BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. _ What if, as a grown-up, you could confront your younger self? What would you say? That's the challenge facing TV producers Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro as they try to spin their new sitcom, "Young Sheldon," into gold.
Authors of the super-nova "The Big Bang Theory," Lorre and Molaro are regressing to 1989 and visiting their popular "Big Bang" character, Sheldon Cooper, before he was an annoying brainiac. Their new comedy, with a special premiere on CBS Sept. 25, stars young Iain Armitage as the 9-year-old Sheldon.
Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon on the original show, is an executive producer of the new take and provides a voice-over narration. He tells the young Iain that he has much more in common with the boy now than he would have as a kid.
"Here's the difference. You have a very smart, mature approach to this," he says to Iain. "I was much more fearful of other people than you were. You will talk to anyone. I still won't, no offense, but I really won't. I don't know. But I would say in those ways, and in many ways I felt ... I had a great time as a child. I really did. But those are some of the ways in which I was just slightly different ... "
Parsons insists he was no Einstein in school either. "I was not an overly bright child. I was mediocre, and I didn't befuddle my parents. That came much later, with my sexuality," he says.
Lorre and Molaro have been thinking about a young Sheldon spin-off for 10 years. "The origins of Sheldon have been something we've been interested in writing about for a couple-hundred episodes of 'The Big Bang,' says Lorre, who also created "Two and a Half Men," "Mom," "Dharma & Greg."
"And so last fall, when Jim sent me an email discussing the possibility of actually taking it a step further, it just seemed like the greatest idea in the world. And so I called Steve, and he thought it was a great idea."
Casting the role of the young Sheldon was a critical element, say the producers. Young Iain recalls it was Christmas time and he was visiting his grandmother in Georgia when his family heard about the tryouts. His mother shot an audition video of him on her iPhone and sent it to a couple of casting directors.
"I've been working with (casting directors) Nikki Valco and Ken Miller for over 20 years, and they're astonishing," reports Lorre. "They brought Jim to read for 'The Big Bang Theory' 11 years ago. And one of the first things they did when we wrote the script was actually, even before we wrote the script, we wrote some test sides (dialogue). And they sent us a video, a home video, (of Iain)."
"He made us laugh," recalls Molaro. "We laughed. We looked at it and went, 'Oh, my God. We can't possibly be this lucky.' He was just spectacular," says Lorre.
In another bit of fortuitous casting, young Sheldon's mother is played by Zoe Perry. Perry is actually the daughter of Laurie Metcalfe, the actress who plays the grown-up Sheldon's Bible-thumping mother on "The Big Bang Theory."
Perry confesses to similarities between her and her mom. "Genetics do a lot for me. This is my voice. Certain mannerisms just come with the territory," she says. "I mean, upon knowing I was going to audition for this, I re-watched all the episodes that she was in, because I just wanted to be sure that I was in the same ballpark as her."
"When she came in to read for the part of Mary, again, we were flabbergasted," says Lorre. "It was like, 'This can't be. This is beyond good luck to have an actress who is of this caliber and has clearly mastered her craft but also has the sensibilities that we've come to see Laurie do for years on "Big Bang."' So it was a tremendous piece of good luck for the show."
In the new series the young Sheldon � while very bright _ hasn't yet developed the social ineptitude that the older Sheldon displays.
"Part of the fun of writing the series was not just to watch how Sheldon develops, but to see how his family has to adapt," says Lorre. "Everybody in the family is affected by having a child who is remarkable, and they all have to adapt, and their lives have to change in order to accommodate him. And that was interesting for us to write about. We touched on it a little bit in the pilot, but it's something we are going to do more of."
After the Sept. 25 premiere, "Young Sheldon" will fall into its regular timeslot on Nov. 2 following � what else? _ "The Big Bang Theory."
MINISERIES CONSCRIPTS ISIS RECRUITS
Who would've thought that the National Geographic Channel would become a stiff competitor for other networks in the drama field? It managed the improbable with its "Genius: Einstein" last season, which is basking in the light of 10 Emmy nominations. Next Monday and Tuesday the network is back with a four-part thriller, "The State."
The miniseries is written by award-winning writer-director Peter Kosminsky and it chronicles four young Brits who abandon their homes to become ISIS recruits. Kosminsky spent a year and a half researching the subject, and all of the characters are composites of real people.
"We had a team of researchers," he says. "Obviously, it's a bit difficult to speak about the detail of that research. But a lot of it was focused on character ... But everything that takes place in the drama actually took place in the research in real life. We haven't invented any incidents," he says.
"Particularly in Europe, we have a lot of stories of these often very young people who slip away from their families. We have the story of three young girls from Bethnal Green in London, who are school children, somehow slipped away from their families, disappeared. We see them in sort of grainy CCTV pictures crossing the border between Turkey and Syria and then nothing _ silence, blankness. We don't know what happens to them there. There's no footage. There are no letters out, no information.
"So what we set out to do was draw that curtain aside and say we're not going to make a show about radicalization. We're going to make a show about what their daily lives are like, these young people who went out to Syria ... That's what this show is about purely and simply, drawing back the curtain and finding out what life is like day-to-day in the Islamic state."
PARENTS VOTE ON KIDS' PROGRAMMING
For years parents have dreamed of having some say about the shows their kids watch on television. Amazon is offering that opportunity this month as it streams its new kids' show pilots. Which ones will make it to series and which will bite the dust will be up to the parents who offer feedback on their favorites.
Among the new shows is "A Kid Called Mayonnaise" about an 11-year-old who lives in a seedy motel and dreams of making friends with a mysterious "Birthday Girl." "Skyward" involves three kids who operate a secret podcast that is searching for ET's. "Will vs. the Future" is a time-travel comedy about a boy who's visited by a time traveling warrior who warns him that his future may be not be as rosy as he wishes.
AUDITIONS UNDER WAY FOR NEW TALENT SHOW
Have you given up on "The Voice"? Do you think that America's got enough talent? Well, here's your chance to enter a new singing contest. Fox is holding a digital casting call for its new show, "The Four." This series begins where other talent shows end: the final four singers in the competition will try to maintain their position while newcomers challenge them. Hopefuls may audition at thefourmusic.com and must be at least 16 or older as of Dec. 1. They are accepting these video tryouts through Jan 25 of next year. The final "Four" will be chosen by a panel of music pros � yet to be named. And the big winner _ the competitor who holds on the longest to his musical chair � earns a boost and backing by the music professionals to a bona fide career.
