traditional multi-camera sitcom.

Much of the grist for "Big Bang" came from Mr. Prady. Though a veteran producer of shows such as "Gilmore Girls" and "Dharma & Greg," he's also a former RadioShack salesman and computer programmer who stumbled into the television business after selling his share of a software company in 1983. For "Big Bang," he drew inspiration from his own awkward episodes and the quirks of his programming buddies, piquing Mr. Lorre's interest with real characters like the math whiz who struggled to compute a restaurant tip because of too many variables in the service.

As for the science (and science fiction) concepts on the show, Mr. Prady says, "there are two kinds of sesquipedalian dialogue." There's the variety that comes from the writers' wonky expertise, such as the debate the guys have over how Superman can get sweat stains out of his outfit if his perspiration, like him, is indestructible.

The other kind of dialogue, based on hardcore science, comes from UCLA professor David Saltzberg, an astrophysicist who vets the science on "Big Bang." (For example, he makes sure all the equations on the whiteboards are real.) Recently, the writers asked him to tell them about some fresh area of research that would undermine the work of a character on the show. The result: the introduction of an alpha-male physicist who has won a MacArthur "genius" grant for his research on galactic dark matter. "Big deal," Leonard says about his rival's award. "It's like prom queen for smart people."

On the "Big Bang" stage, a maze of plywood walls, diorama-like sets and pockets of open space where cast and crew wage fierce ping-pong tournaments during shooting breaks, a cluster of writers and producers gathered to watch a rehearsal. They looked down from a tier of seats that audience members would fill during the live taping that night. Mr. Lorre turned to Mr. Prady and mentioned a newspaper article about new research suggesting a shadow universe of dark matter, or even another dimension, based on particle activity in space. "The particles are leaking into our universe?" Mr. Prady asked, sounding pleased about the idea.

When the devices of "Big Bang" are working — be they physics concepts, videogame jokes, or Renaissance fair costumes — it's only because audiences have embraced the characters, the producers say. "Everyone goes through life with the sense that somebody else has it all figured out. The point of these characters is, you can be the smartest people in the world and you're still an outsider," Mr. Prady says. "The essence of comedy," he adds, "is pain."

How to make a Big Bang on a busy monday night by Matt Mitovich

A funny thing happened last week. A quiet little comedy that neither stars Charlie Sheen nor teases us with the identity of a proverbial Mother hit a ratings milestone (9.9 million viewers), putting a certain behemoth of a dance competition to shame in the process. Yep, we're talking about CBS' The Big Bang Theory (Mondays at 8 pm/ET), which in its second season is proving to be one of the most reliable laugh generators on all of prime time.

Of course, that's not to say it's immune to the occasional sweeps stunt. Bill Prady (who co-created the comedy with Chuck Lorre) shared with TVGuide.com a look at how some Top Models get wrapped up in our boy geniuses' world, as well as reveals the show's overall formula for success. (Thankfully, it does not involve string theory.)

Congratulations on the series-high ratings. Is the 10 million threshold in your sights?

I've got to tell you, I was waiting for when we beat Dancing with the Stars in the demo, which we did. That was sort of my goal. And it felt really good!

What's great is that as the series surges, you're not doing anything different. You haven't dumbed it down or "made it more accessible." It is what it's always been.

I think we only know how to do this. [Laughs] It's interesting because the thing we're here to talk about, it didn't start out as, "How can we do a stunt with Top Model?" It was just a storyline we pitched that seemed natural to the characters. We work inside-out that way.

What are the Top Model gals doing, and who are they doing it with?

They are the object of a quest. Penny's television is on the fritz, so she comes next door to see who's being kicked off of America's Next Top Model. When Penny lets it slip that all the women live in a house together, Wolozitz is taken aback. He realizes that once a week, a beautiful girl is kicked out of this house, left with no self esteem — aka the Future Mrs. Howard Wolowitz. [Laughs] So he and Koothrappali use science to try to locate the house, charting star positions and physical landmarks, using satellite photography...

I've always thought it'd be fun if Wolowitz got a steady girlfriend for a few episodes.

He will, at some point. Coming up, he is going to meet a girl played by Sara Rue, and Leonard will steal her away — though he won't mean to do it.

Going into the first season finale, did you have any intention of following through on the Penny-Leonard romance? Or was it always just a tease?

[In an early draft] they did not go out at the end of it, and it felt so unsatisfying. People said, "Careful, there are many sharks waiting to be jumped if they [have a date]," but we felt that if we were honest to the characters, the first time simply wouldn't go well. And they won't try it again for a while. My feeling is that the reality of that guy, with that girl, will start and stop over the years. This is of course the nerdiest writers room in television, and we've all brought our experiences of being nerds who loved pretty girls. What happens is you take a shot, you screw it up, you back off, time passes, you take a shot again... Penny's not yet at the place in her life where she has figured out that the Leonards of the world are better for her than the Biffs. But she'll get there, someday. The thing that was very exciting is that it was Penny's problem [she never graduated college] that prevented the relationship. And once we found out it was Penny's problem, Leonard screwed it up massively. [Laughs]

Fans also love the scenes with Sheldon and Penny. Does that present a tricky balancing act?

When we have a story and it's fun, we do it. [This week] things come to a head between them, and the ending is surprising as to who gets the upper hand and why. It's like an earthquake — you have tremors, an earthquake, and then it's gone for a while.

Sara Gilbert is a regular this season, yet we haven't seen much of Leslie Winkle. Will that change soon?

She's in an episode coming up. Being a semi-regular, I think, is her actual arrangement.

Some fans think Sheldon might hook up with Leslie before Leonard does.

In last week's episode Penny asked, "What's Sheldon's' deal? Is it guys, girls, sock puppets...?" The guys say, "We've been operating under the assumption that Sheldon has no deal." Sheldon is so far away from having any kind of human relationship, I don't think he is a big contender.

Settle a small mystery here: Who's the voice of Wolowitz's mom?

Carol Ann Susi. She's a terrific actress, and we think it's delightful that we don't see her. Carol Ann says [adopting her raspy, accented voice], "I don't have to dress up or put on makeup. This is the best job in television!"

Are we going to meet any more characters' family members this season?

Leonard's mom might come to visit. We're still figuring out what kind of woman she would be. We've established that his father is an anthropologist and his mother is a research psychiatrist. We've often said there's the possibility that Leonard is the least successful in his family. His parents always pushed him toward academic success, whereas Sheldon's parents had no idea what had been born among then. [Laughs]

Your episode titles are all written in the form of a "theorem," "hypothesis," "paradigm"... Any fear of running out?

It was a very big issue at the start of the year, whether we could reuse words. The official belief is that we will reuse them each season — because there aren't 250 different ones.

If you ever want a good groan, check out Knight Rider's episode titles. They all use a pun on the word "night."

As long as they do an episode called "Good Knight, Moon," I'm happy!

The Big Bang Theory creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady interviewed by Matt Goldberg

"Watchmen" wasn't the only packed panel Friday morning at this year's Comic-Con. Making its first appearance at the Con, the CBS sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" managed to fill every seat in 6CDEF, signaling a loyal following and excitement over the show's upcoming season, premiering September 22nd. I sat down with show-runners Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady to talk about the show's conception, development, and most importantly, Sheldon's Chinese dining woes.

During the panel, you made a comment about the show, calling the characters "Not geeks but remarkable people." Is that something you were worried about getting a backlash about or did you get some backlash about it?

Chuck Lorre: I was always kind of struggling with labeling the characters in a demeaning way because they're brilliant characters. But I guess "brilliant" isn't as good a word for the media as "geek" and "nerd" but they're geniuses.

Bill Prady: Well I think there are two ways those words are used; one as a self-identification and of pride and then there's a derogatory aspect of it and we never approach the characters with labels. We said let's do a show about these people.

Lorre: They're dimensionalized people. You can't simply say they're a "geek" or a "nerd" and be done with it.

Bringing in the science aspect of the show, how do you balance that with the comedy so that it's not obscure but also accurate enough not to offend those that would be able to spot the inaccuracy?

Lorre: It's a balancing act. There has to be science but there has to be comedy. You don't get the science, you'll still get the comedy. It's like if the show is in Portuguese, you should still be able to laugh. That's the bar you have to jump over as writers.

Prady: In the earlier days, we likened it to the "I Love Lucy" moment where Ricky would rant in Cuban-Spanish and it didn't affect your ability to watch the show.

Where did the original concept come from?

Lorre: We were discussing two different ideas together. One was about a woman who's pretty much getting her life started at the beginning of adulthood. And Bill was talking about the 80s and the genius computer programmers that he was one of. And they were such remarkable characters that it kind of took over and then we said "What happens if we put the two ideas together?" and then I think the big move was to get them out of the computer world entirely and make them quantum physicists. They're not entrepreneurs. They're scientists. That freed us up from a lot of clichés. No pocket protectors!

What did you learn from season one that you're bringing to season two?

Lorre: Penny's a far more formidable character than we gave her credit for when we began the series. The depths of Sheldon's neuroses are endless.

Prady: But I think we found ways to stay true to the characters we established. We learned great things about our performers. To discover that Kunal had the range that he had and that we could build stories around Koothrappali and Wolowitz; that we have some strength on the bench. We don't write away from any performer which is rare in television. We can write for any of them and get great stuff. We learned to listen to the characters. When we got off track and had weeks where he had to do some repair, it's because we had stopped listening to the characters.

Lorre: They're not slackers. This is not "Friends". These are very, very remarkable characters and if we stay true to that then it's quite a joy to be a part of.

Chuck, because you do "Two and a Half Men" as well, do you have to put a different head on to do that show since it's so different?

Lorre: Oh yeah. I have to leave my "Raunch" hat in that office before going to over to the "Big Bang" office. "Two and a Half" is a very different show. It's much more...carnal. It has its own voice. I love that the shows have different voices. On occasion, when a little "Two and a Half Men" leaks into "Big Bang Theory", it is so off and we shoot in front of a live audience, and when that happens, that live audience responds viscerally. "Whoooooa." You know you've made a mistake. We've re-written stuff in front of the audiences; we do that all the time anyway but it's very important to keep things separate.

Is that because people see Sheldon and Leonard as being innocents?

Lorre: They're very protective of them. There was a question about the first pilot and that was the biggest lesson of the first pilot: that Sheldon and Leonard; that the audience felt deeply concerned about their well-being. And that's wonderful. When you create a show with characters that the audience cares for? That's special. That was the reason to try and do it again. We didn't understand that going in.

Did you expect that crowd out there?

Lorre: No. If there had been 400 people out there today, I would have been thrilled. Truly, very exciting.

So you left season one off on a bit of a cliffhanger: Does Sheldon get his Orange Chicken or—[laughter]

Lorre: Well done.

Thank you. But what was a sub-plot in season one between Leonard and Penny, how will that go into season two?

Prady: We talked about nothing else for a while. It seems like the real reality of these situations is that it works, it stops working; Penny's young. Is she ready for that kind of serious boyfriend? Leonard looked at her almost as an object but now you have to deal with her as a complete person with her own complete set of feelings which to the Leonards of the world is somewhat surprising.

Lorre: Her own problems, her own issues. And I think that's going to come up more in the second season; that she's going to become more three dimensional. Her problems are her issues and her insecurities can determine the story as opposed to what one might expect: Oh, he's going to screw it up. Well, we know that. But wouldn't it be interesting if she had her own basket of neuroses that could mess up a relationship.

How do you make sure you don't get too over-the-top with the geekiness? For example, The Time Machine episode could have easily been too geeky, but you kept it balanced.

Lorre: But the episode was about how men get attached to toys and at what point do you put them down? So I think that grounded it and not being one long reference. We were comfortable with that show because it was about a guy who loves the things he collects and then gets called on the carpet by the women he's deeply enamored with and saying "You're a child" and it unsettles him and everything turns upside down. That's what it was all about. It didn't need the Time Machine. But it was really cool. I hate to use the term "stunt casting" for the Time Machine, but is there going to be anything like that in season two like them going to Comic-Con? We would have loved to have done something with Comic-Con. We just didn't have the time. We would have loved to come down here and shoot some scenes down here. How exciting would that be? Maybe next year.

If Leonard and Sheldon did come to Comic-Con, who would they come dressed as?

Prady: They have a deep wardrobe. There would be an argument because Leonard would say "Let's all pick our own costumes," and Sheldon would want some sort of group theme; he would want it "We're all either from the same film" or "We all represent the same idea" like different Star Trek uniforms from different shows or "We're all villains from different things." His compulsion for order and arrangement and his need to impose that on the group would be problem #1 for picking costumes for Comic-Con.

When making geek references on the show, how much of that is trying to tap into the Zeitgeist and how much of it is just personally showing love for a property you enjoy?

Lorre: All of the stuff comes out of the writer's room and half the time we're saying "That's too obscure," At some point you start making the experience not inclusive to people who come from outside this world. It comes up very organically.

Prady: It's tricky because like I'm a big DC Comics fan but it ends at the Silver Age so I've been given a reading list so I can stay current. But there are guys in the writers' room are fiercely current on things like that.

Series star gets Bang out of funny physics by Pat Douglas

Sometimes all it takes is an unorthodox idea to spark the interest of the fickle television watching community. That's how a notion incorporating physics into the plotline of a comedy-based television show ended up garnering big laughs and ultimately big ratings for CBS.

"The Big Bang Theory" is based on the goings on of an eclectic group of friends. While most people would be able to solve a Rubik's cube faster than they could grasp the basics of physics, the intention wasn't necessarily to reach a crowd with a vast knowledge of such things.

"(There's) more to these guys than their geek or nerd traits or whatever you want to call them," said actor Johnny Galecki in a phone interview with the Tribune from his home in Los Angeles. "For some reason, the cool kids seem to want to claim relations to these characters as opposed to laughing at them."

If you have trouble following what is said on the show from time to time, don't feel bad, even the actors have their occasional issues with the subject matter.

"The responsible actor in you wants to know what you're talking about," Galecki said. "Sometimes it does get to a point where there are limitations of the mind. To a certain degree I'll understand enough to know where to put inflection ... but, I just don't have that kind of mind to fully grasp the line that some sort of profound physics observation or comment is."

"I don't understand 99 percent of what I'm saying myself," he said with a laugh.

Galecki plays Leonard on the show. He shares an apartment with the incredibly smart Sheldon. While the script is peppered with physics jokes, Galecki noted that you don't have to understand them to find the dialogue funny.

"I think the writers have done a great job with making a show that's so involved with physics and doesn't turn people off that don't understand it and vice versa," said Galecki. "I (also) hear from people that really enjoy getting the inside jokes of the physics."

The show originated when producer Chuck Lorre reached out to Galecki with an idea he had about a physics comedy. The two knew each other after working together briefly on "Roseanne," on which Galecki played the role of David, Darlene's boyfriend.

"I started to kick around maybe doing a live audience television show again," recalled Galecki, who has spent a lot of time since "Roseanne" acting in theater and in movies. "Chuck kind of called at the perfect time and told me about this idea that he had."

Soon, producer Bill Prady and actor Jim Parsons were brought into the mix and a couple of pilots were made.

"It was about a two-and-a-half-year process to get it through from the time that Chuck called me 'til it finally aired," said Galecki who also had roles in films such as "Suicide Kings," "Vanilla Sky," "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and as a young Rusty in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

Initially, Galecki was to play the role of Sheldon, although early on he requested a switch to Leonard. In came Parsons who stepped into Sheldon's shoes and ran with the character.

"Jim Parsons is so incredible in that role that I can't imagine anyone else, including myself, doing it," Galecki said of Parsons. "Nobody can hold a candle to what he does as Sheldon. I love working with him. We have similar processes of how we work and similar senses of humor. I can't say enough good things about him. That man is sitcom gold. He's just a comic genius."

It was announced in February that the show would return for a second season, something that generated a lot of excitement amongst the "Big Bang" camp.

"The fact that people have found this show and taken a liking to it is really touching," Galecki said. "I want the show to do well and ... I want people to feel a kinship to the characters. It was so galvanizing to learn that (the network) was supporting us after our involvement and investment in this show."

Crossing his fingers for success with "Big Bang," Galecki knows what it's like to be part of a mega-successful television show after "Roseanne," which can be seen any day of the week in syndication. The actor looks back on his time with "Roseanne" with nothing but fondness and views it as a huge stepping stone in his development as an actor.

"Roseanne, who comes from the comic world obviously and who likes to wing it more than anything, and John (Goodman) who's a very disciplined film actor ... to be able to watch them and create my own amalgamation of a process that worked for me, obviously I couldn't have had better examples," said Galecki. "I wasn't an actor before I did that show, I don't think."

Now that the writer's strike is over, the actors on "Big Bang" are glad to be back to work, despite having a busy time catching up with a backlog of shows.

"It went from zero to 60 in .2 seconds here as soon as the strike ended," Galecki said with a chuckle. "We were ecstatic to get back. It kind of feels like not a day passed."