I watched it on YouTube some time ago too. It was... quite different, haha! I'm glad Penny was there for the actual pilot :)

It feels a bit like watching a parallel universe.

I found it interesting. I would really have liked to see Gilda as a regular character as originally written rather than her qualities broken down and divided between a few other characters in the show that airs.

But, it's still a killer show, so that's a loss to put up with.

I really enjoyed the Gilda character too. And, I think a sexually active Sheldon would have worked better than the line they've been dancing about all these years. I really enjoyed his character in the unaired pilot. I have a copy of it on my computer, I'll have to watch it again. I found the theme music hilarious!

@SeinfeldFriend said:

I really enjoyed the Gilda character too. And, I think a sexually active Sheldon would have worked better than the line they've been dancing about all these years. I really enjoyed his character in the unaired pilot. I have a copy of it on my computer, I'll have to watch it again. I found the theme music hilarious!

Funny as that theme music was, it wasn't specific to the show. It was a new wave song from the '80s, She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby.

@wonder2wonder said:

I remember watching the unaired pilot on the internet several years ago. There was no Penny. The female lead was Katie (Amanda Walsh). The cast further consisted of Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons). I didn't like the theme music, but overall it was all right. Hopefully it is still somewhere to be found.

There were actually two unaired pilots. The first had Katie, Gilda, etc. The second had Penny as we came to know her, but there were other differences still in the aired version that was actually broadcast.

Did you actually watch the whole thing? I remember poking around for it years ago and I could only find a few scenes of it on YouTube.

I saw it in 2009 or 2010, complete, it has been removed since. The Sheldon character was different from the present one, acting geeky, but still interested in similar things, e.g. girls, like the other guys. But it was only one episode, so a lot of room for improvement and development of the characters if they had stayed with this cast.

Both unaired pilots came in at least some of the DVD packages in the past. Maybe they no longer do. But they were freely available and so can still be shared even if the studio doesn't want them on youtube. i.e., they let the genie out of the bottle, and they can't just put it back now just because they want to.

The first unaired pilot can still be downloaded and watched from here:

https://www.adrive.com/public/cuHT9d/00%20-%20Pilot%20Unaired%20(2006).mp4

And the second from here:

https://www.adrive.com/public/Kpy6Cp/00%20-%20Pilot%20Unaired%20(2007).mp4

Thanks!