We bet even Sheldon didn't know these behind-the-scenes facts. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for cool behind-the-scenes facts about “Young Sheldon” you might not know about.
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00:00 Anyway, auditions are next week. You're welcome to come on by.
00:03 Excellent. I checked out a book on acting, so I should have the hang of it by then.
00:07 Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for cool behind-the-scenes
00:12 facts about young Sheldon you might not know about.
00:14 Something that's making you question everything.
00:17 I'm so smart.
00:19 Number 10. Sheldon's music teacher was Leonard's drunken boat kiss.
00:25 As we all know, Young Sheldon is a prequel series to The Big Bang Theory,
00:30 and takes place in the same world and timeline as the latter series.
00:33 Therefore, the show's decision to cast Lance Barber as Sheldon's father
00:38 after he'd played Leonard's old nemesis from high school on The Big Bang Theory
00:42 is still something that gets talked about quite a bit.
00:45 Great to see you again, and thanks for the apology.
00:48 What apology?
00:49 All the crappy stuff you did to me in high school.
00:53 Well, jeez, you're still harping on that?
00:55 But that isn't the only recasting connection between the two shows.
00:58 Melissa Tang, who played Young Sheldon's music teacher, Miss Fenley,
01:03 also was Leonard's drunken boat kiss Mandy Chow on Big Bang.
01:06 You know, what we did when we were drunk.
01:09 Oh no, did I sleep with you two?
01:11 Nope, we just met out.
01:15 Oh, well, good for me.
01:17 Magician Teller played Amy's father, then played personified Puss on Young Sheldon,
01:23 and finally, Vernée Watson played Nurse Althea on Big Bang and Nurse Robinson in the prequel.
01:29 Oh, it's Cooper again.
01:32 Can you take it?
01:34 Number 9.
01:35 Why Reagan Reverd carries around a stuffed dog toy
01:38 His name is Snowflake, and he is a white stuffed dog that actress
01:42 Reagan Reverd has had since she was five years old.
01:45 The name of your future pony is...
01:47 Sparkle Sunshine.
01:50 I would totally name it that!
01:53 Reverd, who plays Sheldon's twin sister Missy on Young Sheldon,
01:56 actually had her eyes on Snowflake from the time she was three years old,
02:00 but was told she was too young.
02:02 When I was three, I asked for Snowflake, and my great-grandmother was like,
02:06 "Not yet, you're too young."
02:07 And so when I got Snowflake, I was so excited.
02:12 The dog is one of many antique stuffed animals that her great-grandmother collected,
02:16 and after she passed away, it made its way to her grandmother's house.
02:20 Then on her fifth Christmas, young Reverd was finally gifted the toy.
02:24 She was my great-grandmother's.
02:26 Really?
02:27 Uh-huh, and I had actually wanted her, but when she died,
02:32 my great-grandfather, before he passed away, went over and got her for me for Christmas.
02:37 As of 2020, she revealed in interviews that she was still sleeping alongside the dog every night.
02:43 You can even sometimes see Snowflake on Missy's bed on the show.
02:47 Number 8.
02:49 Sheldon's two moms are related.
02:51 The character of Sheldon's mother was an important part of the Big Bang Theory,
02:56 and Laurie Metcalf played her wonderfully, appearing in 14 episodes throughout the series' run.
03:02 If Shelly was aboard, he'd ride smart mouth on his pigeon, and then bam!
03:08 The Lord giveth and the Lord bloweth away.
03:12 And sure, getting Metcalf to play Mary Cooper in the prequel series would've been great,
03:18 but given that Young Sheldon takes place two decades prior to the start of Big Bang,
03:23 that probably wasn't realistic.
03:25 So instead of making Metcalf younger, they went and got a younger version of her,
03:43 her daughter.
03:44 Yep, Zoe Perry, who plays Mary Cooper on Young Sheldon, is Laurie Metcalf's oldest daughter.
03:50 Number 7.
04:02 The cow in the opening sequence.
04:04 The song used for the Young Sheldon opening sequence was written by the original Blues
04:09 Quiz host Steve Burns, and is called "Mighty Little Man."
04:13 "How did I become your hero? I am a mighty little man."
04:18 And while Sheldon does have a mighty brain and a mighty ego,
04:24 he's also scared of a lot of things, particularly animals.
04:28 "Dad, Sheldon got hurt."
04:29 "How?"
04:30 "A chicken chased him into a mailbox."
04:32 "Of course it did."
04:33 Which brings us to the cow.
04:36 Not only does the cow serve to indicate the show's cattle-raising Texas setting,
04:40 but the way it forces the mighty Sheldon to move over slightly
04:44 also has been theorized to represent his fears.
04:46 The intro has changed a few times throughout the run of the series,
04:50 but the bovine has remained.
04:52 And speaking of Steve Burns, he plays fellow nerd Nathan on the show.
04:56 "Who's your friend?"
04:56 "Oh, he's not a friend, he's a stranger.
04:59 I met him on a Star Trek bulletin board.
05:01 He had a copy of the episode Georgie taped over and brought it here."
05:04 "Hello, I'm Nathan."
05:07 Number 6.
05:08 Sabrina the Teenage Witch Directed
05:10 While most of us wouldn't be able to pick a director of most Young Sheldon episodes
05:15 out of a lineup, that certainly isn't the case for the 17th episode of season 3.
05:20 "You're getting a special thanks in the footnotes."
05:23 "No one reads the footnotes."
05:24 "I do."
05:25 "Well, I do too, but that doesn't mean I want to be in them."
05:28 "Sheldon, that's where people get recognition for helping."
05:32 The episode titled "An Academic Crime and a More Romantic Taco Bell"
05:36 aired on March 5th, 2020 and was directed by Melissa Joan Hart.
05:41 Yep, everyone's favorite teenage witch was at the helm for that episode.
05:45 "My life has become such an adventure that Sabrina's world will never be cancelled."
05:48 And while that was her first time in the Young Sheldon director's chair,
05:53 through the show's first six seasons, she ended up directing multiple episodes.
05:57 "So I could really use your help making it look more professional.
06:02 Like, adding a little, you know, I think the word you're looking for is 'pizazz.'"
06:08 That wasn't the first celebrity director the show had, though.
06:11 The series' pilot episode was directed by none other than the creator of The Mandalorian,
06:16 Jon Favreau.
06:17 Number 5.
06:19 The Wonder Years Inspiration
06:21 The decision was made to use narration as a key storytelling device on Young Sheldon,
06:26 but executive producer Chuck Lorre had never used it in a show before.
06:30 "Of course, nobody I knew in East Texas in 1989 cared about Newtonian physics.
06:36 The only Newtons they cared about were Wayne and Fig."
06:40 Knowing how narration can greatly change how creators write,
06:44 Lorre and the gang looked for inspiration and help in figuring it all out.
06:48 "Okay, we're off on a tangent. I'm taking over.
06:50 Money can be a source of conflict in a relationship, even having too much."
06:54 "But, hey, this is my story."
06:56 "I know. Jealous?"
06:59 And what better place to go than The Wonder Years,
07:01 the classic show from the 80s and 90s about a boy growing up in the 60s and 70s.
07:06 As Lorre put it, quote, "We looked for inspiration that used it beautifully,
07:11 and no one did it better than The Wonder Years."
07:14 "There, that's me. Kevin Arnold, 1968. The summer before junior high school.
07:19 And I don't mind saying I was a pretty fair little athlete."
07:25 Number 4.
07:27 Ian Armitage's audition
07:29 Ian Armitage was nine years old when he was cast in the role of the titular young Sheldon.
07:34 But even more impressive than just his age was the feet he pulled off at his audition.
07:39 "Hey, how'd the audition go?"
07:41 "Great, I got the lead."
07:42 Of course, we all know that actors have to memorize lines.
07:46 But Armitage had to memorize more than just a few lines for his audition.
07:50 The nine-year-old had to be off-book on a three-page monologue.
07:54 "All these kids were coming in with it, and they were all really good, but they,
07:58 Ian, Ian is the kid who's playing Sheldon, and he, his tape came in,
08:03 and it was just kind of mind-blowing."
08:05 Needless to say, he nailed it and got a callback soon afterwards.
08:10 And after meeting with Jim Parsons and co-creators Steve Mellaro and Chuck Lorre,
08:14 he got the job.
08:15 Parsons even took Armitage under his wing and helped him
08:19 really get the Sheldon character down pat.
08:21 "He's such an incredible Sheldon coach, which is sort of a given."
08:25 "You don't need much coaching.
08:27 Oh, look at us working together."
08:30 "Yeah, look at you."
08:31 "Those were the days. You're off on your own."
08:34 Number 3.
08:35 Kaley Cuoco was Sheldon's Nightmare Pool
08:37 Over the course of the series, a number of actors from The Big Bang Theory
08:41 have made voice cameos on young Sheldon.
08:44 "Like, we don't hear about your Nobel Prize all the time."
08:47 "It's not my fault people ask about it."
08:49 "Because you're always wearing it."
08:51 "You have it on right now! Look how shiny it is."
08:54 "Just tell your story."
08:56 Usually, the character they voice is the same one they played on the original series,
09:01 but not Kaley Cuoco.
09:03 As we all know, Cuoco played Penny throughout the entire run of The Big Bang Theory.
09:08 But when we finally heard her voice on young Sheldon,
09:11 it wasn't as Penny, but rather as a swimming pool.
09:15 "Why don't you like me?"
09:18 "You're full of bacteria."
09:21 "So are you, but you don't hear me saying, 'Ugh, it's rude.'"
09:25 Or more specifically, the talking swimming pool in young Sheldon's Nightmare.
09:30 "Come on, my pH level is 7.4, and with three parts per million of chlorine,
09:36 I'm cleaner than your daddy's plate after Thanksgiving dinner."
09:39 Talk about a role to dive into.
09:41 Number 2.
09:43 The show was Jim Parsons' idea
09:45 Young Sheldon probably wouldn't be a show if it wasn't for Jim Parsons.
09:49 "But I'm already making one. I have an investor lineup and everything."
09:52 "Well, you're still more than welcome to join us, and we can all work on it together."
09:56 "No, this is my idea, and I'm doing it on my own."
09:59 And we mean that in a number of ways.
10:01 If Parsons hadn't been so brilliant originally as Sheldon,
10:05 The Big Bang Theory would not have been such a hit,
10:08 and a prequel spin-off would not have even crossed anyone's mind.
10:12 However, in a much more literal sense,
10:14 there would probably never have been Young Sheldon without Parsons,
10:18 because Young Sheldon was Parsons' idea.
10:20 "We were going with my nephew. That was the first thing.
10:22 He's a 10-year-old. He's 11 now in Texas. He's very smart.
10:26 And as we started talking about it, it was like,
10:28 'Well, this is describing a Young Sheldon, or it could be.'"
10:30 It was he who brought the concept of a Big Bang Theory prequel
10:33 about his character to the producers and set the Young Sheldon ball in motion.
10:37 "Now just to make sure it's really you watching this, not an imposter,
10:41 what am I thinking of?
10:43 On the count of three.
10:45 One, two, three.
10:47 Robot Monkey Butler."
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11:07 Number 1.
11:08 Ian Armitage hadn't watched The Big Bang Theory
11:11 For most of its run, The Big Bang Theory was one of its most
11:14 watched shows on television.
11:16 But one of the people not watching the series was Ian Armitage.
11:20 "Why can't we watch DuckTales?"
11:22 "Because we don't learn anything watching DuckTales."
11:25 "It's TV, we aren't supposed to learn."
11:29 Now to be fair, Armitage was born in 2008 and The Big Bang Theory premiered on CBS in 2007.
11:36 However, even as he was going for the lead role in Young Sheldon,
11:40 Armitage still hadn't watched the Mothership series.
11:44 "Fine, what would you rather do as a scene study?"
11:47 "I'm glad you asked. I took the liberty of adapting a Star Trek fan fiction novella I
11:53 wrote when I was 10 into a one-act play."
11:56 As he revealed in an interview in 2018, the year after Young Sheldon premiered,
12:01 other than a few clips, quote, "I haven't really watched Big Bang,
12:05 though I would love to see it."
12:06 "Aww."
12:07 "But I want you to know, in my way, I love you all."
12:14 Which Young Sheldon factoid shocked you the most? Let us know in the comments.
12:19 "Also, if gravity were slightly less powerful,
12:22 the universe would fly apart and there'd be no stars or planets."
12:26 "Where you going with this, Sheldon?"
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12:38 [MUSIC]