Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady’s 2007 sitcom “The Big Ban Theory” was hotly contested when it was on the air. In the early 2000s, certain kinds of “geek” interests moved from the cultural fringe directly into the mainstream, and previously derided niche interests like “Dungeons & Dragons,” comic books, long-form video games, astronomy, trivia, and fantasy in general all became widely accepted as a new entertainment zeitgeist. New kinds of kid-acceptable pop artists came to be canonized. The geek ecosystem was widespread and easily available to any curious takers.
“The Big Bang Theory,” however, was lambasted by some viewers for its inaccurate portrayals of modern-day geeks. The characters on “Big Bang” were all scientists or intellectuals, and they all loved “Star Wars,” comic books, and RPGs, but they didn’t talk the way geeks talked, nor did they organically celebrate geek culture. “The Big Bang Theory” relied too heavily on outdated “dweeb” stereotypes left over from 1984’s “Revenge of the Nerds,” and didn’t do enough to update its own ethos to match reality.
But, despite the criticism, the show was hugely successful. Like, HUGELY successful. Successful enough to retain high ratings for 12 straight seasons. And, accurate or not, certain legitimate giants of the geek world appeared on the show for cameos, usually just to make the main characters squirm in excitement. Stan Lee, Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Steve Wozniak, Nathan Fillion, George Takei, Leonard Nimoy, Wil Wheaton, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Carrie Fisher, James Earl Jones, and Buzz Aldrin all appeared.
Mayim Bialik played the character Amy Farrah Fowler on “The Big Bang Theory” starting in its third season, and she had the honor of working with most of the above celebrities. Bialik, in an article she wrote for Grok Nation in 2019, admitted that she could play it cool for most celebrities, but nearly broke down when a “Lord of the Rings” star came to the set. It seems she was a big fan of Sean Astin.
Mayim Bialik nearly lost her cool when she met Sean Astin
It’s worth noting that Astin and Bialik were both actors as children, and that they are only four years apart in age. While Bialik was starting her acting career in the later 1980s, Astin was already a big star thanks to films like “The Goonies,” and “Like Father, Like Son.” Astin stayed in the public eye throughout the 1990s thanks to films like “Toy Soldiers,” “Encino Man,” “Rudy,” and “Bulworth.” He gained a great deal of geek cred in 2001, however, when he was cast as the hobbit Samwise in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.”
On “The Big Bang Theory,” Astin played a character named Dr. Greg Pemberton, a kind of villainous character. Dr. Pemberton, a scientist at Fermi Lab, appeared in three episodes (“The Confirmation Polarization,” “The Laureate Accumulation,” and “The Plagiarism Schism”), and was always up to something kind of dastardly. In his first appearance, he fudged the results of a particle physics paper merely to get on “Ellen.” In the second, he tried to claim someone else’s work as his own, and in the third, it was revealed that he plagiarized his thesis.
The first of those appearances was overwhelming for Bialik, and she wrote a recap, saying:
“Samwise Gamgee was on ‘The Big Bang Theory!!!’ Yes, folks. Sean Astin, a wonderful accomplished actor, played a physicist in tonight’s episode, ‘The Confirmation Polarization,’ and it was incredible. I was so excited to see this man in person, since I so love him in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies. I gushed, truly. I didn’t take a selfie with him, and now I’m kicking myself for trying to play it cool.”
And, as it so happens, Bialik even had an “in” with Astin. She, sadly, was too tongue-tied to take advantage of a fine ice-breaker.
Mayim Bialik already knew Sean Astin’s brother
Bialik, it seems, was passing friends with Mackenzie Astin, Sean’s brother, as both appeared on episodes of “The Facts of Life” in the 1980s. Sean Astin evidently recalled hearing stories about Bialik from his brother “which blew my mind,” Bialik wrote. She also had nothing but flattering things to say about Astin, continuing:
“Sean is so genuine and kind and just seems like a really normal, nice, nice guy. He was a delight. He even told some stories about his mother, Patty Duke, who played Helen Keller opposite Anne Bancroft in ‘The Miracle Worker’ (if you have not seen it, you absolutely need to). It was such a thrill to have Sean on our show!”
For those who were trying to — in a “celebrity gossip” sort of way — mentally arrange Astin and Bialik in a romance, know that Astin has been married since 1992 and that Bialik was married throughout most of the run of “The Big Bang Theory.”
Astin, of course, continued to work incessantly in the years after “Big Bang,” appearing in dozens of movies, TV shows, and cartoons. Bialik, meanwhile, would move back and forth between acting, writing, advocacy, and other creative endeavors. For a few years, she was even the co-host of “Jeopardy!” with Ken Jennings. If anyone has geek cred, it’s Bialik. “The Big Bang Theory” finally left the airwaves in 2019. Whether or not it was accurate, the cast got to meet some of the biggest celebrities in the geek universe, so they, at the very least, enjoyed their experience.
