“The Big Bang Theory” co-creator Chuck Lorre says Kaley Cuoco‘s character Penny took a few seasons to fully understand.
“It’s a cliched character: the dumb blonde, and we missed it,” Lorre said during the first episode of “The Official Big Bang Theory Podcast.” “We didn’t have that right away that what she brought to this story, this series, to these other characters was an intelligence that they didn’t have. A kind of intelligence that was alien to them, an intelligence about people and relationships and family.”
Cuoco’s Penny didn’t enter “The Big Bang Theory” cast until Lorre penned a “do-over” pilot after shooting a failed first version that never aired. The original opener featured two other female leads, Gilda (Iris Bahr) and Katie (Amanda Walsh).
Lorre said he eventually realized the fresh, and much needed, dynamic Penny brought to the show. He added that she was especially effective because of her relationship with the other series leads: Sheldon Cooper, played by Jim Parsons, and Leonard Hofstadter, played by Johnny Galecki.
“She was never judgmental about these characters,” Lorre said. “She was bemused by them, in fact. They brought more judgement to her than she did ever of them. 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.”
He continued, “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 in many ways, but the gift of a TV series that starts working is you get time to learn.”
