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In the 17th episode of the first season of “The Big Bang Theory”, something huge happens: Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), the Ringard roommate and the best friend of Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), is courageous enough to ask their neighbor Penny (Kaley Cuoco), the dreams of Leonard’s daughter. According to Jessica Radloff’s book in 2022 “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series”, this moment was long, even if it was relatively early in the show … and the public answered very, very GOOD.
After the program took an interruption after a handful of episode due to the 2007-08 writers’ strike (but returned as an even greater sensation than before), the creator Chuck Lorre said that the public showed their love for the series importantly while they were shooting the prior episode, entitled “The Tangerine Factor”. As Lorre recalled:
“It was one of those moments that led me to believe that something special was happening, beyond what we never imagined. People even came to recording dressed in blouses and things! The public was completely invested in these two fictional characters. And the fact that there was hope for this relationship is the reason why they applauded. Fictive, it’s wonderful.
For his part, Galecki accepted and said: “I remember it because in the first failing pilot, the public did not approach Leonard and Katie, so it was great to have this enthusiasm for Leonard and Penny. This is exactly what I had hoped by joining the series, to be in these stories involving questions of the heart. The public was crazy.” After saying that the public also liked a moment, seasons later, when Penny told Leonard that she loves him (a moment that made Cuoco and Galecki cry in real life), Galecki continued: “I receive a very emotional reflection now. You cannot create this from nothing. These feelings came from honesty and reality.”
Leonard hardly asked Penny in the original project of this episode of Big Bang Theory
The basic intrigue of “The Tangerine Factor” is as follows: after having broken up with another shitty guy, Penny feels depressed when Leonard asks her an appointment – but she is in conflict because Leonard is a good friend, and she does not want to spoil the relationship they already have. Incredibly, both end up asking Sheldon To get advice, but the wisdom he gives to Penny is unexpected. Sheldon uses a scientific principle known as Schrödinger’s cat, saying: “Like Schrödinger’s cat, your potential relationship with Leonard at the moment can be considered good and bad. It is only by opening the box that you will discover.”
However, according to the co-creator of “The Big Bang Theory”, Bill Prady (who wrote the episode alongside the producer and executive writer Steve Molaro), the shared jump from Leonard and Penny hardly happened. “Steve and I wrote this episode, and we have trouble because in the original outline, he never asked him at the end,” Prady told Jessica Radloff. “The original version of the story was that Leonard imagined going out with Penny, and he decides to repeat the date with Sheldon playing the role of Penny. And the rehearsal is so bad that he does not ask him to go out. No matter how much the date of rehearsal is not going. If he asks him.”
“So, we came back, and I think we came to the place where if we asked her to go out, we could not think of a reason why she would not say yes,” concluded Prady, before saying that he understands the basic attraction between the two:
“I think she would be curious. And even if Leonard found her very attractive, it was not the basis of her interest in her. He was a different type for her. All men begin by being attracted by someone, and for some men, it is enough. But Leonard is not this kind of person. Other writers who presented themselves after a break could get a way out.”
Fans of the series know that Leonard and Penny are one of the central couples of the show, so clearly, it worked … But he is stressful on the edge of imagining a world where Leonard never does courage to ask Penny to go out with an appointment.
The comments of a particular fan helped a director of Big Bang theory realize that the show was universal
In the end, after “The Tangerine Factor” was broadcast, the people who worked there, including director Mark Cendrowski, obtained unexpected comments – in the right direction. As Cendrowski told Jessica Radloff, his daughter played softball at the time and one of her coaches, who, according to Cendrowski, also worked in construction, approached him to ask him if he made episodes of “The Big Bang Theory”.
“I was shocked, he even knew it, but also because he just did not seem to be the type of guy I expected to look at him,” continued Cendrowski. “But he said,” What Leonard is going through … You don’t need to be a Nerd to understand what it is to have trouble talking to a beautiful girl. “And that’s where I made, Oh, these stories are universal. It is not only for a specific audience. I went home saying: “I feel very good in this show.” »»
Cendrowski’s instincts were right; Whoever reads this probably took a kind of romantic jump, and it is hardAs we see while Leonard and Penny attacked the idea of going out with each other. After a booming romance, the two end up getting married and, in the final of the series, even discover that Penny is waiting for a baby (a development that shocked Johnny Galecki). If you want to look at the whole love story of Leonard and Penny starting with “The Tangerine Factor”, you can broadcast “The Big Bang Theory” on HBO Max now.
