CBS is bringing a double dose of Sheldon Cooper to the small screen this fall. The Big Bang Theory spinoff called Young Sheldon is scheduled to debut and give fans a close look at Sheldon as a young boy. The spinoff will put Sheldon's family in the spotlight in a brand new way, which has the potential to be hilarious. That said, given what we know happened to Sheldon's father, there's also the potential for heartbreak. Executive producer Chuck Lorre had this to say about whether Young Sheldon would address the death of Sheldon's dad:
We're not going to play fast and loose [with history]. But [Young Sheldon takes place] five years before [George's death]. And people change and grow and develop, and things happen over the course of many years. And we don't have to follow an exact timelines. A season doesn't have to be a year. It could be a couple months. We have a lot of freedom with the backstory.
Young Sheldon evidently will not be rewriting Sheldon's history to keep his dad alive longer than established in The Big Bang Theory. Back in Season 7, Sheldon revealed that he was 14 years old when George Sr. passed away. Judging by Chuck Lorre's tease at the Television Critics Association summer press tour (via TVLine), a lot will be able to happen in Young Sheldon before the plot gets to the place where George Sr. needs to die. Young Sheldon will open with Sheldon as a 9-year-old preparing to start high school; there's plenty of ground to cover between ages 9 and 14, assuming the show has a long life on CBS.
Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory hasn't said a whole lot about his father, but he has given the impression that he and his dad weren't exactly close. Chuck Lorre's comments indicate that Young Sheldon may be able to establish a close relationship between father and son in at least the early seasons. Although the trailer points toward the majority Cooper family not really understanding Sheldon, there's no reason why they can't still have a loving dynamic. Even if the show does eventually need to show a rift between Sheldon and George Sr. in order to stick to the continuity of The Big Bang Theory, the rift doesn't necessarily need to open immediately.
We'll have to wait and see. There's no guarantee at this point that Young Sheldon will even score a full Season 1, let alone enough renewals to make it to the point in time when George must die. Only time will tell. Young Sheldon will premiere on Monday, September 25 at 8:30 p.m. ET, following the premiere of The Big Bang Theory's eleventh season. For everything else that will hit the airwaves in the coming months, take a look at our fall TV premiere schedule. Our summer TV guide can point you toward what's going on with the small screen in what's left of the summer.
