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[Tuesday Pajamas]

Can you believe this awful article by Metro (amongst others)? 

Ayda Field could have landed $1 million salary in Big Bang Theory but lost out to Kaley Cuoco

https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/21/ayda-fiel...o-8060837/


Ayda Field may have been in the running but the assumption that you can just swap out any blonde and get the same result infuriates me. Its insulting to Kaley who is worth every Penny of her $1m. I can't really argue that Jim Parsons launched the show into the stratosphere but Kaley HAS to be the second biggest draw. 

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Winding up and Jim nails it ... the Stars flock in.





Why? Shatner. Why?

[Tuesday Pajamas]

NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT THIS SHOW NOW.

https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-rad...-CBS-video

"THE BIG BANG THEORY season 12 is drawing to a close in what will be emotional scenes. However, the show is shedding fans at a rapid rate before the finale."

No kidding. I just don't care. Lenny, Shamy, Howardette and whatever the heck the others call themselves are mild meltingly boring on every level imaginable. The only chemistry on the show was Sheldon and Penny - totally squandered by a bunch of money hungry hacks.

[Nostalgia]

NO ONE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT THIS SHOW NOW.

https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-rad...-CBS-video

"THE BIG BANG THEORY season 12 is drawing to a close in what will be emotional scenes. However, the show is shedding fans at a rapid rate before the finale."

No kidding. I just don't care. Lenny, Shamy, Howardette and whatever the heck the others call themselves are mild meltingly boring on every level imaginable. The only chemistry on the show was Sheldon and Penny - totally squandered by a bunch of money hungry hacks.

Agreed. Based off what devilbk said in the grumblebox, I'm not sure how one can even LIKE season 12 considering everyone seems to be hellbent on making the worst decisions possible. But then again, I don't get the Shamy/Lenny fascination out there, so...

[Tuesday Pajamas]

I like this review of the finale and Young Sheldon.

http://www.startribune.com/the-touching-...510048142/

The touching 'Big Bang Theory' tribute you may have missed

"The most heart-tugging goodbye to "The Big Bang Theory" didn't happen during the one-hour finale Thursday or the retrospective documentary.

Those who caught the season finale of "Young Sheldon" that aired between those two programs know exactly what I'm talking about.

The spin-off has always had a sadder, more melodramatic tone than its sibling show. The latest episode was the most notable example of its ambitions as the young genius faces the fact that his favorite teacher (Wallace Shawn) is losing his grip with reality and will no longer be able to serve as his mentor.

As 10-year-old Sheldon waits to hear who would receive the year's Nobel Prizes, he starts to cry, convinced that he's doomed to be alone for the rest of his life. But then, with The Supremes' "Someday We'll Be Together" playing in the background, we see a montage of his future friends, each alone in their own way.

The narrator, a grown-up Sheldon, acknowedges that he would turn out to be wrong. Love and acceptance were in his future.

The sweet, unexpected moment served as a sharp contrast to the conclusion of the "Big Bang" one-hour finale, in which Sheldon turns his Nobel Prize acceptance speech into a tribute to his pals as well as Sarah Michelle Gellar, who, in the episode's wittiest joke, winds up as Raj's date to the ceremonies.

"In my way," says Sheldon, played by four-time Emmy winner Jim Parsons, "I love you all."

It was more than a little incredulous to believe Sheldon would suddenly use his greatest achievement to dine on humble pie.

Worse, it was just plain sappy.

The show did manage to acknowledge the signficance of the moment by breaking some major news (Penny's having a baby!), wrapping up a long-running joke (the elevator finally works!) and giving some recurring characters a chance for one last bow (Brian Posehn's Eeyore-like geologist deserves a sitcom of his own).

The actors also had some nice turns. Watching Kaley Cuoco feast on pickled herring was a reminder of her ability to get laughs simply from her pitch-perfect comic delivery.

But no one could have really expected "Big Bang" to have a five-tissue farewell. Just like Sheldon, the show has always been uncomfortable dealing with emotions. Last week's episode, in which Leonard and his mother hug out their differences was probably its boldest effort.

That's just fine. Not every sitcom has to try to compete with "This Is Us." But kudos to "Young Sheldon" for giving it a shot."

______________________

Finally, someone has written something about Kaley's skills. She's definitely the funniest actress on BB and should have won more awards, IMHO.

[devilbk]

Here's another review:

https://www.vulture.com/2019/05/the-big-...1554250913

Penny Never Wanted Kids on The Big Bang Theory, So Why Did She Wind Up Pregnant?
By Kathryn VanArendonk

The Big Bang Theory has always been studiously apolitical. It doesn’t mention Donald Trump (outside of Chuck Lorre’s vanity cards), its characters don’t argue over science-related issues like health-care access or climate change, and it doesn’t dig into topics like gay marriage or gun control or immigration. For the most part, the show’s finale on Thursday night stayed true to that superficial neutrality. But in one plot point, it tripped into unfortunate political relevance.


Throughout this final season, Penny has explicitly reminded her husband Leonard that, no, she does not want to have children. She told him as much in the season premiere, after he wondered hopefully whether she’d gotten pregnant. She mentioned it again several episodes later, after an acquaintance asked Leonard to be a sperm donor. (Initially aghast at the idea, Penny wound up agreeing, though it didn’t work out in the end.) Again and again, the season hammered it home: Penny doesn’t want kids. She doesn’t want to get pregnant.

Then, in the finale, she got pregnant.

There are several reasons why this makes me want to rip my hair out. The first is the simple, superficial one: Penny’s pregnancy is used by the show to bring her relationship with Leonard full circle back to the pilot, when he looked at her longingly and declared that their babies would be both smartand beautiful. This was always Leonard’s vision, but never Penny’s.

At the same time, it’s completely reasonable that, after having long felt that she did not want children, Penny might change her mind. It happens a lot! But the way this story plays out makes light of her previous resolve. The pregnancy is presented as a settled event; there is no scene where Penny discovers she’s pregnant, no moment where she and Leonard discuss it, and no suggestion that this was a complicated decision for her. There’s no suggestion that it even was a decision for her: In the hour-long, two-part finale, Penny learns about her pregnancy in the commercial break between one half-hour and the next. It was an accident, she explains to the other characters. But she’s happy, she tells them!—while vomiting copiously, something no one seems to care about. She’s pregnant, she’s happy, and she never once mentions that this is something she very much did not want. Yay, pregnancy!

I doubt the finale’s writers could’ve predicted that this story would air on TV at the same moment pregnancy and reproductive rights are dominating headlines. The Big Bang Theory has existed in a vacuum separate from the political ecosystem for so long, but the finale arrived in the same week as a wave of state legislation that functionally outlaws abortion, during a moment when much of the country is talking about whether people with uteruses should be forced to give birth against their wills. It’s an especially touchy time for pregnancy stories. It’s an even more sensitive time for stories about women who become pregnant after saying explicitly that they do not want to be.

From what we see after Penny discovers she’s pregnant offscreen, we have to assume that she’s pleased, whether or not she made a choice about staying pregnant. But it’s hard to overstate how much this plot — which was surely intended as a sweet, hopeful end — instead comes off as thoughtless and tin-eared at best, dismissive and condescending at worst. In an otherwise heartwarming finale for these characters, after 12 years spent together on one of TV’s most popular shows, it’s infuriating and unfortunate that The Big Bang Theory would essentially erase a woman’s right to choose from her own narrative.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Here's another review:

https://www.vulture.com/2019/05/the-big-...1554250913

Penny Never Wanted Kids on The Big Bang Theory, So Why Did She Wind Up Pregnant?
By Kathryn VanArendonk

The Big Bang Theory has always been studiously apolitical. It doesn’t mention Donald Trump (outside of Chuck Lorre’s vanity cards), its characters don’t argue over science-related issues like health-care access or climate change, and it doesn’t dig into topics like gay marriage or gun control or immigration. For the most part, the show’s finale on Thursday night stayed true to that superficial neutrality. But in one plot point, it tripped into unfortunate political relevance.


Throughout this final season, Penny has explicitly reminded her husband Leonard that, no, she does not want to have children. She told him as much in the season premiere, after he wondered hopefully whether she’d gotten pregnant. She mentioned it again several episodes later, after an acquaintance asked Leonard to be a sperm donor. (Initially aghast at the idea, Penny wound up agreeing, though it didn’t work out in the end.) Again and again, the season hammered it home: Penny doesn’t want kids. She doesn’t want to get pregnant.

Then, in the finale, she got pregnant.

There are several reasons why this makes me want to rip my hair out. The first is the simple, superficial one: Penny’s pregnancy is used by the show to bring her relationship with Leonard full circle back to the pilot, when he looked at her longingly and declared that their babies would be both smartand beautiful. This was always Leonard’s vision, but never Penny’s.

At the same time, it’s completely reasonable that, after having long felt that she did not want children, Penny might change her mind. It happens a lot! But the way this story plays out makes light of her previous resolve. The pregnancy is presented as a settled event; there is no scene where Penny discovers she’s pregnant, no moment where she and Leonard discuss it, and no suggestion that this was a complicated decision for her. There’s no suggestion that it even was a decision for her: In the hour-long, two-part finale, Penny learns about her pregnancy in the commercial break between one half-hour and the next. It was an accident, she explains to the other characters. But she’s happy, she tells them!—while vomiting copiously, something no one seems to care about. She’s pregnant, she’s happy, and she never once mentions that this is something she very much did not want. Yay, pregnancy!

I doubt the finale’s writers could’ve predicted that this story would air on TV at the same moment pregnancy and reproductive rights are dominating headlines. The Big Bang Theory has existed in a vacuum separate from the political ecosystem for so long, but the finale arrived in the same week as a wave of state legislation that functionally outlaws abortion, during a moment when much of the country is talking about whether people with uteruses should be forced to give birth against their wills. It’s an especially touchy time for pregnancy stories. It’s an even more sensitive time for stories about women who become pregnant after saying explicitly that they do not want to be.

From what we see after Penny discovers she’s pregnant offscreen, we have to assume that she’s pleased, whether or not she made a choice about staying pregnant. But it’s hard to overstate how much this plot — which was surely intended as a sweet, hopeful end — instead comes off as thoughtless and tin-eared at best, dismissive and condescending at worst. In an otherwise heartwarming finale for these characters, after 12 years spent together on one of TV’s most popular shows, it’s infuriating and unfortunate that The Big Bang Theory would essentially erase a woman’s right to choose from her own narrative.

For me, this just proves that it's Leonard's story they have been telling. Penny the nameless, is not a person. She's a prize. All that nonsense the showrunner said about how they made Penny against the idea of children to make it a surprise in the end! Pfff! It was never a surprise.... even I, who barely watched this season, knew they'll knock her up because of Leonard's "smart and beautiful" comment.

I guess we can all be content in the knowledge that they have just as much chance of being short and stupid.

[devilbk]

For me, this just proves that it's Leonard's story they have been telling. Penny the nameless, is not a person. She's a prize. All that nonsense the showrunner said about how they made Penny against the idea of children to make it a surprise in the end! Pfff! It was never a surprise.... even I, who barely watched this season, knew they'll knock her up because of Leonard's "smart and beautiful" comment.

I guess we can all be content in the knowledge that they have just as much chance of being short and stupid.

If they do a spinoff or a follow-on in a few years (because CBS will be desperate for ratings), I suspect Lenny's kids will be twins, a mirror image of Sheldon and Missy, further fostering the theory that when Sheldon got Penny drunk they stopped off somewhere before she went home to Leonard and he to Amy. BTW, the formula for a spinoff is Low-rated programming + Unsuccessful Actings Careers after TBBT / Ooodles and oodles of money = Spinoff.

[devilbk]

From The Daily Beast:

I Love The Big Bang Theory 
and I Don’t Care Who Knows It


[color=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]This is a safe space. It’s a no-judgment zone where all pop culture opinions are welcome, unless that opinion is in any way disparaging to Oprah or Beyoncé, in which case get out of here, you mountain heap of garbage with port-a-potty vapors for a brain.[/color]

[color=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]This is all a long-winded way of me gearing up to say something that may be a little bit controversial: It’s OK to like The Big Bang Theory.[/color]
[color=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]Actually, hold on to yer bonnets, little ladies, because I’m about to raise it another level: The Big Bang Theory is one of TV’s funniest shows.[/color]
[img=681x0]https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/upload/c_crop,d_placeholder_euli9k/dpr_1.5/c_limit,w_690/fl_lossy,q_auto/190516-Fallon-Obsessed-embed-05_i3a9de[/img]
[color=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]This shouldn’t be a controversial opinion, that the most-watched comedy series on TV in the last decade, and maybe the last network sitcom hit we’ll ever have, is funny. But people who watch TV are a catty bunch. The journey of the CBS comedy is a fascinating one, from underrated gem to blockbuster phenomenon to public-opinion punching bag.[/color]

[color=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]It ended its storied run Thursday night with a poignant, heartfelt series finale hardly bruised from the recent years of jabs from snooty social media critics. It will end its 12 seasons as still the highest-rated comedy on TV, the most-watched comedy series internationally, and so popular that reruns on TBS regularly rank among the most-viewed shows on all of cable.[/color]

[color=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]The Big Bang Theory is the rare modern series to fail to connect out of the gate but miraculously find an audience in seasons two and three. It honed its creative voice along the way and sparking a whisper campaign among critics—“Hey, this show is actually pretty good…”—that amplified to a mass-culture obsession bellowed through a megaphone.[/color]

[color=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]Jim Parsons was giving one of the most interesting performances we’ve ever seen from a sitcom lead. The addition of Mayim Bialik was a stroke of genius. And like everything popular, they were bludgeoned with backlash.[/color]

[color=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]The word “bazinga!” would cause these snobbish boobs to break out into hives. They’re the crowd that didn’t find the show high-minded, dark, complex, or provocative enough to earn its outsized popularity, let alone mention among the “real” best comedies on TV. The fact that Americans were enamored by something this broad and base-level when there was so much “better,” “smarter” TV out there for them to be watching sent them into conniption fits.[/color]

[color=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]It’s such nonsense.[/color]
[img=681x0]https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/upload/c_crop,d_placeholder_euli9k/dpr_1.5/c_limit,w_690/fl_lossy,q_auto/190516-Fallon-Obsessed-embed_it1xx4[/img]
[color=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]There’s always been a superiority complex attached to mass culture, so that people can feel elevated by judging and demeaning what merits broad popularity. That word, “broad,” is an insult in their lexicon, because anything that could appeal to the common denominator couldn’t possibly carry any true excellence or merit. I’ve always found that dismissive attitude to be unforgivable, especially considering that what shows like The Big Bang Theory do—make smart comedy for everyone to laugh at—is as, if not more, creatively challenging that any high-concept auteur endeavor.[/color]

[url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/showtimes-wu-tang-clan-of-mics-and-men-how-the-wu-tang-clan-took-over-the-world][/url]
[color=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]There’s a reason those Big Bang reruns score such huge ratings. There’s a timelessness to the humor and to the style of comedy. A decade can pass and a new era and comedy trend can kick in, but the episodes are as just-plain-funny now as they were when they first aired. Like any long-running comedy, the show may not have been its sharpest and most clever in these final days. But it still batted a slugging percentage infinitely higher than most of its multicam, network TV contemporaries.[/color]

[color=rgba(2, 20, 31, 0.85)]At such a volatile time, the only thing that’s seemed certain these days is death, taxes, and Jim Parsons pratfalling for $1 million episode. The constant presence of Big Bang has been as soothing as a verse of “Soft Kitty.” I’m sad to see it go.[/color]

I don't agree with much of this but we can't ignore the continued success of the show, success that will likely continue far after its original run.

[CTR69]

Here's another review:

https://www.vulture.com/2019/05/the-big-...1554250913

Penny Never Wanted Kids on The Big Bang Theory, So Why Did She Wind Up Pregnant?
By Kathryn VanArendonk

The Big Bang Theory has always been studiously apolitical. It doesn’t mention Donald Trump (outside of Chuck Lorre’s vanity cards), its characters don’t argue over science-related issues like health-care access or climate change, and it doesn’t dig into topics like gay marriage or gun control or immigration. For the most part, the show’s finale on Thursday night stayed true to that superficial neutrality. But in one plot point, it tripped into unfortunate political relevance.

I would just like to point out that this is a very good thing. We are getting bombarded with politics and negative commentaries 24/7. So I really appreciate that a fictional sitcom did not turn into another mainstream media chanel, but remained true to its purpose. Fictional, non-woke fluff romance, a perfect getaway. This is why people watch fictional TV shows.
If you want a show about politics, watch CNN instead.