The television show, The Big Bang Theory is ending
Fans of Sheldon, Leonard, Penny and nerd humor overall, take note: this twelfth season of The Big Bang Theory will be the last one. And another traditional network sitcom bites the dust.
Hey everyone, I’m Jeff and you are listening to episode 81 of Plain English, the podcast in English about current events for people who are learning our great and—let’s face it—difficult language. JR is the producer. And you can find us both on Facebook and Twitter under the user name PlainEnglishPod on both those platforms. Since today’s episode is number 81, you can find our transcripts online at PlainEnglish.com/81. And like always the transcripts have translations of key words and phrases from English to Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and French. PlainEnglish.com/81 to read along with today’s episode.
Television’s ‘The Big Bang Theory’ to end this year
The Big Bang Theory is ending. No, not the actual theory. That’s still the most widely-accepted explanation for the beginning of the universe as we know it. I’m talking about the television show, The Big Bang Theory, which stars Jim Parsons as Sheldon and Johnny Galecki as Leonard, two super-smart but socially-challenged physicists at Caltech who struggle in life and love, even as they shine professionally. The show contrasts the two geeks with the street-smart Penny, who tries to teach them a thing or two about life.
The show’s main conflict is between so-called street smarts and book smarts. If someone is book smart, it means that person knows a lot of academic things—like about physics, say, or another traditional subject. By contrast if a person is street-smart, that person got his or her education in a different way—on the streets, or the school of reality. The premise of the show is to take two guys who are extremely book smart and not one bit street smart, and put them in a show with a character who is their opposite. Hilarity ensues—to an extent.
People love The Big Bang Theory and people hate The Big Bang Theory. When the show premiered, it got a mixed reception. Some people thought it was funny, but others thought the humor was formulaic and predictable. It was the 68th-most popular show on television in the United States in 2007, pulling in about 8 million viewers. But by season four, it was the highest-rated comedy on television and was ranked one, two, or three every season since 2012. Last year, it was the highest-rated show on television with over 18 million viewers.
The Big Bang Theory is one of the longest-running sitcoms in history, and is about to enter its twelfth and final season. CBS, the US network that airs the show, announced last week that the series would be ending. The reason? Jim Parsons, who plays the lead character Sheldon Cooper, declined to return after this season. CBS offered him $50 million for two more seasons. The rest of the cast was also offered rich contracts—but Parsons turned it down.
He turned down $50 million! But it’s actually understandable. He’s an actor in his early forties and he’s been playing essentially the same character for twelve years. He’s a good actor and The Big Bang Theory is a popular show, but at the same time, he probably wants to expand his range. I don’t watch The Big Bang Theory, but one article I read said that the Sheldon Cooper character hasn’t evolved much, leaving Parsons playing an ageless, un-evolving character year after year. So to me it’s understandable that he would want to move beyond his current role.
The Big Bang Theory is what we call a sitcom—or a situational comedy. It is a relic from a past era in television. If you like good television shows—dramas or comedies—there is no better time to be alive than right now. There is so much good stuff out there on Netflix and other streaming services. You can have your choice of excellent, high-quality programs to suit your taste. But television wasn’t always that way. The 1980s and 1990s were the decade in which sitcoms really thrived. Powerhouse shows like Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends, and Frasier dominated television ratings. They were on free television and drew millions of viewers each week—the same time slot every week, usually for half an hour. You did not want to show up at school or work on Friday without having seen the most popular sitcoms on Thursday, the traditional night with the biggest ratings.
TV networks in those days reached a lot of people—and that meant had to please a lot of people too. So their shows didn’t exhibit much risk-taking. They were formulaic, safe comedies that could please the most people at a time. They were disrupted by reality television shows like American Idol, but had a resurgence with a smarter, wittier, more modern series like 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation. But those shows eventually came to an end, and there really haven’t been popular sitcoms in the age of Netflix. When there is so much good material out there, why would you settle for a crowd-pleaser?
That’s not to take anything away from these shows—they were good for what they were. I still watch reruns from my favorite sitcom every now and then, just to bring back memories. But I much prefer the dramas on Netflix to anything that’s on network television these days. It’s probably been 10 years, if not longer, since I’ve tuned into a show on network TV that wasn’t sports.
The final episode of The Big Bang Theory will air in May 2019 and will be the show’s record-setting 279th episode.
I think 279 episodes’-worth of physics-nerd jokes are probably enough, don’t you? By the way, the Wikipedia entry on The Big Bang Theory says that Sheldon was a child prodigy. And if you’re on the Plain English email list, you know what a child prodigy is. That’s because that was the bonus word I chose to include in my email summary about the Aretha Franklin episode. For the rest of you who are not yet on that list, a child prodigy is a child with an exceptional talent, where the kid can perform at the level of the very best adults. Like I said, everyone on the email list already knew that. I don’t want you guys to miss out on any of the good stuff JR and I produce every week, so if you want one more vocabulary word from inside the show, every Monday and Thursday, go to PlainEnglish.com/mail and enter your details.
I want to say thank you to someone—I just don’t know who! I saw a really nice review of Plain English on Apple Podcasts by a listener in Australia. The listener said it’s amazing when you can understand the whole episode, not just parts, like with other shows. And this mystery listener said it’s nice to learn the expressions that were used in the show, since you have real-life context right there to help you understand the word. The bad thing about Apple Podcast reviews is you can’t see the person’s name—but I know you’re out there and I wanted to say thanks for leaving that helpful review. And if you are listening on an iPhone and want to leave a review, I would be most appreciative, since that’s a big factor that Apple uses when deciding to show Plain English in podcast search results.
I also have a couple of other hello’s for today’s program. Ivan wrote from Bulgaria. He’s listening because he has a business partner in the UK and they talk on the phone all the time so he needs to get better at listening to English. Listen, talking on the phone is hard. Here’s an interesting thing Ivan said—he tried listening to audiobooks but had a hard time with them. That was my experience too—I listened to one audiobook in Spanish, but I had already read the book in English and seen the movie, so I knew the story really well. Ivan says he gets about 80% of the words on Plain English, which is a great place to be. It means you can understand the content and enjoy the program, but there’s still something to learn. My only worry is that Ivan’s going to get to 100% and then he’s not going to need me anymore! What am I going to do then? Ivan—thanks for listening and for sharing your story with us. Also a quick hello to Miguel from Guadalajara and Pedro from Brazil, who sent me notes this week.
Great stories make learning English fun
