‘Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage’: Lance Barber Breaks Down Season 2’s Cooper Family Reunion

Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage brought the Coopers back to our TV screens in the latest episode, “A New Scoreboard and a Horse’s You Know What,” which saw Georgie (Montana Jordan) once again visited by his late father George Sr. (Lance Barber), in his dreams. Warning: Spoilers for Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 2 Episode 18 ahead!

The dream, which played more like a nightmare, was sparked when Georgie forgot an important anniversary surrounding his dad, leading him to seek a way to honor his memory in an appropriate way. Ultimately, Georgie settles on fundraising for a new scoreboard at the high school to donate to the team his dad used to coach for.

The gesture is quickly overtaken when Georgie’s nemesis,  Fagenbacher (Matt Letscher), donates enough to purchase the full scoreboard, leading to the dream in which he imagines his father treating Fagenbacher like a son, despite the man being of a similar age. Enraged by Fagenbacher making Georgie feel inadequate in honoring his dad, Mary (Zoe Perry) confronts the businessman and tells him to back out.

In the end, Georgie isn’t able to fundraise enough for a scoreboard, but he can purchase a sign to dedicate the football team’s snack bar in his dad’s name. Below, Barber breaks down his return to the Young Sheldon spinoff for the first time since Season 1.

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How does it feel to continue being asked back into this world, even after your character died years ago?

Lance Barber: I feel honored by the fact that George gets to live beyond his death in the show, even when it’s not a dream sequence, just the fact that he’s there and referred to and on the minds of his family still, and the writers have made sure that that is somewhat of an element and force for Georgie means the world to me to continue that way.

What’s the element that helps you get back into character after all this time? Is it the cast, the costume, or something else? 

It’s being around the people, the dynamics. We were together for seven years, and so those dynamics fall right back into place, even if we haven’t seen each other in a while. So, that is unavoidably familiar, and makes it work. So does all of the actor stuff, the sets, and definitely the outfit. As I put on George’s boots and his wristwatch, I identify with George as part of his character. But it’s super easy to slip into it for me. They’ve redone some of the old house set on Georgie & Mandy’s,  and landing on those things is pretty nostalgic and takes you right back.

The dream Georgie has of his dad isn’t exactly comforting. Do you wish they had gotten a similar resolution as they had in Season 1 after Georgie’s zombie nightmare of his dad? 

The fact that in the first season they addressed and delivered that resolution, we got to have a touching moment that addressed how Georgie feels about his dad and the part that he plays in his life still, even though he’s gone. You know how significant it was, and I think for the fans of Young Sheldon, it was meaningful. It certainly was for me and the cast to get to do that. But now, once that’s established, it’s certainly meaningful in this episode that Georgie is seeing his dad.

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It says everything about what he idealized his dad to be and who he wants to be because of it, right? So this is moving for him, but it’s also a situational comedy. This is a sitcom. So the idea that George might come back in as dreams are weird and funny, and so we don’t have to lean into the sentimental stuff as much because it’s there. The fact that he’s there is there, and they could use George in a comedic way, rings true for dreams, it rings true for all of us, and it certainly rings true for the show.

Do you think George would approve of Mary’s butting into Georgie’s fundraiser when Fagenbacher oversteps? 

I think George would have been supportive and turned on by Mary making that move. George himself would have been someone who showed up and gave the guy the business, just like Mary did. She’s good at giving the business, right? And he would have, too, in his own way. He might have shown up and threatened him with violence. Mary showed up and threatened him with her own kind of violence. So, I think it all rings true for who those characters are.

How would George feel about the snack bar dedication? 

It’s hysterical how appropriate it is for George, who was certainly a fan of snacks, as am I. That is a very funny punchline to have it be the snack bar. That is very, very appropriate and very funny.

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Not only were the Coopers back together in this episode, but George’s colleagues, Coach Wilkins (Doc Farrow) and Principal Petersen (Rex Linn). Did you get to cross paths with them while on set? 

We did. We got to pal around on set. It was great to see them too. We spent so much time together, and I see both of those guys outside of work when we can, but I hadn’t seen either of them in a while, and we had a ball. I watched the scene that they did at the bar, and it made me long to sit at the bar with them like we did so many times back on Young Sheldon.

What was the reaction like on set when you walked out in front of the live studio audience?

The audience is clearly fans of Young Sheldon who are coming to see Georgie & Mandy’s, and so I get an uproarious applause [Laughs]…  I get approached in such meaningful ways by people who want to tell me how much they were moved by George’s death. I like to ask people if they cried when I died and see what their response is, and some people say, yes, and then some people just offer how it was personal to them. I get that a fair amount from someone who’s lost a parent, and the way that episode of losing George landed on them, that’s always pretty meaningful and moving for me to hear. I’ve gotten some of that in the audience as well, but it’s nice to feel the love for George when I go back.

Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, Season 2, Thursdays, 8/7c, CBS