[Spoilers] Season 12 Discussion Thread

[joyceraye]

18 hours ago, vonmar said:

From The New York Post

How ‘Big Bang Theory’ snared ‘Star Trek’ legend William Shatner

“The Big Bang Theory” has finally landed William Shatner as a guest star — after trying several times to nab the elusive “ Star Trek ” icon.

Shatner, 87, will appear in the upcoming (Feb. 21) episode “The D&D Vortex” along with fellow celebs Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Joe Manganiello and Kevin Smith.

<full article in the link>

 

I looked up Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and found out he was a baseball player - or perhaps basketball - but I wonder if our gang will know who he is ? They'll know Shatner for sure and possibly the other two.

[veejay]

Dream team for sure. 🙂

Edited February 13, 2019 by veejay

[joyceraye]

Tensor, please thank Nicole for us. 

I wonder how they're going to do the experiment scenes with the babies always in another room ? 

Fifteen is divisible by three - perhaps the writers weren't joking the night Neil Michael was born. That's funny. Does Amy  give a reason why she needs to get Sheldon interested in having kids ? Does she say he's been showing reluctance lately, or changing his mind since Leonard won't have any ?

 

 

[April]

1 minute ago, joyceraye said:

Does Amy  give a reason why she needs to get Sheldon interested in having kids ? Does she say he's been showing reluctance lately, or changing his mind since Leonard won't have any ?

Yeah, that part feels kinda weird cause she already knows Sheldon wants a lot of kids with her. Maybe it's only cause Sheldon doesn't care much for Howardette's kids?? Idk.

[luminous]

 

[RJ1013]

I attended yesterday’s taping. I don’t have much time today, but I can answer a few of the above questions, though most of it is just my opinion, any you'll all have to watch the episode to form your own opinions.

33 minutes ago, April said:

Yeah, that part feels kinda weird cause she already knows Sheldon wants a lot of kids with her. Maybe it's only cause Sheldon doesn't care much for Howardette's kids?? Idk.

To me, nothing really contradicted what we already know of Sheldon wanting kids. I think it’s more that he’s never actually interacted with infants or small children, and has shown no interest in doing so with the Wolowitz’ kids or any others. We've only ever seen Sheldon talk about kids in a theoretical, clinical kind of way. So my impression is that this is Amy’s sneaky way to get Sheldon to actually spend some time with babies, and to do so in a way that would be fun for him. And he does have a really great time. He’s thrilled when Michael grabs his finger, and helps Howard with several tasks, all under the guise of it being for science.

It’s much the same as Amy has often done things with Sheldon—helping him to take tiny steps towards aspects of life that may be daunting for him, and doing so in a way that he'll enjoy.

To make it simpler and for humor, they do sort of refer to it as her tricking him into wanting kids, so it is a little weird, but I think of it more as making the idea of having kids more real to him instead of theoretical, if that makes sense.

35 minutes ago, joyceraye said:

I wonder how they're going to do the experiment scenes with the babies always in another room ?

The Wolowitz' kids aren't shown. There are just infant carriers/car seats on the table facing away from the audience, and you can see the hats that they have on their heads.

[Tensor]

More info from Nicole:

the babies are in car seats (since the book suggests doing the experiments when they're in the car, they just did them in the car seats in the living room). They pre-taped one of the scenes where you can see Michael's hand, in the other scenes they have dolls in the car seats (a larger one for Halley) so you can "see" the tops of their heads.

As for Sheldon needing to warm to kids, I got the impression it came from his comments in the last few episodes about not caring to be around Howard and Bernadette's babies.

ALSO - we get to hear Halley speak!

[Chrismo]

25 minutes ago, Tensor said:

 

ALSO - we get to hear Halley speak!

Replying to Alex Trebek on Jeopardy: What is when you know TBBT needs to ends.

[April]

Thank you so much for the additional information @RJ1013 and @Tensor (best regard to Nicole!)!!

[Sah]

Thanks for the spoilers! Hope you had a blast!

[Swedish Chef]

2 hours ago, Tensor said:

Here’s a short description of the taping last night.  It’s from Nicole, and if there are any questions I can pass them along:

Alright so episode is called The Conference Valuation.  In addition to the main seven, we have Stuart, Beverly (though that scene isn't going to be filmed until later in the week) and a few one off characters. The A storyline is Penny and Bernadette at a conference for the drug they were working on together.  Penny is an amazing saleswoman and the other drug companies take note of that. One rival company offers her a job with them.  She (briefly) entertains it because she's flattered, Bernadette is upset at the idea that she might take it, but she turns it down and says she's very happy where she is.  B storyline is while Penny and Bernadette are gone, Howard is responsible for the kids (there is a line I really loved where he says he can handle babysitting and Bernadette goes "you're not babysitting, they're your children, you're parenting.)" He has Shamy + Leonard + Raj over for board games, and they end up "doing experiments" on the babies from a book Sheldon found at the bookstore, which includes testing to see which hand is dominant, object permanence, etc.  Leonard realizes that this was his entire childhood.  We find out later that Amy purposefully had Sheldon find that book and then come over to get him interested in babies.  The tag is him admitting he wants kids, but they have to be great in number and be divisible by three so he can do the experiments he wants on them.

 

Really nice that we finally get some focus on Penny's work from the writers and it's awesome that she actually is successful in her work.

[Mario D.]

16 hours ago, Tensor said:

I haven't been putting up the ratings this year.  Several factors have come together to keep me from doing it.  But, I have some info for the year so far. 

Here are all the scripted series shows, on each network.  You'll note that there are only two series that are above a 2.0.  This is Us at 2.170 and TBBT at 2.290.   You know CBS wanted to continue TBBT.   Almost two thirds of CBS' shows are below a 1.0.  CBS has a 1.011 average for all it's shows.  If you take out TBBT from their schedule, the average for CBS drops to a 0.950.  I can see the rest of Thursday night dropping a bit, without a TBBT lead in, so it's possible CBS may be closer to a 0.9 next year.  

The CBS table offers reasoning as to why Mom got a two season pickup.   When TBBT leaves next year, Mom becomes the number 2 comedy on CBS.

Thanks for the data  Guess you can see why CBS wanted to keep TBBT and be willing to have a spin-off.  Do you think that a Penny & Leonard spin-off would keep their numbers up?

[veejay]

12 minutes ago, Swedish Chef said:

Really nice that we finally get some focus on Penny's work from the writers and it's awesome that she actually is successful in her work.

Well, it's about time. 🙂

 

[MTBigBangTheoryFan]

Thanks for the spoilers 

[Die Zimtzicke]

5 hours ago, Capt. Hilts said:

I was not of the impression Penny and Bernadette were great pals.  Penny thought Howard was pretty icky. If they'd been that close, she would NOT have set B up with Howard to honor Leonard's promise to Howard.  They were cordial co-workers.   

I totally agree.

 

3 hours ago, Tensor said:

Alright so episode is called The Conference Valuation.  In addition to the main seven, we have Stuart, Beverly (though that scene isn't going to be filmed until later in the week) and a few one off characters. The A storyline is Penny and Bernadette at a conference for the drug they were working on together.  Penny is an amazing saleswoman and the other drug companies take note of that. One rival company offers her a job with them.  She (briefly) entertains it because she's flattered, Bernadette is upset at the idea that she might take it, but she turns it down and says she's very happy where she is.  B storyline is while Penny and Bernadette are gone, Howard is responsible for the kids (there is a line I really loved where he says he can handle babysitting and Bernadette goes "you're not babysitting, they're your children, you're parenting.)" He has Shamy + Leonard + Raj over for board games, and they end up "doing experiments" on the babies from a book Sheldon found at the bookstore, which includes testing to see which hand is dominant, object permanence, etc.  Leonard realizes that this was his entire childhood.  We find out later that Amy purposefully had Sheldon find that book and then come over to get him interested in babies.  The tag is him admitting he wants kids, but they have to be great in number and be divisible by three so he can do the experiments he wants on them.

Okay, as this is written, I personally would not call it manipulation by Amy. That's too harsh a word for how it's described here.

Edited February 13, 2019 by Die Zimtzicke

[Chrismo]

48 minutes ago, Swedish Chef said:

Really nice that we finally get some focus on Penny's work from the writers and it's awesome that she actually is successful in her work.

This has set up written all over it.

[Die Zimtzicke]

3 hours ago, joyceraye said:

I looked up Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and found out he was a baseball player - or perhaps basketball - but I wonder if our gang will know who he is ? They'll know Shatner for sure and possibly the other two.

Basketball and anyone of a certain age will certainly know. I know Shatner but the other two didn't ring a bell at first.

[joyceraye]

58 minutes ago, Die Zimtzicke said:

Basketball and anyone of a certain age will certainly know. I know Shatner but the other two didn't ring a bell at first.

Only Shatner rang a bell with me. I knew him because I am of a certain age.  I don't know how many British people can name basketball players. I looked up the other three. 

Edited February 13, 2019 by joyceraye

[joyceraye]

2 hours ago, Mario D. said:

Thanks for the data  Guess you can see why CBS wanted to keep TBBT and be willing to have a spin-off.  Do you think that a Penny & Leonard spin-off would keep their numbers up?

Did CBS actually announce they wanted to keep TBBT ? Well why on Earth didn't the silly whatsits give the cast a three-year contract two years ago ?

[Capt. Hilts]

8 minutes ago, joyceraye said:

Did CBS actually announce they wanted to keep TBBT ? Well why on Earth didn't the silly whatsits give the cast a three-year contract two years ago ?

It's obvious they want to keep it going - they use it to help boost new programs or prop up those on less favorable nights, or whatever.  

[vonmar]

 

[Kev0821]

Thanks @Tensor and @RJ1013 for all of the spoilers!!! They're very much appreciated!

[joyceraye]

41 minutes ago, Capt. Hilts said:

It's obvious they want to keep it going - they use it to help boost new programs or prop up those on less favorable nights, or whatever.  

I suppose to viewers of the US TV system it's obvious. I wonder why it wasn't obvious to CBS sooner ? I'd have watched a season 13 or a spin off. If they are so worried why don't they just make series people will watch ? Living Biblically, for instance, although nothing like TBBT apart from a cast member or two, had potential in terms of an idea and had it been made well it could have had an audience.  

[Kev0821]

20 hours ago, vonmar said:

Pro golfer Bubba Watson...

 

 

 

 

[Shelldon]

Episode feels a little like thumb twiddling. Penny still where she is with continued telling instead of showing how she's good at this job, and Shamy's want for children not being a new concept or one that the episode promises they'll take action on right now

However we have the final April taping dates for Big Bang Theory!

April 2nd: 12x21

April 9th: 12x22

April 23rd: 12x23

April 30th: 12x24

May 9th, 2019 is likely when 23/24 air together, so one break (probably May 2nd so they have 2 weeks to get all eyes on it)