S08.E02: The Junior Professor Solution

[Oldernowiser]

There was tension between Penny and Leonard over her quitting The Cheesecake Factory.  She got that big role along with Wil Wheaton.  I kind of recall something went bad, but Penny was making progress a least.  Then Leonard and Penny got engaged, and TPTB drop Penny's dream?!    At least they mentioned that Raj and Emily were still together, so we know the writers didn't change their minds about that plot line.

Last season was so dispiriting that I'm not going to go back and rewatch the episode, but wasn't the "big role" a reprise of her semi-nude, low budget horror film about bisexual blonde morphing into a gorilla? IIRC, and I probably don't, first she got fired for being unwilling to do something during the filming, I forget what, and then Wheaton got fired for defending her.

So after that, it would make sense that she would be over it, acting-wise. Not that making sense is any kind of priority for this show at this point.

[sinkwriter]

The show has always made the joke that Howard is somehow less smart than the other guys because he doesn't have his doctorate, and that can be relatively funny, but it was getting old so I loved Howard showing how smart he actually is. He might not be as smart as Sheldon (or, more specifically, might not have that eidetic memory that Sheldon has about everything), but he IS a very smart man and can hold his own. I liked finally seeing him stand up for himself AND challenge Sheldon about that. And I liked that the other guys were rooting for him to stump Sheldon, because let's face it, Sheldon is obnoxious about how much of a brilliant genius he is.

 

I also echo what someone else said about how their favorite part was seeing the original gang having fun together, being nerdy, at the end of the episode. Quizzing each other for candy? Sounds fun to me! (I just need a different topic because a physicist I am definitely not. LOL.)

[Glory]

I don't know if this is universal, but at our university, Adjunct Profs don't teach and they don't get paid (it's more like a courtesy title). Unless the person is asked to teach a course, in which that person would also have the title of Lecturer.

I'm an adjunct professor. I teach four classes a year and get paid for them. But that is only considered part time.

[LoneHaranguer]

 

I don't know if this is universal, but at our university, Adjunct Profs don't teach and they don't get paid (it's more like a courtesy title).

Around here an Adjunct Professor is generally someone brought in to teach something they know about, who may not have the academic credentials university bigwigs like to see on a faculty roster. A real-life example would be having a power transmission course be taught by someone from the local electric company. They definitely get paid.

[Kalliste]

All I know is, thank goodness they dropped all "Sheldon makes naively racist comments to the HR lady" bit.

 

 

 

 

She was really likable and she danced a whole lot. Totally different than cartoonish, zombie-walking Amy.  Pretty good show.

Hah! I remember watching a bit of Blossom but definitely don't remember the theme.. I was mostly there for Joey Lawrence :D And I just googled him and wow.. so very 90's :P That hair, those eyebrows.

 

Back to TBBT, I didn't really get into either episode, it was pretty meh.. I couldn't imagine Sheldon teaching people or why someone would offer that to him. Like someone mentioned, it would have been better if they'd made him try and get grant money in something different.

 

I hope the rest of the seasons doesn't drop the Stuart/DebDeb storyline as I think it's nice for stuart to have something/someone in life to be happy about.. lets hope the same happens for Amy too.

[HyeChaps]

Sheldon has taught before.  Remember he asked Penny for acting lessons to be better in the classroom (following bad comments on his style),

[Kalliste]

I know, but I just can't see them asking him to do it as a job, considering the feedback he has received previously.

[terrymct]

I don't know if this is universal, but at our university, Adjunct Profs don't teach and they don't get paid (it's more like a courtesy title).  Unless the person is asked to teach a course, in which that person would also have the title of Lecturer.  

 

 

It varies from school to school.  I'm adjunct at several universities.  In most cases, it's just to allow me to be on graduate committees.  At one, however, an adjunct is more like a part time prof.  I teach a couple of classes a year and get paid by the class.

 

I'm not all that worried about the show's description of positions.  It's a half hour comedy.  If it was an hour long drama, I'd expect them to get it right.   

[kris4n6]

I don't know how it works at private universities like Caltech, but our researchers work on projects where there is funding. 

 

I never realized that Caltech was a private university - I always assumed it was a state school (side note: I thought the same about MIT, whoops).  Never really put a lot of thought into it, but thought that.  Anyway, when I searched Caltech I came upon their "Did you know?" section, and in addition to them mentioning that TBBT is set there, it says that "Every Thursday, Caltech's physicists and their students take a cookie break."  That should totally be in an episode.

 

Penny's pharmaceutical sales job interest confuses me.   What happened to Penny pursuing acting full time?  Was that resolved last season? 

 

That was my biggest problem with the first two episodes - nothing was really resolved or even explained about Penny.  Did she and Leonard decide not to live together?  She quit the Cheesecake Factory to focus on acting full time, yet gives up after two months with no mention of why?  Why did she decide to get a job as a pharmaceutical rep?  It just seemed kind of sudden and strange after last season's focus on her deciding to give 100% to her acting career.

[CherryAmes]

Am I misremembering the last episode of last season?  I thought Penny got fed up with acting because of the way things went with the movie she was making.  I really could have sworn that she said something then about moving on and taking her life in a different direction.  But maybe not?

 

Edit:  checked a site that has transcripts (the site kinda sucks as the transcripts don't give you any idea who is saying what to who!) anyway it's the gorilla dissolution episode where Penny realizes she isn't going to have a big career or become famous.  She doesn't explicitly say she's giving up acting but based on what she does say and what happened in that episode it does seem that she's ready to move on to something else.

Edited September 27, 2014 by CherryAmes

[Guest]

Sheldon seems to be a parody of himself to the point that it is mildly irritating. It's neither cute nor quirky to repay a friend's kindness of taking your class by consistently humiliating him. Most of the time, Sheldon's playful obnoxiousness is making me roll my eyes. Same thing happened last episode when the first thing he said to Amy was "What are you doing here?" The character is losing his charm fast. 

I did laugh at that final scene where they were each enjoying their nerdiness to the full. More of that please!

Edited September 27, 2014 by lovedwallflower

[sinkwriter]

I'm hoping it's a sign that he's got character growth coming up. Like when he never used to hug Leonard, but after Professor Proton's death, he wanted to show Leonard that he was important to Sheldon. (And he did so again in the first episode of this season, without reservation, when he could have just stood up from where he'd been sitting at the cop's desk and say, "It's about time" or "Finally" or "I'm glad you're here" without the hug.)

 

In this episode, Sheldon was obnoxious, wanting to keep the "smartest in the room" title for himself, but what Leonard talked with him about, the psychology of it, how it might be out of an underlying fear, I think that might have planted a seed. Perhaps eventually we'll see some character growth in which Sheldon will be able to admit that others can be smarter than him about certain topics or are able to do things that he cannot do. I hope so, anyway.

Edited September 27, 2014 by sinkwriter

[mansonlamps]

Have to comment on Penny's hair...wow. I honestly never saw what others seemed to see in her hotness, she seemed like any reasonably cute generic blonde to me but, again wow, that haircut really suits her.

I agree with those who are really starting to think Sheldon is more annoying and obnoxious than quirky and socially inept lately and I don't like it.

[Beach Party]

Edit:  checked a site that has transcripts (the site kinda sucks as the transcripts don't give you any idea who is saying what to who!) anyway it's the gorilla dissolution episode where Penny realizes she isn't going to have a big career or become famous.  She doesn't explicitly say she's giving up acting but based on what she does say and what happened in that episode it does seem that she's ready to move on to something else.

Was Penny's engagement to Leonard the sign that she gave up on her acting dream to settle down?

[Kalliste]

I think it was part of it. She basically said she was sick of acting and needed to think about making smart decisions. She then proposed to Leonard because he's 'settling' as he put it, Bran Muffin.

 

So I guess she decided getting a 'real job' was the best way forward.

[LoneHaranguer]

 

Perhaps eventually we'll see some character growth in which Sheldon will be able to admit that others can be smarter than him about certain topics or are able to do things that he cannot do.

He has, but he dismisses those topics as unimportant, and other areas of work as inferior to what he does.

[Whimsy]

For that matter how often do people who aren't professors get tenure?  If it happens at all I'd suspect it doesn't happen often.  As you say, it's TV , a place where a shoe salesman, and not a particularly successful one can own a home next door to a banker.

 

Late to the party as always, but I work in a medical school with tons of researchers and I am directly responsible for handling the promotion and tenure cases.  There is no such thing as a Junior Professor.  Although, we do tenure Associate Professors all the time.  Maybe they meant Associate Professor instead of Junior Professor?  Also, junior faculty (for us) are Instructors and Assistant Professors.  Associate Professors are mid-career. Sheldon should have been a Professor for some time now, if he got his PhD at 15.

 

Also, for us, Adjunct simply means the faculty member has a primary academic appointment in another institution but still has some involvement with our school.  It's typically unpaid, though. 

 

Admittedly, working where I do and having the job I do- there are a few things this show does that don't make sense but mostly I enjoy it and find things to laugh at. 

[Hecate7]

While Sheldon is STILL an asshole and hasn't changed, Howard has changed a lot....and I don't like it. I miss skeevy Howard. His attempt to be nice, while having a desire to show Sheldon he is just as smart as him, was out of character for the Howard that started out and I think he is less funny. I understand the concept of personal growth, but this is a sitcom and not real life and he just is not as funny. YMMV, obviously

I love Howard. He is quickly becoming my favorite character. He's more self aware than the others, and the show occasionally allows him a dramatic moment or rise in stature only to have him undercut it a minute later.

 

Sheldon is impossibly immature. They keep giving him ways and reasons to change, and then showing us that he really is just absolutely hopeless. If his failures were meant to provide some character growth, then they need to let him show some. He's vaguely aware that he's annoying, and he knows that his personality is so awful he has no students. I worry that they are steering him towards becoming another Professor Proton. That won't be good. He's not fun or personable enough to do that sort of thing.

 

They started to address Sheldon's perpetual childhood, and how all the other characters growing up is going to work relative to him, and then they chickened out.

 

I would really like to see him either win another award, make a REAL discovery that advances any field, or, best of all, debunk some research of Barry Kewpie's. Barry's been getting too big for his britches.

Edited October 2, 2014 by Hecate7

[takalotti]

How in the universe is it possible that MB didn't give herself whiplash flinging herself away from Penny's door? That was hysterical.

[stuffedanimals]

Sheldon is really a wise man although sometimes he makes mistake, he can explain it perfectly. I bet he must be quite confident.