Bazinga once more! Sheldon, Penny, Leonard and the rest of the Big Bang Theory gang said goodbye after 12 seasons during the Thursday, May 16, series finale.
Amy (Mayim Bialik) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons) won the Nobel Prize, which took the group to Sweden to accept the award. Penny (Kaley Cuoco) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki) revealed to their pals she was pregnant, Raj (Kunal Nayyar) met Sarah Michelle Gellar on the plane ride over, and Howard (Simon Helberg) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) worried about the kids back home. Sheldon also honored his friends with a sweet tribute at the ceremony before the bunch returned to Leonard and Penny’s apartment for one final hang. Plus, the elevator got fixed!
Cuoco, 33, opened up earlier this month about how she coped with the end of the era. “I feel I go through these waves of depression about it,” the actress told Haute Living. “It’s been like a death. It’s hard to let go of something I’m so used to, that’s been a part of my life for so many years.”
The 8 Simple Rules alum noted that the finale was “very bittersweet” and a “weird mental” experience, though she expressed pride in what the show was able to accomplish in its more than decade-long run. “I’m very excited for the future, but it’s like letting go of a comfort blanket,” she explained. “There’s a part of me that loves that we’re ending and still on top, especially with the way television is going now.”
She elaborated: “Our show is considered not very modern — things have changed in this era of streaming and Netflix — but people still tune in, and it feels good that we’ve kept this classic going for so long. We might be the last of its kind; there’s not many [shows] that have done what Big Bang has done.”
Cuoco joked that she didn’t “want to be walking with a cane in the show or be in a wheelchair,” adding: “We need to stop at some point; we’re all getting a little bit older.”
Bialik, for her part, found the series finale taping to be “a very prolonged emotional experience.” Earlier this month, the Blossom alum told Us Weekly exclusively: “It was very intense. Like, I was really anxious and playing games on my phone a lot more than usual, just even when I was home. Just like anxious energy, you know?”
Of the cast’s future friendships, the 43-year-old actress admitted, “We’ll have to see what our lives look like. I mean, we’re all going to be on different schedules now; it’s very different.”
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