Related Articles
There’s no turning back now. Thursday’s Young Sheldon used the arrival of Georgie and Mandy’s daughter to get George and Brenda, and Mary and Rob, all in the same room. The result: a blowup between husband and wife that culminated in Mary’s decision to stay with her mother.
The implosion of George and Mary’s relationship comes at an interesting moment in the Big Bang Theory prequel’s timeline. Sheldon is now 13 years old — which, according to the mothership, is the age where Sheldon walks in on his dad having sex with another woman. Does this latest development set the stage for that painful childhood memory? Below, Young Sheldon executive producer Steve Holland unpacks the dramatic episode and the state of the Coopers’ union.
You’ve been slow-burning George and Mary’s issues, and their respective relationships with Brenda and Rob, for the better part of two seasons. Why was now the time to blow up their marriage? We knew we had these fuses burning for a long time, and we were talking about the episode where the baby is born. We didn’t want to do the traditional “you’re in the delivery room and she’s panting” episode. That episode has been done a thousand times, and this show is such an ensemble, so we were talking about “What would make this the most exciting episode that’s not just about the birth of the baby?” It just seemed like a great way to have these stories all crash together. Not hesitancy, but there’s always a concern. We want to protect these characters and we want to make sure we’re not doing anything that betrays them or makes people turn on them, but this was a storyline that has been simmering in the background for a long time, and we wanted to honor the reality of that. And you’re right, this is a turning point. The rest of the season [deals with] the fallout.
