TV URBAN LEGEND: Penny became a bartender on the Big Bang Theory to hide the fact that Kaley Cuoco was pregnant.

As we all know, a popular form of entertainment on the internet is themed lists. Everyone loves lists. Even people who say they hate lists often then "hate" read lists because, again, everyone loves lists. It's like some sort of innate reaction in all of us to love things that are put into list form. Anyhow, one popular site for lists is called Boredom Therapy and reader Jim S. wrote in to say that he had been reading one of their lists about ways that TV writers covered up off set drama with clever plot lines and he was wondering if one of them was actually true or not.

It dealt with The Big Bang Theory (about an attractive young waitress who moves across the hall from a pair of nerdy scientists) and Kaley Cuoco's Penny. In Season 4, Penny went missing for a couple of episodes (the first time any of the original main cast members missed an episode) and when she returned in "The 21-Second Excitation" (the same episode that Mayim Bialik became an official cast member of the series), she was now tending bar at the Cheescake Factory instead of her typical job as a waitress (Penny had worked as a bartender before in Season 1, where she got Raj hooked on Grasshoppers, so it wasn't completely out of nowhere that she would be working behind the bar).

As is our wont as fans, people wondered about the change. The Bordeom Therapy list that Jim sent me explained it as such:

When actress Kaley Cuoco became pregnant in real life, showrunners had a creative solution. They gave her character a promotion, and she went from waiting tables to bartending, a profession that conveniently covered her stomach.

That's not the case. I can't speak to every detail of her life, but publicly, Cuoco has no children and I don't believe she has ever been pregnant. In reality, the bartender job was to cover up a major leg injury.

Cuoco, you see, is an avid horse rider. Even before the Big Bang Theory ended, Cuoco had been spending a lot of her time competing in horse jumping competitions. In 2017, she came in third with her horse, Escarlata, in a showjumping competition. The actor explained to Jimmy Kimmel on his talk show that she began competing under a fake name, "I actually started showing under a secret name ... I have a little bit of an alias. I've been trying to steer clear of being super noticeable but it's hard when you're being followed around ... I just tried to come up with something simple because it's always up on a big board so people walk by and they see the name. The problem is too in the horse world, a lot of people know what horses you ride and the names of them. My horses are becoming a little more famous than I am." Cuoco noted that her horse riding was a big part of her acting career, explaining, "I have six horses, and they have been the biggest blessing in my life. Horseback riding is why I'm so centered, especially in this business. I wouldn't have my career without it."

Well, in any event, back in 2010, Cuoco was taking riding lessons on one of her horses when she was accidentally thrown from the horse. She explained to Ellen DeGeneres on DeGeneres' talk show, "At the end of the lesson, my horse spooked, and I wasn't really expecting it, and I fell off. I was laughing and my trainer was laughing. It was all very silly. I was getting up, and my horse was still kind of spooked... I think he was trying to get away from me and leaped over me and landed on my leg. I heard the crackling [and] I thought he landed on leaves—but that was my bones. I'm not feeling anything, and then I looked. And I was like, 'Wow, my foot is facing me. That's not normal!'"

The injury was surprisingly severe. Cuoco further detailed, "So I got in there and the doctor doesn't introduce himself, and he says, 'OK, we've got to go over your options [and] one of them is amputation.' All I am thinking is, 'I'm going to have to call work and tell them I have one foot.'" Obviously, they were able to keep from having to amputate her leg, but since it happened right before taping an episode of The Big Bang Theory, the writers wrote her out of that episode and the following episode. Cuoco expected them to simply come up with an injury for Penny, like some others shows have done in similar situations (an injury Matt LeBlanc suffered filming Lost in Space was explained on Friends by Joey falling off of his bed while jumping up and down on it) but they went a different route. She laughingly noted to DeGeneres, "They're not writing it in. I'm not going to question it. I was kind of shocked. I thought they were going to, but they're just going to be hiding me kind of like when you're pregnant."

Penny's return to the series included the first of what would prove to be a major part of the show, Penny hanging out with Bialik's Amy and Melissa Rauch's Bernadette. They basically have a slumber party. However, things get too much for Penny when Amy and Bernadette question her over her breakup with Leonard, who Penny noted is a great guy. Penny didn't want to play anymore and ran off to her room. The scene where she runs off was done by a body double, due to Cuoco's injury!

The legend is...

STATUS: False

Thanks to Jim for the suggestion!

Be sure to check out my archive of TV Legends Revealed for more urban legends about the world of TV. Click here for more legends about The Big Bang Theory specifically.

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