WI: The Big Bang Theory picked up on its first pilot?

Teshuvah

Banned
Note: I know a lot of people on this forum hate TBBT, but try to keep your personal opinions of it aside.

Not a lot of people know this, but CBS's hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory was not made into a show based on the first series pilot. In fact, there was a pilot shot a year earlier that the network didn't like, thus it wasn't picked up. The creators were given a chance to retool the show, resulting in the second pilot.

Here's a clip of the original, unaired one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUy1xBCEA2s

The full video can be found circulating on the net, but I won't post it here for copyright reasons.

Although it has mostly the same basic plot, there are a few key differences. For one, Sheldon isn't asexual, and the girl the two meet is a lot sassier and less "together" than Penny was. Howard and Raj are absent, as they were part of the revisions for pilot #2.

So let's say that, for some reason, the CBS execs decide to pick up the series on this pilot, thus butterflying away all of the main characters from OTL except Leonard and Sheldon. How does the series develop? Does it last more than a season? Is it still a hit?

-AYC
 

Kyro92

AYoungContrarian said:
Note: I know a lot of people on this forum hate TBBT, but try to keep your personal opinions of it aside.

Not a lot of people know this, but CBS's hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory was not made into a show based on the first series pilot. In fact, there was a pilot shot a year earlier that the network didn't like, thus it wasn't picked up. The creators were given a chance to retool the show, resulting in the second pilot.

Here's a clip of the original, unaired one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUy1xBCEA2s

The full video can be found circulating on the net, but I won't post it here for copyright reasons.

Although it has mostly the same basic plot, there are a few key differences. For one, Sheldon isn't asexual, and the girl the two meet is a lot sassier and less "together" than Penny was. Howard and Raj are absent, as they were part of the revisions for pilot #2.

So let's say that, for some reason, the CBS execs decide to pick up the series on this pilot, thus butterflying away all of the main characters from OTL except Leonard and Sheldon. How does the series develop? Does it last more than a season? Is it still a hit?

-AYC
Click to expand...
I imagine they'd introduce additional semi-main characters by the end of the first season.

That pilot was significantly more "in your face" about porn/masturbation/spermbanks then the actual pilot that got aired. I didn't think it was all that funny either. But then I didn't see the rest of the pilot, so can't rightly judge.

The safe bet is that extra development time did improve the show, simply because extra input in any context normally improves the subsequent output. Plus the executives surely had reasons for knocking it back, and they're more likely to have been right then wrong. OTOH, I think from your description of the alternate Penny character that the character would have been funnier.
 
Kitiem3000

Kitiem3000

Donor
after the clip I downloaded the un-aired pilot.

I think it was better in many ways than the one we have now. Although I like Penny better then Katie, Sheldon and Leonard are huge improvements.

I also like Gilda. It makes it a bit less of a tired cliché to have the girly nerd be in the core group from the beginning. I think Amy's character might be based of Gilda, the personalities are a lot alike.
Katie was a bit much, but Penny could use a good dose of Katie. It would very much improve her character.

The set and lighting is very different. The house is more cluttered and smaller, the streets and the apartment building look more run down. Coupled with the weak lighting everywhere it gives it a bit of a darker edge then the show has now. It bit too much for a comedy perhaps. A mix between the original and current would be perfect.

Throw in Raj and a Penny-Katie mix and I'll take the original over the current.
 

Teshuvah

Banned
Kitiem3000 said:
after the clip I downloaded the un-aired pilot.

I think it was better in many ways than the one we have now. Although I like Penny better then Katie, Sheldon and Leonard are huge improvements.

I also like Gilda. It makes it a bit less of a tired cliché to have the girly nerd be in the core group from the beginning. I think Amy's character might be based of Gilda, the personalities are a lot alike.
Katie was a bit much, but Penny could use a good dose of Katie. It would very much improve her character.

The set and lighting is very different. The house is more cluttered and smaller, the streets and the apartment building look more run down. Coupled with the weak lighting everywhere it gives it a bit of a darker edge then the show has now. It bit too much for a comedy perhaps. A mix between the original and current would be perfect.

Throw in Raj and a Penny-Katie mix and I'll take the original over the current.
Click to expand...
I think that, if the original BBT was picked up, it'd be more "nerds in the real world" and much more gritty than the OTL version. The humor would probably be darker, and there'd be less nerd in-jokes.

-AYC
 

Riain

Banned
One of the things I like about Sheldon is his aversion to sex, I think it gives him power that the others lack sine he can't be manipulated by sex.

If instead he becomes a character who whacks-off to fat-arse porn he just becomes a sad loser like the rest.
 

King Midas

Marc Pasquin said:
is it just me or is sheldon's voice deeper ?
Click to expand...

As I understand it, "Our" Sheldon's voice is deliberately pitched higher, to make him less masculine, more asexual/nerdy.

I think Leslie Winkel is the Gilda Espy, not Amy FF.

The pilot was IMO a remake of the fairly good Two & 1/2 men ep with Jenna Elfman: With Leonard cast in the Charley roll, and Sheldon as Alan:

"You want to bring a HOMELESS PERSON into our HOME????"
"Not ordinarily, but she's HOT!"

The main thing I liked about the earlier pilot was that Leonard had a decent suit.
 
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