Do they ever eat in The Big Bang Theory?

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xam3l

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This kinda drives me crazy...

Everytime the characters have food in front of them, they just play around with it, its really strange to look at some character in the background just mixing the plate.

They must repeat every take a bazilion times.

Is this common in other tv shows?

(Inb4 TBBT sucks).
 
xam3l said:
This kinda drives me crazy...

Everytime the characters have food in front of them, they just play around with it, its really strange to look at some character in the background just mixing the plate.

They must repeat every take a bazilion times.

Is this common in other tv shows?

(Inb4 TBBT sucks).
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Yes it is, you never noticed it before?
 
I'd imagine the vast majority of shows have multiple takes.
Can you imagine finishing half a pizza before the shoot is up and being told you have to eat that shit again?
I don't think Hollywood in general has people eating in most cases to avoid it looking awkward.
 
Most shows are like this. It's especially stupid here because a lot of scenes are based around group mealtime.
 
Big-Bang-Theory-Chinese.jpg
 
You should watch that SNL skit with Will Ferrell and Sarah Michelle Gellar where they're at the dinner table yelling at one another.

Every person either mixes the food around the plate, continually cuts their food, or "eats" one pea at a time.

It is a really obnoxious thing where the characters can't eat the food during the scene. It really breaks reality.
 
I've attended a sitcom taping before (Not TBBT...
Shit My Dad Says
) and they take like half an hour on a scene. A full taping is about 6 hours long.

Whatever food is on their plate not only needs to look consistently the same between takes, but is also going to be cold and unappetizing if they ever get around to eating some.


That said, I always love it when actors actually do eat. You're absolutely right that it lowers suspension of disbelief.
 
I wonder how much Brad Pitt ate in total when filming Ocean's Eleven. Here's an example:

Question: In the scene where Tess first comes down the stairs at the Bellagio while Linus and Rusty discuss her, you'll notice Brad Pitt is eating shrimp cocktail. Answer: Actually, he's eating something in nearly every scene he's in, which I'll get to in a second. It was Brad who decided that Rusty should be eating shrimp cocktail, and Steven Soderbergh warned him that the scene might have to be shot several times. Brad had no problem with that and ended up consuming about 40 shrimp.
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That's why they pretend to eat.
 
The show is weird with food.
Penny is supposed to be a fucking terrible cook.....but she's the only one that seems to make food that the others eat.
The others just get take out and cafeteria food instead of cooking for themselves.
 
It's less about the actor filling up and more about continuity.

If the food is constantly getting tossed around, that's one thing, but if the amount of food actually changes it's a nightmare for editors and can lead to multiple multiple retakes. Food in the mouth can lead to dozens of botched lines, missed cues, ruined makeup, props, furniture, costumes. Also by the time they're holding the food it's usually cold and disgusting. Eating on camera is a bad idea.

The only time you'll see people eating in a television show, really eating, is when it's an actual plot moment, like Liz Lemon's Sandwich at the Airport.
 
I've heard that sometimes in scenes where characters have to actually eat they have a slop bucket just off screen so that the actors can spit the food out between takes.

I'd kind of rather they just move the food around on the plate than think about that.
 
META said:
Well there is that episode where Sheldon thinks he has appendicitis but is actually just gassy from eating brussel sprouts. That's as close as we'll get to a character taking a bowel movement in that show.
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They take a bowel movement every time they talk.

OP, I learned about this when I read about Road to Perdition on IMDB:

(at around 1h 15 mins) Notice that Michael Jr. isn't eating his pie and ice cream in the diner when he and his father are talking about the money. According to Sam Mendes, in earlier takes Tyler Hoechlin gobbled up his pie, not considering that he would have to perform the scene again and again. By the time they got to the take that's in the film Hoechlin was stuffed and couldn't take another bite. Tom Hanks by contrast knew to put small amounts of food into his mouth and eat slowly.
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I assume it's the same for other productions, TV or movies.
 
Interesting but I wish I didn't knew all this, now I'll be always noticing when they are just playing with their food.
 
Any eating scene in TV or movies is weird like that. I also gather shows where they smoke, they use fake cigarettes, but they still end up feeling like they're going to puke after so many takes.
 
Man I love how BBT gets shit-talked every time it's mentioned on GAF and reddit. A lot of you guys really hate that show, lol. I enjoy it, but I almost enjoy the reactions it causes more. Comparing it to blackface? LOL. That's some good stuff right there.

To answer the thread: I could swear I see them taking a bite sometimes. But yeah, they probably do a lot of takes so I'm guessing the actors would rather not have to eat 7 plates of thai food in one sitting.

I remember watching an interview with Quentin Tarantino where he talked about this. Apparently he hates it when actors don't eat. That's why you'll notice he has some famous scenes that really focus on the food. The strudel scene from Inglourious Basterds, the nacho scene from Death Proof, and the $5 shake from Pulp Fiction come to mind.
 
I read an interview about Downton Abbey where they film scenes over days, but keep the food, which basically just rots over the course of the shoot.

But it's likely a sitcom thing. Me, I can't fucking stand the sound of people eating when I'm watching TV. Older Simpsons episodes were crazy for it. The only thing that could make that little monkey Leonard any more annoying to me is if he smacked his lips eating whatever MSG filled takeaway he'd decided to chow down on that particular night.
 
xclaw said:
It's as equally annoying as the empty coffee cups actors drink from.
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I think that probably bothers me more - not because it's obvious they're not drinking anything (even if it is) but because they don't hold them as if there was actually liquid in them, even half-full. They'll tilt them all over the place and swing them around.
 
It's hard to keep eating like a regular person during a scene you may have to do multiple times.

Also I think this show is amusing and I don't care what any of you mean people say about it.
 
Sou Da said:
BBT is "nerd" blackface pretty much.
Click to expand...

Are these nerds being marginalized by non nerds who play nerds specifically because the producers won't hire "actual" nerds?

Is nerd as inherently identifiable and as socially immutable as being black? What even is a nerd?

Is there a wild and violent history between nerds and non nerds that would make a non nerd pretending to be a nerd look extremely insensitive.

Just because BBT plays on stereotypes does not make it blackface, or anything like it.
 
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