Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Big Bang Theory


I truly love BIG BANG THEORY but one thing about it annoys me. Why does each character have such a rigid wardrobe? Why must Sheldon always wear a tee shirt; why must Leonard always wear a hoodie; why must Howard always wear matching shirt and pants in bright colors and patterns, why does Rog always wear nerdy sweaters. Penny gets a little more leeway but she flashes boobs a lot. Amy dresses like a sixties school girl most of the time too.

What bothers you about a show you otherwise like?

27 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I've noticed that about a lot of sitcoms. The outfits are like uniforms. come to think of it, it was true for shows like Bonanaza and Big valley as well.

James Reasoner said...

I think that's just a sitcom convention and also makes it easier for the wardrobe department. When characters on TV frequent a particular bar or restaurant, they always sit in the exact same place, too, because that's how they've worked out the camera blocking and it's too much trouble to change it for individual scenes.

pattinase (abbott) said...

So it's not just Sheldon that has a fixation on a particular seat. It's the people behind him. Also why having characters with food in front of them so often that they rarely seem to do more than play with.

YA Sleuth said...

I've noticed that on certain shows (often mystery type ones) I can tell what the next line of dialogue is going to be before it's spoken.

Why the cliches?

pattinase (abbott) said...

YES! Lazy writing, I think.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

THE BIG BANG THEORY is a great hit with the family. Their hairstyles are weird too. I think the bunch of geeks are made to look like they belong to 60s or 70s era. Good humour, though.

Dave Zeltserman said...

I love the Big Bang theory, and I have to say, they got the wardrobe down perfect. I know these guys are physicists (other than Howard is computer science), but I worked over 25 years as a software engineer, and I worked with guys just like Sheldon, Leonard, etc., and these guys always wore the same stuff, whether it's tee shirt and jeans, or whatever. In this case, the producers and writers have nailed it perfectly.

Dan_Luft said...

When I was a kid I always wanted to stay close friends forever and date the girl I'd known for years just like on TV.

It was only as an adult that I realized that this only happened because producers didn't want to hire new actors or build new sets. Alex Keaton and Mallory going to the same college (because he screwed up the Yale application) is unlikely.

Also you can't break up and get back together that much (Sam and Dianne) it's too exhausting.

pattinase (abbott) said...

And I looked for a boy like Wally Cleaver for years. Yes, TV influences us in strange ways.

That is so funny, Dave. It never occurred to me that they were picking up on real life dress.

Kieran Shea said...

Been catching up on HBO's "The Newsroom" and John Gallagher Jr.'s character "Jim" is always zoomimg about with a slovenly, pulled-down knot in his tie (a-la Hoffman/Bernstein in ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN.) Yeah, I've been in a few newsrooms (ABC, CBS, C-Span) and, dude---> that hipster shit might work for your art house cover band, but I've seen people get bounced for being such a slob.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I have a friend, named John Gallagher also, who is a reporter for the Freep. Have to ask him. I have a feeling that the Freep in more casual than DC or NY. Reporter on air probably look a lot different than reporters in print.

Dave Zeltserman said...

Patti, not just dress. The behavior and quirks of these characters are so spot on that the writers must know a group of software engineers. I've worked with software engineers who could've been stand-ins (personality-wise) for each of them.

Btw. does anyone else have a brutally hard time making out the verification characters when entering comments?

pattinase (abbott) said...

Since they added numbers it usually takes me three times.

Mike Dennis said...

They wear the same things so the viewer can tell who's who (i.e., the guy with the hoodie is the funny one, or whatever).

That would be my guess.

Rob Kitchin said...

I'm not sure I fall into geek territory, but I wear the same kinds of clothes all time. If you looked in my wardrobe it's all the same kind of stuff - same styles, same colours. Very few people, I think, change their clothes every season. It changes gradually over time, but its a slow citational evolution rather than out with the old in with the new. And the clothes kind of matches their personality.

The one thing I'd like them to do with the show is integrate the female characters a little more (they've been getting better) and use some characters that had potential but have only appeared in a handful of episodes such as Leslie Winkle.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I think Sarah Gilbert is on a talk show now so I think she is gone. I'd like to see Rog find happiness this year.
Their clothes are very vivid. It's not the sameness I notice as much as the vivid sameness.
I bet you don't wear a hoodie and red pants every day. Or an electric blue getup. I know how professors dress and I know what you mean exactly.

Deb said...

I'm going to have to duck when I say this, but to me BBT is another show where a relatively-average-looking man manages to date the hottest woman in the neighborhood. I call it the "beer commercial dynamic" and it's responsible for a lot of men thinking they deserve Victoria's Secret model types.

I don't watch many prime time shows (especially during baseball season), but I've been watching some "30 Rock" syndicated reruns on WGN and, yes, each character does have a "uniform" (in the case of Kenneth, a literal uniform). I like the comedy, although a little of Tiny Fey's insistence on presenting herself as unattractive goes a long way.

BTW, I hate the word verification process--it's almost impossible to read those numbers and if you're trying to post a comment using an i-phone...all I can say is get your 5X magnifiers out and beware of Apple's spell correction!

Anonymous said...

What I dislike is what I call the Dylan McDermott look (because he's the first one I noticed who always had it): guys who week after week after week always seem to have the same three day stubble. Eric McCormack in PERCEPTION is the latest. I find it extremely distracting - McDermott played a lawyer for crying out loud! - and always find myself talking to the screen. "Don't you ever shave>"

And stay off my lawn!

Jeff M.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Well, with the Penny thing-I think Leonard is a good catch for someone like her--and kind of cute in the right light. The other girls are more realistic.
Drives Phil crazy too, Jeff.

Kent Morgan said...

Patti, you liked Wally Cleaver more than Eddie Haskell?

Cap'n Bob said...

It always killed me that a TV cowboy could run his fingers through his hair once and be perfectly coiffed.

pattinase (abbott) said...

They paid good money for those haircuts.
I had Tony Dow on the bulletin board over my bed. He seemed safe when I was ten or twelve.

Todd Mason said...

I think Google is having fun with their Google Earth archive of house numbers. The "clever" things people do with the available data.

Hollywood, of course, is where relatively wealthy men, usually with chips on their shoulders, are often able to find women vastly more attractive than themselves to spend time with...moreso than anywhere else in this country, even given the frequency of rich marrying, or at least keeping company with, pretty. So, that dynamic gets played out in most entertainments from there (though the geekish males are often prettier than their real-life counterparts, as well).

Though something (I think) Vonnegut noted, "Writer's wives are always beautiful," has stuck with me...because they're artists and have an esthetic predilection? Because conventionally pretty women are often seeking someone who seems to have gained attention for something other than their looks? Because writers can spin a good line initially? Dunno if writer's husbands tend to be pretty as well. I'm rather an unmade bed at the best of times, and all my partners have been better looking than I am (not, as you might gather, the most difficult trick).

pattinase (abbott) said...

I may be unable to get it here, but to me Penny is sort of slightly above average.
Also most women do not judge men entirely on their looks or earning p potential.

Todd Mason said...

Most women and most men, but Hwood is not a bastion of most people. But, of course, not even most people in the tv/film/etc. industry are necessarily shallow and grasping. But a lot are. I suspect there are a number of trophy grooms along with the boy toys, if not necessarily as many in proportion as the trophy brides.

Cap'n Bob said...

For a long time I omitted the number on the verification process and had no trouble getting my commnets to work. You might try it and see what happens.

Joe Friday, of DRAGNET fame, and his sidekick always wore the same outfits. That way they could use stock footage without a wardrobe mismatch.

Anonymous said...

The reason they wear the same sort of clothes is the same as the bright set colors. To give it a comic book feel