S06.E07: A Tougher Nut and a Note on File

[Bort]

Sheldon’s search for a comic book leads him to a breakthrough. Also, Georgie and Mandy have an uncomfortable first encounter with her parents, Jim and Audrey.

Airdate: 10 November 2022

[ams1001]

Guess we know how Georgie gets into the tire business...

[Katy M]

7 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

Guess we know how Georgie gets into the tire business...

He was already a tire whisperer in an earlier episode.

Well played Dr Linkletter.  I hope MIssy doesn't lose her job over allowing Sheldon to rearrange all the comic books and leaving him alone with an unathorized other person.

[ams1001]

4 minutes ago, Katy M said:

He was already a tire whisperer in an earlier episode.

True, but then they pretty much dropped it. I wonder if he goes to work for Mandy's dad and expands his shop into his tire empire.

[HyeChaps]

OMG!  The bald guy is Steve from Blue’s Clues!

[Pepper the Cat]

6 minutes ago, HyeChaps said:

OMG!  The bald guy is Steve from Blue’s Clues!

And Andy from Mom.

[SoMuchTV]

15 minutes ago, HyeChaps said:

OMG!  The bald guy is Steve from Blue’s Clues!

8 minutes ago, Pepper the Cat said:

And Andy from Mom.

Two different bald guys, but yeah. 

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, Pepper the Cat said:

And Andy from Mom.

I will always remember Will Sasso from Mad TV back in the '90s.  And Rachel Bay Jones from "God Friended Me" a few years ago.

[Bethany]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

Well played Dr Linkletter.

That scene was my favourite part of the show. 

The negatives: I did not appreciate the way George kept putting Mary down when they were talking to Mandy's father.  Was that supposed to be funny?  And as a librarian all I could think of in the final comic book scene was "who is going to have to put all those comics away?"

The positives: Sheldon finally got a few scenes that were actually funny - well funnyish.  And we see them having Sheldon come up with an idea that's before it's time but we also see the way Sheldon starts projects and never finishes them which is a recurring thing on BBT as well.  Loved the way they had Georgie oozing charm when he met the parents.  Although Mandy's mother is being shown to be a controlling bitch (ah Lorre) I did like that she expressed the reasons for her disappointment with Mandy and I could understand where she was coming from.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Elizabeth Anne

[nora1992]

How much inventory will be left in the store?

Sheldon gave away the rights to his idea for a Yoo-hoo?

[shapeshifter]

43 minutes ago, nora1992 said:

How much inventory will be left in the store?

I’m guessing since the owner was in the wrong to hire a 12-year-old in the first place, and then left her unsupervised after hours, that it will be difficult for the comic book store owner to even report theft for insurance purposes——if he even has such insurance. 
Will we get a few future A or B plots with Sheldon and Missy playing Scooby Doo to get back the stolen merch? Maybe Billy can help as a lookout?

[shura]

What exactly was the revolutionary thing Sheldon invented? A searchable database? I think those already existed by the 90s. Or was it specifically the grant database that got president Hagemeyer so excited? I had to laugh at the idea that there is research funding on the table that nobody even applies for because nobody knows about it. As if!

For a moment I thought the bald comic book guy was supposed to be Bezos getting the idea for Amazon there.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, nora1992 said:

Sheldon gave away the rights to his idea for a Yoo-hoo?

They are really playing up the Hag in President Hagemeyer this season, aren’t they? First she encourages Sheldon to take on unruly college kids, and now she steals his idea/intellectual property. I bet Wendie Malick relishes the opportunity to play the unscrupulous academic administrator, but hopefully they don’t burn her character at the stake, i.e., have President Hagemeyer fired.


 

20 minutes ago, shura said:

For a moment I thought the bald comic book guy was supposed to be Bezos getting the idea for Amazon there.

The comic book guy also briefly channeled nascent Zuckerberg with his suggestion that they could build a database of "available women" (History_of_Facebook#FaceMash).

Edited November 11, 2022 by shapeshifter

[BitterApple]

If Mandy has a college degree, why is she working as a waitress? 

Dr. Linkletter finessing Sheldon was the best scene of the night. 

The comic store owner is gonna be in for a rude awakening when he shows up for work the next day, but that's why you don't leave middle schoolers in charge of your business. 

1 hour ago, shura said:

What exactly was the revolutionary thing Sheldon invented? 

That made no sense. I thought they were setting it up for Sheldon or the bald guy to invent some well-known search engine or website, but it didn't go anywhere. It was like a long-winded joke but we never got the punch line. 

Edited November 11, 2022 by BitterApple

[Bethany]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

Will we get a few future A or B plots with Sheldon and Missy playing Scooby Doo to get back the stolen merch? Maybe Billy can help as a lookout?

I think it will be yet another plot that ends with that episode.  I've lost count of how many times they've had things happen that really never get resolved.  At least not on screen anyway!

Speaking of which, is George back working full-time at the school?  It sounded last week like he had his old job back but last night he made some comment that sounded like he was only there until the other coach pulled himself together.  Maybe I misheard.

[ams1001]

24 minutes ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

I think it will be yet another plot that ends with that episode.  I've lost count of how many times they've had things happen that really never get resolved.  At least not on screen anyway!

Heck, I'm still not even sure their parents know she's working there. Did they even notice she came home late and Sheldon still wasn't there? The last few episodes it seems like they don't even notice or care what their younger kids are doing.

[Katy M]

36 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

If Mandy has a college degree, why is she working as a waitress? 

Because that never happens in real life?

37 minutes ago, BitterApple said:

The comic store owner is gonna be in for a rude awakening when he shows up for work the next day, but that's why you don't leave middle schoolers in charge of your business. 

Yep.  That was insane. I'm also going to call foul if Missy is still working there.  Sure, he was the moron that decided to let a non-employee in after hours to work on a project, but he also left her (his official employee) there and she took off because she got bored.  She should have at least called him and given him a heads up, so he could tell her to make sure they left also (and that there was yet another person that he didn't authorize also in there).

[DoYouLikeMutton]

The scenes between President Hagemeyer and Sheldon are always my least favorite.   She continues to patronize him, and he falls for it every time.  It was a disappointment that the episode ended with that interaction.  There were more interesting storylines going on. 

[Chit Chat]

2 hours ago, nora1992 said:

Sheldon gave away the rights to his idea for a Yoo-hoo?

He gave away the rights to his idea of landing booster rockets back on land with a simple statement of "we just don't have the technology to do that right now."  Older Sheldon has said that things aren't about the money with him, so I suppose a Yoo-Hoo was payment enough!!  ;)

22 minutes ago, Katy M said:

She should have at least called him and given him a heads up, so he could tell her to make sure they left also (and that there was yet another person that he didn't authorize also in there).

She probably figured that Sheldon would finish his project and then lock up the store.  Neither of them is mature enough to be left alone in a store after hours and be expected to lock it up, etc. 

[anna0852]

3 hours ago, BitterApple said:

If Mandy has a college degree, why is she working as a waitress? 

Cause Medford TX circa 1992 probably isn't a hotbed of jobs. And now she visibily pregnant, so changing jobs is that much harder. Pregnancy Non Discrimination Act or not, most employers don't want to hire someone who's going to take leave a few months later.

Edited November 11, 2022 by anna0852

[DoYouLikeMutton]

Is a child allowed to be employed in Texas at age 12?   

[Frost]

1 hour ago, shura said:

What exactly was the revolutionary thing Sheldon invented? A searchable database? I think those already existed by the 90s.

I believe a searchable database didn't really take off until the late 90's.  I was getting my Masters in 1990-91 and even relational databases were rather shiny and new.  And when I started my first post-Masters job, the company still had card readers and programs written in Assembler!  I think it's fair for the show to consider Sheldon ahead of his time.

[Bethany]

1 hour ago, Katy M said:

Yep.  That was insane. I'm also going to call foul if Missy is still working there.  Sure, he was the moron that decided to let a non-employee in after hours to work on a project, but he also left her (his official employee) there and she took off because she got bored.  She should have at least called him and given him a heads up, so he could tell her to make sure they left also (and that there was yet another person that he didn't authorize also in there).

I think we give this stuff way more thought than the writers do.  I could be wrong but I suspect by the next episode this won't even be mentioned by anyone.  Which, I agree, makes no sense whatsoever, but in sitcomland it seems to be the way things work. 

26 minutes ago, Frost said:

I believe a searchable database didn't really take off until the late 90's.  I was getting my Masters in 1990-91 and even relational databases were rather shiny and new. 

Also any kind of database that was up and running at that time would still only have been accessible to a limited number of people.  If the internet hadn't gone mainstream (which didn't happen until mid 90s)  most home computers would have been expensive doorstops IMO.

[possibilities]

It was made clear that Missy was hired illegally, in the episode she was hired. So I'm going to say no, it's not legal for a 12 year old to be hired.

I didn't understand why they were blaming the pregnancy for Mandy being back in Medford. She lost her job as a TV weather reporter BEFORE she came back to Medford, didn't she? That's how she and Georgie met. 

I get that the pregnancy is a problem for getting another job, but I think she was already out of work before then.

[appositival]

1 hour ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

is George back working full-time at the school?

I assume he is, but I was hoping for a sentence or two about last week's show (both the job and the divorce). I guess the pregnancy is the season A-plot and everything else is subject to the Status Quo Is God trope.

3 hours ago, nora1992 said:

Sheldon gave away the rights to his idea for a Yoo-hoo?

Realistically (mea culpa), someone else would build an open source grant data base as soon as president Hagemeyer tried to charge for access to her data base. As long as the content is public, it's impossible to create a truly private repository of that content. There is no first mover advantage when your competitors offer free content.

[Gregg247]

Georgie is my favorite character on the show.  He consistently tries hard to do the right thing, despite not being the sharpest tool in the drawer.  He's very people-oriented and this whole pregnancy storyline is maturing him quickly (as it should). 

Mandy is my least favorite character.  I'm getting tired of her blaming Georgie completely for her current situation.  A 30 year old woman gets knocked up by her 17 year old boyfriend, and he's the villain?  It takes two to tango, but in this case, it took one adult and one under-aged knucklehead. 

The way they write her character isn't doing her any favors either.  She'll get in an argument with Georgie, or her father, or Mary, or whoever, and then turn and storm out of the room.  Not very mature for a 30 year old, and something that happens more often on TV than it does in real life.  The other problem is that the actress who plays Mandy always looks like she'd rather be anywhere than on this TV show.   She has a facial expression of permanent irritation.  (Having said that, I did like the introduction of her parents.  They seem to "fit" just right as the people who raised her - especially the mom.)

[ams1001]

43 minutes ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

Also any kind of database that was up and running at that time would still only have been accessible to a limited number of people.  If the internet hadn't gone mainstream (which didn't happen until mid 90s)  most home computers would have been expensive doorstops IMO.

We had a home computer pretty early when I was a kid (mostly used it for games and word processing), because my dad worked for Bell Labs and is a computer guy, but I started college in 1993 and didn't even have email until my sophomore year (and I only set it up because one of my professors would be going out on maternity leave toward the end of the semester and she required us to get our school accounts enabled so she would be able to send us stuff). I don't remember really using the internet until I was a senior (and we didn't use it much). 

[Bethany]

7 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

I don't remember really using the internet until I was a senior (and we didn't use it much). 

I probably used it earlier than many because I was in my first post university job around the time the Internet became more available and was working as a librarian in a govt library.   But even so, as you say, we weren't using it much.  IMO the times YS talks about computers from that time period they are pretty much spot on.  I don't know how good they are about Texas and fashions and music etc as for me the 90s is a bit of a blur now! but I do think this is one thing they are getting right.

[chocolatine]

3 hours ago, shura said:

For a moment I thought the bald comic book guy was supposed to be Bezos getting the idea for Amazon there.

Bezos was a preppy Wall Street trader before he started Amazon. He also wasn't bald back then.

[Sarah 103]

2 hours ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

Also any kind of database that was up and running at that time would still only have been accessible to a limited number of people.  If the internet hadn't gone mainstream (which didn't happen until mid 90s)  most home computers would have been expensive doorstops IMO.

I was young in the early/mid 1990s, but home computers were more than expensive doorstops. I remember playing games and writing essays/assignments for school while my father used spreadhseets that did advanced calculations for work. Home computers had value and were usefull well before the internet took off for the average user in the mid to late 1990s. 

2 hours ago, possibilities said:

I didn't understand why they were blaming the pregnancy for Mandy being back in Medford. She lost her job as a TV weather reporter BEFORE she came back to Medford, didn't she? That's how she and Georgie met. 

I had this exact thought. Mandy left college and moved back to Medford well before she met Georgie. Georgie is partially responsible for the pregnancy, but he had no role in why she left college or moved back home. 

[Bethany]

1 minute ago, Sarah 103 said:

Home computers had value and were usefull well before the internet took off for the average user in the mid to late 1990s. 

True, but realistically how much use would a home computer get nowadays if you aren't using the Internet?  I'm not suggesting the only purposes of a home computer would be Internet based but I do think, for the average user, it mainly is.  It's interesting to speculate what would have happened if the Internet had never become a thing.  We'll never know of course but based on my informal survey of everyone I know most of my friends and family don't even have laptops, let alone desk top computers anymore.  Everything they do they do on their phones - and most of the everything they do is connected in some way through the Internet.

[bad things are bad]

2 hours ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

believe a searchable database didn't really take off until the late 90's. 

Hmmm...my beast friend in the early 80s worked for Xerox, which ultimately became ProQuest. Part of her job was coming up with keywords to enable search of the doctoral and other academic papers they stored.  I suspect that the papers were still literally paper, or crude scans, but you could at least see the abstracts in the database 

So I'd say Sheldon is cutting edge for e-commerce,  but not necessarily search 

[Bethany]

@bad things are bad that's weird - your post quotes me but it was @Frost who said it.  I think though the point being made wasn't that these kinds of databases weren't available, it's that they weren't generally available and probably not for the contents of a comic book store.

[Skooma]

3 hours ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

I think we give this stuff way more thought than the writers do.  I could be wrong but I suspect by the next episode this won't even be mentioned by anyone.  Which, I agree, makes no sense whatsoever, but in sitcomland it seems to be the way things work.

And thank goodness for that.  It is just a sitcom and meant to help us relax and have a laugh or two in the evening.  Not research it like it was real.

Edited November 11, 2022 by Skooma

[TheLastKidPicked]

It's easy to forget how expensive computers, printers, and fax machines were back in those days.

I remember being impressed when we were in a meeting and one of the women said,  "Give those papers to me and I'll fax them over."

WOW!  She has access to the company fax?  She must be very high up in the organization!  No kidding, we were very impressed at the time.

[Yeah No]

42 minutes ago, bad things are bad said:

Hmmm...my beast friend in the early 80s worked for Xerox, which ultimately became ProQuest. Part of her job was coming up with keywords to enable search of the doctoral and other academic papers they stored.  I suspect that the papers were still literally paper, or crude scans, but you could at least see the abstracts in the database 

So I'd say Sheldon is cutting edge for e-commerce,  but not necessarily search 

Having been there and working on databases in the '80s and '90s at a university and in the corporate world, here's what I experienced to the best of my recollection:

Unless you were working for a university or a big company with a mainframe computer searchable databases that could be accessed by multiple people were not really a thing until the internet, which really only started in the mid to late '80s in universities, which actually connected themselves together via a kind of database sharing achieved by sending what were essentially emails to each other, or something like that.  At that time the internet was probably mostly email and what was called "usenet".  The message boards Sheldon was talking about where he found comic books were probably on the earliest form of Usenet, which I remember you pretty much had to access via a stand alone email program like Outlook or in those days Netscape via their newsfeed section.  These things were not yet supported by web pages as we know them.

I worked on one of those searchable mainframe databases when I worked in college admissions in the '80s putting together applicant profiles and admissions records.  What we could search for was of course very limited.  I even had a real time chat program that I used to chit chat with my friends across campus.  The only time we could communicate with other universities was via a very long string of c prompt commands in ms-dos, if anyone remembers that.  It had an @ sign in it and if you addressed it properly the information you wanted to share with the other university was sent to them in a kind of an "email".  At this time there were no web pages we could access to share this information with people not on our mainframe.

It wasn't until 1993 when I worked for Deloitte that I was given an actual email address.  I thought it was only for writing to people within the company, and it was, but it was also to write to anyone else that had a mail program connected to the WWW and an email address.  I didn't know where to begin until my father, who was taking a computer course with my mother at their senior center, called me and asked me for my email address.  The next thing I knew I got my very first non-company email.  My mind was completely blown.  For the next almost 30 years until the end of his life my father wrote me a daily email without fail.  I also turned my best friend onto it.  She worked at NYU and also had an email address.  We started writing to each other.

I know they existed before then but I didn't really have access to web pages until 1996 at my next job, when I worked for a health insurance company in the IT department.  My computer geek boss showed me how to use it.  By that time there were web pages with lists, which is how we got sites like Angie's List and Craig's List, so I guess they were a kind of database shared on the WWW.  By this time we had actual search engines like Yahoo and Netscape so you could find web pages.  Before about 1994 if you didn't know the actual web address somehow you couldn't access a web page because there was no way to search for it.  So I'm thinking this episode would have taken place after the www and web pages started but before search engines.  

Anyway, when the comic book store owner had an idea for a searchable database for single women I thought of something like a precursor to Match.com, or an actual search engine itself.

[greekmom]

3 hours ago, bad things are bad said:

So I'd say Sheldon is cutting edge for e-commerce,  but not necessarily search 

Next thing you know is that Sheldon will go to the video store and not find a copy of his favourite vhs movie and think up Netflix. LOL.

Overall it was a good episode. I agree with it was stupid to leave 12 year olds in charge then have them leave because... reasons.

Professor Hayworth thinking she is buying Sheldon's idea for a Yoohoo is funny. Joke is on her when someone copies the database and it's for free like someone said above.

I like young Georgie. It shows that he had to mature faster than his age due to circumstances and that he is up for the challenge. 

[Prairie Rose]

8 hours ago, DoYouLikeMutton said:

Is a child allowed to be employed in Texas at age 12?   

Maybe Missy was being paid under the table???

[String Theory]

1 hour ago, Prairie Rose said:

Maybe Missy was being paid under the table???

That seems to be a common theme in the show.

[Browncoat]

When Missy started working at the comic shop, the owner told her she had to be 14.  Her reply was something to the effect of, "Don't I look 14?" and he hired her on the spot.  No one checked any ID or anything, so I expect she is being paid under the table.

[MollyMelrose]

Note in the File, please meet Haircut Records ... which will/have/has/had served adult Sheldon equally as well as you.

Georgie suggesting to Mandy she is just like her mother ... are we sure this show isn't going to some cockamamie alternate route where he becomes the Late Cooper and Big George lives on?

And Mandy's mom ... is there anyone in the town of Medford, the great state of Texas, or the planet Earth with a more convincing resting ya-there's-a stick-up my-ass-so-what's-it-to-you face? 

[meep.meep]

Before Al Gore invented the internet, there was the Arpanet which was built to connect the supercomputers that DOD and DOE were implementing.  There were three types of accounts on it:  .gov, .mil, and .edu.  Sheldon's college could have had access to it as an educational institution.  I had an account on it way back in 1975 so definitely before the time this show is set.  And relational databases were definitely around in the early 90s.

I've noticed that Young Sheldon actually says thank you occasionally- I'll have to rewatch TBBT because I don't remember Old Sheldon ever saying thanks.

[januaryman]

I'm not impressed with Mandy's parents any more than I am with Mandy, acting abilities notwithstanding.  

Sheldon and Pres. H. have a funny dynamic though she seems to hate him but panders to him for some contrived sitcom reason I forget.  Wendie makes it fun though.

Two 12-year olds alone in a store at night with creepy Nathan? At least their parents don't seem to care where they are anyway.

[chitowngirl]

On 11/10/2022 at 9:05 PM, HyeChaps said:

OMG!  The bald guy is Steve from Blue’s Clues!

He also sings the opening song

[Gimmick Genius]

5 hours ago, String Theory said:

That seems to be a common theme in the show.

Sheriff "M O O N, that spells Dauber" seems to let a lot of shady businesses get by - as long as he gets to wet his beak.

[Yeah No]

5 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Before Al Gore invented the internet, there was the Arpanet which was built to connect the supercomputers that DOD and DOE were implementing.  There were three types of accounts on it:  .gov, .mil, and .edu.  Sheldon's college could have had access to it as an educational institution.  I had an account on it way back in 1975 so definitely before the time this show is set.  And relational databases were definitely around in the early 90s.

I've noticed that Young Sheldon actually says thank you occasionally- I'll have to rewatch TBBT because I don't remember Old Sheldon ever saying thanks.

The institution may have had access to Arpanet but even at a university its use may have been restricted to certain people and departments.  The world wide web didn't even exist until 1991 and by 1993 it only had 130 websites.  By 1994 there were 3,000.  I'm thinking that Sheldon most likely was using his modem to connect with Usenet newsgroups and that's how he got connected with people looking to buy and sell comic books.

[shapeshifter]

An episode of The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour that originally aired February 27, 1984 just re-aired, including this question: 
“Fat Freddie is so fat, the computer dating service matched him up with a [blank].”

This suggests there were databases of various non-science information even a decade before YS, but just not yet publicly searchable, even to those with modems.

Anyway, back to the specifics of this show’s episode:   
Since Sheldon and the adult comic guy had started re-organizing the store’s collection, maybe it will be a long time before the owner notices what’s missing. 
——which could also be a good excuse for the writers to drop the storyline other than a brief future mention of whether or not Missy still works there.

Edited November 12, 2022 by shapeshifter

[possibilities]

An offline database is different than an online dating service. I remember you could answer questionnaires and they would match you with other subscribers, but it wasn't like the online dating sites we have now. 

[Sarah 103]

On 11/11/2022 at 1:23 PM, Elizabeth Anne said:

True, but realistically how much use would a home computer get nowadays if you aren't using the Internet?  I'm not suggesting the only purposes of a home computer would be Internet based but I do think, for the average user, it mainly is.  It's interesting to speculate what would have happened if the Internet had never become a thing.  We'll never know of course but based on my informal survey of everyone I know most of my friends and family don't even have laptops, let alone desk top computers anymore.  Everything they do they do on their phones - and most of the everything they do is connected in some way through the Internet.

Here's my take on it. Without the internet, the computer would have been more of a bussiness/work device instead of something the vast majority of the population uses for shopping/leisure. The big exception would be digital art/graphic design/photography, because this could be a professional career or a hobby.   

[shapeshifter]

On 11/12/2022 at 3:51 PM, Sarah 103 said:

Here's my take on it. Without the internet, the computer would have been more of a bussiness/work device instead of something the vast majority of the population uses for shopping/leisure. The big exception would be digital art/graphic design/photography, because this could be a professional career or a hobby.   

Yeah. At about the time of this episode (1994?), I got my second computer, which was for school while I was a newly single mother working part time with 3 kids at home. It still had no internet access, but it had a color monitor. It was second-hand, running Windows 3.1. The first evening I got it set up, my kids (ages 4-14) had to fend for themselves for dinner because I was obsessively doing this in Paint with the mouse:

 

BTW, my kids attended schools not unlike those in the show, but they had a couple of Macs in the middle school classrooms. 
 

Edited November 14, 2022 by shapeshifter