Where There's A Wil

A common sitcom trope has the main characters meeting a celebrity.  Lucy meets William Holden.  Archie Bunker meets Sammy Davis Jr.  The Huxtables meet Stevie Wonder.

The Big Bang Theory has gone to this well more than once, with the cast usually meeting sci-fi, or just sci guest stars, such as Summer Glau, Stan Lee, George Takei, Katee Sackhoff, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Steve Wosniak, James Earl Jones, Stephen Hawking, Buzz Aldrin, LeVar Burton and others.

In fact, one of the show's recurring characters is Wil Wheaton of Star Trek fame playing himself.  He's sort of a friend of the gang.  And in a recent episode, "The D & D Vortex," TBBT went all out with celebrities.  The plot was about getting invited to Wil Wheaton's house to play Dungeons & Dragons.  Who else was there?  A somewhat strange mix: William Shatner, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Joe Manganiello and Kevin Smith.

Of course, the gang were all excited to meet such celebrities.  Which is what often gets me about the concept.  While the list of people playing D&D with Wil Wheaton isn't bad, you know who are bigger celebrities?  The cast of The Big Bang Theory--at least at this moment in time, when the show has been a hit for over ten years. (It's a judgment call, and that's my judgment.)

So sure, the Big Bang characters ooh and ah over the celebrities, but in real life, it's those celebrities who are being asked what was it like to be on The Big Bang Theory.