03-13-2015, 09:34 PM
(03-13-2015, 08:23 PM)Idle Miscreant Wrote: Well…that was absolutely fascinating. And horrible. And illuminating, because don’t you chaps see…it’s the current show for godsake!
Gilda is an early, less self-pitying version of Amy. Gilda is “kooky” and territorially aggressive about “her man”, yet mildly bisexual, talks in an artificial “nerd” manner (they all do in the pilot actually, it’s just that Amy is doing it in seasons 5-8), intelligent yet socially inept (although as we’ve seen, sometimes Amy is suddenly Miss Etiquette), jealous, spiteful and, surprise surprise, in a vague relationship with Sheldon.
Leonard is again fixated upon a woman who doesn’t (and can never) respect or love him truly, despite the fact that in this pilot, Gilda evidently does, and would make an excellent partner, but Leonard isn’t interested because Gilda isn’t a blonde Barbie-doll.
Sheldon is obviously meant to be an idiot. A neurotic second fiddle to Leonard’s “sweetness and charm”. The fact that Jim turned the ship off course in S1-3 with his remarkable portrayal doesn’t alter that originally he was meant to be a Mercutio figure to Leonard’s star-crossed Romeo, and that the TRUE romance and plot was meant to be between Leonard and Katie.
A romance that TPTB have pursued relentlessly (perhaps admirably, I don’t know) in the face of public apathy, despite the fact that public curiosity was sparked over the relationship between Juliet and MERCUTIO.
This Sheldon/Penny interest has been stamped on for years, principally, it seems, because it goes directly against the original plan. The Sheldon/Gilda(Amy) interest, for the same reason, has been actively encouraged.
The fact that the Sheldon/Gilda interest is greater than the Leonard/Katie interest, and that the Sheldon/Katie interest is STILL AROUND and is possibly the largest “ship” of all (counting all the years, and casual viewers, and fanfics etc), is perhaps a sore point for TPTB, but it doesn’t change the fact that Sheldon is a more interesting character, so whatever his relationship is, it will invariable outshine Leonard’s.
For me this pilot episode has clarified quite a lot, and made the current seasons considerably easier to contemplate.
This is obviously what they were intending all along. Jim threw a vaudevillian spanner in the works by turning Sheldon into a thing of sheer artistic beauty, and the writers obviously ran with that a while, joyously, but then returned, possibly dutifully, to the original premise. Now Leonard is engaged to “Katie” (which sort of ends the show, doesn’t it?), “Gilda” has territorially marked out and scented Sheldon (instead of Leonard, to whom she’s more suited), Sheldon has been returned to idiot status, erasing completely the genius of S1-4, and “Katie” is bleak, cynical and mean, erasing the S1-4 warmth of Penny completely.
On top of this there’s two extra couples, for no reason.
Point is, they weren’t expecting Vintage Sheldon. NOBODY expects the Vintage Sheldon!
And having had their fun, and having ridden on the fucker’s back through fields of merchandise and Emmys, they’ve got rid of him.
And we’re back to Leonard and Katie and Gilda and dumb-schmuck Ass-man Cooper.
It was a beautiful three years though folks. Let’s keep honouring that.
Well put Gripe. This Unaired Pilot sure was an eye opener. TPTB ended up getting the show they wanted. It's clear Jim was ruining the plans of TPTB with how Sheldon took off as a character. JG could not up his game like JP did so JP and the Sheldon character needed to be scaled back.