With one secret cameo at George Sr.’s funeral, Young Sheldon poked fun at the show’s biggest unsolved plot hole from The Big Bang Theory. By Young Sheldon’s series finale, the show still had not managed to explain every inconsistency between itself and its predecessor, The Big Bang Theory. The change in Meemaw’s personality between shows remained a mystery, as did the cause of Georgie and Mandy’s eventual divorce. This might be explained in the upcoming spinoff Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, but other lingering questions remained open by the show’s final outing.
One of these unanswered mysteries was the question of why Sheldon talked so poorly of his father despite what a good man George Sr. was throughout the series. Another was whether Sheldon ever discovered that his father didn’t really have an affair, or if he was unaware of the mistake he made when he walked in on his parents engaging in some role-play. These unresolved Young Sheldon plot holes were annoying, but the series did manage to fix the biggest inconsistency between the two shows. Not only that, but the penultimate episode also had time to joke about this issue.
While Young Sheldon’s finale hinted at Leonard’s death, confirming this would make The Big Bang Theory’s most controversial twist secretly tragic.
Secret Young Sheldon Funeral Cameo Mocks The Spinoff’s Many Casting Plot Holes
Young Sheldon’s George Sr Actor Appeared In The Big Bang Theory Years Earlier
For years, viewers wondered how Lance Barber could play both Leonard’s high school bully in The Big Bang Theory and Sheldon’s father in Young Sheldon. Barber appeared as Jimmy Speckerman in The Big Bang Theory season 5, episode 11, “The Speckerman Recurrence,” years before winning the role of George Sr. in Young Sheldon. The question of why Sheldon didn’t recognize Jimmy as his father was explained when Young Sheldon continued to recast actors from The Big Bang Theory throughout the spinoff’s seven seasons, proving that a lot of people simply had doppelgängers in the show’s fictional universe.
This wasn’t the first time a George Sr doppelgänger showed up in the show’s universe and the gag allowed Young Sheldon to admit that the spinoff tends to recycle actors.
The series acknowledged this with a meta gag when Lance Barber played a female mourner at George Sr.’s own funeral in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo. This wasn’t the first time a George Sr doppelgänger showed up in the show’s universe and the gag allowed Young Sheldon to admit that the spinoff tends to recycle actors. It is not yet clear if Young Sheldon’s spinoff Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage will also utilize the same actors seen in The Big Bang Theory in new roles again, but Barber’s cameo proves that the shows don’t take their shared universe too seriously.
Which Actors Appeared In The Big Bang Theory & Young Sheldon
Young Sheldon Repeatedly Made Its Biggest Big Bang Theory Plot Hole Worse
It is understandable that season 7, episode 13, “Funeral,” made light of Young Sheldon’s Barber casting since the spinoff had already spent years recasting actors from The Big Bang Theory by this point. Bob Hearts Abishola’s Vernee Watson appeared as a nurse in both The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon, while Melissa Tang played Mandy Chao in The Big Bang Theory and Ms. Fenley in Young Sheldon. Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory’s various shared actors appeared throughout both shows, although no one ever commented on their resemblance to other characters thanks to the significant time difference between shows.
In The Big Bang Theory season 2, episode 5, “The Euclid Alternative,” Octavia Spencer played a DMV clerk who quickly grows weary of Sheldon’s antics. In Young Sheldon season 7, Spencer played Meemaw’s similarly no-nonsense parole officer, Rhonda. Young Sheldon’s changes to The Big Bang Theory were occasionally confusing and contradictory, but this casting was an ingenious way for Meemaw and Sheldon to finally have one thing in common. Although separated by decades, both Coopers faced bureaucrats played by the same actor and emerged victorious.
Realizing that Sheldon’s teacher is the woman Leonard cheated on Penny with, or that the same nurse appeared in both shows decades apart, is a clever way to link them without creating more timeline snags.
Young Sheldon Casting The Big Bang Theory Guest Actors Is Part Of The Fun
Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory’s Different Settings Made Shared Actors Believable
Since Young Sheldon and The Big Bang Theory are set multiple decades and states apart, a handful of similar-looking people isn’t a big deal in their shared universe. If anything, there is an argument to be made that the show’s overlapping cast lists are a fun way to wink at the fourth wall. Realizing that Sheldon’s teacher is the woman Leonard cheated on Penny with, or that the same nurse appeared in both shows decades apart, is a clever way to link them without creating more timeline snags or confusing contradictions between their stories.
Young Sheldon often inadvertently complicated The Big Bang Theory’s story by introducing characters like Paige and Dr. Sturgis who should theoretically have been mentioned in the earlier show. As a result, not all of Young Sheldon‘s storylines worked as they clashed with the original show’s existing canon. In contrast, the same actors playing various characters in both shows wasn’t an issue. Instead, this afforded Young Sheldon a chance to offer viewers of The Big Bang Theory subtle Easter eggs like Barber’s hidden cameo at his own character’s funeral.
