Twelve Years Later....

Deja vu all over again.   I wrote the following on November 18, 2008.

I heartily recommend to you "The Big Bang Theory."

Okay, it's not perfect. But it is a sitcom shot with four cameras in front of a live audience that is truly and heartily laughing like I used to hear on "Everybody Loves Raymond." The dialogue is smart, the casting is impeccable, and it brings you some characters you have never seen before on TV.

I watched from its premiere last season and the early episodes were bumpy as the writers searched long and hard for the character voices. But, now, everybody has their chops down and this show is humming. The true proof of the pudding is that American Airlines is now airing episodes and the laughter around the cabin is deafening.

"The Big Bang Theory" brings some new folks to television. Leonard and Sheldon are two mensa geniuses working in some scientific think tank. Their friends are also hyper-intelligent: one of them is a kid from India whose parents communicate with him from New Delhi via Webex. They are all geeks and weird and the type of people you find at comic book stores and sci-fi conventions. 

In one episode, the four of them dug down into a game of Klingon Bobble. It made no sense. It was hilarious. The protagonist in all this is their next door neighbor Penny, who is hundred times less smart and works as a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory. In a way, this becomes a family comedy. An unrelated, terribly strange family, but a family nonetheless.

As Leonard and Sheldon, Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons channel younger versions of Frasier and Niles on steroids. More specifically, Parsons (pictured) is just about set to run away with this show. His delivery and timing is so spot-on that the writers are now gravitating toward him. He gets more and more of the plots and could be to this series what David Hyde Pierce was to "Frasier" and Michael J. Fox was to "Family Ties." This sometimes is not a good thing. You never want one character to upset the complete balance of the series. My fear is that this might happen in Season 3 or 4. But, until then, Parsons is gold and should also win some at the next Emmy Awards ceremony.

More importantly, "The Big Bang Theory" raises Lazarus from the dead. It brings back to our living rooms a traditional situation comedy that is really not as high concept as is written on the page. At the end of the day or the episode, it's funny. And that's all I want.

Twelve years later, "The Big Bang Theory" ends its run and I am so proud that I was so right.  I was happy to be the one to alert friends back in the day when ratings were low.   Now as it aired its final episode in May, 2019, we salute the work of all involved.   

Now I must confess that, while I always stuck with it, I did grow just a wee bit tired of it over the last three seasons.   It was clear that they were running out of plots.   Jim Parsons started to overplay the quirks of his character which happens when an actor gets bored.  And, during the last two years, they handed too, too much screen time to the character pf Koothrappali, who was played by arguably the weakest actor in the cast.  Yet, at the same time over the course of the series, Kaley Cuoco grew leaps and bounds as an actress and is a future comedic force to be reckoned with. 

That said, I probably didn't miss an episode and there was always one genuine big laugh for me every week.   I cannot say that about any other sitcom on TV these days.  Moreover, the universality of the characters will last for generations because, thanks to the genuine laughter from the studio audience, it will invite multiple viewings.   

You can't say that about junk like "black-ish" and "Fresh Off The Boat."  Take that, Constance Wu, you ungrateful pig.

Yep, "The Big Bang Theory" lasted because it was funny. It was the perfect blend of writing and casting that happens so rarely in television.  Kudos and thanks for all the fun.

Dinner last night:  Broccoli salad.