On Sept. 24, 2007, four geeks and a girl began a friendship that would span 12 seasons and 279 episodes.
Through the years their ranks would grow as they welcomed a neurobiologist and a microbiologist and even a kid or two. They would date and debate and dabble in Dungeons & Dragons and in the process make television history: When The Big Bang Theory airs its final episode on May 15, it will hold the title of longest-running multicamera series ever. Not bad for a show whose first season received mixed reviews and was interrupted by the writers’ strike.
Through it all, the core group have remained close friends — not just on-camera but off as well. And after working together for a dozen years, they have more than a few stories to share. So we gathered The Big Bang Theory’s seven stars — Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Johnny Galecki, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Melissa Rauch, and Mayim Bialik — on the Warner Bros. Studio soundstage in Burbank for a raucous roundtable discussion with Entertainment Weekly writer Lynette Rice, in which they reflect on their favorite (and some maybe not so favorite) memories. From first impressions to spin-off talk (NCIS: Raj, anyone?), they reveal all.
Simon, what did you think of Melissa?
HELBERG: Am I allowed to swear? [He looks at Rauch] It almost seems like you played a different character. You were very different.
MELISSA RAUCH: I was super-religious. For the first couple of seasons [my character] wore a crucifix.
CUOCO: You don’t wear the cross anymore?
RAUCH: They changed it to a star. I also used to wear cross earrings.
PARSONS: Who knew that our Lord and savior Jesus Christ was so important to your character?
HELBERG: The thing I remember most is our dinner scene, and I did magic in the car. There had been many women in Howard’s life, but I knew it was special because we clicked. I had a real strong sense she’d be back, just not this long.
RAUCH: Simon was so kind and sweet and funny. I wish he was still like that.
Johnny, what do you remember about Kunal?
GALECKI: Jim and I had a different frame of reference when we started. Not necessarily better by any means, because we had done a pilot for the show beforehand, and so when I met Kunal and Simon and Kaley, when we did that first table read, I’ll never forget that. It felt like a band you had been playing with for years. It felt very rhythmic, very musical. Comedy always is, I suppose. I remember Kunal doing something I hadn’t predicted at the table read. It changed just by a minute degree. But it just worked better. That seemed to be the case with everybody around the table. Then Kunal asked to borrow money. I thought that was odd. I only remember that because he hasn’t paid me back.
HELBERG: Not considering interest.
GALECKI: We all thought Kaley was so social and must have had so many friends. You just beelined out of here. We used to hang out afterward. Then you finally came and said, “I don’t have any friends. Can I hang out with you?”
CUOCO: Well, you never invited me to hang out after!
GALECKI: Because we thought you were hipper than you are!
PARSONS: She was so young.
CUOCO: There were a couple of years we stayed after a lot. There were Ping-Pong tournaments. Dinners.
GALECKI: We’d go on vacations together.
CUOCO: Yeah, we don’t do any of that s— anymore.
GALECKI: I changed my number.
KUNAL NAYYAR: I think everyone did, because I brought my parents once.
PARSONS: Oh, I forgot about that! Where were we?
NAYYAR: San Ysidro Ranch.
HELBERG: Now we just go on vacation with your parents.
How were you that first season? Were you unfailingly polite to one another?
HELBERG: The writers’ strike was then. It was 100 days. I went to dinner almost every night with Jim. It wasn’t a plan. We lived 10 minutes from each other. We kept thinking they were going to call us back to work. Let’s just go have Mexican food. We’ll get that call. I gained 200 lbs. from the mole?.
GALECKI: Oh, the mole?! That reminds me of Mexico City. We couldn’t find anything that didn’t have mole? on it.
HELBERG: They flew us to Mexico City at the end of season 2.
NAYYAR: That was so much fun.
PARSONS: It was for publicity for Warner Bros. I really thought they were trying to be nice by saying, “Oh, you are the No. 1 show in Mexico.” But when we got to the plane and into the airport, it was a little bit like the Beatles had arrived. We hadn’t experienced that before, the rush of people and photographers. Then we got into the van for the long trip to our hotel, and there were these huge billboards, and sure enough they said, “Numero uno sitcom!” The next day we were on the cover of the paper.
HELBERG: I remember it said “nerdo.” I don’t speak Spanish, but I’m pretty sure [I know] what it meant.
How has the studio audience changed over the years?
CUOCO: These audiences are insane. Their energy is high. I don’t know how it works [to get them here]. It’s like Hunger Games. They wait a long time to come. I’ll read comments on my social, and I’ll come across one that says, “I have tickets for a 2019 episode.” They’ve had them for years. I don’t think there will be anything like a Big Bang audience taping ever again. Our audience is unbelievable.
NAYYAR: It’s like a concert.
CUOCO: You see them in Bazinga T-shirts. Johnny and I talk to the audience at every show as well. They are just so happy to be there.
Is there anything that is still hard to do on this show?
GALECKI: Some of the science jargon is hard. They are like tongue twisters. They aren’t words you use every day.
PARSONS: You never don’t get nervous.
NAYYAR: Because we all care so much. We want to get it right.
PARSONS: The group scenes are a technical pain in the ass to do.
CUOCO: We complain about them. The dinner scenes. We say they’re gonna take all day, but we end up laughing really hard and eating the food and laughing at who is eating the food. Those are my favorite photos.
Let’s go to the end of your life. Besides maybe “wonderful spouse” or “wonderful parent,” would you be okay with an atom being on your tombstone?
RAUCH: Our tombstone?
NAYYAR: I’m pretty sure I’m going to be cremated.
PARSONS: It will be engraved on your urn, then.
HELBERG: Spread your ashes over Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. just doesn’t have enough money. Why couldn’t there be a spin-off like Penny Loves Leonard? Or Dr. Amy or NCIS: Raj?
CUOCO: There will probably be an NCIS: Raj. Like 10 of them. Or Just Raj.
NAYYAR: I’ll be right back! I have to make a phone call.
PARSONS: That’s a very good idea. Lou Grant was a wonderful drama, and it was a spin-off of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
GALECKI: I’ve had weird dreams about a single-camera version of Big Bang. What do you do? Whose character? These characters are so a part of each other’s lives! Even a spin-off with two, you’d be like, what happened to the other five? Did they all die in the elevator?
CUOCO: They might be killing us all off. We don’t know what happens in the finale.
BIALIK: That’s the answer to your question. We can’t do a spin-off because we all die.
HELBERG: They don’t see us die. We get into the elevator, and then the cables snap. It cuts to Chuck’s vanity card. You hear an explosion. We all ended with a big bang!
In honor of the series finale, pick up a copy of Entertainment Weekly’s Ultimate Guide to The Big Bang Theory on newsstands now, or buy it online.
