I HAVE A THEORY

The day was winding down to the most exciting part of our trip to LA and #1 Son and TLC (The Lovely Courtney), who had so far been great hosts. A tour of Warner Bros. Studios was coming to a conclusion and we TLW (The Little Woman) and I were getting ready for the day of days. We were going to a tapping of the Big Bang Theory, one my son had written and I along with his mom would see it tapped first hand. As we arrived at studio 25 at the Warner Brothers lot, we could see the parking spaces dedicated to the cast of characters that would perform that evening.

Entering the building and going through security, I had to surrender my camera and phone until after the taping. Once in, a lovely young lady found us and escorted us to our seat, right down in front of the crowd, center stage. There across our seats was our last name on a tape, reserved and waiting for us. It just so happened to be under the nose of the comedian who would try to entertain us between takes on the set.

The woman who escorted us, Samantha Silver for The Big Bang Theory after taking us to our seats, then informed us that we would be going back stage after the taping and that she would collect us when it was time. The adrenalin in me rose with the thought of meeting the cast.

Mark Sweet has a hard job, keeping people entertained and amused, filling in the dead spaces so to speak as the house comedian. Somehow I just knew we would be actively engaged with the man and the audience of about 300 people, and it didn’t take long! But this blogue is not about me it is about my son’s show and the wonderful people we met on The Big Bang Theory.

That's me in Sheldon's spot

The first thing you notice is the sets, and the large screens that are moveable, allowing the camera to move back and forth along a corridor that stretches along all the sets. Where you can’t see the shooting down one way or the other of the sets, large screen TVs are provided. When they finish shooting one set, they move onto another, in the same sequence that they appear on the TV show itself. They usually shoot the same scene twice, maybe adding or taking away a camera angle, and do retakes if something misfires, like an actor laughing or missing a line. From one set to another, the screen comes down as the camera shoots and the other set just shot gets the screen put back up. The whole process took 4 ½ hours to complete.

TLW takes over!

They supply you with bottled water and Eskimo pizza, along the way.

After I was done making the comedian laugh, and getting the mike on a few occasions, the show was done shooting and Samantha came to collect us, taking us back stage to meet the executive producers, one of who worked under me at PCH: Steve Molaro, along with Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre, Steve Holland and then the actors other writers and directors and people involved in the show themselves.

We met Howard (Simon Helberg), the newly married astronaut who was very gracious and I think very, very funny, Raj or Koothrappali, (Kunal Nayyar) who was to remark later to #1 Son: “Your parents are soooo cute!” We met Bernadette (Melissa Rauch), who is much more beautiful in person than on the TV, without her glasses, and a sweet woman to boot. She said that #1 Son was her favorite writer, which made his parents prouder yet! She is so nice that she happened to be in the same theatre on the same day that #1 Son and TLC were in NYC at Studio 54 where Jim Parsons (Sheldon) was appearing in Harvey. When she discovered that they were all there in the audience, #1 Son texted her and they met afterward, and she sent flowers to their hotel room after the show!

But the one I wanted to meet I traveled over 2,000 miles to do so, and that was Penney (Kaley Cuoco), the blond, Leonard and Sheldon’s neighbor across the hall. When I was introduced, I told her I had traveled over 2,000 miles to meet her, and her reaction? She put her arm around me. I will not wash that part of my body for a while, along with my right hand that shook hands with them all!

We never got to meet Leonard (Johnny Galecki) or Sheldon (Jim Parsons) or Amy (Mayim Bialik) who did not appear in the show that episode since they had left immediately after the taping.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: the elevator ‘floors’ you see on the show is the same set! They change the scene for each take of the set to appear like different floors.

Agter the taping a surprise occurred to make for a great finale! The cast and crew did a tribute to the writer’s, organized by Kaley Cuoco in dance and song. They rehearse this over a period of time when the writers were not aware of it!

Having the opportunity to sit in Sheldon’s place on the couch was of course, the crowning moment of the night, along with seeing #1 Son as he moved with the crew from set to set, and his waving to us! I think that there are times when your children make you proud, and times when they can make you worry, and even times when they make you nuts, but the best times are when you watch them and realize as TLW and I did, that it is not what they do, it is who they are as individuals in the moral scope of the world.

I mentioned Steve Molaro before, and I have to say I was proud of Steve, he has come a long way, inviting #1 Son Anthony out to California years ago to write for shows he was working on, and being there for Anthony when he needed a friend during some tough times, sharing his family holidays when Anthony was alone. But Steve was always a kind of guy that liked to laugh: he made me laugh when he was at Publishers Clearing House along with everyone who knew him. He deserves success, and he has it, good for him!

It was the best!

All TLW and I can say is: Thank you cast and crew for a great evening, filled with graciousness and kindness, consideration and talent that you all have in abundance, you made us very happy and we both felt privileged to have been there. And a special thank you to Samantha Silver for all she has done. I will be mentioning her in a later blogue for another kindness.