When The Big Bang Theory first hit the airwaves, its focus was on four old friends and their new friend Penny. But the series quickly added two new characters who became key players themselves. One of them was Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler, an unlikely paramour for the quirky and difficult Dr. Sheldon Cooper. But the actress who played Amy was basically name-checked two seasons earlier under the most unlikely of circumstances.
Much like Sheldon, Amy was a brilliant scientist, though she did not suffer from the myriad of conditions he did. That being said, high school was extremely difficult due to her great intelligence and social awkwardness. Essentially, she was a social pariah until she became friends with Penny and Bernadette. Sheldon was also a social pariah but he preferred it that way. People just interfered with his studies.
Amy made her debut in Season 3, Episode 23, the Season 3 finale. Raj and Howard decided to try and find a woman who would be willing to go out with Sheldon, something he absolutely did not ask them to do. They set up an online dating profile for him, which was how Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler came into their lives. When they met, it was apparent quite quickly that these two were essentially made for each other. They finally got married in Season 11.
For her entire run on the series, Amy was played by Dr. Mayim Bialik. The actress earned her Doctor of Philosophy degree in neuroscience from UCLA in 2007 after gaining fame in the early 1990s playing the titular character on the television series Blossom. What’s odd about this is that it led to Bialik being mentioned on The Big Bang Theory long before her character made her debut. And that mention foreshadowed her involvement in the series.
In Season 1, Episode 13, Leonard, Raj, and Howard were looking for a fourth member for their Physics Bowl team. Sheldon was the captain of their opposition. Eventually, the guys settled on Sheldon’s then mortal enemy Leslie Winkle, but another name was also in the mix. Specifically, one of the guys suggested that they call the actress from Blossom since she had her doctorate and was really smart.
While Bialik wasn’t mentioned by name, the reference was extremely obvious. Fans didn’t know it at the time but two and a half seasons later, Bialik would join the series as Amy in what turned out to be a borderline brilliant piece of casting on the part of the show. She absolutely nailed the role, earning four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and winning multiple Critics’ Choice awards.
Dr. Mayim Bialik remained an active force in Hollywood after the end of Blossom, primarily as a voice actress. Since the end of The Big Bang Theory, she has remained prominent as the lead of her own sitcom, Call Me Kat, and filling in as a host on Jeopardy. As odd as this sounds, a brief mention in an early episode of one of the most successful sitcoms of all time played a role in all of that.
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