0.00 The Unaired Pilot

[Toad]

Well that was...interesting. Darker, for one thing. Figuratively AND literally. Seriously those sets, particularly the guys' apartment, were claustrophobic and DARK. Like people could have been scunched up against the walls and you never would have seen them DARK. Such a contrast to the awash-with-light-and-color show it is now. (I watched the YouTube version though, so maybe there's some degradation in quality?)

And, yeah, I found both the female characters to be annoying and off-putting. The Katie character was simply too unpleasant, too jaded, too crude, and, excuse me for saying this, too TOO skanky. The actress also struck me as being much taller than Kaley, so the height differential between she and Johnny might have been a leetle too much.

The Gilda character came off only moderately better. THERE I actually found the actress to be more annoying than the character, who, interestingly, seemed to be wielding an early prototype of the "five year plan." (What is it with these designing women anyway?)

The actress appeared to be, I don't know, trying too hard to bring some physical schtick to her scenes, the kind of stuff Simon can pull off in his sleep, and it just fell flat. Plus her character reminded me of something out of an old Hollywood movie - the trope of the zany, wise-cracking, odd-looking sidekick to the lead. Her voice even reminded me of Patsy Kelly (zany, wise-cracking, odd-looking sidekick to Thelma Todd). But that's probably just where I watch too many movies on the classic movie channel and am suggestible like that.

Sheldon and Leonard. Wardrobe really stepped up their game, because I can barely remember what Sheldon was wearing and I don't know WHAT kind of look they were going for with Leonard. Academic hipster maybe? I WAS able to glimpse some rudimentary Shelnard though. The gentle snarking, the back and forth between them as they dealt with Katie, Leonard's resigned "here we go" right before Sheldon launched into Ye Olde Spot Monologue.

There simply wasn't enough contrast between their characters though. I mainly just saw two nerds, and I'm wondering if that's one of the reasons Sheldon was later made asexual. To further differentiate him from Leonard, as well as to effectively eliminate him as a potential rival. Hmmm. Because, clearly, Leonard was meant to be the star here. The hypotenuse, if you will, in a romantic triangle. Gggurrgghh.

Not much in the way of "nerdy" references, but I realize they needed the time to establish the characters and the premise. I gave it 2 Dirty Socks.

[Idle Miscreant]

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.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Oh this is BEAUTIFUL IM and very astute. You are completely on the money.

The Unaired Pilot which bombed is now the show they are pushing which we, the sane, don't like. They are just riding on the fondness the public have for the characters but they have gone back to what they couldn't even sell.

Our beautiful three seasons were a gift that they don't even seem to appreciate. They were also accidental.

The mist clears....

[Trust No One]

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.

[devilbk]

Based on all the crap the Lorre shop puts out, you had to at some point realize that Vintage Big Bang was an anomaly, that they could never create something that good on purpose. They haven't got the tools or the intent. And they really, really don't want us falling in love with the characters. They want us to hate them and remember that we are all better than them.

[devilbk]

The thing that "surprised" me was how much dialogue was recycled into the series. Lorre doesn't allow much to go to waste.

[queenoftheDales]

The thing that "surprised" me was how much dialogue was recycled into the series. Lorre doesn't allow much to go to waste.

Agreed. I think this is why I wasn't completely thrown off by this version of the pilot like I expected to be. That scene with testLeonard and the lightsaber was a recycle too.

I tell you what, since getting sympathy for Leonard is the goal of this show, he would have gotten it for pursuing Katie. I don't understand how tptb could have constructed a relationship between them. Would she all of a sudden stop being a biotch? Then what? Hmmmm

[devilbk]

So instead of taking a bitch (Katie) and turning her into a nice person they took a nice person (Penny) and turned her into a bitch.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

The only thing I didn't agree with from IMs great post was Gilda being vaguely bisexual. She's far too desparate to bag a man to be bi. But that's neither here nor there, the rest is a eye-opener.

They couldn't sell this test show, by all accounts the network hated it. Now Lorre has them paying millions to produce it. The show is simply coasting now, it's become a familiar habit amongst the US public, so they have guaranteed viewers because so many people stick with shows long after they stop enjoying them as much.

The original unaired pilot was produced on May 1st 2006. After the network rejected it they went back and re-penned it and almost a year later another pilot was produced on, March 3rd 2007. This one is almost identical to the pilot we know, but with slightly different gags. And the biggest change is Sheldon, he's totally there and killing it!

Here is the first scene to the unaired pilot which won the show its contract.