Why the episode of the funeral of young Sheldon George Cooper had to be re-edited

Sometimes a TV show begins to change throughout its run, evolving into something new as the writers and producers determine what works best for the characters and the story. The most obvious and common changes are often to the tone of the show, as the original ideas are softened or sharpened and things become more complex. Just take a look the brilliant political satire “Veep”, which starts out as a cheesy black comedy but eventually becomes depressingly real in its satire, with a largely dark final season. In the CBS hit comedy Young Sheldon, the transformation was a little easier, but no less dramatic. Already dramatically different from its predecessor, The Big Bang Theory, in simple ways using a single camera format without a studio audienceYoung Sheldon further transformed itself over the course of seven seasons to become a heartfelt family drama.

In later seasons of the series, showrunners Steven Molaro and Steve Holland combined just the right amount of drama and comedy to make a show that had as many heartfelt moments as it did funny ones, although there was one episode where they really had to change things up a bit. The show’s penultimate episode, “Funeral,” honors Cooper family patriarch George Sr. (Lance Barber), and the jokes are nowhere to be found. This is intentional, but it’s the result of some re-editing that the creators felt was necessary to really make the series sound.

In an interview with AdvHolland revealed that while the original plan for the episode had the standard number of jokes, when they watched it in the edit, they realized that the humor felt really out of place:

“We wanted to be very respectful of George as a character and what his death meant to this family. I think we realized that we could afford to be a little more serious and have a little more weight to this moment that felt very We could be as realistic about it as we wanted to be and not feel the need to just joke around because it was comedy show.

The result was a a truly heartwarming episode that is the best of the series according to IMDband the absence of jokes allowed the characters to truly show their emotional depth during one of the most difficult periods of their lives. The loss of George H.W. would have serious consequences that would resonate not only in The Big Bang Theory, but also Young Sheldon spin-off Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage and it is very good that the creators of the show took the moment seriously.

When “Young Sheldon” began, Sheldon and his siblings were very young: Sheldon and his twin sister Missy (Raegan Revord) started the series at age 9, and their older brother Georgie (Montana Jordan) at 14. The actors who play the role of they were the same age, which is quite a bit to deal with some of the heavier themes of the later seasons, but as they age, the show could age with them.

Holland said that they “knew at that point that the kids were going to knock it out of the park” and that they put some of their genuine sadness about the show’s end into their performances. They are all fantastic (Revord is devastating) and they to lose the goofy, real George Sr feel much more real. It’s great stuff, even if it’s not at all funny for what is usually a comedy series, although there is at least one joke: George’s actor, Lance Barber, has a secret cameo as one of the funeral attendants. Even in life’s darkest moments, there can be a little lightness.