The Big Bang Theory star Simon Helberg has opened up on how the sitcom changed massively by the time he shot the official pilot.
Simon Helberg has recalled a “very strange, macabre” version of The Big Bang Theory with Sheldon Cooper as a “womaniser”.
The 45-year-old actor, who played awkward aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz in all 12 seasons of the classic sitcom, has opened up on how the original pilot had a “very different” mood to the show fans know and love.
He told the Dinner’s On Me podcast: “Well, they reshot the pilot. So the pilot I was in was the reshot one.
“They shot a very strange, macabre version of it, where [Jim Parsons’ Sheldon] was like a womanizer. Very strange.
“Like, a guy drinking beer — kind of like the Neil Patrick Harris character, I think. Very different.”
Jim actually audience for Neil’s Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother, and the original Sheldon had more in common with that character.
The pilot was directed by Jim Burrows, who ended up working on the second, successful version too.
Simon said: “I remember when I got Big Bang, I went over to say hi to Jim Burrows, because I knew he had seen my tape, but I’d never met him.
“I was very nervous about it, and I went up to him and said like, ‘Hey Jim, I’m Simon. I think you just hired me for the Big Bang pilot, and he just looked at me and was like, ‘Oh, hang on to your hat, I work fast.’
“I walked away. I think that was the most I’ve ever said to him.”
The show also starred Johnny Galecki as Leonard Hofstadter, Kunal Nayyar as Raj Koothrappali, and Kaley Cuoco as Leonard and Sheldon’s neighbour Penny.
However, in the unaired original pilot, Raj and Howard didn’t feature at all, and Simon pointed out that Penny was “someone completely different” with more of a “dark haired and gothy vibe”.
The pilot is available to watch online, with Penny actually called Katie with a much crueller persona, played by Amanda Walsh.
In 2022, co-creator Bill Prady told Entertainment Weekly: “In the first pilot, the female character (who, at that point, was named Katie) is kind of rough.
“She’s dangerous in a way and wasn’t very nice to the guys. I remember going to the test screening, the dial testing.”
Co-creator Chuck Lorre admitted that “the audience hated her”, while Bill recalled how much the audience “were defending Leonard and Sheldon”.
He noted that Amanda did “a great job playing that character”, but the audiences weren’t happy with “a toxic presence”, which led to a re-write as Katie became Penny.
Chuck added: “I told Bill, ‘Let’s add more of these brilliant misbegotten characters, and let’s lose the plot entirely. Let’s just spend a half hour diving into the lives of these brilliant misfit characters.'”
Simon Helberg recalls ‘strange, macabre’ version of Big Bang Theory with ‘womaniser’ Sheldon Cooper
