For 12 seasons, “The Big Bang Theory” delighted audiences with the antics and misadventures of four nerds and the women who have learned to love them. The CBS sitcom originally focused on a quartet of brilliant, yet socially awkward scientists—Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg), and Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar)—as well as their next-door neighbor, an attractive woman with street smarts named Penny (Kaley Cuoco).
Over the years, the gang grew to include three more members: neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik), microbiologist Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch), and comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman). As the cast expanded so did fans’ love for the show. Over the course of its run, the series consistently ranked among the best shows on TV and was nominated for 55 Emmy Awards.
The series’ end also made way for the very successful prequel “Young Sheldon,” the series finale of which aired in May 2024. The spin-off delved deeper into the fascinating character of Sheldon Cooper in his younger years and the events that led to the enigmatic persona we see on “The Big Bang Theory”; the final season of the show also saw Jim Parsons reprising his role as adult Sheldon. In March 2024, CBS announced another spin-off—titled “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage,” the show will follow Sheldon’s older brother, Georgie (Montana Jordan), and is expected to premiere in the fall of 2024.
In the meantime, fans of “The Big Bang Theory” have plenty of favorite moments to rewatch—like when the guys go to Vegas, any moment involving sports, Wolowitz getting stuck in a robotic arm, and Sheldon’s rivalry with Leslie Winkle, to name a few. But with almost 280 episodes to choose from, it’s still challenging to pick those favorites out of the bunch. To help drill down to a list of the all-time bests, Stacker has ranked the top 50 episodes by IMDb user ratings, with ties broken by number of votes.
