It’s strange to consider just how many spin-offs have come from the Big Bang Theory. With the release of Stuart Fails to Save the Universe that puts us up at a whopping total of three spin-offs all, to some extent, successful. Admittedly it’s a little soon to tell with Stuart Fails to Save the Universe but with each returning cast member it is getting good advertising. And as for the others, Young Sheldon had seven seasons, and was very critically and commercially successful; and Georgie & Mandy’s: First Marriage has been renewed for a third season already.
Most shows would call one well-received spin-off a success, The Big Bang Theory has done it thrice.
It is undeniably impressive.
Thus, we should be very forgiving of all their continuity slip ups.
Yes, continuity, that sacred cow for fandom that always seems to be the first thing the writers throw out the window when they’re making a spin-off. Never in all of Cheers run did Frasier mention he had a brother, and in Friends it never came up once that Joey had a nephew but there they both were front and centre when it came time to make a spin-off.
Young Sheldon is the biggest offender of this of course; it can’t help but be, seeing as it’s trying to tell the story of Sheldon Cooper’s childhood as a, somewhat, wholesome family show. Rather than the dark carnival fun house that much of Sheldon’s comments on The Big Bang Theory made it seem.
George Cooper Sr. can’t be a wilful, and possibly repeat, philanderer who once shot his Tv when his Football team lost. No sir, we can’t manage to make that character sympathetic so out the window you go. Hello, stern but loving father figure that supports his youngest son even if he’ll never fully understand him.
Sheldon can’t be a completely ostracised loner, who routinely gets beaten by bullies, sisters, and older brothers alike. No, he has to have at least one friend. And the bully? Why that was just a little girl. Really, he had a good childhood. Heck, for a short time he was even popular in high school. You see where I’m going here?
I’m not saying the main character in ‘Young Sheldon’ doesn’t have trials to overcome or hardships to endure, he’s still Sheldon Cooper, but overall the picture is much sunnier than what previous cannon led us to believe.
I’m certainly not the first fan to notice the discrepancies between what was said on ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and what we saw in ‘Young Sheldon’. Many have proposed theories that Sheldon may be lying… on The Big Bang Theory. Seemingly because Young Sheldon is not shot as a traditional sitcom. Therefore obviously it’s the story we’re meant to take at one hundred percent face value. Just disregard the fact that the show is literally framed as Sheldon writing his memoirs. No doubt to later publish it where it will be consumed by some portion of the general public.
No, no reason to fudge the details there.
No reason to give his Dad a post-death glow-up. No childhood wish fulfilment trying to be lived out on the page here, no mothers whose dignity he might be trying to preserve.
No clearly he was lying on the Big Bang Theory… because it has a laugh track.
Regardless that is just a theory; just a way of trying to weld one continuity with another… much like my own.
And just like my own there is one perfect argument that makes all those theories crumble. The one argument that we cannot hope to fight against and it’s the meta one.
The writers of young Sheldon wilfully disregarded established facts about the Big Bang Theory’s Mythos so they could tell the story they wanted to tell. That is it. There is no greater conspiracy here. When Sheldon first said those things about his past on The Big Bang Theory he was not lying. He was not acted like he was lying. He was not written like he was lying. He was telling the truth. And he was doing so because the writers found it funny. They found it funny to have his father shoot his Tv. They found it funny, at least at first, to imply he had many affairs. But that didn’t make a sympathetic character so it was changed.
We all know it’s true, there’s no point fighting it. When the writers of the Big Bang Theory, and its respective spin offs, set off to make their stories and their jokes continuity is the first to fall at the wayside. Especially when that continuity might hinder the story they’re currently trying to tell. And this holds true even within the original show itself.
For instance, when Leonard disproves Sheldon’s newly discovered Element, and Sheldon is forced to retract his paper, Sheldon claims that the only time he ever retracted anything before was when he was a child and it was to his brother. That he was forced to concede that his brother was indeed the greatest ninja in all Texas. Just forget about that time he was forced to retract his findings of his North Pole expedition at the beginning of season three, when he discovered they were messed with by Leonard, Raj and Howard. No, the writers want us to feel at least a little happy about Leonard disproving his friend’s newly discovered element. And me we wouldn’t be if the characters acknowledged the only other time in living memory Sheldon had been forced to retract his findings.
So, what have I just done? I hear you say. Have I disproven my own theory right out of the gate? And to that I say no. Because my theory, my theory of Many Worlds, was not constructed under the delusion that this was the great purpose the writers were working under. That they actually wanted us to watch their show this way. No, my theory was constructed under the notion that this is the show, the world, they made anyway regardless of their intentions.
So, to all those smarty pants who might show up in my comment section, trying to blow a hole in this theory might I just say: I already know. I already know Amy’s mother changed actresses because they wanted a bigger name to play her for the wedding. I already know most continuity that doesn’t line up with each other is either because the writer’s didn’t care or wilfully ignored established facts. That’s not the point.
The point is by doing this, by taking all these short cuts through the road of continuity, and insults to the viewers basic memory skills, they have built something new. Something amazing even. And like many a great discovery before them … they did it accidentally.
And there we have it… The Many Worlds Interpretation: The Accidental Masterpiece. Now, maybe next time we can actually start talking about it.
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