A Surprising Sheldon & Leonard Scene TBBT Bosses Didn't Want Us to See

Summary

• The dynamic between Sheldon and Leonard was Central to the Show.
• A Strange Choice by the Showrunners.
• How the Original Slap Came About.

Fans of The Big Bang Theory will recall how, in the series finale, Leonard was desperate to slap Sheldon. And how he eventually did after Sheldon questioned whether he was dreaming about winning the Nobel Prize.

But according to Leonard actor Johnny Galecki, it wasn't the first time his character got to slap his best friend and flatmate. Only the first time it happened the writers decided not to air it.

The Sheldon and Leonard Relationship Was Central to the Show's Success

Throughout the series, the relationship between Leonard and Sheldon was one of the things that kept audiences interested. There was an authenticity about the pair who both loved and irritated each other run equal measure.

By season 10, the tension between them had been building to the point that some kind of blowup seemed inevitable. Not a row that would end the friendship forever (or even genuinely threaten to) – that wasn't the vibe of the show.

But there was an underlying feeling that a falling out of some description was on the horizon.

A Strange Choice by the Showrunners

Quite why the slapping scene didn't make the final edit has never been made entirely clear. Had it been recorded as part of an early season, it would be easier to understand why it was deemed too risky to air.

But it was in season 10 that Galecki revealed the incident happened. He went on to say the 'audience went crazy' even though the actor himself was concerned about how they might react. With this in mind, viewers must be wondering what it was that made the showrunners so worried that the TV audience wouldn't react in the same way.

How the Moment Came About

Speaking to huffpost in 2017, Johnny Galecki described how, 'Leonard did slap Sheldon this season' but that, as viewers, 'you didn't see it' as it was off camera.

'Leonard was laying in bed, and Sheldon kept talking to him through the wall,' Galecki recalled. 'It was Chuck Lorre's idea, during the live taping – we had the studio audience there. And he said "Johnny, could you just go out, leave the room, make a slap sound, and Jim'll holler." I said, "Really?" Steve Molaro and I said "Leonard's gonna slap Sheldon?"'

As most fans would probably expect, the audience loved it. Indeed, Galecki described the moment as being 'like the Beatles walked in'.

Why Didn't it Make the Cut?

While nobody has explicitly come out to explain the decision to leave out a moment that, on the face of it, went down so well with the live audience, we can put forward a decent argument.

Galecki's version of events describes how it seemed to be an off-the-cuff decision by Chuck Lorre. Maybe he'd had the thought spinning around in his head for some time. Maybe it literally came to him at that moment.

In either event, it would appear that the reaction it got was far more positive than he had imagined. This presented a problem. With the entire show nearing its end, it became clear that Leonard slapping Sheldon was an idea the audience could get on board with in a big way.

With such potential to be a huge moment in the show, Lorre must have wondered whether an off-screen slap at a random moment in a random episode would fail to make the most of it. Perhaps this was the reason that it didn't air in season 10 but was introduced on screen in the series finale.

Source: huffpost.