Warning: The following contains spoilers about Young Sheldon Season 7, Episode 12.
CBS‘ Big Bang Theory prequel just reached a tragic moment in Young Sheldon’s coming of age.
In the offshoot’s third-to-last episode, his father, George Sr. (played since Season 1 by Lance Barber), died of a heart attack at work. He was expected home for a family photo that afternoon; instead, Mary (Zoe Perry) opened her front door to find a visibly upset Tom (Rex Linn) and Wayne (Doc Farrow), who were there to relay the news that her husband of nearly 20 years — and father to her three children, Sheldon, Missy and Georgie — had passed away.
Mary, Missy and Meemaw burst into tears, while a stonefaced Sheldon took a seat behind them.
The audience might’ve known that George’s death was coming, but the Cooper family sure didn’t. Things were finally looking up for Sheldon’s father, who had just received an offer to coach football at Rice University. George and Mary, who were finally on good terms, were prepared to sell the house in Medford and move with Missy to Houston, so that George could pursue his dream job.
Young Sheldon producers never intended to shy away from this trauma, which was set in stone on Big Bang. “We always knew that we never wanted to see it on camera, but to deal with the death was always important to us coming to the end of the show,” co-showrunner Steve Holland tells TVLine. “It was a question of when we do it. There was some talk that maybe it would have been the finale. He would have died, we would have the funeral, and that would have been the last episode.”
Ultimately, it was series co-creator Chuck Lorre who decided that George’s death should come sooner. His argument went as follows: “The show has been such a positive family show. Let’s not leave the audience wallowing in grief. Let’s give them a little bit of road out of that.”
On that note, Holland & Co., who initially intended to kill George off in Episode 13 — aka Part 1 of Young Sheldon’s May 16 series finale — moved his death up to Episode 12.
“At least some part of our audience expects it, or knows that it is going to happen,” Holland concedes. “Maybe they don’t know that it’s going to be [featured] on the show, but they know that it’s coming. We thought, ‘Is there a way to do it and still catch people off guard?’ So the thought of doing it not even in the penultimate, but in the antepenultimate episode, might be a way we can still catch them off guard.
“George’s death was a huge part of Sheldon’s growth as a person. To deal with that death was important to Sheldon as a character, especially as he’s about to go off to Caltech,” the EP maintains. “To deal with that death was [also] important [for] the rest of the family.”
In addition to Holland, TVLine spoke with Barber and Perry over Zoom about Episode 12, which you’ll find embedded above. A full transcript of our conversation, edited for clarity, is also provided below.
TVLINE | The family receives the news, unfortunately, that George has suffered this fatal heart attack. It’s a moment the audience has been dreading, it’s a moment I’m sure that you guys have been dreading having to film…. Lance, how long have you known this was coming?
LANCE BARBER | The fact is, I knew because of the history of The Big Bang [Theory]. I was emotionally prepared for this from the pilot, you know? At least the potential of it. I was just thankful for every day, and every season, and every episode, I got to be on, knowing that potentially they could explore that before the show ended. So, mostly, I was grateful to get to the end. It was only in this last season where we discovered — and very close to shooting it — did we know details about how it was going to play out. There was a lot of speculation, always — certainly from fans, and certainly from us — wondering how it was going to play out. I think that the writers are really leaning into something with this that I think is a gamble. But from my perspective, it’s a really beautiful way to do it, regardless of how challenging and potentially polarizing it might be.
ZOE PERRY | It was difficult to grieve the loss of this character and the ending of this run, and these things were happening simultaneously. I think audiences will see a very kind of real reaction.TVLINE | Zoe, let’s talk about the moment when Mary opens the door and Tom and Coach Wilkins are there. What was going through your head in that moment?
PERRY | I mean, this was intense. I do vividly remember filming it. We had shot the beginning of that scene, leading up to the door. We wrapped that, then we were like, “OK, now we’re going to approach this moment.” Because I’m standing a bit in the foreground, I’m not totally privy to what’s happening behind me with Annie [Potts, who plays Meemaw] and Reagan [Revord, who plays Missy], although I can feel it. I don’t know that I was planning it, but I was angry. I was angry at the news, or even the threat of the news.
BARBER | And angry is reasonable.
PERRY | It’s like, “Don’t… don’t take this from me.”[youtube
TVLINE | Lance, were you there, just off camera, while those scenes were being shot?
BARBER | No. I’d been around quite a bit, and I had finished before they were shooting that.
PERRY | You were there that day.
BARBER | I was there earlier that day, but I deliberately was not there. I thought my absence would be helpful for the actors, and appropriate for that moment. And I wanted to wait and see it on the screen with everybody else. I also haven’t watched the final episode because I’d like to see it for the first time on screen.TVLINE | Let’s talk a bit about George’s final days. Things were starting to go his way. The relationship with Mary was on a good track, he gets this offer to coach college ball, they’re about to move, everyone’s really excited…
PERRY | Minus Sheldon!
BARBER | Minus Sheldon!TVLINE | Yes, that is true, although he’s never really excited about anything, so that we expected. But there was all this potential for George. I think back to Season 1, when he bet Georgie that he would be married before he turns 25. You couldn’t have known then that your character would still be around to see Georgie and Mandy get married. Knowing how well things were going for George, did it make it all the more difficult to say goodbye to him now?
BARBER | That’s an interesting question. It was difficult in the story, for sure. I feel bad for George and Mary and the whole family, which I think everyone will. The stakes were so high, right? I think that’s also good TV. I imagine that was pretty deliberate on the writers’ part to build it to that point to emulate what people go through in life, and the beautiful tragedy of [life]. It is a kick in the gut, and there’s an extra added weight to that kick in the gut. Things were just starting to feel… they felt like they were just starting to work out, after so many ups and downs in this family.
PERRY | Yeah, I remember reading the script. I knew that we were getting the news in the script, but I hadn’t yet read it to see how that happens. As I started to read it, to see all of the plans being made — the excitement, Missy’s excitement — I was tearing up just reading that. The loss was so incredible. It was a loss of a future.
BARBER | Yeah. Best laid plans, you know….
PERRY | I was surprised by my own reaction to Georgie’s marriage. I think maybe there was a suggestion [in the script] that I might be emotional, but I was truly emotional. I would tear up when Lance would go over to Georgie to congratulate him, and I would tear up at the thought of, you know, it’s wild… You get attached to these characters, and I would just think, “Oh, I’m so relieved that Georgie got to share this with his dad,” and it would make me emotional.
BARBER | [Wells up] I’m in the chest right now.
PERRY | That George got to see his son get married before he died was a big deal.TVLINE | Watching Episode 9 — when George is the one to take Sheldon to visit M.I.T. before they have that about-face and decide on Caltech — got me thinking about the scene in Season 3 where you got to take Sheldon to Caltech. We, as the audience, got to see that, even though George would not be there to see Sheldon off to Caltech in the future, he was at some point in that cafeteria with him, where his son is going to go on to make so many memories. Knowing the outcome for George, and where we are at this point in the show, does it make a moment like that all the more special?
BARBER | You know, I remember shooting that episode and entering that cafeteria, and that was several seasons ago. It was not lost on any of us that day, certainly wasn’t [lost on me]. Knowing the eventual outcome of George, and knowing that he got to share that with Sheldon, was so significant, and we felt that, that day, and we certainly were reminded of that with [Episode 9]. George looks at Sheldon on their way out the door. Even though it lands on a joke, he looks over and says, “I’m proud of you, son.” [Wells up] Here I go again! But that stuff certainly lands on you after all this time together, and your love for this family.What did you think of Young Sheldon Season 7, Episode 12: “A New Home and a Traditional Texas Torture”? More specifically, what did you think of how they handled George’s death? Grade the installment, then sound off in Comments.
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