Big Bang Theory has seen a number of memorable guests but hands down, one of the best and most impressive cameos on the show was by none other than Professor Stephen Hawking. He appeared on the show for several episodes but was present with the actors and co-stars for only a handful of filming days. He first appeared in a scene with Sheldon for season five’s twenty-first episode The Hawking Excitation. His appearance on the show was a big deal. After the first few seasons, the makers realised it had left a big impact on children and made STEM cool as it now appeared on screen. To have Hawking be part of the show was something bigger than anyone could have imagined.
Professor Stephen Hawking is an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and best-selling author of A Brief History of Time. For the unversed, the book spent a record-breaking 237 weeks on the London Sunday Times bestseller list. Hawking is also the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. Back in 2022, a book about the hit TV show revealing details from behind the scenes also reveals how Stephen Hawking ended up as part of the show, and how he had the best time on set. The book was The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series.
How Did Stephen Hawking End Up On Big Bang Theory?
Professor David Saltzberg, who was a consultant on the show, revealed they were trying to get hold of Stephen Hawking and managed to get in touch with him through Kip Thorne, another Nobel-winning professor at Caltech. David was quoted in the book saying, “We asked him in that letter if he would be willing to be on the show. And to our great delight, he said yes! And that’s how it happened. I [later] met Stephen Hawking and we had dinner at Caltech in honor of his birthday and I sat next to him. It was really nice. You couldn’t ask a lot of questions, you know, but you could have a communication with him.”
He added, “He (Stephen) was confined to a wheelchair due to ALS and on round-the-clock care, so his desire to appear on The Big Bang Theory was all the more impressive.”
The Debut Scene Was With Sheldon
The scene from season 5, episode 21 has Sheldon showing off his research to Hawking, but he shoots down Sheldon’s math. Sheldon then faints in front of him when he realizes the mistake he’s made. He hoped to show off his work, get an attaboy in return, and the moment would be recorded in history but it doesn’t work out that way.
Filming With Stephen Hawking Was Unexpected
The scene was directed by co-created Chuck Lorre as the filming took place during a preplanned hiatus weeks. At the time, director Cendrowski had gone back to Michigan to teach a class. The location scouting and set up were already laid out by Cendrowski before the hiatus and Lorre had to take on the direction for the day.
Chuck revealed that they had offered Hawking to pre-record his dialogue so he wouldn’t have to do anything during filming but “he was adamant about programming the dialogue himself. He had one muscle on his face-there was a camera on his glasses that could read this muscle and he could move a cursor around and type. He wrote books this way. Forget dialogue on The Big Bang Theory; he wrote books. So he wrote out his dialogue, and while we were shooting the scene, he generated the on switch that caused the dialogue to be generated from his equipment.”
Professor Stephen Hawking Was Nervous
Revealing how the filming went, Anthony Rich admitted that it’s not the same as it was in the show. He said, “Jim would say a line but it might be a minute before you hear a response. Now, imagine saying, “Well, what do you think, Dr. Hawking?” and then having silence for sixty seconds until you hear an answer. But in that particular scene, the silence went on longer than expected.” He added that Hawking has a bit of a stage fright which delayed the delay further, “It was actually because Professor Hawking was nervous. He had a little bit of stage fright, which delayed the delay even further.”
Jim Parsons Was Scared To Death
Jim Parsons too was nervous about filming and said that it felt “inappropriate about putting possibly the most intelligent human being on the planet at that time into a scene in our sitcom.” He admitted to being “really uncomfortable” and thinking “This is not right!” Jim talked about faking how smart he was to play Sheldon by saying the lines other people wrote but “I didn’t know what the fuck I was talking about, and now I’m face-to-face with possibly the smartest person on the planet!”
Jim added that he couldn’t wait for it to end, “I had to fall down and faint as Sheldon next to his wheelchair and, I was thinking, Oh God, I won’t know when to get up, and I’ll kind of just lay there on the floor, and ask somebody to save me. I’m very grateful it happened, but I was just scared to death. And of what? I really don’t know, looking back. That’s the dumb thing about this.”
How Did Stephen Hawking Film For Other Scenes?
Steve Molaro, the co-producer disclosed that Hawking “was only in person with us once because he wasn’t flying to LA every time he was on. That wouldn’t have been feasible.” The makers recycled his Facetime footage by changing what he was wearing and they would send him the scripts in London for which Hawkings would generate his voice saying it and send it back.
Stephen Hawking Enjoyed Being On Set
After filming in London for the first time Chuck shared that they got a call back saying, “Professor Hawking is coming to the set to hang out!” Chuck added, “He just came to hang out! He wanted to come to watch us rehearse. And he spent the whole afternoon with us.” When he did come to watch the show from behind the scenes, Simon Helberg was supposed to do an impression of him.
After filming Simon immediately turned to Professor Hawking and said, “I’m so sorry! They made me do it!” Everyone cracked up but a buzzer on Hawking’s wheelchair went off and left everyone concerned. Mark Cendrowski revealed his first thought was, “Oh my God, Simon, you killed Stephen Hawking! But his handler assured us, ‘No, he was laughing!'”
He added, “He (Hawking) just had the best time seeing behind the scenes of our world and how it was done. I still can’t believe it.”
Stephen Hawking’s Love For The Big Bang Theory
Professor Stephen Hawking was very open about his love for the show and the cast, aka his co-stars. He once took to his official Facebook page and shared a very witty comment saying, “If there is any group of people that I’d say have a good shot at cracking my Theory of Everything, it is certainly The Big Bang Theory.”
