Pants Alternative

Pants Alternative
Writers	Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady, and Steve Holland
Director	Mark Cendrowski
Air Date	22 March 2010
Vanity	Card #280
Guide	Episode #318
Quotes	Episode #318
Forums	Discuss Episode

Season 3, Episode 18 (0318)

Precious Fragmentation . . . << Pants Alternative >> . . . Wheaton Recurrence

Original title: The Medal Resistance

Summary

Sheldon's friends come to his aid when his fear of public speaking stands between him and a coveted award.

Episode Outline

I. Cafeteria

• Raj discusses the movie Avatar, Sheldon makes a comment about the new Star Trek movie.
• Leonard turns up and tells the guys who won this year's Chancellor's award for science - Sheldon.

Title and Opening Themes

II. Living room

• The guys watch a 3D movie when Sheldon gets a phone call from Chancellor Morton to be told he has to give a speech at the award ceremony.
• Sheldon tells the guys he has stage fright.

III. Stairway

• Sheldon talks to his mother on the phone who tries to encourage him to give the speech.

IV. Living room

• Penny and the guys explain to Sheldon that they all want to help him to get over his problem.

V. Living room

• Raj tries to guide Sheldon through a meditation, but the latter "gets lost" in an imagined world of the Sim City he designed - Sheldonopolis.

VI. Gentleman's outfitter

• Sheldon and Penny buy a new suit for him.

VII. Living room

• Leonard tries to talk to Sheldon about this stage fright but gets distracted by an old unpleasant memory of his own mother.

VIII. festive hall, Chancellor's Award Ceremony

• Leonard introduces Sheldon to the audience but then starts talking about his own problems with his mother.
• Penny offers a nervous Sheldon some alcohol to calm down. Desperate, Sheldon starts to drink.
• When he gets onto the stage, Sheldon is completely drunk and starts to tell jokes to the audience...he later starts singing "The Elements" from Tom Lehrer.

IX. Living room, the next morning

• A dishevelled, hung-over Sheldon asks Sheldon where his pants have gone.
• Penny and Leonard show him a video Physicist Melts Down on youtube...

Resources

List of entries from this episode

David Salzberg's science blog about the episode

Detailed blog written by someone who attended the taping

Notes and Trivia

The title of this episode was changed from "The Medal Resistance" to "The Pants Alternative"

Sheldon repeatedly mispronounces the name "Xavier."

Timeline

It is not clear over who many days this episode runs, but we see the events of at least five separate days: Sheldon learning he has won the award and will have to give a speech; his friends offering help; Penny and Sheldon going shopping; the Award Ceremony; the following morning.

Title

The title refers to Sheldon's trouble with his pants in this episode.