On This Day in 2015: Workin' as an Extra on THE BIG BANG THEORY!

So it was 10 years ago today that I went to the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank to work as an extra on my favorite TV sitcom, The Big Bang Theory!

It was surreal to walk into Stage 25 and see the set for the Pasadena apartment where Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Penny (Kaley Cuoco), Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg), Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyer), Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch) and Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik) gathered to eat Chinese food and talk all things sex, science, Star Trek and Star Wars for several seasons.

In the fourth Season 9 episode shown above (titled "The 2003 Appoximation"), Raj's girlfriend Emily Sweeney (Laura Spencer) and Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman) join the gang as Howard and Raj—both standing off-screen—sing Hammer & Whip (Thor and Dr. Jones) in Stuart's comic book shop. Amy wasn't in this scene, but you can spot me wearing eyeglasses and a black sweater (and sporting a shaved head) while standing directly behind those rows of comic books and the couch where Sheldon, Penny and Leonard are sitting!

This production shoot was a 2-day call where the Thor and Dr. Jones scene was pre-recorded on Day 1, and the rest of the episode was filmed in front of a live studio audience on Day 2. I worked on a Season 10 episode of The Big Bang Theory as well...but I'll blog about it on its 10-year anniversary in 2026!

You can watch Howard and Raj sing Thor and Dr. Jones in the clip below:

Remembering Bob Newhart (1929-2024)...

As a big fan of the popular CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, I'll always remember Bob Newhart for his role as Arthur Jeffries (a.k.a. Professor Proton), Sheldon Cooper's childhood hero and reluctant mentor in the last six seasons of the hit TV show.

Newhart was 94 years-old... May he rest in peace.

A Random Post About My Favorite Sitcom...

So last night, I had two dreams where I hung out with The Big Bang Theory's awesome gang of nerds at Stuart's comic book shop, The Comic Center of Pasadena!

In the first dream, I recall buying two issues for Image Comics characters that don't actually exist in real life. In case you've never heard of Image Comics before and don't feel like clicking on the link above, this company was big in the 1990s (briefly surpassing Marvel Comics in popularity)—producing such superhero titles as Spawn, Youngblood, Wetworks, Stormwatch, ShadowHawk, WildC.A.T.S and much more.

Anyways, the second dream was not as carefree, but a lot more exciting... Everyone at the shop had to seek shelter inside a panic room underneath Stuart's store after a bunch of Mafia goons, who Stuart apparently had past business dealings with, arrived with guns drawn to lay waste to The Comic Center!

I woke up before the goons actually began firing. What the heck, Stuart?! Heh.

The irony of dreaming that I chilled at The Big Bang Theory's comic book store last night is that I actually got to work as a background actor inside my favorite sitcom's comic book shop (which was a setpiece built inside Soundstage 25 at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank) in real life 9 years ago!

The screenshot above is from the 2015 episode "The 2003 Approximation." That's Season 9, Episode 4 of The Big Bang Theory if you wanna stream it on Max or something.

Happy Friday!

On This Day in 1993: Agents Mulder and Scully Begin Searching for the Truth That's Out There...

It was 30 years ago today that The X-Files made its debut on television! I was just starting 8th grade when the sci-fi mystery drama by Chris Carter (a fellow alumnus at my college, Cal State Long Beach) began airing on FOX TV, and was about to complete my fourth year in college when the original 9-season run of The X-Files ended on May 19, 2002.

I watched the first X-Files movie that was shown in theaters back in 1998, but never saw the sequel, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, in 2008. (Based on the Rotten Tomatoes reviews for this film, I didn't miss out on anything!)

And of course, I watched FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny, who I saw on set when I worked as a background actor on an episode of his SHOWTIME series Californication in Culver City 10 years ago) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) make their return to television for Seasons 10 and 11 of The X-Files between January 2016 and March 2018, respectively.

The X-Files inspired other sci-fi and paranormal TV shows like Fringe and Supernatural over the last two decades—with Supernatural itself employing the monster-of-the-week and mythology episode format during its 15-season run, just like what the Chris Carter series did.

The 1996 hit alien invasion flick Independence Day also paid its respects to The X-Files...though Chris Carter's homage to that summer blockbuster with the '98 X-Files movie (where in one scene, Mulder is seen outside a bar urinating on the poster for Independence Day that's hanging to the side of the building) isn't exactly something that ID4 filmmakers Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin would find flattering!

The X-Files will always be one of my favorite television programs...along with shows like 24, Prison Break, Supernatural and The Big Bang Theory (which of course, isn't a serialized drama).

Would I watch Season 12 of The X-Files if FOX ever decided to give this trailblazing series one more year? You betcha!

And as a reminder: The truth is out there. Happy Sunday!

Why I'm a Big Fan of THE BIG BANG THEORY...

I can relate to the four main dudes on the hit CBS sitcom:

- Leonard: He's extremely infatuated with Penny and feels insecure whenever she talks to some random guy...

- Howard: Because he tries too hard with women (before he met Bernadette)...

- Raj: He's such a hopeless romantic that he tends to unwittingly come across as effeminate whenever he expresses feelings for a lady he cares about—and is unable to speak to certain (mostly gorgeous) women...

And

- Sheldon: He's extremely arrogant and narcissistic, and views sexual desire as an affliction that needs to be suppressed in the pursuit of new knowledge about the universe...before he met Amy.

And of course, all of them are huge comic book geeks and Star Wars fans. Happy Monday!

Photos of the Day: A Visit to Christmas Con in Pasadena, CA!

Earlier today, I drove to the Pasadena Convention Center to attend Christmas Con...which is an entertainment expo where scores of actors and actresses who regularly appear in holiday films (aired mostly on the Hallmark Channel) gather to meet, sign autographs and take pictures with the fans.

As shown below, I went to this event specifically for photo ops with Danica McKellar (still best known as Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years, and also had roles in other TV shows like The Big Bang Theory) and Lacey Chabert (who appeared in such movies as 1998's Lost in Space and 2004's Mean Girls, as well as the FOX TV series Party of Five).

Lacey Chabert was originally the only celebrity who I wanted to meet at Christmas Con. This expo was supposed to occur back in July of 2020 (I ordered my tix for Lacey's photo op session in February of that year), but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In these photos, that Christmas tree between me and these two beautiful actresses served as a safety barrier. Danica is set to shoot another film soon, so that tree obviously provided a subtle but jolly way of social distancing from her fans. Ditto with Lacey.

So will I go to Christmas Con 2023, you ask? Probably. There are a few other lovely actresses who I would like to meet next year that I couldn't afford to get pictures with today, so I might attend this event again! Also, Pasadena (assuming the California venue for this expo won't change in 2023) is a great city. The parking sucks in most areas of Pasadena, but it's a great city!

Hope y'all are having a nice weekend.

IT'S OFFICIAL: Tom Brady Is Finally Ending a Mediocre NFL Career Where He Only Collected 7 Championship Rings...

Gotta hand it to the Los Angeles Rams for making this underachieving quarterback finally call it quits after 22 years of stinkin' up the joint in the NFL... One of the biggest disappointments in the history of football!

Also:

Farewell, SUPERNATURAL...

Last night, the CW Network aired the 2-hour series finale for Supernatural...one of the longest-running genre TV series that began back in 2005. The first hour was devoted to a special where the cast and crew shared their memories on working on this hit show for well over a decade. It was in the second hour where "Carry on," the final episode of Supernatural, showed the fates of Sam and Dean Winchester after spending much of their lives hunting ghosts, demons, vampires, Wendigos, Bloody Mary and the like. All I can say is, it was hugely emotional. To dedicate 15 years of my life to watching the exploits of these two brothers as they—with the help of Bobby Singer (their surrogate father), Castiel (the angel who raised Dean from perdition in Season 4), Crowley (the crossroads demon-turned-King of Hell), Jack (Lucifer's part-human son, a.k.a. a Nephilim) and company—take on the Yellow-Eyed Demon, Lucifer, The Darkness (a.k.a. Amara) and even God (a.k.a. Chuck) Himself was an epic thing. And now it's over.

I've been getting the Supernatural season DVDs as a Christmas gift from one of my brothers since 2008... It's gonna be interesting when he has to find something else to buy for Christmas 2022! Heh. It's all good. In terms of other TV shows that I watch on a weekly basis, there are none. Except for reruns of my other favorite series, The Big Bang Theory, on Channel 13 here in Los Angeles. I hope you guys have a great weekend!

Photos of the Day: Highlights from THE BIG BANG THEORY's Series Finale...

Just thought I'd share these official production stills from last night's 1-hour series finale for The Big Bang Theory. If you watched the finale, or at least read my previous Blog entry, then you'd why these pics are so significant. Happy Friday!

Farewell to THE BIG BANG THEORY!

After 12 seasons, The Big Bang Theory is no more. Here are my notes on tonight's 1-hour series finale: The apartment's elevator is working again! Leonard (Johnny Galecki) got to bitch-slap Sheldon (Jim Parsons)—for the second time in 12 years, I believe! We finally got to meet the adorable kids of Howard (Simon Helberg) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch)! Raj (Kunal Nayyar) went from dating Lucy (Kate Micucci), Emily (Laura Spencer) and Claire (Alessandra Torresani) to attending Amy (Mayim Bialik, who I met two years ago today) and Sheldon's Nobel Prize ceremony with none other than Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar! And lastly, Leonard and Penny (Kaley Cuoco) will finally have a kid who's both "smart and beautiful!" What a cool way to end 12 years of geeky hilarity. You heard me, haters.

On the downside, we'll never meet Raj's four other siblings, Bernadette's siblings, Penny's sister and Leonard's siblings... Oh well.

On the plus side again, it was a pleasure to work twice (as a background actor) on The Big Bang Theory! It should've been three times, but I was an hour late in answering a text message from the casting agency booking extras on a Season 12 episode that filmed in Burbank (at Warner Bros. Studio) on February 12. Oh well again. The screenshot at the top of this Blog entry is from Episode 9.4: "The 2003 Approximation," and the image below is from Episode 10.6: "The Fetal Kick Catalyst." I'm holding that blue plastic bag...which contained several comic books worth over a thousand dollars. Bazinga on that last part! Carry on.

Bidding Farewell to THE BIG BANG THEORY...

A few hours ago, Warner Bros. and CBS announced that the upcoming season of The Big Bang Theory will also be its last. I'm so sad to see this show go! Big Bang combined 6 interests of mine into a sitcom that's been TV's most popular comedy for much of its soon-to-be 12-year run:

- Science
- Space exploration in general
- Star Wars
- Comic books
- Comic book, science-fiction and science-fantasy movies in general

and of course,

- Pretty girls (I'll miss you, Penny and Bernadette! Amy, congrats on the wedding)


The end begins on September 24—when the Season 12 premiere of The Big Bang Theory airs on CBS. Happy Hump Day! (That was a bazinga. It's a very UN-happy Hump Day for us Big Bang fans... A very unhappy Hump Day, indeed.)

PS: In case you're wondering why I chose the screenshot above, go to this old Blog entry to find out.

LA to Vegas...

So what's the word on this show's chances of being renewed for a second season? I watched the season (hopefully not series) finale of LA to Vegas yesterday, and needless to say, I wanna see more wacky exploits by these Jackpot Airline (no, it's not a real airline) employees. It's hilarious to see Peter Stormare (of Armageddon, Prison Break and John Wick 2 fame) once again sporting a Russian accent but not being a homicidal criminal on this sitcom. And ditto with Dylan McDermott—who went from being a traitorous former Secret Service agent in the 2013 film Olympus Has Fallen to playing Jackpot Airlines' goofy pilot Captain Dave. Olivia Macklin is Nichole...a beautiful Vegas stripper with a heart of gold (like Vivica A. Fox in 1996's Independence Day), while Kim Matula and Nathan Lee Graham portray Ronnie and Bernard, the crazy duo who keep life aboard their Jackpot airliner from descending into chaos during the flights from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, and vice versa. And to round out the cast: Amir Talai plays Captain Dave's bumbling co-pilot Alan, and Ed Weeks portrays Colin; a divorced father of one who should finally get things goin' with Ronnie if LA to Vegas sees another season.

So yea, while LA to Vegas has ways to go before it replaces The Big Bang Theory as my all-time favorite sitcom (unless TBBT does end after Season 12 as rumored), it's a hilarious TV show that I try not to miss on Tuesday nights. I might also be biased here; I worked as a background actor on the show at Fox Studios last fall! You can see me as the blur wearing a dark-gray short-sleeved shirt and jeans (and carrying that large black bag) in the screenshots below. They're from episode 1.5: The Fellowship of the Bear, which aired on February 6. Anyways, did I mention that Nichole is so beautiful? Just thought I'd say it again. Happy Hump Day.

Photos of the Day: Another Book Signing at The Grove in LA...

Just thought I'd share these pics that I took when I met Anna Faris—who appeared in such films as Scary Movie and The House Bunny, as well as the CBS TV sitcom Mom—at The Grove in Los Angeles yesterday. Ms. Faris (formerly Mrs. Pratt...as she was married to Jurassic World's Chris Pratt up until this year) was promoting her new book Unqualified. Unfortunately, she didn't do a discussion of her book before the signing (like what 2 Broke Girls Beth Behrs and The Big Bang Theory's Mayim Bialik did last May), but at least she posed for the cool group photo below. Nice. This is the first of two book signings that I plan to attend at Barnes & Noble in The Grove this month. The other one will be on November 17, when Krysten Ritter of Marvel's Jessica Jones shows up at the bookstore to promote her new novel Bonfire. Happy Tuesday.

A Weird Dream to Save the World...

So last night, I had an odd but memorable dream where I was part of a ragtag team that had to save the world from...a giant chicken (much bigger than the one that Peter Griffin occasionally scraps with on FOX TV's Family Guy). The team consisted of ex-coworkers, random ladies that I may or may not have met in real life, Jayma Mays from the new film American Made (which I saw at the theater yesterday; great movie) and Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. The last thing we did before I woke up (darn it) was dive into a giant underground chasm while riding inside large garbage bags. Again, this was a weird dream. That giant chicken still lurks since we weren't able to complete our adventure... Maybe I'll dream this journey again tonight!

Oh, and the beautiful and talented Milana Vayntrub was in another dream I had last night. No— Nothing creepy; we were on the same team for some math competition or something. Would've been cool if she helped us take on that chicken...fighting as none other than Squirrel Girl. Anyways, Happy October!

Photos of the Day #3: Meeting Amy Farrah Fowler...

Almost one week after I met Beth Behrs of the TV sitcom 2 Broke Girls (which was unfortunately cancelled by CBS two days after her book signing), I went back to Barnes & Noble at The Grove a few hours ago to meet another actress on a CBS comedy: Mayim Bialik...who plays Sheldon Cooper's girlfriend Amy Farrah Fowler on the hit series The Big Bang Theory (TBBT). Bialik promoted her new publication Girling Up tonight—going into detail about what she wanted to write about that would inspire young female readers, and mentioning how awesome it is to play a neuroscientist on TV (that would be Amy Fowler, in case you don't watch TBBT) since she's also an actual neuroscientist in real life!



Bialik's book discussion and Q&A was moderated by comedian Iliza Shlesinger...the 2008 winner of NBC'S Last Comic Standing and the creator of Truth & Iliza (obviously). It was awesome meeting Bialik! (Would've been cool to meet Shlesinger as well! She immediately left the table and exited once the discussion ended... I obviously stayed to get in line for Bialik's autograph signing instead.) Unsurprisingly, when I went up to Mayim's table to finally meet her, I mentioned the shocking last scene between Amy and Sheldon in Big Bang's Season 10 finale on May 11. Did Amy say yes? We'll hopefully find out in the Season 11 premiere this September... Or not. Have a good night.

Supergirl, Meet Superman!

Can't wait to see Melissa Benoist kick ass as Supergirl again when the TV series begins Season 2 on the CW Network—the show originally aired on CBS last season—this October! (Supergirl premieres on October 10, to be exact.) However, the jury is out on Tyler Hoechlin (of MTV's Teen Wolf) as the Man of Steel. For starters, what's with that weird smirk on his face? And two, where's the spitcurl? At least Zack (Brian Thomas Smith) humorously sported it when he dressed as Superman to hang out with Penny (Kaley Cuoco) and Co. in a Season 4 episode of The Big Bang Theory... Looks like Hoechlin's portrayal will be more like that of Henry Cavill than those by the late Christopher Reeves and Brandon Routh. Oh well.

So True...

Just thought I'd end November with this interesting meme that was posted on my Facebook news feed a few days ago. I could definitely relate to it...ever since January of 2011. Won't elaborate—but the amount of fun and memorable memories that I have of last decade is equated to the amount of memorably tumultuous experiences I've had over the past five years. It's true that a lot of cool things have happened to me since the start of this decade (finally being able to do the HALO jump in 2013, appearing on my favorite TV show The Big Bang Theory two months ago, etc...), but if I can go back to the feeling of contentment (not complacency, mind you) that I felt in December of 2010, I would. Happy Monday.

Comikaze Expo 2015...

Happy Halloween, Everyone! Earlier today, I drove down to the Los Angeles Convention Center to attend the annual comic book expo that's created and hosted by none other than Stan Lee himself. Like my last visit two years ago (when I met and got an autograph by Alyssa Milano), I went to this year's Comikaze specifically to meet two lovely actresses from various sci-fi and comic book TV shows over the years: Danielle Panabaker and Summer Glau. I last saw Ms. Glau at an event back in 2008, when she was promoting the now-defunct FOX TV show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Since then, she's appeared on such TV programs as the hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory and the CW Network's Arrow. Danielle Panabaker herself is one of the main stars on CW Network's The Flash.



After I attended the photo ops for Ms. Panabaker and Ms. Glau, I went to Stan Lee's museum exhibit inside the West Hall of the convention center (all of the celebrity photo ops took place inside the South Hall)...mostly to see if it had the suit worn by Paul Rudd in last July's Ant-Man (my favorite Marvel flick this year— Sorry Avengers: Age of Ultron). It didn't...but it did have the cool life-size statue of the new shrinkable member of the Avengers shown directly below. In regards to Age of Ultron, I definitely needed to take a pic with the Hulkbuster statue shown in the last image at the bottom of this entry. Of course, this statue isn't full-scale; otherwise, the Hulkbuster suit would've probably been too tall to fit under the ceiling of the West Hall. That is all.

"Thor and Dr. Jones... Thor and Dr. Jones..."

Almost four hours ago, an episode of The Big Bang Theory that I was lucky enough to be an extra on finally aired on CBS. Titled "The 2003 Approximation," this episode featured Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar) creating a band known as Footprints on the Moon after Stuart (Kevin Sussman) mentioned to the duo that he wanted live music for his comic book store to give it a "staying in business" vibe. As their first song, Howard and Raj came up with a power ballad known as "Hammer and Whip: The Untold Story of Thor vs. Indiana Jones." After Raj first previews the song to his girlfriend Emily Sweeney (played by Laura Spencer), he and Howard played it in front of a larger comic book store audience—which included Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), his new wife Penny (Kaley Cuoco), Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Howard's wife Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) and Emily. While the chorus "Thor and Dr. Jones" was amusing enough to make even Penny grin, the song still wasn't catchy enough to prevent Stuart from asking Footprints on the Moon to "play something we can dance to."

Ever since I started doing background acting work four years ago, I've always wanted to work on The Big Bang Theory. Considering the fact that not only did I finally get booked on this show (this episode was filmed at Warner Bros. studio in early September), but I actually got to be in a scene that featured all but one of the main cast members (Mayim Bialik, who plays Amy Farrah Fowler, wasn't in this scene), made this opportunity even sweeter. And "Hammer and Whip" was much funnier to listen to in person ("Thor and Dr. Jones" was stuck in my head for the rest of that day); Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg are both very talented in playing a guitar and keyboard, respectively.

The Big Bang Theory is one of the coolest shows that I've ever worked on. Not only is the cast really nice and cool, but so is the crew as well (the fact that this sitcom will officially last at least one more season would put me in good spirits too). A worse-case scenario if I never got to step on set for this show would've been me signing up to be in the audience for a live taping in Burbank. Obviously, it didn't come down to that. After our scene (known as the tag, since it came right before the end credits) was filmed, the main cast took a group photo. Would've been cool if the background actors got to be close to the camera too, but it's all good. We just photobombed the pic instead! Bazinga.

Photos of the Day: Meeting Tina Shukshin!

So last night, I finally got to meet the very beautiful and talented Milana Vayntrub...who performed two hilarious skits at the Inner Sanctum Cafe in Hollywood. For those of you who don't know who Milana is (AS IF!), she appeared on such TV shows as Californication, House of Lies and Silicon Valley. Oh, and she's been playing the charming Lily Adams on AT&T commercials for about a year now. But her most recent work can be seen on the Yahoo! web series Other Space—which is created by Paul Feig, the director behind the hit film Bridesmaids and the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot. (Milana's Other Space co-star Neil Casey was on-hand to perform the skits with her yesterday.)



I'm quite relieved that I finally met Ms. Vayntrub! Considering how popular she's becoming by the day, I was afraid that the only way to meet her would be to attend a book signing (like I did with Jessica Alba in March of 2013) or to go to a comic book expo (as in the case with Alyssa Milano in November of that same year) and dish out some cash! Thank God that's not the case (though I did have to pay $5 for parking last night). Oh, and check out Other Space now! It's totally hilarious (Tina Shukshin is the name of Milana's character on the show, FYI)... Probably my second favorite sci-fi-themed, geeky comedy behind The Big Bang Theory. Carry on.