Big Bang Thoery Finale - Does the elevator get fixed tonight?

[chachi]

One of two questions we may see answered tonight? Does the Elevator get fixed, and will we find out Penny's maiden name?

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I hope they don't do future time jumps and all. That has became over done and all. Just be a normal episode where something happens surprising (Penny gets pregnant etc).

[BeastieRunner]

Elevator should be shown as always working and somebody knew the whole time ...

[Sacred Knight]

I'm generally not a sitcom guy, but out of all of them I've ever been into, this was my favorite finale.

[chachi]

I half expected once they won the Nobel Prize, Amy got the makeover and the elevator was working, to see Sheldon wake up and it was all a dream.

[The Darknight Detective]

The finale was fine and very touching, but the last minute of Young Sheldon moved me even more.

[chachi]

Yes young Sheldon ending was great.

[useridgoeshere]

It was the right way to go out. It felt natural, like a season finale more than a series finale. No gimmicks, major twists or finale-specific life events (death, moving, dreams, etc.). Other than SMG, it was the main cast and familiar secondary characters. I felt like Raj got screwed, but as I thought about it, most of his developments happened throughout the series, so him finding love at the last minute would have probably been unearned.

And I agree that the Young Sheldon moment was really nice.

[Osiris-Rex]

So Penny's maiden name will forever be one of the great mysteries of life.

It was the right way to go out. It felt natural, like a season finale more than a series finale. No gimmicks, major twists or finale-specific life events (death, moving, dreams, etc.). Other than SMG, it was the main cast and familiar secondary characters. I felt like Raj got screwed, but as I thought about it, most of his developments happened throughout the series, so him finding love at the last minute would have probably been unearned.

I am reminded of the Seinfeld finale. Everyone went to prison. All the familiar faces were back to testify against them at the trial as to what terrible people they were. When we last see them they are in a jail cell.
Where as the kids of TBBT went to Sweden to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony and when we last see them they are gathered on the sofa eating Chinese food.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

They left the finale open in a sense because who knows if Parson will eventually in a few years decides he may want to return to the role. It made sense to not do a drastic changing deal. Beyond fixing the elevator deal , this was a good finale to leave the characters in a spot and then bring em back. Since TV revivals are always in now. (as Conner's and Will & Grace shows us)

[Comic-Reader Lad]

I've never watched Big Bang Theory in the 12 seasons it was on. I would see the first minute or two of an episode over the years when Supergirl was on after it and forgot that Supergirl started at 8:30. Just didn't think it was funny at all, but with all the comics imagery in it, I can see why comics fans would watch it.

Anyway, I do like to watch series finales of long-running hit shows even if I've never watched the series or gave up on it years before it ended (like Home Improvement).

All that being said, I liked it. I didn't love it, of course, because these characters mean nothing to me, but it didn't irritate me the way the clips I had previously seen did.

It was the right way to go out. It felt natural, like a season finale more than a series finale. No gimmicks, major twists or finale-specific life events (death, moving, dreams, etc.).

This is what it felt like to me, too. Winning the Nobel was obviously the culmination of an ongoing storyline, but really this could have been any episode in the series, I would think. I'm just glad they didn't do a "stuck in the elevator" thing in this episode. I think they wanted us to think that that's the way it was going to go.

I hope the fans that have been watching for the last 12 seasons felt rewarded by how it all turned out.

It's interesting to me as to how the landscape of network television has changed so dramatically. While the pre-DVR ratings for the finale were ok (18.52 million viewers), they weren't the highest rated episodes of the series as series finales of long-running hits often were. Still, it seems it was the highest rated episode since Season 7.

But, I guess the glory days of watershed-moment finales are really over. As you can see in the list below, it's been shrinking year-by-year since the 1990s.

Cheers, May 1993 - 80.4 million viewers
Seinfeld, May 1998 - 76.3 million
Friends, May 2004 - 52.46 million
Frasier, May 2004 - 33.7 million
Everybody Loves Raymond, May 2005 - 32.9 million
Big Bang Theory, May 2019 - 18.52 million

Still, I think it was the highest rated sitcom series finale in quite a while. How I Met Your Mother's finale only had 13.3 million viewers back in March 2014.

Now that Big Bang Theory is gone, I don't think there are really any other sitcoms out there that have this kind of following, so expect series finale ratings to get even worse.

[Starter Set]

Sooooo....did they fix the elevator?

[AndrewCrossett]

Still, I think it was the highest rated sitcom series finale in quite a while. How I Met Your Mother's finale only had 13.3 million viewers back in March 2014.

That's because so many fans couldn't make it through that awful final season.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Sooooo....did they fix the elevator?

Yep...which surprised Penny.

[Jim Kelly]

"They" didn't fix the elevator. All we know is it was working at the beginning of the episode. What mysterious force fixed the elevator? That will have to be one of those unanswered questions.

I always felt that Sheldon was on the spectrum--even though the show never admitted it. And from that perspective, it made no sense that the other characters would get mad at Sheldon for being how he was. Anymore than it made sense that Bones got upset with Spock for being Vulcan. Or that Stottlemeyer got upset with Monk for being how he was.

It's about acceptance and love. Great that Sheldon was able to deal with how he was born and still be a good person, to the extent that he could be. But it's wrong to expect him to be something he's not. That's like getting mad at a blind person because they can't see.

Since the Nobel Prizes require the recipients to give a lecture, I wonder how Amy and Sheldon dealt with that. And what about all the other things involved with the prize, like the banquets? And how did Sara Michelle Gellar score an invitation to the event? The IMDb credits say that was the King of Sweden giving out the medals, but not the actual King Carl, just an actor.