BURBANK, Calif. – Sitting on a paint-chipped porch chair overlooking the backyard of his fake childhood home, “Young Sheldon” star Iain Armitage takes a moment to savor the green grass.
Actually, there are more sizable pockets of dirt than grass outside the Cooper family’s humble East Texas abode, created on a Warner Brothers soundstage. Still, it’s a home for Armitage, 15, who was just 8 in 2017, when he started playing the pint-sized version of Jim Parsons’ adult genius Sheldon Cooper in the prequel spinoff of CBS hit “The Big Bang Theory.”
“I used to fit in those swings,” says Armitage, eyeing the faded metal backyard swing set. “Now I’m too large. I tried it again two hours ago. I didn’t tip it over, so I’m counting that as a victory. But I rocked the swing set, so it’s a little unsafe for me now.”
But childhood – and TV shows – inevitably come to an end. Armitage soaks it all in while taking a break from shooting some of the final scenes for the May 16 hour-long series finale (8 EDT/PDT). Just as the adult Sheldon reminisced on “Big Bang Theory,” the 14-year-old Sheldon will finally leave East Texas for the California Institute of Technology.
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Both franchise lore and Armitage’s age provided a cap for the prequel series and the reason to end it after seven seasons, says “Big Bang” and “Sheldon” co-creator and executive producer Chuck Lorre.
“In the ‘Big Bang’ universe, Sheldon goes to Caltech at 14. Even if we ignored that, the show is called ‘Young Sheldon,’ and that’s not true anymore,” says Lorre. “We got to watch this guy grow up, and it was wonderful. It’s heartbreaking to end, even though it was the right story decision. It just felt like the right time. But it didn’t make it any less emotional.”
Armitage, a trooper ever since CBS announced the end was nigh last November, is not prone to tears, even on the second-to-last day of shooting.
“I feel weirdly calm,” he says. “I’m definitely going to miss being here. But I feel so lucky and grateful at the same time. So it all swirls together in my mind and they cancel each other out. I’m definitely sad. But I think it’s hit a lot of other people harder than it’s hit me.”
That’s for sure. During one break, Annie Potts, who plays Sheldon’s Meemaw, wanders through the ranch-style Cooper house with Raegan Revord, who plays Missy Cooper, admiring family wall photos as if for the last time. Holly Revord, Raegan’s mother, doesn’t hide her tears or the balled-up Kleenex in her hand, watching the monitor as her daughter shoots scenes in Sheldon’s packed-up bedroom. Matt Hobby, who finished shooting his final scenes as Pastor Jeff earlier in the week, has solemnly returned to show his support for the cast.
Nearby in the writers’ room, executive producers Steven Molaro and Steve Holland, both veterans of “Big Bang Theory,” which ended its celebrated 12-season run in 2019, have a tissue box nearby.
“We’ve both been through this on ‘Big Bang’ as well. So many ‘lasts,’ the last day for this character and so on. Each day I think, maybe I’ll get less emotional. Then I get emotional all over again,” says Molaro. “All the writers were crying in the writers’ room coming to the end, writing all the things happening on the show.”