TBBT Creators and Jim Parsons Argued Over Sheldon Health Issues — Good Thing the Creators Won

Throughout its long run, The Big Bang Theory gradually had its viewers falling in love with the show’s quirky and every so often even annoying lead character, Sheldon Cooper, despite all his numerous flaws both his on-screen friends and viewers had to put up with.

Sheldon’s weird behavior surely caused a lot of controversy and left many questions unanswered, though, compared to other big mysteries the series took a long time to unveil, no one really cared about the real reasons why Sheldon was just the way he was.

However, at some point the issue could have been addressed, but the creators had their own reasons for not considering such an option.

As Sheldon’s actor Jim Parsons revealed upon The Big Bang Theory’s finale in 2019, he felt like the character’s behavior and habits couldn’t just be an accidental mix of traits garnered in one person.

According to the actor, he dived deeper into the matter, trying to figure out what health issues Sheldon could possibly have, and “the more I read up on Asperger’s, I was like, Well, the writers can say no, but Sheldon sure has a lot of the same traits.”

Parsons eventually reached out to The Big Bang Theory creators Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre, suggesting that his character’s health condition should be unveiled at some point since it would make the show more authentic regarding some real-life difficult syndromes people have to deal with.

However, Parsons’ idea wasn’t met with much enthusiasm as both Prady and Lorre believed it would be a big mistake. As Lorre admitted, making things clear about Sheldon’s health state would significantly limit Parsons’ freedom to portray the character.

In this case, the writers would then be obliged to consider a specific syndrome's peculiarities in the first place rather than focusing on shaping the direction for the storyline so that the series could keep its audience for more seasons to come.

As Lorre said, “we did not want to put a label on Sheldon, because with that comes a responsibility of authenticity … which should be respected. I think not having a label gave Jim a great deal of more freedom to play the part as he wanted to play it.”

Now that The Big Bang Theory has been over for quite some time, it’s hard to say whether implementing something like this would be a positive update or not, yet it still feels like revealing Sheldon’s health condition wasn’t necessary after all.

The truth about how he got to be the way he was would most likely become a major distraction for viewers, probably even forcing most of them to sympathize with the character rather than find more upsides in his quirky nature.