Kaley Cuoco’s amazing cameo you probably missed on Young Sheldon.

It’s hard to make a successful network television show. It’s even harder to make a successful spin-off of a successful TV series. Viewers have certain expectations, and when it comes time to follow another character or two elsewhere, it can get tricky. But CBS produced the series “Young Sheldon”, which focused on a young Sheldon Cooper, who grew up in Texas long before the events “The Big Bang Theory,” in its own right, one of the most successful sitcoms of the 2000s.

Because Young Sheldon takes place decades before the events of the series that inspired it, it was difficult to get characters from The Big Bang Theory to appear. However, the show’s producers managed to sneak in Kaley Cuoco during the show’s third season for a secret cameo. Cuoco, of course, played Penny on The Big Bang Theory for all 12 seasonsserving as the anchor of the ensemble.

But when it came time to sneak her into Young Sheldon, it was all about Cuoco’s voice, not her screen presence. That moment came in the episode “Teenager Soup and a Little Ball of Fib,” in which Sheldon (Ian Armitage) pretends to be sick to avoid a swimming test at school. Cuoco got the voice of the water in the pool. In the 2020 interview TVLineSeries co-creator Steve Molara explained how it all came about:

“It was absolutely Kayleigh’s voice like water in a swimming pool. I needed someone to voice me. I knew I wanted it to be feminine and sexy, and I was like, “Well, well! Kayleigh is perfect for that.”

So how did Molaro sell Cuoco on this amazing role? After all, Cuoco has been very busy since The Big Bang Theory went off the air. the voice of the main character in “Harley Queen” and Stewardess, among other projects. Despite this, the actor easily gave “yes”:

“I said, ‘Hey, I’ve got an amazing twist for you: Sheldon has a nightmare and he has to go into this pool and he talks to the water in the pool. Do you want to be the voice of the water in the pool?” She just laughed and said, “Sure, I am.”

Although the role was small and relatively odd, it was also important. Cuoco became the first former Big Bang Theory star to lend his talents to the spin-off since Jim Parsons, who served as an executive producer on the series in addition to being the narrator. To help close out Young Sheldon, Parsons reprized his role as Sheldon in the flesh with Mayima Bialik’s Amy in the final season. That aside, however, Cuoco’s voice acting has been a treat for fans.

Interestingly, CBS didn’t promote Cuoco’s cameo before the episode premiered. Wouldn’t the network want to highlight the Big Bang Theory star’s return to the universe? Perhaps, but as Molara explained in the same interview, everyone involved in the show’s creation agreed that this moment was all the more powerful because it was kept secret:

“Sometimes I feel a little weird because of the over-advertising, and as weird as it is, I don’t know that that should appear in promos. (Kaylee) wanted to keep it a secret (as in), so when you found out, it was a little Easter egg for you, so we were all on the same page about it.”

The series ran for a total of seven seasons, with Young Sheldon Season 7 ending in 2024. However, the larger universe of The Big Bang Theory lives on another spin-off in the form of Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage. It remains to be seen if Cuoco or any of the other Big Bang Theory stars will appear on the show.

Young Sheldon is now streaming on Netflix and Max, or you can grab the complete series on DVD from Amazon.