S06E01 - The Date Night Variable

No: 112  |  Season: 6   Episode: 1  |  Air Date: 2012-09-27  |  Runtime: mins

Summary

Raj crashes Sheldon and Amy's second anniversary and interferes in Leonard and Penny's relationship. Howard gets caught in the middle of an argument between Bernadette and his mother.

Director and Writers

Director: Mark Cendrowski
Writers: Story by: Chuck Lorre & Eric Kaplan & Steve Holland / Teleplay by: Steven Molaro & Jim Reynolds & Maria Ferrari

Script

Script: S06E01 - The Date Night Variable

Quotes

Leonard: Sheldon, are you sure you want to be bringing Raj on your date night with Amy?
Sheldon: Oh, absolutely. I have a contractual obligation to provide Amy with conversation and casual physical contact, but nowhere is it specified that I can't outsource that to an Indian.

Amy: If Sheldon proposed to me during sex, my ovaries would grab on to him and never let go.

Dimitri: Loops, you realize you just lied your ass off to your wife and your mother.
Howard: I know.
Dimitri: What are you going to do when you get back to Earth?
Howard: Oh, I'm never going back.

Mrs. Wolowitz: Don't bother. I'll just go sit in a hole in the ground so I'm no trouble when I die.

Stuart: So, Howard's really in space, huh?
Leonard: Mm hmm, International Space Station. 250 miles that way.
Raj: Right now, Howard's staring down at our planet like a tiny Jewish Greek god. Zeusowitz.
Sheldon: I must admit I can't help but feel a tinge of envy. He can look out the window and see the majesty of the universe unfolding before his eyes. His dim, uncomprehending eyes. Like a cat in an airport carrying case.

Amy: Have I ever told you you're like a sexy praying mantis?
Sheldon: Every time you drink alcohol.
Amy: You know what's wonderful about the praying mantis, they devour their mate.
Sheldon: Your point being?
Amy: (Undoes the top button of her blouse) Dessert is served.
Sheldon: I just had cobbler.
Amy: (Buttons back up) You know what? I'm done with this.
Sheldon: Where are you going?
Amy: I'm leaving.
Sheldon: You can't leave. I need you.
Amy: You do?
Sheldon: Yes. You're my ride.
Amy: Sheldon, you either say something meaningful and from the heart, or you and I are done.
Sheldon: Alright, please. Amy, when I look in your eyes and you're looking back in mine, everything feels not quite normal. Because I feel stronger and weaker at the same time. I feel excited, and at the same time, terrified. The truth is, I don't know what I feel, except I know what kind of man I want to be.
Amy: Sheldon, that was beautiful.
Sheldon: I should hope so. That's from the first Spider-Man movie.
Amy: I'll take it.

Bernadette: Listen mister, you're gonna talk to your mother and you're gonna fix this or that thing I said I was gonna do to you the minute you got home, you can do to yourself.
Dimitri: Like he's been doing since he got here.

Dimitri: Hey Fruit Loops, you got a phone call.
Howard: Who is it?
Dimitri: A woman who says she's your mother but sounds like your father.

Sheldon: The only sea creature I would even consider being eaten by is the Kraken, because the last words I would hear are, "Release the Kraken".

Howard: Ma, please, everyone from NASA is listening to this phone call.
Mrs. Wolowitz: Good! They should know what a horrible son you are!
Howard: Okay, Ma, great talking to you! Gotta go!
(Hangs up)
Howard: Well, space is ruined.

Raj: Isn't this romantic?
Sheldon: I hope that's a rhetorical question, because I have no clue.

Amy: This is so exciting. Soon, my upper lip will be the same fake blonde as my beautiful best friend.
Penny: Hey! This is my natural hair color... now.

Sheldon: Whatever it is, we know his life will never be the same.
(Cut to International Space Station)
Mrs. Wolowitz: (shouting through the phone) Howard! Can you hear me?
Howard: I can hear you without the phone!

Howard: (phone call to the space station) Hey, Ma. You know, we could see each other if you turn on the computer.
Mrs. Wolowitz: I'm not going near that fakakta thing. I'll catch a computer virus!
Howard: You can't catch a computer virus.
Mrs. Wolowitz: Oh, so now you're an astronaut and a doctor?

Howard: Hey, I'm a grown man. I'm gonna live with my wife. My mother's gonna have to learn to make do on her own,
Bernadette: Was she upset?
Howard: Who can tell? She yells everything.

Notes and Trivia

The music Stuart plays at the end is "Desafinado" as performed by Stan Getz.

The scenes of Howard in space were accomplished by filming in a Space Station replica in Canoga Park, California. Only 20 feet of station were available, so over the course of this episode and the next, creative camera angles and framing made it look like there were many different sections. Weightlessness was created by supporting the actors on a very thin platform and have them simulate the effects of microgravity.

While Howard (Simon Helberg) is video chatting with Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) from the International Space Station, the clipboard next to the computer can briefly and clearly be seen, twice, with a letter clipped on top. The address section of the letter is to Varese Saraband Records, best known in Hollywood as a prime record label specializing in film scores, soundtracks, and original cast recordings.

Goofs

None

Cast

Johnny GaleckiLeonard Hofstadter
Jim ParsonsSheldon Cooper
Kaley CuocoPenny
Simon HelbergHoward Wolowitz
Kunal NayyarRaj Koothrappali
Mayim BialikAmy Farrah Fowler
Melissa RauchBernadette Rostenkowski
Kevin SussmanStuart Bloom
Carol Ann SusiDebbie Wolowitz
Pasha D. LychnikoffDimitri