Young Sheldon marked a technical change from parent show The Big Bang Theory. The beloved spinoff switched from a multi-camera setup to a single-camera, which proved to be effective. Now, YS' own offshoot, the newly debuted Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage makes the return to the multi-camera sitcom format. On the heels of the 2024 TV schedule entry's series premiere, EP Steve Holland is sharing why the opening scene wasted no time in acknowledging its return to a live-audience format.
For those who missed it, the premiere opened up with Georgie laughing at an episode of Frasier, commenting that he likes "laughin' shows," or shows in which the audience laughs after a joke because it lets him know when to laugh. It was a perfect scene that I mentioned among my reasons for loving the series premiere. Steve Holland admitted to TV Line that the meta moment likely wasn't crucial but that, in the long run, it would be to the show's benefit:
I don’t know that we felt we needed to address [the format switch] for the audience to know what was going on. … As we were talking about the show and the switch to multi-cam — which, you know, I’m not sure that there has ever been a show that went from single- to multi-cam — we knew that it was going to be a thing that people were going to have a reaction to, and it was going to be a thing that people talk about, and we just thought, ‘Why don’t we get in front of it? Let’s own it and not try to pretend like we don’t know that there’s a difference here.’ And it just seemed like a fun way, right off the bat, to say, ‘We understand. We know what we’re doing. We get it. We know this is a different. We know this is a slightly different thing than you’re used to seeing in this world, but settle in. I think you’re going to enjoy it.
I can completely understand addressing the elephant in the room, especially when dealing with an audience that kept up with Young Sheldon because it differed from The Big Bang Theory. It's fair to say multi-camera sitcoms are far less common than they once were, which is probably why some critics praised Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage as an enjoyable throwback.
There's certainly a stigma sometimes attached to sitcoms with live audiences, with Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage inadvertently acknowledging that via one of the titular characters. A common assumption is that the shows have a reputation for dumbing down the humor by instructing the audience on when to laugh, which is ironically why Georgie likes it so much. I assumed using Frasier was a way of bucking the idea that classic sitcoms make for a "dumb" show, but Steve Holland explained the actual reason that show was chosen:
We were looking for shows that would have been on at the time that were popular enough that people would would recognize them and know what we were talking about. We’re big Wonder Years fans — and, obviously, Wonder Years was an influence on Young Sheldon.
I'm going to have to revisit Young Sheldon with my Netflix subscription, because it never occurred to me it was influenced by The Wonder Years. I already feel ahead of the game streaming Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, considering I grew up watching many sitcoms that used the multi-camera style to great effect.
It remains to be seen whether Georgie & Mandy will reach the heights of Frasier, Roseanne and the other best sitcoms of all time. What I will say is it's off to a great start and, given the success of its predecessors, it may end up being one of the more popular shows on TV.
I think the most surprising takeaway as a Young Sheldon fan is how enjoyable the show is without Sheldon in the mix. Usually, when a franchise removes the main character responsible for its existence, the quality declines. However, I'm optimistic that won't be the case here. A lot of that is credited to how the previous show established the Cooper family and made the siblings as equally entertaining and enjoyable as their genius brother. I daresay that the show is able to breathe a little more without Sheldon in the mix and is less burdened by the talk of science that has little to do with the family at large. Here's hoping it can stay as entertaining as a "laughin' show."
Catch new episodes of Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage on CBS on Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Hopefully, the rest of Season 1 will be just as enjoyable as the start, but I'm eager to see what direction this show takes, as the eponymous couple get deeper into parenthood and their marriage.