Latest news with #GeorgeSr.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Georgie & Mandy EP Reflects on Lance Barber's Return as George Sr. — Will the Young Sheldon Patriarch Recur?
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. More from TVLine Georgie & Mandy EP Talks Reuniting Young Sheldon Cast, Grieving George Sr. in Emotional Thanksgiving Episode Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage EP Confirms the One Young Sheldon Easter Egg You Might've Missed FBI First Look Photos: OA and Gemma Are in Danger on a Train! (Exclusive) 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 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 , 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 ?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 ? 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 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 | and obviously share a universe, but it feels like you guys are incorporating more elements from 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. Did George Sr.'s return live up to (or even exceed) your expectations? Grade the episode via the following poll, then sound off below. Best of TVLine Yellowjackets' Tawny Cypress Talks Episode 4's Tai/Van Reunion: 'We're All Worried About Taissa' Vampire Diaries Turns 10: How Real-Life Plot Twists Shaped Everything From the Love Triangle to the Final Death Vampire Diaries' Biggest Twists Revisited (and Explained)
USA Today
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
George Sr. makes miracle TV return to 'Georgie and Mandy' after 'Young Sheldon' death
You're not hallucinating, "Young Sheldon" fans: That's George Cooper Sr. (Lance Barber) returning to life on "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage." It's a TV miracle, since the flawed patriarch famously died last year in CBS' "Big Bang Theory" prequel. The resurrection is imagined in the feverish mind of Georgie Cooper (Montana Jordan), who has life-stress dreams featuring his dearly departed father in Thursday's episode (8 EST/PST), titled "Typhoid Georgie." Barber. 51, admits to feeling touched returning as George Sr. and revisiting the Cooper family kitchen. "Some of the people watching the scenes were visually emotional seeing me on that kitchen set. This is a beloved character," Barber says. "It was fun to feel those feels and be so appreciated, even in the sadness." 'Young Sheldon' tragedy:George Cooper's death is flawed father's 'Big Bang' redemption George Sr. died of a heart attack in last year's seventh and final season of "Young Sheldon," which was preordained by the "Big Bang" timeline. Struggling to support a child with his wife, Mandy (Emily Osment), Georgie misses his father. When the deceased dad returns, he gives a hug. "Being in that moment made my chest a little heavy a few times," says Barber. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. Bringing back George Sr. meant rebuilding 'Young Sheldon' kitchen, minus some missing items Finding the return premise was only the first logistical issue for executive producers Steve Molaro and Steve Holland, who were also behind "Sheldon." After the series ended, the Coopers' Texas house, on Studio 19 of Burbank's Warner Bros. lot, was dismantled. The family kitchen had to be rebuilt on the "First Marriage" set some 400 feet away on Studio 25, where the Chuck Lorre-created sitcom, recently renewed for a second season, is filmed before a studio audience. Even just corraling the "Young Sheldon" kitchen products was challenging, as the cast and crew took home the best items as mementos. Molaro provided his show souvenir: the Cooper tea dish. But a few items never materialized. "This little hobo figurine didn't make it back, along with some refrigerator magnets that had been there for years," says Barber, who says only eagle-eyed viewers will notice the missing items "that were probably pillaged by cast and crew and are sitting in someone's living room." Barber has appeared on all three 'Big Bang Theory' series Barber joins Jordan as the rare actor to appear in all three franchise series. In one "Big Bang" episode, Barber played the reformed school bully, Jimmy Speckerman. In "Young Sheldon," the actor was so committed that he pulled double duty at his own character's funeral. As George Sr., Barber wore a suit in the open coffin and donned a dress as his character's bereaved sibling, Georgette. "There was a running joke on our show that if George ever died early, they would allow me to continue to work as his sister, Georgette," says Barber. "So I could play that role in drag like Max Baer Jr. did on 'The Beverly Hillbillies' where he played Jethro and Jethro's sister Jethrine. During the funeral, it seemed appropriate to bring a smile to everybody by seeing that to fruition and pulling off Georgette." Being dead and all, George Sr.'s revival is the most challenging of the high-profile "Sheldon" returns. "First Marriage" has already seen the family biggies: Zoe Perry (as Georgie's mom, Mary Cooper), Annie Potts (as Meemaw), and Raegan Revord (as younger sister Missy Sheldon). Sheldon (Iain Armitage) is the only character who has not visited his brother in Texas. (He's studying at the California Institute of Technology.) Before returning, Barber watched a scene shot at George Sr.'s grave, which Georgie visits often on "First Marriage," that proved touching and surreal. "It's nice to be represented on the show in that way," says Barber. "But I felt like the Ghost of Christmas Future watching that scene."
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Young Sheldon's Lance Barber to Reprise George Sr. on Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage — But How?
Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage is conjuring its first spirit. Lance Barber, who for seven seasons starred as Cooper family patriarch George Sr. on CBS' Young Sheldon, will reprise his role in an upcoming episode of the hit spinoff. More from TVLine TVLine Items: Chloe Bennet Joins Jonas Brothers Xmas Movie, Temptation Island on Netflix Debut and More The Diplomat Season 3 First Look: See Bradley Whitford Join the Cast as Allison Janney's Husband Dark Winds: Leaphorn and Jenna Elfman's FBI Agent Hunt a 'Monster' in New Trailer for XL Season 3 His return was confirmed by series co-creators Chuck Lorre, Steve Holland and Steven Molaro during a panel on set of the CBS sitcom Thursday. An airdate has not yet been announced. Barber's beloved character was famously killed off in Young Sheldon's third-to-last episode. As foretold on The Big Bang Theory, George Sr. suffered a fatal heart attack, and his funeral factored heavily into the prequel's May 2024 series finale. So how, exactly, will George Sr. appear on Georgie & Mandy? 'His dad visits him in a dream,' Holland explained. 'George is thinking about his dad, and he's worried that his dad might be disappointed in him…. [The idea] came out of a conversation we'd had with Chuck, even early on, talking about the show. Chuck had said about his own father that he still dreams about him, he still visits him, so that was a thing we had thought about. And then when we were breaking this episode, it just seemed like a great opportunity to bring George back.' Holland previously told TVLine that Georgie & Mandy would never erase the events of Young Sheldon, or bring George Sr. back from the dead. 'If we found the right sort of emotional reason for Georgie, and it didn't just feel like a stunt — like, here's George Sr. crawling his way out of the grave — and we treated it respectfully, it would be great to have Lance back on,' he said in November. Best of TVLine The Emmys' Most Memorable Moments: Laughter, Tears, Historical Wins, 'The Big One' and More 'Missing' Shows, Found! The Latest on Severance, Holey Moley, Poker Face, YOU, Primo, Transplant and 25+ Others Summer TV Calendar: Your Guide to 85+ Season and Series Premieres
