Comic-Con 2015: Inside the Big Bang Theory Writers' Room

Friday morning at San Diego Comic-Con 2015 began back in our old friend, Ballroom 20. The popularity of The Big Bang Theory's panel has waned in recent years, likely due to the fact that they stopped parading out the cast. However, leaving the actors in Los Angeles is the best thing to happen to this panel, as the actors are not a good match for this crowd... it was a hot mess when geeks asked them questions about the show!

The writers, on the other hand, fare better with this group, and they brought 13 folks to sit on the panel, alongside Kunal Nayyar as the guest moderator. Dr. David Saltzberg (science consultant), Jeremy Howe, Steve Molaro, Steve Holland, Maria Ferrari, Jim Reynolds, Tara Hernandez, Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady (engineer), Eric Kaplan, Dave Goetsch, Anthony Del Broccolo, Saladin Patterson (engineer).

Perhaps the most remarkable comment throughout the entire hour was about how every Tuesday night feels like Christmas, as that's when they get the next week's script (Nayyar). The whole thing wasn't that saccharin, however, as they opened with talking about how the time travel conversation began, complete with a discussion on the verb tense jokes, which Kaplan really handled. 

The back story on some of the other recent storylines include Chuck Lorre getting a drone for Christmas and not being able to get it to work (the instructions really did say to turn it on and off at least ten times), and reading TBBT fanfic online. Speaking of which, Mayim Bialik was brought out to join the panel and read some Raj-Amy fan fiction (Koothrappamy), which included such phrases as "I'm going to introduce you to Fifty Shades of Brown" and "semantic is the wrong word, you sexy beast from the third world." 

Another hot topic was working with guest stars like Billy Bob Thorton, Nathan Fillion, Stephen Hawking (Saltzberg was nervous when Hawking was going to get to read some lines about the Cooper-Hofstadter paper he designed), and Kevin Smith (Bialik freaked out and tweeted when Smith brought Jason Mewes to the set, resulting in being reprimanded by Warner Bros. for spoilers).

Other questions from the audience led to such fun facts as learning that the most difficult thing to write are the big moments (like Sheldon telling Amy that he loves her), and that the ending of the Skywalker Ranch episode had to be rewritten, as the original had Sheldon stealing a lightsaber, but Lorre didn't think the character would have committed a felony. Bialik also spoke a bit about how she and Jim prepare for scenes - they talk a lot about their characters' relationship so that they're in the mindset to have the conversations that they have.

The Big Bang Theory returns to CBS for a ninth season this fall - look for it on Monday nights at 8pm (ET/PT) beginning September 21st, before moving to Thursdays on November 5th. Make sure to tune into that first episode, as viewers will learn the background to when Sheldon bought the ring and when he was planning to give it to Amy. If you're not caught up on the series, the eighth season will be available on DVD/Blu-ray on September 15th.