Young Sheldon

Young Sheldon is an American period sitcom television series for CBS created by Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro. The series, set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is a spin-off prequel to "The Big Bang Theory" and begins with the character Sheldon Cooper at the age of nine, living with his family in East Texas and going to high school. Iain Armitage stars as young Sheldon, alongside Zoe Perry, Lance Barber, Montana Jordan, Raegan Revord, and Annie Potts. Matt Hobby was promoted to the main cast starting with the third season. Jim Parsons, who portrays the adult Sheldon Cooper on "The Big Bang Theory", narrates the series and serves as an executive producer.
Development of the prequel series began in November 2016, from an initial idea that Parsons passed along to "The Big Bang Theory" producers. The following March, Armitage and Perry were cast, and the series was ordered by CBS. The series premiered as a special preview on September 25, 2017, and two days later, CBS picked up the series for a full season of 22 episodes. From November 2, 2017, new episodes began airing weekly. In February 2019, CBS renewed the series for a third and fourth season. The fourth season premiered on November 5, 2020. In March 2021, CBS renewed the series for a fifth, sixth, and seventh season.
Premise.
The series takes place in the late 1980s and early 1990s and follows Sheldon Cooper as a young boy attending high school in the fictional town of Medford, Texas. As a nine-year-old boy (in the first season) attending high school, he tries to fit into the world full of people, including his own family and friends, who do not quite know how to deal with his unique intellectual capabilities and social ineptitude.
Date references are made within the series to anchor the series' time setting. In the series premiere, adult Sheldon states "nobody I knew in East Texas in 1989 cared about Newtonian physics". Sheldon's journal featured in ""A Patch, a Modem, and a Zantac®" was dated November 9, 1989. The second season makes a couple of references to 1990. In episode 11 of that season there is an event called the "1990 East Texas Baptist Olympics", and in the season finale Sheldon is listening to a Nobel Prize announcement which can be inferred to have happened in October 1990. Episode 11 of season two has "ALF", a series that ran from 1986 until 1990, featured on the television. In episode 4 of the fourth season, Missy references the song "Ice Ice Baby", implying most likely early 1991. In episode 14 of the fourth season, it's revealed that Sheldon, who's now 11, has been filing the family taxes for the past 2 years. With Sheldon at age 9 in 1989, this implies the episode is set in 1991.
Production.
Development.
In November 2016, it was reported that CBS was in negotiations to create a spin-off of "The Big Bang Theory" centered on Sheldon Cooper as a young boy. The prequel series, described as "a "Malcolm in the Middle"-esque single-camera family comedy" would be executive produced by "The Big Bang Theory" co-creator Chuck Lorre and producer Steven Molaro, with "The Big Bang Theory" co-creator Bill Prady expected to be involved in some capacity, and intended to air in the 2017–18 season alongside "The Big Bang Theory". The initial idea for the series came from Jim Parsons (who portrays the older Sheldon on "The Big Bang Theory"), who passed it along to "The Big Bang Theory" producers. On March 13, 2017, CBS ordered the spin-off "Young Sheldon" series, which was created by Lorre and Molaro. Jon Favreau directed and executive produced the pilot. Parsons, Lorre, Molaro and Todd Spiewak also serve as executive producers on the series, for Chuck Lorre Productions, Inc. in association with Warner Bros. Television. On September 27, 2017, CBS picked up the series for a full season of 22 episodes. On January 6, 2018, the show was renewed for a second season, which premiered on September 24 of that same year. 
On February 22, 2019, CBS renewed the series for both a third and a fourth season. The third season premiered on September 26, 2019. Warner Bros. Television suspended production on March 13, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving the third season with only 21 episodes. Production for the fourth season began on September 22, 2020, but was paused on October 9, 2020, for one month, due to a positive COVID-19 test. The fourth season premiered on November 5, 2020.
Production for the fourth season concluded on March 15, 2021.
On March 30, 2021, CBS renewed the series for a fifth, sixth, and seventh season.
Casting.
In early March 2017, Iain Armitage was cast as the younger Sheldon, as well as Zoe Perry as his mother, Mary Cooper. Perry is the real-life daughter of Laurie Metcalf, who portrays Mary Cooper on "The Big Bang Theory". Lance Barber stars as George Cooper Sr., Sheldon's father; he had previously appeared in one episode of "The Big Bang Theory". Raegan Revord stars as Missy Cooper, Sheldon's twin sister; Revord getting the part only after repeatedly asking her mother to be allowed to read for the role. Also starring Montana Jordan as George Cooper Jr., Sheldon's older brother. Jim Parsons reprises his role as adult Sheldon Cooper, as narrator for the series. In July 2017, Annie Potts was cast as Meemaw, Sheldon's grandmother.
Overlap with the parent series.
In most cases different actors are used to portray a given character in the two series, to account for the age difference. Jim Parsons is a notable exception in that he appears in both series as the same character, though in this series his appearance is limited to voice only. In the Season 4 episode "Graduation", Mayim Bialik (as Amy, the wife of Adult Sheldon) has a brief voiceover role while Sheldon describes the graduation party for their son Leonard, whom he reveals was named after Leonard Hofstadter and Leonard Nimoy. Bob Newhart appears as Professor Proton in both series; with the appearance in this series the character is made to look younger. Iain Armitage (Sheldon), Lance Barber (George), and Montana Jordan (Georgie) make a guest appearance in the parent series in a scene in which a VHS tape recorded decades earlier is played. There are other actors who appear in both series but as different characters. This includes Barber, who had another guest appearance in the parent series as a different character, and Kaley Cuoco who stars in the parent series and makes an uncredited voice appearance in this series, voicing an inanimate object. Elon Musk makes cameo appearances as himself in both series.
The second-season finale episode aired immediately following the one-hour series finale of the parent series. In a tribute to the parent series finale, several references are made to the parent series in the "Young Sheldon" episode. The references are both general to the entire parent series, as well as to the series finale in particular. In one scene in the "Young Sheldon" episode, Sheldon promises his father that when he wins the Nobel Prize, Sheldon will mention him in his acceptance speech. In the parent series finale, Sheldon wins the Nobel Prize. In another scene in the "Young Sheldon" episode, Nobel Prize winners are announced out over a montage showing the main characters from the parent series Leonard, Penny, Raj, Howard, Bernadette and Amy as children. Christine Baranski and Carol Ann Susi, who respectively portray Leonard's mother and Howard's mother in the parent series, make a voice appearance in the montage (a posthumous appearance in the case of Susi). Following the montage, adult Sheldon says that he was wrong about feeling at the moment of the Nobel prize announcement that he would be all alone for the rest of his life.
Title sequence.
The show's title sequence is played to the song "Mighty Little Man" by Steve Burns. The song is the first track in Burns' 2003 album "Songs for Dustmites". The title sequence was changed in Season 3 to include the entire Cooper family. Prior to Season 3, the title sequence only showed Sheldon. Along with adding the entire Cooper family, season 3 also made some of the opening sequences unique by having Sheldon dress up in different costumes for different episodes.
Release.
Broadcast.
"Young Sheldon" began airing weekly episodes on CBS from November 2, 2017, after "The Big Bang Theory". It premiered as a special preview on September 25, 2017.
Syndication.
"Young Sheldon" entered off-network syndication on Nick at Nite as of November 30, 2020.
In the United Kingdom, "Young Sheldon" is broadcast on free-to-air channel E4, with the season 1 premiered on February 22, 2018. Subsequent seasons premiered on November 8, 2018 and October 10, 2019 for seasons 2 & 3 respectively. However, the season 4 release date has not yet been announced. In fall 2021, the series is set to enter syndication in local markets, covering roughly 90% of the United States.
Streaming.
In May 2020, it was announced that the first three seasons of the series would stream on the WarnerMedia-owned HBO Max service; no release date was announced at that time. The first three seasons were added on September 2, 2020. In India, season 4 can be streamed on Disney Cartoon.
Reception.
Critical reception.
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 76% approval rating with an average rating of 6.61/10 based on 45 reviews. The website's consensus reads, ""Young Sheldon"s appealing cast and relatable themes bring a freshand overall enjoyableperspective to its central character's familiar story." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 63 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Home media.
The first season of "Young Sheldon" was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Warner Bros. on September 4, 2018. Similarly, the second season was released on DVD on September 3, 2019 around the same time the Blu-ray was released through Warner Archive Collection. The third season was later released on DVD and manufacture-on-demand Blu-ray on September 1, 2020 by Warner Home Entertainment and Warner Archive Collection respectively.