I suppose everyone here has watched the original unaired and more importantly rejected by CBS pilot. I thought Penny was more of a badass in the earlier episodes and I feel that early Penny and later Penny are almost two very different girls. If I wanted a show with a perv element then there are plenty of "Two and a Half Men" episodes I could watch instead. Maybe the network just wanted the standard hot blonde for the show. CBS made the right move to me on the tonal switch but I would like to see a girl interested in the cliche nerdy stuff than just the just smart Amy/Bernie duo. I actually kind of like the tone of the imitation Big Bang Theory made in Belaruss, "The Theorists", just smart scientists without the cliche American nerdy stuff. There must be a alternate parallel universe or two where the show is different for the one we know.

If anyone reading these threads is still in the dark ages...

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

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

Aired pilot: https://www.adrive.com/public/nFV4KP/1x01%20Pilot.avi

I saw it. I did not like Sheldon and I couldn't stand Katie. I did like the Gilda character though.

I agree changes would have had to be made from the original pilot, but I think I would have preferred the show to be maybe somewhere in the middle in tone , between the UP and the actual final version, keeping Amanda Walsh as the lead but making her character less "hard", and making Sheldon not so pervy but also less autistic than his final incarnation. I really don't care for Kayley C and think she's the weak link.

@Amy Polaroid said:

I agree changes would have had to be made from the original pilot, but I think I would have preferred the show to be maybe somewhere in the middle in tone , between the UP and the actual final version, keeping Amanda Walsh as the lead but making her character less "hard", and making Sheldon not so pervy but also less autistic than his final incarnation. I really don't care for Kayley C and think she's the weak link.

Sheldon is not autistic. His mother had him tested.

@znexyish said:

Sheldon is not autistic. His mother had him tested.

That would have been the follow-up specialist in Houston, that she never took him to. The "test" that WAS done was just to find out if he was "crazy."

I liked a lot of the original unaired pilot, although I also prefer Kaley - and I think she should have flashed someone early on like Katie did - but a lot of it was too "adult" for prime-time broadcast TV, especially 10 years ago. At least for a straight "comedy."

@Knixon said:

@znexyish said:

Sheldon is not autistic. His mother had him tested.

That would have been the follow-up specialist in Houston, that she never took him to. The "test" that WAS done was just to find out if he was "crazy."

Luckily for young Sheldon the term "autistic" wasn't the trendy diagnosis that it is today. Sheldon was very fortunate that his budding genius was protected from psychological meddling, by his understanding family and also by escaping to college, Switzerland and academia, as well as Star Trek.

@Knixon said:

I liked a lot of the original unaired pilot, although I also prefer Kaley - and I think she should have flashed someone early on like Katie did - but a lot of it was too "adult" for prime-time broadcast TV, especially 10 years ago. At least for a straight "comedy."

A television pilot is shot in part to sell a show to the network. I suppose many other sitcoms have their pilots rejected and re-shot as well. Personally I thought the sperm bank scene was too crass for a television show. Also one of the best parts of TBBT was that Sheldon was a rare character uninterested in sex, shocking because so many other television shows are obsessed with it, like GOT for example.

@znexyish said:

@Knixon said:

@znexyish said:

Sheldon is not autistic. His mother had him tested.

That would have been the follow-up specialist in Houston, that she never took him to. The "test" that WAS done was just to find out if he was "crazy."

Luckily for young Sheldon the term "autistic" wasn't the trendy diagnosis that it is today. Sheldon was very fortunate that his budding genius was protected from psychological meddling, by his understanding family and also by escaping to college, Switzerland and academia, as well as Star Trek.

@Knixon said:

I liked a lot of the original unaired pilot, although I also prefer Kaley - and I think she should have flashed someone early on like Katie did - but a lot of it was too "adult" for prime-time broadcast TV, especially 10 years ago. At least for a straight "comedy."

A television pilot is shot in part to sell a show to the network. I suppose many other sitcoms have their pilots rejected and re-shot as well. Personally I thought the sperm bank scene was too crass for a television show. Also one of the best parts of TBBT was that Sheldon was a rare character uninterested in sex, shocking because so many other television shows are obsessed with it, like GOT for example.

It's like the writers met at a round table and said "let's scrap this, Sheldon isn't enough of a jerk yet ".

@ArcticFox12 said: .

It's like the writers met at a round table and said "let's scrap this, Sheldon isn't enough of a jerk yet ".

I think they might have found the right in between jerky/not so jerky spot for Sheldon right now or at least they have to carefully circle around it. Too much in either direction and they have to reboot him for the next episodes.

I think they already "reboot" him sometimes within an episode. He'll make some kind of "sensitive" comment, and then the next scene or even the next change of camera angles within a scene, and he's right back to season 1 again.

Why didn't they just make Sheldon gay?

Something that never seems to come up, regarding both unaired and aired pilots, is; how were Leonard and Sheldon supposed to have enough food to share with Katie/Penny too? They didn't expect to meet her, so they would have gotten just enough for the two of them. And if they had, for example, 2 or 4 or 8 or 10 or something dumplings or whatever, Sheldon would have had a fit over not being able to divide them three ways.