TBBT Writers Narrowly Escaped a Huge Creative Disaster With Sheldon

The Big Bang Theory is famous for many things, but one of the most important is its quirky main characters — Leonard, Sheldon, Raj, and Howard. Each episode shows how hard it is for nerdy scientists to fit into society, but luckily, the four friends overcome their weaknesses and become successful in their personal and professional lives in the end.

In the first episode, we also meet Penny, who immediately becomes a main character and a love interest for Leonard. But as it turns out, there was originally no Penny in the series' pilot. Instead, there was Katie, played not by Kaley Cuoco, but by Amanda Walsh.

After seeing Walsh's performance in the pilot episode, the creators felt that there wasn't enough chemistry coming from the actress, so they decided to change the female lead. In addition to that, Raj and Howard were not part of the original project of the show but were added later to replace Iris Bahr's Gilda character.

So all in all, the only two characters who stayed in place during and after the pilot were Leonard and Sheldon. However, the show's main weirdo was also tweaked a bit after the pilot, and we can't help but thank the writers for their decision to change the character.

As you know, Sheldon is portrayed in the show as the most awkward of the gang, a very socially inept character who can be rude and absolutely disconnected, unable to understand other people's feelings. This makes him quite obnoxious at times, and some viewers are still unsure why he ended up being the sitcom's central character (and even getting a spin-off of his own, Young Sheldon ).

But according to the show's original plot, Sheldon was also meant to be… sleazy. Well, this might have aligned with the character's overall weird dynamics, but can you imagine what a disaster it would've been if the writers had kept him that way?

A genius scientist with a perverted, corrupt personality may sound like a fascinating idea on paper, but in reality, it would probably alienate most of the show's early fans. Sure enough, Sheldon has many shortcomings, but it is his charming naivety that won the hearts of the audience, making The Big Bang Theory the most popular sitcom of the 2010s.