Top 5 TV: ‘Big Bang’ Gets Sexy, Steve Harvey Screws Up
Late last Saturday night, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey said their goodnights on SNL and threw it to Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, who belted out a rousing version of “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.” Everyone on stage looked absolutely giddy, from Maya Rudolph dancing around in a fabulous cocktail dress to Kenan Thompson, singing the late Clarence Clemons’ old “better be good for goodness’ sake” part. By the time Little Steven Van Zandt waved surprise guest Paul McCartney over to his microphone, the whole performance started to feel like a benediction. It was like television itself was signing off for the year.
This whole week was filled with shows switching out the lights and locking the doors: some just for the holidays, some for the season, and some for good. Many went out strong. Stodgy characters made big changes, and long-running series saw things happen that have never happened before. An atomic bomb went off, and a pop culture institution laughed its way into a premature grave. Our last Top 5 TV column of the year thanks them all for their service, in what has been a busy, and often spectacular, 2015. Take a rest, boob tube. You did good.
5. The Big Bang Theory: Sheldon finally bazingas Amy (CBS)
The writers of this still insanely popular sitcom have always refused to define what, if any, developmental disorder Sheldon Cooper has — a decision that’s given them the freedom to let the Jim Parsons’ character grow. He’s still the chilly and compulsively fastidious brainiac he was at the start of the series, but he can also be flexible now, or even warm-hearted. At the end of last season, Sheldon’s long-suffering girlfriend Amy Farrah-Fowler decided she couldn’t handle his quirks any more. After breaking up and reconciling, he decided to show her just what she really means to him — by having sex with her for her birthday.
This being The Big Bang Theory, ‘the deed” was intercut with the rest of the gang going to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens; like Sheldon and Amy, they worryied that something they’ve been awaiting for so long wouldn’t live up to the hype. The episode also threw in a cameo by Bob Newhart as the ghost of the boys’ reluctant science guru, dressed as Obi Wan Kenobi and giving halting romantic advice (“Once the man gets the woman … out of her bloomers …”). This wasn’t just some big “midseason finale” stunt. When Sheldon confessed to Amy, “I’m worried that I might be overwhelmed and ruin everything,” his candor was as much as breakthrough as anything that happened in the bedroom.