Wedding fever has swept the globe, with legions of famous faces gathering to celebrate the union of two of our most beloved public figures. Of course, we're talking about the wedding on The Big Bang Theory.
Thursday night's (May 10) season 11 finale of the Emmy-winning CBS comedy series has been hugely anticipated by fans, many of whom probably doubted the likelihood of Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) ever getting married during The Big Bang Theory's early seasons.
After years of only looking out for himself, Sheldon found Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik), who is obviously the most patient woman to ever walk the earth… and the rest is history.
In Thursday night's episode 'The Bow Tie Asymmetry', everyone from wedding official Mark Hamill to Sheldon's siblings Missy and Georgie (Courtney Henggeler and Jerry O'Connell) turned up to see the King of Bazinga and his bride Amy tie the knot.
By episode's end, Sheldon and Amy did indeed tie the knot, but only after the bride helped her groom discover the scientific concept of "super asymmetry" by pointing out that Sheldon's bowtie was perfectly proportioned.
In a sign that Sheldon really was maturing, he even insisted on sharing the credit for the couple's discovery. It was a jam-packed episode, which unfortunately had to delete a tribute to the late Professor Stephen Hawking from the episode due to time constraints.
In a chat with The Hollywood Reporter, Steve Holland confirmed that the deleted scene featured Sheldon receiving a wedding gift — a specially-inscribed pocket watch — from his late mentor.
"When we heard of Hawking's passing, we wanted to do something to honour him but we had already shot the next three episodes," the writer said. "It's hard for us to be super timely because we shoot ahead of our airdates so this seemed like a really nice opportunity. The wedding was a big episode and it seemed like a good chance to pay some tribute to him.
"Steve Molaro had this idea that Hawking could have sent a gift before he passed. He had had the idea for the gift and for the inscription and we contacted Professor Hawking's family to get their blessing. They were very nice and excited for us to do it. I'm glad it will be somewhere."
The deleted scene is expected to premiere online on Friday (May 11).
Where does The Big Bang Theory go from here? Earlier this week, showrunner Holland confirmed that he's looking at the upcoming 12th season as the last until he hears otherwise.
"We're not leaving anything on the table in season 12," he promised. "If there are stories we want to do, we will put them out there and see what happens."
The Big Bang Theory airs on CBS in the US and E4 in the UK.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.
Night News Editor
Justin has been with Digital Spy since 2010, and in that time, has covered countless major news events for DS from the US.
He has worked previously as both a reporter and sub editor for the brand, prior to taking on the position of Night News Editor in 2016.
Over more than a decade, he has interviewed a wide-ranging group of public figures, from comedian Steve Coogan to icons from the Star Trek universe, cast members from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and reality stars from numerous Real Housewives cities and the Below Deck franchise. As a US contributor to Digital Spy, Justin has also been on the ground to cover major pop culture events like the Star Wars Celebration and the D23 Expo.
