The Big Bang Theory -- An early look

The setup is pretty straightforward: two uber-nerds, Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons), live together in an apartment building with a perpetually broken elevator. They do OK; they have good research jobs and like to disprove theories of quantum physics on their whiteboards (they each have one). But, as you'd expect, they're not too smooth with the ladies.

Then Penny (Kaley Cuoco), a cute blond who is a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory, moves in across the hall. Leonard is smitten, Sheldon is skeptical... and scared. Penny takes to the shy duo, and becomes part of their crew, which includes Koothrappal (Kunal Nayyar), who can't even speak to women, and Wolfowitz (Simon Helberg), who thinks he can talk to women, but only comes off creepy. But she may just help Leonard and Sheldon come out of their self-imposed shells, as they do when they confront her beefy ex-boyfriend in an effort to retrieve her television.

Really, the only things missing among the four male characters are high-cuffed pants and pocket protectors. Both Galecki and Parsons use nasal, clipped voices when they talk, mainly because I think that's how the writers and directors think geeks really talk. Leonard and Sheldon argue over whether a math theorem could be proved if the person went to 26 dimensions. They throw in the inevitable Battlestar Galactica reference. And on and on.

You'd think by now, in what seems to be an era where the "geek chic" aesthetic is dominant, that the stereotypical in-their-own-heads math wonk kind of nerd would have fallen out of favor by now. As we've all seen on TV and in real life, geeks can be creative, funny and shy rather than creepy, creepy, and even more creepy. But it seems like the writers of Big Bang Theory are still holding memories of seeing Arvid on Head of the Class when they were teenagers and thinking, "now that's a funny nerd!"

(And, yes, I shouldn't be using the terms "geek" and "nerd" as interchangeably as I am doing. How 'bout this: watch the pilot and let me know: are Leonard and Sheldon geeks or nerds? I think they're nerds).

All that being said, any sitcom produced by Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men) will inevitably have some funny lines, many of which will have something to do with body parts or bodily functions. This one is no exception, as there were one or two lines that made me laugh out loud, despite my better judgment. And Parsons does a good job with Sheldon's character, even if he is penned in by the stereotypical characterization. I'd expect to see all the characters change and develop a little bit as the season goes on (though don't expect much... Lorre's characters do tend to stay locked in to their original archetypes throughout a show's run, which is one of the things that finally killed off Dharma & Greg after five seasons).

Will Big Bang Theory make it in CBS' Monday comedy lineup? It's got enough of a pedigree and just enough laughs to get it some decent ratings, though it needs to count on its lead-in, the oh-so-funny but ratings-challenged How I Met Your Mother, having a breakthrough season for it to make it for an entire season. After all, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is waiting in the wings with Old Christine. And I'm sure CBS will slot her in the minute Big Bang Theory starts to dip in the ratings. I'm just never sure why they don't just put her in that slot to begin with.