From 'Star Trek' actors like William Shatner to science experts like Stephen Hawking, The Big Bang Theory has been host to a wide array of guest stars, including Sara Gilbert, who played Leslie Winkle. Gilbert's character joined the show early on in the first season but was written off by the third season and only made a cameo in the ninth season.
Essentially considered the female version of Leonard Hofstadter, and being his love interest, Leslie Winkle was written off The Big Bang Theory after a short time, begging the question: Why?
Leslie Winkle's Exit From The Big Bang Theory
The writers of The Big Bang Theory tested several women as potential female partners for the male characters of the show. This kept the series from getting stale, with the welcome of new faces, and at the same time allowed them to do a trial run on which of the couple plot lines worked out best for the characters. It appears as though Leslie Winkle's character was just not the right fit for the show. Even though her anonymity with Sheldon could be explored more, there just wasn't enough reaction from the audience to keep her on, as explained by executive producer and later showrunner Lee Aronsohn in Radloff's book.
We tried a couple of women in love interest roles, social-interest roles, before we came up with Amy Farrah Fowler and Bernadette Rostenkowski, and Leslie Winkle was one of them. There was also Sara Rue. We were realizing that if we wanted the show to have longevity, we had to enlarge the family.
This was possibly owing to the fact that the audience rooted for Leonard and Penny to get together from the start. Any romantic relationship written for Leonard by the creators of The Big Bang Theory was bound to fail in the shadow of Leonard and Penny.
How did Leslie Winkle end up on The Big Bang Theory?
Chuck Lorre, the producer of The Big Bang Theory, knew Sara Gilbert from her role on the sitcom Roseanne. Johnny Galecki, who played Leonard Hofstadter, had also worked on Roseanne. Gilbert played Darlene Conner on the show, while Galecki played Darlene's boyfriend-turned-husband, David Healy. Galecki and Gilbert's chemistry was already great, which the producers utilized when they played love interests on the show.
When you're writing a part say, for a love interest for Leonard, and you want Leonard to perhaps be dating a scientist who is as good or better than him, and was a prickly character, you think, Hmmm, who do we know? And Sara was wonderful..
In Jessica Radloff's book, 'THE BIG BANG THEORY: The Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series', she mentioned that the creative team was looking for more female representation in the show when it came to scientists.
There was always a desire to have more female scientist representation because it was a very male-heavy show," (Steve) Holland noted. "It wasn't a thing where we were like, We're going to write this character and have her be part of the show, but it was a thought that this was important for us to do. Bill [Prady] and Chuck wanted to highlight women in science as well, but it had to be the right role. You don't just write a new character, and say, 'This is our new female scientist.' You have to find the right roles for people. Sara Gilbert kind of filled that role early on, but she wasn't part of the show as much by season 3.
The Big Bang Theory achieved its goal of female representation of women in science through Mayim Balik and Melissa Rauch's characters, who played Amy and Bernadette. Earlier, though, Leslie Winkle fulfilled this role as she was a physicist at CalTech, much like Sheldon and Leonard.
Leslie Winkle's Character on The Big Bang Theory
Leslie Winkle was one of the most important female characters early on in The Big Bang Theory. She worked as an experimental physicist, like Sheldon, at CalTech. She mainly worked with Leonard, as they shared a laboratory, and got involved in a romantic relationship with him. Jessica Radloff explains in her book that the writers wanted to explore the possibility of a relationship between Leonard and Leslie. Even though the audience reacted positively to this duo, it was always the possibility of a romance between Leonard and Penny that got the most reactions. Radloff explains,
The writers wanted to see if a relationship between Leonard and Leslie might take off, but it kind of fizzled, especially since viewers were holding out for a Leonard-and-Penny pairing.
Apart from her relationship with Leonard, Leslie also had a contentious rivalry with Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory. Even though they started out without any animosity, Sheldon started to get annoyed with her after she very easily solved a scientific problem that he was struggling with. She went on to insult his intelligence, to which he declared her his archenemy, a "Dr. Doom to Mr. Fantastic".
Leslie was often mean to Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory, calling him 'dumbass' while he was often insulting. Once, she participated in Physics Bowl, which she was initially uninterested in, for the sole purpose of defeating Sheldon. Her rivalry with Sheldon is humorous for the audience as she manages to baffle Sheldon and question his intelligence at every turn.
Later in the series, she also had a friends-with-benefits relationship with Howard in the second season of The Big Bang Theory, but soon ends this relationship even though Howard grows to have real feelings for her. After her exit from the show, she does not appear until the ninth season, when she's invited to Sheldon's birthday party.
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