Penny and Sheldon

The Big Bang boom by Libby Slate

You've got to love a sitcom whose lead characters, Sheldon and Leonard, are named for an iconic comedy actor-producer, (that would be Sheldon Leonard).
And audiences do love The Big Bang Theory, sticking with the CBS Monday night show its first season through the writers' strike and this year, voting it the People's Choice Award as favorite television comedy.
The industry loves it too, Big Bang won last year's Television Critics Association Award for outstanding achievement in comedy and was named one of the most outstanding television programs of 2009 by the american Film Institute. Also, Jim Parsons was nominated for a 2009 primetime emmy Award as outstanding lead actor in a comedy.
The show about Caltech physicists Sheldon Cooper (Parsons) and Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), their scientist friends Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and Rajesh koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar) and aspiring actress-neighbor Penny No-last-name-mentioned (Kaley Cuoco), regularly scores as the most-watched comedy among adults eighteen to forty-nine and twenty-five to fifty-four and number two comedy among viewers overall.
For Chuck Lorre, co-creator executive producer with Bill Prady, the show stands apart from his previous creations (grace under fire, Cybill, Two and a half men), because, he says "There's a wonderful innocence to these characters. That's a very different element in a half-hour comedy. It's inviting. The guys have a naiveté that's really charming."
As for the entire cast, "they bring joy and enthusiasm to the work," Lorre says.
"They're a very supportive ensemble. There's a sense of community that shows up on- and off-camera."
That community showed up at a recent photoshoot at the Pentahouse of the Residences at W Hollywood. No divas here, despite the hips surroundings and cool threads — just the good friends getting the job done amid occasional chitchat and the display of a new iPad. After all, says iPad owner Cuoco the photo-shoot glam "isn't the real world."
Sounds like Penny is just as smart as the guys.

Growing up in Houston Jim Parsons wanted to be a meteorologist. "I'm still intigued by the drama of the natural occourrence of hurricanes," he says. "I lived on the Gulf Coast, and when Alicia was coming, I literally felt she was gaining strenght - she knew where she was going, and we were left."
He decided instead to find his drama on stage as a theater major, helping to establish a nonprofit theater company while still in college and later earning a graduate degree in theater.
So perhaps it's not such a stretch that he's now playing a different kind of scientist - or maybe it is. Asked what's funny about physics Parsons responded: "It certainly hadn't crossed my mind that there's anything funny about physics. To find something amusing, you have find something you understand - and with physics, I'm still baffled."
But even that state of being is helpful when it comes to portraying Sheldon, an individual with no sense of humor or irony. "It speaks to that disconnect that Sheldon has, an extreme disconnect from human emotion," Parsons adds. "It's very fun to play in the extremes of this character, to focus so wholeheartedly on it. I admire that dogged focus, but not to the point of ignoring emotion and empathy."
Parsons expresses his own emotions playing piano. He's also an avid baseball, tennis and basketball fan. Enacting such an extreme character is actually liberating, he notes, in part for his respect for the Big Bang writers, nurtured by his theater experience.
"The older I get, the more I love language," says the actor whose other credits include a recurring role on Judging Amy and the features Garden State, Heights and On the road with Judas. "I had it knocked into my skull early on to be faithful to the writer - not only the word, but the periods, the commas. By letting the writing be my guidepost. I feel very free to make choices."
His choices landed Parsons his first Primetime Emmy nomination last year. "It was unexpected. I hadn't imagined what it would be like," he reflects. "You felt like a sense of camaraderie that I never would understood before. It was fun - it had a celebratory aspect to it. It was such an exciting time."

Kaley Cuoco got a glimpse of sitcom fame early in her career, when she played actress Maureen McCormick in the television film Growing up Brady. Nowadays, Cuoco is making her own comedy mark as Penny, an aspiring actress and Cheesecake Factory waitress who lives across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard.
Despite her native southern California-blonde good looks and avid male fan following, she's fiercely protective of the guys in Penny's life. "They're not nerds," she insists. "They're not aware of the social side of life. Penny's brought them out in the world - even Sheldon's become more socialized."
Cuoco, an alumn of the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules, is also grateful for the viewers' embrace: "This show is so special to certain people - they live and breathe it. We all know it. That the fans have stuck by us."
A nationally ranked amateur tennis player in her teens, the actress now shows and jumps her three horses.
"They keep me grounded. When you're on one of these animals, you can't think of anything else." She's ready for her charater to try a new skill, as well. "I think Penny should work at a Sushi restaurant and have to dress like a geisha," she offers. "I have the idea that she happens to be a genius sushi maker."

Bazinga! Sheldon Speaks by Jenna Busch

The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons tells us what's in store for our favorite TV geek.

If you had any doubt that geek culture has taken over, check out the numbers for The Big Bang Theory. The writing celebrates our obsession with The Green Lantern, reminds us that we are not the only ones who can say hello in Klingon and keeps us laughing at ourselves. Even the Emmys have taken notice.

I just spoke with Emmy Award nominated actor Jim Parsons, who plays socially awkward — but eminently loveable — theoretical physicist Sheldon Cooper. Parsons tells us his theory on why the show is such a hit, when and if love will come to Sheldon and working with co-star Kaley Cuoco. "She's a wonderful verbal dancing partner," he says, though he tells us he is far better at bussing tables. He also gives us a sneak peek at this week's episode. Hint: It involves a ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese.

I love the show and I watch every week. And I keep thinking about all the people who said the sitcom was dead. You guys seem to have completely revived it. What do you think it is about the show that turned an entire show style on its ear?

Well for one thing, I don't think there is any reinventing of a wheel going on here. You know what I mean? I don't think anybody's trying to do anything around here that is in any way changing the old school of thought with the traditional multi-camera sitcom. And that may be one of the biggest things we have going in our favor. We're trying to simply execute as well as possible, a format that's been around. That's been related to live theater.

My thing, and I've always said this, and I'm not trying to defer attention or anything like that, is the writing...I've heard it said that it's a writer's medium, and I completely believe that...and in our case specifically, we only have what they bring. [Laughs] We can only play with what they've written, as it were. And we're in a very fortunate circumstance where what they're writing is sincerely funny, you know? And maybe 'sincere' is sort of the key word there. There is a great sincerity in what we're doing here...in deference to the format itself. We're trying to do nothing that different than anything that's been done before. But we're trying to do it as best we can.

And then to these characters...We're trying to be as sincere with them and their situations as we can. Yes, sometimes you'll have a laugh at their expense, but more often than not, you only buy yourself that opportunity because, more often than not, we're celebrating these characters. The writers and the actors all have a sincere affection for these characters. Because they're so fun to play. They have so many wonderful and fun qualities about them.

You mentioned celebrating the characters. You guys have been so embraced by geek culture. I think it's not just the terms that you use, etc. I think it's that you guys have such a great affection for your characters.

Absolutely. I think that's completely true.

You must get asked constantly about how geeky you are. I'd read about your Star Wars figures and how you want an invitation to Hogwarts...

Right.

Do you guys ever feel pressure...I mean, the geeks have sort of made you their standard bearers.

I don't and it may be blissful ignorance on my part. Or it's just not affecting me. But I really don't. What's funny is, some of their more geekish, nebbish, fanboy qualities, if you will, which I can see on the surface what a big part of the picture we're painting, they are. And so much of the humor has come from that, and so much of who they are in a day to day way. But I have to say, in the playing of it and in the feeling behind it, it seems so secondary. I don't know. I feel like, in some ways, these people would be who they are, almost entirely, even if they didn't have any of those qualities. If they didn't read comic books. If they weren't Star Trek and Battlestar fans, or whatever. It's a happy side bar. It's extra colors that are laid on top of these really, really smart guys. And I guess that's it. At the end of the day, when it comes back to square one, the heart of the story is that we're dealing with four geniuses. To varying degrees. I think Sheldon is probably the smartest. [Laughs]

I was thinking about some of your more complex lines, and I had read that the writing really helps you, but that you do sit down with notecards. I'd also read that you play piano. I'm wondering if being a musician helps you memorize. You really do have a rhythm to your speech.

I feel like it must. I do think of the scenes and this dialogue very specifically in a musical way. And it's much more self conscious, I have to say. I am able to consciously realize that I'm doing it. The way that they're writing this, and it's what I felt from day one with this...it wasn't the story that grabbed me, though it was lovely. And it wasn't even the characters themselves as far as who made them what they are. When I first saw the audition sides for this show, I really wanted to leap at the opportunity to get to execute this dialogue. And it was all about the rhythms they put in there. And one of the things the writers are so good at is utilizing, not just scientific terms, but especially in the case of Sheldon, just so many damn words in general, but putting them in a format that has a song to it.

I think there is a musicality to any conversation in general. Some a bit more melodic than others, depending who you're talking to. [Laughs] It's most especially accentuated here. It's definitely highlighted, maybe in any comedy. But most certainly in this one, I think. And it's one of the great joys. And it's one of the ways in which, as an actor, in this show at least, I know when something is not going right. Nine times out of ten I'm right about it. Because suddenly you can't access the rhythm. And either they're about to rewrite something that's going to make it fall into place...or you've got more days of rehearsal and suddenly you're going to feel it...I frequently say, 'That scene sings like a song.'

You know, Chuck (Lorre) was a musician who wrote songs and at least one Top 40 hit for Blondie, I believe. I think any comedy writer has a certain rhythm and I think that Chuck, specifically, has a very...[laughs]...he knows how to make the twenty-two minutes of television play by in the right way. I think it's the reason that his shows repeat so well in audience numbers. Because I feel like the stories are good and the things you discover the first time you watch the stories are lovely. But perhaps its best quality is that the episode itself goes by like a song. Even if you know what's going to happen because you've seen it once or twice before, it's still so much fun to watch. And I think that has to do with the rhythm of it. It's like a favorite song. You know the song, you know where it's going, but it's still enjoyable because you like hearing certain notes hit. You like hearing certain rhythms hit.

I agree. This is a show I would want on DVD, because it really is something I'd watch over and over again.

Thank you, first. And secondly, I agree with you. As much as I'm able to say that without sounding like a complete snot. [Laughs] It just turns into a really good time. And that's not to take away any stories or depth that's actually there. It's all there and it's all good. But at the end of the day, what makes it repeatable...it's fun.

One of the things fans have reacted to the most are the scenes between you and Penny (Kaley Cuoco). What is it about your chemistry?

Well, I think what it was bred of, coming into the first season, and especially hitting its stride in the second season is that...they are the North and South poles of...all five regular characters on this show. I don't know which is which. [Laughs] They're just polar opposites. She's so earth bound. She is our everyman...and Sheldon is the most heady of the characters. The most, I don't want to say without his feet on the ground, but in the truest sense of the word, his life, his existence is absorbed in his head. I think that is the biggest ingredient of it. No matter what you do at that point with your characters, it's going to be a good time, because they're polar opposites.

But then I have to say, I had never worked with Kaley before I did this show, and we started doing these scenes together, and for whatever reason, I just...it's such a satisfying time working with her. It is, aah. I can't put my finger on it, always. But me, as Jim, I have such a good time working with her as Kaley, the actress. And speaking to her through these characters' voices and having her speak back is just...to bring it back to the music thing again, it's a wonderful dance. [Laughs] She's a wonderful verbal dancing partner.

Another thing people have really responded to are the scenes with Sheldon's mom (Laurie Metcalf). Will we see any more of that this season?

I certainly hope so. [Laughs] You have to take the good with the bad, I guess is what it is. The reason I think the scenes are so damn good is because Laurie is such a gifted actress. The problem you have, working with a gifted actress is that she's always working. So both her and Christine Baranski...it's hard to find available times for them! [Laughs] Because they're so good, everyone wants to use them in some way. So I really feel like a combination of whether a storyline occurs to the writers and is she available for it...she certainly knows her way around acting in general and certainly she has done plenty of the half hour work in TV as well. She just couldn't be an easier fit when she comes over here. She's just a good person, you know?

You know everyone wants to know if you think Sheldon will ever find love.

Yeah...I want to guess yes, but I honestly don't hold out a lot of hope. The reason is very specific. I've been part of panel discussions with Chuck Lorre. With Bill Prady. And they have professed that...if these characters change at all, it's going to be very slow. At the rate of watching paint dry. And...I've heard Chuck say this a few times, he has a real aversion to...I think he views Sheldon finding love or the desire for Sheldon to find love as a bit of an attempt to normalize Sheldon. And see the more normal side of Sheldon and oh, he is like us. [Laughs] He's very interested in continuing to celebrate how different Sheldon is than the general populace. And he really likes exploring this version of Sheldon, where Sheldon has essentially kind of opted out of the romance scene. He's not taking time for it. In fact, he's kind of deemed it something that for him, at this point, is sort of a waste of time. There is so much more for him to do, he sees, specifically in science in this case, but whatever.

I hear what he's saying and I actually love what he's saying. And I love making those odd choices, those smallest percentile of the populace choices for Sheldon. But I don't think everybody necessarily wants to see Sheldon normalized. I think that they've done such a wonderful job of creating a character that people have a fondness for. And I think wanting to see Sheldon find love is the same thing as wanting to see Sheldon taken care of in some way. Someone to help him along through things that he obviously stubs his toe through, socially...but that brings me back to why I don't think it will happen. It's half the fun of playing this character...all the situations where he is on his own and he is clueless. It's such a dichotomy. He's a genius and then to get to go through those circumstances where he is clueless...using his big brain for every possibility and just failing, failing. [Laughs] Failure has never been so fun.

I also think that those moments where Sheldon does something sweet for Penny...I think they have more impact if you don't have him doing that for a girlfriend all the time.

Yeah. I would agree with you. It does add a lot of weight to it. They've done such a good job of executing, and I feel, letting play this Penny and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) relationship...they did go against the traditional format in this way. We're not hanging on 'will they, won't they.' No. They're doing it. Let's see what happens. And as far as that relates to giving Sheldon any romantic interest, I think it opens...for the reasons we just said, and others...a much bigger can of worms. And you have to be prepared, I think, as writers and a cast if you're going to dive into that. You can't short change yourselves or anybody else. You can't go in and go, 'Ooh, this isn't working,' and hit reverse as fast as you can with the storyline. I think there is a lot more ground to cover that doesn't require us to jump in there just yet.

But what the hell do I know? I'll be honest with you. I never know what story they're going to deliver. I will not know next week's story...we're going to go on hiatus after tonight. We will come in for a table read on Wednesday morning, and it will be Tuesday night at nine o'clock at night before I even get sight of the next script. [Laughs] They won't tell me a thing. Unless they need to ask me something for my safety, like, 'Are you able to ride a unicycle?' Which they have asked. And I said, 'No, but I'm willing to learn.' It never came up again. That was over a year ago. I'm grateful. [Laughs] I've heard it's dangerous.

Yeah! I would think so! [Laughs]

How could it not be?

And I hear you're diving through balls in Chuck E. Cheese in the next episode.

Yes, and might I say, it was one of the finest ideas the writers have had. Such a simple thing. But it goes back to what I said about the science. Wow! We can end up there. I won't tell you how we end up there exactly. But it's through science that we end up at Chuck E. Cheese in a bunch of balls. [Laughs] I had so much fun doing that scene. It wasn't easy! I was really surprised at the lung power it took to fight your way through a ball pit like that. It felt very much like swimming but there was a lot more, it felt like to me, a lot more force to get through to do that. It was very fun. Very colorful.

I hear you also bus tables at The Cheesecake Factory?

Yes. And may I say that Jim as an actor is better at doing that than Kaley as an actress?

Really?

Yes! I had those plates on my arms and I said it out loud one day. I didn't even think about it. 'Better than Kaley.' [Laughs] And you know...it took me longer in life to hit success than Kaley, so perhaps I had more opportunities to perfect dishes on arms and stuff like that. I don't know.

Beauty and the geeks by Paige Albiniak

As initially conceived, there was no Penny, the lovable girl-next-door on CBS' top-rated comedy, 'The Big Bang Theory.' There was just a super-sarcastic neighbor named Katie who was mercilessly mean to her super-geek neighbors, Leonard and Sheldon.

But test audiences despised that character, and the show's producers went back to the drawing board.

After the rewrite, producers brought back in Kaley Cuoco to read for the role of Penny. Cuoco, who, at the time, was best-known for her role as the eldest daughter on ABC's '8 Simple Rules,' had auditioned to play Katie, but that part wasn't right for her, she says.

"The second-time around, the producers and the network were so on it with me. They told me that Penny had to be wonderful, loving and sweet and the audience had to adore her," says Cuoco, 24.

Cuoco nailed it, getting through the audition process in two days, and today Penny is the glue that holds "The Big Bang Theory" together.

"Penny has always been the audience's point of view and the ambassador into the world of our guys," says Bill Prady, one the series' executive producers.

Penny, an aspiring actress who's waitressing at The Cheesecake Factory, lives next door to two brilliant but socially inept physicists, Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons). While most women would ignore guys like this, Penny is "completely wonderful to them from day one," says Cuoco.

In fact, one episode finds Penny applying menthol rub to a sick Sheldon's chest while he begs her to sing "Soft Kitty" to him as his mother once did. She rolls her eyes several times, but she does it.

"Penny handles Sheldon like no one else," says Cuoco. "She's wonderful and sweet, but she also has a backbone. She says what's on her mind."

This season, Penny and Leonard — the less geeky of the two roommates — became a couple. While the pairing seems unlikely, Cuoco says the fans seem to like it.

"I love the Penny-Leonard hook-up. And I love that they didn't wait eight seasons to get them together," she says. "But I have a feeling it won't last. If I were writing the show, I would say that it wouldn't last long."

Conversely, 'Bang' fans want Penny and the socially-oblivious, germ-phobic Sheldon to get together. "It's a very strange idea," says Cuoco.

Asked if a woman exists out there for Sheldon, Cuoco says, "No. Unless it's like a robot that Sheldon builds and can control."

Over the course of her three-season run on 'Big Bang,' Cuoco has become a favorite of geeks who wish someone just like her would move in next door.

"They are a little obsessed with Penny, really," she says. "I have definitely not known any men like this in my own life — these guys are on another dimension. They are full-on brilliant, genius boys."

The California native has been acting and modeling since she was six years old. Her big break came with '8 Simple Rules,' when she had just turned 16. A modest hit on ABC in 2002, the show struggled after star John Ritter died of an aortic dissection just two episodes into its second season.

The show went on for two more seasons without him. "Doing that show for one season with John Ritter is an experience I'll never forget," Cuoco says.

After '8 Simple Rules,' Cuoco played Billie in the eighth season of 'Charmed,' a role she enjoyed, but working on a one-hour drama reminded her why she prefers sitcoms.

"Dramas require 18-hour days where you want to kill yourself," says Cuoco, who is single. "You can have a life while you work on a sitcom, and I'm selfish. I love my life, and I like to do other things besides work."

With "Big Bang Theory" attracting nearly 16 million viewers each week, Cuoco can expect a long-run playing the girl next door. Asked why she thinks the show is a hit, she says, "The characters are really lovable, and the writing is brilliant. The guys couldn't be more innocent, but there's also a little bit of sass to it."

Geek chic by Jim Colucci

typed by pennyandsheldon.com

No pocket protectors or sci-fi tees here: The stars of The Big Bang Theory show off their sophisticated sides and discuss how viewers have embraced their quirky characters.

It's 10 a.m. on a Tuesday and from the look of things, the normally fastidious Sheldon Cooper must be playing hooky from the physics lab. And while his best friend and fellow scientist, Leonard Hofstadter, may be sporting an uncharacteristically hip mustache and goatee for the summer, these otherwise superserious scientists still seem a bit out of their element as they now jokingly preen for the camera.

That's because today, the actors behind TV's smartest new comedic pair — Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki as Sheldon and Leonard, respectively — and their The Big Bang Theory castmates Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar have traveled far from the show's Burbank, Calif., soundstage. This Watch! photo shoot, in the lobby of New York's glamorously renovated and recently reopened The Pierre hotel, offers the cast of CBS' white-hot sitcom a chance to show a different, sexier side — one that's less Caltech, more couture.

It All Started with a Big Bang

When it premiered in the fall of 2007, Big Bang was CBS' sole new comedy for the season. The show's new Monday night neighbors featured cool, hip ladies' men like How I Met Your Mother's Barney Stinson and Two and a Half Men's Charlie Harper. Big Bang was instead populated with characters far less suave — go ahead, call them nerds, geeks, brainiacs — and yet somehow fit right in.

"There was a distinct moment, in shooting the pilot, when I knew the show would work," remembers Helberg, who plays the ineptly skirt-chasing mama's boy Howard Wolowitz. During a scene in which Sheldon and Leonard were at a sperm bank, "I was offstage and heard the audience's reaction, which went on for so long that the director, Jim Burrows, said, 'There's too much laughter. We have to go back and do it again.' Then, when Kunal [as the girl-shy, Indian-born Rajesh Koothrappali] and I came in, we got entrance applause — and no one knew who we were yet! I just remember thinking, 'This is something special.'"

The nation's critics, however, were harder to convince. When the cast appeared at the semiannual convention of TV journalists the summer before the show's premiere, "they said we were going to fail two episodes in. Before they even saw the show, they were not fans," remembers Cuoco, who plays Penny, the feminine catalyst in apartment 4B.

"And I don't fully blame them," Parsons admits. "The show is better than its description. But I don't know how to describe it." Despite the assurances to the contrary from the comedy's creators — Two and a Half Men's Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, a former Dharma & Greg writer and onetime computer programmer — "the critics assumed that Big Bang would be about cheap shots at intelligent people," Galecki explains. "And if anything, I think the show defends intelligent people."

"I think The Big Bang Theory reflects a shift in the cultural landscape," agrees CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler. "Groups of friends like this, with their type of 'geek chic,' have blossomed into a very familiar and relatable demographic. We're seeing it in film, in literature, and I think it's a fresh way to access comedy."

So is The Big Bang Theory making smart sexy? "Just look at this cast!" jokes Nayyar, with a wave around the table.

"One of the things I've learned from this show," Galecki adds, "is that people who are sometimes called 'nerds' or 'geeks' or 'dweebs' are really just people who are passionate about something. And ultimately, passion is appealing, even if the subject is something you're personally not passionate about."

Interestingly, for Parsons, the attraction in Big Bang's characters lies in what they don't feel. "They all have what we might laugh at and call social shortcomings," he says, "and yet with the possible exception of Leonard, they don't live their lives at all depressed about that. Instead, they have a firm belief, and strong hope, that they will achieve greatness in areas like science and, for Wolowitz, in attracting women."

The can-do attitude has won over some former naysayers. "I was sure Big Bang would just turn into a one-joke pony about smart guys and a dumb blonde," admits Susan Young, formerly of The Oakland Tribune and now a freelance TV journalist. "How wrong I was. Now it's my favorite comedy, one I know will always put a smile on my face and have at least one laugh-out-loud moment."

Call it the Lorre/Prady Paradox: that there could exist a show about characters of rarefied intelligence, working in a field that only those in the rightmost standard deviation on the bell curve of IQ would understand — and yet, somehow, its comedy would be universal.

"It's not rocket science," Mediaweek's TV critic Marc Berman offers in explanation. "The show is not what you would call 'edgy,' but just funny.
The formula for a good comedy can be very simple: You create characters that people can relate to. And we've all lived our lives at some point either knowing a nerd, or feeling like one. These are four guys and a woman we feel like we could be friends with in real life, and so that's why they keep us so entertained."

In fact, in what the show's cast considers a sign of the best-written character comedy — and what they say is the ultimate compliment to Big Bang's writers — they often find themselves not having to say a word to get a laugh.

Particularly in the show's second season, Parsons explains, the show's characters were already so well-defined and familiar that "the audience would start to jump the laugh before the joke had even landed. And that was because they knew what the character was thinking. It was strange for us at first, but it's wonderful." The resulting electricity in the room, Cuoco notes, "makes the show's taping nights really fun. Because every crowd is like a rock concert."

Lorre usually cuts the longest "laugh spreads" from the finished product, Galecki explains, so viewers at home don't get a true indication of the high jinks happening on Warner Bros. Stage 25. Nayyar, who everyone agrees tends to crack up the most at such moments, says he has to resort to deliberately sipping his soup.

And then there is the little mind game Galecki and Parsons have begun playing with each other as they stall during the laughter, waiting to get out their next lines. "Jim and I will battle each other when we're left with nothing to do but stare. He has taken to trying to break me," Galecki reveals. "He'll — just so slightly, and I don't know if even the camera will pick it up — raise an eyebrow a little bit at me. I've even mouthed to him, 'That's not fair.' And he'll mouth back, 'I know.'"

Add a Penny on the Scale

Big Bang was a ratings winner right from its first few airings. But like many other now-classic sitcoms before it, this show, with its ardent astrophysicists, truly soared in the Nielsen ratings in its second season. And Tassler has several theories as to why.

"For one thing, people have fallen in love with the characters," she notes. "Chuck Lorre has crafted such clever, smart, specific stories that have illuminated these relationships." Particularly, she posits, between Penny and the boys. "With Sheldon and Leonard, you got them right from day one. But in Season 2, Penny really blossomed as a character. We saw how she could become more integrated into their lives, and how they would be more involved in hers, and audiences really embraced that."

And Tassler is not the only one who thinks that, ironically, it may be the average-brained Penny who balances this quintet's genius comedic success. Penny, Cuoco says, is everyman's entry point into the realm of the brilliant. "I feel like I represent the audience, who can look at these guys through my eyes."

Cuoco's ability to convey such a natural, good-natured groundedness, Helberg notes, is a testament to her talent. After all, these physicists are connected to their new friend by such a delicate chemistry.

A year before this current hit incarnation, Lorre had attempted an earlier Big Bang pilot, with a female character instead named Katie. The show's four male characters, Nayyar observes, "are very innocent, without any trace of malice." And so when "Katie" acted more manipulative with these malleable men, "it was like she was shooting fish in a barrel. It didn't work," Galecki says. "We've had that problem with guest stars, too," the actor notes. "If they're too malicious towards the guys or show too much of an edge, the audience hates them."

In fact, he and Cuoco say, the show's writers, noticing this phenomenon, even turned it into one of her favorite episodes in Season 2. When their building's newest foxy female began working her wiles on our boys, Penny came to the rescue in a laundry room showdown. "When I stuck up for them and said, 'These are my guys,'" Cuoco remembers, "the crowd screamed. And I kept thinking, 'Don't cry! Don't cry!' Because I was so touched. We're all so protective of these characters, I could cry right now thinking about it."

Nerds on the Floor

Both Galecki, a young veteran of ABC's long-running Roseanne, and Cuoco, who got her first big break as teen on that network's 8 Simple Rules, adjusted early on to the fame, and fan familiarity, that comes with life on a hit sitcom. During his Roseanne years, Galecki remembers, he would often play the outdoor bowling game pétanque with his friend Brad Pitt. "And people would come up and touch me, because I was on TV. Meanwhile, Brad was on the side of every bus and on every billboard for his movie Interview with the Vampire. And he would say sarcastically, 'Yeah, feel free to touch him.' Because he was shocked." ("Are you saying Brad Pitt was jealous of you?" Cuoco immediately teases.)

Back then, Galecki says, fans on the street would often unimaginatively shout out the name of his TV girlfriend: "Where's Darlene?" And so he expected the Big Bang taunts to have started by now. "But the fans of this show treat these characters with such respect," the actor says. "There was just one time, when we had really good seats at a Lakers game, and some jock was jealous. He yelled, 'NERDS!'"

"And you were like, 'Whatever! We're the nerds on the FLOOR!'" Cuoco quips.

The bestowal of such celeb status on erstwhile eggheads has predictably won the show quite a few fans among Sheldon and Leonard's real-life counterparts. "Let's be honest, this is the biggest thing that's happened to scientists in a long time," Cuoco jokes.

But as Nayyar elaborates, "We also have many fans in the high school theater community. For a lot of people who maybe have felt like misfits, or haven't fit in with the cool crowd, we sort of become rock stars."

And ironically, as it turns out, in real life, all four of the actors now famous as TV scientists have no actual affinity for the stuff at all. Growing up on the hurricane-prone Gulf Coast of Texas, Parsons says he had an initial flirtation with a career in meteorology. "I took a class in college—and it was the only class I ever failed," he admits. "That, plus I didn't take to it at all. It turns out, the sciences didn't want me any more than I wanted them."

In the end, that key difference between actor and character just makes playing Sheldon, who often spurts pages-long monologues full of jargon supplied by the show's technical consultant, that much more of a challenge. Parsons reveals that he learns his lines — usually without comprehending the scientific principles behind them — by writing them out longhand.

A Star Sitcom Explodes

With the show's third season comes a new time slot, Mondays at 9:30. "One of our priorities this year is to punch Big Bang into the stratosphere, to make this top 20 show a top 10," explains CBS scheduling chief Kelly Kahl.

The move, to the time slot behind Two and a Half Men, creates a virtual Chuck Lorre Power Hour. And as Lorre explains, he's thrilled to have the continued opportunity to create more Big Bang.

"Each cast member is very skilled, a consummate pro, who brings a lot of heart and compassion to the work, and they have a real bond off-camera," says the veteran producer. "That combination is not only rare and priceless, but also clearly visible when you watch the show. The end result is an incredibly funny and smooth-working ensemble."

This spring CBS announced that the network was taking the rare step of renewing Big Bang for not just one but two more seasons, which in TV is the equivalent of academic tenure for a Ph.D. like Leonard. Subsequently, Nayyar and Parsons put down roots in L.A. by each buying a house, as they plan for a long and prosperous run. Meanwhile, when we last saw Sheldon and his cohort in May, they were headed for a summer of research in the Arctic. As they arrive back in Pasadena, and on our small screens, this fall, The Big Bang Theory is poised to generate laughs well into 2011. In physics, that's known as having great "potential energy." Perhaps that's a phrase we'll hear any one of our favorite, funny physicists utter in Season 3.

Jim Parsons heads up the 'Big Bang Theory' geek squad by Brian Truitt

The CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory has been having its best ratings ever the past few weeks, and Jim Parsons has to be behind some of that success. A recent Emmy nominee, Parsons is spot-on as uber-genius scientist Sheldon, with his trademark game Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock and penchant for lovably alienating everyone around him. This past Monday, Sheldon spent much of the episode trying to train next-door neighbor Penny (Kaley Cuoco), girlfriend of Sheldon's pal and roommate Leonard (Johnny Galecki), using Pavlovian methods and a box of chocolates.
I talked with Parsons, who's as witty as his superhero-loving character, for an upcoming piece in the magazine, but read below for his thoughts on his home state and how he'd feel if Sheldon ever got a girlfriend.

You grew up in Texas. Is there anything you miss from living there?

No. 1, people in Texas in general are extremely nice. There is just a Southern hospitality where even on the worst days, you generally run into nice people in stores you go to and you don't feel like you're ever encroaching on their time. Sometimes I miss that, although I have to say, I've been really fortunate in both New York and L.A., people are really nice there, too. I spent all my time in Houston, so while there are many touches of — I don't know, what does one expect from Texas? Horses and a bunch of 10-gallon hats? Well, there are some horses and there are some 10-gallon hats, but it's also a major metropolitan city. More than missing anything, I just really treasure the time I got to spend. I got to do so much theater in Houston and so much work, both at the University of Houston and a theater group I worked with for years down there.

Sheldon's a theatrical sort in his own way, but do you miss the stage?

For us, it's live and on stage and in front of an audience every week, so that aspect of it I'm getting fulfilled. That being said, it is a different beast, and you do have however many takes it takes to get the scene done, and, I'm sorry, there's a row of cameras and crewpeople and a director between you and this audience, which there isn't in theater. I don't like to do a lot of talking as an actor, but sometimes I do miss a little more intensive introspection.

Would you like to see Sheldon explore a romantic relationship — maybe even with Penny if things didn't work out for her and Leonard?

I would be so flabbergasted if it was Penny, and that's not to say they wouldn't do it.

It seems like the characters are on a path where that could possibly happen, and not just in an alternate universe.

It's a brother-sister banter between them right now. Now, that is not to say that that's not a step on the way to the top of those stairs, which may be something else. Will it happen this year? God no. [Series creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady] have both said these characters will change as slowly as watching paint dry. What I like about that, though, is that I think it's very true to life. One of the reasons people tune in is you count on these characters to do certain things and react certain ways. You don't want to see major changes sometimes. They're all such a wealth of awkward material at times, why go messing with them yet? There's still plenty of ground to mine.

But wouldn't you just lick your lips at the thought of playing Sheldon on a date?

Believe me, I pine for the day that this happens. I really do. The reason I think it's not quickly coming is because, at this stage, how do you sell that other than "a very special Big Bang Theory"? It would be monumental! I don't know how it would happen. All I see is a frying pan to the head. I don't think he's going to be willing to accept what it is he's feeling, and it's going to have to be exactly that, I think. It's going to have to overtake him because there's that out-of-controlness about falling in love and sexual desire that he does not traverse in, really, as a scientist or even as a human being. One of the things that makes him a fun character is this need for a certain level of control over everything: "That's my spot. I eat this on Mondays. I go to the bathroom at this time. I won't use this toilet." Those romantic feelings, any emotions that are overtaking, they take the rug out from under you and they leave you at a lack of control.

I know you're a big American Idol fan. Would you ever consider being a guest judge?

Really? Now that's interesting. I saw Ellen DeGeneres guest-judge on So You Think You Can Dance, and it did cross my mind. Not Idol, though. I would do So You Think You Can Dance. My problem is, I have to give so many caveats before I advised the contestants: "Now, I don't know anything about this, I will be giving you only the viewpoint of the lay audience member at home, I won't know if it's good or bad, I'll just be able to tell you if I liked it or not, and maybe what I did or didn't like. And a lot of it may have to do with your personality, I'm not sure." Idol, I'm afraid that's probably true, too. I'd try never to say that something was pitchy. I hear that a lot. I'll try not to overuse that phrase.

The big surprise of Big Bang: The bigger audience by Edward Wyatt

BURBANK, Calif. — The most vibrant buzz this summer around the Warner Brothers lot here and CBS Entertainment headquarters in nearby Studio City was not being generated by the slate of new shows on the CBS fall schedule. Rather, it focused on the sudden emergence — during summer repeats, no less — of a series that had been on the air for two seasons.

"The Big Bang Theory," the CBS comedy about two brilliant physicists and their attempts to relate to the world around them — and to the cute blond woman next door — began drawing surprisingly strong ratings this summer after it moved to a later time slot on Monday, at 9:30 p.m., immediately following that network's highest-rated comedy, "Two and a Half Men."

In some weeks of the summer "Big Bang" repeats drew bigger audiences among certain important demographic groups than when the same episodes were first broadcast. So far this fall "Big Bang" has further expanded its audience, becoming the highest-rated live-action comedy among the sought-after young-adult demographic group.

If current trends prevail, its total viewership could soon surpass that of "Two and a Half Men," long the most-watched comedy on television. Last Monday's "Big Bang" drew 12.96 million viewers, according to Nielsen, only 5 percent fewer than the 13.63 million for "Men."

Already "Big Bang" has beaten "Men" among viewers age 18 to 49, the demographic category most valued by advertisers.

The comedies have more in common than their popularity. They were co-created by Chuck Lorre, they tape on adjacent stages on the Warner Brothers lot, and they share several writers and much of their technical crews. And with the upstart closing in on the longtime ratings champion, Mr. Lorre said, he sometimes isn't sure how to react when the ratings come in.

"There's a lot of ambivalence," he said on Tuesday night, during a break in the taping of a "Big Bang" episode. "It's 'Yeah!' then 'Awww.' But it's all good. I can't claim to understand how this works; I'm just thrilled that it's working."

The cast and crew of "The Big Bang Theory" are enjoying their success all the more after surviving two near-death experiences. The show's first pilot was rejected by CBS, but the network asked Mr. Lorre and Bill Prady, his co-creator, to retool their script and try again. The first version featured the same two male lead characters — Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper, a theoretical physicist, and Johnny Galecki as Leonard Hofstadter, an experimental physicist — but also included a female lead character who was "very damaged and very tough," Mr. Prady said.

"We had a really hard time casting the role, and in retrospect it was obvious that the problem was not the actresses but the conception of the character," he said. Focus groups that watched the original pilot were left with protective feelings for the two naïve, socially awkward scientists, and they did not like the prospect of a bitter, manipulative woman taking advantage of them.

"What we all liked was the relationship between these two guys, one who wants his world to be bigger and the other who wants his world to be smaller," Mr. Prady said. "I think that's what everyone looked at and said, 'This is worth trying again.' " The creators decided to keep the male characters and to persuade Mr. Parsons and Mr. Galecki not to take another series in the year between the two pilots.

They also called back one of the actresses who auditioned unsuccessfully for the original female role: Kaley Cuoco, a former child actor who played opposite John Ritter in the comedy "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter." Much of the edge was taken off the character of Penny — so much that at first she looked to be little more than a jiggly blonde next door with no apparent motivation for being interested in two science geeks.

It took awhile to find the character's voice, but now Penny "is one of the guys," Ms. Cuoco said. "She's not some untouchable creature."

Over the first two seasons Penny and Leonard edged toward each other and are now in a full-fledged relationship. But theirs is not the unbelievable type of couple — a gorgeous female and a paunchy, slacker male — that has been so popular in Judd Apatow films recently.

"Penny has been in horrible relationships and picked the wrong guy constantly," Ms. Cuoco said. "I think she has more baggage than the guys."

As a result, Mr. Galecki said, "It went from a show that I think may have made fun of intelligent people half of the time to a show that defends intelligent people 99 percent of the time."

The most interesting relationships are those between the two male leads and among their two boon companions: Rajesh Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar), an astrophysicist who is shy to the point of muteness around women, and Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg), an engineer who maintains an outsize confidence in his skill as a ladies' man, despite living with his mother.

Those did not turn the series into an immediate hit, however. "When it went on the air, it was disregarded almost immediately," Mr. Lorre said, noting the show's respectful but not great reviews. Then, a few weeks into its first season, came the second near-death experience — the writers' strike shut down production for three months. Once the strike ended, CBS moved the series from its 8:30 time slot to 8, leading off its Monday-night lineup — an especially tough position for a first-year comedy.

The series stayed there in its second season, performing admirably. Then in February, on a night when a presidential news conference interrupted its regular time slot, CBS scheduled an episode of "Big Bang" at 9:30, after "Two and a Half Men." The ratings were so promising, said Kelly Kahl, a CBS senior executive vice president for prime time, that the arrangement was made permanent.

This season the series has also been enjoying the publicity around the Emmy nomination for Mr. Parsons, as best actor in a comedy.

"It's been such a healthy climb the first two seasons," Mr. Parsons said. He also said he thought that the show had much potential to grow. "I feel like there's still a strong segment out there that may not be sold on the concept of four nerds and the pretty girl next door," he said. "I get that. I think there's a lot more going on that doesn't really fit in that description. It really doesn't tell you 10 percent of why you would be interested, truly."

Jim Parsons on The Big Bang Theory by Abbie Bernstein

There is a theory, not entirely without basis in fact, that when actors become successful,they can quickly become fed up with giving interviews. More, when these actors have achieved their success through comedy, they can sometimes become downright cranky.

Jim Parsons is a living refutation of this concept. An Emmy nominee and Television Critics Association Award winner for his role as the intellectually brilliant but socially challenged Sheldon Cooper on CBS's comedy hit The Big Bang Theory, Parsons is cheerful, candid and cordial at a party thrown by CBS for the Television Critics Association at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena.

Parsons grew up in Texas, where he worked extensively in theatre. "It's funny," he muses. "When I was in Houston doing theatre for very little to no money, I worked all the time. There was one play after another, rehearsing one during the day, performing another at night, and then when I turned professional, after school and all that stuff, you don't work nearly as much, because you're not working for free any more. And I missed working – it really is a muscle that has to keep going. And so I don't feel that I've changed – I feel [that with the continuous work of a TV schedule] like I've gotten back to something."

A CBS publicist comes by and asks if Parsons would like something to drink. Parsons requests a Diet Coke with a polite thank you. This is how success has changed him, he jokes. "I order people around to get me drinks now, that's what's changed. No – I have more money and I have had a job for longer than [previously]. I'm more comfortable at things like this [doing a succession of interviews] than I used to be, because until you do it a few times, it's just a mystery until you get it done."

Were events like this and Comic-Con what Parsons had in mind when he envisioned being a successful actor while back in Texas? Not exactly, he replies. "Not because it's different, but because I don't think I had a very vivid image of what [success] would be. It's the same thing I feel about what will the future look like work-wise. I never go so far as to imagine – I only know that I will continue to try to keep working, and that's always paid off really well for me. I've always been very fortunate that everything's led to something – if not somewhat unexpected, it's always been so good and healthy. So no, it's not what I expected, but I don't know what I expected."

Sheldon has a rather distinctive personality. Did Parsons do any research to play him? "You know, I mostly keep it between the lines of the actual page, what they deliver. That being said – because so many people have asked – Sheldon has been my introduction into what Asperger's is." He is referring to Asperger's Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism that makes it difficult for people who have it to connect socially with others. "People kept asking, 'Does he have Asperger's?' I said, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' And I asked the writers, 'Does he have Asperger's?' 'No.' And then Johnny [Galecki, who plays Leonard] found this book by Augustin Burroughs' brother, John Elder Robinson, Look Me in the Eye, and it's about his life with Asperger's. I was like, well, Sheldon may not have Asperger's, but there are a lot of similar traits."

Sometimes research can be difficult due to not knowing what to ask, Parsons points out, as when he got to meet a lot of science students at the California Institute of Technology, aka Caltech. "It was for TV Guide and they really wanted to get pictures at Caltech, and they wanted to get pictures of me with [the scientists] explaining or talking about apparatuses to me, and I mean, it's the same way I feel about most of the science I look at – it's so over my head, I wouldn't know what to ask. I think I did ask a couple of questions like, 'Why do you wear blue-colored gloves?', which I don't even remember the answer to now."

As far as what Parsons tapped into in order to play Sheldon, he says, "As strange as this may sound, I really feel like I let the words bring it out of me. Literally, especially with preparing for the audition [and] for the first show, the struggle to learn the words – I did this on TV once, showing people – I put a pencil between my teeth to help with articulation, because sometimes the constructs of the sentences are such that it's a full-muscle workout to get it out. But I have found that it really informs who [Sheldon] is. There is so much going on, he's so busy inside his brain, so in a weird way, having to [use] my own muscles to get all those words out, because I do not have brain activity as quick as he does, that's kind of my closest simulation to that ‘rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr' – that rapid-fire thing with those words."

Parsons acknowledges that he has a few Sheldon-like traits in real life. "Here's a good example that's very recent. When I got the TCA trophy. I didn't really get a chance to look at it until I was out of the ballroom." The Television Critics Association award is translucent. "I thought, 'This thing's going to show fingerprints horribly.' And I said that out loud, and a friend said to me, 'Okay, Sheldon.' I was like, 'You're right, you're right.' And it's where I do overlap with him. And you know what it is? It's always the same sort of thing – it's a little obsession about something that really doesn't matter in the larger scheme, but Sheldon does that, and everybody does that, to a degree. I've often said that. Sheldon doesn't do anything that most people don't do, but he does it to the nth degree on all of them. It's just exaggerated. Which I guess is the essence of comedy."

A bout of intense Christmas decorating in 2007 was perhaps more due to a desire to keep occupied during the uncertainty of the writers' strike (which shut down series television, Big Bang Theory included, for three months) than Sheldon-like fixation. "I always grew up with a tree at Christmas, but I was never real big into doing any Christmas decorating on my own, until our first season. The writers' strike hit right before Thanksgiving, and by December, I realized we were not going back to work any time in the foreseeable future and I frickin' threw myself into Christmas that year. I mean, to a ridiculous degree. And I don't think I'll ever hit it that hardcore again, but I enjoyed myself so much getting all that ready, that when I have time now, I'll make sure I get a tree again and do a little decorating."

Other people seem to recognize Sheldon more than see themselves in him, Parsons notes. "I used to feel – and I still do, to a degree – almost everybody who says anything says that they know somebody like Sheldon and I'm not surprised by that, because number one, I think that Sheldon has many, many good traits – very intelligent, I don't think he has a mean bone in his body. He can be snarky and self-centered and a little haughty, but he's not mean. But he is so unaware of things that people who are getting through the world in an average way need to be aware of that there is a stupidity with his great intelligence. He's socially ignorant and unaware. And I don't think most people want to be that way, which I understand," he laughs, "but for the same reason, I feel like anybody who was very similar to Sheldon may not be able to see it. I don't think they would identify with it."

At the time of the interview, Parsons is the only male member of the Big Bang cast not sporting massive facial hair, the result of the characters spending three months in the Arctic. "I probably selectively heard this, but I heard, 'Don't cut your hair,'" Parsons explains. "I didn't hear ['don't shave']. And then everybody else was all bushy-faced and I said, ‘What are you doing?' And they said, 'We're not supposed to shave.' When I found this out, it was two days before we were supposed to announce the Emmy nominations and I was like, 'I'm shaving for that. I'm going on national television, I really don't want to look like …' But the other thing too is that all of them grow honest-to-God beards. I just look filthy. I don't care that it wouldn't look pretty – it's not even a full beard. It's like – it's shameful. So [Big Bang co-creator/executive producer] Chuck [Lorre] told me that if they decided to go with facial hair for me, they would build something [in the hair and makeup department], they would make something work."

Parsons is hugely enthusiastic about his costars, both regular and guest actors. He cites Christine Baranski, who plays Leonard's mother. "She's incredible. We've been so lucky with some of the people we've worked with. Laurie Metcalf was the same way. They're actor's actors. They're so smart about their acting, they're so willing to play and they're so good and therefore they're confident, and they're confident, so they're good. You know what I mean? There's that willingness and ability to just go, just try, and it's like a good sparring partner. Everybody in the cast is. I say, though, just out of nowhere, the most surprising – not because I thought she wouldn't be, but [Kaley Cuoco as Penny] – I have had more fun doing those little dances with Kaley! I didn't know her that well before. I had worked with Johnny on the pilot – I just didn't know about her. And what a wonderful treat that's turned out to be, what a wonderful comedy partner. Chuck [Lorre] told us the first few episodes that the character would grow, but I think that that's the one who's really come into her own. I don't think anybody would say anything different. In the second season, especially, no one grew more than Penny. She's been fantastic. I mean, that's one of the joys of doing an episodic [series] like this, is that continual working relationship with the writers. You never know exactly who's gleaning what from who and it just keeps moving. The growth of her character is really in the end a testament to both [Cuoco and the writers] – them for listening to her, and her for inspiring them to make it grow. Because you can tell it's happening. They start hearing what's going to sound good coming out of somebody's mouth. 'I bet she can handle this' and sure as hell, she can. She had one moment specifically where she's fighting with the new neighbor, the girl. [Penny] says something about how the guys don't have shields.

And [the neighbor says], 'What?' And she says, 'In STAR TREK, when the shields come up – where the hell did that come from?' It was such an honest moment. I had chills when I retold it, because I can just see it. It's so genuine."

In real life, comic books are not Parsons' area of expertise. "I probably shouldn't admit this, but we have a local morning radio host who has been a friend of mine. If you're looking for something to download, try geekshowpodcast.com. But what kills me is, I'm there to be the TV guy. We had the whole discussion about, is it the Green Lantern in yellow before [a similar discussion] was on [BIG BANG]. And I'm sitting there going … I learned [about Green Lantern] from being on this podcast. It's all Greek to me. It's as foreign to me as the science is, at first blush. I have no idea what I'm talking about. I mean, a lot of the [comic book] characters I've seen or heard of, and they're all over the set for reference and what have you. But it is very foreign to me."

When did Parsons realize The Big Bang Theory was connecting with its audience? "I would say, obviously, once we were picked up for the rest of the first season and then the second season, all that, those are good signs that something is working. But really, viscerally, the first thing that I had ever felt that I could tell something had changed for us was towards the end of the first season. The live audience started coming in and laughing before the joke was delivered. And it was really weird at first. Not completely unpleasant, but it was weird. It was only completely pleasant when we all talked about it and realized what was happening – that they knew the characters and they knew what was coming. And I should have realized – oh, my God, it's the essence of television is, you want to tune in. It's like your friends, it's like your own family. I always say, you know how your mother's going to react to blah-blah-blah, you know how Uncle So-and-So is going to react to whatever. And that's what I think a lot of times, at least, we want to see from our characters on TV. It's not a movie, it's not a play, it's every week. And that was the first thing where I felt, 'I feel I'm a part of something now that I didn't even know about before.'"

The growth of the characters has been gradual, Parsons observes. "Chuck [Lorre] and [fellow co-creator/executive producer] Bill [Prady] always say that, 'Oh, they'll change – but it'll be the slowest, most painful growth you've ever watched in your life.' Much like real life, frankly."

Parsons says at some point he'd like to play a non-genius. "I would love at some point, next summer or something, to do diametrically opposed [to Sheldon. The character doesn't] need to be stupid, but I would love the chance to play something, next hiatus, maybe, that was more average."

Is there anything else Parsons wants to say about Sheldon and/or The Big Bang Theory?: "I just love getting to do it and as long as we get to keep doing it, I'm going to be very happy, I think."

Kaley Cuoco on The Big Bang Theory by Fred Topel

For fans of 8 Simple Rules, the upcoming season is vindication. The show got off to a humble start but has become a staple of Monday night sitcoms on CBS. This season threatens to link Penny and Leonard in a relationship. Kaley Cuoco filled us in the third season scoop over the summer at CBS's fall TV preview party.

How much fun are you having on Big Bang Theory?

I'm having so much fun. It's a great show, it's doing well. How can you not have fun on a hit show? I'm very, very lucky.

With the big group scenes and the dialogue you have, is there any special fun on the set?

I actually prefer [it]. I love when all of us are in the same scenes together. It happens a good amount but not all the time and it makes me really happy, because the five of us just have so much fun working off each other.

How gratifying is it that it became a hit after a slow build?

It was a slow build, yeah. No one liked us at the beginning. They didn't and it's okay. We reeled them in. We brought them to the geek side and now they've accepted us with open arms.

What do you think it was that hooked people?

I don't know. I think they realized it wasn't "cute girl next door to two geeks." It was so much more than that. It was real people dealing with real emotions. I think it's actually really touched peoples' hearts, especially actors like Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki. I mean, those characters have touched people so deeply and they're really sweet.

Any show takes time to build so how do you think it's grown since the first season?

You know, I firmly believe, only because I've been doing this for so long, every show takes three years. 90% of them don't get three years. It just does. It takes a long time to build a community, build a friendship with your characters. It's hard for people to grasp on and make them care about you. We've been lucky enough to get the opportunity but a lot of shows don't get it. I think a lot of good shows don't make it on the air so it's just a process. You have to grow. You have to learn who you are as a character. You're all of a sudden playing a new person with a whole other life.

How has Penny grown since the beginning?

You know, I think they gave her a lot to do second season. She just loves these guys and loves hanging out with them. I think she's kind of becoming one of them which is really sweet and they finally fully accepted her, thank goodness.

And it's not just a cult hit anymore, it's a broad audience.

I still think it is kind of a cult show but it's weird because I have, like, 10-year-olds come up to me and say they love it and then, like, 80-year-olds. I mean, people love the show and every time I think about it, it gives me a chill. It's just really sweet.

What do you think the show did to win everyone over?

It has a lot of heart. People like Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki and the writing that was in season two I think was the best season. It was so good, it was heartfelt. The love between Penny and the guys I think was really heartfelt. I think at first season, no one believed the cute girl was going to like them and all this silly stuff. I think the characters have really grown and they just love each other. It's really nice to see.

You're going to mess with the setup this season, right?

I hear that, yeah. I guess Leonard and Penny are going to date for a little while and I think that's going to put a little jab between the guys and Leonard. I hope our relationship doesn't last long. I want it to kind of go off and come back, how life really is and I think Chuck wants that to happen too.

Have you picked up any geek interests through the show?

No, just a lot of Guitar Hero and Rock Band and I'm getting really damn good on it to be honest.

Are you Expert?

Uh, yeah. Can I play Expert? Can you play Expert?

I'm up to Hard.

I'm pretty damn good. I like to play the drums. I actually like to sing on Rock Band. I prefer to take the mic.

What songs are you jamming on?

You know what? I don't even know half of them. I just read it off the TV and I am awesome. I'm a good reader.

8 Simple Rules was unfortunately cut short. Do you have a sense that this will go for a while?

I'll never have comfort that it's going to go for a while. I think if I did, I think that's the curse right there. I don't trust anything anymore. I just am riding every day like it is because with what happened with 8 Simple Rules it was so insane, you just never know. So I'm just enjoying this as it goes and I hope that we continue as long as we can.

Are you into gadgets?

My new iPhone, I'm obsessed. My iPod. I love all the Mac crap.

When you're traveling, what's the one thing you have to have with you?

Oh, my iPod and my Bose headset because they sound so frigging good. And it's a sign to people to leave me alone. They are so big, they're bigger than my face and it's basically saying, "Get the hell away from me." I love it.

Do people come up to you anyway?

No, they're very nice. They know and I close my eyes like I can't hear anything. You know what I love? I don't even play music. I just keep them on and I'm kind of going like this and nodding my head like I'm listening. Nothing's going on in my ears.

You must have rhythm if you can sell that.

I've got good rhythm.

What do people want to know about the show when they recognize you?

They keep wanting to know, "What's going to happen with Leonard and Penny? Why can't Sheldon and Penny date?" Which cracks me up. That would have to be a nightmare sequence in season nine because they would kill each other. Penny would kill Sheldon.

There's a lot of anticipation for the relationship, yet we all know how it can ruin shows. How do you feel about how it's going to be done?

I don't know. I have such trust in Chuck. It does make me nervous hearing that we're going to date a little bit, but the way I've seen the show go, I don't think it's going to go well so I'm not worried. I don't think the relationship's going to go well. They've got a lot to learn and we've got a long ways to go.

How did you spend your summer?

I traveled a lot and I have horses on a ranch and that's all I did. I rode and it's kind of a curse knowing you have a show to go back to. You just get a little lazy. I'm like, "Oh, I'm going back to work. I don't have to do anything." And I go back on Wednesday [Aug 5] so I'm really excited.

Do you not look for movies to do during the break?

Not this year I didn't, no. I actually said I didn't want to do anything, didn't want to work.

How long have you been riding?

Long time, since I was like 14.

Why is that a passion?

That's the real love of my life. I think in an other life I was a professional. I love it. I love animals and I feel more of a connection to animals than people. It keeps my mind away from all this and everything that's going on here. If you're not connected to your horse, you're screwed so it takes a lot of focus.

Did you have horses from your family before?

My mom grew up with horses and when I turned 14, 15, she's like, "Do you want to take a riding lesson?" I thought, "Oh, gross, dirty." She was like, "Okay." And then I did and now I'm the one cleaning those damn stalls out. You can't get me away from the barn now. It shocks even me. Trust me. I don't know what happened to me. No heels at that place.

Comic-Con 2009: The Big Bang Theory by Kellen Rice

SAN DIEGO — Jim Parsons and Kaley Cuoco from "The Big Bang Theory" were on hand at the Comic-Con International, and took a few minutes after their panel to talk to the media. Parsons was nominated for an Emmy for his role as fan-favorite Sheldon and "geek goddess" Kaley Cuoco plays Penny on the show.

Jim Parsons on his Emmy nomination:

"It was like an out-of-body experience. Even now it doesn't feel completely like it's something I'm doing! I mean for one thing there's nothing to do, it's not like a job you have suddenly. But it's like — I don't know. The first thing that really threw me was when somebody asked, "Do you know what you'll wear?" Which number one I think is weird because won't I just wear a tux? But number two, it was the first time it really hit me that I would have to go. I don't know, it was something I thought I would have to do when I was fifty? I don't know."

On the geek love at Comic-Con:

"This year there's more people, but last year was really intense too. I don't why it surprised me completely but it did. The warm embrace, I keep saying, and it really feels that way. It wasn't til we got here last year and we were watching the clip reel, and it was like, oh, we are playing people who would go to Comic-Con. For some reason it didn't occur to me in the same way until we got here. But everybody knows so much about the show when they ask questions so they ask such smart questions, such intuitive and knowledgeable questions."

On whether he's become more geeky since playing Sheldon:

"Between the comic book characters and the science, and trying to get the most tenuous grasp of the knowledge of whatever it is so I know why I'm saying what it is that I'm saying. Now the comic book characters I might be able to find my way into, the science I can't. I'll never find a way to enjoying that and going, oh I get it! No, no.

I did have a scene in the comic book store once where I didn't have much to say, and so I spent the time reading one. I don't know which one it was because it was something I just picked up during shooting. But I had a good time?"

On the origin of his character's quirks:

"I will say that there are things like the knock-knock-knock-Penny, knock-knock-knock-Penny, it's chicken or egg. I don't know if I did it or if they wrote it. There's little things they put in there from seeing me or hearing me. But I've never pitched an idea for Sheldon, like "it'd be really good if he would.." or anything like that."

Kaley Cuoco's character Penny is the beautiful and geek-friendly next-door-neighbor to physicist roommates Sheldon and Leonard. As Cuoco puts it, "Penny is their path to the outside world."

On her stature in the geek world:

"That is so hilarious. I don't know what's happened! I almost want there to be a doll of Penny! Then I'll know I've made it."

(a member of the press corrects, "Action figure!")

"Sorry, okay, "Sheldon!" Action Figure!" [Laughs]

On fans:

"This show has the best fans, they are so sweet. They know everything about the show! It's kind of like you either know the show by heart or you've never seen it?"

On being recognized:

"I'm not aware of anything outside of this table! Really, I'm not — people are looking at me at restaurants and I'm thinking I have something on my face."

On the so-called "geek chic" trend:

The geeks are coming out of the closet! They're getting laid left and right! They're kind fo the cool ones now. The world is changing, people!

And last but not least: are they ever planning to fix the elevator?

"I get asked at question all the time! And people always say, "if they're physicists shouldn't they be able to fix it?" I don't know! I don't know, I think one episode Penny's gonna fix it."

She bangs by Ileane Rudolph

(Scanned and typed by pennyandsheldon.com)

Kaley Cuoco finds geek love on The big bang theory

The big bang theory has more Star Trek references than sex jokes, yet the ratings are great. Why?

People just seem to love the characters. it's the little show that could.

Your character, Penny, is the only female regular among a gaggle of guys. Your costar Johnny Galecki told me you love being the only girl and the center of the attention. True?

[Laughs] He said that? Well, that is very true. I do get special attention. The guys are all really smart and funny, and they're very good to me. Who wouldn't love that?*

The show is so smart - is the set full of witty repartee or "Dumb and dumber" silliness?

There's a lot of silliness. We have ping-pong obsession on our set. I'm supercompetitive and no one wants to play with me. Johnny won't play. He's afraid he'll lose to me.

Penny's cute and blonde, but she's not stereotypical, is she?

Not at all. She's smart, witty and loves these guys. The character has really evolved. Two years ago, I autioned for the role and wasn't hired. back then she wasn't so kind to the guys. They rewrote it and now there's not a mean bone in Penny's body.

What happens in this week's episode?

It's a Christmas episode, one of my favorites so far. Penny starts seeing someone [Battlestar Galactica's Michael Trucco] who Leonard [Galecki] has a man-crush on, and he gets a tad jealous. And Sheldon [Jim Parsons] finds out he's getting a Christmas present from me, so he spends the whole show with the other guys trying to find me something. It's really sweet.

Is there a future love connection for Penny and Leonard?

I hope so - but not for a long time. [Executive producer] Bill Prady said this perfectly: Penny is morphing Leonard into the man she wants to marry.

This seems a good time to ask: Are you dating Johnny Galecki?

[Laughs] That's very funny!

But are you romantically involved?

No.

In a recent interview, you brought him up constantly. Why?

Because he's my best friend! I have a lot of love for him.

Are you single?

Yes.

Would you date a geek like Leonard?

Definitely. I'm a comedy girl, so if you make me laugh, I'm pretty much yours.

Jim Parsons praised you for being "mature and as cool as a cucumber before taping." Is he right?

I love Jim so much! We've developed the most hilarious relationship. Jim's dialogue is so difficult that he always has to have his script with him, so he's in awe of me because I don't have to look at my lines.
But I'm definitely the least nervous on set because I almost feel more at home on stage than I do in my own home.

That might be because you've been acting since you were 6 (Northern exposure, My so-called life), breaking through as a teen on 8 Simple Rules. How have you stayed out of the gossip pages and avoided drug busts and drunken escapades?

I did grow up acting, but I never knew it was a big deal. It was just another of the things that I did, like play tennis. I've lived my life exactly the way I've wanted to live it, and I don't need anyone to know about it. Plus, I'm a total loser. I don't know anybody!

You were homeschooled back in Camarillo, California. Didn't you miss prom, mean girls and sex-crazed boys?

Hell, no. I couldn't be happier with not going to proms. I was going to wrap parties - that was more fun.

Any predictions about the show?

Jim and Johnny will win Emmys. I'm 100 million percent sure.