S02.E08: An 8-Bit Princess and a Flat Tire Genius

[Bort]

Quote

A video game takes over Sheldon and Meemaw’s life. Also, George Sr. is jealous when Georgie bonds with Herschel at the auto shop.

Airdate: Thursday, November 8, 2018

A reminder: please remember to treat the episode topics as though The Big Bang Theory does not exist.

[nora1992]

Billy Sparks!

I can’t help but love that sweet/funny face!

He's always happy on the show, and I don't think there is a mean bone in his body.

Edited November 10, 2018 by nora1992
Saw the photo again - too cute!

[Spartan Girl]

I love that Meemaw was the one that got Sheldon hooked on video games. Their scenes of playing together made this episode.

[chitowngirl]

Looks like we know know how Georgie finds his niche in life.

[Chit Chat]

Yay for Georgie!  The tire whisperer!  That was a great episode.  It's all making sense on why Sheldon loves his MeeMaw so much.  She would be a lot of fun to hang around with. 

[AnnaRose]

My favorite part was the end tag with Georgie, the tire whisperer.  Hilarious!

[Runningwild]

“I’ve got goosebumps!”  Lol. Great episode. 

[jewel21]

Aww, Georgie, the tire whisperer, hee!  <3

[anna0852]

So glad to see some positive development for Georgie! 

[chocolatine]

1 hour ago, AnnaRose said:

My favorite part was the end tag with Georgie, the tire whisperer.  Hilarious!

And the actor who plays Georgie even looks like a young Patrick Swayze!

I love the easy rapport between George and Hershel. It's nice when George isn't just the butt of Meemaw's jokes.

[2727]

I laughed when George was pressuring Georgie to keep up with football and Georgie responded with, "Look at me! I'm 120 pounds." 

I love how confident yet pragmatic Georgie and Missy (but not Shelly) are about themselves.

[BitterApple]

I'm so happy to see Georgie get some shine. 

Lol, Sheldon and his binoculars catching Meemaw in a lie. 

"A sixth sense about tire damage" ha ha ha....

[possibilities]

It's probably a mandated standards type of thing to not show children in the front seat, like not showing people smoking, on network tv.

[rmontro]

1 hour ago, LadyKenobi said:

I did not have a 90s video game console, but they didn’t have nearly the capacity to save, did they? Were “solve the puzzle and figure stuff out with infinite lives” a thing yet, or were we still in the arcade-style games where once you ran the race or crashed or got shot or fell in the river or hit a ghost, you were done? 

The first Legend of Zelda game came out in the late 80s, and I don't recall there being an issue with saving the game with that.  I don't think there were infinite lives, but it was definitely beyond the arcade style games (although you can still play those even today).

[mxc90]

George Sr. quickly dismissed the thought Missy could be a genius. I guess the way she handled herself in the tests a few episodes back didn't impress and gave him no hope. Maybe he asked the magic 8 ball (when no one was around) and it told him no.

[Browncoat]

I think the Sheldon in the back seat thing is more a Sheldon thing than an 80s thing.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

21 minutes ago, Browncoat said:

I think the Sheldon in the back seat thing is more a Sheldon thing than an 80s thing.

There was an early episode where he discussed back seat safety, I believe.

21 minutes ago, mxc90 said:

George Sr. quickly dismissed the thought Missy could be a genius. I guess the way she handled herself in the tests a few episodes back didn't impress and gave him no hope. Maybe he asked the magic 8 ball (when no one was around) and it told him no.

I don't believe that Missy wouldn't have noticed that Sheldon wasn't on the bus coming home.  She would have told their mom for sure.

I wonder if Sheldon got all his homework done in school during the weeks he was obsessed with video games.  He certainly wan't doing it at home.

Based on his digital clock, Sheldon's bedtime was 7-something. Even if he spent half an hour awake before calling Meemaw, and figuring out that she was still playing, it's somewhat strange that she would then go to bed that early.

[Chit Chat]

1 hour ago, Browncoat said:

I think the Sheldon in the back seat thing is more a Sheldon thing than an 80s thing.

It is.  Sheldon rode in the back seat with a helmet on and clutching a pillow when Georgie took them for a ride to the hospital to see their Dad.  I can't remember the exact explanation, but it's a Sheldon thing.  I think he feels safer back there.  

[Bobbin]

Good for Georgie. I can almost see a future-Georgie spin-off for the next phase. Maybe it's just Montana's authentic Texas drawl. Please don't let anyone coach him out of it like happens to so many young actors.

Missy is a rock in the Cooper household in her own way. She has Mary's sober fortitude and yet Meemaw's don't-take-life-too-seriously outlook.

Meemaw tickling Sheldon was priceless. I wonder if Lain really didn't know that was coming. Sitcom characters across the board don't laugh enough.

[CherryAmes]

8 hours ago, LadyKenobi said:

Sheldon in the back seat of MeeMaw’s car. Nope, not for another 25 years or so. Although car seats existed when I was born, I rode shotgun in my mother’s arms on the way back from the hospital! 

My kids were born in the '80s.  Were brought home in car seats (hospital where my daughter born in '85 wouldn't release her unless we had a car seat) and graduated to booster seats.  I don't know if there were actual laws in place but most parents weren't carrying babies in their arms and most parents weren't putting little kids in the front seat.   Certainly not where I was living at any rate.

Edited November 9, 2018 by CherryAmes

[Homily]

My niece was born in 1983 and the hospital had the same rule, they even provided the car seat (as a rental) to parents who didn't have one.  I think a  lot of people are confusing what many people were still doing in the '80s with what they should have been doing!  Car seats were around, so were booster seats, and there were laws in place by the mid 80s requiring there use -- but there was nothing like the compliance there is now (and even now it's not 100% by any means).  I suspect on YS the kids being in the back seat may be partly Sheldon's insistence but it's also realistic that parents felt that their younger children were safer in the back.  Not all parents were tossing their kids in the back of the pick up!  

[Quark]

Not the funniest episode, but I do love the relationship between Sheldon and Meemaw. It's so adorable.

[Magnumfangirl]

Georgie's line about the smelling salts cracked me up.  I sort of remember that you could pause games on Nintendo NES, but there was no saving your game.  If you turned it off, you had to start all over again and that's why I gave up video games.  I can't stand repetitiveness. 

[meep.meep]

10 hours ago, LadyKenobi said:

 

-Sheldon in the back seat of MeeMaw’s car. Nope, not for another 25 years or so. Although car seats existed when I was born, I rode shotgun in my mother’s arms on the way back from the hospital! 

I had a child in 1986 and one in 1988.  They both came home in car seats strapped into the back seat of the car because that was the law.  I don't know where you young'uns are getting your info  about the "olden days" but it seems to be inaccurate frequently.

In an episode in the first season, Sheldon discovers that the middle of the back seat is "his spot."

Georgie the tire whisperer was incredible.

[AnnaRose]

I think I am missing the video game playing gene.  I just have never understood the appeal.  At all.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, LadyKenobi said:

Yay for Georgie!

-I did not have a 90s video game console, but they didn’t have nearly the capacity to save, did they? Were “solve the puzzle and figure stuff out with infinite lives” a thing yet, or were we still in the arcade-style games where once you ran the race or crashed or got shot or fell in the river or hit a ghost, you were done? On my 80s Texas Instrument part of the incredible sweat about getting to the upper levels was that if you lost your last life, you had to start a new game ALL over again from Level 1.  Could you really just stop and start a Nintendo like that, or was Meemaw just pausing the game and Sheldon’s direction-reading helped them get through on 1-3 lives without a learning curve?

-Sheldon in the back seat of MeeMaw’s car. Nope, not for another 25 years or so. Although car seats existed when I was born, I rode shotgun in my mother’s arms on the way back from the hospital! 

I can’t remember the details but you could definitely save on the first Nintendo. 

I think there is an episode where Sheldon give the statistics about how much safer it is in the backseat than in the front. The first car seat law was passed in 1978 and they required in all states by 1985. 

[Bort]

29 minutes ago, Dani said:

I can’t remember the details but you could definitely save on the first Nintendo. 

Oh no, I grew up with that original Nintendo, you could not save. There may have been a scant few games that did have a battery backup, but none of the ones I ever played had a save. That's how you get so good at the games, if you want to beat it, you had to get good enough to do it in one shot.

[HurricaneVal]

14 hours ago, 2727 said:

I laughed when George was pressuring Georgie to keep up with football and Georgie responded with, "Look at me! I'm 120 pounds." 

Poor George, Georgie was "his" son, the "normal" girl-obsessed football jock teen he could relate to and point to as having his accumulated genes.  Instead, he got someone who was pretty self-aware and found his niche very early in life.  Lucky Georgie!  I loved that scene.  And again another tiny wedge cleaving George just that much further away from the family.   If George wasn't so dismissive of Missy, he might find that she really is the most like him.

[theredhead77]

2 hours ago, Magnumfangirl said:

Georgie's line about the smelling salts cracked me up.  I sort of remember that you could pause games on Nintendo NES, but there was no saving your game.  If you turned it off, you had to start all over again and that's why I gave up video games.  I can't stand repetitiveness. 

 

24 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

Oh no, I grew up with that original Nintendo, you could not save. There may have been a scant few games that did have a battery backup, but none of the ones I ever played had a save. That's how you get so good at the games, if you want to beat it, you had to get good enough to do it in one shot.

I had an NES and I feel like I could save Adventures of Link but certainly not Super Mario Bros. I still remember my dad unplugging the NES when I had managed to land on the Koopa just right and ended up with like 26 crows. I thought I would finally beat that game. But dad wanted to watch TV and instead of pausing the game, I must have smarted off. Game got unplugged and I got grounded.

Loved this episode and that it was Meemaw who got Sheldon into video games. I'm glad George came around to see Georgie's talent in finding tire leaks. 

[Guest]

5 hours ago, kariyaki said:

Oh no, I grew up with that original Nintendo, you could not save. There may have been a scant few games that did have a battery backup, but none of the ones I ever played had a save. That's how you get so good at the games, if you want to beat it, you had to get good enough to do it in one shot.

So reading your post reminds me of having to play super Mario brothers straight through. At first I was thinking of games of later games. According to google the first game that could be saved was Legend of Zelda which was released in 1987. 

Edited November 10, 2018 by Guest
Fixed date

[Katy M]

I hope Georgie doesn't second-guess himself when the movie Rudy comes out:)

[CherryAmes]

I loved the look on Mary's face when Missy says "I'm going to marry a quarterback.  

[ajsnaves]

That game was clearly based on The Legend of Zelda, which came out in 1986.  In Zelda you had three save slots to work with, so you, your brother, and your best friend could all have their own games.  Or you could run three games like I always did. What they missed here though was the "second quest" that Zelda 1 and 2 had for after you beat it the first time. 

I loved watching Sheldon and MeeMaw play together, and his excitement when he beat the game.  It reminded me of the first time I beat Super Mario Bros..  It was the day after Easter 1990, I was so excited I called my mom at work to tell her.  She was less enthused than I was.

[Homily]

I absolutely loved that they had Meemaw be into this game and be good at it.  My parents were probably in their 50s when nintendo came into our lives - my Dad was a huge fan of Legend of Zelda and my Mom was a Mario fan.  My sisters were into these games too and I can still remember them sitting on the floor playing Mario with a baby on a lap and toddlers roaming around the room.  Fun times.  So glad they didn't make this all about how "old people" can't play these games and aren't interested.

And  "I got goosebumps"  oh god, that was great!!!

Edited November 10, 2018 by Homily

[Guest]

40 minutes ago, Homily said:

I absolutely loved that they had Meemaw be into this game and be good at it.  My parents were probably in their 50s when nintendo came into our lives - my Dad was a huge fan of Legend of Zelda and my Mom was a Mario fan.  My sisters were into these games too and I can still remember them sitting on the floor playing Mario with a baby on a lap and toddlers roaming around the room.  Fun times.  So glad they didn't make this all about how "old people" can't play these games and aren't interested.

And  "I got goosebumps"  oh god, that was great!!!

I loved that, too. In the late 80’s and early 90’s my grandmother and aunt each had their own nintendos and I used to love playing with them when I would visit. 

[EtheltoTillie]

I can still hear all the music of the games. I don’t play but my husband does. As a joke back in the 80s he once made me a mix tape of video game music selections and snuck it into the car tape deck. I never laughed so hard. 

Edited November 10, 2018 by GussieK

[Bobbin]

10 hours ago, Katy M said:

I hope Georgie doesn't second-guess himself when the movie Rudy comes out:)

Georgie is very self-aware and practical. When he said he could be making money and learning a trade, he wasn't thinking about buying expensive sneakers or a dirt bike. (You must know how hard I'm biting my tongue here.)

Edited November 10, 2018 by Bobbin

[hoodooznoodooz]

MeeMaw hesitating and wistfully looking at the video game console made think of Laurie Metcalf/Jackie getting addicted to the computer on Roseanne. 

[SpiritSong]

2 hours ago, mojoween said:

Well I cannot think of one thing that I did not like about this episode.

I hated that Mary cooked and served a family dinner, and MeeMaw and Sheldon grabbed their plates and ran across the street. George and Mary have no backbone whatsoever. They should have told Connie to take it and go if she wanted, but sat Sheldon down in his chair and made him eat with the family. No wonder he grew up to be such an entitled jerk. He only cares about himself and his parents are actively encouraging that.

[Sarah 103]

On 11/9/2018 at 2:24 PM, HurricaneVal said:

Poor George, Georgie was "his" son, the "normal" girl-obsessed football jock teen he could relate to and point to as having his accumulated genes.  Instead, he got someone who was pretty self-aware and found his niche very early in life.  Lucky Georgie!  I loved that scene. 

It's not like Georgie is totally giving up sports, just playing sports. George can still talk football with Georgie, and I'm sure they still watch games together and talk about the players and how each team is doing. My only surprise was that George didn't bring up the idea of a football scholarship as a way to pay for college. 

[CherryAmes]

4 minutes ago, SpiritSong said:

They should have told Connie to take it and go if she wanted, but sat Sheldon down in his chair and made him eat with the family.

I think if this is a once in awhile thing it's not a problem.  Maybe I'm just feeling sentimental today about my own "Meemaw" but that was a wonderful memory for Sheldon to have.  Being close and having something special to share with his grandmother beats sitting at the table for dinner IMO.   I know I'd have gotten a kick out of my own mother  bonding with my son like that.

1 minute ago, Sarah 103 said:

y only surprise was that George didn't bring up the idea of a football scholarship as a way to pay for college. 

They made it pretty clear that Georgie wasn't all that good (not to mention weighing only 125 lbs) so a football scholarship was probably not in his future.  

[grinchyheart]

On 11/9/2018 at 3:54 PM, Homily said:

So glad they didn't make this all about how "old people" can't play these games and aren't interested.

So funny, I was a young IT professional in the late 70's/early 80's & bumped into that attitude when I was game shopping at 50+, several decades later. The young clerk asked if I was buying them for my grandkids, I said no they were for me. He was amazed that an old person would like videogames, & I asked him which generation did he think invented them?

[SpiritSong]

31 minutes ago, CherryAmes said:

I think if this is a once in awhile thing it's not a problem.  Maybe I'm just feeling sentimental today about my own "Meemaw" but that was a wonderful memory for Sheldon to have.  Being close and having something special to share with his grandmother beats sitting at the table for dinner IMO.   I know I'd have gotten a kick out of my own mother  bonding with my son like that.

They showed them spending hours playing the game. I don't have a problem with that, and yes, it's great that Sheldon and MeeMaw are so close. But taking him out of school? Blowing off family dinners and his bedtime? That's taking spoiling the grandkid waaay too far. Parents can't always be the fun ones, nor should they be. George and Mary are a couple of doormats when it comes to standing up to Connie and their own 10 year old.

When it was affecting her love life MeeMaw told Sheldon not to spy on her. But now that's it's not interfering with her sex life, it's okay? She should have told him if he spied on her one more time she'd confiscate the binoculars and he'd never see them again. Kids need limits and firm boundaries. None of them are doing him any favors.

Edited November 11, 2018 by SpiritSong

[CherryAmes]

6 minutes ago, SpiritSong said:

But taking him out of school?

Not disagreeing with you here but I found that hilarious.  And let's be honest does Sheldon even need to be in school?  Not that Connie should have lied to get him out but it's not like we need to worry about him missing anything!

[Chit Chat]

1 hour ago, SpiritSong said:

I hated that Mary cooked and served a family dinner, and MeeMaw and Sheldon grabbed their plates and ran across the street. George and Mary have no backbone whatsoever. They should have told Connie to take it and go if she wanted, but sat Sheldon down in his chair and made him eat with the family.

I think that it happened so quickly that Mary & George were too stunned to say anything!  I'm sure Mary will put her foot down so that it won't happen again.

59 minutes ago, grinchyheart said:

So funny, I was a young IT professional in the late 70's/early 80's & bumped into that attitude when I was game shopping at 50+, several decades later. The young clerk asked if I was buying them for my grandkids, I said no they were for me. He was amazed that an old person would like videogames, & I asked him which generation did he think invented them?

I'm at that age where some young people look at me as if I'm a dinosaur.  Mr. Chat and I were in line to get our equipment for a strenuous zip line course, and the young kid in front of us turned around and asked us with a look of - 'WTF' - if we were doing the zip line.  He looked disappointed, because I'm sure he thought we'd slow him down.  Truth be known, we did slow down the experienced ones, but we let them go ahead of us.   Then we got our momentum and climbed that 70' rope ladder and sailed 700 feet across the lake!  I would've had a 'Rocky' moment if I hadn't been afraid of falling off of the platform that high up in the tree!  And grinchyheart, what a great reply about the video games! 

[Bort]

23 minutes ago, LadyKenobi said:

it's only more recently that laws were enacted about having to ride in the backseat. Some states don't still have a law about that (Sheldon, I think we've established, likes to sit back there on his own anyway.)

Texas to this day still does not have a law prohibiting children from riding in the front seat. Once they're done with the car seat, they can ride there.

[movingtargetgal]

3 hours ago, CherryAmes said:

3 hours ago, SpiritSong said:

But taking him out of school?

Not disagreeing with you here but I found that hilarious.  And let's be honest does Sheldon even need to be in school?  Not that Connie should have lied to get him out but it's not like we need to worry about him missing anything!

I know school is important but special bonding time with a grandma is priceless.  My grandma lived with us for a while and she would take me out of school for a "doctor's appointments" when Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were in the Morning Movie on channel 8.  She would also have me take afternoon naps so she could get me up for a good Midnight Movie.  We almost got caught on Parent/Teacher night and my teacher asked my mom if I was feeling better.  When my mother asked grandma about it she lied and said I came home with a tummy ache and she forgot to tell her. :)  We fessed up when I was 40 years old, was married and had a Master's Degree.  
 

[SpiritSong]

9 hours ago, movingtargetgal said:

I know school is important but special bonding time with a grandma is priceless.  My grandma lived with us for a while and she would take me out of school for a "doctor's appointments" when Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were in the Morning Movie on channel 8.  She would also have me take afternoon naps so she could get me up for a good Midnight Movie.  We almost got caught on Parent/Teacher night and my teacher asked my mom if I was feeling better.  When my mother asked grandma about it she lied and said I came home with a tummy ache and she forgot to tell her. :)  We fessed up when I was 40 years old, was married and had a Master's Degree.  
 

I have to agree with Cherryames that taking him out of school for a day isn't going to hurt him academically. It's what she is teaching him that I find disturbing. You're so special, Sheldon. Rules aren't meant for you, Sheldon. No need to treat your parents with respect, Sheldon.  It's like a master class in how to raise an insufferable human being.

Spoiler

But maybe that's what the showrunners are going for, since they're starting to show us the origins of some of the things we see on BBT.

Edited November 11, 2018 by kariyaki
Added spoiler tag

[Yeah No]

3 hours ago, LadyKenobi said:

Okay so I knew I wasn't crazy:  I was talking about the laws requiring kids to ride in the back seat, not car seats. (My peers and  I, in our state anyway, just didn't have to ride in them by law while growing up in the 80s, or have to worry about them while we were older and babysitting, at least for older children.) Apparently, the big push was originally for parents to use car seats and seatbelts, and it's only more recently that laws were enacted about having to ride in the backseat. Some states don't still have a law about that (Sheldon, I think we've established, likes to sit back there on his own anyway.) I just know it was a surprise to a lot of my friends and classmates when they learned that in a lot of places, their kids had to be 13 before they were allowed to ride in the front seat, even if they were out of the booster.  

So it makes a lot of sense to me to see Sheldon in the backseat as a character quirk, but I'm gonna start with the side-eye if I see Missy back there alone.

I'm old and this is how I remember it:  Even today only certain states require kids under a certain age or height to ride in the back seat, but that was not as common back at the time of this show.  The reason as I remember it for the change was the advent of air bags and the hazard of an infant or child being hurt by one since that was starting to happen.  Even riding in the front seat in a booster seat was OK back in the day.  Around 1990 airbags started becoming standard in cars in the U.S., but the reaction to this surrounding kids' safety in the front seat didn't happen immediately so I don't think it would have been so common back at the time of this show.  Even today Texas law doesn't specify that children must ride in the back seat at all.

[rmontro]

On 11/9/2018 at 6:43 PM, ajsnaves said:

What they missed here though was the "second quest" that Zelda 1 and 2 had for after you beat it the first time. 

You're right they did leave that out.  I always used to think that running through the game a second time to beat that second quest was only for real die hards who couldn't stand the thought of putting the game behind them.  I never thought it really "counted", if you know what I mean.  Once I beat a game the first time, I never felt I was under any obligation to run through a harder version of it.