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Kaley Cuoco played Penny on The Big Bang Theory for twelve seasons. It’s still hard to think that the beloved CBS show ended three years ago. Believe it or not, there were in fact 3 unexpected starlets contending for the comedy’s lead function prior to Kaley Cuoco entered the image.
It’s hard to picture what a long-running television program would resemble without a specific starlet. The Hollywood Reporter shared a preview of unknown stories that are included in Jessica Radloff’s unique The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series that stated Penny was initially really various from what we understand her to be now. While her initial name was going to be Penny, they chose to alter it to Katie, as there was at first a character called Penny in another CBS pilot. And rather of Katie having a Midwestern bubbly character, she was more down on her luck and off-putting. When 20-year-old Kaley Cuoco initially auditioned for The Big Bang Theory, co-creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady were taken with her, however the positive energy she highlighted wasn’t what they were trying to find in Katie, and believed she was too young for the part.
In the really early days, My Cousin Vinny’s Marisa Tomei auditioned with Jim Parsons. Then came American Pie’s Tara Reid and Saved by the Bell’s Elizabeth Berkley auditioning for the function that Prady referred to as “terrific.” Canadian starlet Amanda Walsh, who was understood for the brief ABC dramedy Sons & Daughters, likewise auditioned for Katie. In completion, none made it the very first time around.
The very first starlet that they cast for the function of Katie wound up being She’s All That’s Jodi Lyn O’Keefe. During the table read, Parsons believed that O’Keefe nailed what was composed. But, the developers felt that the female lead’s interaction with the other characters was too severe and dark. This resulted in O’Keefe being fired after that table checked out to the shock of Galecki and Parsons, which suggested The Big Bang Theory developers had 3 days to modify.
While Amanda Walsh didn’t make it for round one, she was restored once again for round 2 where she was informed she got the part after auditioning once again. A little behind-the-scenes fact about The Big Bang Theory to share is that the program was initially going to have 2 female leads – difficult Katie and researcher Gilda, who had a secret crush on Leonard and in fact made love with Sheldon at a Star Trek convention. The original Big Bang Theory pilot was considered “just a mess” since the developers were still stopping working to comprehend the characters they produced. If a lady was going to go into Sheldon and Leonard’s life, it needed to be somebody who was “mild” with them since of how susceptible the male characters were. So, the initial initial draft of the female lead “Penny” resurfaced, Gilda was ditched and Kaley Cuoco changed Walsh.
Marisa Tomei, Elizabeth Berkley, and Tara Reid might not have actually been the next “Penny,” however their professions took them in a variety of various instructions that led them to success. Tomei would end up playing Aunt May in the MCU’s Spider-Man trilogy, Reid would remain in the Sharknado movies that helped change her career, and Berkley returned to the renowned function of Jessie Spano in Peacock’s Saved by the Bell reboot, which lasted 2 seasons. Kaley Cuoco highlighted a pleasant quality in Penny, who evolved over the years from an adorable “woman next door” kind of female to somebody who never ever had any issues calling out her uncomfortable researcher buddies for their things too.
You can enjoy episodes of The Big Bang Theory and Kaley Cuoco’s more recent program The Flight Attendant with your HBO Max subscription.