The Big Bang Theory Didn't Ask Permission For Penny's Cheesecake Factory Job

When we first meet Penny, the bubbly blonde on "The Big Bang Theory" played by Kaley Cuoco who lives across the hall from bonafide nerds Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) and Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), she's an aspiring actress working at The Cheesecake Factory in Pasadena, where the show is set. As a result, Sheldon, Leonard, and their buddies Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar) and Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) actually end up eating at The Cheesecake Factory a lot (even though the on-screen version definitely doesn't resemble a real Cheesecake Factory, to be honest). So did the people making the show ask permission to use the famous American chain on the series? No, they did not!

A 2012 article in the Minnesota Star Tribune clarified the whole thing, saying that a spokeswoman for the chain confirmed the show did not participate in any conversations with the series. "The Cheesecake Factory does not have any sort of arrangements with the show," the spokeswoman said at the time before praising the show. "The Cheesecake Factory is really pleased to be featured in such a funny and wildly popular show." The CEO of the entire Cheesecake Factory Chain, David Overton, also said nobody checked with them first — but they're fine with it. Speaking to The Los Angeles Times in 2013, Overton said, "They did it and they didn't ask us. But although there's no real connection to us in any way, shape or form, we're happy that there's a character who works at the restaurant."

So why did creator Chuck Lorre pick The Cheesecake Factory instead of a different chain? As Lorre told Jessica Radloff in her 2022 book "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series," they felt like it was a perfect contrast to Sheldon and Leonard's highly intellectual jobs at the California Institute of Technology (which is pretty insulting to The Cheesecake Factory, but I digress).

"We wanted Penny to work somewhere that was pedestrian and wonderfully quotidian," Lorre told Radloff. "Here are these guys who are trying to unravel the secrets of the universe, and Penny introduces herself by saying, 'I work at The Cheesecake Factory.' The juxtaposition of scientists working in the quantum field, perhaps changing the world with their work, and 'I work at The Cheesecake Factory' seemed to be a funny dichotomy. And the cheesecake is great! I personally really love their chocolate chip cheesecake. And the menu went on for days—it was like a book! There was a lot going for it, and the company was very gracious about letting us use their name." 

Despite the fact that the company itself says they didn't tell Lorre he could use their name, what matters here is that all's well that ends well. Penny works at The Cheesecake Factory throughout a fair amount of the series — as does Bernadette Rostenkowski, played by Melissa Rauch — until the two women both pursue lucrative careers in pharmaceutical marketing. It's an important part of the show, even if the chain itself didn't necessarily participate directly.

Unsurprisingly, a ton of work went into making The Cheesecake Factory sing on-screen in "The Big Bang Theory." As co-producer and costume designer Mary T. Quigley told Jessica Radloff in the book, she personally visited the chain to study the uniforms. "I went to The Cheesecake Factory to look at the actual outfits that the servers wore. I wanted the outfit to be fitted but not look unrealistic." (As Melissa Rauch says in the book, Quigley was perhaps too faithful to the real uniforms: "That's why I think The Cheesecake Factory outfits were the only dislike I had, and there was nothing I could do about it because those outfits were already established.")

So what about the food? As fans of "The Big Bang Theory" know, the characters eat a lot — with varying degrees of success where the fake eating is concerned — and prop master Scott London revealed to Radloff that he took a different approach depending on where the scene was set. "We had episodes where every scene in the show had food," London recalled before getting specific. "In the cafeteria scenes, I'd line up ten to fifteen paper plates and make ten salads, ten desserts, ten entrees, then cover everything in plastic, and cart them out to set. And a lot of times the burgers in The Cheesecake Factory were Morningstar burgers or Beyond Meat. It just depends. Or when they'd eat pizza in scenes, sometimes I made them, other times they were frozen pizzas that I touched up a bit with extra sauce and cheese."

"The Big Bang Theory," including scenes set in a very fake Cheesecake Factory, is streaming on Max now.