Hello and welcome to the start of our day two coverage here at Comic-Con, live and direct from San Diego.
First up here in a fully-packed Hall H (the largest room at the convention) is geeky comedy The Big Bang Theory. Now entering its sixth season and already renewed for a seventh, the show continues to defy all expectations in the ratings, setting a new record of more than 16.5m viewers earlier this year.
Note that all times in this live blog are Pacific, which is eight hours behind UK time and three hours behind East Coast.
12.57pmThat's a wrap on this panel. Join me again in the next 15 or so for The Walking Dead!
12.56pmAfter much foreplay, a woman called Mercedes has won a trip to space. Clap along for Mercedes at home, please.
12.52pmInstead they're going to hand the opportunity to everyone who asked a question. All of them - minus the children - are now on stage.
12.51pmWe've just watched a promo video for the experience, which allows him to roughly experience being in space. Helberg: "Altitudes give me a lot of gas, I'm a picky eater..."
12.49pmActual astronaut Rick Seafoss comes out and asks Helberg if he'd like to go into space for real. Everyone is cheering.
12.48pmWould Helberg go into space? "Errr, yeah, especially having to got into that mindset the last season. It sounds like the most unbelievable experience you could imagine."
12.46pmWhere does Helberg see himself in 10-15 years as an actor? Nayyar: "Boring!" Helberg: "I hope to be lucky enough to be working with such great company as I have the last five seasons. I'm excited to be doing different things. I know that's a little vain but hopefully it will take me back here, to Comic-Con."
12.46pmWill we ever know Penny's last name? Cuoco: "She's like Cher, just the one." Lorre: "At this point we're a little bit superstitious about it."
12.45pmWhat's it like kissing Johnny and Kunal - who's better? Cuoco: "They're so dreamy. I've kissed johnny a lot more. Kunal was good, it was fun. It was like kissing my brother."
12.44pmHow long did it take to create the Lego deathstar? Lorre: "A bunch of assistants, it took them weeks. My vanity card was thanking them for their hard work." Prady recalls how they bought it off Ebay and expected it to come assembled.
12.43pmParsons: "Wait, did he say flaccid?"
12.43pmHow does Parsons keep a placid look on his face during the show? "I'm just a professional."
12.42pm"These kids are young to be so drunk," says Helberg.
12.41pmHis question makes no sense either. The panel are now bullying these children.
12.40pmAnother child challenges everyone to a nerd battle, but then isn't able to follow it up. Next question... another child.
12.39pm"How was it on the set?" asks a child bluntly, making everyone laugh.
12.38pmIs it a big deal for Cuoco when she goes to The Cheesecake Factory for real? "I did go a couple years ago. I'm so unaware of myself when I'm out of the show, so I was getting a lot of looks and things. I didn't get it until a couple days later. I haven't really been back." Helberg: "It's like when I go to space."
12.37pmNayyar: "I like it whenever I have to say a word with the letter p, like poop." Cuoco: "I guess mine is when Sheldon and I have our honey honey honeys at the door." Parsons: "There was an exchange this year between Leonard and I where I ended it with 'I don't know your life'."
12.35pmFave lines? Rauch: "Anything as Mrs Wolowitz." Helberg: "I can't remember any lines, we learn an episode every week. But I do enjoy the exchanges with Mrs Wolowitz. It's fun to let out my frustrations on life on this poor woman."
12.34pmWas Parsons good at science in school? "No, not particularly. I did honestly have an interest in meteorology very briefly, but by then I was already involved in theatre, so I failed at it."
12.32pmWhy is there always takeout? Parsons: "We are very busy - creating things, thinking things and changing the world around you, so we don't have time to cook. Thank you."
12.31pmDo any of them share personality traits with their characters? Bialik: "I have personality characteristics of Sheldon's character." Cuoco: "I live next door to people."
12.28pmSpider-Man (really) asks: Can Magneto lift Thor's hammer? No-one seems to understand the question. False geeks.
12.27pmCrossover between Big Bang and 2 and a Half Men? Lorre: "Okay sure, we'll get right on that. Actually we discussed that one of these guys would be great to tutor Jake because he's such a knucklehead."
12.25pmNow Howard and Bernadette are getting married, will Rajesh ever find anyone? Nayyar: "It's going to be okay. After falling in love with Siri, I don't know how far down that rope he can go." Lorre reveals they have a romance planned for him. "I wouldn't cheer yet, wait until you see it!"
12.24pmIs Parsons a man or a muppet? "I'm a man. I thought it was very appropriate casting to cast me as a muppet because that's how I feel. So it worked out well. But I am a man."
12.23pmCute Mexican brother and sister. Do they really understand the facts they say on the show? Cuoco: "Why is everyone looking at me?" She recalls doing the live long and prosper sign wrong.
12.22pmHow is Helberg able to fit into his outfits? "In the very beginning it did require assistance. The wardrobe ladies had to help me get my pants out of it. It's exciting every week to open my dressing room and see what is hanging there. I won't make a bad joke about things hanging. It's a lot of sucking in."
12.21pmAudience Q&As. About time, because so far they've been dull.
12.20pmDid everyone shake Hawking's hand? Lorre: "He insists on it." Prady: "He has feeling, just no motor control. You're connecting with someone remarkable."
12.19pmHow was it having Nimoy on the show? Rauch: "I shared a bathroom with him. Just saying."
12.18pmSome discussion about how Stephen Hawking laughs. Helberg jokes that it's "LOL. He just types it."
12.17pmAlso here we have Mayim Bialik (Amy) and Melissa Rauch (Bernadette), by the way.
12.16pmParsons's highlight of last season: "I liked the hand-holding but also the in-general exploration of the whole Amy and Sheldon relationship. It's fun to see where that is going, as slowly as that might be."
12.15pmLorre's highlight: "The last episode where everyone was watching as Wolowitz blasted off into space and they all held hands."
12.13pmThe moderator for this panel, Mythbusters host Adam Savage, brings the gang out: exec producers Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady, and the cast, including Parsons via satellite from New York.
12.10pmExcitable Susan, the lovely PR girl from WB, comes out and reads us some Big Bang facts. She says Galecki probably won't be here in time for the panel because his flight is delayed. Cue the season 5 gag reel.
12.09pm"You're all here for big bang right?" asks the moderator. I'm cheering but probably not for what he thinks.
12.08pmIf anyone followed my Beauty and the Beast blog and was curious what my free gift was, well, it turned out to be two badges ("buttons") - one with the BEAUTY on and one with the BEAST!
12.06pmThe stage manager is instructing unauthorised cameramen to get in their correct pen. The audience is whooping. Easily pleased.
12.05pmDamn, he's sped off.
12.04pmComic-Con Useless Fact #720: A man in a scooter who ran me over yesterday has just reappeared to my right. Might let his tyres down on the sly.
12.03pmComic-Con Useless Fact #512: The queue for the men's in Hall H is currently much longer than that for the women's.
12.01pmComic-Con Useless Fact #482: The free internet here is sponsored by MTV's Teen Wolf. Old wolfie chops doesn't seem to be a fan of Hall H, however.
12.00pmWe get underway in approximately five minutes.
11.56amIn today's panel I expect we'll have all of the usual suspects - namely Leonard (Johnny Galecki), Sheldon (Jim Parsons), Penny (Kaley Cuoco), Howard (Simon Helberg) and Rajesh (Kunal Nayyar).
11.50amIncidentally I've just sat through a panel for new stop-motion movie ParaNorman, where Chris Mintz-Plasse revealed that Kick-Ass 2 is likely to start filming in September. GO RED MIST!
11.50amIncidentally I've just sat through a panel for new stop-motion movie ParaNorman, where Chris Mintz-Plasse revealed that Kick-Ass 2 is likely to start filming in September. GO RED MIST!
11.48amAssuming my laptop doesn't conk out, straight after this panel I'll be bringing you live blogs of The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones.
11.45amThe queue for the panels in Hall H today was preposterous, stretching right down to the Marina and looping around several times... before 8am.
Written by
Neil Wilkes
Neil Wilkes
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