The Big Bang Theory 10/13/08 - The Griffin Equivalency

[Fish Man]

No thread yet?

We seem to have a theme developing: Leonard sees Penny apparently in "compromising positions" with his friends when it's in fact, totally innocent.

I thought it was brilliantly played how Raj appeared at Penny's door the next morning and with enormous effort managed to squeak out, "sorry".

Then, just as Penny kisses him (still wearing a night gown) Leonard sees it, getting the impression that Raj spent the night with Penny.

Also, Sheldon's demonic smile was priceless.

[Robbie123]

I loved Sheldon's smiles. That was so funny. :D

I also thought the cameo by Charlie Sheen was great. It was so surprising to see him, and was really great.

[Somard]

I just love this show. It is becoming one of my favs

[Fish Man]

I loved Sheldon's smiles. That was so funny. :D

I also thought the cameo by Charlie Sheen was great. It was so surprising to see him, and was really great.

"Call me when you're on the *cover*."

ROTFL!! :D

[Rob Helmerichs]

This episode was just so damn funny. From beginning to end.

Which is kinda the direction this season seems to be going...I really liked the show last year, but now I love it. As in candidate for best sit-com ever love it.

[sean67854]

I laughed for a good minute when Sheldon showed off his demon smile.

[barbeedoll]

All good ensemble shows rely on a balanced cast. This one is "gold" in my opinion because there are so many equally skilled and funny, funny, funny characters.

I'm so happy that it is getting more recognition and publicity this year.

Barbeedoll

[TiVo'Brien]

I love how Sheldon was trying to understand what People magazine's criteria for naming Raj a top 30 under 30 was - as though he and the editors would *ever* agree on anything. :p

"Hey, I've got a Master's."

"Pfft, who doesn't?" :p

[Rob Helmerichs]

I love how Sheldon was trying to understand what People magazine's criteria for naming Raj a top 30 under 30 was - as though he and the editors would *ever* agree on anything.
I found it amusingly plausible that People would select somebody for something as trivial but flashy as Raj's "discovery," and also the mixed feelings that the academics had towards his "achievement"--yes, being in People is a big deal in some ways, but not in others, and not in the ones that matter to them. Unless they're the one in People.

[hanumang]

While I liked this episode - okay I loved it too - the only thing I didn't like was that it was predictable to the extreme. Everything from Raj's general obnoxiousness (especially while drunk) to his folks being snobby has been telegraphed earlier in the series.

I guess it's a testament to the performers that they can still make the material (IMO) uproarious. I though Kaley (Penny) was particularly strong.

And I got the biggest kick out of the nod to The Unit ("Go for Koothropali!"). LOL!

[SeanC]

And I got the biggest kick out of the nod to The Unit ("Go for Koothropali!"). LOL!

Answering the phone like that predates The Unit by several years.

[JYoung]

And I got the biggest kick out of the nod to The Unit ("Go for Koothropali!"). LOL!

Answering the phone like that predates The Unit by several years.

"Go for Papa Palpatine."


I did LOL at "You're not getting ready to kill Batman."

[milo99]

I did LOL at "You're not getting ready to kill Batman."

THAT was the best line of the night. if i were drinking something at the time, it would have ended up all over my shirt. :D

[MegaHertz67]

I loved Sheldon's smiles. That was so funny. :DThe smiles were so obviously forced and fake, but the effort was so great and stressful...I was laughing so hard I was crying.

Quick backstory: My older son is 6-years-old and when asked to smile for a picture his eyes open wild and he pastes a big toothy grin/grimace on his face. When I saw Sheldon doing the same thing, I had to pause and call my wife in to see. She laughed just as hard. My son hears us laughing and comes out of his room to see what was so funny. I didn't have the heart to tell him.
I did LOL at "You're not getting ready to kill Batman."That lip curl and the Batman line were perfect and put it over the top. I rewound and watched 3 times and laughed just as hard each time.

[5thcrewman]

Moist certainly didn't get much love last night, what with the condescending head-pat and the 'Mister.'

What's an engineer gotta do?

[Robbie123]

Just FYI, The Big Bang Theory for the second consecutive week beat How I Met Your Mother in the ratings. It had a consistent 9.34 million viewers to HIMYM's 9.25 million. Close, but with BBT on in the lower rated 8:00 time slot this is quite an accomplishment, and it shows the strength and popularity of this show.

[Anubys]

Answering the phone like that predates The Unit by several years.

first time I saw it was on "Wormhole Extreme" :)

[Jonathan_S]

first time I saw it was on "Wormhole Extreme" :)"Go for Marty".

That's where I remembered it from. Thanks.

[betts4]

I loved the episode and the show.

/whining here - My only sadness is that it is on the same time as Chuck. I can watch one on a tv in the kitchen and tivo one in the LR. And I wish the whole episode was on the cbs site instead of just 'clips'./whining done

I am really liking Penny this season. I think her character is finally interacting with the guys where last year she was getting to know them, now she is more comfortable with their quirkiness and they seem to not mind that she doesn't grok everything.

[pigonthewing]

Last season, I thought this show was just "alright" and I watched it partly because it was part of the lineup, and partly because Insty totally loved it. This season, I totally love it. It is rapidly becoming my favorite show of the night, especially with HIMYM's basic premise starting to get pretty darn old. It's like, I still like the characters and whatnot, but the idea that anyone would be narrating this long without getting to any kind of a point is just ridiculous and tedious. Anyway, enough about HIMYM. Point is, that used to be my favorite last season, and this season, I think it's going to be BBT.

[DLiquid]

I'm loving the show this season too. I find myself really looking forward to it every week.

[Steveknj]

Last season, I thought this show was just "alright" and I watched it partly because it was part of the lineup, and partly because Insty totally loved it. This season, I totally love it. It is rapidly becoming my favorite show of the night, especially with HIMYM's basic premise starting to get pretty darn old. It's like, I still like the characters and whatnot, but the idea that anyone would be narrating this long without getting to any kind of a point is just ridiculous and tedious. Anyway, enough about HIMYM. Point is, that used to be my favorite last season, and this season, I think it's going to be BBT.
Coudn't agree more, and actually typed the same thing in the HIMYM thread. C'mon already tell us who mom is.

This show was extremely close to getting cancelled off my SP list last year and it grew on me as the characters developed. I think the show was supposed to originally center around the Leonard character but Sheldon is stealing this show. His awkwardness to normal life is just hysterical!!

I loved the line, paraphrasing Leonard. Irony is still lost on Sheldon :)

[YCantAngieRead]

I never thought I'd say it, but I'm actually finding that to be true of HIMYM as well. I love the show, too.

I'm not sure which I like more, but BBT is showing that it could quickly overtake HIMYM.

[pigonthewing]

...though I should elaborate that BBT is not becoming my favorite show merely because HIMYM is slipping in quality. I feel that BBT is also a much better show this season than it was last season. So, that fact, combined with HIMYM's decline, in my opinion, is what's going to cause BBT to overtake HIMYM on the highly coveted "pigonthewing's favorite Monday night comedy on CBS" list. ;)

[Robbie123]

/whining here - My only sadness is that it is on the same time as Chuck. I can watch one on a tv in the kitchen and tivo one in the LR. And I wish the whole episode was on the cbs site instead of just 'clips'./whining done


Unfortunately, you can blame Warner Bros. and not CBS for no online streaming. Warner Bros. is so high and confident of this show's long term success that they are already thinking about syndication rights so they took the right of online streaming away from CBS this season.

See here for details on what happend with the online streaming of BBT :

"The Big Bang Theory": MIA on the Web

Am I the only one who's noticed that CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" is nowhere to be found on the Web, at least in full-episode mode.

It's not available via web streaming, nor are episodes from this season available on iTunes. I discovered this the hard way the other day when I missed its regular Monday 8 p.m. airing. I went to CBS.com thinking I could easily catch up online. There were plenty of clips but no full episodes. Last season, full-length "Big Bang" adventures were readily available via CBS.com; I spent plenty of time watching them late at night when I should've been working on stories.

"Big Bang" studio Warner Bros. TV confirms the online rights are being held back to sweeten future syndication deals with local stations. Warner Bros. did the same thing with "Two and a Half Men" -- local stations that paid big bucks for the off-net rights to the show also got the rights to stream segs on their station websites.

I understand the business logic of this approach, but in this era where viewers are accustomed to having on-demand access to top shows, it's pennywise and pound foolish to not allow at least limited streaming or paid download access to a few recent segs -- especially when so many other programs are so widely disbursed on the web.

When fans get the urge to hang with Sheldon and Leonard and the gang, you don't want to make them hard to find.

http://weblogs.variety.com/on_the_air/2008/10/the-big-bang-th.html

[murgatroyd]

Last week I was saying how, for me, the best humor makes you laugh because it is so true to life.

I loved the scene where Sheldon reminded everyone he is from *East* Texas and not one of those other parts of Texas. ;)

Jan

[Rob Helmerichs]

I loved the scene where Sheldon reminded everyone he is from *East* Texas and not one of those other parts of Texas. ;)
The Panhandle. Which, apparently, can be a VERY important distinction to East Texans in reality as well!

[dianebrat]

FWIW, I loved this weeks episode, but at least for WBZ in Boston, there was a significant audio issue over Comcast HD, the audio sounded like it was in a tin can, almost like it was out of phase, and everything else, even CBS-HD promos sounded fine.

And Charlie Sheen for a cameo.. I LOL'd
Diane

[jebbbz]

Phoenix audio also was quite tinny.

[JYoung]

I noticed audio issues with LA's OTA transmission as well.
It was like the treble had been turned down and the bass amplified.

[madscientist]

FWIW, I loved this weeks episode, but at least for WBZ in Boston, there was a significant audio issue over Comcast HD, the audio sounded like it was in a tin can, almost like it was out of phase, and everything else, even CBS-HD promos sounded fine.
I don't remember having any audio trouble with RCN HD ...
And Charlie Sheen for a cameo.. I LOL'd
+1 :up::up::up:

[rainwater]

Yeah, the audio was quite annoying. It definitely made this my least favorite episode of the season so far mainly for just the constant audio problem.

[zordude]

FWIW, I loved this weeks episode, but at least for WBZ in Boston, there was a significant audio issue over Comcast HD, the audio sounded like it was in a tin can, almost like it was out of phase, and everything else, even CBS-HD promos sounded fine.

And Charlie Sheen for a cameo.. I LOL'd
Diane

Not for WBZ in Medford :)

[jimborst]

No problem here (Sioux City KMEG)

[rainwater]

No problem here (Sioux City KMEG)

Did you watch the SD or HD broadcast. I had the issue with the HD broadcast. I didn't try checking out the analog version.

[Fish Man]

Audio sounded perfect here.

(New Orleans WWL-DT 1080i with DD5.1 via DirecTV).

[vman]

DC station also had bad sound (SD broadcast). It was the same last week as well.

[Hank]

Ok, you guys are right -- BBT really is the best Monday night CBS sitcom. HIMYM is really weak, and don't even get me started on how horrid "Worst Week" is.

[jimborst]

Did you watch the SD or HD broadcast. I had the issue with the HD broadcast. I didn't try checking out the analog version.

HD, OTA, now I could have just not noticed. I still have it on my Dish DVR so I can try it sometime.

[USAFSSO]

So far this year the stories have been. Penny and Leonard, Penny and Sheldon and now Penny and Raj. Will Howard finally get time with her?

[busyba]

So far this year the stories have been. Penny and Leonard, Penny and Sheldon and now Penny and Raj. Will Howard finally get time with her?

For Penny's sake, I hope not. :D

Besides, he has no shot... he's only got a Masters. ;)

[USAFSSO]

For Penny's sake, I hope not. :D

Besides, he has no shot... he's only got a Masters. ;)

/tussles hair

[Robbie123]

So far this year the stories have been. Penny and Leonard, Penny and Sheldon and now Penny and Raj. Will Howard finally get time with her?

No way for Howard, but I am very happy to see Penny getting more air time. :)

[jtlytle]

I noticed a mistake on the show. last spring there was episode that Howard was allergic to seafood. But in "The Griffin Equivalency" episode, he ordered shrimp noodles.

[JYoung]

I noticed a mistake on the show. last spring there was episode that Howard was allergic to seafood. But in "The Griffin Equivalency" episode, he ordered shrimp noodles.

No, he's allergic to peanuts.

[mattack]

Ok, you guys are right -- BBT really is the best Monday night CBS sitcom. HIMYM is really weak, and don't even get me started on how horrid "Worst Week" is.

then don't watch it.. It's definitely the weakest of the 4, but I think it's fairly funny, and I don't generally like so much slapsticky humor.

[JenniferNAz]

A friend of mine just told me last weekend about this show so I watched it for the first time this week. All I can say is that I typically don't watch 1/2 hour sitcoms, but this is on my list now... it was hilarious!

[murgatroyd]

So far this year the stories have been. Penny and Leonard, Penny and Sheldon and now Penny and Raj. Will Howard finally get time with her?

Spoiler for last week's episode:
Penny already said 'yes' to Howard when they were both online. We saw her close her laptop, toss it to the other end of the couch and say "I need help" at the end of the episode.

What we don't know is how much time elapsed in between those two shots. :p

(Just kidding -- if Wollowitz had scored, even in the game, we would never hear the end of it.)

Jan

[jtlytle]

No, he's allergic to peanuts. Ah, you're right. But I know a lot of people with peanut allergic, avoid Chinese restaurants because a lot of utilities/knifes has been contact with peanuts.

[IJustLikeTivo]

For Penny's sake, I hope not. :D

Besides, he has no shot... he's only got a Masters. ;)

Hey, I worked hard to just get one. I feel his pain! ;)

[Rob Helmerichs]

Hey, I worked hard to just get one. I feel his pain! ;)
Right, but in that room, wouldn't you feel a little...inadequate?

[janry]

I was pretty tired when I watched this last night but I remember almost ROFLMAO when Raj greeted Penny at her door to pick her up for the party. I can't remember at all what he said but he pretty much slammed her dress. What was it he said? This is bugging me so I may have to undelete and re-watch that part.