Since The Big Bang Theory ended in 2019, cast member Mayim Bialik has still kept busy with acting gigs and her mental health podcast series. She still looks back fondly on her time playing Amy Farrah Fowler on the hit CBS sitcom, though. Amid the 2026 TV schedule, Bialik even returned as Amy in the spinoff series, Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. While Bialik mostly seems to have good memories from making the long-running show, she has some complex thoughts on having to work with that monkey years ago.
In Season 4's “The Agreement Dissection,” Amy gets to work with a monkey, Ricky, as lab research on addiction in primates. On The Big Bang Theory’s official podcast (via YouTube), Mayim Bialik spoke about what it was like working with a monkey, and the experience defied her expectations in a few ways:
The monkey. I mean it was, you know, it was very fascinating, you know, for me as, like, a scientist and a person who really kind of looks at things from that angle. It's a really, really fascinating, very, very advanced, very intelligent, very attached kind of creature. Obviously, working with an animal has a lot of complexity. But working with Squirt, that was her name. …. We got to see the very complicated relationship that she has with her — we don't even call it a trainer. It's like her dad.
I can imagine getting to share the screen with an animal as advanced as a monkey can be a very unforgettable experience. With Capuchins considered the smartest of monkey breeds, someone might think these animals would be a cakewalk to work with on set. Not to mention, Squirt is so cute in the scenes where her character mocks Jim Parsons' Sheldon. (Also, the furry creature's impressive use of a lighter will forever live rent-free in my head.)
Despite what a precious monkey Squirt appeared to be, it wasn’t all that easy to work with her on set, where her trainer (or "dad") was also present. Bialik explained that there were a few reasons for that:
You had to be very, very careful. That's a very smart animal. You really don't want to make eye contact. There's a lot of rules that we were given. So Jim and I were kind of always….You kind of need to leave her with her dad to kind of do what they do. …. It kind of like looks so cute and you want to be like, ‘I want to hold it like a baby.’ No, you treat it like a very special animal.
It's true that monkeys are still wild animals and need to be treated with care, especially in an entertainment-based setting. While I can truly relate to the Jeopardy! host wanting to hold the little Capuchin, it appears she needed to be treated with the same level of professionalism as any other animal. Bialik continued talking about what else she learned while working alongside a monkey on TBBT:
I kind of thought it would be like, ‘I'm going to feed the monkey.’ No, you leave her to do her thing. Yeah, so, there was, you know, kind of a hush around her. Like, you didn't have people like taking selfies with her.
Aw, imagine how fun that selfie moment would have been! Still, yes, it probably would have been best to just let the monkey do her job as instructed by her trainer. Funny enough, Bialik joked on the podcast about whether she and co-star Jim Parsons would have been considered monkeys in someone else’s universe being directed to perform certain tasks for the show. Oh, the irony.
Despite any on-set challenges, I'd say the former child star would be the perfect cast member to work with such a creature. One fascinating thing to know about Bialik is that she’s the founding member of the Shamayim V'Aretz Institute, which not only advocates for ethical treatment of animals but also educates the Jewish community about animal advocacy and veganism. So, if anyone was going to appreciate the experience of working with a monkey, it would've been Bialik.
After having a monkey as a co-star on The Big Bang Theory, Mayim Bialik seems to understand the complexities of working with these intelligent animals as well as the patience and care required on set. If you ask me, Bialik's comments on the matter serve as further proof that monkeys are anything but ordinary co-stars. On that note, revisit Amy's experiences with Ricky the monkey by streaming the CBS sitcom with an HBO Max subscription. That same membership also grants access to Bialik's episode of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe.
