Wishful Thinking...

[ricardo shillyshally]

Don't let Louise be dictator, we'll all have to wear these wigs. I think CL, the writers, and the actors, probably think they did all the hard work in the first seventy episodes(more or less), and now can coast home on $1M an episode. Or until public give up. I'm loathed to watch S8. I'm not sure I want them in my head.

[Louise]

Don't let Louise be dictator, we'll all have to wear these wigs. I think CL, the writers, and the actors, probably think they did all the hard work in the first seventy episodes(more or less), and now can coast home on $1M an episode. Or until public give up. I'm loathed to watch S8. I'm not sure I want them in my head.

Oh, that guy is *so* not as cute as Howard. Looks kind of like Harry Potter, the DanRad version. Gotta step up your game, Ricardo

[ricardo shillyshally]

What game! Yes I know. Just the wig. Thinking about it we could have a side order of Howard's hairstyles(He has a few, as does SH).

[Louise]

There totally could've/should've been an episode where the guys think they've seen a UFO, and they set about trying to prove/disprove this, they debate about whether or not it's real, etc. That could be fun.

[Trust No One]

There totally could've/should've been an episode where the guys think they've seen a UFO, and they set about trying to prove/disprove this, they debate about whether or not it's real, etc. That could be fun.

This would be really interesting Louise. Gets the guys back to science and away from the lousy Ships.

---

This is all pure fantasy, I don't expect any of this to actually happen.
(after all, it's the Wishful Thinking thread.)

Do I think this show can be salvaged? No, I don't. But if I were a dictator, this is what I'd do:

Fire the writers. Fire them all. Get new writers who know relatively little about the show, so that they're fresh and unbiased. Maybe look outside the usual Hollywood circles and get some outsiders, people who are new on the scene.

New writers are necessary because lately, they've been f*cking-up even the scenes with just the guys, or just Shenny.

Make them watch S1 and S2 (and maybe a few selected eps from 3/4) until their eyes bleed. I would also prohibit them from watching or studying any eps from S5 onward, or using those eps as a reference.
(except for maybe a few selected scenes that are good.)

One might argue that it'd be good to have the writers compare and contrast some old, good eps with some newer, crappy ones, but I'm of the opinion that it would be much better for them to enter the situation with no preconceived notions, untainted by the later seasons, with the old eps fresh in their minds. I might do the compare-and-contrast thing with the *actors*, though. IMO the ideal would be writers who had barely even seen the show before, and knew almost nothing about it.

Have actual *meetings* and *discussions* about what works and what doesn't, in S1 and S2. Almost like a film-studies class in college. Make them study the characters the same way one would in a literature class.

Ditto with the actors.

IMO nothing could save this show's trajectory except for a slight reboot, which I will describe as follows:

Gradually phase-out A and B. The fact that H/B are *married* and not just dating complicates things (as does the Lenny engagement.) But, this is why I mentioned a mild reboot:

The phasing-out of A and B could take about half a season. Let them go on a business trip or something and appear via Skype; the details really don't matter. Do it sloooowly, and don't draw attention to it or comment on it.

Then, when a new season begins, just proceed without them. ***They are minor characters who were around for a while and are now gone, just like Priya, Stephanie, Lucy, Ramona, Leslie, Alex, whoever.*** This is not without precedent. In fact, it has tons of precedent. Female characters disappear from this show so often, you'd think there was a serial killer in action...

I don't mean *literally* pretending that this is Season 1 and the main cast are all 25 years old. More like they've been gone for a while, and some time has elapsed, and now they're back. And maybe they're a bit older and wiser. The 5 have continued to live and work and grow older, but this new season (9? 10?) represents the start of a new continuity and a clean break with the old continuity, such as it was.

No long-drawn-out breakup/divorce storylines. I truly predict that the casual viewer is not going to demand an explanation for the absence of A&B, if you do it very gradually and subtly and you keep them distracted with good new eps. A&B were minor characters, they were here and now they're gone, no big deal, moving on. **Once they're gone, don't mention them.**

People who watch syndicated episodes are watching them all out of order, jumbled-up. I'll hazard a guess that they have little or no sense of a time-line, with this show. If you're watching the episodes all out of order, then some eps have A&B, and some don't...and that works very much to our advantage, because it's gonna take the casual viewer a long time to even pick up on their departure. Half a dozen Shamies will scream with rage, everyone else will feel like "this is the same good show it's always been", and the absence of A&B would be only a bit more noticeable than the fact that some eps have Priya and some don't, for example. People will sit down and watch an S2 episode, followed by an S7 episode, followed by a Shiny-New-S9 episode and think: "hey, this show has more good eps than bad."

For people who hate Lenny, I have not forgotten you: L&P mutually agree to end their engagement. That's all. That's it. No wailing and gnashing of teeth. Leonard can date various minor characters or whoever. Doesn't really matter. The rebooted version of this show would not be about putting everyone into couples. When the new season begins, the engagment is never mentioned again. L&P dated on and off for a while, as many people do, and now they're not dating anymore. Happens all the time in real life. Simple and realistic. I'm sure everyone knows someone IRL who has ended an engagement.

Oh, and I don't like the Raj/Emily pairing, so....goodbye, Emily, we hardly knew ye. Return to the ether with Lucy. And no more of this extremely unpleasant Stuart-Mrs.W storyline, either. REBOOT. This show is not about pairings and girlfriends.

Divorce is trickier, but I'm gonna be really daring and say just hand-wave that issue. B. is gone. Where is she? Casual viewers don't give a damn. She's wherever Leslie and Stephanie went. Howard can be roomies/neighbors with Raj. We're not pretending like it's S2 again, we're just proceeding as if A and B are irrelevant. "The 43rd Peculiarity" was S6, and it has no A or B whatsoever, even though they were firmly entrenched by that time. It can be done.

I would say "just reduce them to recurring status", but H/B being *married* complicates that, and it doesn't address the Lenny, either. Hence: slight reboot.

Would I expect the classic characters to come roaring back and kick the door down? No. My expectations would be low. But, I believe we could have some simple, pleasant, low-key episodes with nothing disturbing or upsetting in them, nothing that would make Nostalgics cringe. It might be rather bittersweet, but it would be watchable. I'm not talking about Raj being stricken mute again and Howard humping the furniture. But I think these people have it in them to turn out some mildly enjoyable, gently humorous scenes which won't make Nostalgics want to slit their wrists with a butterknife.

Would it be as hilarious and inspired as before? No. But I'd like to think we could have a final season of modestly-enjoyable eps which are not an embarassment or a travesty.

No more weepy melodramatic shit. I would start with eps and storylines that are very not-ambitious, for lack of a better description. *Keep It Simple, Stupid.* High effort, high standards, but low expectations. And certainly no weddings or babies.

Lastly, once this clean-slate season has begun, I would have a staff member whose whole job is to be Continuity Nazi and keep a file on each character's personality and what that person would/wouldn't do or say. Maybe they'd all be a bit calmer and wiser, after having gone through so much shit. But they'd have a fraction of their spark back.

Of course, the elephant in the room is JP and his performance. But I'll defer to other HQers, on that question.

Love these ideas Louise. I'm even willing to give up any chance of Shenny if they remain great friends and can hug and kiss from time to time.

[ricardo shillyshally]

The BBT is fictional, but is set in the material real world, both physically, and in terms of ideas, cultural milieu. Real people enter the fictional world, (and I thought it was criminal how they under used some cameos, Carrie Fisher!), and they continually reference fiction from real world. Some real people even play fictional versions of themselves, how weird is that. I think the following quote references fans and shippers in the real world(WARNING:a real person has created Amy's line)> 'Amy: You guys have got to be the weirdest couple I know.
Penny: Really? You can’t think of anyone weirder?'. And I think this quote is aimed straight into the real world, > 'Sheldon: Interesting. Sex works even better than chocolate to modify behaviour. I wonder if anyone else has stumbled on to that.'

[ricardo shillyshally]

I used to believe that TV was made up of adverts, and the programmes were merely filling. But now I see how the whole output (incl: news,) is being used to program us. 'Due to this phenomenon, television transmits information, which is not actively thought about at the time of exposure, much like hypnosis. When viewing television, we do not consciously rationalize the information resonating within our unconscious depths at the time of transmission and the viewer becomes more open and suggestible.' 'Most people believe they are just simply being entertained, but they never realize that their way of life is being shaped for them and their thoughts are actually being given to them. They are being familiarized with ideas, concepts, and fear so they won't question certain interventions in the future. TV gives us what messages must be imprinted in our minds, gives us what button to push in what sequence, and if it's done the right way with the right production and the right propaganda then the public will react and do exactly as they've been programmed to do.
When one continually controls the information, one controls the people absorbing the information.' from http://pupaganda.com/originals/Tv_mind_control.html Okay what's troubling me; I read that girls in US were starting puberty at seven years old, while those in Bangladesh start puberty after eighteen. This is said to be down to the culture they are immersed in. Nerdy intelligent men seem to be portrayed as living in perpetual adolescence, is this because comic book culture becomes games(PC,etc), which becomes films. ie:the culture is stuck in an adolescent level loop. Take sci fi: originally there were films like Forbidden Planet(famously using plot of The Tempest), now we get films like; Cloverfield,Skyline and Transformers, were humans get chased by CGI aliens! Are humans destined to become idiots sitting watching rom coms with inane smiles on their faces!

[Tuesday Pajamas]

People watch TV to relax though so it makes sense that we zone out. Of course there is an element of propaganda in some news channels which lean politically, but I like to think independent reporting is available. And we don't have to believe everything we are shown anyway. As for early puberty, this happens due to poor nutrition, not culture. And science fiction is always about the times we live in now, and how we envision our future. It makes sense that this has changed, the world is hugely overpopulated, we are relying on technology in our everyday lives and we fear bringing about our own demise.

This is supposed to be a thread about wishful thinking. All I want is for BBT to end at 10 seasons. It's bad enough that there's 2 more especially if S8 is anything to go by. There's been talk of 12 seasons. I say PLEASE NO!

[ricardo shillyshally]

Yes sorry, the biggest problem I have is deciding which thread(maybe because I don't start with the thread!). I don't know about the early puberty being down to nutrition; think about pageants, pop singers, programmes, and magazines influencing the way girls talk, dress, think . Of course I'm a Shenny fan, but I also studied culture as a way of understanding human mindsets, so I'm always looking at all the angles, and trying to understand, why they portray men this way in BB(who haven't moved on from their adolescent shows), and also why shows seem to have an agenda, ie: do they explore new ideas and ways of being, or do they just trundle down the same old worn out plots. As he said in the article, a few large corporations (incl:CBS) now control the media, and they are very conservative in outlook. I can now see how Disney took Grimm's fairy tales, and get chidren believing in happy ever after rom coms ie:the fairy tale is extended into adult life(even Penny, A&B dressed as Disney princesses, isn't that strange, but also indicative of a certain mindset[although Penny is always cynical of 'dressing up'!). I suppose what I'm wishing for is that people wake up and stop watching programmes that are a stream of cliches. Let's face it, it seems 98% of BB fans just accept what they are given, we expect more!(rant over)

[Louise]

Open question; where do you suppose the guys did their undergrad degrees?

(Not exactly wishful thinking, more like speculation, I'll move this to another thread if need be.)