One Sitcom Copied TBBT So Shamelessly, It Almost Ended Up With a Lawsuit
Whatever is your personal opinion on The Big Bang Theory, there's no denial it became a major pop culture phenomenon.
The series had a humble start in 2007, and was initially blasted by the critics, but after running for 12 seasons, winning multiple awards, becoming one of the most popular sitcoms on television and spawning a spin-off series, Young Sheldon, it can rightfully be called a grand success.
When a series becomes successful enough, copying of its formula becomes almost inevitable. But in case of The Big Bang Theory, its reputation even reached the degree, when an obscure overseas studio attempted to create its near-carbon copy, capitalizing on the fact that The Big Bang Theory was not yet know to the wider public in their home country.
When The Big Bang Theory was in its third season, its showrunners learned about the sitcom produced and broadcast in the country of Belarus, which was called The Theorists. And even the most cursory of examinations made clear that The Theorists was a total rip-off of The Big Bang Theory.
As Chuck Lorre explained via a vanity card at the end of an episode (he used those vanity cards to make quite a lot of comments, concerning various things, from politics to science):
"One of their most recent hits is a sitcom about four nerdy scientists who live next door to a beautiful blonde waitress. The characters are named Sheldon, Leo, Hovard, Raj and Natasha, and the show is entitled, The Theorists. Each episode begins with a rapid-fire montage of images which takes us from the dawn of time to the present moment."
Well, and as if that were not enough: "...And finally, each episode appears to be a Russian translation of a Big Bang Theory episode."
As you can see for yourself, he wasn't far off the mark:
The Theorists was unlicensed, of course. Chuck Lorre believed that since The Theorists was made by state-owned TV production company, suing for copyright infringement was almost certainly useless, but a lawsuit was not needed in the end. After actors from The Theorists learned that their series was a rip-off, they quit en masse, which resulted in the series' cancellation. As one of them said: "I don't want to continue participating in a pirate project."