TVSquad

Day two at Comic-Con began with a panel featuring the stars of the CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory. A logical choice for a comic book and science fiction convention since the show focuses on a group of, um, nerds. Not that there is anything wrong with that, of course!

Actually, according to creator Chuck Lorre, he never intended to make a show about nerds and geeks. His main intention was to air a show about remarkable people. So he said during the very entertaining panel featuring Lorre, co-creator Bill Prady, and the entire cast of the show. A summary of what went down can be seen after the jump.

Gallery: Big Bang Theory - Comic-Con 2008

Overall, there was very little news concerning the second season of Big Bang Theory, other than the backgrounds of all of the major characters would be explored a bit more and there would be some form of resolution between the Leonard and Penny situation that took place at the end of season one. There was also news that Sara Gilbert would be returning for several episodes in the second season. Other than that, creator Lorre was "up for suggestions" about the new season.

The rest of the time was spent talking about the stars themselves, the similarities to their characters, and various other aspects of the ensemble cast. Here are a few tidbits:

• The cast of the show does hang out off the set. In fact, series stars series stars Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar rented a boat the day before an piloted around the waters of San Diego.
• They all receive complaints if they get something scientifically wrong. However, they do have a consultant that fact checks some of the stuff they mention. When the cast was asked if they feel any smarter now than they did when the first season began, Simon, who plays Wolowitz, said that they are just as dumb as they have always been.
• The geekiest things about themselves: Kunal, who plays Koothrappali, is an amateur badminton athlete, which is a cool sport in India, he said, but not in the U.S. For Simon, "You can't tell by looking at me?" Actually, Simon had a ducktail in the 80s that he cutoff and kept. Kaley, who plays Penny, said she feels like she's a total nerd all of the time. She is also awesome at ping-pong. For Jim, Sheldon on BBT, the timbre of his voice is a bit geeky. Johnny, who plays Leonard on the show, also had a ducktail. His geekiest moment was that he was into theatre in elementary school in Chicago while all of his friends were playing hockey. That, and he played the cello. "Yes, I was a rock star," he quipped. Johnny also loved to collect Star Wars and G.I.Joe figures.
• What made Bill Brady geeky was the fact that he was a computer programmer prior to his role as television show creator. Also the fact that he didn't ask a girl out until he was 24-years-old. Chuck Lorre's claim to geekiness was the countless hours he spent in his basement building monster models. "Mostly for the glue," he added.
• The characters on The Big Bang Theory are based on people that Bill used to work with when he was a computer programmer.
• There was a previous BBT pilot that was created for CBS. But, according to Lorre "it sucked." The pilot was re-shot thanks to the chemistry between Johnny and Jim and the blessings of CBS.
• When describing the characters it was mentioned that Sheldon and Leonard have like minds and, together, they create a genius. However, when Penny comes along a caring begins to emerge in Leonard that Sheldon gets defensive about. Kaley mentioned that Penny is genuinely sweet and loves all of the guys, even though she plays with their minds a bit. All she wants to do is help them in her own way.
• Bill Prady said that the character Wolowitz came from someone he previously worked with in the IT environment. Chuck Lorre added, "The archetype for Simon's character is Pepe Le Pew.
• What would they love to do with their characters: Kunal would love to see his character talk to women without having to get drunk to do it. For Simon, the answer was obvious. "He wants it so bad," he added. Jim also said that he would want his character to speak to women. Kaley said she would like Penny to become a green-skinned Orion woman (as suggested by an audience member). Johnny was happy to see where Leonard he is right now.