On October 5, 2010, I was thrilled to be able to attend a taping of the hit CBS comedy, The Big Bang Theory starring Kaley Cuoco, Johnny Galecki, Kunal Nayyar, Jim Parsons, and Simon Helberg.

Photo: Robert Voets/Warner Bros.

Leonard and Sheldon are brilliant physicists, the kind of “beautiful minds” that understand how the universe works. But none of that genius helps them interact with people, especially women. All this begins to change when a free-spirited beauty named Penny moves in next door. Sheldon, Leonard’s roommate, is quite content spending his nights playing Klingon Boggle with their socially dysfunctional friends, fellow CalTech scientists Wolowitz and Koothrappali. However, Leonard sees in Penny a whole new universe of possibilities… including love.

The episode that was being filmed, “The Irish Pub Formulation” aired October 28, 2010 and included guest star, Aarti Mann as Priya.

I was invited to attend the taping by my Twitter friend, Jackie Martinez. Thanks so much Jackie! We were fourth in line. Jackie arrived around noon and I met up with two hours later. The show doesn’t begin filming until 6:30pm, so there was quite a lot of waiting. During the waiting, we mingled with the others in line, shared our snacks, and watched the audience for Ellen DeGeneres get pumped for that taping.

Finally, it was our turn to go through security (twice) and enter the stage. The show films on Stage 25 where What I Like About You, the original V series, Batman & Robin, and Batman Forever called home for a period of time. Walking into the set, I noticed the schedule for the day and learned that the crew arrives at 11:30am. I also noticed the first 4 rows were full of VIP and 1 row of real life physicists taking a field trip to the taping. So basically the audience was packed before our line even went in. I sat in the end seat of the last row on the large left seating area. So to my center-left was the hallway and to my right was Sheldon’s apartment.

There were 14 television screens that the audience gazed at as the episode, “The Zazzy Substitution” was screened before the taping began. As a lover of cats, I found this episode to be hilarious! I wonder if those cat scenes were pre-taped or shot in front of a live audience. Anyway, as I mentioned before, the taping was set to begin at 6:30pm and it ended surprisingly around 930pm. This crew is in and out. They know what they want, they capture it in 2-3 takes, conduct 2-4 pickups, and move on to the next scene. I love it.

But before I get into that…Kaley Cuoco came out to say hello to the audience even though she was not filming that day due to her injury. She gave quite an emotional speech and got quite choked up as she thanked the cast for visiting her in the hospital everyday for two weeks and apologized to the writers for making them re-write the scripts. It was really sweet. Thanks Kaley for coming out to say hello when you really didn’t have to. It means a lot!

Then filming began and it’s similar to the Mike & Molly taping I attended in that if the cast and crew were shooting a scene in Sheldon’s apartment, the other sets were covered by black curtains. I hear it’s a Chuck Lorre thing. So expect to see that at tapings of his other shows as well if you’re planning to go. Not only that, but this show has an abundant amount of sets so there is going to be partial to no view for certain sets. For instance, the physics cafeteria was to my far left and I had partial to no view and Leonard’s lab was to the left of the audience, at no view to any of us.

What really made the audience full of laughter was the one car scene that was shot and the one scene that was pre-taped. Oh and the many blooper moments. Every single member of the cast had moments where they flustered their lines and those were really the only moments you’d see them out of character. The cast wasn’t interactive throughout shooting but one crew member, Hunt was more than excited to tell the audience about power balance bracelets that he got the entire crew to wear. That was a highlight because he was so incredibly excited about it…so excited that he did a demonstration with an audience member during a scene break. Speaking of break, the audience got pizza and water just like the other tapings that I’ve attended. A few other highlights of the evening include the Caprica shout out and seeing guest star, Aarti Mann jump behind a couch.

Overall, this was a fascinating experience that I have Comic Con and Jackie to thank for. Without Comic Con, I would not be watching this show and without Jackie noticing one of my tweets about wanting to attend this taping, I would not have gotten a ticket to go to the taping this season (tickets sell out within minutes). Never underestimate the power of Twitter!

The Big Bang Theory airs Thursdays at 8/7c on CBS.