In movies, novels, television, comics, and just about everything aside from real life, death is not the end. Through a variety of dramatic devices, individuals can return — for legitimate emotional/narrative reasons, be it to spackle over cracks in the plot or to generate some wholly unearned sentimentality. From Hamlet’s dad popping up in Act I, Scene IV of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy to trainer Mickey Goldmill appearing out of the Philadelphia heavens to exhort his pupil to fight one more round in “Rocky V,” the dead are useful to the most skilled of storytellers. They’re also helpful to paycheck-chasing actors cast as slashers in horror movies or boyfriends in soap operas.
One of the more recent inductees to the league of the fictional dead is George Cooper Sr., the father of Sheldon and Georgie Cooper in the “Big Bang Theory” prequel-spinoff series “Young Sheldon.” He checked out in the series’ emotional finale, lending gravity and a touch of grace to a character fans of the show found complicated. As a high school football coach, he couldn’t quite connect with his science/math prodigy of a younger son, but he also struggled with his under-performer of an older son, Georgie. There were a lot of unresolved issues between the Georges, so fans of the previous two series might expect to see those matters explored on the latest “Big Bang Theory” spinoff “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.”
They might even expect to see the return of George. And they might get their wish.
Will George Cooper rise again for Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage?
In an interview with Dexerto, Lance Barber, who played George Cooper over seven seasons of “Young Sheldon,” revealed that there’d be no resistance on his part to digging up the old man’s old bones for as yet unspecified purposes on “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.” “I’d be open to getting the offer, that would be so flattering,” he stated. “If they figure out a way to do it that wasn’t diminishing what they’ve already established.”
Basically, according to Barber, his involvement is contingent on the writers doing justice to his character. As he told Dexerto:
“If the writers decided to do that, they would do that in a thoughtful and classy way as opposed to a stunt to get people to watch the ghost of George Cooper return. If that could be done, then I would consider it. Otherwise, I’m really satisfied.”
Barber obviously understands the desire on the part of the writers and the fans to give George an emotionally resonant return, but if he’s grumbled his last as the character, he’s okay with that, too. “The way that George lives on in the show,” he added, “I like the idea that that’s where the legacy ends for him. He lives on and people talk about him.” Maybe for George, like the dramatis personae of Stephen King’s “Pet Sematary,” dead is better.
