… the story so far…
So today marks the end of the junket phase of the Comic Con trip; I checked out of my hotel, and now I’m on my own recognizance. A and I (and it’s hard to refer to someone on a blog by the letter A, even if that is her real name) are wandering together, and now she’s feeding me lunch.
But we just got out of the panel for The Big Bang Theory, moderated by Adam Savage. Adam is made of awesome from top to bottom, and did a great job coming up with clever questions for the panel. The entire cast was there — how cool is that? — and the two creators, Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre. Prady has legit geek cred; he went on and on about Trek and being a programmer. That was very cool. Or whatever word you use for geek cool.
The cast was fantastic. They said they were all friends, and it’s so obviously true (they rented a boat yesterday here in town and spent the day together). Their chemistry was palpable, especially between Jim Parsons (Sheldon) and Kaley Cuoco (Penny). They were too cute. And they obviously all love the show.
It was funny; none of them is much of a science geek, but Parsons did give a brief lecture on ice melting in water (which, when he was done, looked out in the audience and asked if it was right, and I yelled out "It is!" to laughter) and an example of the Doppler Shift — though he was asked for a definition, not an example. Sheesh! Laymen.
The questions from the audience were better in general than most panels — again, I think a love of the show was coming through. There were lots of laughs from the case and creators, and at least once I saw Lorre and Prady considering a suggestion by the audience very seriously.
So far, this was far and away the highlight of the meeting (besides being on a panel, of course). And there’re still about two full days to go! Woohoo!
Oh — I went to dinner last night with some folks from Discover Mag as well as some of the crew from the TV show Eureka — Jamie Paglia is one of the creators of the show, and was on my panel. I thought he was great, as were the writers too. I gave Jamie an advance proof copy my book Death from the Skies!, so let’s hope we see an impending asteroid impact or a nearby gamma-ray burst on the show soon. 
July 25th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
The Schroedinger’s Cat episode was The. Best. Ever.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I think the geek word for “cool” is “shiny”. Evidence? See Firefly/Serenity.
July 25th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Good acting is when you can portray a character completely unlike yourself and sell it to the audience as real. Jim Parsons is an actor in my books.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Didn’t they already do an asteroid episode on Eureka? I could be confusing it with the junk attracted by the magnet episode.
A gamma-ray burst? I think we’ll more likely see that as coming from a lab than from space on that show.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I absolutely *love* Eureka! It is so shiny that you were on a panel with Jamie Paglia! I’m jealous that he gets to read your book early, though.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I just discovered Big Bang, and it’s awesome. It was the episode where the Indian Character is being pestered by his parents to date the girl they chose for him.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
“Shiny” isn’t really the equivalent of “cool”, and certainly not in the way BA uses it here. Now, perhaps they used some really shiny computers to run the show, but I wouldn’t call a panel discussion “shiny”.
And too bad BA didn’t mention that Bill Prady was going to be there. He could have told him “Ken says ‘hi’”. I used to work will Bill, and his partner, the real-life Howard Wolowitz. (I guess that sort of blows any anonymity I may have had here.)
July 25th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
That should, of course, read “work _with_ Bill”. Oh well.
July 26th, 2008 at 4:51 am
BA:
Ken B: < <“Shiny” isn’t really the equivalent of “cool”, and certainly not in the way BA uses it here. Now, perhaps they used some really shiny computers to run the show, but I wouldn’t call a panel discussion “shiny”.>>
SHINY was my first idea too, but Svip beat me to it. Ken B. -whatever status you have (respect, man, respect)- computers were “shiny” in the semantics of the days before they even existed. Svip and me -and BA I’m sure- and the whole Firefly crew use *shiny* in 21st century lingo. That’s when everything changes. And you got to be ready!
July 28th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I can officially confirm that I did indeed work with Ken B.
Phil — great to meet you at Comicon. I look forward to taking a look at your book.
July 29th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Holy.
Frak.
Bill, thanks! It was great to meet you too, if only briefly. The panel did indeed rock, as did the Mythbusters panel. I love TBBT, and I’m really looking forward to the next season. I was explaining the “spherical cow” joke to the Mythbusters crew, and got a lot of blank stares, but by putting that joke in the episode (where Leonard opens his talk with a joke) you became a hero to thousands of nerd scientists like me.
You, sir, rock.
July 29th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Well, I am in geek heaven.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:57 am
[...] at Comic Con, I found out Bill Prady, one of the writers of the show (and official BABloggee), is One Of Us. His geek cred is [...]
December 8th, 2008 at 8:00 am
[...] my close personal friend Adam Savage™, and featured both executive producers Chuck Lorre and (sometime BABloggee) Bill Prady, and the entire [...]