Toss a handful of pebbles out, and you’re bound to strike one of several current projects that involve The Big Bang Theory’s former cast members, from Kaley Cuoco’s quirky rom-com Meet Cute to Mayim Bialik’s Call Me Kat (which will actually feature a Big Bang reunion in Season 3) and beyond. Suffice to say, the CBS sitcom’s massive popularity only helped to explode its stars’ careers, and it certainly didn’t hurt those of co-creators Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre. While they’d certainly love to return to that creative playground in the future, the alums’ busy schedules aren’t even the first hurdle to a potential revival.
The start of Fall TV 2022 coincides with the 15th anniversary of The Big Bang Theory’s premiere episode, which aired on CBS back in 2007. The creator duo spoke with EW about the show’s somewhat humble beginnings and its historic end, and explained what makes a future revival all the more difficult to consider from a writer’s perspective. According to Bill Prady:
I know that people do get characters together for reunions and things like that. But it's hard to imagine what you would see after the finale because I found the finale was just one of the most beautiful and satisfying episodes. The closure it brought was astonishing. It's hard to imagine reopening the story.
Considering the episodic nature of sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory, in which character traits are more serialized than storylines, it would be kind of strange for everyone to get back together for a new season that offered the same old, same old material. Granted, the show’s active fandom likely wouldn’t hold any grudges, and nor would any studio heads. But it would make the justification that much harder to achieve when it comes to wooing stars like Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki back, since Parsons was the one who sparked the show’s conclusion, while Galecki has largely put producer duties over acting as of late.
Also, to Prady’s point, because The Big Bang Theory’s creative team put the finale together knowing it would likely be the last episode ever, they made it an installment full of surprises and fan-pleasing moments, without any immediate concerns that they’d need to one day have to follow it up. It would be quite the challenge to figure out a way back into the story years down the line, even though Young Sheldon has laid out some breadcrumbs in that respect via its voiceovers.
Chuck Lorre said as much with his take, saying:
I don't think we left anything undone. That was as close to a perfect finale as we could have ever dreamt of doing. I loved it.
Bill Prady went so far as to say he gets a little teary thinking about getting the gang back together on the soundstage that’s since been dedicated to the CBS ratings monster. So the all-around idea is something that he’d love to experience, but it seems fairly unlikely that it’ll ever come together, at least in a scripted sense. Given the success of Friends: The Reunion, a similar approach for Big Bang feels as inevitable as Sheldon’s third knock.
The Big Bang Theory is currently available to stream in full with an HBO Max subscription, and one can imagine it won’t be too long before the platform will start waving reunion/revival offers in front of everyone. Before that happens, though, check out everything still yet to hit the 2022 TV premiere schedule.
