The Big Bang Theory’s creator’s comment on Penny’s botched portrayal in season 1 makes one Penny story in The Big Bang Theory season 12 all the more puzzling. Penny has indubitably been a central character in The Big Bang Theory since its inception, with her presence setting the sitcom apart from others because of the value Penny added to the main group’s story. While The Big Bang Theory’s premise initially relied a lot on the conflicting expectations of having someone like Penny interact with characters like Leonard and Sheldon, the sitcom eventually let them all grow into their own characters.
Indeed, Penny got Sheldon and Leonard to try things that they would have never done before, and the same was true for Penny, who inevitably became more interested in their world by being closer to them. The dissimilarities between their worlds made for great comedy, while also pushing them to achieve unexpected feats, like Sheldon and Penny’s friendship becoming The Big Bang Theory’s best relationship proved. However, this would have never been possible had a shift not occurred after The Big Bang Theory season 1, when the sitcom’s treatment of Penny often relegated her to nothing more than a stereotype.
The Big Bang Theory’s Creator Acknowledges Penny Was Poorly Written At The Start
Chuck Lorre Admitted Penny Was “Sadly One-Dimensional” In Big Bang Theory Season 1
The Big Bang Theory season 1 did a good job of establishing Sheldon and Leonard’s core characteristics and differences, making them feel like fully fleshed out characters, and the same could be said even about Howard and Raj, albeit not to the extent of Sheldon and Leonard. However, that wasn’t the case for Penny: The Big Bang Theory season 1 heavily relied on the clichés of contraposing the stereotype of the “dumb blonde” to a group of geeks, with such a portrayal not treating Penny fairly nor highlighting her best qualities, instead stopping her from growing like the other characters.
The Big Bang Theory season 1 did a good job of establishing Sheldon and Leonard’s core characteristics and differences, making them feel like fully fleshed out characters, and the same could be said even about Howard and Raj, albeit not to the extent of Sheldon and Leonard. However, that wasn’t the case for Penny: The Big Bang Theory season 1 heavily relied on the clichés of contraposing the stereotype of the “dumb blonde” to a group of geeks, with such a portrayal not treating Penny fairly nor highlighting her best qualities, instead stopping her from growing like the other characters.
The problem of Penny’s portrayal in season 1 remains, and Lorre at least acknowledging it in retrospect partially helps.
The Big Bang Theory’s creator Chuck Lorre finally admitted so in The Official Big Bang Theory Podcast in those words, referencing how they treated Penny as a clichéd character without understanding “that there was a brilliance to Penny’s character” that they left unexplored. Instead, they wrote Penny as “sadly one-dimensional in many ways.” The Big Bang Theory’s twelve seasons prove that they learned from their mistakes, as Penny’s emotional intelligence was highlighted almost as often as the gang’s analytical one, but the problem of Penny’s portrayal in season 1 remains, and Lorre at least acknowledging it in retrospect partially helps.
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Penny becoming a multidimensional character with friends besides Leonard and Sheldon, aspirations and struggles made The Big Bang Theory better, with her bonds with the group showing different sides of Penny, just like her friendship helped them unearth different sides of them. Penny’s tortuous path from waitressing, to acting but never succeeding like she wanted, to working for the same pharmaceutical company Bernadette worked for, gave her character a development that could only be dreamed about initially. Indeed, Penny’s story brought her to a point that couldn’t have been predicted looking at Penny in The Big Bang Theory season 1.
