[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 Episode 12, “Typhoid Georgie.”]
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage brought back another Young Sheldon star to TV screens in the latest installment, “Typhoid Georgie.” But it wasn’t just bringing a character back from a previous series, as Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage brought Lance Barber‘s George Sr. back from the dead in a couple of dream sequences.
In the episode, Georgie (Montana Jordan) falls ill with a cold, but he’s determined to work through the suffering, claiming that’s what his dad taught him. Unlike his dad, the McAllisters insist that he rest up and recuperate, but during a fever dream, Georgie reunites with his dad, which leads to mixed emotions.
As viewers will recall, George Sr. died in the final episodes of Young Sheldon, and Georgie has continued to grapple with that loss since the debut of this latest spinoff in The Big Bang Theory universe. The idea to bring George back to screens in this capacity was sparked from a conversation with Chuck Lorre reveals executive producer Steve Holland.
CBS
“Chuck had always said that he lost his father many years ago and he still dreams of him to this day. So it always seemed like a possibility to bring George back in that way,” Holland tells TV Insider. “And then when we were getting into this episode, it just seemed to click in. A fever dream makes perfect sense, and he’s also wrestling with these thoughts of letting his family down and letting his father down and maybe not being the man that his father was,” Holland adds, noting Georgie’s mindset.
But what begins as a somewhat normal dream depicting a moment between father and son, the scene takes a dark shift as George Sr. gives Georgie a hard time about missing work. When they share a hug, Georgie pulls away to find a zombified George Sr. looking back, telling him, “Get to work.”
Rousing from the dream, Georgie tries to go back to work but is stopped by brother-in-law Connor (Dougie Baldwin). When it came to capturing the nightmarish moment, Holland says, “I think we were looking for a little moment to shock [viewers] and because it was a dream, it gave us that leeway, but even when we wrote it in the script, I know people were upset by it in a good way. People on the crew and the staff were like, ‘I don’t know if I want to see Zombie George that’s going to be scary and it’s going to be upsetting.’ And I think it was by design, but it was also really fun,” Holland adds.
One positive to the scary moment? “Lance had such a good time being in zombie makeup and we have lots of behind-the-scenes pictures of him hanging out,” Holland reveals.
CBS
The George that Georgie meets in his dream shouldn’t be considered the real George though because ultimately, in both dream sequences, he’s a manifestation of Georgie’s mind. As Holland puts it, “[Lance is] not playing George Sr., George Sr. is gone. This is the George who’s living in Georgie’s head. So it was fun to watch Lance sort of find those nuances that made it different,” Holland adds.
After Connor mentions that George Sr.’s attitude towards sick days may have been a contributing factor to his death, Georgie has another dream where he addresses that topic with his dad, noting he wants to be there for his daughter as she grows up. Their exchange is a little sweeter in this moment and a lot less terrifying without a zombie jumpscare.
“He’s still George Sr., he’s still familiar. But especially in the first scene, he’s more critical than I think real George Sr. would be because that’s what Georgie’s wrestling with in his head,” Holland says of the young man’s experience seeing his dad. “He [feels like he’s] letting his dad down. And so in that first scene, it’s a slightly more critical, more harsh George Sr.” But as noted, above, “George Sr. is different in both of those scenes because it is the manifestation of him in Georgie’s subconscious.”
When it came to having Barber back on set and in front of cameras, it was a surreal experience as Holland shares, “[Lance] comes to tapings and he brings his kids, but it’s a different thing to see him back as George and back on that set. Honestly, he looks so different in real life than he does as George. He has a beard, his hair is a little grayer. He doesn’t really look like that. So it’s different having Lance here as a guest and having George Sr. here and especially stepping onto that set, which we hadn’t put up since Young Sheldon wrapped.”
Holland even reveals that fellow executive producer Steven Molaro had to bring back some props from Young Sheldon to complete the Cooper family kitchen set for filming. “Once those little pieces got back in there, it just felt surreal and familiar and comforting.”
While there aren’t any immediate plans to see Barber back, considering Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage has already been renewed for Season 2, there’s certainly plenty of opportunity for more dream sequences in the future. In the meantime, stay tuned for more fun ahead as Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage Season 1 continues on CBS.
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, Season 1, Thursdays, 8/7c, CBS