Why Jim Parsons Thought He Was a Mediocre Young Sheldon Producer

Young Sheldon must now always be mentioned in the canon of successful television spin-offs. Happening in the same universe of “The Big Bang Theory”, the sitcom focused on a young Sheldon Cooper growing up in Texas long before he became the man viewers knew as Jim Parsons. When it came time to give his character new life through the lens of a young age, Parsons was directly involved not only as narrator, but also as an executive producer. But while he is relatively confident as an actor, Parsons lacked the same confidence as a producer.

In 2017, in an interview with CBS NewsParsons sat down with Young Sheldon star Ian Armitage to discuss the show as well as their relationship. Parsons mentored Armitage a lot to help him become the young Sheldon Cooper. But when asked about whether he’ll be an executive producer, Parsons wasn’t shy about his feelings.

“I’m very mediocre at that,” replied Parsons, although Armitage quickly interjected and disagreed, saying, “Not true.” Speaking a little further. Parsons spoke in detail about his new position and explained why it was a challenge for him. The thing is, he didn’t want to tell other actors how to do their jobs:

“It’s very strange and it took a long time to get used to, even talking to another actor, in this case Ian. I was never comfortable letting another actor direct. I don’t know what makes any other actor work, necessarily, and I don’t want to break him or him!”

“I’m not that fragile. I’m fragile, but not that fragile,” Armitage commented. Parsons then agreed, replying, “No, you don’t really.”

For what it’s worth, it worked out regardless of Parsons’ feelings about himself as a producer. Young Sheldon ran for seven seasons on CBS until the end of the issue in May 2024. That’s a whopping 141 episodes, for those keeping track. It’s not as long as The Big Bang Theory’s 12 seasons and 279 episodes, but it wouldn’t be fair to say the spin-off has been anything like a smashing success.

Parsons pretty much allowed Armitage to put his own stamp on Sheldon Cooper, even from the get-go. Yes, we know the old Sheldon, whom Armitage referred to in an interview as “great Sheldon,” but this was a completely different version of the character. Parsons talked a bit about it, explaining that watching Sheldon Jr. discover all the things he loves will continue the show:

“It’s really its own character. What you see is how he became who we see in the adult show, and so (Ian) portrays a kind of separate entity here. There are parallels, but we watch him discover things like the comics and his clothes change style as he goes through everything that you now associate with Sheldon, you see how they got there through him.

Despite only serving as narrator for the vast majority of the show, Parsons did appear as Sheldon Cooper in the series finale of Young Sheldon.. He helped finish what he started and Armitage can now build a career after a very successful seven-year stint on the popular show. Everyone won. So, in retrospect, it might be hard to agree that Parsons is a bad producer.

Young Sheldon is now streaming on Max, or you can grab your favorite season on Blu-ray/DVD via Amazon.