The Untold Truth Of The Big Bang Theory

#1 The Pilot Reconceptualization

The Big Bang that's aired for a decade is very different from the pilot episode presented to CBS in 2006. While he's now depicted as asexual and mystified by romance, Sheldon (Jim Parsons) was sexually active in the pilot and played as a sleaze. There was also no Penny (Kaley Cuoco) next door; instead, the attractive neighbor was a tough, not-very-friendly woman named Katie (portrayed by Amanda Walsh) who Leonard and Sheldon invite to stay with them because she is a homeless alcoholic. Leonard (Johnny Galecki) wore suits instead of hoodies. The two guys have a female friend, also a scientist, called Gilda.

#2 The Original Pilot Was A Disaster

Although CBS had the biggest sitcom on television, it asked that shows creators, Chuck Lorre, and Bill Prady to come up with a new series, which was then called "Science". When they presented the episode, CBS hated it and ordered it to be redone. Lorre and Prady went back to the drawing board and kept only the main premise and Leonard and Sheldon. They even switched the original theme song, Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science" to an original by The Barenaked Ladies. When the changes were made, CBS aired it in 2007, and its been on the schedule and at the top of the ratings for most of that time.

#3 Melissa Rauch Doesn't Sound Like Bernadette In Real Life

Bernadette's mousy, high-pitched voiceand loud moments of screaming ragedon't come naturally to her portrayer, Melissa Rauch. Although she doesn't sound like Bernadette in real life, Rauch took her inspiration from a source close to home: her own mother. Although the two women share vocal DNA, they have one major differenceBernadette lacks her real-life counterpart's thick New Jersey accent.

#4 The Three Main Stars Get Paid Big Bucks

Production of the show's eighth season was delayed in 2014 due to contract renegotiations between the cast and Warner Bros TV. Ultimately, CBS renewed the show for an unprecedented three seasons, keeping The Big Bang Theory on the air through 2017, and Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, and Kaley Cuoco secured a salary of $1 million per episodeeach.

#5 The Rest Of The Cast Isn't Paid As Well

Simon Helberg (Howard) and Kunal Nayyar (Raj) re-negotiated their new contracts collectively, winding up with salaries of around $750,000 per episode. A settlement was reached the day before their old contracts ran out, and the duo would've reportedly been written out of the show had they not accepted the deal. Lorre had done this on his other series before, not counting when he wrote star Charlie Sheen out of Two And A Half Men. Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik didn't negotiate their new salaries and are paid a fraction of what the rest of the cast earns. This has caused friction between the players off of the set.

#6 Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco Secretly Dated

While Cuoco has been tabloid fodder due to her brief marriage to (and high-profile divorce from) tennis player Ryan Sweeting, she avoided the spotlight while she was in her previous relationship, even though it was with a co-star on her top-rated TV show. Cuoco and Johnny Galecki dated from 2007 to 2009 and kept it a secret from not only the media but from the Big Bang cast and crew. It only came to light when Cuoco spilled the beans on the CBS talks show "The Talk".

#7 Mayim Bialik Was On The Show Before She Was On The Show

In the 2008 episode "The Bat Jar Conjecture," Sheldon quits the group's physics bowl team. Raj aims high in his suggestion for a replacement, naming "the girl who played TV's Blossom," as she'd earned a Ph.D in real life. That actress is Mayim Bialik, who later joined the cast as Amy Farrah Fowler. The character is written exactly like the one in the original pilot named Gilda, played by Iris Bahr, who was written out from the story after the failed pilot.

#8 Balik Wasnt The First Choice For Amy Farrah Fowler

Balik was well liked by the creators and producers but they had their eye on another funny faced actress. Also under consideration for the role was actress and Garfunkel and Oates musician Kate Micucci. She was edged out for the part by Bialik, but producers liked her so much that they wrote a part for her: Lucy, the extremely introverted woman Raj briefly dates.

#9 "Soft Kitty" Was Stolen

Co-creator Bill Prady says he heard Sheldon's special calm-down song being sung at his daughter's preschool. Assuming it was in the public domain, he added it to the show, where it's been used multiple times and on scores of Big Bang merchandise. In 2015, however, the family of a New Hampshire teacher named Edith Newlin sued CBS and Bill Prady Productions for copyright infringement, alleging they lifted lyrics from Newlin's 1937 song "Warm Kitty." The main difference: The 1937 song begins, "Warm kitty, soft kitty, little ball of fur." The Big Bang version starts out, "Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur."

CBS has been ordered to pay the family of Newlin over $2 million in retribution.