S8 Discussion Thread

[puremorning]

Maybe it will be like someone said here, Mrs.Woloiwtz's death makes all of them think about life and their relationships, so intimacy for all couples! yeah!

[Etienne]

Sheldon is going to cop a feel. Whether by accident or by "accident"

That's my current prediction.

 

And then he can give a clinical comparison to Penny from the Adhesive Ducks episode.    Nah, probably not what you're looking for.

[tallin]

Did you read those Mayim/Max tweets ? Seems like he will be some kind of zombie? Trying to imagine, how to fit it to all of our intimacy scenarios... someone doing hanky panky with a zombie seems even more wicked than Mitchy's Gang Bang Theory

[SRAM]

I'll take a shot at an idea, since we know Leonard hasn't been staying at Penny's until Sheldon granted one day a week, our two lovers want more, but they can't break the Leonard being over one day a week rule. So the obvious solution is that Penny moves in with Leonard, so Leonard does not have to leave Sheldon. That gives the title a sort of double meaning.

[nusspot]

According to what Max Adler said on twitter, the episode about to be taped tonight will air on Feb 26th. So this means that on Feb 19th there won't be a new episode? Or maybe I misunderstood something.

Edited January 27, 2015 by nusspot

[kerrycec03]

According to what Max Adler said on twitter, the episode about to be taped tonight will air on Feb 26th. So this means that on Feb 19th there won't be a new episode? Or maybe I misunderstood something.

No there will be..

This week is anxiety, then probably troll, the Mrs. W death then this Max one I bet

[3ku11]

As long as everythings about Shamy its all good huh . I like the idea of Penny moving in with Leonard. Therefore no need to break up the L and S arch. But unfortunately looks like they well. So Leonard with Penny. I do too hope its not season finalie. Get it out of the way let them get used to it. And have a Lenny Season Finalie .

[Stewie99]

Season 8 finale- Lenny moving in together.

Season 9 finale- After a succession of new roommates (various famous guest stars, each lasting no more than five episodes) Sheldon finally allows Amy to move in with him.

Season 10 finale- Howard and Bernadette baby and Lenny wedding.

Season 11 finale- Shamy wedding.

Edited January 27, 2015 by Stewie99

[Mislav]

Season 8 finale- Lenny moving in together.

Season 9 finale- After a succession of new roommates (various famous guest stars, each lasting no more than five episodes) Sheldon finally allows Amy to move in with him.

Season 10 finale- Howard and Bernadette baby and Lenny wedding.

Season 11 finale- Shamy wedding.

I think that season ten will be the last one.

[Tensor]

It's going to depend on the ratings.  Supposedly, their contracts call for option for a season 11.  From the season ratings so far, it will finish as the highest rated entertainment program in demo, only Sunday Night Football having a higher demo.   If there is an option, I don't think either WB or CBS will give up another season, unless the ratings totally collapse.   

[Nogravitasatall]

It's going to depend on the ratings. Supposedly, their contracts call for option for a season 11. From the season ratings so far, it will finish as the highest rated entertainment program in demo, only Sunday Night Football having a higher demo. If there is an option, I don't think either WB or CBS will give up another season, unless the ratings totally collapse.

Well, the early adopters are struggling now. If something else really good comes up...

[3ku11]

I don't know if my biast is showing here haha. But the idea of the finiale not revolving around Lenny seem's wrong, or even disconcerting some what. That said though Lenny's wedding well prob get dragged out. But the show should end with them, and then Leonard and Sheldon in some form. The main three are still the stars of the show after all. And were the original Three in the pilot. But that is just me. So yeah it is dependent on ratings. But if ratings are still strong, they could do season 20 haha not that I want that, maybe but that would be overstaying their welcome.

Edited January 27, 2015 by 3ku11

[Sheldon.lover]

It doesn't necessarily mean that the show finale has to do with Lenny. The Office ended with Dwight's wedding, for instance. He was an important character but his love story wasnt the main one on the show.

[Nogravitasatall]

Part of the challenge is that the show has acknowledged that the LOST BOYS are growing up. How funnny are 40 yo teenagers with childcare problems. Id hope for quality over volume and I think 11 seasons is a stretch, creatively.

[3ku11]

I never said Lenny's love story is the main story of the show lol. Big part of the show, but not the whole show. I am just saying the series finalie should involve them in some form or capacity. It's like in Season 10 we still had Howard hitting on Penny, Leonard taking Penny's mail just to talk to her, Penny at 30ish dating a 20 year old dumb gym guy, Sheldon at 50 with his walking stick going Bazinga cough cough cough punk cough... I mean I am glad the show won't be like that. Thankfully they have evolved the show. The Big Bang Theory suggests evolution. Clearly the whole "Our babies well be smart and beautiful". Was prob just a set up joke for Sheldon. But I think that maybe part of the series final. Maybe not actual kids on the show, but in a dream sequence.

[Tensor]

Clearly the whole "Our babies well be smart and beautiful". Was prob just a set up joke for Sheldon.

 

Nope, it lost the status as a set up when it was referenced several years into the show.   

[MTBigBangTheoryFan]

Nope, it lost the status as a set up when it was referenced several years into the show.   

 

When was that said again? Just curious 

[Stewie99]

I read an article on The AV Club website which speculated that TBBT could actually be the last, actual, across the board hit in terms of traditional sitcoms and ratings. Can another new traditional sitcom in this day and age get as good ratings at TBBT in the dying days of broadcast television?

[Tensor]

When was that said again? Just curious 

 

4.09 The Boyfriend Complexity.  After Leonard comes back from Penny's after she kisses him, he mentions that it might have meant something.  Howard talks about hearing Leonard talk about obsessing about Penny, how he is liking his new stuff, but it's always fun to hear the hits.  Raj asks Leonard to do "our babies will be smart and beautiful, that one always makes me laugh".  Which indicates that the group has heard it many times before.  

[3ku11]

Yeah I have doubts. I mean the landscape of tv is changing so much. Broadcast tv is becoming a dieing art. Big Bang really was the last traditional sitcom hit. Have we since Big Bang in 2007 seen a really massive hit? I mean Modern Family around that time. You got Mom, Two Broke Girls e.t.c. But their seems to be a rise of those modern comedies like Orange is the New Black. The Millars was good, wasen't I cancelled? Brooklyn 99, Episodes e.t.c. But with the age of digital streaming. I have serious doubts. I am sure eventually the right cast well come along. But issue is, everything needs to fall into place. Big Bang has a good looking, charismatic cast. But also right timeslot, right network, right time e.t.c. Factors like that is hard to come together. That said though, when Friends ended its run, critics speculated the future of the sitcom genre too. So maybe this is the same thing. Although the landscape of tv was very different in 2004.

Edited January 27, 2015 by 3ku11

[vonmar]

Additionally, networks and studios are no longer willing to wait for a show to find it's audience.  TBBT was nurtured by CBS and Warner Brothers from the failed first pilot to where they are now.

 

That doesn't happen anymore.  

[Tensor]

I read an article on The AV Club website which speculated that TBBT could actually be the last, actual, across the board hit in terms of traditional sitcoms and ratings. Can another new traditional sitcom in this day and age get as good ratings at TBBT in the dying days of broadcast television?

 

Define hit.  A sitcom getting TBBT's ratings today, in the late 1990s to early 2000s would have been cancelled before completing six episodes.   TBBT was the only show (I'm ignoring sports here) to break a 5.0 in demo last year, hell it was the only show to break a 4.0.    In Friends final year, it averaged (pulling out the absolutely massive final of 26.6) an 11.1.  And, as big as that 26.6 final for Friends looks, I Love Lucy averaged a 67 for a full year.   So, shows, are defined as hits, differently, depending on when they were broadcast.  

[Stewie99]

Yeah I have doubts. I mean the landscape of tv is changing so much. Broadcast tv is becoming a dieing art. Big Bang really was the last traditional sitcom hit. Have we since Big Bang in 2007 seen a really massive hit? I mean Modern Family around that time. You got Mom, Two Broke Girls e.t.c. But their seems to be a rise of those modern comedies like Orange is the New Black. The Millars was good, wasen't I cancelled? Brooklyn 99, Episodes e.t.c. But with the age of digital streaming. I have serious doubts. I am sure eventually the right cast well come along. But issue is, everything needs to fall into place. Big Bang has a good looking, charismatic cast. But also right timeslot, right network, right time e.t.c. Factors like that is hard to come together. That said though, when Friends ended its run, critics speculated the future of the sitcom genre too. So maybe this is the same thing. Although the landscape of tv was very different in 2004.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Mom and Two Broke Girls are all hits, but not anywhere near as big as TBBT. Modern Family has been almost as popular, but isn't a traditional sitcom; it's presented in a mockumentary format. Orange is the New Black is a dramady- can it be classed as a sitcom, despite what the people at the Emmys think? I think TBBT truly is the last traditional sitcom to be this popular and enjoy this much success in the ratings.

Define hit.  A sitcom getting TBBT's ratings today, in the late 1990s to early 2000s would have been cancelled before completing six episodes.   TBBT was the only show (I'm ignoring sports here) to break a 5.0 in demo last year, hell it was the only show to break a 4.0.    In Friends final year, it averaged (pulling out the absolutely massive final of 26.6) an 11.1.  And, as big as that 26.6 final for Friends looks, I Love Lucy averaged a 67 for a full year.   So, shows, are defined as hits, differently, depending on when they were broadcast.

Average of more than 15 million viewers a season? Is that a hit? UK TV is my thing, I don't know US TV too well, but there can't be many sitcoms these days averaging more than 15 million an episode.

[phantagrae]

I think that the issue is niche programming and networks being willing to accept lower ratings for that reason.

It used to be--and it still is with broadcast TV--that a show had to hit a certain mark in order to stay afloat.

I remember people talking about how The X-Files probably would not have survived if it had been on one of the Big 3 networks because it was more of a cult show and didn't have big ratings.  Since FOX was a fledgling network, it needed a show like TXF that could help bring in viewers.  And eventually TXF grew in numbers and popularity, etc.

 

Nowadays, with cable networks offering shows with shorter seasons, or split seasons, they can air them in the summer, when regular broadcast TV is in reruns, and they can accept lower ratings as being successful.  Viewers may still watch broadcast TV shows, but they don't have to all sit down at the same time on the same night like they used to.  Sponsors can't expect the traditional exposure to viewers.

 

But I don't think that means that there won't be another show with the kind of big ratings that TBBT gets, they'll just be spread out over however many nights the networks choose to count.

 

I think that if a show is popular enough--funny enough, dramatic enough, etc.--it could get big ratings.  Because viewers can download episodes onto their computers or tablets, can DVR episodes and watch them whenever, etc., TBBT is already involved in this new TV landscape.

Unless every network goes to doing stuff like only posting episodes online, there is still going to be something of a traditional TV market.  It will just be splintered.  If Nielsen, or whoever, figures out how to count the numbers, they could probably find a show that could be as big a hit.

 

I think that TBBT simply has some kind of winning formula--characters that people care about, a certain kind of humor that people enjoy, and some kind of overal sense, IMO, of caring for each other.  There are no villains, there's no conspiracy, it's simply a pure sitcom--some "situation" arises, and "comedy" ensues.

 

I don't think that TBBT has the market cornered on such things, it's just that right now, they're the ones who are doing it right, no matter what the naysayers say.  It's not idiot humor, as some try to contend, and it's not mean, ugly humor, like some shows have.  The characters poke fun at each other, but also at themselves, but not in an ugly way.

Conflicts arise, but in the end, they're all still friends who care about each others.  I think it's just a funny show that feels good to watch.  If you can make the audience care about your characters, then that's half the battle.  You can tell almost any kind of story.

[Tensor]

Average of more than 15 million viewers a season? Is that a hit? UK TV is my thing, I don't know US TV too well, but there can't be many sitcoms these days averaging more than 15 million an episode.

 

That's an arbitrary cutoff.  There were five Sit-coms in 2003-2004 that average 15 million viewers.  In 1983-84 there were 8 sit-coms (the lowest finished in 30th place with 17 million viewers.  Viewers that had to watch when it was broadcast) that had more viewers that TBBT has averaged this year for Same Day (and that includes DVR viewers for seven hours after it's broadcast).    That means, TBBT would be out of the top 30.    I just think that the definition of hit will be different in the future.