The Big Bang Theory SDCC Panel Recap

On Friday, The Big Bang Theory took over Ballroom 20 at San Diego Comic Con 2015.The panel [...]

On Friday, The Big Bang Theory took over Ballroom 20 at San Diego Comic Con 2015.

The panel started with a sizzle reel of the funniest moments from The Big Bang Theory's most recent season, including Raj suggesting the group uses a van to pick kids up and bring them to their comic book store.

To kick the panel off, it's moderator Kunal Nayyar, who plays Raj on the show, took the stage to moderator the panel of writer's, producers, the show's scientific consultant Dr. David Saltzberg.

To kick things off, the writer's began chatting about how the time travel discussion scene came to be, revealing that they basically had the conversation and wrote it down on a white board ending up with that conversation becoming featured in the show. Raj joked that the best part of the scene was watch the rest of the cast struggle to get their lines down while he sat by and watched but was still a part of the scene.

The writer's joked that they know drones are called drones but they choose to use helicopter because "it's cute," to hear Nayyar try to say it English.

Nayyar told a story that Simon Helberg had to do his Stephen Hawking impression while Hawking was on set watching. Chuck Lorre added to it, saying he directed the episode with Sheldon and Hawking, but there is "no funnier feeling then looking at Stephen Hawking and saying, 'action.'"

Steve Molaro told the audience that he and Holland read Big Bang Theory fan fiction on the internet and were fairly impressed with a story about Amy's fan-fiction prom story. Nayyar and Molaro invited Miayim Bialik to the stage.

Nayyar and Bialik read the lines of the fan fiction on the stage. It was a romantic story of Amy and Raj. The two struggled to keep a straight face, but Nayyar delivered Raj's line, "Have you ever read Fifty Shades of Grey? I'm about to introduce to Fifty Shades of Brown," and her literal response warranted Raj's next line, "That kind of nitpicking is going to get you a spanking." The fan fiction concluded with Amy realizing she didn't want Raj, but rather, television sit-com writers. Perhaps, not actually fan fiction.

Steve Molaro began about Kevin Smith guest starring. Smith wanted to bring his friend and the assistant said it was "Some guy named Jay." Molaro ran down the hall and was extremely excited. Mayim said she was so excited that she tweeted about it and got reprimanded by Warner Brothers for it.

Nayyar and Prady agreed that Billy Bob Thornton was one of the nicest and best guests they had on the show this season. The topic changed to Nathan Fillion's appearance and Maria Ferrari told recalled her first time meeting Fillion after a few drinks and telling him she was going to get really rich, buy Firefly, and make their dreams come true.

Nayyar opened up a discussion about reshooting the ending of the "Skywalker Ranch," episode. Lorre revealed that the original ending involved Sheldon stealing a lightsaber from the Skywalker Ranch but they couldn't have Sheldon commit a felony, saying the character, "couldn't possibly commit a crime like that."

Mayim gets asked about kissing Jim Parsons and after stuttering a bunch, says "It's weird to qualify it. It's great." "Whenever Sheldon and Amy have intimacy it's usually very specific. It's very gently placed." "Our kisses have never been make-outy." "We both know how to kiss differently than our characters do." "We tried it a lot of different ways. At one point I had my hand on his shoulder but they wanted movement."

Chuck Lorre talked about his new STEM foundation which raises money for young people to get scholarships at UCLA. He says they had no idea when starting the show it would be something people would make life choices from.

Nayyar said that there was an original pilot for Big Bang Theory shot which was never used because, as Lorre confirmed, was a swing and a miss but they were lucky enough to have a second shot.

Kaplan revealed the fastest way he has found of taking his shirt off and urged Nayyar to try it. The audience cheered for it but Nayyar wouldn't do it.

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Questions opened up to the crowd.

Q: When did Sheldon buy the ring? When was he planning on giving it to Amy?

Steve Molaro: The answer will be in the premiere episode of season nine.

Q: Will we know more about Amy's past and her family?

Mayim: I have no idea, I'd like to know all these things as well...

Steve Molaro: Yes.

Eric Kaplan: You may learn she had a great, great uncle who didn't always play by the rules.

Q: What is your greatest difficulty in writing and what happens when you face it?

David Goetch: Sometimes lunch is late.

Steve Molaro: Big heavy moments. When Sheldon told Amy, "I love you," for the first time. - It's very important we get those moments right.

Bill Prody: There's the chalenge in writing comedy that you want the characters to do bold, funny things, but you have to show that those things are reasonable.

Eric Kaplan: I think the most difficult thing is emotional honesty...

Q: Back to the Future was first mentioned this season, are there any other popular shows, movies, fandoms that you can tease will be in the show?

Molaro: One of the things was Ghostbusters using the clip featuring Bill Murray and they discovered last minute they didn't have permission to use it. - I was thinking, "Okay, I think I can help but it's going to be really rude to someone I know." I said, "I'll call Joel and ask if I can use his brother." - Bill Murray called the poor lady at the studio and said, "Why are you being so mean to the people at Big Bang Theory?"

Q: Nerds weren't always considered cool but now they kind of are. Do you think that this show has helped make that trend happen or that trend has helped the show?

Lorre: When we started, we didn't consider the characters nerds. Honest to goodness.

Q: How would Sheldon respond to the blasphemous statement that Superman vs. Thor would be like E.T. versus Jesus?

Eric Kaplan: Why would E.T. and Jesus fight? Wouldn't they be on the same page?

Prady: Superman is vulnerable to magic. Would Godly powers be technically under magic?

Kaplan: I mean... Historically when Thor fought Jesus, he converted most of northern Europe to Christianity...

Q: Now that Leonard and Penny have set the date for the wedding, have we thought about casting for the mom?

Molaro: ...We could never imagine recasting.

Nayyar: Caroline was one of the lifelines of our show. We were very sad with what happened. Her laughter and her charisma and her spirit lives on our stage everyday.

Q: Why does Sheldon hate engineers?

Saladin Patterson: He hates what he doesn't understand.

Q: Did you know where you were going when you first started?

Lorre: We honestly didn't know what we were doing at all...

Q: When we first met Amy, she and Sheldon were both uncomfortable with intimacy. What made Amy adapt to it quicker than Sheldon?

Molaro: I think Amy had really longed for all of this. - Like all the characters on the show, they have grown...

Mayim: ...Amy absolutely was wanting something more than was her life.

Prady: ...Sheldon had backed off from the world by choice and Amy hadn't had the opportunities....It was the same thing but it came from a different place.

Q: How did you guys go about concieving Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock?

Prady: This is a wonderful invention by a guy named Sam Cass....The reference to Sam was the character said, "All hail Sam Cass." ... Jim is really good at memorizing things like that in some strange super power way.

Q: Why did you pick a soft kitty rather than any other animal?

Kaplan: Soft porcupine wouldn't work.

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To conclude the panel, Nayyar lead the audience of 4,200 people singing, "Soft kitty, warm kitty..."

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