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What baffles me is that David Salzberg is a professor works tirelessly to get the science correct on BBT, and yet this gentleman was unable to correct the incre

What baffles me is that David Salzberg is a professor works tirelessly to get the science correct on BBT, and yet this gentleman was unable to correct the incredible, mind-bogglingly bad episode "The Tenure Turbulence", where every possible aspect of tenure appears to come from some alternate universe unrelated to Earth. This episode is so far beyond wrong I don't know where to start. David knows how tenure works: indeed he might be the only person working for the show who does (besides maybe Bialik). Why wouldn't they consult him?

noonespecial 13y ago
There's a great big whopping difference between when your consultant says "change what's written on that board in the background" and "change the whole plot of the episode, that's not how the world works". I'm sure he told them, I'm sure they know; but the whole plot turned on it. Sometimes when you realize that superman flying around in space is impossible from a thermodynamic perspective no matter how "super" he is, you just gotta shrug and say "dude, he's superman".
vacri 13y ago
I thought the same of the hacking scenes in Swordfish... then I realised that the movie isn't meant for me. It was meant for a mainstream audience that has no idea what hacking is - and instead they get a visual representation of 'hard, technical'. I imagine the same thing goes with that episode - I haven't seen it, but I'm guessing that tenure was just used as a mere plot device rather than a topic to explore.
- SeanLuke 13y ago
  > I thought the same of the hacking scenes in Swordfish... then I realised that the movie isn't meant for me. No, I get that. But using this logic, BBT shouldn't be making any attempt to get the physics right either. After all, it's not a show for physicists. Why the inconsistency?
  - vacri 13y ago
    Someone elsewhere in the thread mentions that the whiteboards are just background scenery. The sitcom itself is pretty formulaic, written by the same writers as every other such sitcom. Changing the scenery is much easier, as opposed to changing how these writers understand their material, I guess.
    - SeanLuke 13y ago
      But he doesn't just consult on the whiteboards. He consults on many aspects of the show that touches on science, and that importantly includes scripts.

noonespecial 13y ago

There's a great big whopping difference between when your consultant says "change what's written on that board in the background" and "change the whole plot of the episode, that's not how the world works". I'm sure he told them, I'm sure they know; but the whole plot turned on it. Sometimes when you realize that superman flying around in space is impossible from a thermodynamic perspective no matter how "super" he is, you just gotta shrug and say "dude, he's superman".

vacri 13y ago

I thought the same of the hacking scenes in Swordfish... then I realised that the movie isn't meant for me. It was meant for a mainstream audience that has no idea what hacking is - and instead they get a visual representation of 'hard, technical'. I imagine the same thing goes with that episode - I haven't seen it, but I'm guessing that tenure was just used as a mere plot device rather than a topic to explore.

SeanLuke 13y ago
> I thought the same of the hacking scenes in Swordfish... then I realised that the movie isn't meant for me. No, I get that. But using this logic, BBT shouldn't be making any attempt to get the physics right either. After all, it's not a show for physicists. Why the inconsistency?
- vacri 13y ago
  Someone elsewhere in the thread mentions that the whiteboards are just background scenery. The sitcom itself is pretty formulaic, written by the same writers as every other such sitcom. Changing the scenery is much easier, as opposed to changing how these writers understand their material, I guess.
  - SeanLuke 13y ago
    But he doesn't just consult on the whiteboards. He consults on many aspects of the show that touches on science, and that importantly includes scripts.