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
Laziness & effortless
And what is this? I think the producers and writers finally took notice of the criticism from the fans about the current season. Finally - at almost the end of the season, I might add. In the last two episodes they tried to go back to the old days, I guess. And it doesn't work. They just copy-pasted an old script and edited and tweaked it a little bit. And tweaked it in a bad way; it wasn't even funny.
Leonard has just become even more wailing than he already was. Penny is only absent or latent and Sheldon is not likable anymore. The actors earn $ 1,000,000 per episode and all they did here was respond to the storyline of Christine Baranski and Laurie Metcalf. My compliments to these two actresses by the way. They did all the acting, while the main actors just nodded or gasped or yelled.
I can't say anything about the other story. It was just some slapstick involving Howard and Stuart I guess. Bernadette becomes less lovable by every show, but Melissa Rauch is the only one who cares of any decent acting and is the funniest of the whole group. In both story lines they all act like toddlers what states that the characters just have become childish. It is like the show would better fit on Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel nowadays.
The actors and also writers and producers have become lazy here. The show will go on for two more seasons and the big bucks contracts are already signed. So why should they bother. In the beginning of the season it was still visible efforts were made. Only not in a way the audience liked it. Now it is like the makers just don't care anymore and don't take any effort to make something new that is creative and exciting. It is the laziness that just might kill this once so amazingly humorous show.
Leonard has just become even more wailing than he already was. Penny is only absent or latent and Sheldon is not likable anymore. The actors earn $ 1,000,000 per episode and all they did here was respond to the storyline of Christine Baranski and Laurie Metcalf. My compliments to these two actresses by the way. They did all the acting, while the main actors just nodded or gasped or yelled.
I can't say anything about the other story. It was just some slapstick involving Howard and Stuart I guess. Bernadette becomes less lovable by every show, but Melissa Rauch is the only one who cares of any decent acting and is the funniest of the whole group. In both story lines they all act like toddlers what states that the characters just have become childish. It is like the show would better fit on Nickelodeon or the Disney Channel nowadays.
The actors and also writers and producers have become lazy here. The show will go on for two more seasons and the big bucks contracts are already signed. So why should they bother. In the beginning of the season it was still visible efforts were made. Only not in a way the audience liked it. Now it is like the makers just don't care anymore and don't take any effort to make something new that is creative and exciting. It is the laziness that just might kill this once so amazingly humorous show.
helpful•2025
- royhendrickx
- May 1, 2015
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