The Last-Ever Big Bang Theory: My Personal Thoughts

[Henry]

One of the longest-running comedies ended last night with a series finale for the ages. It was great from beginning to end, with Sheldon and Amy winning the Nobel Prize in physics, Howard and Bernadette's children being seen for the only time, and Leonard and Penny expecting their first child. (However, the one disappointment for me was Raj still being alone, because I thought for sure that he would go through with his arranged wedding with Anu.) And to top it all off, an acoustic rendition of the theme song playing before the final fade to black was the ultimate sendoff.

So what are your thoughts on the last hurrah from Pasadena?

[GreenLanternCorps]

One of the longest-running comedies ended last night with a series finale for the ages. It was great from beginning to end, with Sheldon and Amy winning the Nobel Prize in physics, Howard and Bernadette's children being seen for the only time, and Leonard and Penny expecting their first child. (However, the one disappointment for me was Raj still being alone, because I thought for sure that he would go through with his arranged wedding with Anu.) And to top it all off, an acoustic rendition of the theme song playing before the final fade to black was the ultimate sendoff.

So what are your thoughts on the last hurrah from Pasadena?

[jon daly]

I appreciate this. I was wondering how the show would end, but had no desire to watch it.

[SP Cook]

Many other such long running shows have had much more sappy endings.  This was pretty much just another episode. 

The show had run its course for me.  When you have a strongly odd character, and this show started off with pretty much all strongly odd characters, you can only write them against their personality so many times before that becomes their personality.

That was the last sit-com I was regularly watching. 

[LM117]

I thought it was a good ending. I watched it since it first premiered in 2007. The show had went downhill for a while, but it gradually picked up some steam again. Seasons 1-3 are still the best, though.

Of all the characters on the show, Bernadette ended up being the worst, IMO. She started off as sweet but feisty, then she eventually just became a total bitch. The other characters progressed just fine, and at least Kaley Cuoco grew her hair back after that awful haircut a few years ago.

BTW, Jim Parsons gave his reason for pulling the plug:

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/big-bang-theory-jim-parsons-sheldon-cooper

[PHLBOS]

I was working late and missed the episode.  Did the elevator in the building finally get repaired?

[jeffandnicole]

I was working late and missed the episode.  Did the elevator in the building finally get repaired?

Yep!

[jeffandnicole]

I enjoyed it as well. I thought it was actually going to suck after everyone got pissed at Sheldon and were ready to fly back home, but they tied it in very nicely at the end.  I am very sure they were real tears, not acting tears, Penny had while seated at the awards ceremony.

The opening 'Previously on Big Bang Theory' was a good, brief synopsis of the 12 years the show was on the air.

I forgot the timeline a little, so it seemed like Howard's kids appeared older than they should've been, especially if they haven't talked yet.

I never noticed Howard's mom's picture on the fridge (it was posted there after she passed away).  I'll have to look for that in reruns.

I was a little disappointed that Penny was pregnant.  I don't know why...maybe because of who she normally was portrayed as, the pregnancy will made her a very different person.  That said, since it was the last episode, we will never see that change.

As with many shows, I didn't watch this one the first few years it ran, but came to like it.  I don't think I've ever seen the two episodes which Penny didn't appear in.  For those unfamiliar with that: She either fell off a horse or got stepped on by a horse, and broke her leg.  Two shows in Season 4 were taped without her; after that they hid her injury, mostly by making her a bartender (which they utilized in future episodes as well until she left the Cheesecake Factory).  I've never see the reruns aired of the two shows without her.

In high school, the only real activity I participated in was Stage Crew for our school's annual play.  Because of that, I enjoy the behind the scenes stuff, including seeing the sets.  Along with the post-show discussion, Entertainment Tonight had a pre-show discussion as well.  I wish there were day-long versions of that stuff!

If the show was on cable, the only thing I would've loved to see different is Penny curse, instead of over-the-air acceptable language.    (She has the role of an 'Alexa' type voice in one movie where she does curse, and that, along with her Big Bang personality, is the perfect image I have of her)

Overall, as mentioned, it was actually a very well done finale.

[english si]

I was working late and missed the episode.  Did the elevator in the building finally get repaired?

Yep!

I was hoping they broke it when they tried to all get in it with luggage. Also why did it take them that long to realise they didn't all fit in with all the luggage (a lift-full for 7 of them seems more than their ample-enough Business Class allowance) - they had a NASA payload specialist, FFS! Plus Penny and Bernadette have the common sense, bossiness and impatience just to go "two trips" as soon as it became clear the fit wouldn't be comfortable.

It was just a double length episode that could have been a normal season finale with the exception of a few little bits (the previously on. we saw outside the apartment block! the elevator works! they went to the cheesecake factory! the molecule in the background was discussed!). That was rather nice, rather than some sappy ending that sitcoms tend to get (though the Veep finale, the most recent other sitcom finale that I saw, obviously wasn't sappy!).

[MNHighwayMan]

Oh, an unfunny TV show ended. How sad.

[frankenroad]

I was working late and missed the episode.  Did the elevator in the building finally get repaired?

Yep!

I was kinda hoping it would turn out that the elevator had ALWAYS been working, but no one had ever removed the out-of-order signs.

[Duke87]

I forgot the timeline a little, so it seemed like Howard's kids appeared older than they should've been, especially if they haven't talked yet.

Continuity in shows like this is often... flexible.

I mean, the show generally implies that a year passes with each season, and it ran 12 seasons. It was previously established that Leonard and Sheldon had been living together in that apartment for multiple years before Penny first showed up, and we know Leonard already had his PhD when he moved in. The math thus says that Leonard must be well into his 40s by now, but he isn't made to look or act it.

This is to say nothing of the fact that more than one of the show's characters should (by consequences their actions would have had in the real world) be in prison, but of course none of them are because it's a comedy show. Meanwhile the one time one of them ended up in jail, it was under circumstances that in the real world logically could not have played out that way!

[vdeane]

I think they did a good job.  Many shows tend to throw a bunch of changes out of nowhere for no reason whatsoever just to make sure that no more stories could be told again with the same formula.  There was some of that here (the elevator being fixed and Penney getting pregnant at the same time Sheldon and Amy wind the nobel prize is a bit of a contrived coincidence), but it's significantly toned down compared to shows like Boston Legal, Home Improvement, and Once Upon a Time.

[KEVIN_224]

I didn't see the finale, but did glance at CBS' 2019-2020 schedule. It looks as though Young Sheldon will still be airing.

For what it's worth, Mayim Bialik once appeared at New Britain High School here in central CT (I went there for a time in the late 1980s). The school won some kind of science or math competition. I think they even had her teach a class that day. I joked that a chick from T.B.B.T. was at my school! Wrong girl! (I liked Kaley Cuoco for a while.)

[Henry]

For those who missed the finale, last night's encore was your second chance to see how it ended.

I didn't see the finale, but did glance at CBS' 2019-2020 schedule. It looks as though Young Sheldon will still be airing.

As will Mom, and Chuck Lorre is bringing Billy Gardell back for a new sitcom, Bob "Heart's" Abishola. I don't think it'll have the same success as Mike & Molly (which I absolutely loved, for obvious reasons), but I'd be willing to give that a try.

Speaking of Young Sheldon, the season finale had a clever ending, with a look at Big Bang's characters as they appeared in 1990-91; my favorite was the Howard scene in which he was playing a videogame and his mother yelled at him to turn it off. (Of course, the actress who played her had died while the flagship series was still running, so it had to be an audio recording we heard in said scene.)

[PHLBOS]

For those who missed the finale, last night's encore was your second chance to see how it ended.

I happen to catch it by accident last night.

Personally, I hoped that Leonard's mom (robotic-style comments and all) would've made another guest appearance.  Mainly because the episode that first introduced her was one of the funnier of the series; especially with her repetitive "I have to urinate." line.  To me that one is up there with the Family Ties episode that first introduced Mallory's boyfriend, Nick; in terms a laugh at every turn.

[jon daly]

My favorite episode was The Loobenfeld Decay. I think that the show jumped the shark but I have trouble pinpointing when it was; whether or not it was when Bernadette was introduced or when Leonard and Penny got married. At some point, it seemed like the writers had to find subplots so that everyone got air time. I don't like multiple plots in sitcoms with the exception of Seinfeld, where they all crossed at the end.