‘Big Bang Theory’ co-maker says Penny was ‘Cliched’ like a ‘stupid blonde’
“The Big Bang Theory” co-maker Chuck Lorre says that the character of Kaley Cuoco Penny has taken a few seasons to fully understand.
“It’s a cliché character: the stupid blonde, and we missed it,” said Lorre during the first episode of “The official Big Bang Theory Podcast. “” We did not immediately have that what she brought in this story, this series, to these other characters, was an intelligence they didn’t have. A kind of intelligence that was strange to them, an intelligence about people and relationships and family. “
Cuoco’s penny did not go in the cast “The Big Bang Theory” until Lorre wrote a pilot “do-over” after photographing a failed first version that was never broadcast. The original opener contained two other female leads, Gilda (Iris Bahr) and Katie (Amanda Walsh).
Lorre said he eventually realized that the fresh and much -needed, dynamic cent brought to the show. He added that she was especially effective because of her relationship with the other series: Sheldon Cooper, played by Jim Parsons, and Leonard Hofstadter, played by Johnny Galecki.
“She was never condemning about these characters,” said Lorre. “She was in fact stunned by them. They brought her more judgment than 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 Uniered Pilot.”
He continued: “She brought a humanity to those they were missing. And that took a while to find out. Certainly, in the beginning she was unfortunately one-dimensional in many ways, but the gift of a TV series that starts to work gets time to learn.”
