TVLINE | Was there any apprehension about setting Episode 13 almost entirely at George’s funeral, featuring an open casket, having everyone in tears, not constantly mining the subject matter for laughs…?
The endings of shows [are] always tricky, and you’re always aware that there’s a lot of audience expectation. At some point, you literally have to just put that aside and tell the story that you think is best and hope that people will follow you down that path. Otherwise, you can get lost in the spiral of “Are people going to like this? Are they going to hate this?” It felt important to us, for the family, and for the character [of George Sr.] to do it. You can’t treat this glibly. For us, living with these characters for all this time, they felt real; this family felt real.
Going into Episode 13, we were trying to find that balance where we recognize that it’s a comedy, and we were trying to have some moments of levity. We also wanted to make sure that we gave this moment its actual, proper weight. I think what we found was that there were some jokes and some lighter moments that were shot that, going into the edit, started to feel a little tone deaf. It felt like, “This family is grieving, and maybe we don’t need make a silly joke at this moment.” For the audience, too, they’ve lived with this family for so long that they can be in the shoes of our characters and also grieve George’s death. It’s emotional, and we felt like we had earned it. We also felt like that was being respectful to these characters to let them have this moment of grief.
It was difficult to write, it was incredibly difficult to shoot, and then we had to watch it over and over again in editing, and it gets me every time. Any time you cut to Raegan in tears, it gets me. It’s a weird mixture because the cast was also grieving the end of this show. It was really an emotional time. It took us two days, or a little more than two days in the church to film the funeral scenes — two days that were full of tears, people just weeping on camera and off camera, with some moments of levity. Lance wanted to be in the casket; he wanted to appear at his own funeral, so he’s actually in the casket, and he had a fart machine to lighten the mood when it needed lightening. But it was a rough couple of days.
7 years with that Character every Thursday night made it feel like losing a fiend. So well written. Grateful to have had this program for all these years.
I’m not sure if it was all the hot peppers I was eating at dinner or if it was that episode, but I’ve never cried so much watching a television show. This show deserves an Emmy to honor its entire stellar run.
I lost it when Missy went to say her last goodbye to her dad and remembered her daddy/daughter date at Red Lobster, then poor sweet Georgie assuring his dad he would take care of the family.
My all-time favorite YS scene has to be when George took little Missy (“My name is Melissa”) to Red Lobster. Adorable! And having Missy recall their dinner as she was saying good-bye to her dad was heartbreaking.
Yes! I loved that episode when they went to Red Lobster and that scene where she remembered it just killed me. Another scene that got me was when Georgie was picking up his dad’s suit and he said it was for his dad.
So much all this. As someone with a daughter that just gutted me. And of all the flash backs to throw in…! And everyone brought their A game, with some great actors, but Raegan/Missy has shown to be a tremendous actor herself. She was the heart of the episode. Even if it was a broken heart. Simply amazing.
I totally agree with you. This was an epic show and very well done.
The funeral episode gutted me. It was so well done. It kept my eyes misty, but it did give me some laughs (Peg with the bought casserole and poor weeping Wayne). I loved George. He was my favorite. I loved the following episode too. Loved seeing Sheldon and Amy. It was all just so well done.
This is why I always kissed my wife goodbye and told her I loved her, whether I was leaving for a 6 month Navy warship deployment, heading off to work a 12 hour shift or just running out to the store. As tough as it was, when she passed last June she was in hospice care. God blessed me with the opportunity to kiss her goodbye and tell her I love her.
The first half hour was very well done. The second half, not so much – it felt very weirdly edited and disjointed and rushed. No scene with Mary or Memaw and Sheldon when he leaves? Too much focus on Parsons and Bialik. It was nice to see them, but not at the expense of better / more scenes with the Young Sheldon cast. It feels a little like the writers moved focus to Georgie and Mandy to push the new spin off rather than produce a tight final season. Oh well – still a great show…just a very odd second half hour finale.
One other thought – if they had George’s death and funeral one episode sooner each, it would have given an hour to wrap up the aftermath and Sheldon’s departure. There’s no real reason they couldn’t have cut stuff elsewhere in the season to make that work, but again, it felt like the focus really shifted to Georgie and Mandy…who are great, but that’s not the point of this show.
Yes, I agree. The final episode featured too much of Parsons and Bialik. I would have been fine if it had been a cameo, but constantly cutting to them undercut the episode. I wanted to see more of Mee Maw, Mary, Georgie and Missy, not Old Sheldon and Amy.
I’m just happy the episodes were atleast 20 minutes long! CBS likes letting its comedies come in around 18 and a half minutes so they can get that extra ad money with its hits. They could’ve easily made the episodes 24 minutes long to include just one more small scene.
I disagree. Scenes with the family when he left would have been out of character for Sheldon. And they were still dealing with George’s death. I don’t think a big goodbye scene was necessary.
I agree it didn’t need to be a big goodbye scene like that. But a chance to see him with certain characters one last time would have been nice…rather than the last thing for most being the goofy (albeit funny) baptism scene. It just felt abrupt to then all of a sudden have him on campus. Almost like they filmed more and this was a result of some weird edits.
😭😭 Thank you to everyone involved from the cast, crew, writers and all the people that never get mentioned for this gem of a show which I will miss desperately. I feel so lucky that we got to enjoy this portion of the Cooper family timeline. It truly broke my heart to delete the series from my dvr.💔
I loved most of the finale. It was beautiful, and I loved that one song choice of Major Tom (Coming Home). However, I am very disappointed in Sheldon, although not surprised. He’s 40-ish now and can’t be bothered with his kid’s hockey game? Are you kidding me? I realize TBBT was a comedy in front of a studio audience, but YS was not that, and to see that Sheldon has done nothing towards any sort of emotional development was just tiresome and annoying.
He went to the hockey game. Did you finish the episode? What are you on about? You’re judging his whole later years based off those short clips of one evening in the future.
To be honest, I teared up at the scene from Star Trek.
It was a good finale and we get to see the impetus by which Mary turns into a complete and total religious zealot, like what we saw on BBT.
George was the best out of all those nutcases.
Sheldon not wanting to go to his son’s hockey game merely accentuates the fact that he is still a selfish, egotistic , narcissistic person.
Excellent first half of the series finale. I felt such sadness watching the funeral scenes, I couldn’t help but cry. Loved Meemaw’s heartfelt eulogy for George! She brought a much-needed levity to the saddest event a family and their friends go through. On the other hand, I didn’t much care for the second half hour, too much Sheldon & Amy. I wish there had been more of the family saying their goodbyes to Sheldon as he left for Caltech and less of Amy having to nag Sheldon into going to his son’s hockey game!
It was an excellent way to end it all. I love connecting tbbt with young Sheldon I will miss it
Kudos to the writers and the cast. This was an extraordinary series finale. Excellent from beginning to end. I want to see this show recognized for this episode. It was top notch and all involved deserves accolades for their work.
I agree with you that it was an excellent series finally, I do not have any complaints, all the cast members brought their ‘A game’. They deserve some recognition for it, I teared up a little bit in the first half. Kudos to them all! I will miss the show.
For me personally, the different scenarios with Sheldon imagining what He wished he had said to his dad Were heartbreaking. As an adult, I didn’t get to say goodbye to my father or mother when they passed away, and I Have imagined over and over what I would’ve said if I had The chance. Terrific episode all the way around!
This was a beautifully written and performed episode.
The funeral episode gutted me. It broke my heart. So we’ll written and performed.
Zoe Perry’s performance was outstanding. I loved how she admitted her anger towards George for leaving them. So realistic. She deserve a mention on Performer of the Week!
Agreed
I cried all the way through it……..
I cried three times through the first episode; it was so well-written and well-acted that I couldn’t help it. The second episode was more subdued, probably because adult Sheldon and Amy were bickering over Sheldon going to his son’s game. The scene where Sheldon is about to be baptized to please his mother was just hilarious, when he appeared in his snorkeling outfit……. and I was thankful for the laughter to release more of my emotions. I think this last show deserves an Emmy. I’ll miss this show forever.
How come episode 13 keep cutting out at 8 minutes.
I loved some of the little details like Meemaw having a tissue in her sleeve at the funeral.
I did not want the series to end. I’m mad at the writers.
What year Was this supposed to be when he died The reason I’m wondering is because I saw Mary get a tissue out of a square tissue box And I know I found out that they were Invented in 1967 so I was just Invented in 1967 so I was just curious to see whether or not The day of the The date of the funeral coincided The date of the funeral coincided with that