Can you believe that The Big Bang Theory has been going strong for eleven seasons? It seems like it was just yesterday when Penny moved across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard.
Of course, when a show is on for over a decade, there’s going to be a lot of fun behind-the-scenes trivia.
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Let’s get our geek on!
1. Unlike Sheldon Cooper, Jim Parsons has never actually watched an episode of Star Trek or Doctor Who.
Sheldon might be a huge fan of all things science fiction, but Jim Parson’s certainly isn’t .
2. Penny has been using the same purse since the second episode of the first season!
How did I not notice this ?!
I love this fact because it’s so realistic! Most people really only have one or two purses.
3. One of Johnny Galecki’s first roles was on an episode of Blossom, which starred Mayim Bialik.
He played her love interest in the episode, and he even took her to a “make-out party”!
4. The Blossom connection also plays an important part in one of the Halloween episodes.
Sheldon and Amy discuss what to dress up as for Halloween. One of the suggestions from Amy is Blossom and Joey, from the ’90s sitcom!
5. Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, and Johnny Galecki are among the world’s highest-paid television actor and actress!
And so are Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar!
According to Forbes , the only actor to make more money than The Big Bang Theory cast in 2017 was Sofía Vergara.
6. In fact, in 2013 Johnny was the second highest paid actor on television! 2013 was the second year he made the top five.
Just in that year alone, he’s made $24 million!
7. In every single one of the main female character’s first appearances, the first person to speak to them was their future partner.
Leonard was the first person to talk to Penny, Howard was the first to talk to Bernadette, and Sheldon was the first to talk to Amy.
8. The episode “The Fish Guts Replacement,” Sheldon reveals that his favorite cartoon theme song is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ “Turtle Power!”
That song was actually written by Chuck Lorre, who created The Big Bang Theory .
9. In the German-dubbed version of the show, the voice actor who for Sheldon is the same actor who usually dubs Leonardo DiCaprio.
His name is Gerrit Schmidt-Foß, and he even did DiCaprio’s voice for the German-dubbed version of Titanic !
10. Chuck Lorre leaves “vanity cards” at the end of every single episode.
And some of them are pretty intense!
He often uses these cards to voice his own opinion on various topics, and he even criticized Donald Trump in one of them just days before the 2016 presidential election.
11. In the 100th episode of The Big Bang Theory, Penny is wearing the same shirt she wore in the very first episode.
In this episode , Leonard asks Penny out again, and this costume choice probably signifies the fact that he is falling back in love with her.
12. A show called The Theorists briefly aired in Belarus, and it was a complete rip-off of The Big Bang Theory.
It literally starred four scientists named Sheldon, Leo, Hovart, and Raj.
13. In 2012, biologists discovered a new spices of bee and named it after Sheldon’s catchphrase.
The name Euglossa bazinga was chosen to honor the popular show!
Although, fans were quick to point out that Sheldon is actually allergic to bees!
14. Jim Parsons actually knows how to play the theremin.
When Sheldon plays the instrument on the show, that’s actually Parsons playing.
We’re pretty impressed because the theremin is considered on of the most difficult instruments to play.
15. Kaley Cuoco is missing from two episodes in Season 4 because she broke her leg when she fell off a horse!
In her first appearance back on the show after the accident, she was filmed standing behind a counter.
16. There aren’t any lenses in Leonard’s glasses.
According to Johnny Galecki, he had to pop the lenses out because of the height difference between him and Jim Parsons.
When he looks up with lenses in, the set lights are reflected by the glass and it shows up on camera.
17. Mayim Bialik is the only actor on the show who actually has a PhD.
So she really knows what she’s talking about.
Bialik completed her Neuroscience studies degree in 2008, and then went on to earn her PhD in Neuroscience.
18. There’s a reason why you almost never see Raj’s or Bernadette and Howard’s apartment in the same episode.
It’s because they are all filmed on the exact same set and the viewer would probably notice that’s it’s just the same redecorated space.
19. Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter are actually named after a famous television producer.
The writers of The Big Bang Theory were big fans of Sheldon Leonard who produced classic shows like The Andy Griffith Show and I Spy.
20. Raj’s inability to talk to women is actually based on a real person.
Raj can only talk to women if he has consumed alcohol, a quirk that was based on an old coworker of Executive Producer Bill Prady.
21. The Big Bang Theory and The Flash make cute references to each other all the time.
Sheldon frequently wears shirts that reference The Flash and Cisco Ramon on The Flash wears shirts that reference The Big Bang Theory, including one that featured Sheldon’s catchphrase, “Bazinga!”
22. Apparently “Soft Kitty” is based on a real song and I can’t believe I’m just learning this.
Yup, Sheldon’s soothing song is taken from an Australian kid’s show called Play School . Bill Prady recognized the song from his own daughter’s preschool.
23. In 2008, Kaley Cuoco revealed that she and Johnny Galecki secretly dated for two years!
Your favorite on-screen couple was once a real-life item!
Unfortunately, they are no longer together, but we still got to see them get hitched because their on-screen characters are married!
24. In at least five episodes of Season 6, Mayim Bialik’s right hand had to be hidden.
The actress broke her hand in an car accident in the summer of 2012, so the show had to employ some fancy camera tricks to hide her cast.
25. You’ve probably noticed that Sheldon wears the number 73 a lot!
Sheldon has repeatedly stated that 73 is his favorite number, but did you know that Jim Parson’s was also born in 1973?
26. Sheldon didn’t always have his famous door-knocking quirk.
When Sheldon knocks on Penny’s door, he always calls her name three times.
However, in Season 1, he knocked on Penny’s door without doing anything special.
27. The actor who played Stuart Bloom had some real-life experience working in a comic book store.
Kevin Sussman, who plays the comic book store owner on The Big Bang Theory , actually worked in a comic book store before he became an actor!
28. Howard doesn’t have any male superheroes or science fiction characters in his apartment.
All of his figurines are female , except for Jabba the Hutt, but even he is accompanied by Leia.
29. Mayim and Johnny are good friends and there’s one incident that Mayim will never forget…
In an interview, she said that he was invited to her 16th birthday party but he got into a motorcycle accident on the way there!
30. Pay attention to the apartment numbers next time!
Will Wheaton’s character on the show lives in the house 1701, which is a reference to the serial number of the USS Enterprise on Star Trek! Will used to be on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Amy’s apartment is numbered 314, the mathematical figure Pi!
31. Howard’s room in his mom’s house is shown all the time on the show! He has this huge collection of comic book and science fiction memorabilia. If you pause and look closely, you’ll notice that he only has female characters displayed in the room!
32. Jim Parsons’ first audition was apparently so good that Chuck Lorre immediately asked him to come in for a second one.
Lorre wanted to make sure that the first audition wasn’t a fluke! When the second audition went just as well, he hired Parsons on the spot!
33. Bernadette is known for her high-pitched voice. Did you notice that her voice wasn’t always like that?
In the earlier seasons, Melissa Rauch spoke in her normal speaking voice but decided to change it each time the character made an appearance.
34. A few things have slipped past the show’s researchers including a mistake in the episode “The Peanut Reaction”
Leonard is supposed to be playing Halo against someone in Copenhagen, but there is no Ethernet cable or wireless adapter connected to the Xbox 360, so he couldn’t be playing online.
35. Other than bees, Where does “bazinga!” come from?
Apparently, it was part of a prank involving an old grapefruit in the writers’ room. The writers used to say the word as a way of saying “gotcha!” whenever someone opened up something and the grapefruit was in there!
36. And finally, we still don’t know Penny’s last name.
And apparently, because of superstitious reasons, the writers don’t ever plan on revealing it.
Do you know a behind-the-scenes fact about The Big Bang Theory that we missed? COMMENT and let us know!
