A Brief Ode to “The Big Bang Theory”

CBS

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Tonight is the last episode of The Big Bang Theory. Here’s my story about that.

As you all know, five years ago I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and spent a week in the hospital. Anybody who’s been through something like this probably knows what I’m talking about when I say that it was harder on Marian than on me. A cancer diagnosis is terrifying on its own, but a spouse has the additional anxiety of helplessness. All Marian could do was go home each night and worry.

I hobbled home after a week, and when I turned on the TV it was tuned to TBS, which, as usual, was showing reruns of The Big Bang Theory. It turned out that BBT had been part of what kept Marian sane while I was in the hospital. She had discovered it while channel surfing, and it was just what she needed. Not a sophisticated, bittersweet, single-camera semi-comedy. Just an old-fashioned, brightly lit, multi-cam yuk fest. Did all the jokes land? No. But enough of them did. It was a funny show that didn’t require a whole lot of mental energy to watch, and that was perfect for the moment.

I’ve been watching it with Marian ever since. Thanks, Chuck Lorre.

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

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