In 2006,  creators, Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, shared their idea for the show with executives but the pilot was turned down immediately by networks. According to , the show had to be either heavily rewritten or scrapped entirely. With a pilot like this, it was bound to be skipped by viewers. In the unaired pilot,  still had Leonard and Sheldon as the stars but everything else was different.

The pilot that was scrapped had a much darker tone. With Sheldon and Leonard still being geniuses who lived together, they also lived a very lonely life. The unaired  pilot revolved around them meeting and helping a young woman who was down on her luck. But unlike the Penny that fans grew to love, this character was Penny's polar opposite. The extreme differences in the unaired pilot made fans appreciate the aired pilot so much more.

Sheldon Noted What He Liked Most About A Woman's Body

The Sheldon Cooper that fans came to know was completely uninterested in sex and romance. He was not entertained by women in the slightest and was much more a man of the mind. But that wasn't how he was written in the unaired pilot.

The unaired episode started with Sheldon and Leonard at the sperm bank (just like in the aired pilot), but when Leonard joked around about Sheldon's preferences in women, , "Fortunately, I stumbled across a magazine that featured women with large buttocks." in the unaired pilot but this was by far the most uncharacteristic.

There Was No Penny

Leonard and Penny's relationship timeline was a major subplot throughout . But in the unaired pilot, Penny was not a character and Kaley Cuoco was not cast. agreed that it's hard to imagine  without Penny, but in her place was a woman named Katie.

Katie was introduced while Sheldon and Leonard are walking home from the sperm bank and found her crying on the curb. She was blonde like Penny but that's all the two had in common. It became clear that from then on the show would have focused on Sheldon, Leonard, and Katie.

Katie Was Edgier & Angrier

When fans met Penny, she was bubbly, happy, and genuinely interested in Sheldon and Leonard's brilliance. She was in awe of her new neighbors and appreciated their company. Katie, on the other hand, was a darker character.

According to the unaired pilot's  page, Katie was a "tough-as-nails" character. She judged Leonard and Sheldon upon meeting them and was irritated by them. The only reason she hung around them in this episode was because Leonard offered to buy her dinner. While some fans had , watching Katie's angry personality made fans miss Penny all the more.

Katie & Leonard Didn't Have The Same Loving Connection Penny & Leonard Had

Even in the pilot, fans felt the connection between Leonard and Penny. Even though they were shown as opposites, there was a blurry indication that Penny and Leonard would have feelings for each other down the road.

In the unaired pilot, however, that same mutual connection was not felt between Leonard and Katie. It was obviously Leonard had a crush on Katie because she was a beautiful woman in need of help, but Katie only used Leonard for a place to stay and for food. The bond between Leonard and Penny was more fun to watch.

Sheldon Was Around Naked Women Before Amy

Not only did Sheldon admit to liking the backsides of women, but he also admitted to Katie that he saw a total of "six women naked."

While at dinner, Katie judged the guys' social status and asked Sheldon if he's ever "seen a lady naked." Sheldon was silent for a while , "I have seen six women naked." In the show that fans know, Sheldon never had sex until his relationship timeline with Amy began. It's one of the things that made him and Amy so close.

Katie's Boyfriend Wasn't Longterm Like Penny's Was

One of upon meeting her was that she had just gotten out of a relationship with a guy that she had been with for four years. The apartment across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard was Penny's first act of independence.

In the unaired pilot, Katie had also just gotten out of a relationship, but it wasn't the same length as Penny's. Katie told Leonard and Sheldon that she found out her boyfriend had a wife, which was far more complicated.

Sheldon & Leonard Had A Spare Bedroom!

Leonard and Sheldon's apartment was the main location in the aired version of . Between apartment 4A and apartment 4B, and was a place where everyone came together and conversed.

The apartment shown in the unaired version, however, was completely different. It was darker and smaller. There even appeared to be a fireplace with Sheldon's whiteboard resting on top of it. A smaller and darker apartment wouldn't have made sense for weekly dinners with 7+ people.

Meet Gilda!

In the version of  that fans loved, the one female friend that Leonard and the gang had at work was Leslie Winkle. She worked in the same department as Leonard and later .

In the unaired version, a clip showed another female colleague, a scientist named Gilda. Gilda spoke the same scientific language that Sheldon and Leonard did and seemed threatened by Katie's intrusion into the group. Instead of a romance between Leonard and Katie, it seemed like a relationship with Gilda was more plausible.

Sheldon Was Sexually Experienced

Sheldon wasn't one to think much about women or sexuality in . He only began having those feelings once he met Amy. However, in a the unaired pilot, it was said that Sheldon was sexually active.

Gilda told Leonard that she and Sheldon had slept together, which Sheldon wanted to keep on the down-low. would causally sleep around because it went against his character, but that's the difference between the unaired and aired pilot.

Where Were Raj And Howard?

One of the biggest differences in the unaired pilot was how lonely Sheldon, Leonard, and Gilda seem to be. Their apartment was dark, they had little friends, and they appeared desperate for some life.

More than that, Howard and Raj were nowhere to be found in the unaired pilot. The focus on friendship was a large theme throughout , and it was interesting to picture the series without Penny, Raj, and Howard to lift the spirits of Leonard and Sheldon. Without Howard and Raj, the show wouldn't have had the same humor or depth.

Sheldon Went To Bars And Drank Alcohol

At the end of the unaired pilot, Sheldon, Leonard, and Gilda went to a bar with Katie to let off some steam. Knowing Sheldon from the aired series, watching him go out and party could have killed the show in itself.

It's so unlike his character that it's hard to picture Sheldon casually drinking a beer and dancing on a with his friends. Nevertheless, this was the old Sheldon. The Sheldon that fans know today would never release steam like that unless he was incredibly heartbroken — or in the name of science.