The Big Bang Theory on TV: How to make a Big Bang with the Public

COFFEE_KLATCH · Invited

Abstract

Is it possible for a television sitcom to accurately portray scientists? Probably not, but with some effort it can accurately portray science. Since its debut in 2007, \textit{The Big Bang Theory} on CBS has striven to include accurate and current references to physics, astrophysics and other disciplines. This attention to detail (which means that Big Bang is the first television comedy to employ a physicist as a consultant) is an obsession of its co-creator and executive producer, Bill Prady. Prady, whose twenty-six year career in television has taken him from \textit{Jim Henson's Muppets} to this current project, began his working life as a computer programmer. His frustration with how inaccurately science and technology is generally depicted in film and television led him to ask if it was possible to be both correct and funny. Using clips from the show as examples, we will engage in a discussion of the depiction of science on this program and in popular entertainment in general.

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Authors

  • Antony Valentini

    CITA, MIT, Caltech/JPL, Academia Sinica, Dong Hwa Univ., Soochow Univ., Nanticoke High School, UT, Maverick Systems Corp., RIS Corp., LSU, Shimadzu Corp., UNIRIB, ORAU/ORISE, Physics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Los Alamos National Laboratory, University of South Dakota, RIKEN BNL Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Brown University, University of Maryland, Jet Propulsion Laboratory - California Institute of Technology, Center for Relativistic Astrophysics, Georgia Tech, University of Rochester, University of Idaho, Texas A\&M University, Universit\'e Paris Diderot-Paris 7, Washington University in St. Louis, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rockwell Collins Inc., Northwestern University, N IST, Indiana Unviersity, Harvard University, University of Notre Dame, Fachbereich Theoretische Physik, Institut fur Physik, Karl-Franzens-Universitat Graz, Austria, Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, CSIC, Spain, Physics Department, University of Wisconsin-Barron, Orion Foundation, Physics Dept, University of West Florida, Pensacola, Florida, 32514, TUNL, Duke University, James Madison University, University of New Mexico, Photonics CoE, Idaho State University, Pocatello, ID 83209, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, Argonne National Laboratory, University of Washington, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology (and West Virginia University), NRAO, University of Florida, LLNL / NPS, LLNL, UC Berkeley, LLNL/NPS, Univerity of Washington, CNRS-IN2P3, Marseille, FR, CERN and King's College, London UK, Brookhaven National Laboratory, ICTP, Trieste, IT, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Princeton University, North Carolina Central U. (NCCU), Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL), University of California, Riverside, NSCL/MSU, Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Duke University, University of North Carolina, Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, KVI Groningen, APS Director of Public Affairs, Perimeter Institute, Caltech, Rutgers, U. Tenn., ORNL, Stanford School of Medicine, Radiation Oncology and Molecular Imaging Program, Stanford Applied Physics Department, Stanford School of Medicine, Radiation Oncology, Boston University, BNL, Rutgers University, Purdue University, Penn. State University, UCSD, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of Richmond, University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Mississippi State University, University of Tennessee, Argonne National Lab, Florida State University, US Naval Academy, ANL, Univ. of Maryland, Univ. of Massachusetts (Lowell), Univ. of Tennessee, Univ. of Manchester, UK, NBI, Danmark, Mississippi State Univ., Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS 39762, UGC-DAE Consortium for Science Research, Kolkata, India, Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, San Jose State University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, University of Chicago, Fermilab, Program Director, US LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP), Montana State University, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, School of Mathematics, University of Southampton, CCT, Louisiana State University, CSIC-IEEC Barcelona, TAPIR, California Institute of Technology, University of Texas at Brownsville, Royal Military College of Canada, California State University, Sacramento, Norfolk State University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Utah State University, Executive Producer \& Co-Creator of The Big Bang Theory, University of California, Los Angeles, Cyclotron Institute, Texas A\&M University, Hope College, NSCL, Augustana College, Clemson University