Bazinga! Go Behind the Scenes of ‘Young Sheldon’ (PHOTOS)
Armitage (left, with Parsons, Molaro and executive producer Chuck Lorre) has a bright idea to get Parsons onscreen. “It would be cool for young Sheldon to imagine his future self but get it all wrong,” he says. “Mr. Jim would play Sheldon differently than we are used to.”
If there’s singing on set, it’s probably coming from theater buff Armitage. “I usually sing The Great Comet or Hamilton [his father, Euan Morton, plays King George in the Broadway hit] or David Bowie,” he says. “We all like to sing and play guitar, so if this doesn’t work out, maybe we can start a band!”
“Those dinner scenes tend to take hours,” Molaro reports, adding that the actors (seated, clockwise from left: Montana Jordan, Armitage, Lance Barber, Zoe Perry and Revord, with director Mark Cendrowski) pace their eating while filming multiple takes. “Sometimes I need to be reminded that Sheldon takes small, careful bites!” Armitage says with a laugh.
Annie Potts brings warmth—and mischief!—as Sheldon’s beloved grandmother. When Meemaw recently fell into a hole, Potts did the stunt work herself. “Annie was wearing a harness and would walk right off the edge of the stage and drop seven feet onto a mat,” Molaro says. “She’s game for anything.”
Sheldon recently discovered his love for comic books, and Armitage (with director Jaffar Mahmood and Ryan Phuong, who plays Sheldon’s pal Tam) can relate. “I’m enjoying learning about them too,” he says. “I’m also starting to get into graphic novels.”
It doesn’t take a genius to see why CBS’s Young Sheldon, which follows 9-year-old Sheldon Cooper (Iain Armitage) and his down-home, East Texas–based family, is the No. 1 new comedy of 2017–18. The prequel to The Big Bang Theory offers a fresh look at a favorite character—and having Big Bang’s Jim Parsons, who is also an executive producer, narrate the sitcom as adult Sheldon doesn’t hurt either.
One thing, however, has been a challenge—getting 9-year-old Armitage used to what life was like in 1989, when the action is set. “We’ve been enjoying a show that doesn’t have cell phones, so people aren’t in complete communication with each other all the time,” executive producer Steven Molaro says. “But in one episode, Sheldon has to make a call and we had to show Iain how to hold an old-school phone. He was dialing, and I said, ‘Buddy, it’s just seven numbers.’”
Sheldon and his twin sister, Missy (Raegan Revord), face more challenges in the March 1 episode, when they get to stay home alone for the first time. So what goes into making the hit show? Armitage and Molaro give us a peek from the Burbank, California, set. Click through the gallery above!
Young Sheldon, Thursdays, 8:30/7:30c, CBS
