The votes were counted and 77.2% of TV Squad readers believed Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory has Asperger's Syndrome. Based on Slate writer Paul Collins' article on the subject and reported by Joel, you were asked your opinion and agreed with Collins.
Well, majority may rule, but the writer is king. Big Bang co-creator Bill Prady knows the character better than we do, and Prady said Sheldon does not have Asperger's.
TV scribe Alan Sepinwall spoke with Prady at the TCA's and got it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. So did Joel. Prady was amused that so many people had glommed onto the theory that Sheldon's idiosyncracies added up to Asperger's, a form of autism. However, Prady never had the syndrome in mind when the character was created. If he had wanted him to be an Aspie, he and Chuck Lorre would have spelled it out from the get-go.
"We write the character as the character. A lot of people see various things in him and make the connections. Our feeling is that Sheldon's mother never got a diagnosis, so we don't have one," Prady told Joel.
When Joel asked Prady about how Sheldon was created, he said, "Sheldon started out... there was one guy I knew, we pulled out some of his characteristics and spread them around a little bit. He was very Sheldony, but he also had the inability to speak to women. So we pulled this out and gave it to another character. ...He also began to evolve after episode five or so and became his own thing."
There are good reasons why The Big Bang Theory writers do not want to label Sheldon an Aspie. Number one on the list is that if he's afflicted with a real disease, how can his friends mock him the way they do? Sheldon may be as annoying and fussy as Felix Unger, and it's funny. Turn him into the ABC Movie of the Week and Leonard, Howard and Rajesh become heartless bastards. Not funny.
Prady also told Sepinwall that they weren't ready to accept the responsibility of getting all the details right if Sheldon were diagnosed as having Asperger's. Instead of the writers having the freedom to make Sheldon as anal and nerdy as they like, they would be constrained by the nature of the ailment.
Of course, that's not to say that sometime in the future the writers wouldn't use this idea for comic purposes. You know, an episode where maybe Sheldon is afraid that he has Asperger's only to learn that he's just annoying, not sick?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-14-2009 @ 6:36PM
Lenny Schafer said...
It seems the latest blog parlor game is "Pin the Label on the Dorky". Asperger Syndrome has become the newest euphemism for "jerk", unfortunately. After all, it's so much more chic to explain ones social deficits as having a form of autism, than merely admitting one's congenital assholeness. Being weird, oddball, eccentric, literal, quirky, inappropriate, very smart, etc. is not the same as Asperger Syndrome. Please, leave the disability labels to the disabled.
Hey, instead let's play "Spot the Botox". So much obvious, ubiquitous and rewarding to!
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8-14-2009 @ 5:09PM
mj said...
Sheldon isn't a jerk. He's a genius, raised by a religious mama, graduated college young, and don't forget he was from a very rural area. So am I, and believe me, I understand why he is the way he is!!! He doesn't mean to be mean, it is just the way he is. Look how fast he gave Penny money, without worrying about repayment. He can be very sweet at times. I love his character. I even have a cat named Dr. Sheldon Cooper.
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8-14-2009 @ 9:02PM
Heather said...
Wise decision. It would be making Asperger's the new jerk if Sheldon did have Aspergers. I like him to be anal just because he's too smart for his own good. It's an interesting brain. So smart to understand obscure concepts but not street smart.
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8-18-2009 @ 8:34AM
Atsila said...
They've been saying from the get-go that Sheldon doesn't have AS. And yes, they developed the character and can make him what they want. BUT they can't change what the characteristics of AS are and Sheldon clearly has the characteristics. It's like making a TV character who goes around methodically killing people and then saying he's not a serial killer.
I have worked and currently work with people with autism and AS, so I know the characteristics. It is not unusual for people to go undiagnosed with AS (especially at an early age), so as for his mother not getting a diagnosis (even with him being tested to see if he is 'insane'), this isn't a good enough explanation to say that he couldn't have it. As for those who say AS is now the label for people who are jerks, I don't see that; what I see is people underdiagnosed at this time.
I do agree that they should keep AS out of the show for the reasons that were stated in the article. I also do not think a show joking about AS would be funny, because those of us who know about AS would have a hard time believing that Sheldon would not be diagnosed with it, if he went digging around.
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8-24-2009 @ 12:53PM
Barb said...
Give me a break! Why can't people just be themselves without being labeled with the name of a disorder??!!
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