The Big Bang Theory: Why The 139½ Hours Time Jump Is Deeper Than Fans Think

Die-hard fans of "The Big Bang Theory" might have caught small details like the supporting character who was missing from the series finale, as well as a costume-related Easter egg in that same episode, "The Stockholm Syndrome." But many of these devotees would likely be hard-pressed to figure out why the brief time jump mentioned at the start of the episode is so important.

Toward the end of the show's penultimate episode, "The Change Constant," a frustrated Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) accidentally destroys Sheldon Cooper's (Jim Parsons) atomic DNA model while following Amy Farrah Fowler's (Mayim Bialik) advice to put it in the closet if it bothers him so much. Two months later, Sheldon and Leonard complete the painstaking process of rebuilding the model, but that's not the exact amount of time it takes; as the two scientists put the finishing touches on the structure, Leonard quips, "This might be the glue talking, but that was a very pleasurable 139 1/2 hours."

That timeframe was particularly significant, as Galecki explained in Jessica Radloff's book "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series." According to the actor, that was the exact amount of time it took to watch "The Big Bang Theory" in its entirety. "It was the total number of hours of television we had produced," he said. "I think we were all so full of emotion. I don't remember specifically ... but I certainly didn't put that structure back together after each take. Thank God we had prop masters because that would have been a pain in the ass."

lSo far, it doesn't seem that a lot of "The Big Bang Theory" fans caught the reference to its total 12-season runtime in its finale. But those who did were pleasantly surprised to find out that the series wasn't done planting those Easter eggs even in its last-ever episode. "Hot damn, an easter egg I hadn't heard of yet," wrote u/ThisIsDK on Reddit, where they and other users were largely impressed by the subtle nod. In another thread, u/IncitingAres brought up the reference and went a bit further, doing the math and explaining that the cast of "The Big Bang Theory" worked "what is essentially 3 standard work weeks plus a couple days in 12 years of filming." 

u/GPCAPTregthistleton also mentioned the 139 1/2-hour runtime in a thread about long commercial breaks on television and pointed out that the timeframe takes advertisements into consideration. "279 episodes of Big Bang = 3 days, 22 hours," they commented, noting the amount of time it takes to watch the entire show without commercials.

Regardless of how one feels about the excessive ad spots on CBS when "The Big Bang Theory" was on the air, "a very pleasurable 139 1/2 hours" remains a fun little in-joke that followed in the tradition of many others throughout the show's 12-season run.