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The Big Bang Theory still has a slew of fans interested years after it ended, and not just because it’s continually streaming with an HBO Max subscription. The CBS sitcom ran for 12 seasons, and it was followed by multiple successful spinoffs, so interest in the franchise has remained high, and recently I found out one intriguing fact about the show as it was originally envisioned I'd never, ever heard before.
Most of us know that Kaley Cuoco wasn't the original actress who was cast as the main lead. An original pilot was written before the final version of the cast was cemented, with Amanda Walsh playing a character named Katie. That and the fact the original pilot was a big old mess, has been pretty common knowledge for years.
The Sheldon everyone knows and loves now wasn't exactly how the character started out. Simon Helberg, who played Howard, told Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his Dinner’s On Me podcast that Sheldon’s original personality was pretty unrecognizable in that original version of the pilot that now lives on in BTS stories.
The pilot I was in was the reshot one. But they shot a very, like, strange macabre version of it where Jim was sort of like a womanizer, like very strange. Drinking beer and kind of like the Neil Patrick Harris character, I think, like very different.
Sheldon? Jim Parsons' Sheldon? I cannot imagine Sheldon being a womanizer and always drinking beer. That also would have changed the entire show because the way Sheldon acts as well as his unique relationships with his friends, are integral to The Big Bang Theory.
Sheldon Cooper was played by Jim Parsons in this pilot. They apparently retooled the character in the way we know and love Sheldon, and he'd play it that way for the entirety of the show's run. He would go on to reprise the role in prequel Young Sheldon, narrating as present Sheldon while Iain Armitage took over as the younger version. Parsons was positively perfect as the character, who was a child prodigy with an eidetic memory and one to brag about his intelligence.
This is why pilots are so important for TV shows. It's honestly always wild to hear about the changes that came to successful sitcoms, and this sounds like one that was for the better.
Think about it. In an alternate world, Sheldon would be a womanizer, like he basically sounds like Barney from How I Met Your Mother, and it's hard for my mind to compute this fact. However, it's been interesting getting these behind-the-scenes secrets about The Big Bang Theory, and it makes me wonder just what else changed we still haven't learned about
It's been a good year for Big Bang throwback stories. We also recently learned Helberg almost lost the Howard role to a different actor on the sitcom. Before landing the part of comic book store owner Stuart Bloom, Kevin Sussman auditioned for Howard before the role ultimately went to Helberg. Sussman went on to recur as Stuart throughout the show’s run, and now he’s getting his own spinoff with Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, so it all worked out.
Since Stuart Fails to Save the Universe takes place in an alternate world, perhaps this could be a good time to see what a womanizer Sheldon would really be like. For now, though, fans can watch the Sheldon they’re used to with all 12 seasons of The Big Bang Theory on HBO Max.
