As Josh pointed out yesterday, Big Bang Theory, the most popular show in America, doesn’t technically have a cast at the moment, as the actors and studio are currently involved in rather intense negotiations over whether the former deserve a Friends-esque bump in pay. This made the show’s writers’ panel at Comic-Con today somewhat awkward, especially when one reporter tried to ask about it and apparently got shut down by an excitable monitor. From Deadline:
However, the Comic-Con hall monitors, who typically let most questions through to the panel, were definitely on guard. When a Deadline reporter tried to ask Bill Prady and [executive producer Steve] Molaro a question about the cast negotiation, the monitor exclaimed, “We can’t let you ask about that — it’s a legal question.”
The first thing I’d like to point out here is how ridiculous it is that a reporter was apparently forbidden to ask a relevant question during an open Q&A session. Steve Molaro is the executive producer of the show. He’s more than capable of issuing a tap-dancing “no comment” about an ongoing legal situation. Not to go all Woodward and Bernstein on you guys over a panel at a fan service festival that people use as an excuse to go to San Diego for a week, but come on.
The second thing I’d like to point out is how silly this all is. I get that nobody can comment while the lawyers are involved, but this deal is getting done. Obviously. The show is too valuable to everyone. It’s like those stories that pop up every few years about the Simpsons voice cast wanting more money, and how they’re perfectly happy to walk away if they don’t get a better deal. Well, yeah. That’s the one move they have. “Pay us or we won’t do the thing.” Then other side leaks something about the extraordinary demands they’re supposedly making (“KALEY CUOCO WILL ONLY TRAVEL BY HELICOPTER, A SOURCE SAYS. EVEN FROM THE SET TO HER TRAILER”), and everything goes down to the last minute before POOF! A deal. That’s how these things work, generally.
