To Think, This All Started With a Big Bang

I'm trying remember when I became officially aware of shared universes in TV, film, and other forms of media. I know I watched the Marvel Cinematic Universe kick off with Iron Man on May 2, 2008. Even before that, I was aware of some other universes. I had known already that Universal's top monsters (Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, The Wolf Man) often pop up in various films. As early as the age of eight or nine, I knew about the Archie Comics universe; with the Archie characters, Josie and the Pussycats, and Sabrina often rolling together.

But for the most part, the universes I had known about were in movies, and even then, they were in the action genre. Same applied to TV, with the recently defunct Arrowverse ruling The CW for over a decade. In TV, the universes were usually in action or drama. Comedy? Well, the only one I did learn about is that Happy Days has a universe that consists of Laverne & Shirley, Joanie Loves Chachi, and of course, Mork & Mindy.

I think this current one I'm about to discuss may top that.

It's pretty much official, folks: The Big Bang Theory has its own universe. If it didn't before this, it does now. All it takes is one spinoff to form a shared universe, though IMO, a truly deep shared universe has at least two other spinoffs. We have a new addition to the universe, but let's take a look at how this started.

The Big Bang Theory

It all started with a Big Bang (Bang!) on September 24, 2007. Chuck Lorre, creator of the iconic Dharma & Greg and was one of the minds behind a little show called Two and a Half Men, decided to add another show to his list. The Big Bang Theory centered on the lives of a quartet of intelligent grown sci-fi geeks, with the two main ones being Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstader, both physicists at the California Institute of Technology, who also serve a roommates at their apartment, which sees the arrival of attractive new neighbor Penny. The other half of the geeky quartet includes engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Rajesh "Raj" Koothrapali.

The cast included Jim Parsons in the role of Sheldon Cooper, as well as Johnny Galecki (of Roseanne fame) as Leonard Hofstader. Simon Helberg played Howard Wolowitz, while Kunal Nayyar played Raj Koothrapali. Kaley Cuoco played Penny, with Cuoco coming off being part of 8 Simple Rules and the original Charmed. Over the years, the cast would grow quite a bit, with the main additions being Mayim Bialik (Blossom) as Amy Farrah Fowler, who would serve as Sheldon's love interest and eventual wife, Melissa Rauch as Bernadette Rostenkowski, who would date and eventually marry Howard, and Kevin Sussman as comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (much more on him later).

Young Sheldon

The Big Bang Theory lasted for a dozen seasons and consisted of 279 episodes; that and Two and a Half Men served as two of the longest running sitcoms in the last three decades. On September 25, 2017, the same day that BBT's eleventh season began, Young Sheldon premiered on CBS, which was the legendary prequel spinoff to BBT. As the title states, the series centers on Sheldon Cooper's early live as a brilliant child prodigy growing up in Texas, with the series beginning with Sheldon attending high school at age nine in 1989.

The titular Young Sheldon was played by Iain Armitage, with Jim Parsons (who served as an EP) providing the narrative voice of Adult Sheldon, similar to The Wonder Years. Regarding the rest of the cast, Lance Barber (who actually appeared on BBT as Leonard's former bully) played Sheldon's father, George Cooper, Sr., a high school football coach. Zoe Perry (aka villainess Samantha Ruland on Scandal) played Sheldon's devout mother, Mary Cooper--a role that was played by Zoe's real-life mother, Laurie Metcalf on BBT. Montana Jordan played George "Georgie" Cooper, Jr., George and Mary's first born, whose high school is attended by nine-year-old Sheldon (Georgie was played by Jerry O'Connell on BBT). Sheldon's twin sister, Missy Cooper, was played by Raegan Revord, and the show really focuses on that dynamic between the two, mainly Missy's teasing of her brother and feeling that she's ignored in favor of Sheldon (and by some extent, Georgie). Courtney Henggeler (aka Amanda LaRusso from Cobra Kai) played Missy on BBT.

Rounding out the cast is Annie Potts as Constance Tucker, the maternal "Meemaw" of Georgie, Sheldon, and Missy. Always good to see Annie Potts, who is known for playing Janine Melnitz in the first two Ghostbusters films, and reprised the role in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, while also being known for playing Mary Jo Shively on Designing Women. On BBT, Meemaw was played by June Squibb. The series lasted seven seasons, and it was in the tail end of the final season that centered on the sudden passing of George Cooper, Sr. and the aftermath. The series finale aired on May 16, 2024, which featured Parsons and Bialik as Sheldon and Amy, with the episode revealing two things: one, everything in the series was being retold by Sheldon in a memoir, and two, Sheldon (an avid non-believer) actually got baptized to please Mary following George's passing.

Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage

On October 17, 2024, just over five months after Young Sheldon ended (and just two days before the New York Yankees won the pennant), Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage premiered on CBS, and currently serves as part of CBS' awesome Thursday night lineup. The series serves as a sequel to Young Sheldon, putting Montana Jordan's Georgie Cooper, Jr. in the spotlight along with Emily Osment as Amanda "Mandy" McAllister. Osment, the sister of fellow actor Haley Joel Osment, first appeared as Mandy during the fifth season of Young Sheldon and hooked up with Georgie after he lied about his age to appear older. In that time, Mandy became pregnant with their child, a daughter named Constance (named after Meemaw), nicknamed "CeeCee." Georgie and Mandy tied the knot during the tail end of Young Sheldon, and the marriage takes center stage in this sequel to the prequel series.

The series also features Rachel Bay Jones and Will Sasso as Mandy's respective parents, Audrey and Jim McAllister, who both previously appeared on Young Sheldon. Audrey often disapproves of Georgie, while Jim does like Georgie and hires him to work for him. Dougie Baldwin plays Mandy's younger brother, Connor McAllister, who never appeared on Young Sheldon. The series' second season ended a month prior, and a third season is coming.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe

And that brings us to the current addition to the Big Bang Theory universe. Emphasis on universe. It was about three years that another BBT spinoff was announced, and later on, the central character was revealed to be none than our favorite hapless loser himself, Stuart Bloom. By 2025, the title was revealed: Stuart Fails to Save the Universe. For a year I wondered what the hell they could possibly mean. Then the trailer came out finally. It's not just a sitcom, it's a sci-fi action packed sitcom. I'm serious, I thought the title was figurative, but it's not. The synopsis reads as follows:

After accidentally creating a new multiverse, comic book store owner Stuart Bloom must locate a quantum-interference device to restore reality.

No pressure. No pressure at all.

Kevin Sussman returns as Stuart Bloom, and the central cast includes three more from BBT. Lauren Lapkus reprises her role as Stuart's girlfriend, Denise, and Brian Posehn will reprise his role as Bert Kibbler. Rounding out the BBT B-Squad is John Ross Bowie as Barry Kripke, the annoying pest whose rhotacism is a scene stealer. That's one of the reasons why I'm grateful to BBT. It's because of that show that I finally learned that there's a word for that speech impediment that we've heard from Elmer Fudd and Tweety for decades. And for the record, my "B-Squad" comment is out of respect for those characters; they often brought out the best when they appeared on BBT, but it was clear that they were the second team behind Team Sheldon.

According to reports, we will see several different people from BBT, one of them being Christine Baranski, who played Leonard's mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstader, on the long running series (it would be nice if one of the alternate universes would give us a villainous Beverly; Baranski's done the villainess thing before). The series will premiere on July 23, 2026 with the first episode on HBO Max (the same platform that has every season of BBT and Young Sheldon), and will release weekly until the season finale.

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I love The Big Bang Theory and everything that came with it; I remember finally binge-watching this show during the height of the pandemic about five or six years ago. It has grown to such an exponential level over the years with two prequel spinoffs; one that ended a couple of years ago, and one that's ongoing. Now we have this upcoming series on HBO Max, and I am very ready for this! The BBT universe continues to impress, and this upcoming season will be a milestone: the 20th season of this overall universe! The bangs are getting bigger and bigger with each year that passes!