10 Best Leonard Hofstadter Episodes Of The Big Bang Theory, Ranked

Right from the start, "The Big Bang Theory" was positioned as an ensemble sitcom without any single character as the de facto lead. The core group initially consisted of roommates Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons), their new neighbor across the hall, Penny (Kaley Cuoco), and the guys' two other close pals, Howard (Simon Helberg) and Raj (Kunal Nayyar). As the show went on, the ensemble grew, but each new addition was directly tethered to the original fivesome in some capacity. 

When Looper readers picked the best "The Big Bang Theory" character, Sheldon was the winner by a large margin. But Leonard still always seemed to feel like the sun around which the rest of the show's universe revolved, likely due to him being part of the show's two most important relationships: his friendship with Sheldon and his romantic connection with Penny. The lion's share of plot lines either revolved around one (or both) of those relationships, or were otherwise influenced by them. As such, Leonard sometimes feels like the closest thing to a "main character" that "The Big Bang Theory" ever had.

With that in mind, choosing which episodes best showcase Leonard as a character is tricky; almost every episode heavily involves him in some capacity. That being said, we wanted to really zero in on the episodes that not only have his character as the focal point, but also demonstrate him at his best, his funniest, his most vulnerable, and/or his most evolved. 

One of Leonard's biggest struggles throughout "The Big Bang Theory" is that he is a people pleaser to a fault. He goes out of his way to ensure that he makes everyone around him happy and never wants to upset anyone, often putting his own contentment on the backburner in doing so. And when the university offered him the power to choose who should get a spendy grant — which meant choosing among some of his closest friends and colleagues in the process — it wreaked havoc on his people pleasing approach to his social circle.

With Sheldon not in need or want of the money, he isn't one of the contenders for the grant. So Leonard decides to just ask Sheldon who he'd give the money to if it were him, as Sheldon couldn't care less about upsetting someone in the name of making what the best and most logical choices. But Sheldon opts out of helping Leonard, seeing it as a good exercise for Leonard to actually have to make a hard decision.

Ultimately, Leonard decides to go the selfish route and just keeps the money for his own department. This was a huge moment for him — a rare case of him putting himself first and not caring who gets mad at him for it. It also led to something even more rare: Sheldon being outwardly and openly proud of him. 

When the guys are invited to a dinner to rub elbows with rich people who are potential donors to the university, one of them takes a liking to Leonard. Mrs. Lathan, the "The Big Bang Theory" character you've likely forgotten Jessica Walter played, begins to flirt with Leonard pretty aggressively, which of course makes him extremely uncomfortable (much to her delight). She eventually alludes to the fact that she'll donate a healthy sum to the institution if Leonard sleeps with her. Sheldon, of course, doesn't see why Leonard wouldn't just do something so inconsequential for the good of the school — and even buys Leonard a box of goodies to spice up the act. 

In a refreshing twist, Penny takes the whole thing quite well, and even finds amusement in teasing Leonard about apparently going through with it. To be clear, the show doesn't explicitly state that he truly did go through with it, but it's not a tough inference to make. Penny being jealous of and/or threatened by any romantic dalliance Leonard had when they were on their break got old pretty quickly, so it was fun to see her not do that this time. In these ways, "The Benefactor Factor" is a great Leonard episode thanks more to how Sheldon and Penny interact with him than it is for anything he himself said or did. Still, we feel that's still a valid reason for considering it one of the best.  

It was clear right from the first episode of "The Big Bang Theory" that Leonard crushing on Penny was going to be a major component of the show. And while it would take some time before they officially got together — and a little longer before they started their permanent relationship — the show was smart in not dragging on a will they/won't they for longer than necessary. In fact, the pair had already shared their first kiss by episode 6 of Season 1, "The Middle-Earth Paradigm." 

Sure, the couple wouldn't go on an actual date for another 11 episodes, meaning the episode 6 kiss didn't immediately kick off their relationship. But the events of the episode proved to the audience (and Penny herself) that Leonard truly cared for her, and she meant a lot more to him than just physical attraction. That revelation came during a Halloween party hosted by Penny wherein her ex-boyfriend Kurt (Brian Wade) shows up and quickly takes to bullying Leonard. Later, Leonard and Penny are alone, and he tells her how much better she can do than guys like Kurt, to which she is so touched that she kisses him. 

Leonard handles the moment with surprising restraint and maturity, which is especially shocking when we later learn that he is prone to proposing marriage to Penny whenever she's nice to him. At this point, though, he doesn't immediately take to pestering her over their sweet moment. It was one of the first glimpses of how much more complex of a character he was than what was made obvious up to that point.

Like most sitcoms, we meet the characters of "The Big Bang Theory" as they are when the show begins, learning more about their pasts as the series progresses. With Leonard, we got a heaping helping of lore on why he is the way he is when the show introduced his mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter (Christine Baranski), in the Season 2 episode "The Maternal Capacitance." There had previously been hints about how his parents — his mother in particular — weren't particularly affectionate, with their respect being entirely conditional on what they considered celebration-worthy achievements. But actually getting to meet Beverly took things to a whole new level.

Now, it has to be said that Beverly's treatment of Leonard is among the questionable things we ignore in "The Big Bang Theory," as it basically amounts to emotional and psychological abuse. It's difficult to find the humor in it at times, even when the show is trying to position it as something we're supposed to laugh at. But where the comedy is more respectably found is in the way Beverly relates to Sheldon and Penny. In particular, Sheldon finds himself jealous of Leonard having a mom like her rather than the sweet, loving mother he actually had. 

Putting aside the problematic nature of poking fun at Beverly's parenting, "The Maternal Capacitance" is essential in helping us to learn more about Leonard and gain more sympathy in his many perceived character flaws and quirks. It's also nice to see the first instances of him standing up to her, which become more pronounced in her subsequent appearances. 

An argument can be made that "The Status Quo Combustion" is more of a Sheldon episode than a Leonard episode. The main crux is that Sheldon is having a lot of trouble adjusting to all of the big changes happening in his life — namely, Leonard and Penny wanting to move in together and the comic book store burning down. Between that and not being allowed to make a change he wants to make to his career, he considers just riding a train for awhile by himself to clear his head.

However, given that the absolute best "The Big Bang Theory" duo according to fans is Leonard and Sheldon, an episode with this big of a focus on Sheldon's happiness is automatically also a Leonard episode. And what makes this a great Leonard episode is the way he comes to handle how much his pal is struggling. Sure, he's is initially annoyed that Sheldon didn't automatically assume that he and Penny would eventually live together without him — but Leonard obviously knows that Sheldon doesn't think the way most people think, and automatically prefers that things always stay the way they are. 

This culminates in one of the most emotional moments of "The Big Bang Theory," where Leonard finds Sheldon at the train station and initially tries to talk him out of taking his adventure. But he soon realizes that Sheldon needs to not only take the trip, but needs his best friend to tell him it's okay if he does, and Leonard grants him that.

There was eventually a point in "The Big Bang Theory" where fans were finally ready to just have Leonard and Penny get together and stay together. The journey was equal parts sweet and funny, handled better than many other sitcoms might have handled it, and definitely realistic in how they didn't immediately begin their happily ever after from their very first date. But it was pretty obvious that that's where things were going, and the show got better once they became a real couple and could focus on growing and evolving as one.

That's not to say that there weren't some really fun episodes that explored their trying to just be friends after their initial attempt at a romance fell apart. And the most fun of those was definitely the Season 5 episode "The Ornithophobia Diffusion," which saw them attempt to have an entirely platonic night out together. After some back and forth on which movie they should see, Leonard makes the confession that he never liked the movies Penny made him watch — only watching them because it increased his chances at scoring at the end of the night. With that in mind, he insisted they see a movie he wants to see for once, and then makes her pay for her own ticket to boot.

It was satisfying to see Leonard stand up to Penny for once, and to make her realize that she not only had all the power in their relationship but also seemed to have no qualms about using it. Penny was initially annoyed by Leonard's newfound assertiveness, but she comes to really enjoy seeing that side of him — as did the audience. 

The flashback episode is an extremely common trope for TV shows in general, not just sitcoms. It offers an excuse for the writers to make pop culture jokes and references in an era outside of the show's actual timeline, which typically manifests in intentionally dated haircuts and clothing. That particular aspect of the flashback episode is one of its more tired angles, and "The Big Bang Theory" doesn't really do much to break new ground there for Season 3's "The Staircase Implementation." But it does offer the chance at one of the more productive uses of a flashback episode, which is to deepen a show's lore and to flesh out its characters.

The episode tells the story of how Leonard and Sheldon came to become roommates — and, as the title of the episode suggests, how the building's elevator came to be permanently out of order. As Leonard tells Penny the story, she is of course befuddled at how Leonard still agreed to move in with Sheldon despite the many red flags that presented themselves. But Leonard reluctantly admits that he and Sheldon had a lot in common, and that they both saw a potential for both successful cohabitation and a genuine friendship. And the show does a good job at portraying that, especially in terms of Leonard's side of things and his willingness to look past Sheldon's quirks. 

One of the strangest things about Leonard and Penny's relationship is that they seemed to propose to one another every other episode until the one that was finally taken as official. Sometimes it was sweet, while other times it was entirely ridiculous. Arguably the best and most funny example of the latter was in "The Launch Acceleration" when Leonard blurts out a proposal to Penny right in the middle of the pair having sex.

All of the other episodes on this list were chosen because of how they fleshed out Leonard as a character in some way. But we're including "The Launch Acceleration" entirely on the basis of it just being one of the funniest Leonard episodes, and one of the silliest things he ever did in the entire run of "The Big Bang Theory." It also completely tracks that he would not only pull something like that, but then completely fail to see the issue with it afterwards and just continue to double down. Getting to see Leonard squeezed into one of Penny's little pink bathrobes while trying to make that case just makes the whole scene that much more hilarious. 

Sitcoms tend to have a bit of fun when they reach their 100th episode, and "The Big Bang Theory" was no different. The show hit that milestone with the thirteenth episode of Season 5, titled "The Recombination Hypothesis." We see Leonard and Penny seemingly get back together, at which point Leonard makes all his same mistakes and ruins the whole thing with his overthinking and overanalyzing. But where the 100th episode fun comes into play is in the revelation that the events of the episode were entirely in Leonard's head, him imagining what would happen if he asked Penny out again and assuming he would just blow it like he did last time — and like he always does in his relationships with women.

However, where things take a refreshing turn is that Leonard still asks Penny out anyway. Even after having thought of every possible thing he might do to screw up — and all but assuming that he definitely will – he ultimately decides to go for it again anyway. He realizes that you can't use the possibility of heartbreak as an excuse to never take a chance on love, and he has the option of actually using his overthinking to his advantage by avoiding his usual mishaps. It's an absolutely huge milestone for him as a character and his relationship with Penny, which begins proper in the next episode and becomes more or less permanent from that point on. 

The transformation of Johnny Galecki from childhood to "The Big Bang Theory" included a few years spent doing live theater. In other words, he proved that he has legitimate acting chops and is more than just a sitcom guy. Which might be why some of his favorite episodes of the show are the ones where he got to demonstrate those skills beyond just delivering punchlines and espousing geeky trivia. Galecki called out "The Graduation Termination" as one of his favorites for exactly that reason — and we can't help but agree, as we're also declaring it to be the best Leonard episode of "The Big Bang Theory" as a whole.

Leonard is asked to give the commencement speech for one of the graduating classes of his old high school, an honor he is deeply touched by. But after bad weather forces the cancellation of his flight and makes it impossible for him to attend, he is devastated. Penny does all she can to cheer him up, including the suggestion of him performing the speech for her so he at least has the chance to do it. But it's when she's able to arrange for him to give the speech live via video that he finally gets the chance to deliver it — and the fantastic performance from Galecki makes it an incredibly sweet moment for Leonard.