The Big Bang Theory: The Tangerine Factor

The Big Bang Theory: The Tangerine Factor
CBS
May 19, 2008
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This story by Lorre & Prady, teleplay by Aronsohn & Molaro, has Penny (offscreen) breaking up with her latest boyfriend, and Leonard finally asking her out.  She worries it might ruin their friendship, and Leonard worries he might blow it, but Sheldon offers them the wisdom of Schrodinger's cat.  OK, this isn't exactly a Tony & Angela build-up.  It's only been a season (and an abbreviated season at that), and, yes, Peonard (or whatever the ship would be called) turns out to be incredibly successful, but ending the season with the beginning of their first date isn't a bad stopping point.  James Hong returns as Chen at the Chinese restaurant, this time dealing with Sheldon's complaints in terrible Chinese.

TBBT in its first season ranges from C to B, and as ten of the seventeen episodes get a B-, it's probably no surprise that this averages out to a B-.  I'm not going to run out and buy Season Two, but I probably will be taking a look at it for my next blog, details when we get there.  For now, I can sort of see why this show was renewed, if not why it's been such a hit for so long.  Galecki is nowhere near as good as he was on Roseanne most of the time, and Parsons's Leonard is really the only character I consistently enjoy.  That said, this is definitely better than Season Five of 30 Rock, which also might appear on my next blog.

The Big Bang Theory: The Peanut Reaction

The Big Bang Theory: The Peanut Reaction
CBS
May 12, 2008
Sitcom
DVD
C

Not even the return of Vernee Watson as Althea can make me care about this story by Aronsohn & Prady, teleplay by Goetsch & Molaro, where Penny convinces Leonard's friends to throw him a surprise party, and Howard fakes and then actually has a reaction to eating peanuts in order to keep Leonard from going home.  For one thing, they could've thrown the party at Penny's, and the episode could've had a different focus.

The Big Bang Theory: The Pork Chop Indeterminacy

The Big Bang Theory: The Pork Chop Indeterminacy
CBS
May 5, 2008
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This Lorre & Prady story, turned into a Aronsohn & Prady teleplay, introduces Sheldon's twin sister Missy, who's as tall as he is but gorgeous.  Courtney Henggeler is actually quite good in the role, and it's a surprise that she's never returned in the almost decade since.  She's not a genius but she is a lot better at assessing people than "Shelly" is.  All three of Sheldon's friends want to go out with her, so Leonard tries to make a genetic argument that Sheldon should have some say in who his sister mates with, but Missy sets Sheldon straight.  It's also nice to see Penny actually interact with another woman.  I understand that more of the regular cast would become female over time, but the imbalance is glaring in the first season, and this is definitely a series from a particular male perspective, where women have to point out that they're people.

The Big Bang Theory: The Bat Jar Conjecture

Note the Red Shirts on Sheldon's team

The Big Bang Theory: The Bat Jar Conjecture
CBS
April 21, 2008
Sitcom
DVD
B-

While not everything works in this story by Engel & Glickman, teleplay by Cohen & Prady, it is at times more of a character study than we usually get in the first season of this series.  When Sheldon proves unwilling to be a team player for the Physics Bowl, Leonard reluctantly recruits Leslie Winkle.  Gilbert still has great comic delivery, as when she gets a T-shirt for the team named Perpetual Motion System and says, "PMS?  Well, it's a few days early, but OK."  The final scene is probably the weakest, since I'm not buying that Penny would, one, be so up on '70s and '80s pop culture, and two, see such knowledge as a sign of "going outside and talking to people."

Mark Harelik returns as Dr. Eric Gablehauser and continues to make little impression on me.  Note the irony of the discussion of "TV's Blossom," when Mayim Bialik would become a regular on this show in 2010.

The Big Bang Theory: The Jerusalem Duality

The Big Bang Theory: The Jerusalem Duality
CBS
April 14, 2008
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Engel & Glickman wrote the story, Goetsch & Molaro the teleplay, and it's about Sheldon's insecurities when a 15-year-old genius arrives, as well as Sheldon's friends' attempts to distract the genius with a girl.  Mark Harelik returns as Dr. Gablehauser.  It's nice to see Joel Brooks, as Professor Goldfarb, still has his comic timing three decades after his Three's Company cameos, and I wish they'd given him more to do.

The Big Bang Theory: The Pancake Batter Anomaly

The Big Bang Theory: The Pancake Batter Anomaly
CBS
March 31, 2008
Sitcom
DVD
C+

In this story by Lorre & Aronsohn, turned into a teleplay by Engel & Prady, Sheldon gets sick and is selfish about it, while Leonard is equally selfish in trying to avoid him, so poor Penny gets lied to and used again.  Erin Allin O'Reilly again plays Cheryl, I guess Penny's co-worker at the Cheesecake Factory.  Carol Ann Susi again provides the shrill voice of Howard's mother.

The Big Bang Theory: The Loobenfeld Decay

The Big Bang Theory: The Loobenfeld Decay
CBS
March 24, 2008
Sitcom
DVD
B-

In this Chuck Lorre story turned into a teleplay by Aronsohn & Prady, Sheldon feels so uncomfortable about Leonard's white lie to avoid hearing Penny perform in a musical, he comes up with a much more elaborate lie, even recruiting someone who had a Physics & Theater double major for the role of his drug-addicted cousin.  This episode isn't terribly plausible, but it is interesting to see it play out.

The Big Bang Theory: The Dumpling Paradox

The Big Bang Theory: The Dumpling Paradox
CBS
November 5, 2007
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Lorre & Prady wrote this story that became Aronsohn & Glickman's teleplay.  Howard begins a fling with Penny's visiting slutty frenemy, which throws the geek foursome off balance, especially when Leonard invites Penny to sleep over.

Kimberly D. Brooks, who provides the voice of the Automated Cell Phone, would later twice do the voice for a computer.  Carol Ann Susi, who was Ginger on Who's the Boss?, does the voice of Wolowitz's mother Debbie for the first of forty times.  (She died in 2014.)  James Hong, who's Chen the waiter for the first of two times, also did Who's the Boss?, as Thomas Ping, and he played a nameless man on The Bob Newhart Show, Peking Tom on Soap, and a different Waiter on Ellen; in fact his career goes back to the '50s and he was 78 at this point.  And, with the boost of his time on Roseanne, Johnny Galecki has now reached his 100th of my shows.

The Big Bang Theory: The Middle Earth Paradigm

The Big Bang Theory: The Middle Earth Paradigm
CBS
October 29, 2007
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Dave Goetsch's story, turned into Litt & Cohen's teleplay, has the four friends attending Penny's Halloween party, where Leonard confronts Penny's ex, Kurt (Brian Patrick Wade again).  When Leonard is humiliated, he retreats to his apartment, where Penny seeks him out, cries on his shoulder, and kisses him.  But he realizes that she's drunk and not over Kurt, so he doesn't pursue her now.  As always, Sheldon has the best lines, including about his Doppler Effect costume.

Erin Allin O'Reilly would return as Cheryl.

The Big Bang Theory: The Luminous Fish Effect

The Big Bang Theory: The Luminous Fish Effect
CBS
October 15, 2007
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Lorre and Prady wrote the story turned into a teleplay by David Litt (who'd do only one more) and Lee Aronsohn (who'd done three for Who's the Boss? and would do forty-three more for TBBT).  The plot has Sheldon insulting his boss, Dr. Eric Gablehauser (Mark Harelik in his first of five appearances in the role), and then getting fired and being at loose ends.  It's a bit slow but perked up by the introduction of Sheldon's Bible-Belt mother, Mary Cooper (Laurie Metcalf, another of Galecki's Roseanne costars).

The Big Bang Theory: The Big Bran Hypothesis

The Big Bang Theory: The Big Bran Hypothesis
CBS
October 1, 2007
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Lorre & Prady did the story that turned into a teleplay by Robert Cohen, who would do three more, and Dave Goetsch, who do sixty more!  And director Mark Cendrowski would do 211 more!!!  (So far.)  Yet it feels like a bit of a letdown from the pilot.  Although there are moments I laughed at, like Leonard using a lightsaber for a flashlight, it's hard to get past the idea that Sheldon goes into Penny's apartment while she's asleep in order to tidy up and sees nothing wrong with this, and Leonard, who does know better, goes along with it.