‘The Big Bang Theory’ Creators Don’t Want to ‘Rule Anything out’ for Finale

The Big Bang Theory will come to an end on May 16, but the producers don’t have much to preview about the show’s conclusion at this point. While they did appear at WonderCon 2019 and chatted with TV Insider, the producers and creators of the show still don’t even have it written.

“There are still pieces of the [finale] we have to figure out,” co-creator and executive producer Bill Prady told the outlet. “We know some of the ‘what.’ We don’t know all of the ‘how.’”

The one thing he and his fellow creators did admit about the finale is that it will focus on the main characters. The creators admitted that they don’t want to keep any ideas off the table.

“I don’t want to rule anything out for the finale,” showrunner Steve Holland mentioned. “But [the finale] will focus on our [main] characters.”

Prady, Holland, and Steven Molaro all shared what they hoped for the finale at the convention and the TV finales they were looking at for inspiration on how to go out. One obvious choice was the legendary Newhart finale where Bob Newhart wakes up to find he’s been dreaming the second series while lying in the bed of his original series, The Bob Newhart Show. But they also cite another that might be more surprising for TV fans.

“The greatest finale of the modern TV era was The Shield,” Prady adds. “Every time I see [Shield creator] Shawn Ryan, which is a lot because our daughters are friends, I tell him The Shield finale is crazy good!”

Don’t expect anything too out of the realm of the show’s comfort zone in the finale. Sheldon Cooper won’t be joining a dirty LAPD vice squad any time soon. But Prady and the rest of the producers admit that they want to keep the world viewers know now intact for the most part.

“There’s a lot of talk about wanting to feel that the gang’s world will continue as viewers know it to be,” the co-creator mentions. “Of all the feelings we’ve talked about that’s the one that we all like.”

Holland adds that he’s currently writing the finale and even he doesn’t know how all the bits will fall into place once the show ends.

“If we’d been talking about what the finale would have been five years ago, I think it would have been different,” Holland mentions to TV Insider. “We’ve hit so many milestones with the characters and still managed to find new stories for them because they have kept growing and changing.”

Speaking of milestones, the series just passed Cheers to become the longest-running American multi-camera sitcom with 276 episodes across 12 seasons. This eclipses the 275 from the Ted Danson-led series and likely sets a mark that won’t be passed any time soon.

The cast got together to celebrate the accomplishment with a set of cupcakes spelling out “276” and a look at the script for the episode that set the record.

And just because the main series is wrapping up, doesn’t mean the team will be finished completely. Holland, Molaro, and Prady will all be heading over to Young Sheldon and they still have a crossover planned for the prequel series and the departing original.

The show also got the Friends comparison and the inevitable request for a reunion or revival at some point. The cast of the NBC classic have refused to this point, so will The Big Bang Theory group do the same?

“You can’t approach a reunion before you’ve even said goodbye,” Prady says.