Oi. The other day the theme song for the TV show “Alice” crept into my head for some unknown reason. It’s still kind of there. So, I’ve founf the best way to deal with these things is to actually go listen to the damn song. That said, I now present you with three different openings and themes for the show. Man, Linda Lavin could really kill a word or two when she strangled them out of her mouth as she sang.
That’s the question one really has to ask of “The Big Bang Theory,” the latest production from Chuck Lorre, the man responsible for CBS’s most popular sitcom at the moment, “Two and a Half Men.” The premise involves two complete nerds named Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) who have a new sexy neighbor named Penny (Kaley Cuoco) move in across the hall; Leonard is instantly smitten and tries to work out if it’s even remotely possible that he can get together with Penny, while Penny, perhaps inevitably in a sitcom like this, is completely oblivious to both her incredible beauty and the way it affects these two geeks.
Don’t get me wrong: I liked it a lot, and I laughed repeatedly. But I also found my head spinning at the sheer complexity of the punchlines on occasion…and, to be fair, I also felt a little outed as a geek when I saw Sheldon wearing a t-shirt bearing the image of DC Comics hero The Flash and realized that I had the same shirt.
Parsons acknowledged the major mouthfuls he gets saddled with in the pilot. “It was a lot of memorization (and) a lot of writing down lines,” he admitted. “But it was a pleasure. It was…”
“…a lot of takes,” interjected Galecki.
“…a lot of takes,” repeated Parsons. “No, it wasn’t. I did very well. It’s a wonderful thing, actually, that many words, because it’s something good to rely on when you get out there. You got that behind you. You don’t have to think as much. You have to concentrate on getting that damn line out, and then everything else is taking care of itself.”
At the end of the pilot, we’re left wondering if Leonard really has a shot with Penny…and, surprisingly, it doesn’t seem as far-fetched as you’d think. Penny’s a sweetheart, and Leonard clearly really likes her, so you do find yourself rooting for the two to get together. Don’t hold your breath on it happening any time soon, though; Lorre hopes you’ll keep wondering about it for quite some time. “It’s a question that we ask ourselves all the time as we’re writing the series,” he says. “How to develop this long, and if there’s sexual tension, you know, how to take it in ways that it hasn’t been taken before. Are there new paths to take with this kind of a relationship? Can it be consummated? I mean, those are the questions we sit around and ask ourselves all day long when we’re writing the show.”
Adds co-producer Bill Prady, “It’s important to try to listen to the characters, to be true to what Leonard would do next and then to ask the question of, given that he’s done that, does that move him closer to his goal.”
Honestly, I hope they don’t move too fast on moving the pair together. The heart of the series seems to be the relationship between Sheldon and Leonard – and, yes, TV geeks, those names are a very intentional tribute to the famous comedy writer, Sheldon Leonard – as well as the one between the duo and their other two geek buddies, Howard (Simon Helberg, late of “Studio 60”) and Rajesh (Kunal Nayyar). Obviously, watching all four of them react to Penny is hilarious, but, in general, the mere concept of watching these guys attempt to function in normal society is where the comedy really lies for me.
I can’t imagine why I relate to it so much.
Any similarities you may find between the two series, both of which are produced by David Greenwalt and are about a vampire who – ho, ho – moonlights as a detective, are, of course, complete coincidence. Right…?
Says Greenwalt, “My agent said in May, “You’ve got to read this ‘Moonlight.’ It’s fantastic. And I read a couple of pages and discovered it was (about a) vampire detective, and I said, ‘Not only am I not going to read this, I’m going to sue them. This is my show!’ But he kept talking to me and, eventually, I did read it, and I did fall in love with it.
“It’s vampire 2007. It’s a new ball game. You know, it’s certainly a genre show. But just some tiny examples. You know, there are no other demons, there’s no other monsters. You know, it’s not that supernatural of a world. It’s a sleek modern world, Los Angeles. And literally the vampire makeup is different, the mythology is different, and it’s a world where they really live among us. And there’s not that many of them. And the show has all my favorite things. It’s got deep heart, and big love, and funny, which I am attracted to.”
Actor Alex O’Laughlin, meanwhile, is just plain attracted to playing a vampire, so he’s quite psyched about scoring the lead role of vampire detective Mick St. John. “I’ve been kind of obsessed with the genre since I first discovered it,” he admits. “I discovered Anne Rice when I was sort of late teens. And I read the first five or six books of “The Vampire Chronicles” twice, actually, which was a little obsessive. But I loved her character development, (and) I learned so much about the mythology of vampires through her storytelling. Also, I grew up in Australia with American TV and American cinema, because we didn’t really have that much of our own, so I grew up with all of the films that you guys did; ‘The Lost Boys’ was a huge film for me when that was made, and the ‘The Hunger’ was also something that I really loved. So, yeah, I’ve always sort of wanted to play a vampire!”
Basically, what fans of Greenwalt’s previous show should be aware of is that this is a very different universe from the one in which Angel and company reside. There are comparatively few vampires in the world of “Moonlight” (“Maybe there’s a thousand or two in all of Los Angeles,” says Greenwalt, “(so) it’s a small thing”), and, as it stands right now, there aren’t trolls, demons, and whatnot wandering around.
A closing note: during the “Bones” panel, someone asked David Boreanaz if he was planning to do a cameo on Greenwalt’s new vampire-turned-detective show. “Yeah,” he said, with a laugh. “Maybe I’ll show up as the guy who kills the vampire.”
Okay, I know, I totally jumped the gun earlier by posting James Woods’ obscenely witty comments during the informal “Shark” panel, but, dammit, it was funny, and I really wanted to share them with you. So now let’s get back to the series itself and mention a few more highlights of the panel…
* In Season 2, James Woods and Jeri Ryan will be working far more closely together than ever before. Says creator Ian Biederman, “In the construct of their world, she was a district attorney and, as opposed to that, she was ostensively his boss. So he was able to bring her in on cases every once in a while, but this year she lost the election for assistant district attorney at the end of the last season. She will be coming into the team at the beginning of this year, so she will be a partner on the team.”
Yeah, yeah, whatever. When are they gonna sleep together?
“Jimmy and I are negotiating on the amount of money it will take for that to happen,” says Biederman. “If the check clears, yes, there will be a torrid love affair.” More seriously, he adds, “I think the potential is there. It will always linger there. There’s an attraction between these characters on a number of different levels. So we will just have to see how it goes. I would think it’s something that’s interesting. We’ll see how it goes. As much as Jeri is begging me, I’m going to try to be patient.” (Says Woods, “I’m working for scale this year, just on the hope.”)
* The cast is being adjusted a little bit. Actor Samuel Page, who played Casey Woodland, “had a movie he wanted to do,” said Woods, “and he had the option to stay. And Sam, he’s phenomenal. This very morning, I called Oliver Stone to ask him to see Sam for the ‘My Lai’ movie because I think he’d be great in it. It’s one of those things where he could have not taken the movie or he could have gone with us, and I said, “Sam, do what you have to do.” We can bring him back. It was written in the first episode that he’s running his father’s campaign for governor, and so on, and so on. So we have the option to have him come back as much as we want, which I’m sure we will do. And he can still pursue his movie career. Honestly we are such a tightknit family, that it was one of those things, it just worked out perfectly for him. He’s got a big career, a big career shot, and, hey, let him take it, but also will you come back to us, and he can come back and forth.
“And,” adds Woods, “we have a new addition on a regular basis, which is more of a challenge for me, like we need a new character who can come in and kind of stir me up. This young man named Kevin Alejandro, who’s terrific. We’ve had a couple scenes together so far and he’s terrific.”
* Billy Campbell, who played Wayne Callison in two episodes during the first season (including the gripping season finale), will be almost certainly be back, says Woods. “we want to keep Billy around as much as we can because — it’s just one of
those characters that’s not just a thorn in Sebastian’s side, but there’s so many issues that you bring up — miscarriage of justice, how, you know — I’m sure the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will find a way to let the guy off, but, hey, he only murdered about 15 women. But he does have his rights, so, you know, I’m sure that will be an issue that will come up. Just get that Thelton Henderson in there and I’m sure he’ll get out and get elected president.”
“Just a little joke, guys,” clarified Woods. “Come on…!”
So why did the informal panel for “How I Met Your Mother” involve only one member of the cast? Not that we’re complaining, you understand – if you’re gonna have one member, it might as well be Neil Patrick Harris – but, y’know, the absence of Cobie Smulders, Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, and Alyson Hannigan was certainly an obvious one…so obvious, in fact, that co-creator Carter Bays didn’t even wait for anyone to mention it.
“You probably read it in the paper,” said Bays. “It was just creative differences. The other four…we’ll figure it out. We’ll write around it.”
(Actually, Smulders was in London, doing Shakespeare, while Hannigan showed up later in the evening at CBS’s all-star party; no word on where Segel or Radnor were, but the former was probably working on the movie “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” which he wrote and stars in. As to the latter, I got nothing.)
I know I wasn’t the only critic in the house to be completely psyched about this panel, and, certainly, Harris, Bays, and Bays’ fellow co-creator, Craig Thomas, left everyone laughing.
* Earlier in the morning, Nina Tassler indicated that the show would finally, finally begin to get around to answering the question as to who the mother of Ted’s kids is, but one of the other reporters asked what all us were more or less thinking: “How much can you hint around before it starts to get annoying?”
“That’s the question we hope to answer,” said Thomas. “In episode one (of the third season), we’re going to see…basically, it’s going to be the biggest connection to the sort of larger search for the mother; episode one will show that we have not forgotten the title of our show, in a very exciting way.”
Bays also confirmed that, much as longtime fans have theorized, there have indeed been hints in previous episodes which will, in retrospect, become notably important. “Yeah, the thing that we love to do…sometimes, we plant things intentionally. Sometimes, little things grow out of…we’ll write one joke in season one, and that will turn into a entire episode in season three. So yeah, I think everything’s up for grabs. It’s in there.”
* The fantastic mall episode – which brought us the wickedly insidious Robin Sparkles song, “Let’s Go To The Mall” – was written by Kourtney Kang. The reason for Robin being Canadian occurred organically – Smulders is from Canada as well – but the writers have had to start taking it easy on the jokes about our neighbors up North. “It’s such filthy luctre for writers,” says Bays. “At first, it was just like, ‘We’ll just throw in a joke about how she’s Canadian,’ and we just couldn’t stop ourselves. And in every episode, we’re just making fun of it.”
Craig Thomas clarified the situation a bit more. “We approached Cobie and we said, ‘We’re going to make Robin Canadian. We’re going to do some comedy about that, but it’s going to be really smart. It’s going to be, like, our smart way of, like, showing the absurdity of American culture.’ And we didn’t do that even one time. We just completely sold her out immediately.”
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