How The Big Bang Theory's comic chemistry fizzled out
What’s the greatest sweeping gender generalisation you can think of? For men, that intelligence equates to social ineptitude? For women, that blond equals dumb? It’s amazing that The Big Bang Theory went on to become the biggest American sitcom since Friends. But a sitcom combining these two stereotyped groups in adjacent flats just so happened to work.
We are in Pasadena, Los Angeles County. In Apartment 4A (sorry, the lift is out of order, you’ll have to take the stairs), we have physicist Sheldon Cooper PhD, borderline obsessive-compulsive and utterly lacking in people skills, obviously thanks to his gargantuan IQ. There is physicist Leonard Hofstadter PhD, a self-aware nerd, therefore better with people and less awkward with the ladies. He was only allowed to move in with Sheldon after signing the Roommate Agreement (“Roommates must notify each other 12 hours in advance if they wish to have a house guest.” “If Sheldon turns into a zombie, Leonard cannot kill him.”).
Round their gaff, we often find aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz, who lovesthe ladies but still lives with his mum (RIP), and Dr Raj Koothrappali, who physically can’t speak to women unless he’s utterly twatted. You can imagine what happens when Penny, a pretty blond waitress and wannabe actor, moves into Apartment 4B. You can almost smell the fear and pent-up testosterone through the TV screen.
Leonard calls dibs, and he and Penny start on-and-off dating for the rest of Big Bang history. Love interest for the other three eggheads was required. We meet Bernadette Rostenkowski, Penny’s waitress friend and microbiology student, perfect for Howard. There’s Amy “Blossom” Farrah Fowler, selected by a dating site as Sheldon’s match, whom Sheldon finally gets it on with in series nine. In fact, if you want an unnecessary timeline of all Big Bang’s saucy shenanigans, here it is:
Leonard and Penny: Meet – series one. Date, kiss etc – series two. Break up – series three. One-night stand – series four. Sex in a Tardis police booth – series six. Engaged – series seven. Married – series nine.
Howard and Bernadette: Meet – series three. Engaged – series four. Married – series five. Howard goes into space – series six. Kids – series 10 and 11.
Sheldon and Amy: Meet – series three. Date – series five. Kiss etc – series nine. Engaged – series 10. Married – series 11. When The Big Bang Theory Jumped the Shark? Ooh, around series nine.
In its prime, with the beauties and the geeks on the perpetual cop, Big Bang was as funny and charming as any sitcom you could sit down and watch with your mum. Now that everyone in the show has settled down, it’s about as interesting as real life; ie not that interesting at all. The current 12th series is the last, where even Raj – Big Bang’s Phoebe – has found love. So we’re probably all off to Bollywood for the finale. And then, poof! Gravity will stop the expansion of the universe, everything will begin to contract, all matter will collapse into the Big Crunch, and we’ll all be dead for ever. See ya.