The Big Bang Theory: Access All Areas

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Take one.

'The Big Bang Theory is one of the

most popular shows on television,

'loved by millions of people

all over the world.

'I've access to everything you don't

normally see that brings the show

'to life every week.'

As soon as I got onto the set,

I was very excited

and walked down the stairs...

'From the secrets of the wardrobe

room...'

I'll know. If this is missing

when you leave, you're in trouble.

'To watching the cast

record the show.'

Isn't it fun to learn things?

This is great.

Welcome to The Big Bang Theory,

Access All Areas.

Within reason. I can just go

waltzing into the ladies' loos

or ladies' rest rooms,

whatever they call them.

'Luckily for you, I am a long

allowed to waltz onto the set

'to meet the cast and I'll be

starting with the tough questions.'

Which character do you most enjoy

shooting scenes with?

Goodness!

That is Sophie's Choice.

Who makes you laugh the most

when you're doing scenes with them?

Who makes me laugh the most?

Favourite people to work with?

How can I answer that?

Are you trying to start

World War III?

I'm not going to answer that.

Kunal, diva...

Kunal, I don't like working

with at all.

Sure. Sure.

He, to be fair, said the same.

I'm sure he did.

Johnny Galecki, just outrageous.

Who makes me laugh the most?

Erm...

You can say none of them.

I'm racking my brain. I can't even

remember their names.

Simon. Another diva.

I'm going to be diplomatic

and say... the cast.

Or none is probably better.

Or myself.

You should hear the things I say.

But I enjoy them all equally.

Not really. Is that my yearbook?

Mm-hm. "Dear Leonard,

You're really good at science.

"Maybe one day you'll come up

with a cure for being a dork."

OK, jokes aside,

what I really want to know

is how they go about making

the show each week.

We start on Wednesday mornings.

We do the table read, which is all

the actors, producers and writers.

We read the script and we laugh.

Hopefully!

Hopefully.

And that's usually when we find out

what's going to be happening,

so it's as much a surprise to us

as everyone else.

The writers take notes of what

seems to work well,

what didn't work, and they go off

to start rewriting.

Thursdays and Fridays we rehearse

more, get it on its feet

and we do run-throughs

for producers

and network and studio.

That's when rewrites come through,

so sometimes the script will change

by as much as a third,

and then we have a weekend

in between to learn our lines.

Monday we rehearse with cameras.

I prefer 20 minutes of rehearsal,

but these guys need hours.

But you are a consummate

professional.

It's what a lot of people

have been saying.

Tuesday night is live

audience taping.

Take a bow and they immediately hand

us a warm envelope

with the next morning's

script in it.

So, that's the actors' week

from start to finish,

but before they can do any

rehearsing or recording,

they're going to need a script.

But there is an original finals draft

Ghostbusters script

with actual slime stains.

Oh, you're right.

It's Ghostbusters II. Never mind.

Each and every episode of The Big

Bang Theory starts in this building

in the writers' room.

Led by creators Bill Prady

and Chuck Laurie,

the team have to conjure up new and

exciting ways of making us laugh.

Ooh, dark matter...

we'd better bring a flashlight.

'And if anyone knows the pressure

of writing a hit show,

'it is Chuck Lorre, who also created

Two And A Half Men.'

How do you keep coming up

with ideas that feel fresh

and interesting when you've

made 100 episodes of a show?

Desperation and fear

is a good motivator.

It's like riding through a tunnel

with a train behind you.

For nine months, you can't stop.

All aboard! Whoo-whoo!

And how much does the script change

from when you do

your first table read?

About 30% to 40%.

Yeah? Is that quite typical?

Gosh, I've been on shows

where it changed 100%

from table to shoot night.

120%, you know?

I've never seen a show

consistently

where what we read

at the table is so funny

that the rewriting

becomes a minimal amount.

I can't seem to get in touch

with Amy.

I tried email, video chat, tweeting

her, posting on her Facebook wall,

texting her... nothing.

Did you call her on the telephone?

The telephone!

'It's common on many shows where

what we read on the first day,

Monday,'

there's not one word from

that script that's there on Friday.

OK.

'We hear all the time,'

the condition our scripts come in,

the good condition

they come in, it's a anomaly.

And it makes a difference.

You know, I mean,

they're not perfect.

We've certainly had scripts

we've had to work on.

Some have had more changes

during the week than others,

and those are rough weeks.

Guys, we are going to do

a different line there.

'If life was always like that here,'

it'd be a tear-your-hair-out

experience, I think.

On the flip side,

now I'm a little spoiled.

Why do you even want this here?!

Its size is completely

disproportionate to its purpose.

Seeing as its purpose was to piss

you off, I'd say it's spot-on.

Now, the writing's one thing.

Sure it's very good,

but then every show has writers.

But a show that features

a theoretical physicist,

an astrophysicist, an experimental

physicist, a neurobiologist,

a microbiologist and a...

well, a Howard Wolowitz,

obviously needs to use a lot

of sciencey language

that us at home

can barely understand.

Now, luckily, the actors and writers

have someone to help them

to ensure that they don't embarrass

themselves

by saying "loop quantum gravity"

when they mean string theory.

And, trust me, thatisfunny...

I checked.

I will graciously overlook the fact

that she is an arrogant,

sub-par scientist, who actually

believes loop quantum gravity

better unites quantum mechanics

with general relativity

than does string theory.

How do you deal with all the kind

of scientific content of the show?

Do you leave blanks...

Sub-contract it.

And then go...?

We have a brilliant astrophysicist

named David Saltzberg,

who's a professor at UCLA.

I basically get every script

in advance and I look it over,

and, er, the writers actually

know a lot of science

and fill out what they want.

And maybe it'll just need

a little tiny tweak here and there,

a change of word.

Other times,

they'll say, "Science to come."

What is physics?

We're designing

an experiment to look

for the annihilation spectrum

resulting from dark matter collisions

in space.

My tests of the bomb

quantum interference in fact

have reached an interesting point.

Force of gravity equals mass

times 9.8m per second per second.

Now we're testing phase

shift due to an electric potential.

Our 9.8m per second

squared as a, can...

Thematic theory,

algebraic gossip and epidemiology.

Time dependent backgrounds

and string theory.

You work on fundamental tests

of quantum mechanics?

It's specifically

quantum field theory

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