The Pilot Episode Big Bang Theory Creators Want You to Forget

Although The Big Bang Theory debuted sixteen years ago, it remains one of CBS's most successful sitcoms to this day. Its global appeal lies in its unconventional narrative centred around a group of nerdy researchers and its quirky characters, who have become household names over the years. With that in mind, it's somewhat unsettling to think that TBBT could have been a completely different show.

Despite The Big Bang Theory's undeniable success, spanning twelve consecutive seasons, it faced challenges at the outset. It's a well-known fact that the sitcom's original pilot had a very different premise, and significant changes had to be made to the story before it was greenlit by CBS. In fact, the show underwent such dramatic alterations that only two of its original characters made the final cut. Although all traces of the initial pilot seem to have been erased, dedicated fans remember.

Given our affection for TBBT in its final incarnation, it's hard to imagine it could have been drastically different, but had the network executives approved the project based on the original pilot, the show would have been barely recognisable to fans from our reality. And it might not have fared as well as audiences, either.

Here are some of the major issues with the original pilot that may very well have made the show a disaster

No Penny

Penny is a crucial character in TBBT. Her on-again-off-again romance with Leonard and brother-sister vibe with Sheldon are some of TBBT's most cherished story arcs. So today, it's impossible to imagine that TBBT might have had a mean and manipulative female lead named Katie, played by a different actress, Amanda Walsh.

No Howard and Raj

Even though Howard and Raj can come across as total creeps, they ended up being integral to TBBT. The thing is, though, the original pilot didn't have these characters at all. Instead, it featured another female character who was split into Howard and Raj in the final reworked version of the show.

Perverted Sheldon

This may sound implausible given Sheldon's asexuality in TBBT, but originally he was planned as a sleazy, sex-obsessed pervert as the icing on the cake of his other quirks and idiosyncrasies. Luckily, the producers concluded a character like that would be too hard to stomach even for the most daring audiences out there and rewrote Sheldon as an arrogant, insensitive, self-absorbed jerk, and introduced Howard as the pervert extraordinaire of the gang.