{"id":9561,"date":"2020-08-10T11:14:33","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T15:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=9561"},"modified":"2020-09-01T11:43:15","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T15:43:15","slug":"all-time-most-inspiring-tv-shows-4-the-big-bang-theory-i-can-only-imagine-to-debut-on-uptv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/08\/all-time-most-inspiring-tv-shows-4-the-big-bang-theory-i-can-only-imagine-to-debut-on-uptv.html","title":{"rendered":"All-time Most Inspiring TV Shows #3: &#8220;The Big Bang Theory&#8221; + &#8220;I Can Only Imagine&#8221; to debut on UPtv"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith and media:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Continuing my list of the 25 Most Inspiring\/Feel-Good TV series in the history of broadcast television&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The rules: Each show chosen has to have aired for free (the way TV should be), feature ongoing characters, have a positive theme and, especially, be liked by me. Entries are presented in alphabetical order.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/07\/the-25-most-inspiring-feel-good-tv-series-of-all-time-1-all-in-the-family.html\"><strong>1. <em>All in the Family<\/em> (CBS\/9 seasons: 1971-79)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/08\/tvs-25-all-time-most-inspiring-series-2-ben-10.html\"><strong>2.<\/strong> <strong><em>Ben 10 (<\/em>Cartoon Network\/12 seasons: 2005-14)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>3. <em>The Big Bang Theory<\/em> (CBS\/12 Seasons: 2007-2019)<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Big_Bang_Theory\">Wikipedia Premise<\/a>: <\/strong>The show originally centered on five characters living in Pasadena, California: Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), both physicists at Caltech, who share an apartment; Penny (Kaley Cuoco) , a waitress and aspiring actress who lives across the hall; and Leonard and Sheldon&#8217;s similarly geeky and socially awkward friends and co-workers, aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar). Over time, supporting characters were promoted to starring roles, including neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler, microbiologist Bernadette Rostenkowski, experimental physicist Leslie Winkle (Sara Gilbert), and comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman).<strong><br \/>\nShow History: <\/strong>Hugely popular with the public (becoming the #1 show on television in Season 7) but dismissed by many critics the show, nonetheless, garnered 46 Emmy seven nominations and seven wins (including four well-deserved Best Lead Actor in a Comedy prizes for Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper) over its 12 seasons\/279 episodes.\u00a0 It&#8217;s produced by Chuck Lorre (who has three other shows on this list), this generation&#8217;s Norman Lear.\u00a0\u00a0 <strong><br \/>\nPositive Theme: <\/strong><em>\u201cSometimes it&#8217;s the imperfect stuff that makes things perfect.\u201d<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The Big Bang Theory 11x24 Finale - Sheldon and Mrs Cooper&#039;s Moment Before The Wedding\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eWaH_psedMs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why I like it: <\/strong>Scenes like the one above. <em>Big Bang<\/em> is one of those few shows that manages to produce truly laugh-out-lout character-driven comedy and sweet, lump-in-the-throat moments that flow naturally with no sense of being contrived or forced. Plus, while Sheldon was an amazing character played to perfect imperfection by Parsons, the other stars and its many, many supporting and recurring were well-drawn and relatable.<br \/>\nThe relationships between the lead characters were funny and heartwarming. A group of people who don&#8217;t quite fit in with the rest of the world finding deep and lasting friendships (and marriages) with one another is simply a kind and uplifting idea for a show that will live on as one of broadcast television&#8217;s best.\u00a0 <strong><br \/>\nNitpicking: <\/strong>While a cute little show from the very beginning, the show only really began gaining steam in Season 3 with the introduction of the Amy and Bernadette as love interests for Sheldon and Howard and female friends for Penny. <strong><br \/>\nBest Episodes: <\/strong>You can&#8217;t go wrong with almost any episode from Season 3 on but if I were to name a best (which I guess I am), it would have to be the series finale where Sheldon and Amy share a Nobel Prize (for their theory on the Asymmetric Universe) and their acceptance speeches which beautifully summarizes the overall themes of the show. One of the best TV finales ever.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Sheldon and Amy Recieve Nobel Prize || Full Speech || Final Episode of The Big Bang Theory\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rZ6ZeeP6Sao?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>And then there&#8217;s this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?time_continue=4&#038;v=mOibkaP4g8I&#038;feature=emb_logo<\/p>\n<p>BTW, I&#8217;ve written about this show before. You can check out my previous post about it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2019\/09\/10-lessons-big-bang-asymmetric-universe.html\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>______<\/p>\n<p><strong>UPtv has announced today that the box-office hit film <em>I Can Only Imagine<\/em> will make its U.S. cable premiere on the network<\/strong><em><strong>.<\/strong><br \/>\nI Can Only Imagine\u00a0<\/em>tells the inspiring true story\u00a0 behind MercyMe\u2019s chart topping song of the same name. UP will debut the film <strong>Saturday, Sept. 5 at 9 p.m. ET<\/strong> and <strong>Sunday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. ET<\/strong>. <em>I Can Only Imagine<\/em> is Roadshow Attractions highest-grossing film ever with 83.5M domestically and 86.1M worldwide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are proud to premiere this star-studded hit film that is not only a highly-entertaining movie, but also is a powerful true story about forgiveness and following your dreams,\u201d says Hector Campos, vice president content strategy &amp; acquisitions for UPtv. \u201cUPtv strives to uplift viewers with our programming, and <em>I Can Only Imagine <\/em>certainly delivers on that. This is the perfect addition to our robust movie offering on the network.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Synopsis:<\/em> <\/strong><em>Growing up in Greenville, Texas, Bart Millard suffered physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father, Arthur. When Arthur becomes terminally ill, he finds redemption by embracing his faith and rediscovering his love for his son. Years later, Bart&#8217;s troubled childhood and mended relationship with his dad inspires him to write the hit song &#8220;I Can Only Imagine&#8221; as singer of the Christian band MercyMe. The movie stars J Michael Finley, Madeline Carroll, Dennis Quaid, Trace Adkins, Cloris Leachman and Jason Burkey. I Can Only Imagine is Roadshow Attractions highest-grossing film ever with 83.5M domestically and 86.1M worldwide.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>By the Numbers:<\/strong>\u00a0 UPtv is the fastest growing entertainment network in the second quarter.*<\/p>\n<p><em>*Source: Nielsen, C3, W2554 (000), Total Day ASC Rank, 2Q20 vs 2Q19 excl news net.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith and media: Continuing my list of the 25 Most Inspiring\/Feel-Good TV series in the history of broadcast television&#8230; The rules: Each show chosen has to have aired for free (the way TV should be), feature ongoing characters, have a positive theme and, especially, be liked by me.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1085,5375,24,25,31,1],"tags":[652,9264,9918,9921,4725],"class_list":["post-9561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-forgiveness","category-mental-health","category-movies","category-music","category-television","category-uncategorized","tag-cbs","tag-i-can-only-imagine","tag-mercyme-uptv","tag-roadshow-attractions","tag-the-big-bang-theory"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>All-time Most Inspiring TV Shows #3: &quot;The Big Bang Theory&quot; + &quot;I Can Only Imagine&quot; to debut on UPtv<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"All-time Most Inspiring TV Shows #3: &quot;The Big Bang Theory&quot; + &quot;I Can Only Imagine&quot; to debut on UPtv\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith and media: Continuing my list of the 25 Most Inspiring\/Feel-Good TV series in the history of broadcast television&#8230; The rules: Each show chosen has to have aired for free (the way TV should be), feature ongoing characters, have a positive theme and, especially, be liked by me.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/08\/all-time-most-inspiring-tv-shows-4-the-big-bang-theory-i-can-only-imagine-to-debut-on-uptv.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-10T15:14:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-01T15:43:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"All-time Most Inspiring TV Shows #3: \"The Big Bang Theory\" + \"I Can Only Imagine\" to debut on UPtv","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"All-time Most Inspiring TV Shows #3: \"The Big Bang Theory\" + \"I Can Only Imagine\" to debut on UPtv","og_description":"Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith and media: Continuing my list of the 25 Most Inspiring\/Feel-Good TV series in the history of broadcast television&#8230; The rules: Each show chosen has to have aired for free (the way TV should be), feature ongoing characters, have a positive theme and, especially, be liked by me.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/08\/all-time-most-inspiring-tv-shows-4-the-big-bang-theory-i-can-only-imagine-to-debut-on-uptv.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2020-08-10T15:14:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-09-01T15:43:15+00:00","author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/08\/all-time-most-inspiring-tv-shows-4-the-big-bang-theory-i-can-only-imagine-to-debut-on-uptv.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/08\/all-time-most-inspiring-tv-shows-4-the-big-bang-theory-i-can-only-imagine-to-debut-on-uptv.html","name":"All-time Most Inspiring TV Shows #3: \"The Big Bang Theory\" + \"I Can Only Imagine\" to debut on UPtv","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-08-10T15:14:33+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-01T15:43:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/08\/all-time-most-inspiring-tv-shows-4-the-big-bang-theory-i-can-only-imagine-to-debut-on-uptv.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/08\/all-time-most-inspiring-tv-shows-4-the-big-bang-theory-i-can-only-imagine-to-debut-on-uptv.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2020\/08\/all-time-most-inspiring-tv-shows-4-the-big-bang-theory-i-can-only-imagine-to-debut-on-uptv.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"All-time Most Inspiring TV Shows #3: &#8220;The Big Bang Theory&#8221; + &#8220;I Can Only Imagine&#8221; to debut on UPtv"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/","name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - John W. Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9561"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9788,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9561\/revisions\/9788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}