Mayim Biailik is best known for playing Amy Fowler in “Big Bang Theory,” which is the highest rated sitcom on television. There is an identifiably Jewish character on the series about middle aged scientists, but it is not Fowler, but Howard Wolowitz, played by Simon Helberg, who refers often on the program to his Jewish background. Chuck Lorre, the show’s writer, says he based the character Wolowitz on himself. Lorre was on the receiving end of an anti-Semitic vent from Charlie Sheen, who was dismissed from “Two and Half Men.” Sheen denied he was anti-Semitic, but repeatedly referred to Lorre contemptuously by his real name, Chaim Levine. Lorre has spoken positively about his Jewish roots and made a trip to Israel in 2011.
Mayim Bialik speaks with great respect about Chuck Lorre’s artistic decisions, particularly on his insistence that “Big Bang Theory” be filmed before a live studio audience. “If something isn’t funny to our audience,” Mayim Bialik writes on Kveller, “It gets changed until the audience joins us.” Sometimes laughs get cut in length, but they never are added. The fact that laughs are edited makes them sound canned sometimes, but Bialik insists the hilarity the show produces is 100% organic. Bialik also warns her fans not to ask her for hints, much less spoilers, because the cast does not get the scripts far in advance, and often the actors do not know what is going to happen from one show to the next. She also says she doesn’t watch herself on television, and has never seen the last three seasons of her 1990s series “Blossom.”
Even though Amy Fowler is a fictional character, the fact that Bialik is a neuroscientist portraying a scientist has inspired young women to study science. She told Today, “Yes, I’ve had the blessing to have the sentiment expressed to me, even from women who are in college and have said, ‘You’ve inspired me all the way to study science as a college student. But it’s not just about women–I’ve heard it from men. They get to see women differently when they are presented that way.” Bialik is not the only female scientist playing a scientist on the show–Melissa Rauch, who plays Bernadette, is a microbiologist.
Mayim Bialik has had a busy summer, as she updates her readers on Kveller, although she adds the disclaimer that there are no spoilers for the show’s season 9. The first thing she mentions is that she is saying Kaddish for her father who died in April. She traveled to Israel with her ex-mother-in-law, with whom she is still on good terms, and expressed excitement that the LEGO version of Big Bang Theory is coming out, but she is showing restraint buying the set for her kids: “Their dad and I are holding out as long as we can just to show them that not everything is easy just because their mom is a TV star with a LEGO figurine in her likeness.” While she promised no spoilers, she did mention that she gets asked a lot if Amy Fowler is returning after breaking up with Sheldon. Note, however, she doesn’t refer to it as a break up: “Just because my character needed time off from Sheldon doesn’t mean we are broken up, and it certainly doesn’t mean I’m not coming back as a cast member.” She also tells her readers that season 9 picks up within 24 hours of when Season 8 ended, with the “time off” between Sheldon and Amy, and says, “It is a very funny episode.”
After her success in “Blossom,” Bialik went to UCLA and majored in neuroscience, as well as Hebrew and Jewish studies. “I basically walked off television and onto the UCLA campus … I had to earn my way based on my intellect and brainpower.” Her Ph.D at UCLA dealt with obsessive compulsive disorder among those with Prader-Will syndrome, a rare condition in which the hypothalamus malfunctions. Her research into the hypothalamus and hormones led to her understanding of the physical aspects of child and parent bonding. The hormonal connection between mother and child supported her preference for attachment parenting, which included extended nursing, baby wearing and co-sleeping. She wrote a book, “Beyond the Sling,” about attachment parenting. She told CNN that she and her then husband, Michael Stone, did not use babysitters and preferred home schooling. Stone, who was raised a Mormon and converted to Judaism, and Bialik divorced in 2012.
