Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage just reunited father and son.
On the heels of its Season 2 renewal, Thursday’s episode of the Young Sheldon spinoff featured an appearance by Lance Barber, who reprised his role as George Sr. for the first time since his character’s untimely death in the prequel’s final season.
The storyline, which saw a bedridden Georgie (Montana Jordan) visited by his dead dad, was inspired by similar dreams that series co-creator Chuck Lorre has had of his own father. Over breakfast in the Cooper family kitchen, we saw George tease his son for taking a sick day. But in a subsequent scene, Georgie confronted his dad and told him that he doesn’t want to work himself into the ground and miss out on being there when CeeCee has kids of her own. “I get that,” Sr. responded. He then placed his hand on Georgie’s shoulder and proclaimed, “I did a good job raising you,” like the proud papa bear he always was.
Below, fellow co-creator Steve Holland talks about Barber’s bittersweet encore, the last-minute decision to have those dream sequences look and feel more like an episode of Young Sheldon, and whether Georgie & Mandy will continue to feature George Sr. in future seasons.
TVLINE | It dawned on me while watching Sr. and Jr. at the kitchen table that Lance Barber and Montana Jordan are the only two actors who have appeared on all three Big Bang Theory universe shows as the same characters….
That’s true, yeah, you’re absolutely right! Lance and Montana have brief cameos in the Big Bang episode with Sheldon’s tape! That’s crazy!
TVLINE | Lance has been back on set as a visitor, but this is the first time he’s been back in character. What was it like seeing him tap into that part again?
It was fun. It was a little surreal. It was also the first time we’d had the Cooper kitchen set put up on this stage. Also, Young Sheldon was a single-cam, so the set was four walls, and we were wondering how it was going to look as a multi-cam set with a proscenium, but it really looked the same. Once the set dressing got put in — there are a lot of little, specific things, like the spoon collection and the bowl that he put his keys in — it really just brought it all back together. So it was really fun to see him specifically on that set, but in this slightly different environment.
TVLINE | Did the kitchen set have to be rebuilt from scratch? Or was it sitting in storage somewhere on the Warner Bros. lot?
I mean, it had to be reconfigured and slightly rebuilt. We didn’t know that we were going to use some of the sets from Young Sheldon [on this show], but just in case, we had a couple of them kept in storage for us.
TVLINE | That moment where Sr. places his hand on Georgie’s shoulder and says, “I did a good job raising you….” Was everyone reduced to a puddle of tears at the table read?
Absolutely, and Lance delivered it so well. I think it was really interesting for Lance because, obviously, he was playing George Sr. again, but he’s playing the George Sr. in Georgie’s mind. This is Georgie struggling with the thought that he might be letting the memory of his father down, and the George Sr. in his mind is a little more critical than I think George Sr. would have been in real life, so it was really fun to watch Lance navigate that and figure out how to play this George Sr. He’s got a slightly different edge, and he was just so good at it.
TVLINE | I have to admit, that jump scare did, in fact, scare the crap out of me.
[Laughs] There was a lot of talk about that, and people were upset. I think even reading it, in a good way, they were like, “No, I don’t want to see him like that!” But we thought it would be a nice sort of surprise and a shock for the audience, and it was. I think Lance also loved actually getting the chance to be in full makeup.
TVLINE | In lieu of laughter in those scenes, did you ever consider adding incidental music — perhaps the same incidental music you used on Young Sheldon?
It was interesting. We played that for the audience, and there were laughs in it, and then [series co-creator] Steve Molaro, when he was in editing, decided to try it without the laughs, and it just felt right to let it live in that silence. In the multi-cam world, we don’t really use incidental music — it’s certainly not a part of the vocabulary of this show — and I think losing the laugh just felt like it also gave [the dream sequences] a slightly surreal quality. You’re used to laughter in a multi-cam, and suddenly it’s not there. It gave it this weird sort of otherworldly quality that worked out really well.
TVLINE | Georgie takes offense when Connor implies that his father would still be alive if he had taken better care of himself. Is this a character in denial, or do you think this is something Georgie hasn’t actually considered before now?
I think it’s a character in denial. When someone is saying maybe you need to take it easy on yourself because your dad would still be here [if he did the same], it feels like a criticism of his dad in that moment, and he’s being defensive — even though it’s an accurate criticism.
TVLINE | A reoccurring theme in Season 1 has been Georgie’s fear of letting his family down, and the pressure that he puts on himself to fill Dad’s shoes. Will he finally start to cut himself some slack and realize that taking care of himself is part of being a dependable family man?
Yes, but I think that it’s a gradual process. It’s who he is as a character. It’s a little bit ingrained in him, being a guy in Texas in the ’90s. It’s a slow, slowly evolving process, and hopefully we’ll have many seasons to slowly evolve that. But this is definitely a step along in that path.
TVLINE | We’ve spoken about how this concept was inspired by dreams (plural) that Chuck Lorre had after he lost his own father. Will George Sr. also continue to visit his son in dreams when he needs him most, akin to how Professor Proton continued to show up in Sheldon’s dreams after he died on Big Bang? Or was this a final goodbye?
I don’t know. I mean, we love Lance. We love having him on the show. For us, it’s always going to be about the story. As much as we want to have these people back, we can’t force them into the show just for our own selfish reasons. We talked about [distinguishing] this from the Bob Newhart dreams in Big Bang Theory, where it was much more self-aware, and he would say to Sheldon, “I’m in your head, you’re the one saying this.” We didn’t want to play that same dynamic with George. If we did bring him back, we would have to make sure we found a way that wasn’t just rehashing that version of ghost mentor that we did on Big Bang.
TVLINE | Raegan Revord (aka Missy) recently posted a photo of her and Zoe Perry rehearsing lines in the kitchen. Is that a set we’re going to see again in Season 1, outside of Georgie’s dreams?
We will return to the kitchen set a few times. There’s an episode coming up with both Zoe and Reagan. It has been really, really fun to get to pull these characters back in, and expand our world out with these characters that we already know and love.
TVLINE | You also have Annie Potts (Meemaw), Craig T. Nelson (Dale) and Doc Farrow (Coach Wilkins) back in an episode airing March 13. What brings those three back into the fold?
Meemaw is starting up a new business as a local sports bookie in the wake of losing her gambling room, so she’s pushing Coach Wilkins for some information about how the team is doing — and Dale is not thrilled about her new endeavor.
TVLINE | Young Sheldon and Georgie & Mandy obviously share a universe, but it feels like you guys are incorporating more elements from Young Sheldon the further we get into Season 1. I imagine that’s by design?
I mean, it was always a little part of the show, but we also wanted to make sure that this show stood on its own and wasn’t just relying on those things. I feel like, even the last few weeks of our audience shows, there seems to be a different level of excitement. I think the audiences that are coming, now that [Georgie & Mandy] has been on long enough, are excited about this show, and not just excited because they were Young Sheldon fans. You can feel that enthusiasm building week by week, which is pretty cool.
