The 'Sheldon' Prequel

[devilbk]

Something we should consider about Little Sheldon. Little Sheldon is 9. He's still 2 years away from college. And Sheldon's later gawkiness was likely more a function of puberty than personality. He probably grew a couple of feet in a very short amount of time. He's a short person in a tall person's body. And many of his other habits and routines probably developed during his college years, when he was really a fish out of water. 9-year-old Sheldon is less damaged. He still has the family to deal with but I think he went through significant changes once he got to college and became a real fish out of water. At least that's how I see it. Compare any 30-year-old with their 9-year-old self. You will likely only see hints of who they will become in the younger version. Sheldon's intelligence and family are the only common factors.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Something we should consider about Little Sheldon. Little Sheldon is 9. He's still 2 years away from college. And Sheldon's later gawkiness was likely more a function of puberty than personality. He probably grew a couple of feet in a very short amount of time. He's a short person in a tall person's body. And many of his other habits and routines probably developed during his college years, when he was really a fish out of water. 9-year-old Sheldon is less damaged. He still has the family to deal with but I think he went through significant changes once he got to college and became a real fish out of water. At least that's how I see it. Compare any 30-year-old with their 9-year-old self. You will likely only see hints of who they will become in the younger version. Sheldon's intelligence and family are the only common factors.

At least they have started Young Sheldon as they mean to go on. More 'heartfelt' as they put it. TBBT wasn't a family show to begin with and they had to alter it. Young Sheldon will give them less trouble because they can aim for the mainstream family audience right away and not have to change the characters. But its still not going to feel like to lend on to the Sheldon we know. Not for me anyway.

I know he's only 9 but they seem to be providing him with a much more supportive background than I invisioned. Also, Mary isn't funny. Which doesn't sit with me, she was hilarious and sassy. They seem to have made all the other characters normal 'guides' for Sheldon, rather than kooky in their own way, which is how I always saw them in my head.

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Turns out the actor playing Sheldon's dad in Young Sheldon played Jimmy Speckerman in "The Speckerman Recurrence." That's just weiiirrdd!.

In one of the worst episodes in S5, Leonard faces up to his high school bully and shows how they can not pull off an interesting Leonard based plot.

Here's Leonard with Sheldon's Dad?  

[Nutz]

Turns out the actor playing Sheldon's dad in Young Sheldon played Jimmy Speckerman in "The Speckerman Recurrence." That's just weiiirrdd!.

In one of the worst episodes in S5, Leonard faces up to his high school bully and shows how they can not pull off an interesting Leonard based plot.

Here's Leonard with Sheldon's Dad?  

whats next? Maybe the actress who played Romona will be Meemaw, or how about the actress who played Martha being cast as the the other woman Sheldons dad had an affair with?

[CTR69]

"Meemaw never told you what happened with your father."
"She told me the alcohol killed him!"
"No. I... am your father!"

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Although, the actors may do a fine job with what they will be given, 'Young Sheldon' just fills me with dread.

They will further bury the character which made the show... in this cloud of Sheldon-Psychotherapy.



This boy may make his own show shine, it will probably be successful (because the vast majority of shows which I don't get, seems to thrive) but he's not Sheldon. I just don't feel positive and I don't want to be negative towards a child actor.

[Nutz]

If this show looks like what it is in the preview trailer then little Sheldon will be learning "life lessons" in each episode meaning that the Sheldon we knew in seasons 1-4 actually would understand social situations, could lie like a politician and was just a manipulative arrogant bastard. The only way this show makes any sense is if it's an alternative universe.

[Ratman77]

Alternate universe.

Excuse me, if I repeat myself, but it sounds for me again like the "SW"-prequel-tilogy.The main point that made Darth Vader to a fascinating character (at the orginal-trilogy) was that we did not know anything about him. There were spaces for imaginations and visions regard the figure. After "Episode I-III" came out I had problems to find the Lord further imposing. First there were so much mistakes at the plots which were not compatible with the classics, and second because Annakin was showed as a weak and -partially- stupid figure who was not in accord with the later dark Lord.



If the Sheldon-Spin-off will be really like it sounds than it could become- for me- the "Episode I-III" of "TBBT", with ilogical stories and turns which can not fit together with that Sheldon-figure we all know from the first seasons and which we cannot view -how Nutz as pointed out- without the aspect of an alternate universe. Its sad.

And this point that the Speckerman-actor will play Sheldons dad......
Well, that actors played different roles at the same show-or universe- is not unusual.
Brooke Peters, for example, was at "Star Trek IV and VI" Admiral Carthwright and than at "DSN" the father of Ben Sisko.




Or Terrence O' Quinn. Before he got "Lost" he was at the "X-Files" in three different roles.



Sometimes this casting can create a feeling of an inner closeness, when the roles are well chosen.
But in this case-Sheldons dad- it is once more an illogical thing. Another actor would have been better because that Leonard  and not Sheldon had fallen into a shock by meeting Speckerman make -in retrospect(!)- less sense. Okay, he was Leonards bully at school, but if he really had this similarity with his father- how the spin-of will show us- , it is not believable that Sheldon had not react in an emotional way at "The Speckerman Recurrence".

It is all more confusing and indecisive.

[Daedaleopsis]

Well, I don't have mixed feeling about this at all. I'm against it for the following reasons:

1. Steve Molaro has proven he has no clue how to do  "vintage Sheldon" with Molaro in control we would probably get a normal boy who became this neurotic nutball (according to some other sites) because during the course of the show a girl broke his heart and he gave up love, and normalcy for Science until the love of his life Amy showed up and made him feel again.

2. On the small chance they do get Sheldon right, I have no desire to see his drunken father shooting up the house; his Born again Christian Mother in full Jesus will cure your Science crazy; his brother, sister, and College "peers/Professors" bullying him; and the College Administration Pimping him out for money (Germany just didn't happen people)

3. Sheldon Cooper was special because of Jim, his facial ticks, body posture, dedication to learning difficult scientific lines and banter to "become Sheldon" has very little chance of happening again, especially with a 11-12 year old actor. The character will need to be sympathetic on his own, (without the adults adding sugary or traumatic moments) and most likely he'll come off as a snot-nosed know-it-all, which people will hate.

If they actually go through with this, (which it looks like they will) I give it 4-6 episodes before it's cancelled.

Retconning.  SO. MUCH. RETCONNING. will have to happen to make Sheldon's childhood a sitcom instead of a tragedy/horror show.  That is my biggest objection to "Young Sheldon."  You can see so much of it already in the trailer.  First, Sheldon's family was dirt poor.  They lived in a trailer on blocks, not a cookie-cutter middle-class suburb (as has already been pointed out).  Second, his family wasn't the least bit understanding.  Take the more recent episode about Sheldon's birthday where he confesses that every year as a child, Missy and her friends tormented him and made his life a living hell - on his BIRTHDAY.  And his mom at least had to know & did nothing to stop it.  In TBBT canon, Mary comes off as perennially exasperated by her difficult son.  We also know she hit him with a Bible, and put him in the position of keeping secrets from his dad.  His dad was just a hot mess.  I could have laughed at the preview where Sheldon's dad tells the story of "doing the right thing" at work - if it wasn't just so pathetic.  Are you kidding me???    Major retconning here.  His dad was an alcoholic who was often unemployed.  As a child, Sheldon accidentally got his dad fired by tattling on his dad for stealing from a cash register.  And his dad also cheated on Mary more than once; most likely it was a habit.
And while we're at it, I'm sure they'll find some way around the fact that his dad sent him away to boarding school when he was just ten years old.  Boarding school, people.  That means he wouldn't be living at home with his fake-supportive retconned family.  In fact, he most likely left home at the age of ten and never went back.  In the episode where Sheldon's knocking pattern is explained, he says he knocks three times after walking in on his father having sex with another woman - this was when he was home from college for a visit.  Since his dad died when he was like fourteen (and yeah, I'm sure that plot line will just be a barrel of laughs), it seems to me Sheldon had already been living away from home for a while.
And don't even get me started on the bow tie, since Sheldon should be wearing comic book tees and hideous plaid pants that his mom buys at K-Mart (probably because they're cheaper than plain pants).  Or the way that the preview starts out saying that Sheldon's second career choice who have been a train ticket taker, when he was keeping scientific journals since he was three years old.  The Sheldon we knew was obsessed with physics and understanding the way the universe works.
Also, TBBT owes it success to Jim Parsons.  Without him, I doubt the show would have lasted more than a couple seasons.  Asking a 11-12 year old kid to try to imitate that is just unfair to both the child actor and the viewers.
I'm also very apprehensive about seeing Molaro's portrayal of religion since on TBBT, there are an overabundance of crazed "religious nuts" - Mary Cooper, Bernadette's mom, Mrs. Wolowitz, Amy's mom - pretty much everyone's mom, actually.  I smell a complex.
In short, IMHO the only good thing about this show is that Jim Parsons will be getting paid for every voice-over he does. 

[Tuesday Pajamas]

Retconning.  SO. MUCH. RETCONNING. will have to happen to make Sheldon's childhood a sitcom instead of a tragedy/horror show.  That is my biggest objection to "Young Sheldon."  You can see so much of it already in the trailer.  First, Sheldon's family was dirt poor.  They lived in a trailer on blocks, not a cookie-cutter middle-class suburb (as has already been pointed out).  Second, his family wasn't the least bit understanding.  Take the more recent episode about Sheldon's birthday where he confesses that every year as a child, Missy and her friends tormented him and made his life a living hell - on his BIRTHDAY.  And his mom at least had to know & did nothing to stop it.  In TBBT canon, Mary comes off as perennially exasperated by her difficult son.  We also know she hit him with a Bible, and put him in the position of keeping secrets from his dad.  His dad was just a hot mess.  I could have laughed at the preview where Sheldon's dad tells the story of "doing the right thing" at work - if it wasn't just so pathetic.  Are you kidding me???    Major retconning here.  His dad was an alcoholic who was often unemployed.  As a child, Sheldon accidentally got his dad fired by tattling on his dad for stealing from a cash register.  And his dad also cheated on Mary more than once; most likely it was a habit.
And while we're at it, I'm sure they'll find some way around the fact that his dad sent him away to boarding school when he was just ten years old.  Boarding school, people.  That means he wouldn't be living at home with his fake-supportive retconned family.  In fact, he most likely left home at the age of ten and never went back.  In the episode where Sheldon's knocking pattern is explained, he says he knocks three times after walking in on his father having sex with another woman - this was when he was home from college for a visit.  Since his dad died when he was like fourteen (and yeah, I'm sure that plot line will just be a barrel of laughs), it seems to me Sheldon had already been living away from home for a while.
And don't even get me started on the bow tie, since Sheldon should be wearing comic book tees and hideous plaid pants that his mom buys at K-Mart (probably because they're cheaper than plain pants).  Or the way that the preview starts out saying that Sheldon's second career choice who have been a train ticket taker, when he was keeping scientific journals since he was three years old.  The Sheldon we knew was obsessed with physics and understanding the way the universe works.
Also, TBBT owes it success to Jim Parsons.  Without him, I doubt the show would have lasted more than a couple seasons.  Asking a 11-12 year old kid to try to imitate that is just unfair to both the child actor and the viewers.
I'm also very apprehensive about seeing Molaro's portrayal of religion since on TBBT, there are an overabundance of crazed "religious nuts" - Mary Cooper, Bernadette's mom, Mrs. Wolowitz, Amy's mom - pretty much everyone's mom, actually.  I smell a complex.
In short, IMHO the only good thing about this show is that Jim Parsons will be getting paid for every voice-over he does. 

Okay this is the most brilliant, honest post about this prequel situation and I applaud it. Sheldon's family lived in a trailer on blocks!!! Yes I remember that. But no, they can't have a poor, drunk, crazy, disinterested family show. No, they have to keep giving us this NEW BULLSHIT SHELDON. Middle class america don't want a show about poor, desperate folk. I would as it's likely to be much more raw, interesting and funny.

You're right. Young Sheldon is load of RECONNED SHITE! And we, the vintage loving fans shouldn't be afraid to tell it how it is.

I too, pity that young actor. Parsons was astonishing, he'll never come close. No one could.