By: Sharoll Jackson
San Diego, CA (The Hollywood Times) 07/21/2017 – Big Bang Theory cast, producers and writers showed a few clips including the 10th season cliffhanger when Leonard (Johnny Galecki) goes down on one knee for a surprise marriage proposal to his girlfriend, Amy (Kaley Cuoco). The crowd in Hall H at the San Diego Comic-Con event was bubbling with emotion.
The witty panelists included actors Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Kevin Sussman, Kunal Nayvar; and producing/writing team members Bill Prady, Steve Molaro, Steve Holland, Maria Ferrari, Eric Kaplan, and Dave Goetsch. Moderators Riki Lindhome and John Ross Bowie handled the Q&A session which opened up the discussion about the Big Bang Theory family.
Pranks on the set and surprises for the writers were common place until one particular prank that was planned and pulled off went a bit awry. Actors Galecki and Cuoco thought it would be funny to add a little something to one of the Valentine’s day episodes by taking a scripted argument over-the-top. Leonard (Galecki) fake punched Penny (Cuoco) in the face and she tipped over to the ground where he continued to fake beat her up, throwing stored strands of hair extensions up in the air as if pulling out her hair. He stopped when blood was noticed on her forehead. She had accidentally hit the area along her eyebrow on the chair and was bleeding. She assured everyone that she was fine and then she went to get stitches. Cuoco giggled telling the crowd that “the next day there were signs all over the set saying, ‘No more having fun’.” That’s debatable.
The family theme is evident. The relationships are warm and photos of everyone and of many memorable moments are posted on the Wall of Shame in the wardrobe department.
Writers Holland, Prady and Ferrari piped in when asked about story ideas agreeing that they have some great sessions talking about their life experiences. Holland said some source material comes from them “telling stories of our lives and and then we try to make it funny.” Brady added that “you basically tell painful stories from your life and people laugh and you make the script.”
Some memorable star moments were when Big Bang Theory hit their 200th episode, they had Adam West as Batman in the episode. Molaro said that West had a scene with a poodle and he seemed to want a tougher dog. However, when Molaro told him that he wasn’t too sure about that kind of change, West said that the poodle was fine since he had poodles himself in real life. Prady asked West to call him “old chum”. Holland recalled that “James Earl Jones and Carrie Fischer met face to face for the first time on their set and she called him Dad.” Sussman shared that “Wil Wheaton who I had been a fan of and was in awe of came on set and I tried to play it all cool… then when Adam West was on set, I watched Wil as he was walking over to Adam West, and he did the thing that I did to him!”
A sing-along of Sheldon’s favorite childhood song “Soft Kitty” ended the morning event. Their 11th season is scheduled for September 25th on CBS.
