Somehow, it’s been 16 whole years since The Big Bang Theory premiered in September 2007. To celebrate the anniversary, here are 16 facts about the show that’ll surprise you, educate you, and honestly just make you want to do another rewatch:
1.The character of Penny was originally going to be called Katie, and she wasn’t going to be the “bubbly” version of the character we know now, but a much more cynical character. Kaley Cuoco auditioned for the role, but originally it went to Amanda Walsh, who even filmed the original unaired pilot in 2006.
“I know Chuck [Lorre] really wanted me for the role of Katie, and I was definitely bummed when I didn’t get it, but I kind of have a way of moving on because you have to,” Cuoco explained in Jessica Radloff’s book, The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series.
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2.Marisa Tomei, Tara Reid, and Elizabeth Berkley also all read for the role of “Katie” (aka Penny) before she was ultimately immortalized by the one and only Kaley Cuoco.
“I thought it was a great script, and that’s why we went so far as to check it out,” Tomei said in an interview with Insider after Radloff revealed in her book that she was being considered for the role. “And it’s such an iconic kind of setup — all those archetypes, the scientists, and then the kind of little hottie and the whole thing.”
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3.A long-discussed element of the show was that Penny never had a last name. The writers ultimately decided not to give her a surname before marriage because they got “superstitious” about it. Ultimately, her last name will always be her married name: Hofstadter.
“We got nervous and superstitious about giving her [a last name],” executive producer Steve Molaro explained on a WonderCon panel about the show. And while some fans think her last name was revealed to be Teller, because of a label on a package seen in Season 2, Molaro stresses that is definitely not canon. For her part, Cuoco told TV Line, “I kind of love it” that we never learn her last name.
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4.Penny wasn’t the only role that could have looked super different — the role of Howard Wolowitz was actually originally written for Kevin Sussman (who ultimately played Stuart), but ABC wouldn’t release him from his Ugly Betty contract in order to free him up to play the role.
“ABC had an option on Kevin and wouldn’t release him,” casting director Ken Miller told Radloff. “And then the sad part is, he was never on Ugly Betty after that again. They kept him from getting that role on Big Bang.”
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5.The characters of Sheldon and Leonard were named after producer Sheldon Leonard, who produced shows like The Andy Griffith Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show.
“Chuck and I are both fans. Chuck’s idea,” co-creator and executive producer Bill Prady told Variety.
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6.And the character of Sheldon was inspired by a computer programmer whom Prady once worked with, noting that this programmer could “do amazing calculations in his head but couldn’t manage to tip the waiters in a restaurant,” according to NPR.
After Prady shared that story, NPR reported, Chuck Lorre said, “Hang on, I’ve never seen that guy on television.”
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7.The origin story of Sheldon’s famous catchphrase “Bazinga!” is actually revealed in a 2018 episode of Young Sheldon. As a boy, Sheldon was trying to act more childlike and frivolous, which led him to a comic book store selling funny toys by a brand called Bazinga — and the rest was history.
8.Young Sheldon also reveals that Amy and Sheldon eventually have a son together — and they name him Leonard.
A later episode alludes to the fact that they have more than one kid, when Sheldon says in voiceover, “I did have kids.”
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9.Kunal Nayyar has naturally curly hair, so he straightened his hair for every episode to play Raj.
Nayyar has said that it took him 20 minutes every day to straighten it. The reason behind the hair was apparently a joke that the writers had decided on, that “Raj straightened his hair because the first person he met in America was Howard, and he was the coolest guy he’d met.”
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10.Carrie Fisher and James Earl Jones met for the first time appearing as guest stars on the show, despite their history starring in Star Wars.
Showrunner Steve Molaro shared on a San Diego Comic-Con panel in 2014 that “when they approached each other, the first thing Carrie said was, ‘Dad!'”
11.Meanwhile, Mark Hamill was “a little nervous” at first to commit to appearing in the Season 11 finale to officiate Sheldon and Amy’s wedding because the producers approached him as their “dream guest” without even having a script.
“He was understandably nervous about […] committing to the role he’s playing without seeing a script,” showrunner Steve Holland told the Hollywood Reporter. “But he came in and talked to us for a few hours and hung out with the writers. We had a good time together, and he luckily decided to trust us and take a leap of faith. He signed on without seeing word one.”
12.Mayim Bialik actually has a PhD in neuroscience in real life, and she has shared how it “came in handy” working on the show and how she would occasionally give small corrections to the scientific jargon in the dialogue. In fact, the writers even made Amy work in neuroscience as well because they figured it would make the character super accurate.
13.Melissa Rauch revealed that the reason Bernadette’s speaking voice was so high is that it was actually inspired by her mother in real life.
“At the audition, I hadn’t planned on doing it,” she said on the Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown podcast. “It was just for a guest star initially, and I was just very nervous in that waiting room, and there were so many people there. I wanted to try something different, and I had just been on the phone with my mother, whose register is very close to Bernadette’s. And there was something a little bit … like my mother in Bernadette. They’re not, by any means, very similar, but there was just, in the side that I was auditioning with that day, in that material … there were some characteristics that just reminded me of my mom. So I sorta did a little bit of an imitation of my mom without the Jersey accent.”
14.”Soft Kitty” is such a big part of The Big Bang Theory, but CBS and Warner Bros. were actually sued over it. The suit was ultimately dropped.
Two women, Ellen Newlin Chase and Margaret Chase Perry, claimed that their mother, Ellen — a nursery school teacher — had written the lyrics as a poem in the 1930s and they were used without permission. Warner Bros. apparently sought permission from the publisher of a book of nursery rhymes that had included the poem, and it allegedly gave the show permission to use it without ever consulting the family.
15.As an act of solidarity, Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Simon Helberg, Cuoco, and Nayyar each took a $100,000 pay cut from their notable $1 million–per–episode paychecks just before Season 11 to help elevate Bialik’s and Rauch’s salaries to over $425,000 per episode.
16.Finally, the show wasn’t always going to be called The Big Bang Theory — the original working title was Lenny, Penny, and Kenny.
The character of Sheldon was originally going to be named Kenny.
CBS / Courtesy Everett Collection
