‘The Big Bang Theory’ season 10: What will you learn about Penny’s family?

While we’ve gotten to see a good many various family members on “The Big Bang Theory” over the years, the writers for one reason or another chose to keep things fairly close to the vest when it comes to Penny’s family. Maybe a part of that stems from the simple fact that they knew there was such an interesting minefield of stories here that they could explore, and in the end there was really no need to hurry things along.

As you may know, Katey Sagal has been cast as her mother and Jack McBrayer her brother, and you are going to have a chance to see both of them in the premiere. While the future of the two characters beyond that is unclear, executive producer Steve Molaro did tell Entertainment Weekly the following recently in a new interview on the subject of relationship context:

“Penny’s close with her dad … As we know, her brother Randall has been a bit of trouble over the years, selling drugs and being in and out of jail, and that’s put a lot of stress on her mom. You will pick up on the tensions between her mother and her brother very quickly, and you get a glimpse of Penny and her dad being caught in the middle of that.”

Sometimes there is darkness within comedy, and the challenge becomes trying to find a way to keep things funny when tackling tough topics. It’s easy to poke fun at Penny’s family, but Randall’s been through some serious stuff and it’ll be interesting to see how that is tackled. Can this show borrow the sweetness from another Chuck Lorre series in “Mom”? It may need it in order to properly have this work.

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