For a TV show or series to have several seasons and run for over a decade is quite hard nowadays, considering that mini-series and short ones are more popular due to the lack of time of viewers.
Overall, people don’t want to spend too much time watching and following a series, but when it is just too good to skip, they want it to continue forever.
Unfortunately, everything comes to an end, and even very popular shows like The Big Bang Theory had to conclude for people to move on a bit.
We’re sure you know about this series as one of the most popular ones for the last decade, and if you aren’t that familiar with it or have no clue, we will start thinking you were living under a rock until now.
We can accept that you haven’t watched it, but not knowing even what it is about? We need to fix this ASAP.
As one of our favorite TV shows of all time, we decided to give it some coverage and ensure that real fans can learn a few more details from this timeless series. At the same time, others can finally discover this masterpiece (according to way too many people).
Big Plot: What Is the Series About?
If you are new to comedy and sitcoms in specific, you wouldn’t know the type of plots they follow since many consider they are only for joking or laughing for a while.
However, they can be a bit deeper than you think, especially with several seasons on the pocket and over a decade running on TV.
That being said, The Big Bang Theory’s plot isn’t that hard to follow, unlike other TV shows since, even when every season has a specific focus, the central idea and concept remains and is always present, making it simple to keep the trail.
Now, The Big Bang Theory follows Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter, who are brilliant physicists at Cal Tech, Pasadena.
Although they are best friends, colleagues, and roommates, their relationship is tested by Sheldon’s unconventional, highly structured, and non-conventional ways.
They also have a close friendship with Cal Tech’s mechanical engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Rajesh Koothrappali.
They spend their time working on individual projects, playing video games, and reading comic books. All four of them are self-confessed geeks and have had little to no luck with women.
Things start to change when Penny, an attractive woman from Omaha with aspirations to be an actress, moves into the apartment next to the boys, leading Leonard to set a new goal for his life: Get Penny to become his girlfriend.
Their relationship with the young unsuccessful yet motivated actress starts when she starts working at The Cheesecake Factory and ends up helping Leonard and Sheldon to discover the world they know almost everything about but barely know how to live in it.
Cast & Production: Making the Series Possible
By the time The Big Bang Theory was released, not many people had high expectations of the TV show. Instead, it felt like a bland copy of all sitcom series from a few years before 2007.
Fortunately, the show proved everyone wrong and is now remembered as one of the best, and people are definitely missing it after its last season airing in 2019.
But goodbyes aren’t always bad, and to honor some details; we cannot miss the team behind making this big series possible.
This television sitcom was created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, who were also in executive producers’ roles for the series.
Meanwhile, it was directed by Mark Cendrowski, and other executive producers included Lee Aronsohn, Steven Molaro, Eric Kaplan, Maria Ferrari, and Dave Goetsch.
Though, the only ones to work for the entire run of the series were the director and Chuck Lorre, and Bill Prady.
Finally, the producer was Faye Oshima Belyeu, and production companies involved Chuck Lorre Productions and Warner Bros. Television, being the latter the distributor as well.
But what about the cast? Did we forget about them? Not at all.
For most of them, the show meant the start of their careers in the industry, and while a few had some roles in previous projects, the sitcom sure skyrocketed their lives.
Here, we will include the main cast only:
- Johnny Galecki as Leonard Hofstadter.
- Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper.
- Kaley Cuoco as Penny.
- Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitz.
- Kunal Nayyar as Rajesh Koothrappali.
- Mayim Bialik as Amy Farrah Fowler.
- Melissa Rauch as Rostenkowski-Wolowitz.
- Kevin Sussman as Stuart Bloom.
How Much Money Came with It?
A TV show that runs for 12 seasons is only expected to bring great revenues for the production team, company, actors and actresses, and anyone involved.
This is why we are quite happy to share some details of this sitcom, which people loved to the point of never getting tired of the gang and just begged for more even after it was over (more like even more during this time).
For starters, Warner Bros. Television has made lots of money with the sitcom, with an average syndication revenue set at $1.5 billion for all its 12 seasons.
However, this is only for the production company. What about the channel that aired it all this time?
It generated $125 to $160 million per season for the original network, CBS, and this was for ads only.
This means the number sets higher or is similar to Warner. Bros got from it, but we have to consider the fact that, together, that’s about $3 billion in revenue.
With more than 20 million viewers per episode, The Big Bang Theory was making millions every night it was aired.
But with the studios and companies making so much money, what about the cast?
Since salaries always depend on the main and secondary cast, the seasons and popularity of the show, and other factors, we always include them based on how much they earned initially and by the end of the show or lastest season.
In the case of the main cast, the salaries started at $40k for most of them and went up during the last few seasons, and as the series won several awards.
For actors like Kunal Nayyar, his salary started at $40, just like the rest, but went up to $150k for the second season and over $600k from season 8 to 10. For the last two, he reportedly made about $1 million per episode.
Simon Helberg also entered the previous average, but cast members like Kaley Cuoco went up to $900k+ per episode for seasons 8 to 10, while the last two rose the $1 million mark.
However, the highest-paid in the show was Jim Parsons, who started with $60k per episode and finished it with $1.2 million, making him the highest-paid actor on television by the time.
Just as a bonus, the secondary cast of the show didn’t have a big increase in salaries, and over 90% of them earned about $25.000 over the course of the show.
As for the rest of the main cast members, they got paid between $400k to $600k by the end of the series.
6 Impressive Facts About The Big Bang Theory
- Jim Parson, who plays Sheldon, thought he was auditioning for a game show in the beginning.
- The show ended, but yet Penny’s surname was never released.
- CBS, the original network, renewed the series twice for three seasons at once.
- Kunal Nayyar was hired because he was “charming.”
- In the beginning, Chuck Lorre thought that airing the show at 8 P.M. was a straightaway death sentence.
- All the main cast members are part of the highest-paid TV actors and actresses of all time.
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