The Big Bang Theory Cast Members Have A Theory About The Show’s Popularity

“The Big Bang Theory” aired for twelve seasons and the same number of years from 2007 to 2019, and over the course of its tenure on CBS, it became one of the biggest sitcoms in the entire history of the medium. Not only did it consistently score high ratings, but Jim Parsons, who played the enigmatic (if often irritating) Sheldon Cooper, took home multiple Emmys for his performance. In addition to that, the show likely would have continued had Parsons not chosen to walk away after season 12. So why does the cast think the show turned into such an enormous success? 

In a 2016 interview with Backstage, Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Mayim Bialik, and Melissa Rauch — who, besides Parsons, played Leonard Hofstadter, Penny Hofstadter, Howard Wolowitz, Raj Koothrappali, Amy Farrah Fowler, and Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, respectively — talked about why they think the show turned into one of the biggest TV sensations of all time — because that was even true after just six seasons, as the show wasn’t quite finished yet in 2016. Helberg, for his part, said he thinks it was thanks to the way the characters evolved. “It’s been fun watching the growth of the characters,” he remarked. “People were hard on us when we first premiered, sort of like, ‘It’s just nerds and some ditzy blonde!’ I feel that’s changed.”

That alleged “ditzy blonde,” Cuoco, followed up by saying that they were lucky to be able to grow on-screen. “It’s hard to tell what an entire series is going to be based on the first few episodes, or even on the first season,” she said. “And it’s sad because you see great casts and good ideas that don’t get that opportunity to grow and show what it could turn into. We were lucky they stuck by us.” Parsons took that thought even further, remarking, “I think the best thing that ever happened to us was not being some sort of megahit right out of the gate.”

Actually, the cast of “The Big Bang Theory” had a lot of theories as to why the show became such a big success — and most of them aren’t that flattering, all things considered. As Simon Helberg pointed out, the show went into heavy syndication during the 2007-2008 WGA strike. Cuoco took that a step further by pointing out the show was frequently available on flights, giving the whole thing a nice touch of Stockholm syndrome: “You either had to watch or jump off.” (“Strikes and captive audiences were good to us,” Helberg quipped.)

Jim Parsons, for his part, had a much more charitable reading of the situation. “Our ratings weren’t remarkable at first, but we had two or three seasons under our belts, and we weren’t showing up here thrown off our mark by some sort of sudden success,” he said fairly, clearly thinking that hard work just ended up paying off.”

“There wasn’t a lot of attention paid to multicamera shows at the time,” Galecki said, chiming in.

Ask any typical fan of “The Big Bang Theory” why the show is so good, and they’ll probably point to one thing: the ensemble cast. There’s no denying that the chemistry between the actors on the show is genuinely phenomenal, and Johnny Galecki said in the same interview that right out of the gate — even before Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch joined the cast — that it just worked. “I do remember from the first table reading I felt it, I felt how everyone’s choices served everyone else’s,” Galecki said.

So what was it like for Rauch and Bialik to join the show in season 3, right as it was starting to take off? “I was a fan of the show before I joined the cast, and when I came for my first episode, I remember being blown away by how everyone nailed every single word that came out of their mouth at the table read,” Rauch recalled, adding that she had “never really experienced anything like that.” 

Bialik expressed a similar sentiment: “I felt the same [at my first table read], and I think I attributed it to ‘Oh, they’ve been doing this so long.’ But now that I see more of the individual talent and professional camaraderie, I think it probably was like that from the get-go, and Melissa and I get to reap the benefits of getting to be added to such an amazing ensemble.”

Naturally, Helberg, whose character Howard always had a witty remark, had one more quip followed by a very earnest compliment. “But it’s a testament to you guys because you didn’t just pick up on our genius, so to speak,” he said. “You were able to seamlessly enter into this while also adding a wonderful dimension to it.” “The Big Bang Theory,” which is still one of the most popular sitcoms in history, is streaming on Max now.