CBS started off its TCA summer press tour panel lineup Wednesday with its biggest show, "The Big Bang Theory."
Series co-creators/executive producers Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady joined the show's stars — Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar (below; photo by Getty Images) — on stage at the Beverly Hilton.
The panel began with a mention of the show's new timeslot. The hit comedy wil move to Thursdays at 8 p.m. after spending its first three seasons on Mondays at 9:30.
Lorre said he wasn't consulted about the move. "It's not my job and nobody asked my opinion," he told the crowd. "Given where we are now after three seasons, I'd be crazy to argue with the changes CBS has made along the way. If they think this is a good call, that's great. … We grow the crops, we don't have the truck to bring them to market."
Lorre confirmed that the sitcom, about a pair of CalTech physicists who strike up a friendship with the beautiful waitress who lives across the hall, will welcome a real-life genius guest star next season — Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. And, he added, astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson wrote in with a suggestion for how he might be able to make a cameo.
Asked if Parsons' character, Sheldon Cooper, would "finally get it on" this season, Prady would only say that "he'll have a very specific relationship."
Lorre — who also produces "Two and a Half Men" and the new sitcom "Mike and Molly" for CBS — said he's not running out of ideas for "Big Bang." "It's one episode a time," he said. "It's impossible to think long-term because the pressing concern is the script that you're writing right now, the scene that you're shooting right now … and I guess that is a blessing because the focus is on what's right in front of you."
Lorre did double duty after the "Big Bang" event ended, remaing on stage for the "Mike and Molly" panel. In between panels, execs and reporters milled about in a room outside the main ballroom. One of them was overheard remarking, "It's Chuck's show here this year."
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