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Chuck Lorre has started off the podcast confessions with a bang.
“The Big Bang Theory” co-creator, 72, revealed a regret of his when it came to Kaley Cuoco’s character Penny on the series, which ran from 2007 to 2019 on CBS.
“We had so many episodes to go before we started to understand that there was a brilliance to Penny’s character that we had not explored,” Lorre said while on the first-ever episode of “The Official Big Bang Theory Podcast” on Monday.
The series followed best friends, roommates and physicists Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) and Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg).
“We did the very cliché in the beginning, you know, goofy blonde who says foolish things. It’s a clichéd character, right? And we missed it,” Lorre told host Jessica Radloff. “We didn’t have that right away that what she brought to this series, to these other characters, was an intelligence that was alien to them, you know, intelligence about people and relationships and family.”
Although Penny appeared on all 12 seasons, she never had a last name until she married Leonard during Season 9.
As Lorre put it, “It was built in that the scientists of the show didn’t understand how to be with people. She did. She brought a humanity to them that they were lacking and that took a while to figure out. Certainly in the beginning, she was sadly one-dimensional.”
Prior to Cuoco, 39, Amanda Walsh was cast to play Katie, “a street-hardened tough-as-nails woman with a vulnerable interior” in the 2006 pilot that never aired.
The 43-year-old didn’t move forward in the role after the test audience “hated” Katie and her “toxic presence.”
The pilot was then reshot in 2007 with a new cast, including Penny, Howard, and Rajesh Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar).
“The magic of Kaley was, Kaley’s character — as we figured this thing out on the fly — was amused by them, was not critical,” Lorre reflected.
“If she got angry, it wasn’t harsh. The audience really responded to that.”
Former Warner Bros. Television Group chairman, Peter Roth, echoed Lorre’s sentiments, adding on the episode: “She was never judgmental about these characters. She was bemused by them. In fact, they brought more judgement to her than she did ever of them.”
The exec, 75, explained, “And I thought that was also an important difference between the character of what Penny brought versus the character of what Katie brought in the original unaired pilot.”
“There was a sweetness, an endearment that she felt towards them that I think the audience — I think Chuck said it exactly right: The audience wanted to protect these two boys, these two men, these two innocents, and [Cuoco] honored that.”
A few years before “The Big Bang Theory” ended, “Young Sheldon” was created, which followed Sheldon Cooper as a kid.
After running for seven seasons, another spin-off was born in 2024: “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage.”
The CBS sitcom is the third TV series in “The Big Bang Theory” universe and follows the marriage of young parents Georgie Cooper — Sheldon’s older brother — and Mandy McAllister.
In October, Cuoco spoke about her time on the original series.
“I spent 12 years playing that role, and it really set off my career. I owe a lot to that character, to that show, to [creator] Chuck Lorre,” she gushed to People at the time. “It was some of the best years of my life, and some of the most fun I’ve ever had.”
When asked if she would be open to revisit Penny one day, the actress stated: “I would absolutely reprise that role.”
“100%,” Cuoco added. “I love that character, and I always will.”