“The Big Bang Theory” aired its first episode back in 2007, so it’s safe to assume that some of the jokes haven’t aged that well. Apparently, one scene aged so badly that it’s not even included in syndication anymore, according to Jessica Radloff’s 2022 oral history “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series.”
You can still see this scene — where Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki) try to make a “deposit” at a high-IQ sperm bank — in the pilot’s original cut on Max, but the whole thing has been pulled from syndication, and creator Chuck Lorre said he really doesn’t like the whole thing in retrospect. “The scene was so wrong,” Lorre said in the book. “In my mind, the show truly began with those awkward hellos between Penny [Kaley Cuoco], Sheldon, and Leonard when she’s unpacking boxes in her apartment.
Parsons, who starred as Sheldon for twelve seasons before deciding to leave the series, didn’t have a huge problem with the scene in the moment … but understands Lorre’s decision. “At the time, the sperm bank scene didn’t bother me,” he said. “It was just another scene that had to be done. Looking back, it was out of place, but there was no way for the producers to know, and that’s where it wasn’t a mistake. One of the glories about television is if you’re able to do the same show for a while, the characters develop. But when you’re making a pilot with a majority of people you’ve never met with people who are writing this, there’s nothing wrong with the scene. Nobody knew who Sheldon was yet, so the live audience accepted it for what it was. But it is confusing information now, and I get why Chuck took it out in syndication, because the episode is much stronger and more special without it.”
Because this scene was cut from the pilot of The Big Bang Theory, the team created a workaround for airplanes
Not only do Chuck Lorre and his co-creator Bill Prady know it was the right thing to do to pull the sperm bank scene from the syndicated pilot of “The Big Bang Theory,” they had to solve another problem when the show became a part of in-flight entertainment. So what did they do? It’s actually pretty clever.
“Prior to broadcast when the pilot started airing on American Airlines flights, they basically said, ‘You can’t show that scene,'” Prady recalled. “So we shot wonderful wraparounds with Johnny and Jim where they introduced the show and said, ‘We’re not going to be able to show you the first scene, because it’s a little grown-up and we don’t know who’s looking over your shoulder. We’ve had a discussion with American Airlines, and decided not to show it. But the story pretty much works without that scene, so we’ll jump in starting with the second scene.’ Then Jim said, ‘As long as we have a few extra minutes, I’m going to explain how airplanes fly,’ and Johnny responds, ‘No one on an airplane wants to hear how airplanes fly!’ It’s a great little piece of footage.”
The best part is that, to get around a line that references the sperm bank scene, Lorre and Prady managed to find a way to work around that as well. “And then when there’s a callback to the sperm bank scene later in the episode (Penny says, ‘What do you guys do for fun around here?” Sheldon says, ‘Well, today we tried masturbating for money’), Jim and Johnny interrupt out of character and say, ‘There’s a joke here you won’t get because it’s about the first scene, but it’s a pretty funny joke. Moving on.’ And then it goes back to the show.”
The moment where three main characters first meet in The Big Bang Theory is what made the pilot work
The first attempt at a pilot for “The Big Bang Theory” didn’t go particularly well — in fact, the whole thing was scrapped and the main female role, which was originally played by Amanda Walsh and named Katie, was fully revamped — but thankfully, there’s one moment in the actual pilot that just worked immediately. When Penny first moves into her apartment across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard, the trio exchange a bunch of awkward greetings — basically just the words “hi,” “great,” and “bye” — and according to Bill Prady his three leads really made the scene work.
“We wrote it, and then as with all good collaborative things, the actors made it better,” Prady said of Kaley Cuoco, Johnny Galecki, and Jim Parsons. “We just knew, ‘This is clicking,’ It feels like the look and sound of a home run in baseball; you just know, that’s outta here. And we all knew it.” Cuoco completely agreed, saying, “That exchange got rewritten so many times, which is interesting on a show that had very few rewrites. But that scene set the tone for the show […] It was a song that came to life. It took a while to find, but once we did, it ended up being one of the most adorable, remembered scenes on TV.” It did work, and the rest is history.
“The Big Bang Theory” is streaming on Max now.