Why It's Okay To Watch The Big Bang Theory's Sex Scenes With Your Family

Television nowadays isn’t quite as family-friendly as in years past. Most shows seem to feature a sex scene every now and then, and some are just a little bit too steamy to want to watch with the whole family in the room. But one of the most highly-anticipated – and highly-watched – recent mainstream sex scenes was between Sheldon and Amy on The Big Bang Theory, and series showrunner Steve Molaro thinks that it was handled just right for the whole family to enjoy without wanting to flee the room.

I think about episodes like Sheldon and Amy’s consummation, which could have been a very adult story but I was perfectly comfortable watching with my kids. It’s neat that we’ve got these characters that are so innocent that they were able to tell the story of two adults losing their virginity in a way that I can watch with my 12-year-old and it wasn’t weird at all.

Steve Molaro’s chat with The Hollywood Reporter on the family-friendliness of Sheldon and Amy’s sex scene is an interesting take on small screen consummations. Plenty of us are familiar with the squirmy feeling of watching the clothes come off on TV while sitting in a room full of parents and/or kids, so Molaro encouraging love scenes suitable for all ages is a good thing for viewers everywhere.

There was a pretty tumultuous stretch of episodes on the Sheldon/Amy front this season, so it’s only fair that all viewers should be able to enjoy the consummation without spending the rest of the evening avoiding eye contact with their loved ones. The two lovebirds were broken up thanks to the issues that were always funny suddenly becoming very serious, and it wasn’t until Sheldon made a bold play to get her back that Shamy were on track again.

Of course, if there were any who wanted to sit out the sex scene, there was plenty of forewarning. The Big Bang big bang was announced well ahead of time as Molaro opined that five years had been long enough to go without the two hitting the sheets together. Considering Amy has been making suggestive remarks for similarly as long, the girl definitely deserved some progress on that front from Sheldon. Fittingly, the deed was finally done in a Star Wars-themed episode that guest-starred Bob Newhart as a Force ghost speaking to Sheldon, because of course that’s how it would go.

The love scene that was building for half a decade was definitely a combination of funny and innocent that could work for pretty much anybody. It didn’t feel like a stunt, but it did fit with the bizarre and hilarious courtship that has been so much fun to watch over the years on The Big Bang Theory.

For more of Sheldon and Amy, be sure to tune in (with or without children) to The Big Bang Theory on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).