In the Unaired ‘Big Bang Theory’ Pilot, Sheldon Fucked

Young Sheldon may have been a massive hit, but not even Chuck Lorre was willing to tune in to the adventures of his “Little Sheldon.”

Everyone who watches TV comedies knows about the eccentricities of Dr. Sheldon Cooper whether they want to or not. The biggest star on the biggest show on television between 2007 to 2019 was awkward, egotistic, hyper-intelligent and under-empathetic, and, in the early seasons of The Big Bang Theory, entirely sexless, once comparing his own intimate life to the celibacy of Star Trek’s Spock. Anyone with Sheldon’s personality would naturally find it hard to find a woman willing to engage in what he clinically calls “coitus,” but as opposed to his similarly revolting friends, Sheldon was unique in that he didn’t show any interest in female companionship whatsoever. That, of course, was later changed when the writers realized their show needed to have more than one singular woman character and they gave Sheldon a love interest played by everyone’s least favorite Jeopardy! host.

However, in the unaired Big Bang Theory pilot, Jim Parsons’ character wasn’t yet fully fleshed out — especially when it came to matters of the flesh. In fact, Sheldon was originally a masturbator, an admirer of big asses and even sexually active, specifically with a since-removed female co-worker who was presumably cut from the final product because the writers worried their show would turn into a Sir Mix-a-Lot music video.

Opening a series in a sperm bank is already an uncomfortable choice on Lorre’s part, but the real awkwardness of the unaired pilot is in how much the show leans into Sheldon’s lecherous tendencies. While many of the other men in The Big Bang Theory are somehow able to pull off their creepy, predatory approach to pestering women as comically inept, there’s something sinister about Parsons’ 6-foot-1 frame shambling with desire after any woman naive enough to enter his apartment. 

As such, the heavily re-worked first episode of the series entirely cut Sheldon’s porno mags, his masturbation, his affair with a coworker and his sexuality as a whole. Apparently, Lorre realized that his core cast would have more comedic chemistry if at least one of them seemed like he didn’t base his entire view of male-female relationships on the rape scene in Revenge of the Nerds.