The Big Bang Theory is giving Professor Hawking his due. A tribute to the late physicist (and frequent Big Bang guest star) that was initially intended to air at the end of Thursday’s wedding-themed Season 11 finale is being made public by CBS. The scene, which was cut for time, finds Sheldon and Amy opening a posthumous gift from the science icon (scroll down to watch).
Hawking appeared in a total of seven Big Bang episodes, including last September’s season premiere. He died in March after a decades-long battle with ALS. He was 76.
The Hawking sequence was one of two big moments cut from Thursday’s finale. The other scene involved Sheldon receiving a phone call from his beloved Meemaw. “Usually our scripts come in at about 40, 45 pages,” exec producer Steve Holland explained to TVLine. “This one was about 65 pages. We spent the week [of production] paring it back…. Some of those cuts were painful, but anything that wasn’t servicing [the central story] fell by the wayside.”
Watch the “lost” Hawking tribute above and then share your thoughts in the comments.
