15 Things The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Got Wrong About George Sr. From Young Sheldon

The inevitable happened and George Sr. passed away in the third to last episode of young sheldon  This tragic though expected news has fans thinking back to all the mentions adult Sheldon made about his father in the big bang theory As a prequel series, Young Sheldon provided an opportunity to solidify or debunk the stories Sheldon told about his family while he was growing up.

For the most part, much of what he said was correct, if not embellished or slightly twisted to fit a narrative. However, many things that older Sheldon had to say about his father appeared to be a defense mechanism. Sheldon might not fully have processed his father’s death and to help him reconcile with it, he remembered him in the worst light. In other instances, the show has corrected beliefs Sheldon thought were true about his dear dad.

Updated on October 23, 2024 by Lauren Younkin: With the premiere of Young Sheldon’s spinoff, Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage, it is the perfect time to look back on George Sr.’s role in the franchise with some new entries on Sheldon’s misconceptions about his father.

15George Didn’t Really Force Sheldon to Play or Watch Football

George Was Pretty Happy with Sheldon Doing His Own Thing

In The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon displays outstanding knowledge of football. It surprises both the audience and the rest of the characters because it goes against…However, Sheldon explained that his father made him watch uncountable football games when he was a child.

This isn’t entirely true, though. Of course, George would watch a lot of football on the family television, and at times, take away Sheldon’s possession of the controller, but that doesn’t mean he ever made Sheldon watch football. George knew his child and never expected him to show any interest in sports. He did try to force Georgie to play football, but when Georgie insisted he didn’t want to, he gave up pretty quickly.

14George Didn’t Yell in the Way Sheldon Describes as an Adult

George and Mary Sometimes Had Fights, But George Didn’t Have a Temper

In Season 3, Episode 7 of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon imitates a fight between his two parents that makes George seem pretty abusive. Sheldon makes it look like George used to yell at his mother when he was drunk. Apparently, once when Mary told George that he was going to leave him if he kept drinking, George, while yelling, called her a liar because he was “drunk as hell.”

George and Mary didn’t have the smoothest marriage, but George cared about his wife. Sometimes they used to bicker and even argue in a high tone of voice, but never in the abusive matter that Sheldon describes. These dialogues do sound like something George would say but like a casual joke. Maybe Sheldon, as a toddler, interpreted these interactions more dramatically.

13George Didn’t Cheat on His Wife with Multiple Women

George Really Cared About Mary and Respected Their Marriage

In Season 4, Episode 20 of The Big Bang Theory, “The Herb Garden Germination”, Sheldon implies that his father cheated on Mary with a bartender who tried to buy his love with action figures. George did spend a lot of time in the bar, but it seems unlikely he would have an affair with a bartender. In the series, the bar is attended by Nick, but it’s possible that there was a woman bartender before. However, George was incredibly nervous about his emotional affair with his neighbor, so it pretty much looked like that was the first time George cheated. Since he died soon after that, it makes no sense for George to have been with other women.

It’s possible that, at some point, someone did try to gift Sheldon action figures when he was a child. Because Sheldon knows so little about adult relationships, he likely thought this woman had an affair with his father. At times, Sheldon isn’t the best at reading social interactions, an issue that Young Sheldon often explores.

George Was Unfairly Fired from the High School Football Team

In another of the unsavory stories Sheldon tells about his father in The Big Bang Theory, he comments that he once got his father fired by notifying his boss that he was stealing from the cash register. For most of the series, George worked as a football coach, but he did have a job as a salesman with Dale in his Sporting Goods store. However, George wasn’t fired from the store.

George took his responsibility of providing for his family very seriously, so it was unlikely he would jeopardize it by stealing from the cash register. Georgie did, however, leave the store open and all the money from the cash register was stolen, which got him fired for a little bit. It’s possible that Sheldon, who never really paid attention to his family’s problems, mixed all of this information.

11George Didn’t Have Sex with Another Woman in His House

Mary and George Were Spicing their Sex Life

In… Sheldon tells him that when he was 13 years old and on spring break from college, he came home early, walked into the house, and saw his father having relations with another woman. He even explains that this is why he never opens a door without knocking three times.

Funny enough, Young Sheldon does address this situation in the TV series. What Sheldon actually saw was his mother wearing a disguise, including a wig, so he didn’t recognize her. Since he and his parents never talked about it, he grew up thinking that he had caught his father with another woman, but it was Mary all along.

Sheldon Once Implied that His Father Smelled of Bourbon

Older Sheldon referenced his father’s heavy drinking numerous times in The Big Bang Theory. Part of what has made Young Sheldon one of…however, is how it has shown that much of what Sheldon recalled was told from a skewed child lens. George Sr. did indeed like to drink beer, often cracking one or two open every night after work while he parked in front of the TV or enjoyed dinner. But he didn’t seem to drink excessively.

It’s possible that from a child’s perspective, always seeing his father with a beer made Sheldon think his father drank a lot more than he really did. But he portrayed his father as a lazy, heavy drinker who didn’t do much but sit on the couch and watch football. That has proven disproven seeing how involved he was with the family.

Sheldon Made It Sound as Though His Parents’ Marriage Was Always in Bad Shape

Sheldon’s referencing of his father having an affair could have been due to a combination of things. There was a point in time when George Sr. and Mary had marriage troubles. George was spending a lot of time with the newly single neighbor Brenda, realizing they had a lot in common and that he enjoyed her company. But it appeared that he stopped himself before taking it further than a fleeting emotional affair.

Fans of CBS’ Young Sheldon have been waiting for George’s affair with Brenda, and The Big Bang Theory spinoff shows the reason why it happens.

Mary did notice the strange relationship between Brenda and George and there was a conversation about cheating, but George never had bad intentions. It’s clear that he leaned emotionally in his friend, and developed certain feelings, but he was never comfortable with cheating on his wife.

Older Sheldon Admitted That Missy Once Gave Their Dad a “World’s Greatest Dad” Mug

Sheldon is one of the… but he isn’t without his many flaws. He liked to portray his father as neglectful, as though he didn’t have much involvement in his kids’ lives. While it’s true that Mary was the primary caregiver for the kids, George was involved, too. It was he, for example, who took Sheldon to see Caltech for the first time. George was close to Missy and was there for her on numerous occasions, like when she first got her period, when she got her first broken heart, and even during a tornado.

George was happy to let Mary take charge, but when he was needed, he always stepped up. He might not have been as good as Mary at handling certain things, but he tried. When he and Mary had marriage trouble and she was staying with Connie, he had to step up. He did the same, with the help of Missy, when Mary went to Germany with Sheldon. It’s possible Sheldon never really noticed or focused on these moments.

Sheldon Told Amy that Georgie Would Go into His Father’s Truck at Night and Drink His “Driving Whiskey”

If Sheldon’s descriptions were true, his father spent every night at the pub with his buddies (or other women) drinking the night away and stumbling home late. This, it seems, was far from the truth. While George occasionally hung out with his friends at the local pub and often went there if he had a fight with Mary or needed to blow off steam, it didn’t seem as though he was there frequently.

He was a regular as much as anyone else in town, including others like Brenda, Connie, and even sometimes Mary. He was only seen there a handful of times, at most once a week, if that. Sheldon may, once again, have either remembered incorrectly or embellished details to make it seem as though his father was always stumbling around intoxicated.

6His Talents Were Undermined

George Was Really Good at His Job as a Football Coach

Even though Sheldon doesn’t like sports, he undermined his father’s talents as a high school football coach. Right before his death, George was offered a position to coach college football at Rice. Mary supported him and they were about to move. Being head-hunted to coach a prestigious college football team is a huge deal, which suggests that George was far more talented at his job than Sheldon let on.

Of course, likely, Sheldon wasn’t aware of his father’s talents, nor did he care since it had to do with sports. However, he knew about the job offer as the family discussed it at dinner. Sheldon was even trying to convince Connie, Dale, Georgie, and Mandy to buy the family home so he wouldn’t lose it. Yet he never shared this detail about his father’s accomplishments with his friends.

Mary often Commented on George’s Bad Habits

Whenever Mary appeared on The Big Bang Theory, she joined many…But she also always spoke harshly about her husband, as though he was a heavy-drinking, cheating man, awful husband and father. Some theories suggest that it might be related to bitterness over the fact that George didn’t want to have another baby. Her moment of baby fever was fleeting after Mary came to terms with the fact that George and Mandy were going out on their own, Sheldon was moving to Pasadena, and Missy would be leaving soon. But she was feeling loneliness setting in.

It stands to reason that Mary’s grief may show up in the form of bitterness that George would leave her right when she was at her loneliest. She may have stuck with those feelings and began to resent him unfairly, blaming him for his own death, and not giving her another child to love before he was gone. This might explain why Mary spoke so unfavorably about her husband, but Young Sheldon proved he did not deserve it.

4Sheldon Calling George a “Redneck”

Sheldon Had a Very Bad Impression of his Hometown

Sheldon used the derogatory term “redneck” to describe his father. A redneck typically refers to a working-class person from a rural area, usually someone who is unsophisticated and crass. While George was indeed a working-class man, they lived in a big city, not a rural town. He was certainly not a country type of guy, more blue-collar.

George was a hard worker, but he doesn’t fit the picture Sheldon painted of him. George might not have been an intellectual like Sheldon, but he was smart. He was simple, not classless, and he would likely never have been described as “redneck” by anyone else who knew him.

3He Provided For The Family

Sheldon Described His Father’s Parenting as “Coasting ‘Til the Day He Died”

George was the provider of the family, and he worked hard to do so. He did his best for his high school football team to help raise their profile and prove himself so he could ask for raises. When he was fired, he took whatever job he could to continue providing for the family. He never saw any job as beneath him.

George Cooper is the stereotypical sitcom dad on Young Sheldon who loves his children, but does Season 7 finally answer TBBT’s long-standing question?

What’s more, George supported Mary when she worked for the church and helped out at home whenever he could, even though he often didn’t know how to do simple things like cook or use the washing machine. Whether it was the refrigerator that needed fixing or a major plumbing problem, George did what he needed to do so he could provide for his family. Sometimes even if that providing meant putting a portable toilet in the backyard until they could afford to pay a plumber.

2It Was George Who Was Treated Badly

Sheldon Says His Father Compared Women to an “Egg Salad Sandwich on a Warm Texas Day.”

Sheldon fails to mention how badly some of the family members treated George, including his twin sister Missy when she was dealing with typical growing pains and especially Connie. Connie, one of…, rarely visited without uttering an insult to or about George. She never felt he was good enough for her daughter, or so she made it seem.

Sheldon often belittled his father, which led to George rolling his eyes, but at times clearly hurt his feelings. George often took the brunt of the negativity from the family. It doesn’t mean that George was a poor little victim, but in general, the whole family loved to make fun of each other.

1He Deeply Supported Sheldon

Sheldon Mentioned His Father Was One of the Most Important People in His Life

Perhaps most important is that George was often there to support Sheldon in some of his biggest life decisions. It was George who pushed to let Sheldon skip middle school and go right to high school, then attend college after just one year of high school, despite Mary’s reservations. While George’s motivations might have sometimes been selfish, simply wanting to get Sheldon out of the house, it was also well-meaning. He clearly wanted the best for his son.

As noted, one of the most memorable father-son scenes on the show is when George takes Sheldon to Caltech to see the university and they bond together. Later, when Sheldon is deciding on colleges, George is seen taking him to MIT where he quickly takes his son back to go to Caltech when they walk right into a blizzard. George was there for Sheldon in his times of need far more than Sheldon let on.