The Maternal Combustion
- Episode aired Apr 30, 2015
- 19m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
3.1K
YOUR RATING
Personalities collide when Leonard and Sheldon's mothers meet for the first time. Bernadette reaches her limit with Howard and Stuart.Personalities collide when Leonard and Sheldon's mothers meet for the first time. Bernadette reaches her limit with Howard and Stuart.Personalities collide when Leonard and Sheldon's mothers meet for the first time. Bernadette reaches her limit with Howard and Stuart.
Kaley Cuoco
- Penny
- (as Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThere were plans to have Mary Cooper and Beverly Hofstadter meet as early as season 6, but it didn't happen until this episode because Laurie Metcalf and Christine Baranski weren't available at the same time any sooner.
- GoofsMary tells of the time when Sheldon bought Uranium from a Warlord in Chad. She says he was 13. In Young Sheldon, they detail this and it happened in the first season when he was 11, not 13.
- Quotes
Mary Cooper: When your mom gets back, I'm gonna need to apologize for the way I spoke to her.
Penny: Well, come on, she did kinda start it.
Mary Cooper: Doesn't matter. A good Christian would have turned the other cheek. On the other hand, a good Texan would have shot her, so I'll just split the difference.
- Crazy creditsCHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #499
I've been around sitcoms for almost thirty years. During that time I've heard a lot of laughter from studio audiences, writers, actors, directors, studio executives, cameramen and myself. But not all laughter is created equal. There are the lonely guffaws of nervous writers and directors anxious to fill the silence that trails behind some jokes like toilet paper on a shoe. And then there's the grimacing, head-bob throat chuckle of network executives. For years I took this strangled, tepid response personally. Now I know it for what it is - the sound of fear. Sometimes studio audiences will try and help a show with what we in the business call "a mercy laugh." There's no mistaking this one. It's the sound of two hundred people who just want to go home. And finally, there's the true, out loud, involuntary explosion of laughter. It's a beautiful, contagious sound. For comedy writers, it makes you feel like your life has value. That all your neurotic suffering is worthwhile. Actors have told me it makes them feel like they're surfing a wave of pure happiness... and that they can keep their kids in private school. Network executives tell me they're not sure how they feel until the results from the focus group comes in. Regardless, in a troubled world, real laughter, that spontaneous outburst of humanness, has to be taken as seriously as a wet fart in white pants.
- ConnectionsReferences Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
- SoundtracksHistory of Everything
(uncredited)
Written by Barenaked Ladies
Performed by Barenaked Ladies
[Series theme song played during the opening titles]
Featured review
A Sad State of Affairs
This is strictly personal opinion. This episode revolves around the respective mothers of Sheldon and Leonard. The first is a know it all psychiatrist who bullies people with her intellect and has no time for human kindness. The other one does the same thing with her fundamentalist garbage, also designed to ignore science and other realities. Her Noah's ark stuff was ridiculous. I realize that these are exaggerated characters and their children are brilliant but terribly dysfunctional. This would seem the logical result of the cruelty they perpetuated.
helpful•45
- Hitchcoc
- Nov 7, 2021
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