Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: Bowie on Telepathy, Kripke’s Filter

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Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: Bowie on Telepathy, Kripke's Filter

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe star John Ross Bowie spoke with us about S01E07's telepathy resonating with him and Kripke's filter.

Published Sat, 05 Sep 2026 11:37:09 -0500
by Tom Chang
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Article Summary

• John Ross Bowie says Stuart Fails to Save the Universe episode 7’s telepathy world was uniquely tricky and fun to film.
• Bowie reveals Kripke actually has a filter, and when Stuart Fails to Save the Universe drops it, his thoughts get brutal.
• Episode 107 sends Stuart and the gang to a telepathic universe while hunting Howard and key tech to save the universe.
• Bowie says Stuart Fails to Save the Universe feels like a brand-new show each week with wild worlds, costumes, and twists.

While John Ross Bowie was playing Barry Kripke for the better part of 11 seasons on CBS's The Big Bang Theory, the actor retained all his narcissism and sarcastic wit in the HBO Max sci-fi spinoff Stuart Fails to Save the Universe seven years later. What he didn't anticipate was how far down a darker path he would initially go and the off-the-wall, wacky scenarios his character would be in on a shared journey with other popular supporting castmates Kevin Sussman (Stuart), Lauren Lapkus (Denise), and Brian Posehn (Bert), now front and center as the titular character tries to set everything right as the title suggests. Among the worlds the four encountered, starting with the apocalypse they initially emerged from, are a world where robotic extraterrestrials ruled the world; a world where magic, not science, is king; one where humans evolved from cows; a primitive world where monogamy and capitalism don't exist; and a Matrix-style world. Bowie spoke to Bleeding Cool about the latest episode, "Spoiler: Dexys Midnight Runners Get a Royalty Payment," that finds Stuart tries to enlists Howard's (Simon Helberg) help as one of the inventors of the transdimensional device, but is nowhere to be found, but instead finds the group's doppelgangers trying to steal a key piece of equipment that might "save the universe." Among the worlds they travel is one where telepathy is the norm and everyone in range can read each other's thoughts.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe: Star John Ross Bowie on What He Enjoyed About the Telepathy World

Bleeding Cool: What did you enjoy about episode 107?

Bowie: I want to give an honorable mention to that episode where we had telepathy was really interesting for a couple of reasons. It was really hard to shoot because we had people offstage reading our thoughts into earpieces so we could just get the rhythm down, but it was interesting to silently react to everything that was going on, and it was also interesting to discover that Kripke, believe it or not, does have a filter. He's not saying everything that pops into his head, and when he does say everything that pops into his head, it's horrible. The whole gig was really fun because every episode was a brand new show, basically, with a whole new production design and new costumes and everything, but that (and 105 "Spoiler: Bert Gets Married") stood out as particularly interesting and fun worlds to explore.

The actor told TVLine that Tommy Walker (Gary), Ryan Cartwright (Kyle), Josh Brener (Trevor), and Mary Holland (Ghosts) delivered each character's inner monologues off-camera. "They were doing our voices at us," Posehn said, with Bowie adding it was "like a radio play…It was logistically one of the more complicated episodes to shoot, but it was also really fun to sort of quasi-deliver lines that you weren't really delivering, but you were thinking." Stuart Fails to Save the Universe streams Thursdays on HBO Max.

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