The Big Bang Theory's Long-Running Gag
Nearly twenty years ago, The Big Bang Theory set up a story that it knew would take hundreds of episodes to finish.
A TV show with a long shelf life can wait years before paying something off. At the start of The Big Bang Theory, when Penny first moves into the apartment across from Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstader’s place, the elevator in the building doesn’t work.
It’s a pain in the butt, as the characters have to walk up several flights of stairs every episode to get to their destination.
However, they make the most of it, using all that time climbing to have hilarious or meaningful conversations. Those moments on the stairs become so important that the elevator remains broken until The Big Bang Theory‘s penultimate episode.
That means that the show waits 278 episodes to finish a bit that it set up in the very first season.
Author's summary: The Big Bang Theory sets up a long-running gag.