Country of origin United States Original network CBS | No. of episodes 17 | |
Starring Johnny Galecki
Jim Parsons
Kaley Cuoco
Simon Helberg
Kunal Nayyar Original release September 24, 2007 (2007-09-24) – May 19, 2008 (2008-05-19) | ||
The first season of the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory was originally aired on CBS from September 24, 2007, to May 19, 2008, over 17 episodes. An unaired pilot also exists. The Season 1 DVD came without a gag reel and is, so far, the only Big Bang Theory DVD set not to have one. The reissued Blu-ray, was released July 10, 2012, and includes a gag reel that is exclusive to the set. The episodes on Blu-ray are all in remastered surround sound, whereas the DVD version had stereo. Two of the main cast, Sheldon and Leonard, are named after actor, director, and producer Sheldon Leonard.
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Johnny Galecki and Sara Gilbert both selected the episode "The Hamburger Postulate" as a Primetime Emmy Award submission for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, respectively, at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, but both ended up not receiving a nomination. Jim Parsons selected the episode "The Pancake Batter Anomaly" as a Primetime Emmy Award submission for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, but ended up not receiving a nomination.
Overview
The lives of physicists Dr. Leonard Hofstadter and Dr. Sheldon Cooper are shaken up when an attractive young aspiring actress from Omaha, Nebraska named Penny moves into the apartment across the hall from theirs. Leonard begins to become hopelessly enamored of Penny, while she feels only platonic affection for him; as a result, she finds herself putting up with his closest and ever-present friends: his roommate, Sheldon, who appears borderline obsessive-compulsive; engineering whiz Howard Wolowitz, a desperately sex-crazed mama's boy who thinks that his 1960s-style clothing and hairstyle give him an air of cool hipness; and Dr. Rajesh "Raj" Koothrappali, who will not speak to her as he is too shy to talk to women (a case of selective mutism), unless intoxicated in which case he becomes a smooth talking yet highly overly aggressive womanizing flirt.
During Season One, Sheldon loses his job for insulting his new boss, finds his ego bruised by a child prodigy, becomes unable to bear being part of a lie that Leonard has told, and is always attacking the world with a relentless need to assert his supremacy. Rajesh first learns that he can talk to women, but only when he is drunk, and Penny and Leonard finally go out in the season finale.
Production
The program's initial pilot, developed for the 2006/07 television season, was substantially different from its current form. Only Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons were in the cast, and their across-the-hall neighbor Katie was envisioned as "a street-hardened, tough-as-nails woman with a vulnerable interior". Katie was played by actress Amanda Walsh. They also had a female friend called Gilda (played by Iris Bahr). The program's original theme music was also different, using Thomas Dolby's hit "She Blinded Me with Science". The program was not picked up, but the creators were given an opportunity to revise it, bringing in the remaining leading cast and retooling the show to its current format. The original unaired pilot has never been released on any official format, but copies of it are on the internet with various collectors.
The second pilot of The Big Bang Theory was directed by James Burrows, who did not continue with the show. This reworked pilot led to a 13-episode order by CBS on May 14, 2007. Prior to its airing on CBS, the pilot episode was distributed on iTunes free of charge. The show premiered September 24, 2007, and was picked up for a full 22-episode season on October 19, 2007.
Production on the show was halted on November 6, 2007, due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, only to be replaced by a short-lived sitcom, Welcome to the Captain on February 4, 2008, but returning on March 17, 2008, in an earlier time slot with nine new episodes.
David Saltzberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles, checks scripts and provides dialogue, math equations and diagrams used as props.
Clips from the season finale, "The Tangerine Factor", gained popularity on the Chinese video-sharing website Tudou because of Sheldon's inaccurate Mandarin.
Reception
The Big Bang Theory initially received mixed reviews, receiving 55% "rotten" score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 22 reviews, with the critics consensus reading "The Big Bang Theory brings a new class of character to mainstream television, but much of the comedy feels formulaic and stiff." It also received a 57-point score on review aggregator Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average reviews", based on 23 reviews.
Tom Shales of The Washington Post gave the show a positive review, saying "Big Bang is the funniest new sitcom of the season". Robert Bianco of USA Today also gave the show a positive review, saying "This may not be the sitcom breakthrough for which we've all been hoping, but Lorre has produced a first episode that leaves you eager to try the second".
David Bianculli of New York Daily News criticized the dialogue, particularly when the male characters explain jokes, writing that "People tuning in to Big Bang may not all be Mensa members, but they won't all be idiots, either", Henry Goldblatt of Entertainment Weekly criticized the premise and plot of early episodes, writing that "To call this a one-joke sitcom would be a stretch", and Tim Goodman of San Francisco Chronicle criticized the stereotypes presented in the characters, and wrote that "the writing here is so moronic and the situations so forced and mundane".