Sheldor the Conqueror

[Louise]

I wonder what people will remember in 20 years time. I can see them saying "remember that crazy character Sheldon Cooper?" I do not believe they will say "remember Leonard and Penny?" or "remember Sheldon and Amy?". It will be Sheldon and the scenes they re-run on nostalgia shows will be Shenny. well that's the future I see.

I agree. Somehow, I don't think this show has legs. When it ends, I think it'll drop off the pop-culture radar and be forgotten surprisingly quickly. The eps will run in syndication forever and continue racking up the $$$, I'm sure, but it won't have classic, iconic status. Maybe it could have, if they'd ended it after four or five seasons and kept the original characters and original style intact.

I neither like nor dislike "Friends", much, but it definitely has a secure place in TV history and in people's memories. So does Seinfeld. BBT is going to be a second-tier sitcom like "That 70s Show" or something.

I've said it many times before, but IMO the traditional, long-running, laugh-tracked sitcom is an exhausted concept which needs to end. I doubt it will, because there's always more money to be made from revisiting the same old crap, but there need to be more shows like "The Office" (US) which have a somewhat different format. (that show ended with a flurry of weddings and babies, too, but from a technical standpoint it was *slightly* more experimental, IMO.) You couldn't pay me to watch another "Fat husband, bitchy wife, laugh track!" show.

I'd like to think we're seeing the death throes of the traditional sitcom, now. A lot of people were furiously unhappy with the ending of HIMYM, and if people would open their eyes, they'd see that BBT has been running on autopilot for at least the past four or five years.