Johnny Galecki’s five favorite episodes of The Big Bang Theory

When you consider the fact that Johnny Galecki played experimental physicist Leonard Hofstadter for 12 seasons and the same number of years on The Big Bang Theory, it’s probably not a huge surprise that the man prefers some episodes over others. (In fact, for a while, Galecki and his co-star Kaley Cuoco, who was also his real-life girlfriend for a short time, He believed show creator and creator Chuck Lorre was pranking them; It wasn’t.) So what episodes did Galecki particularly like? In an interview with TBSwhich airs “The Big Bang Theory” in syndication – Helping the main cast have a solid income despite the show ending in 2019 – He specifically mentioned five episodes that hold a special place in his heart, in no particular order.

Galecki kicks off Season 3 with the episode “The Wheaton Recurrence,” featuring real-life Star Trek veteran Wil Wheaton (Who almost turned down the opportunity to appear in the role himself) as the antagonist of Leonard’s on-screen best friend and roommate Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons). While the whole gang, including Wheaton, is out bowling, Leonard tells his girlfriend Penny (Coco) that he loves her…and while Penny is embarrassed to answer her, Wheaton encourages her and it ends up causing Leonard and Penny to break up. . “It was the very personal moments, like breaking the character’s heart, that allowed us to mature him,” Galecki said of Leonard’s experience in the episode. “That was always exciting because I knew it was going to be a different Leonard moving forward. He’s still Leonard, but I need to keep in mind that he’s going to see things differently.”

So what other episodes created fond memories for Johnny Galecki? He also gave a shout-out to “The Benefactor Factor”, a season 4 episode in which Leonard, Sheldon, and other employees at Caltech need to entice potential donors to donate to the financially unstable institution. In the process, Leonard meets Mrs. Latham (the late great Jessica Walter, known for “Arrested Development” and “Archer”), a wealthy older woman who loves Leonard and makes him… completely Clearly, she would make a huge donation if he…acquiesced to her wishes, so to speak. (Whether or not Leonard actually did the deed is somewhat unclear, but he does end up taking the stereotypical “walk of shame” to the apartment and Penny and Sheldon harass him relentlessly.) “I loved working with Jessica Walter,” Galecki recalls . “And that Penny saw a side of Leonard that she never knew she had before. Or thought about it.”

On the other end of the emotional spectrum, Galecki also mentioned “The Gorilla Dissolution,” an episode in the show’s seventh season in which Penny was fired from her ill-fated role in the terrible horror film “Serial Ape-ist 2” alongside Wil Wheaton. After she speaks again to the director (Wheaton does the same and is eventually fired as well). Why does Galecki like this episode? After much back-and-forth conversation about, of all things, pies and pastries, Leonard and Penny realize they want to get married… at which point Leonard reveals that he’s had Penny’s ring hidden in his wallet for years. “I found Leonard to be heartbreakingly cute quietly holding a ring for God knows how long,” Galecki said. “For all his math and science, Leonard was a die-hard romantic. It was never more evident than in this episode.”

Johnny Galecki also loves episodes that feature big moments in Leonard’s character development, such as the season 8 episode “The Graduation Transmission.” In this episode, Leonard is asked to give a commencement speech at his old high school in New Jersey, but faces an insurmountable obstacle in the process: specifically, a canceled flight due to inclement weather. Penny realizes how upset Leonard is that he can’t be there in person, and tries to cheer him up by suggesting that he give the speech for her, but that doesn’t help — and when she arranges for Leonard to give the speech virtually, it turns out that the graduation cap and gown that Penny secretly bought for Leonard is actually a costume. Graduation-themed revealing Halloween (for women). At the end, he gave a lovely speech, and Galecki said that Chuck Lorre was indispensable in this episode. “I remember talking to (Chuck) a lot while filming this,” Galecki said. “He had a great tone for playing the speech in a futuristic tone in which I would give advice to myself.”

Finally, there’s “The 43 Peculiarity,” which isn’t surprising, considering that this is the episode in which Benny appears finally She tells Leonard that she loves him. The fact that Penny says she loves Leonard offhandedly – while telling him that he doesn’t have to worry about other guys staring at her in the street – shows that she really means it, and The filming process was so emotional that it made Kaley Cuoco cry in real life. You can watch all of Galecki’s favorite episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” on Max now.