The Big Bang Theory's Mayim Bialik Was Mentioned On The Show Before Her Casting

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After Mayim Bialik joins "The Big Bang Theory" in the show's third season as Amy Farrah Fowler, a neuroscientist who ends up romancing and marrying the prickly Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), it's legitimately hard to imagine the show without her presence. Here's something funny, though; in the show's very first season, "The Big Bang Theory" obliquely references the real Bialik, though it doesn't say her name (which was probably sort of helpful for continuity later on, whether the show intended for that to happen or not).

In the season 1 episode "The Bat Jar Conjecture," Sheldon and his friends and fellow California Institute of Technology colleagues Leonard Hofstadter (Johnny Galecki), Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar), and Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) are gearing up to participate in the university's annual Physics Bowl, but true to form, Sheldon makes all of his friends so irritated that they kick him off the team. (This is largely because Sheldon is convinced he doesn't even need teammates and can simply win the entire thing himself.) While the rest of the guys are trying to figure out how to replace Sheldon, Raj comes up with a suggestion: "You know who is apparently very smart is the girl who played TV's 'Blossom.'" After that, he says the actress apparently has a "PhD in neuroscience or something."

That, of course, is Bialik, mentioned at a point when the show's creative team clearly had no idea she'd ever appear on the series. So, how did Bialik become a core part of the cast of "The Big Bang Theory?"

In Jessica Radloff's book "The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series," the show's cast and creative team opened up about the entire series ... including how they managed to snag Mayim Bialik for such a pivotal role. "There was always a desire to have more female scientist representation because it was a very male-heavy show," executive producer and writer Steve Holland told the writer. "It wasn't a thing where we were like,' We're going to write this character and have her be a part of the show,' but it was a thought that this was important for us to do. [Creators Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre] wanted to highlight women in science as well, but it had to be the right role." Ultimately, Holland said that Bialik's real-life expertise simply informed the role: "I think Amy only turned out to be a neuroscientist because we cast Mayim and she was a neuroscientist in real life. In fact, in the episode where we first meet her, I don't think we ever say what she does. It just became a matter of writing to these characters' strengths."

From Bialik's perspective, the whole thing was a lot more pragmatic than all that — in that she needed health insurance. "I figured if I could get a couple guest spots I would get enough to get my Screen Actors Guild health insurance," Bialik admitted, saying that after a few guest spots on shows like "Bones" and "Saving Grace," she assumed casting directors may not have known who she was ... or they were hesitant about casting her for one specific reason. "They were all too young, and anyone worth their weight as a casting director wouldn't just hire someone who was a teen actor and left the industry at 19," Bialik recalled. "So I had no qualms about auditioning for 'The Big Bang Theory.'"

Not only that, but Bialik had never seen the show ... although she'd heard it name-dropped her early in its run. "Someone told me I was mentioned on 'Big Bang' in an earlier season, so I thought it was a game show, like, I must have been on 'Jeopardy!' as an answer. I literally googled Jim Parsons the day of the audition 'cause they were like, 'We want a female Jim Parsons.' That's how I prepared for the audition — watching Jim Parsons on YouTube for thirty seconds." Clearly, that worked — but the show's creative team also realized Bialik was a perfect addition to the ensemble thanks to her real-life academic success and her performance alongside Jim Parsons.

According to executive producer and writer Steve Molaro, Mayim Bialik did have competition for the role of Amy Farrah Fowler, specifically, another actress who later appears on the series anyway. "Kate Micucci, who would eventually play Raj's love interest, Lucy, auditioned before Mayim, and we thought she was terrific and really funny," Molaro told Radloff in her book. "And then Mayim came in, and aside from being awesome as well, Chuck [Lorre] loved that she actually had a PhD in neuroscience. It could have gone either way between Mayim or Kate, but because Mayim could bring an authenticity to the science and to the intelligence of the character, Chuck was like, 'I think that's so cool. Let's go with her.'"

Ken Miller, who worked as a casting director on "The Big Bang Theory," added that Bialik's audition was exactly right ... so it was a no-brainer not to cast her. "When Mayim came in for the audition, Chuck said, 'You know, we're looking for a female version of Sheldon,' and Mayim goes, 'I got it.' She knew exactly what she was going to do with the character," Miller recalled. "But the role could have been one-and-done if it didn't click. And it was anything but. They kept writing for her."

As for Jim Parsons, who ended up being Bialik's most constant screen partner — Amy and Sheldon start out as friends, start dating, and ultimately get married before the show ended in season 12 — he was familiar with Bialik beforehand thanks to his sister's affection for "Blossom," the weepy film "Beaches," and Bialik's 2009 episode of the TLC series "What Not to Wear." When they first met, Parsons says he wasn't sure where things were going to go from there. "Anyway, when she came on the show, I didn't know what the plan was because it was for one scene in the [season 3 finale] and we went on hiatus after that," he explained before heaping praise upon his co-star. "But I quickly started counting Mayim as a major gift they had given me. I didn't realize how meaningful it would be to be paired with somebody like that, as an actor. It's not unlike how it feels in real life when you're single and all your friends are paired off. It can feel very lonely, so I felt this immense sense of gratitude that I had that kind of partner."

"The Big Bang Theory," including Bialik's "name-drop" and her appearance as Amy Farrah Fowler, is streaming on HBO Max now.