Sometimes I wish they’d produce some full episodes (or webisodes) of “Fun With Flags” and release them. It’s got to be difficult for an experienced and professional actor to act so uncomfortable and self-conscious like they do in FWFs. But I guess Jim Parsons is busy during taping and when they’re on hiatus he’s too busy promoting the show. The major charactors were never in any of The Office webisodes.
As I recall, Stuart’s decline started after the unfortunate incident during his last date with Penny; apparently, it shattered his confidence completely, turning him into a hollow shell of a man, and no one has noticed (Leonard was too happy about the incident to notice, Sheldon is too oblivious to notice the complete change in Stuart’s personality, and Penny apparently doesn’t even remember that she dated the man).
And Raj looks up to him as a player.
Much more recent: Stuart was interested in Amy, and she dumped him immediately when Sheldon declared for her (so far as he was able to) while the gang was at the movies.
He also became more important to the storylines when Howard and Bernie started spending more time alone together, and after Raj was left devastated by Lucy.
It wasn’t ‘the gang’ at the movies, it was just Amy and Stuart and then Sheldon came in to ask (in his way) Amy to be his girlfriend and then left.
I thought Kaley Cuoco was really good these last couple of episodes. I hope they continue this tack with Penny’s career. They could do the “characters goes on a trip at the end of a season” thing with her on a movie shoot, maybe the horrible-SyFy-movie idea from here at the Dope.
I gave “Big Bang Theory” a fair chance. I gotta say I don’t get the attraction. It’s just “Friends” regurgitated and, oh yeah, throw in a little nerdy science talk for flavor.
And Friends was the #1 sit-com for how many years?
That’s fair, it is a fairly generic sitcom at its base. If the characters and nerd stuff doesn’t work for you, they don’t work for you. I generally am not a fan of the generic sitcoms but this one works for me for some reason. For me at least the characters are more interesting and oddly enough more believable than those on Friends, Raymond, King of Queens, According to Jim and all those other generic sitcoms.
It’s much like Friends now, I agree. That’s the dynamic since Amy and Bernadette joined the group, now everybody but Raj has a girl in their life. In the first four or five seasons it was four nerds and Penny; much different plotlines and focus.
In any sitcom that lasts this long, they aren’t picking up huge numbers of new viewers. Established viewers are watching because they like the characters.
Weirdly, though, BBT has risen. It’s by far the most popular sitcom on television, and sometimes the most popular scripted show. (And it dominates reruns on cable.) Average number of viewers has increased every season but one, and the show’s more than doubled its viewership from season 1. That’s extraordinary.
I just caught the episode yesterday.
I have to say I’m confused my some of the comments. Many past threads have complained that the characters are stagnant and going nowhere. Then we get a couple of episodes where:
- Penny decides to move forward with her acting career
- Leonard and Penny have real-life relationship issues
- Amy has normal girl problems
- Raj and Howard try to use their dating experience for good instead of for schmuckery
and people hate it 
Come on, nerds and geeks of the world, we finally have a show that doesn’t portray us as weirdos to be bullied but as normal people with normal problems and we hate it?!
It isn’t that the characters are stagnating, it’s that they’re homogenizing. Turning into standard sitcom one-dimensioners. The show used to be more fun because the writing used to be unpredictable, but now not so much.
Yes … and the African civet cat is not a true cat. 
Best thing about 500 channels: there should be something you like. Maybe even people talking about it.
(Speaking of Friends.)
I watched the most recent Episodes last night. (Season 3, # 2.)
One of the secondary characters looked and sounded familiar. (Spoiler boxing it in case you want to watch it to see if you spot it.)
John Ross Bowie, aka Bawwy Kwipke, played the shrink. No speech problem, but his New York voice is still recognizable.
The show has reached the point where the characters are firmly established, and now the humor is based almost exclusively on the audience knowing who these people are supposed to be. They’ve become caricatures of themselves.
There have been changes to the characters in recent years. Most notably, Raj can talk all the time now. But most of the changes are in negative ways. Becoming more extreme examples of their negative qualities. Sheldon is more deliberately abusive to others. Leonard is more whiny and insecure. And they’ve completely ruined Stuart.
The current personalities of the characters are becoming too far removed from their original selves.
As to Friends. Just being on the air a long time doesn’t say anything about quality. Everybody Loves Raymond is the poster child of a bad sitcom that lasted seemingly forever. (I shudder to think how long Two Broke Girls is going to last.) Equating popularity with quality is easily refuted by the McDonalds argument: Is McDonalds the best food in the world just because they sell the most?
I thought Facts of Life was the poster child for length does not equal quality. That piece of crap lasted 9 years. While I don’t like Raymond, Facts of Life was crappier yet.