“The Big Bang Theory” was an incredibly profitable franchise for CBS, after giving 12 seasons and 2 spin-off shows (“Young Sheldon”, “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage”) in the process. But as is the case with most cable television successes, his fate lies on the reception of his pilot episode. You need a good hook that could make viewers wanting to spend time laughing with these characters every week. The creators of the Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady series set up some of the good elements for the first pilot of the show, but there was no way that “Big Bang theory” would have raised his legacy if he had been broadcast.
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There were a certain number of bizarre choices in this unrealized pilot, such as the disposal by Nina Starner of the film, which reports a type of sitcom very different from that which we ended up obtaining. Among one of the most notable changes, there is that of the female lead. Before Kaley Cuoco was brought on board under the name of Penny, the sweet actress of the Midwest on the other side of the corridor, the role was initially tested with Amanda Walsh in the role of Katie, a seller of cosmetics without housing with a sardonic edge.
The problems have less constituted the performance of Walsh, which could possibly operate if it operated from a sitcom with a coarse inclination, but the character himself. Katie’s abrasiveness made the audience of test tests not only be heard at the innocence of Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Leonard (Johnny Galecki), but that has almost killed an interest in the prospects of the series.
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What is even more strange about the character of Walsh is that Katie was, quite funny, originally named Penny, but the highest-ups of CBS opposed it.
Another CBS driver had a character named Penny
In an extract from the book Tell-All, “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series”, the author Jessica Radlock reveals that Penny was the choice of the first name for the female lead until CBS informed them that it would be a conflict on the interest (via the name The Hollywood Reporter):
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“The name of the character was originally Penny (‘Sheldon and Leonard meet this woman in the street; she is a lucky penny’, explains Prady), but at the time, CBS had another pilot in the running with a character called Penny and asked Lorre and Prady to change it.
After a few excavations, I couldn’t really identify what CBS pilot was referring to this name, which shows which series finally had the biggest cultural impact.
It is not really fair to judge someone according to their name, but in the context of the “Big Bang” pilot not realized, Penny is not suitable for this character as written beyond the trash joke of Prady. Katie adapts more appropriate to the breakthrough of Walsh’s performance. Penny, however, adapts much more to Cuoco, whose more bubble character makes a nicer global presence. It is not surprising that the name was changed when the character was strongly renovated for the pilot who looked.
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Sheldon says “Katie” during the shot at her door does not quite have the same ring. There is an alternative universe in which Walsh had a second chance to play Penny as the lightest way that launched Cuoco to celebrity, but it is the unjust nature of Hollywood. Fortunately, Walsh does not have a grudge against the experience.
Each episode of “The Big Bang Theory” is currently streaming on Max.
