Off the sidelines, “Sheldon” sets its final push

For two weeks, TV’s top comedy was on the sidelines, waiting for the basketball tournament to end.
Now “Young Sheldon” (shown here) is back – for a while. It returns April 4, has the wedding of Georgie and Mandy a week later … then moves toward its May 14 finale, with the return of Jim Parsons and Mayim Bialik as the not-young Sheldon and his wife Amy.
And that’s it … except for reruns and a Georgie-and-Mandy spin-off next season.
That may sound like there’s been a master plan, but co-creator Chuck Lorre insists he and the others have been improvising. “The whole process has been learning as we go.”
The show might not have happened, he said, if Iain Armitage’s mom hadn’t sent an audition tape. Lorre said he had co-written “the most difficult scene imaginable for an 8-year-old, and this guy killed it.”
At the time, Armitage (center) admits, he hadn’t watched “The Big Bang Theory,” which this is a prequel to. “I didn’t really know what it was about.”
He was a kid who did online theater reviews and wanted to be a magician. His TV experience involved small roles, including Shailene Woodley’s son in “Big Little Lies.”
His TV siblings had done even less – an indie movie for Montana Jordan (second from rigt), a couple “Modern Family” episodes for Raegan Revord (left). She recalls a video she sent to Armitage, before the show started: “I was in a car seat. And I’m now learning how to drive.”
Some of the actors had to seem like younger versions of people “Big Bang” fans knew. “Iain is an exceptional mimic,” Zoe Perry (second from left)said. “And genetics just do it for me.”
(As Sheldon’s mom, she’s playing the younger version of someone her mother – Laurie Metcalf, who won three Emmys on “Roseanne” – played on “Big Bang.”)
Playing Sheldon’s dad is Lance Barber (third from left), whose long TV career had included one regular spot (as Lisa Kudrow’s nemesis in “The Comeback”) and constant guest roles. He’s a Northerner (from Battle Creek, Mich.), playing a Texas football coach, so an accent adjustment was needed. “I model it after Montana’s,” Barber said.
As the lone Texan in the cast, Jordan brought an authentic accent and an agreeable manner. Still, he seemed to be a side character, until the show came up with its master stroke: Georgie, 17, lied about his age and dated Mandy (Emily Osment,rigt), 28. She became pregnant and angry.
That wasn’t in the original plan for the show, co-creator Steven Molaro said. “We’re not good with a grand arcing plan. We’re good at feeling our way through things.
Few things were definite, except that Sheldon must leave sometime.
In “Big Bang,” writer-producer Steve Holland said, it was made clear that “he goes off to Cal Tech at 14.” Now Armitage is 15 and Sheldon (in the show) is 14. “It just felt like the right time to end.”