Great Feature Article In The Wall Street Journal On The Big Bang Theory

[Superbowl]

Here is an article that is a feature article in The Wall Street Journal. I copied the whole thing, because the link does not always work. It is long, but a great read about the innerworkings of the show.

A Nerdy Comedy's Winning Formula
As sitcoms wane, 'The Big Bang Theory' has become an unlikely ratings hit

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."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1229..._Entertainment

[AB]

Interesting article, thanks for posting it.