The Hawking Excitation

"The Hawking Excitation" is the 21st episode of the fifth season of The Big Bang Theory that first aired on CBS on April 5, 2012.^[1] It is the 108th episode overall. The episode features a short cameo appearance by cosmologist Stephen Hawking. Howard (Simon Helberg) is the engineer hired to maintain Hawking's wheelchair equipment and when Sheldon (Jim Parsons) finds this out, he is desperate to meet Hawking. Howard says he can, but only if he completes a series of tasks.

Hawking was revealed to appear on the show in March 2012; he was the third large guest star in season 5. The episode received low ratings in the U.S., airing alongside American Idol. However, the episode got higher ratings in other countries and mostly positive reviews.

Plot

Professor Stephen Hawking appears at the end of the episode.

Raj (Kunal Nayyar) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) are at lunch with Howard when he gets an e-mail from Stephen Hawking's office; Hawking is coming to lecture at Caltech and needs an engineer to help maintain his wheelchair equipment. Sheldon is a big fan of Hawking, and Howard considers whether to bring Sheldon along to meet Hawking. Sheldon then arrives and says that he has revolutionized understanding of the Higgs boson particle. He begins to explain it but interrupts himself to tell Howard to ignore him, because he thinks Howard is not smart enough to understand it.

Howard, insulted by Sheldon, refuses to introduce him to Hawking. Sheldon pleads with him, to no avail. The next day, Howard talks about his work with Hawking, which annoys Sheldon. Sheldon asks again to meet Hawking and tells Howard that he dressed up as Hawking for Halloween when he was six years old. Howard still refuses and sarcastically repeats the word "no" in many different languages. Sheldon then asks Howard to at least give Hawking his paper on the Higgs boson and Howard agrees, on the condition that Sheldon performs several tasks for him.

The first task is to polish Howard's belt buckles. Howard tends to stand too close to the urinal and urine often splashes back onto the buckles. Sheldon is given a black light and several dozen belt buckles to clean. He performs the task flawlessly and even receives advice from Pep Boys to buff the buckles with Turtle Wax. For his second task, Sheldon is forced to wear a French maid costume that Howard originally bought for his girlfriend Bernadette (Melissa Rauch). Sheldon is seen in the cafeteria at Caltech with everyone staring at him.

When Penny (Kaley Cuoco) goes to do her laundry, she finds Sheldon washing Howard's panties. Sheldon explains that he is being punished for being, according to Howard, a "condescending jerk", and asks Penny if she thinks he is condescending. Penny agrees with Howard.

Howard shows Bernadette a picture of Sheldon wearing the French maid costume. She thinks Howard is being too cruel to Sheldon and says that Sheldon is unaware of how mean he is. Howard agrees to stop making Sheldon perform tasks. Howard's mother interrupts them and reminds Bernadette that they made plans to go dress shopping; Bernadette lies to her by saying that she cannot make it, but that Sheldon will accompany her instead. Sheldon is forced to go shopping with Mrs. Wolowitz.

Sheldon's final task is to give Howard a compliment about his work; he says that Howard is good at his job, although Sheldon does not consider his work to be "worth doing". Howard reveals that he gave Hawking the paper three days ago. Sheldon finally gets to meet Hawking, who appears in the final scene. Hawking points out an arithmetic error in Sheldon's paper that makes the whole paper incorrect: at this, a shocked Sheldon faints.

Production

Stephen Hawking has been mentioned several times on the show,^[3][4] including in the Pilot.^[5] Hawking has appeared on comedy television shows previously: he did the voice-over for cartoon versions of himself in Futurama,^[6][7] and in four episodes of The Simpsons.^{[8][9][10][11]}

On March 9, 2012, Bill Prady announced that a "super-secret, super-cool guest star" would appear on the show.^[12][13] On March 12, 2012, CBS announced that Hawking would be guest starring on the show on April 5.^[14][15] He had been asked to appear on the show previously but was too ill.^[16] Bill Prady stated that Stephen Hawking was always their "dream guest star" for the show,^[17][18] but that Hawking appearing was "a long shot of astronomical proportions".^[17]

Hawking is a fan of The Big Bang Theory and requested to watch a rehearsal of the episode after filming his scene. Simon Helberg, who plays Howard, does an impression of Hawking's voice in the episode. He felt slightly uncomfortable mimicking Hawking, but Hawking seemed to enjoy the impression.^[19]

Hawking is the third major guest star to appear in season 5,^[17] after Mike Massimino^[20] and Leonard Nimoy.^[21] Hawking later appeared in the season 6 episode "The Extract Obliteration" and the season 7 episode "The Relationship Diremption", but in both episodes, only his voice is heard. Hawking was shown in a pre-recorded video segment at the Big Bang Theory panel at Comic-Con 2013. He apologized for not being there in person and sang the show's theme tune.^[22][23]

Following "The Hawking Excitation", there was a three week break before the next episode, "The Stag Convergence", aired.^[1]

Reception

Ratings

On the night of its first broadcast on CBS on April 5, 2012, the episode was watched by 13.29 million U.S. households^[24] and received a Nielsen rating of 4.2/14 among viewers aged between 18 and 49.^[25] It aired at 8 p.m. alongside American Idol on Fox, Missing on ABC, NBC's Community and a repeat episode of The Vampire Diaries on The CW. American Idol received the most viewers—14.34 million—while Missing was watched by 7.24 million. The only other episode that night to get more viewers was Person of Interest on CBS, giving the episode a nightly ranking of third overall and second on CBS.^[24]

"The Hawking Excitation" had the second lowest rating of the season (13.29 million), despite Stephen Hawking guest starring. The lowest rating in season 5 was the following episode, "The Stag Convergence".^[26]

In Canada, the episode received 3.18 million viewers, making it the most watched episode that week. However, it was still the second lowest rating of the season.^[27] In the UK, the episode aired on May 17, 2012 and 1.83 million households watched it on E4. It received 0.34 million viewers on E4 +1, so had 2.17 million viewers overall. On E4, it was the most watched show that week while on E4 +1, it ranked third. The episode was watched by the third most viewers in the season.^[28] In Australia, the episode aired on April 24, 2013 and had 1.87 million viewers, the highest for the season at the time. It was the second most watched show on television that night.^[29]

Reviews

Overall, the episode received mostly positive reviews. However, the TV Critic rated the episode 36 out of 100, stating that "the craft has gone from the stories and jokes in favour of the most basic stories and punch lines."^[30]

Oliver Sava of the The A.V. Club described the episode as "really great", giving it a B-. Sava said the "personal slave" storyline was a "classic sitcom plot" and noted that it was "the second episode in a row with no Amy".^[31] Simon Helberg complimented Stephen Hawking on his comedic timing via Twitter.^[32] R. L. Shaffer of IGN rated it 7.5 out of 10 and wrote that the episode "played like filler" but was "a very good filler episode". Shaffer described the final scene with Hawking as "fun" and "effective".^[33]

Carla Day from TV Fanatic gave the episode a very positive review, describing it as "Possibly, the best episode. Ever." and giving it the maximum possible editor rating (5.0).^[34]

References

External links

• "The Hawking Excitation" at CBS.com
• "The Hawking Excitation" at the Internet Movie Database