In this second scene from the unaired pilot of the hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory, viewers would have been introduced to “Katie,” played by Amanda Walsh, a self-centered girl with poor judgement when it came to boyfriends.
It was decided that Katie didn’t have quite the right chemistry with Sheldon and Leonard, so the character was rewritten and recast with Kaley Cuoco in the role of the much more likable “Penny,” a waitress/aspiring actress who lived across the hall from the boys.
In this scene we see Gilda (played by Iris Bahr), a forgettable character, who, like Katie, was never seen by TV audiences. Gilda was a fellow scientist friend, or perhaps a little more, of Sheldon and Leonard. The character wasn’t really replaced, per se, by anyone, she was just dismissed, although the recurring character Leslie Van Winkle (played by Sara Gilbert) sort of filled whatever void Gilda left behind. The first three seasons of the show, Penny was the only female main character. In season four, Bernadette and Amy Farrah Fowler (played by Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik, respectively) were added to the mix.
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About the author
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Chris flirted with the music business there and in Nashville before joining the U.S. Army and serving in South Korea. He remained in Asia for several years afterwards, teaching English, traveling, and covering the regional entertainment scenes. Currently in a mindset between Seoul and San Francisco, besides Idol Features, you can also catch his writings in the print edition of the monthly magazine, Effective.
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