The California Institute of Science (or CalSci) is the fictional university where Charlie, Larry, and Amita work. It is based on the real California Institute of Technology (Caltech) where some scenes of the show are shot.
Filming Locations[]
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Several scenes are filmed near the Throop Memorial Garden at Caltech, the Fountain at the Beckman Institute in Pasadena, and the University of Southern California.
Wikipedia article on Numbers (TV series) states: "One of the most frequent campus locations at Caltech is the vicinity of Millikan Library, including the bridge over Millikan Pond, the Trustees room, and the arcades of nearby buildings". While many of the outdoor shots are from Caltech campus, the interior shots of classrooms, labs, and libraries usually aren't.
Caltech Faculty Appearances[]
On March 13, 2009, Gocaltech.com reported that the Caltech basketball team, the Beaver Hoopsters, and their coach, Oliver Eslinger, appeared on an episode of Numb3rs. LATimes the same day reported that Caltech's Brown (or Braun) Gymnasium was a filming location for that episode.
According to an article in Pasadena Weekly, "Numb3rs by the Numbers," Numb3rs’ creators, husband-and-wife team Cheryl Heuton and Nicolas Falacci, who are from Pasadena, recruited Gary Lorden—then head of the Caltech math department—as a consultant for the show.
The article also points out that the character Charlie Eppes is loosely based on the late Caltech physicist Richard Feynman.
Caltech on TV[]
On television, the four male lead characters of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory are all employed at the Institute. Caltech is also the inspiration, and frequent film location, for the California Institute of Science of Numb3rs.[141] On film, the Pacific Tech of The War of the Worlds[142] and Real Genius[141] is based on Caltech. In nonfiction, two 2007 documentaries examine aspects of Caltech; Curious, its researchers,[143][144] and Quantum Hoops, its men's basketball team.
Given its Los Angeles-area location, the grounds of the Institute are often host to short scenes in movies and television. The Athenaeum dining club appears in the Beverly Hills Cop series, The X-Files, True Romance, and The West Wing.[145]
Trivia[]
In "Convergence", Charlie and Larry's car-pulling minibot features an orange label reading "γδβγ". This graffiti is popular with students belonging to the undergraduate residence Blacker House, and has appeared in other places as famous as on NASA's Curiosity rover.[1] In addition, orange is one of Caltech's school colors. Within the context of the show, this doesn't make sense, as neither Charlie nor Larry are undergraduates; presumably, it was added to the production by an actual Caltech student or alumni from Blacker House.