TBBT Creators Never Unveiled a Major Penny Detail Simply Because They Forgot

Having had a successful run on TV for more than a decade, The Big Bang Theory has had a history long enough to let millions of its fans get to know all the characters pretty well, yet the show still deliberately kept some intriguing details a secret.

By the time of the sitcom’s ending back in 2019, the viewers had a long list of mysteries they never got to see unveiled like the appearance of Howard’s mother, Sheldon’s childhood traumas that made him the way he was and, what’s even more striking and actually much simpler, Penny’s last name.

Many may have never noticed that after all, but the character never even mentioned her surname until she got married with Leonard and took his one. The whole matter turned out to be yet another reason for fans’ speculations, but the actual explanation of it is far from what everyone could ever think.

Throughout the years of The Big Bang Theory’s run and during the time that passed since its finale, the show’s fans have come up with a pile of theories suggesting that Penny’s desire to keep her last name a secret clearly had something to do with her family, especially since her brother is notorious for being a frequent guest in one of the jails in Nebraska.

However, the real reason for Penny’s mystery is nothing but a pure accident since The Big Bang Theory’s creators at some point just forgot to give her a surname.

Upon the sitcom’s ending in 2019, one of the showrunners Steve Molaro addressed the issue explaining that Penny was doing just fine without a necessity to mention her last name, but when The Big Bang Theory’s creators got an idea of giving her one, they felt like they could ruin something in the tight bond that Kaley Cuoco ’s character created with the audience.

According to Molaro, they “were nervous to really give her one, so it will, and always will, only be Hofstadter, right?”.

Clarifying the issue, Molaro revealed that the team had decided to keep things the way they were just because Penny’s suddenly unveiled last name could come as some kind of distraction for the viewers which, luckily, never even had a chance to happen.

Source: Comic-Con International