In 2007, Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady released the now extremely popular television series, The Big Bang Theory. During its run, it became the number one most-watched television show in the world. With 12 seasons and 279 episodes, the show’s last episode was aired on May 16, 2019. Personally, I still love to watch reruns of The Big Bang Theory, which still airs often on CBS. 10 years later, in 2017, Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro produced a special preview of a new spinoff show, called Young Sheldon. The show truly picked up and became a fully-fledged television show that November, and it’s been airing weekly ever since. The spinoff takes place in East Texas, and it follows one of the main characters of TBBT, Sheldon Cooper, as a young boy. The series has become a hit within the past six years, averaging 7.504 million viewers. It quite literally took the world by storm. I also like Young Sheldon, I think it’s a very entertaining show that I could watch for hours. Although it is entertaining and fun, and a great show to watch, how truly accurate is it to the original?
The spinoff follows Sheldon as a young preteen and teenager, navigating the world as a young genius. It shows his journey through starting high school early and then starting college classes at the age of 11. However, there are definitely some hiccups throughout the spinoff that raise some questions. While they aren’t the most noticeable, and Young Sheldon is pretty accurate nonetheless, the inaccuracies are still definitely there.
For one, Sheldon explains throughout The Big Bang Theory that his parents’ marriage was awful, with his dad, George Cooper Sr, staying out all night and often cheating on his mother, Mary Cooper. In reality, George was only really seen cheating once, season 6 episode 14. Mary catches him flirting with Brenda, the family’s next-door neighbor. As well as this, Mary Cooper is seen, not exactly cheating, but getting a little sketchy with Rob, who is a pastor at their church. Once again, she doesn’t really cheat, but even Missy, Sheldon’s twin sister, can tell that there is a mutual attraction there. It’s no secret that Rob likes Mary, and Mary doesn’t exactly ever shut him down. So, although George does get a little sketchy with Brenda, Mary isn’t necessarily completely innocent. As well as that, George definitely isn’t as awful as he is made out to be in Sheldon’s adulthood.
Not only is George painted out to be a cheating, lying husband, but he’s also painted to be quite the alcoholic throughout TBBT. Although Mr. Cooper does enjoy a beer or two, it’s not nearly as bad as Sheldon paints him to be. George’s drinking doesn’t get in the way of him upholding his stable job as a coach at the high school, and it also doesn’t stop him from being an overall loving father. Yes, he drinks, but not more than the typical man from East Texas does, from what I’ve noticed. Through Sheldon’s young eyes, he might have seen it to be a lot more of an issue, but I believe that the writers of Young Sheldon could’ve played into George Cooper’s alcoholism a lot more.
Another inconsistency between Young Sheldon and TBBT is that in his adult years, Sheldon played it off as he had no friends in high school, and he was heavily bullied. Sure, Sheldon only had one friend, and he was picked on pretty consistently, but that’s definitely exaggerating. Not only that but he and Tam, his friend, hung out very often, seeing each other nearly every day. Tam isn’t mentioned at all in TBBT other than in one episode. In this episode, however, it is revealed that Sheldon may be blocking out memories of Tam because he got upset when he moved away.
Overall, I found Young Sheldon to be pretty true to The Big Bang Theory. I personally enjoy watching both shows, and TBBT is a classic, after all. Despite a few inconsistencies that you really wouldn’t be able to notice unless you’re picking the show apart, or writing a story about it, Young Sheldon seems to be pretty accurate. Still, despite the inconsistencies, I’m quite excited for the next and final season to air, and I can’t wait to see what is in store for young Sheldon Cooper.
