TBBT Most Beloved Guest Star Was Eager to Do What Everyone Else Was Actually Scared of
The actor’s request was surely some of his colleagues’ worst nightmare.
Launched back in 2007, The Big Bang Theory followed many other sitcoms’ suit by letting its storyline unfold in a studio with a live audience reacting to all the twists and turns, yet the format had already been heavily criticized by that time.
Many of those who once landed roles in shows that were supervised by a couple of hundred more people laughing out loud admitted they were terrified by the whole idea of being watched by someone else except for the crew and the rest of the cast.
However, this wasn’t even closely a case for The Big Bang Theory’s most frequent guest star that later turned into everyone’s forever favorite.
Professor Proton’s actor Bob Newhart has been a frequent hero of cinema-related articles recently since many of his former co-stars pay homage to the actor after he passed away last week at the age of 94, and his love for classic sitcoms has surely been brought up multiple times as well.
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Back in the day when Newhart first showed up on The Big Bang Theory, the comedian revealed in one of his interviews that he had a specific request for the show’s co-creator Chuck Lorre before being cast as Sheldon Cooper’s TV idol.
According to Newhart, he demanded that his scenes be recorded in front of a live audience instead of being pre-taped.
As the actor put it, “there’s a tendency to pre-tape a lot of stuff and put a laugh track on it and you lose something. […] I always felt that the live audience gives it adrenaline. That’s the only way I function.”
As The Big Bang Theory fans are well aware, the sitcom’s format was more than fitting for Newhart’s request. Additionally, the actor also asked Chuck Lorre to give him a semi-recurring role, and Lorre “was fine with both and later called me with the story of Professor Proton.”
The actor eventually showed up in 6 episodes of the show, turning Sheldon and Leonard’s favorite TV host into everyone else’s beloved character on the screen.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter