One of the things The Big Bang Blog will do is chronicle media coverage of the show in different installments, going as far back as July of 2007 and gradually working our way up to the present.
JULY 2007
On July 19th, Mediaweek made mention of The Big Bang Theory, describing t as follows: “Two brainy best friends (Jim Parsons and former Roseanne star Johnny Galecki) and the remaining members of their ‘geek squad’ try to fit into the social world at the coaching of their sexy new neighbor (Kaley Cuoco of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter). Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men) is the creator. In that same piece – reporting on the TCA panel for the show – Lorre was asked whether Kaley’s character ran the risk of being “the next Crissy Snow” from Three’s Company. He responded, “As we get more into developing the series and the characters, we’re going to learn that her character is extremely capable. She grew up on a farm. She can fix a tractor. She can birth a calf, and she can do just about damn near anything that these guys can just sit around and talk about and complicate. So she’s an extraordinary character in her own right, but in a different world than theirs.” Of the show itself, the mag enthused, “What might sound like a generic bore was actually a laugh-out loud riot in the pilot with flawless casting, strong chemistry and potential for long-term storytelling....”
SEPTEMBER 2007
Maclean’s offered a profile of Chuck Lorre and his show. What follows are excerpts from the article: “The secret of Lorre's success is that his angry streak endears his work to audiences that don't want good-natured shows like Friends. In the Jack Bauer era, darkness sells, even on a sitcom. Lorre told Maclean's that "there's a difference between charming and amusing and clever and truly funny," and he doesn't let his shows display too much charm, focusing instead on the comedy of humiliation. The Big Bang Theory is about scientists who are socially retarded and make fools of themselves over a new female neighbor (‘We take great intellect and slam libido into it,’ Lorre says). Two and a Half Men started with a painful divorce and features a hero (Charlie Sheen) described by Lorre as ‘debauched.’ Characters aren't rewarded for being good; the uptight brother on Men (Jon Cryer), Lorre says, ‘plays by the rules with a passion, and he's punished for it.’ If the men on Lorre's shows don't have a great time, the women come off even worse. Men blames the heroes' problems on their mother, and made vicious fun of a woman with a crush on Charlie. Lorre says that he and co-creator Bill Prady want the heroine of The Big Bang Theory to be the ‘voice and eyes and ears of the audience,’ but in the pilot, she comes off as an airhead for the heroes to lust after. But this kind of thing may be an advantage when hits like Entourage and Rescue Me are out-and-out misogynistic. And Lorre points out that his shows have plenty of appeal for their majority-female audience: ‘We generally punish Charlie mercilessly for his cavalier attitude toward women and sexual relationships,’ he says.”
On September 4th, the VNJ Entertainment Newswire announced, “Sara Gilbert will reunite with her Roseanne hubby Johnny Galecki on Galecki's new comedy series, CBS' The Big Bang Theory. Gilbert is set to do a multiepisode arc on the Warner Bros. Show, which revolves around Leonard (Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons), two socially inept physicists who befriend their new pretty neighbor (Kaley Cuoco). Gilbert will play a love interest for Leonard. She is a fellow physicist who works with him, and the two attempt to date. On Roseanne, Gilbert and Galecki's characters, Darlene Conner and David Healy, had an on-again, off-again relationship until tying the knot in the penultimate season's finale. Gilbert's role on the long-running ABC sitcom earned her two Emmy nominations. Gilbert, who gave birth to a girl a month ago, has been recurring on NBC's veteran medical drama ER.
On September 5th, Diane Kristine of Blogcritics.org reviewed, “Galecki and Parsons are nebbishly adorable -- Parsons in particular seems to be having a lot of fun as uptight, wouldn’t recognize fun if it was embedded in a mathematical equation, Sheldon. The boys and their friends represent various species of nerd varieties, including Howard (Simon Helberg), the nerd who thinks he’s a ladies man, and Rajesh (Kunal Nayyar), the nerd who can’t talk to women. They speak Klingon and wear pocket protectors and glasses... But as the object of Leonard’s desire, Kaley Cuoco is too bland in a role any number of young actresses could have better filled. My biggest problem with her character is that she is given nothing to do but be a bimbo in skimpy clothes. She is written and acted with no charm or sweetness that could make his yearning justified as anything other than the premise for a sitcom that already feels stretched thinner than a singularity by the end of the first half hour. It all adds up to an intellectually lazy sitcom about intellectually gifted people, by writer/producers Chuck Lorre of Two and a Half Men and Bill Prady of Good Morning Miami. Directing the pilot is James Burrows, who was involved with the actually intelligent sitcom about intelligent people, Frasier... [But given the] truth about pilots that they’re never as good as the eventual series they spawn, I have some hope that if it doesn’t rely so heavily on the unrequited lust, and relies instead on the charm of the two physicists -- yes, I said charm and physicists in the same sentence – The Big Bang Theory’s potential success might not even make my brain explode....”
Obviously The Big Bang Theory has surpassed Ms. Kristine’s expectations.