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[07/25/09 - 03:28 AM]
Live at the San Diego Comic-Con: "The Big Bang Theory"
By Brian Ford Sullivan (TFC)

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Highlights from the "Big Bang Theory" press room:

Jim Parsons on his Emmy nomination: "It's not personally important. I will not deny that it is: A) extremely flattering, extremely sweet. That's what I keep going down to is like, people have to mark me on their ballot. And that's where it becomes unfathomable, it's like somebody sat at home and was like, 'I'll mark Jim Parsons.' And that's where you're like, I can't imagine that happening in a weird way. I don't mean that self-deprecatingly either, it's just one of those things that's hard to imagine. It's only important really though in what it aids to keeping the show on the air, you know? Last year, after the first season, we had to pick episodes to submit... and I asked Chuck Lorre, I said, 'Do you have any suggestions?' And he did, he talked to me, but he said and I already knew it but he just repeated it. He said, 'Remember throughout this process, there are a lot of people with statues at home who don't have jobs.' And, you know, it's such a valid point. That's what I mean, it's only important if it brings more viewers to the show. That being said, would I throw an Emmy back in somebody's face? No, I will run home with it, I will put it on the mantle, whatever it takes. I'll stab your eyes out with her sharp little wings, whatever you want. That's important, those wings."

Jim Parsons on the research he did for Sheldon: "I always had a subscription to the New York Times. I admit I haven't always haven't paid attention to the Science Times on Tuesdays. I immediately started doing that. I bought, it's called 'Physics 101' that the Smithsonian put out. I thought, 'Well that sounds smart to get, why not?' I began watching like even 'Nova' would come on and I'd be like, 'Let's tune into the 'Nova,' why not?'' It does not take long, and I've said this before and I mean it sincerely, it does not take much research into science of any sort to realize what a specialized brain it takes to really wrap around that. And it did lead me to some dead ends. I didn't get very far in the 'Physics 101' book. We talk about Newton and I'm just, even there, gone...

And Chuck and Bill [Prady] talked about this from day one: they may be nerds, they may be geeks but that's not what we're talking about necessarily. The biggest thing we're talking about is they're geniuses. So that's preparatory work. As we've gone along, it's really hard to determine where changes have come into play and who brought what and what came first, the chicken or the egg. I don't know half the time. Like, I don't ever literally suggest something [like], 'It might be good if Sheldon...,' I haven't done that. And I don't know what they've taken from me, just from observing me. Sheldon's from Texas. I'm sure that came from the fact that I can have a bit of a Southern drawl at times, especially in rehearsal. But their writing is so fleshed out and there's so much in there, that the only thing I've brought... is to tell that story. So whatever I have to do to tell that story: use those words to tell that story. That's all like I feel like I do every week. And with their scripts it's been enough to keep us going."

Kaley Cuoco on her long journey to becoming Penny: "I actually auditioned two years ago. Didn't get it. Auditioned again, went to network. Didn't get it. Chuck told me I was not the girl for the show. And then a year later he rewrote the whole thing and called me, he said, 'I'm sorry, will you come back?'... and I said, 'No, I'm busy now.' He said, 'No really, we've rewrote the whole thing.' And he sent me the script and he did, they did rewrite the whole thing. And I came in two days later and got the job. It was all kind of incredible timing thing for me. It wasn't meant to be a couple years ago. I don't think it would have worked the way it works now."

Kaley Cuoco on why comedy: "I can't be serious for two seconds. And I love the audience interaction. And I love to laugh and I love to make people laugh. I like to be contorted and do silly things. My favorite episode for me personally is when I got to look like a disaster when I was with the gaming [thing] with Cheetos in my hair."

Bill Prady on what's in store for Leonard and Penny: "I read online that the Leonard/Penny news was out, so that's out that they're going to be in a relationship. I think I saw that on the internet. [Laughs.] So it must be true."

Bill Prady on any long term plans for the show: "It's not like a show where you're plotting and saying this big plot turn is coming in six episodes and we have to write to it. There's a weird thing that happens. It's more like a consensus starts to develop, you start to feel a direction for the characters and when you write away from that it feels wrong. So it's not a plan, it's more of an intuitive things. [Even] the Leonard and Penny thing, the intellectual approach to it was to never connect them. And the emotional approach was no, that's not right. They would hook up and fall apart and hook up again. That's the reality of being who they are at their age."

Bill Prady on what people can expect this season: "Laurie Metcalf is going to come back as Sheldon's mom in the first episode. We talk about, you know, our little peripheral characters that we see from time to time - we'll see them again: Stewart at the comic book store, people like that."

Bill Prady on where "The Big Bang Theory" ranks on his resume: "I like it so much better than anything else I've ever worked on. I don't know. I mean I certainly can relate to the characters. I don't know, there's some inherent sweetness to this show that I love. When we get to moments like Penny giving Sheldon the autographed handkerchief for Christmas and we were working on something just the other day, we were writing just this terrific, real moment with these characters and I said, 'I love this show!'"

Bill Prady on potential Koothrappali storylines: "Raj we think is on a, I forgot the kind of visa... and we thought about what would happen if his job at the university were in jeopardy and it jeopardizes his visa. Because we talk about he's an Indian who doesn't care for Indian food, what it would mean to go back, so we talk about that."

Bill Prady on what happened during the guys' expedition over the summer: "I think that they've found, I think you'll see they've found a very interesting way to solve the Sheldon problem... before they killed him. And they solved it and their solution unfortunately has ramifications so we'll see that in the first episode."





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