Warning: Storyline and character spoilers ahead for "The Comic Book Store Regeneration" episode of The Big Bang Theory.

Never again will we hear the shrill voice of Debbie Wolowitz bellow "Hooow-ARD!" at the top of her lungs, for the funny — but never fully seen onscreen — lady who birthed the tight pants-wearing Howard Wolowitz is gone. In an episode that dealt with the real-life death of hilarious character actress Carol Ann Susi, Mrs. Wolowitz also passed away, failing to wake up from a nap while visiting her sister in Florida.

The Big Bang Theory showrunner Steven Molaro talks to Yahoo TV about dealing with the heartbreaking loss of the cast's beloved co-star and honoring her and her character. He also discusses how Mrs. W's death will affect Howard and his friends, the special guest star who provided some welcome moments of levity in the episode, and what's ahead for Shamy and roomies Sheldon and Leonard.

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Congratulations, Steve. Tone is so critical when dealing with a storyline like this one on a sitcom, and this felt like a fine tribute to Mrs. Wolowitz.

Thank you. Carol Ann Susi was a lovely lady and a member of our family that we cared about very much. So it was important to us to come up with a way of honoring her that reflected how much we care about her.





Viewers know Susi from her work on Seinfeld, The King of Queens, and most of all The Big Bang Theory, but what was she like on the set?

She was just a truly funny, very sweet, very interesting lady. She reminded me of your favorite crazy aunt, who you loved getting to visit with.



Is it true that she didn't drive, that she took a bus everywhere in Los Angeles, even to auditions?

[Laughs.] Yes, yes. She was very New York. She didn't have a car there, and she just stuck with it here.



Was there any consideration of not writing her death into the show? Having the character move away?

We talked about all the possibilities. It was public information that Carol Ann had passed away, so having Mrs. Wolowitz move away felt, I think, potentially like a cheat. And the thought of having another actress do the voice just didn't seem like an option for us. I don't think we could have brought ourselves to actually do it. That left dealing with the reality of it. We tried to find a way to do that which let the show still remain a comedy, but deal with this very difficult moment in these characters' — especially Wolowitz's — lives.



How did you begin tackling it?

I don't know. I had never been involved in writing an episode like this before. There's a lot of other things going on in this episode that have nothing to do with [her death], and that, I think, helped a lot. When the moment comes, we just tried to handle it as honestly as we could, certainly not try to force jokes in where they didn't feel like they would belong. I think we managed to do it.



And actually, now that I think about it, the morning that Carol Ann passed away, we were obviously stunned and shaken up. We were in production that week, and everybody gathered on the stage. Chuck [Lorre] had delivered the news to everyone, and it just naturally turned into a memorial to her. Everyone on the stage cried and shared their wonderful memories and stories of Carol Ann. And even in the tension and pain of that moment, people were able to still laugh about how wonderful she was. This was 15 minutes after hearing the news. I think it was in the spirit of that… at the end of the episode, I guess we were subconsciously trying to capture that mood of sad but sweet and celebratory.