I am starting this thread in anticipation of tonight’s episode.
It was okay. Bill Gates’s lines were delivered quite decently.
Yes, although I almost didn’t recognize him in his first scene; he’s been out of the public eye for a few years now.
And I thought Bill Gates was an odd choice to have been a hero to science and tech geeks. Among my hardcore computer friends back in the day, Microsoft and Gates were considered to be anti-competitive and scheming rather than cutting-edge technical innovators. TBBT used to get stuff like that right.
I think Microsoft got a lot of stick (and still does) and Bill Gates was obviously the go-to name and face for that directed hatred, but even then he was still respected personally for his achievements, and definitely a lot more so now he’s been so altruistic.
I liked Sheldon’s April Fool’s arc - thought it was well-done. But Bernadette’s story was mostly annoying, bordering on cartoonish.
We were counting up all the science, technology, and geekdom folks who have appeared on the show over the years - a rather impressive list.
Bernadette is becoming a caricature, now she’s in the running with Raj for the main cast member I’d most like to see cut.
It was just an okay episode, a few chuckles but no great moments. Best was Sheldon holding up the enormous underwear and asking Penny if they were hers. Gates was adequate for a non-actor. Raj’s hairstyle- just not working.
Yeah, Bernadette was just annoying last night!
I always love “Sheldon and Penny” scenes, and you’re right – the underwear scene was hilarious!
The odd thing about Bernadette’s behaviour was it was written like this was her first baby, when it’s her second.
However, it is Melissa Rauch’s first baby. I still think her real life experiences are being drawn upon for her scenes.
It always looked to me like Microsoft Hatred was basically peer pressure, an In Crowd thing you had to adopt whether you believed it or not, along with Apple Worship. That’s still true to a degree. If Microsoft *really *sucked, they wouldn’t have won the war, and the most popular Mac app wouldn’t be a Windows emulator.
That said, Steve Jobs would certainly have been on the show years ago if he were available.
The vanity card was the best part of the episode - a nice tribute from Chuck Lorre to Stephen Hawking.
Rain caused me to miss the stinger to last night’s episode: would someone be so kind as to summarize?
There was a certain amount of in-group thinking involved, but I can also see their point. Microsoft is to computers kind of as McDonald’s is to food; popular, familiar, accessible. Bringing computers (or hamburgers) to the masses like that is no small feat, but to people who really put in the effort to understand how computers were supposed to work it was frustrating to have to accommodate Microsoft’s limitations.
I still remember the first episode of The Big Bang Theory that I ever saw. The gang want to go see a movie, but Sheldon declines to join them.
And I thought “they get it, or they’ve at least put some effort into trying.” So the Gates worship seemed a little off to me.
And Steve Wozniak was.
But Sheldon also bought a Zune, while confidently telling Raj that he had “wasted his money” on that iPod. The guys generally don’t seem to have a whole lot of hang-ups about which tech company they get their stuff from.
Sheldon was sadly walking up the stairs after his second attempt to meet Gates. There was a sign on Leonard & Penny’s door that said “I’m Sorry”. Sheldon assumed it was for him, and walked in. Leonard was there in a suit, holding a bouquet of flowers, obviously waiting for Penny, and started saying “I’m so sorry that I - oh, it’s you.”
Sheldon smiled and replied in his oblivious way “I could never stay mad at you. Apology accepted. What’s for dinner?” and fade to black.
I guess I was the only one who thought Bill Gates would ask Penny about that Hofstadter thing. I thought we’d get a scene of Gates saying, “Hofstadter? Why just yesterday. . .” But maybe that would have been too acting for a non-actoring philanthropist business mogul.
Wasn’t there a mention many seasons ago that Sheldon once got punched by Bill Gates because he walked up to him and said that if he hadn’t been worried so much about sick children he could have put more thought into Windows Vista?
And to think at the time I was worried about the continuity regarding Sheldon saying he liked Vista better than Win8 when his computer was replaced by insurance when he was robbed.
Of course, none of it was as bad as the discontinuity with Young Sheldon getting the lead in a play, and then later Sheldon on TBBT taking acting lessons from Penny as though he’d had no experience with acting whatsoever.
Also, if Sheldon gets such bad stage fright that he can’t give a speech, how is he able to teach classes?
Rant, rant, rant.
I need a Xanax.
Oh, and yeah, I thought Gates did do a pretty good job, but he does a lot of public speaking.
However, right now I think the award for best performance from a non-actor is a toss-up between the astronaut Mike Massimino, and Neil De Grasse Tyson. I’m giving the edge to Massimino, because I think he’s had a bigger part.
Honorable mention to Stephen Hawking just for what he must have gone through physically to do the show-- I assumed that they sent a crew to England to film him, but turns out he actually came to the US to do the show.
Poorly.
I liked this episode. I like to see Penny applying herself to her job, because it’s such a relief and change from her whiny struggling actress persona. She mentioned that she’d like to be considered for a PR position for her employer, which would be a promotion for her. I hope they pursue that story line.
Yep, Bernadette is no fun anymore. I miss sweet spacey Bernadette and don’t like bitchy, hormonal mom Bernadette at all.
Sheldon is at least aware that the guys can gang up on him to fool him now, which shows he’s getting an inkling of how normal humans work. Before he couldn’t even tell that they were teaming up to prank him on a simple card trick.
I mentioned here before that I’ve seen Bill Gates and his family out at a restaurant on the Olympic Peninsula. My husband was walking past their table and noticed him. Gates eyed him very warily, no doubt expecting a fanboy to come up and annoy him, but thankfully my husband played it cool and kept going. There was probably a security escort hidden somewhere. While watching this episode, I kept expecting a bodyguard to pounce on Leonard when he approached Gates in the hotel lobby.
Me too. If Sheldon and Amy can grow up, so can Penny. I also like it that Penny didn’t end up with a successful acting career, because the reality is that most people don’t, and what the SAG considers successful are people who manage to make a living without a second job, not people who are stars.
In fairness, she was kind of a downer in her first appearance. But at any rate, mean Bernadette was funny when it was a quirk that only occasionally popped up in a usually mellow person. When it’s her constant state, it’s no longer a joke.
I had a client who had his TV constantly tuned to VH1, so I watched a lot of programs I wouldn’t normally see, including one on fans who stalk celebrities. They interviewed several celebrities from different areas on what fan behavior annoys them most, and the thing that came up a lot was that they hated to be interrupted when they were eating. Talk to them on the street, or in a store, or something, not so bad, but they hated people going up to them in restaurants and interrupting their meals.
That probably would be really annoying.