Going out with a ‘Bang’

Honor brings tears, smiles on the set of TV’s longest-running comedy

BURBANK, Calif. — TV’s top comedy “The Big Bang Theory” Thursday offered the press its first glimpse of an episode run-through, as actors read the script on the show’s sets.

But this time the weekly exercise came with a bronze plaque and the dedication of Warner Bros.’ Stage 25, the home of Sheldon, Leonard, Penny and their friends, as The Big Bang Theory Stage. It’s only the fifth show in studio history to get such an honor on the sprawling lot, joining “Friends,” E.R.,” “Two and a Half Men,” and the “Ellen” talk show.

The plaque unveiling, held in the living room of the apartment once shared by Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki), was just one of many moments those involved with the CBS comedy will remember as they near the series’ 279th and final episode, moving it past “Cheers” to set a record for TV’s longest-running comedy taped in front of a studio audience.

“You come to work every day to make a good show. We don’t think about getting a plaque, but the plaque is extremely rewarding. It makes the show part of the history of the lot,” co-creator Chuck Lorre said.

Nearby, Kaley Cuoco, who’s played Penny since the series premiered in 2007, was feeling the emotions of the day and the closing weeks on a show that made her and fellow cast rich and famous.

“I am, like, already losing it. These last few episodes have been really heartbreaking,” said Cuoco, standing next to the forever-broken apartment elevator as a tear streamed down her cheek. “This sounds cheesy, but I’ve passed the ‘Friends’ stage for 20 years as an actor, and I always wanted our stage to be that way. I always thought that was so cool. This is really special.”

“If there was a recipe for the kind of of chemistry that’s here on the stage and in the writers room, every show would last 280-some episodes,” said Galecki.

Although Thursday marked a special occasion, the run-through of “The Conference Valuation,” to air in March, went much like the many before it as part of the five-day production process.

The episode, which finds Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) and Penny butting heads at a pharmaceutical convention and Amy (Mayim Bialik) trying to manipulate Sheldon (Jim Parsons) into wanting kids, was spread across several sets on the vast soundstage.

For each scene, more than five dozen people gathered at the Wolowitz home, the pharmaceutical convention, a hotel and the iconic living-room set, as director Mark Cendrowski offered stage directions and cast members dressed in street clothes and off-camera hairdos – a more stylish cut for Simon Helberg (Wolowitz) and straight locks for Rauch – recited lines.

Before a scene, Parsons stood in the hall, practicing dialogue. Galecki borrowed a pen from a desk on set.

The scenes moved quickly, as writers and crew punctuated each joke with aggressive laughter to simulate an audience responsebefore everyone shuffled to the next set on the stage.

With the stage dedication, the cast and crew paused to take in the moment, as just seven episodes remain.

And while CBS and Warner Bros. would welcome a spinoff, Lorre says there are no plans “that I’m aware of. … This feels like a wonderful way to take a bow and go before they start throwing fruit.”

The series’ 279th and final episode moves it past “Cheers” in the record book.

Kaley Cuoco, left, takes a group photo of “The Big Bang Theory” cast and producers just after Warner Bros. dedicated the Burbank soundstage to the top-rated CBS comedy, which finishes its 12-season run in May. WARNER BROS.