*luminous*

“The VCR Illumination”

SHELDON SEEKS ADVICE FROM THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN HELP HIM – HIS YOUNGER SELF

Special Guests Stars Include “Young Sheldon’s” Iain Armitage, Lance Barber and Montana Jordan

Christine Baranski Returns as Leonard’s Mother, Beverly



Sheldon and Amy are still down about their theory being disproven, but a VHS tape from Sheldon’s past inspires him not to give up.
Also, Bernadette turns into a pageant mom when she tries to help Wolowitz ace his Magic Castle audition.


REGULAR CAST:
Johnny Galecki (Leonard)
Jim Parsons (Sheldon)
Kaley Cuoco (Penny)
Simon Helberg (Wolowitz)
Kunal Nayyar (Koothrappali)
Mayim Bialik (Amy)
Melissa Rauch (Bernadette)

RECURRING CAST:
Christine Baranski (Beverly)

GUEST CAST:
Iain Armitage (Young Sheldon)
Lance Barber (George Sr.)
Montana Jordan (Georgie)
Kurt Scholler (Judge)

STORY BY: Steve Holland & Steven Molaro & Bill Prady
TELEPLAY BY: Maria Ferrari & Andy Gordon & Jeremy Howe
DIRECTED BY: Mark Cendrowski

Promo, Sneak Peeks, Promotional Photos + Press Release

WeBuiltThePyramids

TFTNT!

Roxanne and I saw this one on Tuesday.

Unsung Hero

I hope everyone enjoys the episode.

meka3000

Sigh... that was not Sheldon's first sports metaphor. He made 1 in panty pinata polarization in season 2. 🙄 Can the writers stop trying to glamorize this crossover with artificial firsts?

SargeantFuzzyBoots

I really loved this episode. The integration of Sheldon's childhood was done seamlessly through the video tape, and I like how we get Sheldon seeing his father from a whole different angle that was sort of lost on him as a child and much of adulthood.

Bernadette as a pageant mom is my favourite thing.

WeBuiltThePyramids

When we saw this at the taping I turned to Roxanne and said "no it wasn't," and then after the episode I reminded her of what the first one was.

Overall I liked the episode - the Young Sheldon part did not take over the entire story like the Tam thing did (I am pretty sure that one is in my bottom five of the whole series) but this fit very well, IMO, into the Shamy storyline as a whole, and it let the other characters have their own thing without dragging them into it.

I did like the Howadette stuff way better, but it was a good episode overall for me.

Captain Riterra Smith

A pageant mom, a coach dad, yourself years ago. Motivation or revelatory insight is something we might find in places that we didn't appreciate at first blush. I myself could definitely use some words of wisdom dug up from the past.



(P.S. A lack of internal consistency in this show long predates Young Sheldon)

meka3000

My favorite part was the beginning where Lenny discusses what not to say to Shamy. Given the current political climate they could've filled the entire opening.

I also loved this exchange from Lenny:
"Penny: "Why didn't you pull out that tape when Sheldon declared his room his own sovreign nation and started a trade war with us?

Leonard: "BECAUSE HIS ONLY EXPORT WAS HIM TALKING!""

soundsgood

Okay episode, the crossover wasn't too bad and the storyline with Bernadette and Howard was nice but too long IMO.

Speaking of lack of consistency, Leonard's dog died when he was in Pasadena, and not hit by a car.

Not a lot of Leonard and Penny (even lesser Raj) but they were cute and very supportive to Sheldon.

SargeantFuzzyBoots

It's possible he had a dog before Mitzy.

soundsgood

Of course, there's always a possible explanation for every change, but it's safe to say that they've just forgotten Mitzy.

Jasper1975

I forgot he made a sports metaphor before... Given he doesn't speak about sports a lot, it slipped my mind...Probably a lot people have too because it's been so long.

I enjoyed it. They did the crossover well, and spoke true. A way to make it work and work for the current storyline. A way to give Sheldon some positive memories of his father in his adult life.... Despite all he's said about him over the years. We know it doesn't jive by the presentation on Young Sheldon. But then we have learned Sheldon likes to talk and sometimes embellish. But there is time for Young Sheldon's George Sr to merge to what Sheldon saw or believed.

So their breakthrough is on again, but in a slightly different viewpoint.

Loved how they addressed how the tape wasn't used before... While you can say Leonard could have brought it up when the whole North Pole fiasco happened, but then Leonard wasn't a good friend in that storyline and was concentrated on getting busy with Penny.

Penny's line about a trade war was funny. And so was Leonard's response.

Loved how they gave a nod to Bernadette's pagent life. Makes me wonder when Halley gets old enough would Bernadette turn into one herself. A pagent mother.

Cute she wanted to be supportive of Howard!

ennaxor

I was pretty happy with how they ended up handling the crossover - the Young Sheldon aspect didn't take over, and there was a solid purpose. And Sheldon's "thanks Dad" actually made me tear up.

The Howard and Bernadette stuff was great! Just fun all around. And I was happy with the cute moments LP had too.

Jasper1975

I agree. It was done in a way that made sense for the two shows, and wasn't to intrusive and yet gave Sheldon insight and maybe a good memory of his father and allowed Amy to experience it too.

It was funny how Pennny turned into a Pagent Mom as it was so engrained in her. Raj really didn't have anything to do really for the episode.

Whimsical Elf

This is extremely high praise coming from you!

I thought it worked out very nicely with Sheldon's dad appearing at the end. However, the way they crowbarred the video tape in there as the mechanism for the crossover wasn't exactly subtle. Anyway, that aside, it was a very good episode. Loved that Shamy found a way to resurrect their theory.

Bernie and Howard were pretty funny. I liked seeing Howard stand up to her a little bit.

ETA
I must admit I didn't remember the previous sports metaphor(s), but I did have a sense when I heard the line that it seemed unlikely it was his first.