With George’s passing on Young Sheldon, it’s interesting to look back at all the things Sheldon got wrong about his father on The Big Bang Theory.
The inevitable has happened and George Sr. passed away in the third to last episode of Young Sheldon. This tragic though expected news has fans thinking back to all the mentions adult Sheldon made about his father on The Big Bang Theory. As a prequel series, Young Sheldon provided an opportunity to solidify or debunk the stories Sheldon told about his family while he was growing up.
For the most part, much of what he said was correct, if not embellished or slightly twisted to fit a narrative. But a lot of the things that older Sheldon had to say about his father appeared to be a defense mechanism. Sheldon might not fully have processed his father’s death and to help him reconcile with it, he remembered him in the worst light. There are other instances where the show has corrected beliefs Sheldon thought were true about his dear dad.
10George Didn’t Drink Excessively
- Sheldon once implied that his father smelled of bourbon while teaching him archery or how to cook meat, but it doesn’t appear as though George drank anything other than beer.
Older Sheldon referenced his father’s heavy drinking numerous times in The Big Bang Theory. Part of what has made Young Sheldon one of the greatest sitcom spin-offs, however, is how it has shown that much of what Sheldon recalled was told from a skewed child lens. George Sr. did indeed like to drink beer, often cracking one or two open every night after work while he parked in front of the TV or enjoyed dinner. But he didn’t seem to drink excessively.
It’s possible that from a child’s perspective, always seeing his father with a beer made Sheldon think his father drank a lot more than he really did. But he portrayed his father as a lazy, heavy drinker who didn’t do much but sit on the couch and watch football. That has proven disproven seeing how involved he was with the family.
9The Affair Might Have Been a Mix Up
- Sheldon made it sound as though his parents’ marriage was always in bad shape and they fought all the time. In reality, George and Mary went through one rough patch and had the occasional tiff, disagreement, or exchange of words. But it didn’t seem to be any more than a typical married couple.
Sheldon’s referencing of his father having an affair could have been due to a combination of things. There was a point in time when George Sr. and Mary had marriage troubles. George was spending a lot of time with the newly single neighbor Brenda, realizing they had a lot in common and that he enjoyed her company. But it appeared that he stopped himself before taking it farther than a fleeting emotional affair.
When he and Mary reconnected, there’s a scene where Sheldon walks into the house and hears his father in his bedroom with the door closed speaking to a German woman with an accent. He runs out of the house traumatized. What Sheldon didn’t realize is that the woman was Mary who was playfully role-playing.
8He Was Not An Absent Father
- Older Sheldon admitted that Missy once gave their dad a “World’s Greatest Dad” mug, implying George had a better relationship with her.
Sheldon is one of the most iconic modern sitcom characters, but he isn’t without his many flaws. He liked to portray his father as neglectful, as though he didn’t have much involvement in his kids’ lives. While it’s true that Mary was the primary caregiver for the kids, George was involved, too. It was he, for example, who took Sheldon to see Caltech for the first time. George was close to Missy and was there for her on numerous occasions, like when she first got her period, when she got her first broken heart, and even during a tornado.
George was happy to let Mary take charge, but when he was needed, he always stepped up. He might not have been as good as Mary at handling certain things, but he tried. When he and Mary had marriage trouble and she was staying with Connie, he had to step up. He did the same, with the help of Missy, when Mary went to Germany with Sheldon. It’s possible Sheldon never really noticed or focused on these moments.
7There Were Infrequent Trips To The Pub
For fans who liked The Big Bang Theory, there are plenty of other TV shows that have similar storylines, humor, and pop culture references.
- Sheldon told Amy that Georgie would go into his father’s truck at night and drink his “driving whiskey,” once again implying that his father was a very heavy drinker.
If Sheldon’s descriptions were true, his father spent every night at the pub with his buddies (or other women) drinking the night away and stumbling home late. This, it seems, was far from the truth. While George occasionally hung out with his friends at the local pub and often went there if he had a fight with Mary or needed to blow off steam, it didn’t seem as though he was there frequently.
He was a regular as much as anyone else in town, including others like Brenda, Connie, and even sometimes Mary. He was only seen there a handful of times, at most once a week, if that. Sheldon may, once again, have either remembered incorrectly or embellished details to make it seem as though his father was always stumbling around intoxicated.
6His Talents Were Undermined
- Sheldon claimed in The Big Bang Theory that his father made him watch and even play football, which was not true.
Even though Sheldon doesn’t like sports, he undermined his father’s talents as a high school football coach. Right before his death, George was offered a position to coach college football at Rice. Mary supported him and they were about to move. Being head-hunted to coach a prestigious college football team is a huge deal, which suggests that George was far more talented at his job than Sheldon let on.
Of course, likely, Sheldon wasn’t aware of his father’s talents, nor did he care since it had to do with sports. However, he knew about the job offer as the family discussed it at dinner. Sheldon was even trying to convince Connie, Dale, Georgie, and Mandy, to buy the family home so he wouldn’t lose it. Yet he never shared this detail about his father’s accomplishments with his friends.
5Mary’s Harsh Words
- Mary once told Penny that “the real way to get to a man is with melted cheese and cream of mushroom soup. He’ll die at 50, but his love will be true.”
Whenever Mary appeared on The Big Bang Theory, she joined many other sympathetic characters. But she also always spoke harshly about her husband, as though he was a heavy-drinking, cheating man, awful husband and father. Some theories suggest that it might be related to bitterness over the fact that George didn’t want to have another baby. Her moment of baby fever was fleeting after Mary came to terms with the fact that George and Mandy were going out on their own, Sheldon was moving to Pasadena, and Missy would be leaving soon. But she was feeling loneliness setting in.
It stands to reason that Mary’s grief may show up in the form of bitterness that George would leave her right when she was at her loneliest. She may have stuck with those feelings and began to resent him unfairly, blaming him for his own death, and not giving her another child to love before he was gone. This might explain why Mary spoke so unfavorably about her husband, but Young Sheldon proved he did not deserve it.
4Calling Him a “Redneck”
The Big Bang Theory follows its main characters through 12 years of developing relationships, careers and friendships.
- Sheldon had comforting words for Howard when his mother died, telling him “When I lost my own father, I didn’t have any friends to help me through it. You do.”
Sheldon used the derogatory term “redneck” to describe his father. A redneck typically refers to a working-class person from a rural area, usually someone who is unsophisticated and crass. While George was indeed a working-class man, they lived in a big city, not a rural town. He was certainly not a country type of guy, more blue-collar.
George was a hard worker but he doesn’t fit the picture Sheldon painted of him. He might not have been an intellectual like Sheldon, but he was smart. He was simple, not classless, and he would likely never have been described as “redneck” by anyone else who knew him.
3He Provided For The Family
- Sheldon described his father’s parenting as “coasting ‘til the day he died,” which might reference the fact that he was mostly hands-off. But that was an unfair assessment.
George was the provider of the family and he worked hard to do so. He did his best for his high school football team to help raise their profile, and prove himself so he could ask for raises. When he was fired, he took whatever job he could to continue providing for the family. He never saw any job as beneath him.
What’s more, George supported Mary when she worked for the church and helped out at home whenever he could, even though he often didn’t know how to do simple things like cook or use the washing machine. Whether it was the refrigerator that needed fixing or a major plumbing problem, George did what he needed to do so he could provide for his family, even if that meant putting a portable toilet in the backyard until they could afford to pay a plumber.
2It Was George Who Was Treated Badly
- Sheldon quotes his father on numerous occasions that made him sound like he disrespected his mother, like saying his father compared women to an “egg salad sandwich on a warm Texas day.” But George never seemed to speak that way, aside from in jest.
Sheldon fails to mention how badly some of the family members treated George, including his twin sister Missy when she was dealing with typical growing pains and especially Connie. Connie, one of the funniest characters on the show, rarely visited without uttering an insult to or about George. She never felt he was good enough for her daughter, or so she made it seem.
Sheldon often belittled his father, which led to George rolling his eyes, but at times clearly hurt his feelings. George often took the brunt of the negativity from the family.
1He Deeply Supported Sheldon
- Even though Sheldon spoke badly about George, he referenced his father as one of the most important men in his life in a dream when speaking to Arthur Jeffries (Professor Proton).
Perhaps most important is that George was often there to support Sheldon in some of his biggest life decisions. It was George who pushed to let Sheldon skip middle school and go right to high school, then attend college after just one year of high school, despite Mary’s reservations. While George’s motivations might have sometimes been selfish, simply wanting to get Sheldon out of the house, it was also well-meaning. He clearly wanted the best for his son.
As noted, one of the most memorable father-son scenes on the show is when George takes Sheldon to Caltech to see the university and they bond together. Later, when Sheldon is deciding on colleges, George is seen taking him to MIT where he quickly takes his son back to go to Caltech when they walk right into a blizzard. George was there for Sheldon in his times of need far more than Sheldon let on.
