Top 10 Dark Truths About Big Bang Theory
#10: Leonard’s Glasses Have No Lenses
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Leonard’s poor eyesight and need for glasses is an oft discussed and referenced aspect of his character. But did you ever notice that whenever you saw Johnny Galecki in photos, away from “The Big Bang Theory” set, he was never wearing glasses? And no, he doesn’t wear contacts - the actor just has good eyesight. Galecki wanted Leonard to wear glasses though, and so he wore a pair with plain glass lenses during the initial rehearsals for the pilot episode. The problem was that his height difference with Jim Parsons meant that he was looking up quite a bit and this caused a glare from the set lights that didn’t work well on camera. So, Galecki just popped out the lenses and that was that.
#9: Amy & Sheldon’s First Kiss Wasn’t Very Hygienic
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Many fans fondly remember Amy and Sheldon’s first kiss on the train on Valentine’s Day as one of the most romantic and cheer-worthy moments of the show’s 12 seasons. Whether or not they still will when they hear about what was going on behind the scenes that day is up for debate, however. And what was going on was that Jim Parsons was sick as a dog. As Mayim Bialik reminded him during an interview the two did with USA Today, “You were sweating. You had a fever. You were very sick.” He was sick and she was gargling with hydrogen peroxide between takes - how romantic does it sound now?
#8: Raj’s Issues with Women Are Based on a Real Person
Okay, maybe not all his lady problems, but one very specific one. One of the defining parts of Raj’s character for the first few seasons is his inability to talk to most women. This selective mutism is, as even Leonard’s mother points out, quite rare, but it was also familiar to one of the show’s creators Bill Prady. They always tell writers to write what you know, and Prady had an old friend with that exact affliction - so he brought it to Raj. Prady’s old friend eventually got over the mutism, got hitched and had children. And while Raj also eventually got past his disorder, that’s where the similarities ended, as Raj never got the marriage and family he so desperately wanted.
#7: Kaley Cuoco Almost Had to Have Her Foot Amputated
Remember in season four when Penny went from being a waitress to a bartender at The Cheesecake Factory? Turns out that change of position wasn’t in the cards when the season began. Instead it was a solution the team came up with after actress Kaley Cuoco had a major horse riding accident, spent two weeks in the hospital and emerged with her leg in a cast. That was actually the best possible outcome given that doctors had told her that she might come out of surgery with only one foot. And speaking of “Big Bang” injuries - prior to filming season six, Mayim Bialik injured her hand in a car accident. But rather than write it into the story, producers made sure that they filmed around it instead.
#6: Jim Parsons Had Never Heard of Chuck Lorre
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Chuck Lorre had created and produced multiple hit sitcoms before “The Big Bang Theory” - from “Grace Under Fire” to “Two and a Half Men”. His was a name that pretty much everyone in the business knew - everyone except Jim Parsons, that is. When his agent called him to tell him about a Chuck Lorre project, Parsons thought he was talking about Chuck Woolery. He didn’t get why people were getting so hyped about a sitcom from the guy who hosted “Love Connection” in the 80s. Thankfully, he didn’t let that stop him from auditioning and ultimately doing the show.
#5: Kevin Sussman Is Scared of Water
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In the season 10 episode “The Hot Tub Contamination,” Stuart and Raj, thinking that Howard and Bernadette are away on vacation, both show up separately at the Wolowitzes’ house to use their hot tub. When Raj arrives, a panicked Stuart hides under the water in the hopes of not getting caught, and when he pops up, the fear on both their faces gets a big laugh. However, the fear on Stuart's face wasn’t acting. As actor Kevin Sussman told the crowd at Comic-con in 2017 - he has a water phobia, so submerging himself in the hot tub was a "horrifying and disgusting” experience. It was also one that required a lot of help from the other people on set to accomplish.
#4: Pay Scale
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We couldn’t imagine “The Big Bang Theory” without Raj and Howard, but apparently the producers could have. When the show began, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki were each making up to $60,000 per episode. That number rose over time and as season 8 came rolling around, they renewed for $1 million. Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar were looking for equal pay with their co-stars, but when producers warned that their characters would be written off the sitcom, the actors settled for a number more in the "mid-six-figure range" - eventually getting bumped to $1 million a couple years later. As for Mayim Bialik and Melissa Rauch: they got bumped up to $500,000 in season 10 when the others all willingly took a $100,000 pay cut.
#3: “Soft Kitty” Copyright
Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of litigation... Although the show’s popular “Soft Kitty” song was used to make characters on the show feel better, hearing it sung season after season didn’t make poet Edith Newlin’s heirs feel good at all. So, they tried suing the show in an effort to ease their discomfort - claiming that their mother wrote the words to the song many decades ago and that they held the copyright. Unfortunately for them, the case was dismissed when a judge ruled they didn’t prove their copyright claims. And that wasn’t the only musical lawsuit either. In 2015, Steven Page - former member of The Barenaked Ladies - sued the band, claiming he was owed royalties for “The Big Bang Theory’s theme song on which he performs.
#2: Secret Romance
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For two seasons, “Big Bang Theory” fans watched and waited for Leonard and Penny to finally get together. But little did they know that while on screen things were moving slowly, behind the scenes Kaley Cuoco and Johnny Galecki were in a loving relationship. Yes, they denied it and kept it secret, but the couple dated for two years while Leonard and Penny remained just friends. Ironically, Cuoco and Galecki broke up just as Penny and Leonard were finally getting together in season three. And speaking of Galecki dating co-stars: Johnny also dated his on-screen love interest Sara Gilbert back when they were both on “Roseanne” in the 90s. They broke up, at least partly, because Gilbert came to recognize her attraction to women.
#1: The Writers’ Strike
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It turns out Raj drinking a grasshopper and talking to Penny for the first time could have been the last episode of the show. You see, “The Big Bang Theory” had only aired eight episodes when the 2007 strike by The Writers Guild of America shut down production, and their ratings weren’t blowing anyone away. The show wasn’t a guaranteed renewal before the strike, and after it, many involved thought, as Johnny Galecki did, “Oh, that’s the nail in the coffin.” But there was a silver lining to the dark cloud of the writers’ strike. Because of it, CBS reran those 8 episodes over and over again - which actually helped build an audience for the show. And with that mystery unraveled, the rest is history.
