Young Sheldon star, Lance Barber, opposes The Big Bang Theory‘s version of George. Unlike the rest of his family, Sheldon’s (Jim Parsons) father never appeared on the nerd-centric sitcom, because when it began, he was long dead. Still, fans knew about him through stories from his son and wife — most of which were unflattering. Now, having played the character for more than five years, Barber says that it isn’t the kind of father George is.
The Big Bang Theory depicted the Cooper patriarch as a no-good father who didn’t care about his family. Both adult Sheldon and his mother, Mary (Laurie Metcalf), ragged on George despite the fact that he was long dead. To make things worse, Sheldon also confessed to catching his father having sex with a different woman. So, viewers were surprised when Young Sheldon introduced a rather decent family man in Barber’s character. While he makes mistakes, the prequel’s iteration of George is a good family man who is committed to his wife and family, particularly when it comes to providing for them.
Young Sheldon has yet to address the discrepancy with The Big Bang Theory, but ahead of its 100th episode, Barber talked to THR about his favorite outings of the spin-off. Here, he inadvertently revealed that he doesn’t approve of the original sitcom’s depiction of George. Read his full comment below:
“My favorites are the ones where you see George as a dad who is trying hard for his family. He is not, in certain ways, a great dad. But he is someone who tries. He’s a conflicted character, which makes him interesting and more relatable — as opposed to being a drunk redneck cartoon.”
To be fair, when The Big Bang Theory started incorporating George into its storyline, the remarks about him were meant to be comedic. At that point, CBS and the creatives behind the series didn’t know that Young Sheldon would eventually get made and they’d have to actually introduce the character. If the spin-off simply followed what its parent series said about the Cooper patriarch, the show would’ve been very different. It would’ve been difficult to use the lazy and drunk version of George in what was supposed to be a lighthearted family sitcom without being borderline inappropriate. Because of that, the offshoot decided to just roll with its flawed but committed take on the character. Whether or not it will change moving forward is uncertain right now.
Young Sheldon has done a great job humanizing George in the last few seasons. Perhaps it’s an attempt to justify his eventual cheating, assuming that it follows what’s been established in The Big Bang Theory. But aside from his infidelity storyline, another narrative that fans are dreading is George’s death, which is about a couple of years away from the show’s current timeline. The spin-off has danced around these dark storylines for a while now, but as it progresses, it has to ultimately address them, otherwise, they would result massive continuity issues with its parent series.
Source: THR
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