It may have come as a bit of a shock when news started to come out that when Season 9 of The Big Bang Theory hits the schedule two of the lead characters, Penny and Leonard, are finally going to get married. Normally big moments like this are not revealed--or teased rather than simply revealed. It turns out there’s a reason that showrunner Steve Molero gave up the goods. There’s a whole season worth of other stuff planned.
Speaking with THR Molero says that quite simply if the show only teased that the wedding might happen, nobody was going to believe that it would.
Chuck and I had a long talk about [revealing the wedding before the premiere] and my fear was that it was going to start [to] sound like they didn't [get married]. That was not a positive message — and we didn't want fans to feel like, 'Oh, they're going to pull the rug again and not do it'. There is so much more story beyond that moment that we decided to just let people know.
Season 8 left the series on an end-of-season cliffhanger. Penny and Leonard were on their way to Las Vegas to get married but on the way they got in a fight. So will they or won’t they move forward? Could have been worse, the car could have exploded. Anyway, while most shows would expect the open question would cause people to tune in to get the answer, the producers of The Big Bang Theory appear to have been afraid that everybody was just going to assume it wasn’t going to happen, and that the continued status quo might make fans frustrated.
Molero also points out that, as in real life, the story will continue after the marriage happens. Leonard and Penny being married will obviously impact all their friends, and by “all their friends” we mean Sheldon, so just because we know they're getting married doesn’t mean the series is now mapped out in any way. They have plenty of other things to tease fans with over the coming season so there was no real need to make this one of them. Fans who have been tuning in for eight seasons have been waiting for (or dreading) this moment, so one would think that will be enough to get them to watch the show.
Has the marriage of Leonard and Penny been the event too long in coming or do you wish it wasn’t happening now? One way or another we’ll see all the fallout when The Big Bang Theory Season 9 premieres on CBS on September 21.
Image courtesy of CBS.
