How young Sheldon changed a controversial plot point from The Big Bang Theory

There are some pretty big differences between The Big Bang Theory and its key prequel series, Young Sheldon. First, “Young Sheldon” is a single-camera series, while “The Big Bang” was multi-camera to ensure a studio audience. was quite a change for the creators of the show. Not only that, but “Young Sheldon” is completely different tonally, starting out as a fairly standard family comedy but then turning into drama, giving “The Big Bang Theory” a whole new context. Instead of just cracking jokes or making references to later events in Sheldon's life, the series actually expanded on some ideas from The Big Bang Theory and made Sheldon Cooper a richer, more complex character. And since The Big Bang Theory was written with no intention of ever making a prequel, sometimes that meant they had to rethink a few things to make it all make a little more sense.

One of the biggest changes was to the character of George Cooper Sr., Sheldon's father, played by Lance Barber in “Young Sheldon”. George Sr. had died before the events of The Big Bang Theory, and Sheldon (Jim Parsons) always spoke negatively about him, saying he was an abusive alcoholic and adulterer. In Young Sheldon, George Sr. doesn't always understand his youngest son Sheldon (Iain Armitage), but he does his best to be a good husband and father. In fact, in Season 7 of the prequel series, we find out that George Sr. never cheated on his wife, and it was all just one big misunderstanding.

In The Big Bang Theory season 10 episode titled “The Hot Tub Contamination”, an adult Sheldon reveals that the reason he always knocks three times instead of just once is because he saw his father having sex with another woman, when he was young and it traumatized him. The first knock is customary, but two additional knocks give someone the opportunity to pull themselves together and put their pants on. Sheldon's three knocks are used to show some important points in the show, such as when he purposely only knocks on Amy's door once so she wouldn't suspect it was him, showing how much the incident affected him.

In the episode “Young Sheldon”, we learn that Sheldon did not actually see his father with another woman, but George Sr. and his wife Mary (Zoe Perry). entertained the adults with role playing, and Maria was dressed as the German barmaid Helga. George will die of a heart attack within a year of Sheldon's “discovery” and he never confronted his father about it, causing animosity that would never be resolved. The consequences of George's death would have a heavy impact on the entire Cooper family, although it is worth noting that Sheldon didn't come home from college for his family's first Thanksgiving after George left, and the rest of Cooper's crew mourned without him.

The decision to withdraw George Sr.'s infidelity was met with great controversy by fans, with some seeing it as a disservice to the Big Bang Theory characters, while others appreciated it because they loved George Sr. for seven seasons on “Young Sheldon” and didn't want to suddenly hate him right before he died. Honestly, making George Sr. the villain and his relationship with his son more complicated than the grown-up Sheldon who portrayed it on The Big Bang Theory was the right move, because not only did it work better, but it also made it a villain. interesting point about the nature of memory. We are all unreliable tellers of our own stories because we rarely have all the information, and Sheldon spent decades of his life hating his father for something that never happened.

There was love between Sheldon and his father, even if it was difficult for both of them to show it. While The Big Bang Theory was more interested in Bazinga and really niche Star Trek jokes, “Young Sheldon” took an in-depth look at the origins of Sheldon Cooperand to the people who made him.