S09.E23: The Line Substitution Solution

[ZuluQueenOfDwarves]

Leonard's brother isn't a Ph.D., he's a Harvard law professor and the only on of the family who isn't a scientist. 

Leonard is a high achieving scientist who works at a respected university and was personally tapped by Stephen Hawking for a critical research project. His mother's dislike of him is purely based on her own nastiness. 

[caligirl50]

I agree ZuluQueen.

[Snarklepuss]

On 5/8/2016 at 7:56 AM, vibeology said:

See I disagree. It's not the same thing. If I'm 10th in line and the guy in front of me swaps places with someone, I'm still 10th in line. But if the guy in front of me lets his friend join him, I'm 11th. One doesn't impact anyone else's place in line while the other does. What Sheldon did was cool and what the guy in front of him did was wrong. 

I agree with you.  Besides, the practice of holding someone's place in line is probably thousands of years old and is perfectly acceptable and usually gets no argument.  Cutting the line is not acceptable, despite what this show wants the audience to think.  There's never been any question about it as far as I'm concerned.  Just come to a crowded supermarket checkout on any given day and try letting your friend in front of you and see what kind of reaction you'd get, especially from the women, whose sense of fairness about this stuff is legendary (yes, I'm a 58 year old woman so I think I know about these things, LOL.)  I've seen some knock-down drag outs over this stuff in my time, and in high class neighborhoods, too!

[LoneHaranguer]

5 hours ago, ZuluQueenOfDwarves said:

His mother's dislike of him is purely based on her own nastiness. 

Beverly is the kind of person who will dismiss any evidence showing she may have been wrong about something/someone. She formed her opinion of him when he was young and it'll be almost impossible for him to change her mind (and she probably takes any attempts as an insult).

[Pippin]

On 5/6/2016 at 9:55 AM, jmonique said:

Sheldon pitching a bitch fit over the line cutter felt like it went on forever. It wasn't funny at all; it was obnoxious, overbearing and I still fail to see why Leonard hangs out with him, much less continues to let Sheldon dictate his living arrangements.

Absolutely.  I haven't seen the episode; in fact, I haven't seen "Big Bang" for about a month.  That's because I'm sick of: (i) Sheldon's antics; (ii) everyone kowtowing to Sheldon despite his assholishness; (and he knows he behaves badly); and (iii) I'm sick and tired of screaming  "SHUT UP, SHELDON!!!" at the TV.

Also, the amount of commercial time as compared to show time has passed from ridiculous and is verging onto obscene.  And networks wonder why more and more people are turning to streaming services!

And much as I love Christine Baransky the actress I hate her as Leonard's mother and I sincerely hope someone gives her the smackdown she so richly deserves.  I was hoping Sheldon's mother would do so, but they copped out and did the tired old science vs. religion schtick.  (It is possible to believe that life is more than linear and accept there scientific principals.  Check out Neil DeGrasse Tyson's interview with the Vatican's astronomer -- that guy is one cool dude.  But TV insists on casting the debate as either/or.  OK, OK -- I'll get off my soapbox now...)

It's sad because "Big Bang" was once "must-watch" for me; now I'd rather watch reruns of "Columbo."

Oh, how the mighty hath fallen!  

(This is not a slap at "Columbo"; it's still entertaining!)

[bichonblitz]

On 5/6/2016 at 1:39 PM, Bronzedog said:

There were so many ads I almost gave up trying to watch this week.  When watching a show becomes tedious waiting for the show to continue, it's time to stop watching.

This is why DVR and FF are beautiful things. 

I'm still not getting why they turned the beautiful, glamourous, fashionable (albeit still bitchy) Beverly of seasons ago into a totally frumpy old lady Beverly now. Has anybody else noticed that? 

[halkatla]

By far the worst, most unfunny episode of tbbt I´ve seen. Sheldon was beyond annoying and horrible to watch, and I usually love him, and the canned laughter was all over the place and so loud and not even Leonard´s mom could make me crack a smile.

[Homily]

I liked this one, especially the interaction between Penny and Beverly.  I found it very believable.  I also liked that we actually did have Beverly say she had noticed that Leonard is happy and that she credits his marriage to Penny for that.  She still may not appreciate Leonard the way she appreciates Sheldon but at least she seemed to care that he was happy!  It also made a lot more sense to me that she wasn't really mad about not being invited to a wedding, she was mad that she wasn't even told there was even going to be a wedding.  I can understand a parent, even a cold, distant parent wanting to be informed when their child takes a step like that.

Also kudos to Penny for telling Beverly off the way she did - and as a daughter in law to a demanding woman I could also understand why she was happy to find some way of keeping the peace as well. 

[caligirl50]

The show shoots in front of a live audience.  There is no canned laughter.

[Petunia13]

They may tape it or parts in front but that laughter sounds fake as fuck and dubbed in. 

Wasnt there a website or magazines webpage that did videos of "BBT without the laugh track is the creepiest show on Earth." ? It was linked on Dlisted. 

[shapeshifter]

On May 12, 2016 at 11:01 PM, Pippin said:

Also, the amount of commercial time as compared to show time has passed from ridiculous and is verging onto obscene.  

There have been a lot of similar comments in every episode thread for, probably, the last 2 years. I rarely watch live, but when I do, I make use of the commercial time to finish washing a soaking frying pan or something. My real concern about the increased commerical time is its effect on the show writing--which has also elicited as many complaints in the same time period--which makes sense to me because I think the two are related. If you discount the animated atom at the return from every commercial break, and also subtract the time for the opening song, and if you are a writer, that gives you 17 frickin' minutes to write dialog for the entire cast and guests. The writers have probably thrown in the towel long ago and are just doing the best they can, while knowing it can't be very good. Then the cast gets this not very good script, and we're left with Kaley seemingly laughing to signal the audience that this is a joke. 
Too bad when the show started winning all those Emmys, and the commercials became a hot property, they didn't just make it an hour long show. Then they could have had 32 minutes of show (plenty for a sitcom) and the rest commericals (or dishwashing breaks).

[Snarklepuss]

6 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

There have been a lot of similar comments in every episode thread for, probably, the last 2 years. I rarely watch live, but when I do, I make use of the commercial time to finish washing a soaking frying pan or something. My real concern about the increased commerical time is its effect on the show writing--which has also elicited as many complaints in the same time period--which makes sense to me because I think the two are related. If you discount the animated atom at the return from every commercial break, and also subtract the time for the opening song, and if you are a writer, that gives you 17 frickin' minutes to write dialog for the entire cast and guests. The writers have probably thrown in the towel long ago and are just doing the best they can, while knowing it can't be very good. Then the cast gets this not very good script, and we're left with Kaley seemingly laughing to signal the audience that this is a joke.

ITA, and I've thought that myself.  When I compare this season to earlier ones it's obvious that there isn't enough time to set up a really good joke or even follow through an episode to it's logical conclusion without either rushing things or leaving what could be some very funny stuff out.  The plots look to me like they're being reduced to the most simplistic of situations.  It's no wonder why - there's no time to explore other aspects of the characters and most of them have become "one notes".

I hate to say this, but perhaps if the stars weren't paid such obscenely high salaries the show wouldn't need so many commercials.  I understand that they are some of the highest if not THE highest paid actors on TV.  I get it that stars are generally paid a lot of money, especially on a huge hit like this one, but it looks to me like it's gotten a little out of control on this show if they have to increase commercial time THAT much.  I think the show is resting on its laurels but Lorre better not get too cocky or if this board is any indication people may eventually get fed up and tune out.  Lorre has been quoted saying he has no current plans to end the show any time soon - Which makes me think they're going to ride this gravy train as long as they possibly can.  But greed may actually hasten that process along, ironically. 

Edited May 15, 2016 by Snarklepuss
Because "the" is an important word.

[theatremouse]

11 hours ago, Petunia13 said:

They may tape it or parts in front but that laughter sounds fake as fuck and dubbed in. 

Wasnt there a website or magazines webpage that did videos of "BBT without the laugh track is the creepiest show on Earth." ? It was linked on Dlisted. 

Any scenes not filmed in front of the live audience are shown to the audience on monitors and their reactions are recorded live to the scenes as they watch them. So, I suppose, you could say some of it is added in post, but it's still the same people in the same room reacting to the same scene. Most episodes are performed live like a play. Car scenes would've been filmed in advance, but the bulk of it is WYSIWYG. People laugh louder when they're in the room than they would at the same thing at home on a couch. Plus it's major fans who took the time to get tickets. I mean, you think it sounds fake, I can't really argue with that, but it is the recorded laughter of real humans actually watching the same scenes you're seeing.

[Snarklepuss]

I agree that it is real laughter, not a laugh track but I think they may either amplify it or subdue it sometimes because often the audience won't laugh as long as they "should" or will laugh longer than would be optimal due to time constraints, so I am sure there is a little fiddling with the laughter.  One way to tell whether the laughter is real or not is noticing how long the actors pause before speaking again.  If the pauses are in sync with the laughter then you know it's real.  Someone on YouTube took the laughter out of a few scenes from a BBT episode and it's amazing how many pauses there are for the laughter that the viewer doesn't even notice until the laughter is taken out.  Then it's totally weird!   Although they say it's "minus the laugh track", it's not a laugh track, that's obvious.  See this:

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, theatremouse said:

I mean, you think it sounds fake, I can't really argue with that, but it is the recorded laughter of real humans actually watching the same scenes you're seeing.

When the live audience cheered as Judd Hirsch made his first scene entrance on the next episode, I never wondered if it was dubbed, but I momentarily fanticized that they'd read my thread starter post LOL

Edited May 15, 2016 by shapeshifter

[rab01]

On 5/15/2016 at 0:04 PM, Snarklepuss said:

I agree that it is real laughter, not a laugh track but I think they may either amplify it or subdue it sometimes because often the audience won't laugh as long as they "should" or will laugh longer than would be optimal due to time constraints, so I am sure there is a little fiddling with the laughter. 

I've read that on really popular shows (like this one), they usually only have to subdue laughter.  I guess being in a live audience of other fans with a warm-up comic and everything sometimes makes people laugh too much so it goes too far for the home audience.  I also remember stories of shows that needed to sweeten their audience laughter using laughter from the Cosby Show.

[callie lee 29]

Little late but...These were probably the least favorite 2 episodes I can think of. While I like Christine Baranski the Beverly character is just horrible. At least there were a few redeeming factors when they first introduced her. I kept waiting for Penny to tell her that the reason they got married and NO ONE thought to even consider inviting her is because she is an absolute bitch to her son who has, from all we can tell and what we have seen, has always treated her son like shit. Why on earth would anyone want her there? Why would anyone think she would want to be there? 

[shapeshifter]

16 hours ago, callie lee 29 said:

Little late but...These were probably the least favorite 2 episodes I can think of. While I like Christine Baranski the Beverly character is just horrible. At least there were a few redeeming factors when they first introduced her. I kept waiting for Penny to tell her that the reason they got married and NO ONE thought to even consider inviting her is because she is an absolute bitch to her son who has, from all we can tell and what we have seen, has always treated her son like shit. Why on earth would anyone want her there? Why would anyone think she would want to be there? 

The only in-show reason I can think of is Penny was hoping to mend fences between Beverly and Leonard.
The back stage reason is that it's Christine Baranski, and the casting people have no control over the scripts.