TBBT vs Young Sheldon: Nitpicks, Anomalies, and Historical Facts In An Evolving Universe, presented by Sheldon L. Cooper

[Tom Holmberg]

On 6/15/2022 at 2:56 PM, Tom Holmberg said:

Did they ever use the song "She Blinded Me With Science" in an episode?  I don't recall it.  I'd think it would be a natural.

I also don't think 'Buckaroo Banzai" was ever mentioned either, which would have been a popular cult film with nerds and fanboys.

[chitowngirl]

I wonder when Sheldon learns to Ballroom dance? TBBT Sheldon knows how, but YS Sheldon’s church is conservative Baptist…no dancing.

[Bethany]

6 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

I wonder when Sheldon learns to Ballroom dance? TBBT Sheldon knows how, but YS Sheldon’s church is conservative Baptist…no dancing.

I just saw the BBT episode where Sheldon talks about how in "In the South, preadolescent children are forced through a process called cotillion, which indoctrinates them with all the social graces and dance skills needed to function in 18th century Vienna."  This gets completely contradicted on YS when we find out that Mary won't even let Missy go to a school dance.

[greekmom]

On 9/30/2022 at 3:33 PM, Elizabeth Anne said:

I just saw the BBT episode where Sheldon talks about how in "In the South, preadolescent children are forced through a process called cotillion, which indoctrinates them with all the social graces and dance skills needed to function in 18th century Vienna."  This gets completely contradicted on YS when we find out that Mary won't even let Missy go to a school dance.

I would like to see at least 1 episode of Missy and Sheldon doing this.

They missed an opportunity regarding George Sr. shooting Mary's china plates during the time when he lost his job and was skating by with the part time at the sporting goods store.  I can see him getting drunk one night and skeet shooting Mary's plates while he was drunk.

[Bethany]

I will never understand the whys and wherefores of what they take from BBT to use in Young Sheldon and what they ignore.  Right now they had the opportunity to stay consistent with BBT where we are told that Georgie married for the first time at 19.  Which, if they had stuck with the real ages the twins and Georgie would be right now would be fairly close to Georgie being 19 if he and Mandy were to marry. But nooooo they had to bring in that stupid pregnancy storyline and hammer home that :gasp: Mandy slept with a high school aged teen.  It's just so dopey to me.  Why bother with Mandy and the pregnancy at all?  Will she and Georgie marry? (god I hope not) and if they do would they wait another 2 years (or make that at least 4 years in the Young Sheldon universe!!) so that they would jive with BBT?  

[Driad]

IIRC, in the BBT episode when Missy had a baby, Sheldon said it would be Mary's first grandchild. Is that really what he said?

[Katy M]

On 3/5/2023 at 12:56 PM, Driad said:

IIRC, in the BBT episode when Missy had a baby, Sheldon said it would be Mary's first grandchild. Is that really what he said?

Maybe Constance dies of SIDS so sheldon doesn't count her.

[Guest]

On 3/5/2023 at 9:56 AM, Driad said:

IIRC, in the BBT episode when Missy had a baby, Sheldon said it would be Mary's first grandchild. Is that really what he said?

I watched that one not long and he doesn’t say that. 

[anna0852]

18 minutes ago, Dani said:

I watched that one not long and he doesn’t say that. 

In the 4th season premiere Sheldon references his mother ‘always wanting a grandchild.’ To my ears that means she doesn’t have one. Came up when Penny threatened to tell Mary that he and Amy were planning to reproduce via in-vitro and a surrogate.

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, anna0852 said:

In the 4th season premiere Sheldon references his mother ‘always wanting a grandchild.’ To my ears that means she doesn’t have one. Came up when Penny threatened to tell Mary that he and Amy were planning to reproduce via in-vitro and a surrogate.

I do remember that one and it sounded the same to me. There are so many inconsistencies throughout Big Bang about Sheldon’s childhood. I feel like the things they said about Sheldon’s childhood after they decided to make this show are probably going to be accurate. Before that everything is in risk of being retconned. 

[anna0852]

7 hours ago, Dani said:

 I feel like the things they said about Sheldon’s childhood after they decided to make this show are probably going to be accurate. Before that everything is in risk of being retconned. 

Then there’s a pretty big plot hole around Sheldon’s wedding since there was no mention at all of Georgie’s daughter. Not just that she didn’t attend but that Georgie didn’t even mention her when going off on Sheldon about the family distress after George’s death. Georgie brings up Mary being a mess and having to ride herd on teenage Missy but not even a ‘while parenting a toddler at the same time!’

[Bethany]

28 minutes ago, anna0852 said:

Georgie brings up Mary being a mess and having to ride herd on teenage Missy but not even a ‘while parenting a toddler at the same time!’

Even in the first season of YS they talk about Georgie marrying "the first time" at 19.  IT could still work with Mandy if they want to stick to that but I think they handwaved that comment away when they decided to go with a George is a teen parent storyline.

[Driad]

12 hours ago, anna0852 said:

In the 4th season premiere Sheldon references his mother ‘always wanting a grandchild.’ To my ears that means she doesn’t have one.

4 hours ago, anna0852 said:

Then there’s a pretty big plot hole around Sheldon’s wedding since there was no mention at all of Georgie’s daughter.

We might be able to handwave some of the problem away if Mandy took Constance far enough away that Mary could hardly ever see her.  But I have kind of given up on consistency between BBT and YS, since the writers don't care.

[Bort]

13 hours ago, anna0852 said:

In the 4th season premiere Sheldon references his mother ‘always wanting a grandchild.’ To my ears that means she doesn’t have one. Came up when Penny threatened to tell Mary that he and Amy were planning to reproduce via in-vitro and a surrogate.

But it can also be interpreted to mean Mary always wanted one from Sheldon.

5 hours ago, anna0852 said:

Then there’s a pretty big plot hole around Sheldon’s wedding since there was no mention at all of Georgie’s daughter. Not just that she didn’t attend

Missy didn’t bring her child to Sheldon’s wedding either.

[Bethany]

4 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

Missy didn’t bring her child to Sheldon’s wedding either.

Her children were referenced though, but I agree Georgie not bring a child (or wife/girlfriend for that matter) doesn't mean anything.  That said I think all the stuff that we learned about Georgie from BBT pretty much went out the window when they started YS.  I know there were occasional references on BBT to Georgie being pretty wild, several wives, at least one girlfriend Mary called a whore - and you are never until the wedding episodes given any reason to think Georgie was successful or a rock to lean on for Mary when George died!

That said they do somewhat, on BBT, give Georgie a "happy ever after" but they definitely do not do that for Missy!  I hope that adult Sheldon keeps dropping hints that life turn out well for Missy.  

[Guest]

9 hours ago, anna0852 said:

Then there’s a pretty big plot hole around Sheldon’s wedding since there was no mention at all of Georgie’s daughter. Not just that she didn’t attend but that Georgie didn’t even mention her when going off on Sheldon about the family distress after George’s death. Georgie brings up Mary being a mess and having to ride herd on teenage Missy but not even a ‘while parenting a toddler at the same time!’

I don’t see it as a plot hole. Georgie was barely invited to the wedding and I can’t see Sheldon having any relationship with his sibling’s children. Those episodes were probably written without the intention for Georgie to have a kid at 17 but they really don’t contradict what is happening on YS. Georgie would know that Sheldon wouldn’t care about his plight as a father.

3 hours ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

That said I think all the stuff that we learned about Georgie from BBT pretty much went out the window when they started YS.

I feel like Georgie’s appearance on TBBT was deliberately used to emphasize that Sheldon is an extremely unreliable narrator which is one of his most consistent traits throughout the show. Of course the man who thinks his MIT graduate and NASA engineer friend is an idiot is going to see his high school dropout brother as unsuccessful. 

 

[Bethany]

3 minutes ago, Dani said:

feel like Georgie’s appearance on TBBT was deliberately used to emphasize that Sheldon is an extremely unreliable narrator which is one of his most consistent traits throughout the show. Of course the man who thinks his MIT graduate and NASA engineer friend is an idiot is going to see his high school dropout brother as unsuccessful. 

 

Totally agree, one of the consistent things about Sheldon in BBT was that, frankly, he looked down on everybody else!!  That said though we aren't just given Sheldon's word for Georgie on BBT, Mary has a few comments to make over the years!  I guess they could have gone either way when they knew YS was in the works and kept Georgie the way Mary and Sheldon had conveyed him to be.  I am so glad they didn't do that though.  I really like Georgie and Sheldon has enough to contend with just being Sheldon without having had a bullying older brother into the bargain!

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, Elizabeth Anne said:

That said though we aren't just given Sheldon's word for Georgie on BBT, Mary has a few comments to make over the years!  I guess they could have gone either way when they knew YS was in the works and kept Georgie the way Mary and Sheldon had conveyed him to be.  I am so glad they didn't do that though.  I really like Georgie and Sheldon has enough to contend with just being Sheldon without having had a bullying older brother into the bargain!

Mary’s BBT comments have all been pretty generic about how stupid Georgie is and him not living up to her moral standards. She’s more blunt than I would expect based on YS but I still don’t find it all that inconsistent. She is judgmental and looks down on people including her family members. 

[Bort]

On BBT, Mary has referred to Georgie and Missy being “dumb as soup,” but that could easily be her opinion about them being based on how their relationships have worked out. I think it’s safe to say that just about every comment made by Mary and Sheldon from the mothership show can be said to be colored by their own perceptions and might not be actually true.

[theredhead77]

The door-knocking incident could have happened when Mary and George were separated but to Sheldon, who takes his contracts seriously, it could still be seen as cheating, because his parents were still married.

At Sheldon's wedding, he and Mary both wish his dad could be there.  I know time can heal wounds and weddings bring out emotions but this doesn't track with what we knew about George from the rest of the series. IMHO Sheldon is an unreliable narrator and his memories of his childhood fade and change over time, just like the rest of us, despite his eidetic memory.
 

 

[TheLastKidPicked]

It's fun stumbling across early seasons of Young Sheldon.  The writers seemed very careful to set the stage and give it real Texas details.  

On Sheldon's first day of high school, Mary dropped him off with some advice that was spot on for Texas.

Mary:  If anybody bothers you, what do you say?

Sheldon:  My father is the football coach.

Mary:  And if that doesn't work, what do you say?

Sheldon:  My brother is on the football team.

 

[Driad]

In one episode of BBT, Sheldon mentioned that he had learned Hindi at age 8 (before YS began).  This is not mentioned in YS.  I suspect he never told his family, because his mother would disapprove of his learning a language used by many non-Christians.

[eastxgirl]

The upbringing Sheldon describes in TBBT (alcoholic father, house on wheels, etc.) is not the one shown in Young Sheldon. Young Sheldon should be a much darker and more depressing show for it to be accurate. I know this because I was born in east Texas in 1985 (not far from Medford per the weather map Mandy points at during her interview at the news station). When Sheldon was describing his life as a child in TBBT, I could picture exactly what he was talking about because I grew up here. Young Sheldon does not convey it accurately. 

[Tom Holmberg]

Most TV shows don't accurately depict real life, but YS often doesn't depict unreal life as proposed by TBBT. I can understand why this is necessary, for example, we have to sort of like George, so he can't as Sheldon depicted him. 

[Browncoat]

We have a thread comparing TBBT and Young Sheldon:

 

[astrohip]

On 3/23/2024 at 2:55 AM, eastxgirl said:

Young Sheldon should be a much darker and more depressing show for it to be accurate.

Young Sheldon would not be a hit sitcom if it was a "much darker and more depressing show".

While the showrunners have done a decent job with continuity, they have said more than once that they are more interested in making a great show, than in following the fine print of the BBT bible.

And good for them, because otherwise it wouldn't have lasted one season.

[Mona Lisa]

On 3/26/2024 at 7:18 PM, astrohip said:

While the showrunners have done a decent job with continuity, they have said more than once that they are more interested in making a great show, than in following the fine print of the BBT bible.

I totally get why they chose to do that but some stuff still makes me wonder "what the hell"!

I mean by the 10th season of BBT they knew Young Sheldon was in the works but in that season we still had Mary say George was stupid (compares him to a Neanderthal) and this is the season where Sheldon explains why he knocks three times.

You'd have thought they'd have started to walk back some of the things they had said but instead they doubled down.

 

[SoMuchTV]

Bump