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‘TBBT’ Season 10: Katey Sagal, Jack McBrayer Join Cast As Penny’s Mother And Brother — Penny’s Last Name Also Revealed [Video]

By Dee Sharp
Published on: 12:47 PST, Jul 22, 2016

Variety Magazine just confirmed that The Big Bang Theory will finally introduce Penny’s mom and brother as Katey Sagal and Jack McBrayer in Season 10 of the popular TV series. Sagal (Married With Children, Sons of Anarchy) will play Susan, who is “stressed out and neurotic” because of her troubled son, Randall. Randall, “a cheerful former drug dealer and ex-con,” is played by McBrayer, whom many knew as Kenneth Parcell on 30 Rock, and as a hillbilly character on the Conan O’Brien show. TBBT showrunner Steve Molaro revealed the news at Comic-Con in San Diego today, as reported by Variety.

This won’t be the first time Katey Sagal has played Kaley Cuoco’s mom — she also played Cuoco’s mom in the ABC comedy 8 Simple Rules, which starred John Ritter as Cuoco’s character’s dad on the series. That series ran for several seasons until Ritter passed away in 2005. Randall’s criminal background has been talked about on TBBT before, and McBrayer seems to be just the person to play the wayward brother. Keith Carradine was introduced before as Penny’s father on the series.

The Hollywood Reporter said that the Big Bang Theory panel at the San Diego Comic-Con kicked off with a video compilation of Season 9’s funniest moments, and then the cast and writers of the show talked about the past season. Some of the topics were Sheldon and Amy’s long-awaited first time, Bernadette’s pregnancy, the landmark 200th episode which featured many big stars such as Adam West and Christine Baranski, and Leonard’s dad (Judd Hirsch) and Sheldon’s mom (Laurie Metcalf) running off together in the Season 9 finale. The moderator for the panel was actress Melissa Rauch, who plays Bernadette on the hit series. Rauch lost no time asking the writers about the “coitus episode.” Molaro said that he had never been so stressed out and so invested in a single physical act. Writer Steve Holland said that the debut of Star Wars VII gave them a “high-stakes hook” to hang that episode on.

The writers said that some scenes in TBBT actually were inspired by real life, such as the gang’s frantic search for tickets to Star Wars, and Penny forgetting Leonard’s birthday was based on Jeremy Howe.

“She knows it’s one of two days…After it aired, she actually got it wrong again,” said Howe of Kaley Cuoco.

Molaro also said that Sheldon and Amy will attend a “real-life flag convention” in Season 10. When a fan asked what would Penny’s career be like in Season 10, Molara said, “We’re still figuring things out; I think she’s in an interesting and relatable place. She’s going to start to weigh her options.”

The writers said it was hard to film at real conventions such as WonderCon and SD Comic-Con, but Molaro teased that the B-movie Penny made with Wil Wheaton “is floating around and has developed a cult following” in the universe of TBBT, so Penny might be able to cash in by “signing autographs as the star of ‘Serial Apist'” in the new season.

Variety said that Molaro revealed that a couple of aspects of the “coitus” episode were planned a few years in advance, including using Bob Newhart as a Jedi ghost “to give Sheldon some fatherly advice.” Molaro said he thought if it happened on Amy’s birthday or another annual date, Sheldon could say that he looked forward to doing it again next year.

When asked about the future of The Big Bang Theory, Molaro said it was too soon to know.

“I’m not gonna tell you. There’s been a few thoughts that have floated around, but we don’t really know how long the show’s going to go on for, so I think it’s a little early for us to be thinking about an end point.”

When asked about the show’s future on ET, Molaro looked into the camera and said that if it would help the show’s ratings, then this would be the last season. Oh yes, last but not least, the writers finally revealed the mystery of Penny’s last name: it’s Hofstadter, after the famed scientist.

[Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP Images]

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