The Big Bang Theory’s Chuck Lorre Didn’t Want To Repeat A Mistake With Ending

“The Big Bang Theory” wrapped up its 12-season run in the spring of 2019 — and according to an interview with The Hollywood Reporter shortly after it aired, showrunner and creator Chuck Lorre was extremely anxious about getting the finale right … largely because he felt he hadn’t done that with a previous project, the popular TV series “Dharma & Greg.”

In an expansive chat with Mikey O’Connell, the interviewer began a question — “With ‘The Big Bang Theory, how important was it for you to …” only for Lorre to immediately respond. “To land the plane safely? It meant a lot — to be there from our very clumsy beginnings, to when we actually figured out how to do it and sustain it, to end with what I think is a wonderful [episode],” he replied. “I know what it’s like to leave too soon. I never want to do that again.”

As O’Connell then correctly pointed out, Lorre was referring to “Dharma & Greg,” an unlikely romance that starred Jenna Elfman as the free-spirited Dharma and Thomas Gibson as the uptight Greg and ran for five seasons from 1997 to 2002 (years before “The Big Bang Theory” came into existence.) “I made a mistake,” Lorre admitted after O’Connell remarked that he left the show before its final season. “I got to make that up this time.”

Asked if he went to advice as to how to “land the plane,” Lorre said that he was encouraged by one of his longtime colleagues … which is apparently good, as he said he had no idea how to pull it off. “I didn’t have a clue how to do it,” Lorre said bluntly. “Steve Holland, who’s been the showrunner for the last two years, suggested that rather than bringing the show to a hard stop — where everybody packs their bags and goes in different directions and the show is exploded in some final way — that we have an emotional finale. I thought that was brilliant.”

Not only did Chuck Lorre and his team pull off a brilliant ending with “The Stockholm Syndrome,” the final episode of “The Big Bang Theory” — but as Lorre revealed to writer Jessica Radloff in her 2022 book “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series,” he took on an extra job (of sorts) in that he “slated” the last scene ever filmed in front of a studio audience, which — because they filmed out of order — featured Leonard and Penny Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco) ordering room service in a Stockholm hotel.

“I just realized this was the last scene that we were gonna shoot on the stage,” Lorre recalled. He continued:

“I don’t know quite how it worked out that that was the last scene because we’d preshot the Nobel awards ceremony the day before since it was so elaborate with the crowd. So I said, ‘Gimme the slate. I wanna do it.’ It was very much an impulse decision. I wanted to be able to be a part of it. I didn’t want to be on camera, but I wanted to be a part of it. And I certainly did not anticipate choking up, as I am now just thinking about it. They gave me the slate, and I keep it in my office to this day.”

So how does “The Big Bang Theory” end, and how does Chuck Lorre feel about it — or at least, what did he tell Jessica Radloff about the series finale? As the gang heads to Stockholm so that Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler, played by Jim Parsons (whose departure after season 12 did lead to the end of the series), and Mayim Bialik, a number of things go “wrong.” Penny, who’s sick on the flight over, confesses to Sheldon that she and Leonard recently discovered that she’s pregnant, and Sheldon isn’t particularly nice about it; meanwhile, their other friends Howard Wolowitz and Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz (Simon Helberg and Melissa Rauch) find out that their kids at home are getting into all sorts of trouble. 

Sheldon selfishly flips out at everybody for not being supportive enough, at which point they prepare to leave … but thanks to Amy, they all come together to see the Nobel ceremony, and Sheldon fixes everything by delivering a genuinely heartfelt speech thanking his beloved friends. In the very last moments of the entire series, an acoustic version of the show’s theme song plays as the whole gang gathers in Leonard and Penny’s living room — which originally belonged to Sheldon and Leonard — and eat a meal together as they’ve done hundreds of times, except with Nobel Prizes adorning both Amy and Sheldon.

“That last moment was everything I had hoped to end the show in a meaningful way,” Lorre said of the final dinner scene, so we can safely assume he was happy with the end product. So how did he feel after “landing the plane?” After filming wrapped, Lorre says he was just extraordinarily emotional: “It was just too much. It was very emotional to be a part of this thing for twelve years and to end it. So I got in my car and went home. It was just sort of an overwhelming experience, and the best way for me to handle it was to just go. Because what more was there for me to do?”

Clearly, Lorre gave the ending of “The Big Bang Theory” his all and has no regrets. You can stream that episode, as well as the rest of the series, on Max now.