Fans of "The Big Bang Theory" know that Penny, the female lead in the hit CBS comedy, is from Nebraska.

Monday, the state and the football team will be front and center in an episode called "The Cornhusker Vortex."

In it, Penny (played by Kaley Cuoco) invites some guy friends over to watch the Huskers play on TV.

Not wanting to be left out, Penny's boyfriend, the geeky Leonard (Johnny Galecki), agrees to watch the game, too, even though he knows nothing about football.

He receives a tutorial on the fine points of the game from his just-as-geeky roommate Sheldon (Jim Parsons).

According to David Fitzgibbon, manager of broadcast services at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, CBS called for permission to use the university name, logos and paraphernalia in the show.

Penny is seen wearing Husker T-shirts, while Leonard dons a No. 10 football jersey.

Fitzgibbon said the university often receives requests like this - more than you would believe - from TV and film studios, but the answer rarely is "yes."

"We say 'no' when the whole idea is to make fun of Nebraska or perpetuate a stereotype," Fitzgibbon said.

That was the case a couple of years ago for the Zooey Deschanel movie "The Good Life." The film was about a young man whose one wish was to move away from a football-obsessed town in Nebraska. It wasn't a reach to guess it was Lincoln.

"We look pretty closely at what they want to do ... to see how we fit, and how we will be seen," Fitzgibbon said.

As Nebraskans know, when it comes to Hollywood, our image usually is not good, with references to football, corn or both.

Lincoln took a hit earlier this summer in an episode of "Leverage," the con-person drama on TNT.

Written by Albert Kim, who I'm guessing never set foot here, the episode, "The Tap Out Job," made Lincoln look like a small, hick town, with its habitants eating gravy-soaked, chicken-fried steak and thinking every black man plays for the football team.

So it goes.

Fitzgibbon said university officials like "The Big Bang Theory," noting that Cuoco's Penny is a bombshell, but not the typical dumb, blond bombshell.

As to why Penny's character is from Nebraska? Just because. A CBS spokesperson said none of the producers has a connection to the state.

Fitzgibbon said he believes Bo Pelini's Huskers probably have a lot to do with why she is from Nebraska. Monday's episode is an example of it.

"The Nebraska football program is known very much nationwide," he said.

Across the remote

• PBS personality Gwendolyn Wright, host of "History Detectives," will present "Frank Lloyd Wright's Progressive Suburbia" at 7 p.m. Monday at the Sheldon Museum of Art, 12th and R streets. Her talk is a part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Geske lecture series.
• Fox is pulling "Brothers," "'Til Death" and "Dollhouse" from Fridays during sweeps and replacing them with repeats of "House" and "Bones."
  That's not a good sign.
  "Brothers" will move to 6 p.m. Sundays, beginning next weeks, where it will remain until its 13 filmed episodes are finished on Dec. 27.
  "'Til Death" will stay off the air until Jan. 10, filling the 6 p.m. timeslot "Brothers" had vacated.
  "Dollhouse" returns Dec. 4 and will air back-to-back episodes on Fridays throughout the month. It will return to its regular 8 p.m. timeslot on Jan. 8.
• Several shows have been picked up recently for the rest of the season. They include: "Castle" (ABC), "Community" (NBC), "Parks & Recreation" (NBC), "Mercy" (NBC), "The Cleveland Show" (FOX) and "The Vampire Diaries" (CW).
  Fox has asked for three more scripts of "Lie to Me," while the CW requested five more for "Melrose Place."
• Quick hits ... The "Glee" cast's rendition of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" has gone gold for digital sales, surpassing 500,000 downloads ... Sarah Palin will appear on Oprah Winfrey's talk show on Nov. 16.

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.