If you’ve ever seen an image from The Big Bang Theory, much less watched an entire episode, you probably noticed the caution tape blocking off the elevator through most of the CBS series’ run on the network TV schedule. The Chuck Lorre sitcom did go out of its way to explain what happened with the elevator on the series, which fans may or may be familiar with, but what you may not know is why the writers created the elevator storyline and kept it going for years and years.
It’s a story about dialogue in motion, lack of soundstage space, and even stairs. Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy read.
What’s The Deal With The Broken Elevator On The Big Bang Theory?
At the beginning of the series, Penny (Kaley Cuoco) lived across the hall from Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki), who often had their pals Howard (Simon Helberg) and Raj (Kunal Nayyar) over. Everyone would have to take the stairs up to the fourth floor because the elevator was broken in their building, and that would allow time for chit chat and transitional conversations on the way too and from the apartments. Over time, more cast members were added into the mix and more characters met in the stairwell.
To note, it wasn’t until Season 3 that the fanbase was made aware of why the elevator was broken on the series. Turns out there were some hijinks involved and we can directly blame one of the series leads for why the staircase was broken on the show.
Four years before the events in the show began, Leonard had apparently been testing some rocket fuel that was in the experimental stage and was supposed to “generate 8,000 kilanewtons of thrust.” During the Season 3 episode “The Staircase Implementation” Sheldon and Leonard got into a disagreement over Leonard’s calculations over the fuel, and Leonard indignantly told his buddy off. Only, Sheldon was right, and while Leonard was talking the experimental fuel started malfunctioning. Leonard took it to the elevator, Sheldon closed the doors and a few seconds later a big boom was emitted… and that’s the story behind how the elevator broke.
So, Why Did The Elevator Remain Broken For Most Of TBBT's Run?
Of course, the broken elevator was a fun detail in the Big Bang Theory universe, but according to the writers on the series, it was also a very, very necessary plot device. In fact, writer Steve Holland said back in 2019 that the broken elevator “serves a really important purpose on the show.” It was Bill Prady who clarified how the writers ultimately came up with the elevator device though. Speaking at WonderCon, the writer noted:
So, one of the things you need is a place for characters to walk and talk. When Chuck Lorre and I had worked on Dharma and Greg we had this outside street set where characters could have a conversation. And we had it because it was an unused stage at 20th Century Fox where we shot Dharma. We tried to do that at Big Bang and it was just too much real estate and we started talking about, ‘What if they always had to walk up the stairs?’
OK, so a street was not an option, but I suppose the show could have simply created an apartment building with only stairs as accessibility – I certainly lived in my fair share of those walk-ups in the Los Angeles area (I know it's technically Pasadena) – but having the elevator detail was a fun way to add an additional dimension to the set. Prady said that set in particular coming down made him feel sentimental as the series was ending, given how much that particular writing device had meant to him during The Big Bang Theory’s run.
It would give us – you’re either talking in the car or talking if they’re walking if you need characters to have a conversation in motion – so we created the stairway. I think one of the things that I’m going to find incredibly sad: so, Stage 25 at Warner Bros. we built the Hallway and it is floors 2, 3 and 4 redressed. The stairs that go down, in order to make those stairs the floor of Stage 25 is concrete and they brought in jackhammers, and they jackhammered out the floor and they dug! They poured steps down there, so at some point this summer [after the show ends] I guess they’re gonna come and fill that in. That’s all I think about right now, is watching them fill that in. So, that’s not quite an answer to your question, but it is a story about stairs.
The stairs may have eventually been demolished as the show wrapped, but it’s also worth noting the CBS sitcom did finally fix the elevator, and it was on the forefront of the creators' minds as The Big Bang Theory's finale was coming together.
When Did The Elevator Finally Get Fixed?
Fans wondered for years if the elevator would ever be fixed. Kaley Cuoco even stated The Big Bang Theory elevator was one thing she wanted to see solved before the series wrapped. She eventually got her wish.
At the end of Season 12, Sheldon and Amy (Mayim Bialik) won a Nobel Prize, but it was Sheldon who was struggling with the change that was coming with his newfound fame. Shortly after revealing this to Leonard, Amy showed up with a brand new look and haircut, discomfiting Sheldon further. He then fled the apartment and was confronted by Penny getting off the newly-fixed elevator, which just upset him further. Penny was pretty happy about the change, remarking “Can you believe it?” but for Sheldon it was yet another sign he’d have to face more uncomfortable new things.
Penny and Sheldon then went for a ride, and she convinced him to take a trip on the elevator, which helped him to begin to embrace change. Fittingly, this episode, the penultimate episode of the series, is “The Change Constant,” and fixing the elevator was the perfect "big" note for the series to go out on in the first part of the double episode before TBBT finale wrapped up the rest of the story.
Fittingly, after the episode aired, Steve Holland mentioned to EW it took an entire "42 seconds" for the audience to stop whooping and cheering so Kaley Cuoco could say her line. The moment was cut down for TV.
While I knew the story of the elevator as it played out on the series, I had no idea that it was also a major device for the writers on the show. It’s pretty cool how that storyline, like the characters themselves, changed and grew over time.
