Former The Big Bang Theory star Kaley Cuoco has said that her father was present for the taping of every single episode of the show.
Cuoco starred as Penny in the sitcom, which ran from 2007 to 2019 and filmed 289 episodes in front of a live studio audience, with her father Gary witnessing them all.
In an interview on The Late Late Show, Cuoco spoke emotionally about her father’s dedication.
“He had a director’s chair with his name on it,” she recalled. “He never sat in it. He always stood. And And every night for curtain and bows and for intros, he would be at the top and he would give me a thumbs up.”
Cuoco added that the cast and crew would always return her father’s thumbs-up: “The whole audience ended up doing it. It was like a weekly thing. It was just very special for all of us.”
She added: “I couldn’t do a show without him at that point, it had been years. I kept thinking, ‘You can’t miss one now, you are part of the show.’”
Last year, Cuoco expressed interest in reuniting The Big Bang Theory cast in a format similar to HBO’s Friends: The Reunion. Speaking to Variety, Cuoco said: “When I watched, I definitely thought, I would love to do that one day. I would love to do that with our show.”
Cuoco is soon set to return to her starring role in the second series of The Flight Attendant, which premieres on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV this Thursday (May 26).