Wednesday, September 19, 2012

6x05 - The Holographic Excitation

Before the episode aired they showed us 6x04 (The Re-Entry Minimization), so sometime tomorrow I'll write up a summary of that episode, since the taping info from last week was rather brief on it. But in the meantime, here's the report from tonight!

And remember - you can now get updates for The Big Bang Buzz on twitter (@thebigbangbuzzz)!

SPOILER ALERT. Following is the taping report for "The Holographic Excitation." Please credit me if you share this information anywhere.

SCENE 1

The guys are all at the comic book store. Howard hands Stuart a large envelope, and says he got him a souvenir from his trip to space. Stuart says that’s really nice of him. Leonard tells Stuart to wait until he opens it. Stuart opens it and pulls out a large, framed, signed picture of Howard in his NASA gear – Howard says it’s his official NASA portrait. Stuart reads out what Howard signed, something like, “For Stuart, whose comic book store is out of this world, just like the man in this picture.”

As Stuart walks away, Sheldon comments how apparently Walgreens and the dry cleaner are also out of this world. On the first take, Howard said something about how Walgreens gives him out of this world savings. On the second take, it was no, Walgreen’s store-brand antihistamines were over the moon.

Off to the side now, Raj sees Stuart pulling Halloween stuff out of a box, and comments on how he’s getting ready for the party. On the first take, Stuart says yes, since he never gets invited to any parties, he has to throw them. Later Stuart’s response was changed to something about this place being a chick magnet in a few days, but it was only used once, and people were laughing over most of the line so I didn’t hear it. Next, Stuart’s new response was it’s his annual attempt to meet women – ninth time’s a charm! The last version was Stuart something like saying yes, parties make people happy, unlike him who needs a cereal bowl of antidepressants. (The first time they did this line, Kunal ended up laughing.)

Raj asks Stuart if he needs any help – he has a certain je ne sais quoi when it comes to soirees. Stuart says he can’t afford je ne sais quoi – how much for just quoi? Raj tells Stuart now to worry about the money and just let him take care of everything, and there’s no party like a Koothra-party! Stuart agrees, and they fist bump. Howard overhears the end, and comes by to comment, you know what wasn’t a party? The hotel he was in in Kazakhstan right before launch, “we’re going into space, you think we could at least get free wi-fi.” Then the ending was changed to something like, “it’s our last night before space, you’d think we could get at least one porn channel.”

From the other side of the store Leonard and Sheldon are observing this, and Leonard asks Sheldon if he’s noticed that Howard can connect any topic to him being in space. Sheldon says that that’s an interesting hypothesis, and suggests they apply the scientific method to test it. Leonard calls out to ask Howard where he thinks they should eat that night. Howard says, “Not the international space station! On a good night you had meatloaf in a bag. But hey, you go there for the view, not the food!”
Sheldon says to Leonard, fascinating. Then Sheldon says he’s going to try to duplicate Leonard’s result. Sheldon calls to Howard, saying that he’s always believed the lemon to be an underrated fruit, and asks if Howard has any opinions on that. Howard says not really, and turns back to the comic books, but then suddenly turns again, and says that some people called the space pod he was in a lemon, but that baby got him up to space and back!

Leonard holds out his fist for Sheldon to bump, but Sheldon looks down at it, then holds it with his hand and shakes it.

SCENE 2

Penny’s working at the bar at the Cheesecake Factory, while Bernadette and Amy are sitting at the bar with glasses of wine. On the first couple takes, Amy starts with, “Girl talk! I’ll go first.” Then it changed to, “Girls night at the Cheesecake Factory, can it get any better than this?” with Penny answering, “I hope so.”

Amy asks Bernadette if she thinks that Howard’s preference for turtle necks has anything to do with him longing for his foreskin that he’s missing. Bernadette says she’s never thought of it that way. On the first takes, Penny said something like she wished she could un-think of it, or never thought of it, or something. Then when Amy’s opening line was changed, Penny’s line here was changed to, “Not getting better.”

Penny gets a text, checks it, and says, slightly annoyed, that it’s Leonard again; he wants to go shopping for Halloween costumes. Amy says she thought Penny liked Halloween. Penny says she does, but Leonard wants to go to the party at the comic book store, and there are some creepy guys who hang out there. Bernadette asks, “Like my husband?” Amy asks, “Like my boyfriend?” Penny says no, no, creepy guys… Like Koothrappali. Bernadette and Amy both agree, oh yeah, sure. On the last take, instead of trying to make an excuse, Penny tries changing the topic, “Weren’t you saying something about Howard’s foreskin, Amy?”

Bernadette tells her nice try, then says Penny has to go to the party, they’re all going. Penny says she’s going, but it’s just not her idea of a fun time. Bernadette says that Leonard does things he doesn’t like to make Penny happy. Penny says yeah, that’s like kind of his job as her boyfriend. Amy asks what Penny’s job is. Penny says to let him make her happy. Bernadette says that she thinks whatever you put into a relationship is what you get out of it. Amy says not true – the other day she gave Sheldon her best come hither look, and she got a lecture on how wheat was first harvested.

Penny says she guesses she could put in a little more effort, and Bernadette suggests she start by taking a bigger interest in Leonard’s job. Penny says she can’t do that. Bernadette asks why not. Penny says she’s not entirely sure what Leonard does. Bernadette says he’s an experimental physicist. Penny says yeah, still doesn’t know what that means. Amy tells her that he takes hypotheses, and creates experiments to test their reliability. Penny tells her she’s just making things worse.

SCENE 3

Amy and Sheldon at the counter/table in the guys’ apartment (in the kitchen area). Sheldon asks Amy what kind of tea she wants. Amy says green mint, with some lemon zest. Sheldon says, two tea bags in one cup? “We’re not at a rave.”

Amy says she’s been thinking… Now that this is their first Halloween as boyfriend and girlfriend, maybe they could get matching couples costumes for the party. Sheldon thinks that sounds like a great idea. Amy asks, really? Because everything she knows about him suggests that he’d think otherwise. Sheldon says that matching costumes are one of the few benefits to being in a relationship. (On the first take, I think he might have said it was the only benefit.) Sheldon says imagine, all eyes on them as they enter the party as the beautiful couple, R2-D2 and C-3PO – he calls dibs on C-3PO.

Amy says she was thinking something more like Romeo and Juliet, not to robots from some silly movie she doesn’t even like. Sheldon says he’s going to let that comment slide since he knows she’s all hopped up on tea bags. Amy says that she makes compromises all the time for Sheldon, and asks her to make this one for her. Sheldon says alright, they could go as the beguiling Hewlett and Packard – dibs on Hewlett. Amy just looks disappointed. Sheldon asks, “What, did you want Hewlett?”

SCENE 4

This whole scene was PRETAPED… Leonard’s working in his lab, and Penny comes in and surprises him. It’s the first time she’s been to his lab, and she comments that it’s way overdue. She jokes something about hoping he’s not building a robot woman in there, and Leonard says no, but Howard was making remarkable strides in that area before he met Bernadette; now the robot (which had a name but I forgot it) is just sitting in a box somewhere.

Penny starts asking about things in the lab, and asks what this large box is, but Leonard quickly stops her from opening it, and says it’s a laser inside that could fry her eyes like eggs. Penny says there should be some sort of warning sign on it! Leonard points out that there is one on the front. So then Penny asks what some other machine is, and Leonard gives some long technical explanation, to which Penny’s response is “high techy techy.” She asks what “this little box” is, and Leonard tells her it’s a pencil sharpener. Penny jokes, “low techy techy.” Though this all you can tell that Penny’s feeling out of her element, not really comfortable.

She asks him to show her what he’s working on right now, and he says it’s actually pretty cool. He stands a pencil up on the table (point down through some little hole), in the middle of a bunch of equipment, and Penny points out how the pencil is nice and sharp from the sharpener. Pretty much the whole thing is working with holograms, and it creates a hologram of the pencil floating above the real one. Leonard explains the holographic principle, which is tied to string theory, and as he does so replaces the hologram of the pencil with one of first the earth, and then the universe, and ends by saying something about life as we know it could really be just something painted on a canvas. Penny kisses him, then says that she forgot how smart he can be. Leonard says maybe she ought to drop by his lab more often.

Penny locks the door to the lab, then tells Leonard to take his clothes off. He asks, really? She asks if he has a problem with that, and he says no, and starts to comply. He says he’s never fooled around in the lab before – once he had a chance with Howard’s robot, but the extension cord wasn’t long enough. Then they get back to kissing and getting busy.

SCENE 5

Sheldon, Howard, and Raj in the cafeteria. Raj says before he forgets, he wants them to check out the menu he’s put together for the Halloween party – the theme is “food that goes bump in the night.” Howard reads off from the menu, “Creature from the Black Forest Ham Lagoon.” Sheldon reads, “Night of the Living Garlic Bread.” Raj, amused by his menu, explains, “Because ‘bread’ sounds like ‘dead’!” (After the first take of this line, Kunal stopped and asked to do it again, laughing about how he overacted way too much, and saying he’d do it better.)

Sheldon says that these are all just regular foods with their names twisted into bad puns, the dishes themselves aren’t Halloweeny at all. Raj says, “Halloweenie! That’s good, it’ll go with the Draculoni and cheese!” Howard says, speaking of the party, he was thinking of wearing his NASA jumpsuit to the party as his costume. But then he was worried people would be like, “Where’s your costume? Why are you in your work clothes?”

Then Leonard walks in, hair all messed up, clothes askew, with a big smile on his face, and sits down with them. Sheldon asks what he’s smiling about. Leonard, still smiling, says nothing. Howard asks, “You know what has a lot of nothing? Space.” On one take, after Howard’s line, suddenly all the guys were laughing, and I think it’s because Johnny had said “nothing” so it sounded like “nuttin,” and Simon had repeated it the same way.

On the last couple of takes, after Howard asking, “You know what has a lot of nothing?” the rest of the guys responded together in a deadpan, “Space.”

SCENE 6

Also PRETAPED… Howard and Bernadette getting into bed for the night. Howard comments that it’s nice to sleep in a bed with gravity again, and asks if he told her about the night that his retainer floated out of his mouth. Bernadette says yes, and it seems like she’s heard it many times already. Howard puts his arm around her, and says something like, “Here we are, two newlyweds… What to do, what to do to you…”

They start kissing, but Howard interrupts it to say things like, “Astronaut Wolowitz reporting for booty,” and “We have liftoff.” Then he says something about requesting clearance to remove her nightgown, and Bernadette stops him and says they need to talk. She tells him that people are getting a little tired about Howard bringing up how he went to space all the time. Howard’s hurt, and says this is the biggest thing he’s ever done, and now he’s not even allowed to talk about it? Bernadette suggests he only bring it up when someone else does first.

Howard’s still not really happy about it, but agrees. They start kissing again, and Howard says something like, “I thought about this so many times while I was,” and then he points up. Bernadette gives him a look, and he asks, “What, I can’t even point?”

SCENE 7

Leonard and Penny back in his lab. He’s showing her a different machine that basically uses magnets to cancel out gravity. He hands her a large metal ball, and she comments how it’s heavy, then he places it inside. He turns it on, and the ball rises up to float in the air. (While they were doing the scene live, the ball “floating” was actually a ball held up on a stick by someone below the table. But we were told that the machine actually does work, but it’s just too loud to actually use while they were filming – we wouldn’t be able to hear the cast over the machine. So they’ll do the editing later to make it look like it’s really floating.)

Penny says that it’s really cool. Leonard says sometimes he likes to turn it on and pretend that he’s Magneto. Penny says that’s less cool. Leonard says, “But actually I’m a really smart scientist,” and Penny says “there you go,” and starts kissing him again. Then Leonard’s line was changed to, “But actually I’m a scientist who understands the workings of the universe and is wearing the sexy black underwear you gave me.”

SCENE 8

Sheldon, Howard, and Raj in the cafeteria again. Raj is looking through a pamphlet trying to decide on a photo booth for the party – he can get a creepy one like the Mummy’s cave, or they have the TARDIS from Doctor Who. He asks Sheldon what he thinks. Sheldon says that that TARDIS is a time machine that flies through space – it has nothing to do with Halloween, and wouldn’t make any sense. But, if Raj doesn’t get the TARDIS, he stinks, and his party will stink. Raj asks Howard what he thinks. Howard (in a bad mood) says he doesn’t care, get the TARDIS. Sheldon’s happy, and says the party just became major rager.

Raj asks Howard if he can borrow his bull whip and fedora. Howard says sure. Raj says that he was planning on going as Indiana Jones’ lovechild/sidekick, Indian Jones. And I don’t know if I’ve ever seen so many takes needed for a line as Kunal needed for those two… He was adding an extra “as” in the line that was throwing him off. Then he kept saying “India Jones” instead of Indiana. Or he’d trip over some other part of the line, or when he finally got it right, Jim or Simon would be smiling for some reason, and it’d set Kunal off smiling and laughing… It’s not like it took extremely long, because he just kept trying again, pretty much right away, but yeah – it took quite a few takes to get through those lines.

Raj then says no tricks for any of them this Halloween, just treat, treat, treat! Howard dully says “clever.” Raj asks him what’s wrong, and Howard says nothing. Raj says he has a party to plan, don’t make him pull it out of him. Howard says fine – Bernadette told him that they were tired of hearing him talk about space, and asks if that’s true. Sheldon says “yes” at the same time that Raj says “no.”

Sheldon and Raj look at each other in surprise. Sheldon says that he was going for the supportive, honest approach, but he has no idea what approach Raj was going for. Raj says the nice one. Sheldon says oh, well if that will get Howard to stop talking about space, then fine. Howard says never mind, he won’t bring it up anymore. Sheldon says there, the problem fixed itself.

Then Leonard walks in to join them, hair once again all messed up, clothes askew, sits down and says hi. Sheldon asks what has him smiling this time. Leonard says the same nothing as yesterday, but this time on his desk chair.

SCENE 9

Sheldon and Amy are in his and Leonard’s apartment, Sheldon standing in front of a large whiteboard with a Venn diagram. On the left says “Costumes I like,” with pairings like R2-D2 and C-PO, Jobs and Wozniak, Hewlett and Packard, Spock and Picard, Doctor and Dalek. On the right, “Costumes she likes,” includes Romeo and Juliet, Anthony and Cleopatra, Lady and the Tramp, Blossom and Joey. The middle is completely empty.

Sheldon suggests the dinner table favorite, salt and pepper. On the first take, Amy says “you know both salt and pepper hurt my mouth.” On the second take, it was something like, “you know salt makes me retain water, and my cousin died in a pepper factory grinding accident.” So Sheldon writes “salt and pepper” on his side of the board. Amy suggests Raggedy Ann and Andy, she loved them growing up. Sheldon says they represent three of the things he hates the most – clowns, children, and raggedyness.

Sheldon thinks it’s a lost cause. Amy says no, there has to be something they can agree on. Sheldon says he doesn’t know what Venn diagram she’s looking at, but all he sees in the middle is Captain Nothing and his sidekick Zilch. Amy says that there are three things that say, “I have a boyfriend and he’s not imaginary – couples costumes, hickeys, and a sex tape. Pick one.” After a pause, Sheldon asks what a hickey is.

SCENE 10

Another PRETAPED scene... Bernadette’s bedroom, Howard’s sitting on the bed dressed as a Smurf, face and arms and all fully painted blue. Bernadette comes out of the bathroom dressed as Smurfette, also covered in blue paint. Howard’s still upset, and she jokes about him “being blue,” but he doesn’t really respond, and Bernadette says that that’s the funniest thing she’s ever said. He’s not feeling up to the party, but she says that she spent the last three hours covering herself in blue paint, and she’ll be washing the paint out of her Smurf forever, so they’re going. She can’t go by herself because people will think she’s just a short person from Avatar. So Howard reluctantly stands to go, but as he leaves the room says “just weeks ago I was an astronaut.” Bernadette follows him out and says, “Well now you’re a Smurf!”

SCENE 11

Party at the comic book store, nearly all of which was PRETAPED yesterday as well… Starts with Leonard and Penny coming up to Howard and Bernadette to say hi. Leonard’s dressed as Albert Einstein, Penny as a cop. Bernadette asks Penny, slutty cop? Penny says no, sexy cop, “Slutty cop just came with a skirt and two badges.” Leonard says, with a bad accent, that later she’s going to arrest him for going faster than the speed of light. Penny says they agreed in the car, no accent. Leonard apologizes.

This small part was I believe the only bit done live tonight… Amy enters the party, dressed as Raggedy Ann. She goes back to the door to call Sheldon in, and he enters behind her: C-3PO, except wearing a red yarn with and a hat. Sheldon says (muffled through his mask) that he should have gone with the hickey. Stuart (Willy Wonka) comes up to say hi, and Amy tells him they’re Raggedy Ann and Raggedy C-3PO. Sheldon says they compromised, and he lost.

After this I think it cut to a woman getting some food (all pretaped again), and Stuart walks up and sort of smiles at her, but doesn’t say anything so she says hi, and then tells him that it’s a great party. He thanks her. And she says that all the food is great, and he says yeah, he had fun coming up with all that stuff.

Then off to the side, Raj is complaining to Howard about how Stuart was taking all the credit for the party. Howard complains about how Raj has been talking about the party nonstop for the past few days. Raj asks if Howard’s still upset about the talking about space thing, and Howard says well now that Raj has brought it up, yes. And I think Howard started to rant a little, but then Bernadette comes up to pull him aside so they can talk, and Howard blames Raj for getting him in trouble now.

Bernadette and Howard go off into a side room, where the TARDIS is, and Howard basically tells her how going into space is the biggest thing he’ll ever do, and if he stops talking about it, he just goes back to being regular old Howard. Bernadette says that she likes regular Howard. Howard doesn’t believe her, but she says, “I married him. On purpose.” So that makes Howard happy, and they start kissing…

And then Leonard and Penny come out of the TARDIS, their costumes all messed up. Penny says they were just doing police business, and heads back to the main party. Leonard follows her, but as he leaves says, “I was just explaining relativity to her. Twice.”

SCENE 12

Again, PRETAPED… Howard and Bernadette in bed, Howard with his laptop, saying that Raj sent him some video to watch. It’s of Buzz Aldrin, passing out Halloween candy to kids: “Here’s a Milky Way bar. That’s in space. Here’s a Mars bar. I was an astronaut. Here’s a Moon Pie. I walked on the moon.” Howard looks at Bernadette and says that he gets the point.

18 comments:

  1. Thanks for the report - it sounds like a really great episode with some very clever lines. Love the Leonard/Penny scenes!

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  2. Thanks for the report , I can't wait for next episode

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  3. I look forward to these reports. Helps with the withdrawal.

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  4. Great costume epic. Pushes all three of the couples. Leoanard and Penny are also getting.....

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  5. Thanks for the report! Sounds like a great episode.

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  6. Thanks for the report :)

    Was Penny kissing Leonard because she was really impressed or to stop him from talking about the tech stuff??
    What were her expressions like after the hologram thing and in the second l\p scene??

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    1. Penny was genuinely impressed with the science stuff, and not just kissing him to get him to stop talking. She even seemed a little moved in the first scene, when Leonard was talking about the holographic theory. (Unfortunately I can't remember more of what Leonard said, since we just saw it once, but it was pretty cool, and even got a bit of an "awww" from the audience in the end.) And yeah, in the second scene she seemed to just genuinely be enjoying being in the lab with him, and impressed by the experiment.

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  7. Thankkkk youuuuuuuuu (very much):D

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  8. love love love you for this! amazing report, so detailed thanks!

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  9. I love the Sheldon and Amy bits! I can't wait for the episode to air!

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  10. That is quite a memory you have, I was at the recording as well but only remembered half of this detail. Good job. It was nice reading through this report and remembering being there, and I can't wait to see the finished episode when it airs. Where were you sitting during the filming?

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    1. Thanks! I was in the fourth or fifth row, just a few seats left of the center aisle.

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  11. Oh, cool. I was sat in front of Leonard and Sheldon's living room and the comic book store sets, amazing view. I travelled over from England for the filming with a standby ticket. Totally worth the risk, it was the highlight of my holiday. Keep up the good work with the site!

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  12. Why do they keep getting the actors to change their lines?

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    1. When a joke doesn't get the reaction from the audience that the writers were hoping for, they'll rewrite it on the spot and try something else until they find something that works.

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    2. Neat! Okay thanks :)

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  13. I didn't get the come-hither/wheat cultivation joke...

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  14. Su dedicación para proporcionar contenido preciso y profundo es realmente encomiable: ¡bien hecho! Mejore su coordinación ojo-mano y sus reflejos con el emocionante desafío Contador De Clicks.

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