As “The Big Bang Theory” universe expands once again with CBS’ new “Young Sheldon” spinoff series, creator Chuck Lorre is hopeful “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” will stand “on its own two feet.”
“Our hope — and I think we can achieve this — is that, had you never seen ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and you never saw ‘Young Sheldon,’ these characters are interesting — they’re not doing that well; they struggle, as we all do,” Lorre told TheWrap ahead of Thursday’s series premiere. “The series, hopefully stands on its own two feet.”
As the title suggests, “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” centers on Sheldon’s older brother Georgie (Montana Jordan) and his wife Mandy (Emily Osment) as they navigate marriage and parenthood as a young couple in Texas. The multicam spinoff moves the titular couple’s home base from the Cooper household in “Young Sheldon” to the trailer belonging to Mandy’s parents (played by Rachel Bay Jones and Will Sasso).
“Young Sheldon” stars Raegan Revord, Zoe Perry and Annie Potts will all appear in “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” but Lorre noted the references are “self-contained,” likening them to any other series introducing family members here and there. While the cameos — which the creators say could also include a phone call or holiday visit from Iain Armitage’s Sheldon — are a cherry on top for loyal “Young Sheldon” viewers, the creators underscored their desire to tell “human stories” in the new series.
“Even on ‘Big Bang Theory’ … there was a feeling that these were very special characters that might find this niche audience because it was science-y and it was pop culture but there was also a humanity of those characters that broke out and actually became this huge hit,” Holland explained. “I think it was because you didn’t need to be a scientist or comic book person to relate to these characters, to feel like you were an outsider.”
While Jordan made his TV debut on “Young Sheldon” in 2017, Osment wasn’t introduced to the “Young Sheldon” spinoff until Season 5, when Mandy and Georgie hit it off — both lying about their age — and Mandy subsequently gets pregnant after their fling. With “Young Sheldon’s” seventh and final season seeing the pair get married, the creators said they identified the duo as promising leads for a new series within those two final seasons, with Lorre noting, “That chemistry is undeniable.”
While the debut of “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” comes just months after the series finale of “Young Sheldon,” which saw Sheldon heading off to Caltech, Holland noted it was “still hard to say goodbye” to “Young Sheldon” after its seven-season run.
“Putting that show to bed, especially going through the emotional experiences [in the] last few episodes, was emotional,” Holland said, referring to the sudden death of George Sr. (Lance Barber) that happened just two episodes before the series finale. “Even knowing that we had this life raft to keep going, things were still going to be different.”
With “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” taking place just a couple of months after the “Young Sheldon” finale, the new spinoff series picks up after Georgie stepped up as the man of the house for the Cooper family, with Molaro recalling, “At the funeral, [Georgie] even promised his father to take care of everything.”
“The loss of his father very much informs his character — to live up to his father’s ideals,” Lorre said. “His father was a hard-working, good family man [and] Georgie aspires to follow in those footsteps. He’s really a remarkable character to have at the center of the show — not a smart teenager, but not a stupid teenager — somebody who’s trying to make the world go right for the people he loves, which drives the whole thing.”
“It’s always a part of Georgie’s character and his life, but we’re not living in the same freshness of the grief — life has moved on,” Holland added, noting that Georgie and Mandy’s baby serves as a way for Georgie to look beyond the tragedy.
Just as George Sr.’s death was revealed to have happened when Sheldon was 14 in “The Big Bang Theory,” the original series also mentions that Georgie and Mandy had been divorced — cue the spinoff”s title as “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” — though the creators aren’t letting that canon pigeonhole them into a definite breakup between the pair.
“We don’t know that their second marriage isn’t to each other,” Holland said, with the creators joking, “We literally don’t know that; we’re in the early days.”
“They’re very young — they’re very naive, particularly he is, so that they might have difficulties along the way and even split up is not a wild idea, but that they could find their way back to each other is also within the realm of possibility,” Lorre said.
With Georgie and Mandy’s less-than-stable background, Lorre noted it felt “untrue” to depict a “smooth-sailing marriage that’s just devoid of problems … emotional difficulties and arguments and fights and fears and grief.” “This is going to be a bumpy road, and bumps are good in comedy,” he said. “We actually seek them out.”
Holland added that Georgie is an “eternally optimistic character” who will always try to make things work, and even if he’s not successful and they “may split up for a time,” his character gives the show a “hopeful, optimistic spin.”
After “Young Sheldon” shifted to single-cam to differentiate from “The Big Bang Theory’s” multi-camera style, “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” shifts back to multicam, enabling the creators to write in a more theater-esque style.
“From the beginning, we recognized that these are small stories — the young couple raising a baby living with his in-laws, working for his father-in-law,” Lorre said. “He’s young, he’s very naive. He’s ambitious. Those are small, family-oriented stories and they play well in front of an audience.”
“Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” premieres Thursday night at 8 p.m. PST on CBS, and streams on Paramount+.
