Why The Big Bang Theory Star Sara Gilbert Is Disappointed With Leslie Winkle's Arc

With 12 seasons, multiple spinoffs, and 10 Primetime Emmys on its mantelpiece, the CBS sitcom great "The Big Bang Theory" offered its main cast plenty of high-profile work for quite a long time. However, one major member of the show's cast fell to the wayside fairly early on. The actor in question is Sara Gilbert, whose experimental physicist character Leslie Winkle was a major player during the first two seasons of the show, but only appeared in one episode of season 3 before disappearing from the series altogether. Indeed, she wasn't seen again until a final, borderline cameo appearance in "The Big Bang Theory" season 9, episode 17, titled "The Celebration Experimentation."

During an appearance on "The Official Big Bang Theory Podcast," Gilbert herself discussed her "Big Bang Theory" situation, and put Sara's dwindling screen time down to the show simply being unable to sustain Leslie's particular, chaos-creating brand of character in the long run. She also revealed that she would be willing to revisit the role, should the opportunity arise:

"Yeah I would do more. I would have done more at the time. I think the writers kind of hit a wall with the character, probably also because she leaves these dynamics quickly, you know, then kind of like, well, what do you do now? She's wired like that, and she left, and then there's no more story there, really. But yeah it was a blast, and I like to work, so I'm always happy to show up."

As is so often the case with long-running TV series, "The Big Bang Theory" had its share of near-misses and outright misfires. Several "The Big Bang Theory" moments have aged rather poorly, and even the things that work well took more than one attempt to get right. For instance, the show originally featured a completely different theme song, which would have set a radically different scene than the final choice, "The History of Everything" by The Barenaked Ladies. In fact, big parts of the unaired "The Big Bang Theory" pilot were changed in search of the magic sitcom mix that the series ultimately perfected.

While many building blocks of the earliest seasons of "The Big Bang Theory" were already sturdy enough to support the show's climb into the pantheon of smash hit sitcoms, Sara Gilbert's storyline shows that the show continued to tweak its formula even when it was already up and running. Fortunately, despite her abrupt semi-exit from "The Big Bang Theory," Gilbert's sitcom credentials remain excellent courtesy of her long-running role as Darlene Conner on "Roseanne" and "The Conners."

"The Big Bang Theory" is currently streaming on Max.