Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady's 2007 sitcom The Big Ban Theory was hotly contested when it aired. In the early 2000s, certain types of "geek" interests moved from the cultural fringe directly into the mainstream, previously derided niche interests such as Dungeons and Dragons, comics, long-form video games, astronomy, trivia, and fantasy in general. , all became widely accepted as new entertainment. New types of child-friendly pop artists were canonized. The geek ecosystem was widespread and easily accessible to all curious takers.

The Big Bang Theory, however, has been criticized by some viewers for its inaccurate portrayals of modern geeks. The Big Bang characters were all scientists or intellectuals, and they all loved Star Wars, comics, and RPGs, but they didn't talk like geeks talked, nor did they organically celebrate geek culture. The Big Bang Theory relied too much on the outdated dweeb stereotypes left over from 1984's Revenge of the Nerds and didn't do enough to update its own ethos to match reality.

But despite the criticism, the show was very successful. Like, HUGELY successful. Sufficiently successful to maintain the high rating for 12 consecutive seasons. And, true or not, certain legitimate giants of the geek world have made cameo appearances on the show, usually just to make the main characters squirm with excitement. Stan Lee, Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Steve Wozniak, Nathan Fillion, George Takei, Leonard Nimoy, Wil Wheaton, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Carrie Fisher, James Earl Jones and Buzz Aldrin appeared.

Mayim Bialik played the character Amy Farrah Fowler on "The Big Bang Theory" starting with the third season, and she had the honor of working with most of the above celebrities. Bialik, in an article he wrote for Grok Nation in 2019admitted he can play it cool for most celebrities, but almost fell apart when the Lord of the Rings star came on set. It seems she was a big fan of Sean Astin.