I know how old the actors that play the characters are:
[ul]
[li]Jim Parsons (1973) [Sheldon][/li][li]Johnny Galecki (1975) [Leonard][/li][li]Kaley Cuoco (1985) [Penny][/li][li]Kunal Nayyar (1981) [Raj][/li][li]Simon Helberg (1980) [Howard][/li][/ul]
So how old are the characters supposed to be on the show. Or isn’t it stated?
I don’t think I’ve seen hard ages, but I’d hazard the guys are supposed to be in their late 20s to early 30s, with Penny a few years younger. Pretty much their real ages, more or less.
I haven’t seen the third season… Is it anywhere stated what their academic titles are? I get the impression that Leonard and Sheldon are both tenure-track (both are in a position where they can take on graduate students) while Raj is probably a post-doc (he’s a PhD, but doesn’t seem to get much respect). Howard I can’t say, not being familiar enough with how engineers organize themselves.
At any rate, that would be about consistent with the ages of the actors. Ten years is a pretty big age gap between Leonard and Penny, though.
I can’t be certain, but somehow I get the impression that Howard may only have a Master’s degree. 
Given that Sheldon claims to have graduated college when he was fourteen, I’m not sure if he’s supposed to be the same age as the rest but having had his degree for longer, or if he’s supposed to be in the same degree cohort and therefore younger in age.
I don’t remember which episode, but at some point Howard said he was 27 and in the season two Christmas episode Penny is said to be 22. I’m assuming the others are all about the same age as Howard…
Oh, that’s right, there are several times when Howard and his mother are screaming at each other (which cracks me up EVERY TIME), and she says something about his friends coming over to play, and he yells “I’m 27!”
Yeah I think they might have said that, once or twice.
Who doesn’t? :rolleyes: 
Howard has a Masters from MIT. That gets no respect from Sheldon. What I cannot figure is how he lived in Massachusetts the requisite time to get the degree and still came back to live with his mother.
OM f’in G. Penny was born when I was starting my senior year of high school.
Where is my walker?!?
She was born when I was starting my senior year in college. No sympathy at all from me!!!
Jim Parsons is old enough to be their grandfather.
It’s funny, I would have guessed him to be the youngest actor on the show.
I bet he and his mother are FROM Massachusettes and he brought her to Pasadena when he got the University job.
I am only an occasional viewer of the show, and when I first saw it I assumed these guys were supposed to be grad students, or even undergrads. I was quite shocked when it became apparent to me that Sheldon was supposed to be faculty, and even then I put it down to his being a prodigy, and continued to think of the rest as, at most, postdocs.
I actually was once a postdoc at Caltech, and knew, and visited the homes of various junior faculty. None of them lived or behaved in a way that remotely resembled the the lifestyle of the characters in Big Bang Theory. Furthermore, people actually smart enough to be Caltech faculty are generally also smart enough to be able to cover their underlying nerdiness with at least a veneer of social ease and worldliness. The guys in the show live and act like (the sitcom version of very smart and ultra-nerdy) students.
They’re supposed to be faculty???!!!
Okay, I really haven’t seen enough of this show.
Although, to be fair, I have known junior faculty who have a.) doubled up in apartments to save rent, and
b.) lived like grad students or post-docs
Ditto. And I had dropped out for 7 years by then as well!
Yeah, I knew that Howard only has a Master’s, but I don’t know what his job title would be, or how prestigious he would be among engineers (most of whom also don’t have PhDs). I get the impression that he’s actually officially with JPL, not CalTech, though the lines can get a bit blurry there.
I was under the impression that they were “think tank” workers. I can’t prove that but I also don’t remember hearing any references to their workplace being a college or university. Is it possible that a university supports non-teaching faculty for research only?
It appears as if they share an apartment for benefits other than saving money - ie friendship, transportation etc.