Where to watch The Big Bang Theory (2007–2019)

Trivia & production notes

• The Big Bang Theory's first pilot, produced for the 2006-07 season, was never aired and featured two female leads named Katie and Gilda instead of the character Penny, but test audiences disliked Katie while responding positively to Leonard and Sheldon.
• The original unaired pilot used Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me with Science" as its theme song before being replaced by Barenaked Ladies' composition in the retooled second pilot.
• Only Leonard and Sheldon were retained from the original pilot to the final version, with their names derived from Sheldon Leonard, a longtime television producer, director, and actor.
• Barenaked Ladies' Ed Robertson was inspired to write the theme song after he improvised a freestyle rap about the origins of the universe at a concert, which caught the attention of series creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady.
• Physics consultant David Saltzberg, who holds a Ph.D. in physics from UCLA, attended every taping for six seasons and reviewed scripts to add accurate equations and scientific dialogue, sometimes consulting with Mayim Bialik on neuroscience topics.
• The Writers Guild of America strike halted production on November 6, 2007, forcing only 17 episodes to be produced for the first season instead of the planned 22.
• The three main cast members initially earned up to $60,000 per episode for the first three seasons, then negotiated their way to $1 million per episode by season eight.
• In 2014, producers threatened to write Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar's characters out of the series if they did not agree to new contracts before season eight production began.
• Steven Page, former member of Barenaked Ladies, sued Ed Robertson in 2015 for allegedly withholding his promised 20 percent share of the theme song's proceeds.
• In March 2017, the main cast voluntarily took a 10 percent pay cut to allow Mayim Bialik and Carol Ann Susi to receive salary increases, bringing them to $500,000 per episode each.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article The Big Bang Theory, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.