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The Big Bang Theory was an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. It ran for twelve seasons from 2007 to 2019.

The series revolved around the lives of, initially, the five main characters: Dr. Sheldon Cooper and Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, two physicists who share an apartment and work at Caltech university, their neighbour, Penny, a waitress and aspiring actress, and Sheldon and Leonard's similarly geeky and socially awkward coworkers; aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz, and astrophysicist Rajesh "Raj" Koothrappali. The show's main cast expanded in later seasons to include neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler, microbiologist Bernadette Rostenkowski, and comic book store owner Stuart Bloom.

A common element of the show are the male characters' interests in popular culture such as fantasy and science fiction, leading to a multitude of references to real world franchises, from Star Wars and Star Trek, to Dungeons & Dragons and, of course, Doctor Who; the series is shown to be a favourite of Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj, with Penny, Amy, and Bernadette usually displaying indifference or even outright disdain for the series, with references to it occurring multiple times throughout the show's run.