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Battle For the Cowl hits CBS Primetime

April 13th, 2009
Author Lucas Siegel

Big Bang Theory, CBS’s sometimes heavy handed portrayal of a few geeks and a hot chick, made a very topical argument one of its main story threads tonight. Sheldon, perhaps the geekiest of them all, had a conversation throughout the entire episode about whom should be the next Batman. Images from recent issues of Bat books, plus conversations about Post-Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Zero Hour, Joe Chill, and more were shown repeatedly as they sussed out the story threads.

I know it’s a show about geeks/nerds, but it was still pretty cool to see something currently going on that a lot of fans have vested interest in being talked about in front of the entire nation. If we see a sudden sales bump, we’ll know where it came from!

I can’t seem to find Big Bang Theory streaming anywhere on the ‘net, so if anyone knows of a place, share a heads up here. If not, look for reruns over the summer and the eventual DVD release.

70 Responses to “Battle For the Cowl hits CBS Primetime”
  1. Jacob Says:

    Who does Sheldon want to become Batman? I only got to see parts of the epsidoe tonight. And was that an issue of ASBARTBW Sheldon and Wallowitz were fighting over? I couldn’t tell.

  2. Rich Says:

    Ha! I missed this, but my girlfriend called to tell me about it. Have to watch it later if I can track it down online.

  3. roshow Says:

    Ha! I wish I knew. I’ll have to watch it on Hulu or something. Thanks for the head’s up.

  4. Dan Says:

    Sheldon wanted Dick, Stewart wanted Jason.

    And yeah, I think it was one of the covers for ASBARTBW #8.

  5. Daryll B Says:

    i thought big bang theory episodes were shown on Hulu…you may also want to try atdhe.net….sometimes they show new episodes of shows for up to 24 hrs after their initial release…

  6. Craig M. Says:

    @Jacob
    Sheldon wanted Dick Grayson to become Batman, and he and Wallowitz were fighting over the ASBARTBW #8 Neal Adams variant.

  7. kevwolf Says:

    If you watch the last couple episodes of Chuck, you can see that Chuck has a poster of Y: The Last Man in his room, and that he hid his secret intersect info in an issue of Ex Machina. There is a lot of BKV love on that show. Just FYI.

  8. Superdad Says:

    I’m glad the story got mentioned because the comics industry needs all the help it can get. That, however, is the extent of my happiness. I can’t help but feel detatched from this story.

    As of now, does anyone believe that Jason will become the “new” Batman? I thought so. That leaves Tim or Dick as the replacement Dark Knight. So let’s look down the road. What happens when Bruce comes back? Here are the outstanding questions upon Bruce’s return:

    1) Does anyone think for one moment that Dick or Tim wouldn’t instantly return the Batman persona to Bruce? Didn’t think so. Therefore, the overarching issue is…..
    2) When Bruce will want to return as Batman (not “if” , “when”)?
    3) What will Gotham’s landscape be?
    Will WayneTech still be up and running? Who will be the new crime kingpins? Will Arkham be rebuilt?

  9. Howie Says:

    How I Met Your Mother was also seriously promoting the Wolverine movie last night right after Big Bang Theory. It included various Wolverine posters seen in the episode as well as a claw fight with the new Wolverine battle claws.

  10. Lan Pitts Says:

    I think it was also funny to mention on how hard it is to buy comics for kids now.

    “Do you think my nephew would like this?”

    “Perfect. He just has to be familiar with Infinite Crisis, 52, Countdown, Final Crisis and the re-emergence of the multiverse.”

    “What’s the Multiverse?”

    ….exactly.

  11. Micah Myers Says:

    If you search “The Hofstadter Isotope”(the name of the episode) on Youtube. The episode is there broke up in five parts.

  12. Micah Myers Says:

    http://www.watchthebigbangtheory.net

  13. Ryan S. Says:

    Warners TV refuses to have BBT streaming anywhere (legally) for fear of not making money in syndication and DVD sales.

    Also why there are a lot more DC references on the show. Hellblazer was also mentioned last night.

  14. BBiii Says:

    Also much love for Green Lantern on that episode.

    Nice display rack of Green Lantern (Secret Origins, Revenge, & an Archive) when they were in the store

  15. Tony Says:

    I love BBT, but was initially disappointed when they seemed to wander into the same comic book clientele from the Heroes shop. The fact that Penny agreed to date one of the employees, though, was a bit refreshing. For those not watching, BBT has quite a bit of smart humor mixed in with the obvious gags.

  16. J. Dinkhouse Says:

    @Lan Pitts- I think that’s DC’s problem entirely, and is what’s accounting for their drop in the market share since Infinite Crisis and 52. It’s one thing to have a large, interconnected universe where events in one title will effect events in many others, but when the things that are effecting everything else can’t be explained to a layman in less than three minutes, those people will not be reading your books. Moreover, when the one corner of the DCU that had usually been able to avoid being to f-ed up by big events, the Batman family of books, were smashed to bits by Final Crisis, which I still haven’t even finished reading and most people who talk about it say it makes almost no sense. I know it was all part of Grant’s plans, but it seems off to me that his death didn’t even really occur in the R.I.P. storyline, at least as it seems to me, not having read FC. That would be like if they had set up the Doomsday fight in Superman, had that end with Superman missing and no one knowing if he was alive, and then proceed to have him shot in the head with a kryptonite bullet in an event miniseries, and that’s what kills him, not the fight that was in his own title. It seems weak to me.

  17. kanjitano Says:

    http://www.surfthechannel.com

    There you can see it

  18. Dalarsco Says:

    @Land Pitts: You and Sheldon are both wrong. You don’t NEED to have read all those other stories to understand any story. It certainly enriches it, but most of the time any decent story can also stand alone.

  19. Tre Says:

    Kind of cool that they did a riff on Bats, save for the fact that Big Bang Theory isn’t too funny and the girl is hot-by-default-of-the-company-she-keeps-hot. The girls on How I Met…are much better looking.

  20. DT Butchino Says:

    Taped it so my kids could watch it ;)

  21. RussBurlingame Says:

    @Howie – And “How I Met Your Mother” had the added bonus of ACTUALLY being funny! Score!

  22. jmg Says:

    interesting…it’s the only ALL DC comic shop I know! (watch the background!)

  23. Sean W Says:

    I dunno. It doesn’t seem right or even fair to consider that a plug for BFTC.

    Sure, they talked about the basics of what the story is about, but it’s a conversation we’ve all had – if Bruce died, who’d be Batman. BFTC wasn’t flat out mentioned by name and the tone of the conversation was generic to any period of time.

    (Unless I missed something specificly pertaining to BFTC – I was doing laundry and folding towels tends to distract me from pictures and sounds on my TV.) :p

  24. Ryan S. Says:

    @jmg As I said, it shouldn’t be a surprise, BBT is produced by Warners Television.

  25. Batman Says:

    “Sheldon, perhaps the geekiest of them all, had a conversation throughout the entire episode about whom should be the next Batman.”
    Correction, there was various comics related discussions throughout the entire episode. They talked about who should be the next Batman for about 30 seconds.

  26. Little Heart Records Says:

    @Sean W– I felt it was slightly more… Only because Sheldon does name drop Batman ‘staying dead’ after Final Crisis… implying to viewers Bats is DEAD. You are right though, BFTC wasn’t name dropped as the storyline to be argued.

    @JMG– I saw it as more of a ‘non-Marvel’ shop. All the big stuff was DC like the posters, but you could plainly see the Obama Youngblood issue and a slew of other Image books on the rack during one of the conversations in the shop. In general, the show has been rather DC centric. Sheldon wears a lot of DC logo shirts for the Flash and Green Lantern. Most likely because they can get DC material for the show for free being a Warner Bros based program…. just like on How I Met Your Mother, when Ted’s room was seen in the first season, being a music nerd, I noticed almost all of his music posters in his room came from the same record label.

    @Everyone– I really like the episode and the show in general, and while it was cool to see a geeky guy get the girl, that shop was heavy on the stereotypes. I’ve met quite a few non-stereotypes over the years and it would have been nice to see a few of them, even if just to fill the background. It’s not like it was Saturday D&D Night at the shop… it was Anything Goes Thursday.

  27. ConsumerofPlanets Says:

    http://www.alluc.org
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  28. tdoggy Says:

    I think imdb.com streams Big Bang. This show is very funny and captures geek culture extremely well. Anyone see the Halloween episode where they all dressed up as The Flash. Funny stuff.

  29. Lucas Siegel Says:

    Correction, Sheldon is not “the geekiest of them all,” as internet commenters clearly outrank him by a mile, right, “Batman?” :D

  30. Doom Says:

    hey go on to zastv.com or sidereel.com theres big bang theory there

  31. mphillips Says:

    Big Bang Theory is one of the shows out there not “legally” online (hence, no BBT on Hulu or CBS.com sadly). But obviously there are places out there you can find it. The reason for non-legal avenues were covered in the latest TV Guide. Has to do with costs, rights, and syndication money.

  32. Richard J. Marcej Says:

    I like the joke from a couple episodes ago about Green Lantern.
    Rajesh was commenting on how lame it was that Green Lantern could be stopped by the color yellow.
    Sheldon points out that that only applies to the Hal Jordan era Lantern, not the Alan Scott Golden Agce Lantern.
    After Leonard points out that Alan’s Lantern could be stopped by wood Rejesh responds with “That means the Green Lantern can be defeated by a number 2 pencil!”

  33. kamikazi Says:

    It’s always amazing how many stereotypes that show can fit into a mere twenty minutes.

  34. Ike Iszany Says:

    Big Bang Theory’s (and CBS’ in general) lack of pressence on the net is one of the things that keeps me from watching it. I know…I could just watch it on television (Or “T.V.”) but in this day and age I refuse to be a slave to a network schedule.

    Hulu doesn’t have it. I do see that Fancast carries all the CSI/ CBS cops shows. But that may have more to do with the studio than with the network.

  35. Batman Says:

    “Correction, Sheldon is not “the geekiest of them all,” as internet commenters clearly outrank him by a mile, right, “Batman?” ”

    I would assume those who blog about this stuff would be #1 though, right? :)

  36. Ray Feighery Says:

    CBS for some odd reason doesn’t stream all of their shows. In fact the most popular seem to be the ones missing. The Mentalist is their top rated new show but you can only see clips.

    I’m not sure if this is a music rights thing like some shows have (The reason Cols Case isn’t available) or not.

    I catch up on a lot of shows on HuLu but the CBS ones only link to it and those are the ones you CAN watch!

  37. RyneTate Says:

    The shop is not all DC, their are the Walking Dead and Invincible T-Shirts behind the Green Lantern rack of comics. Also I noticed a collection of The Programme on a rack in the back of the room. They did also mention Amazing, Spectacular, Ultimate, Marvel Adventures, and Sensational Spider-Man in dialogue. I think Marvel love should make its way onto the show, but sadly it usually doesn’t.

  38. Alexa Says:

    DC gets the most namedrops on BBT because its a Warner produced show, and they can use DC images without having to pay.

    I’m also a little disappointed they went for the obvious “OMG a real live girl in a comic shop!!1!” joke. It’s getting a little tired now– my comic shop is staffed almost exclusively by women, and I have to go to the really intense collector’s-oriented store to be the only woman there.

  39. jmg Says:

    liked the Blanton’s placement in the bar scene. That’s some good shizz…if you like bourbon. Oh yeah, awesome that HELLBLAZER gets a shout out!

  40. Sean Says:

    DC has always had about 90% of the comic book references. Star Trek also gets a massive amount, while Star Wars gets none that I’ve ever seen. Halo is the most prominent video game mentioned, they just have certain ones they have deals with.

    This show is amazingly hilarious, with plenty of jokes and gags only people like us would fully get.

    Sheldon: “You’re probably thinking, ‘the comic book store, on a Thursday? Why I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole and into a land of madness.’ What you have failed to take into account, Penny, is that this is ‘Anything Can Happen Thursday.’”

    http://www.tv-links.cc

  41. Matthew Raleighaikenbaconburgerfarley Says:

    Is this a new talk show or something? Yes, I haven’t watched late night seriously in at least 4 years and even missed Conan’s finale. But I digres..

  42. Matthew Raleighaikenbaconburgerfarley Says:

    Oh this is a sitcom, that started in 07? Wow, I’m really behind then. Or just an “old fashioned” fan or King of Queens.

  43. Anal Surprise Says:

    Dan Says:
    > April 13th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
    > Sheldon wanted Dick

    Uh..

  44. Rage Says:

    I’ve never, and the Rock means ever, seen a hot (or even attractive, really) female at the comic book store. I’ve been going since the age of 12. I’m 30.

  45. Jason Says:

    If hot girls were smart they would always hang out at comic book shops. Where else are they going to meet employed men with more disposable income than they know what to do with?

  46. Groovemaster Says:

    Jason, great quote.

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