Reminded me of the Young Sheldon George. A lot nicer than Sheldon too. Good back story on what happened after Sheldon left.

@znexyish said:

Reminded me of the Young Sheldon George. A lot nicer than Sheldon too. Good back story on what happened after Sheldon left.

But did it make sense? No doubt there were problems after the father died, but was much of it actually Sheldon's fault? I would have thought his travel to Germany etc would have been paid for by scholarships and so forth. And wasn't he a "visiting professor" anyway, not a student? They would have been paying HIM to be there. Perhaps paying him more than his father earned as a high school football coach.

@Knixon said:

@znexyish said:

Reminded me of the Young Sheldon George. A lot nicer than Sheldon too. Good back story on what happened after Sheldon left.

But did it make sense? No doubt there were problems after the father died, but was much of it actually Sheldon's fault? I would have thought his travel to Germany etc would have been paid for by scholarships and so forth. And wasn't he a "visiting professor" anyway, not a student? They would have been paying HIM to be there. Perhaps paying him more than his father earned as a high school football coach.

I don't expect the show to make sense like that. Nor do I believe everything Sheldon says.

Well there is that. But that raises another question about Young Sheldon: if we're supposed to believe this is just Sheldon's "memories," which could be greatly distorted from what really happened, then there's no way they should be showing events that Sheldon wasn't present for and witnessed. (Or if they do, everyone should just say "blah blah blah" like in the episode with Amy and Sheldon's mother after he left the room.)

But if it's supposed to be "objective" - even with grown-up Sheldon's "narration" - then it needs to be objective, and that should be what really happened even if Sheldon "remembers" things differently in TBBT.

@Knixon said:

@znexyish said:

Reminded me of the Young Sheldon George. A lot nicer than Sheldon too. Good back story on what happened after Sheldon left.

But did it make sense? No doubt there were problems after the father died, but was much of it actually Sheldon's fault? I would have thought his travel to Germany etc would have been paid for by scholarships and so forth. And wasn't he a "visiting professor" anyway, not a student? They would have been paying HIM to be there. Perhaps paying him more than his father earned as a high school football coach.

I don't think George was blaming Sheldon for anything. I think he was just pointing out that while Sheldon was floating along on an “oblivious” cloud of scholarship and accolades, he was there busting-his-hump to help care for the family. While academia was throwing money at Sheldon; he gained his success by working hard for his “seed money” and building up from there.

I don’t think he begrudges Sheldon his accomplishment; it’s just that George is (had to be) more grounded than Sheldon; because unlike Sheldon, he had others (including Sheldon) to worry about and take care of.

The only thing George seemed to fault Sheldon for was his lack of gratitude. Of course, Sheldon-being-Sheldon, if none of these goings-on inconvenienced him—wouldn’t have a clue.

-1. Anyone who has grown up in a home with a “SuperStar Sib” knows of what George speaks.

-2. When your are the oldest--"taking care" comes with the territory.

There seems to be a fine line between "blame" and "lack of gratitude." If George was going to skip Sheldon's wedding unless Sheldon expressed "gratitude" how is that significantly different from "blame?"

And if Sheldon was really getting money to be a "visiting professor" in Germany etc, the idea that the family was suffering back in Texas seems to make about as little sense as the previously-discredited idea that Leonard would have a lot of student-loan debt after graduating with a Ph.D from Princeton.

@Knixon said:

Well there is that. But that raises another question about Young Sheldon: if we're supposed to believe this is just Sheldon's "memories," which could be greatly distorted from what really happened, then there's no way they should be showing events that Sheldon wasn't present for and witnessed. (Or if they do, everyone should just say "blah blah blah" like in the episode with Amy and Sheldon's mother after he left the room.)

But if it's supposed to be "objective" - even with grown-up Sheldon's "narration" - then it needs to be objective, and that should be what really happened even if Sheldon "remembers" things differently in TBBT.

Jim Parsons narrating “Young Sheldon” is just a way for him to get himself into the show and get his fans to join aboard. The narration is not really necessary unless you want to be reminded of “Stand by Me”. To me the less old Sheldon the better. Young Sheldon should be about young Sheldon.

I believe that old Sheldon called himself a “visiting professor” just to flatter himself as usual and especially to Penny who he always has to brag to. I doubt that wherever he went to school would make him an official professor as there are rules and requirements for that title. Denis Kim might as well have been made a “visiting professor” at Cal Tech for that matter. Sheldon did not even get his first PHD until he was 16. Visiting Professor? Visiting nonsense to me. I wonder if the students at the University of Heidelberg also gave him the finger in unison as they did at Cal Tech. Probably not as young Sheldon was still perfecting how to annoy people completely.

As for the timeline In “The Thanksgiving Decoupling” (S7E9) Sheldon tells Mike, Penny’s father, that his father died when Sheldon was 14. In “The Pancake Batter Anomaly” (S1E11) when Sheldon is telling Penny about his “visiting professorship”, when he was 15 that he got ill from the “sausage based” cuisine but Mary who was there with him had to return to Texas to help George put the house back on its cinder blocks. And in Young Sheldon the Coopers live in a house that looks pretty stable and un-cinder blocked.

Of course this is all for comedy and literal correctness does not matter so much.

@Knixon said:

There seems to be a fine line between "blame" and "lack of gratitude." If George was going to skip Sheldon's wedding unless Sheldon expressed "gratitude" how is that significantly different from "blame?"

And if Sheldon was really getting money to be a "visiting professor" in Germany etc, the idea that the family was suffering back in Texas seems to make about as little sense as the previously-discredited idea that Leonard would have a lot of student-loan debt after graduating with a Ph.D from Princeton.

A bit of both blame and gratitude then. Also brother George might have wanted Sheldon to know that the world did not then or now revolve around his genius that other people were holding him up and protecting him without Sheldon knowing or caring about it.

@FormerlyKnownAs said:

I like George. More than enough “survival smarts" to make up for his “soup” intellect.

Hard to believe that O’Connell’s guest appearance didn’t leak beforehand—really surprised--had no idea. Think he is such a great choice as Big Brother George. Really enjoyed his performance; and look-wise glad that they chose someone equal to Parson (and Henggeler) in statue.

I think that was the perfect casting choice, and he actually looks like he could be related t to Jim.

@CalabrianQueen said:

@FormerlyKnownAs said:

I like George. More than enough “survival smarts" to make up for his “soup” intellect.

Hard to believe that O’Connell’s guest appearance didn’t leak beforehand—really surprised--had no idea. Think he is such a great choice as Big Brother George. Really enjoyed his performance; and look-wise glad that they chose someone equal to Parson (and Henggeler) in statue.

I think that was the perfect casting choice, and he actually looks like he could be related t to Jim.

It looked like he could be the grown-up version of the actor playing Georgie on Young Sheldon, too.