Why Lance Barber Wasn’t On Set Throughout Younger Sheldon’s George Demise Scene

Household patriarch George Cooper Sr. (Lance Barber) was doomed to die from the inception of the sequence “Younger Sheldon,” one thing that “The Massive Bang Concept” creator Chuck Lorre finally got here to remorse. On “The Massive Bang Concept,” grownup Sheldon (Jim Parsons) ceaselessly disparages his useless dad, speaking about him as a womanizer who was borderline abusive, although by the point the prequel sequence “Younger Sheldon” got here round, George’s character was largely retconned and he turned way more lovable. In reality, he most likely by no means cheated on his spouse Mary (Zoe Perry) in any respect, and although the youthful Sheldon (Iain Armitage) and his father have been ceaselessly at odds, George Sr. was a fairly good man. 

George’s loss of life loomed over “Younger Sheldon” a bit because the present started to attract to a detailed, with followers questioning how it might be dealt with. In any case, George dying could have a profound impression on not simply Sheldon however the entire household, together with his older brother Georgie (Montana Jordan), who stars on the heart of the “Younger Sheldon” sequel sequence, “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.” Filming the loss of life reveal should have been an enormous second for the forged, and in response to an interview with TV Line, Barber determined to not be on set in any respect throughout that pivotal scene. 

Within the season 7 episode “A New Residence and a Conventional Texas Torture,” the Cooper household is dressed and ready for George Sr. to get residence to allow them to all go take a household picture. Sadly, they’re as an alternative instructed that George has died from a coronary heart assault, which sends his daughter Missy (Raegan Revord), spouse Mary (Zoe Perry), and mother-in-law MeeMaw (Annie Potts) into gasps and tears. Sheldon reacts slightly in a different way, shutting down in a method that absolutely matches his neurodivergent characterization, but it surely’s clear that the household has been modified endlessly. 

Barber defined to TV Line that he thought it was higher to not be there throughout filming to assist his fellow actors actually really feel the loss:

“I had been round fairly a bit that very same day and I had completed earlier than they have been capturing. I intentionally was not there [for the scene]. I believed my absence could be useful for the actors and acceptable for that second. I wished to attend and see it with everybody else.”

It is smart that he would not be there since George’s loss of life occurs totally offscreen, and it most likely helped the actors lean into their very own grief in regards to the present ending simply two episodes later. George’s loss of life hits laborious as a result of he turned so lovable all through seven seasons and actually modified from how Sheldon described him on “The Massive Bang Concept,” and it is laborious to not be devastated proper together with the Cooper household. 

Fortunately, the “Younger Sheldon” people did not must say goodbye to Barber totally, as he additionally filmed some daydream sequences within the present’s greatest and saddest episode, the penultimate “Funeral,” exhibiting up in Sheldon’s makes an attempt to course of the lack of his father. The daydreams are devastating and one even references the heartbreaking Spock loss of life scene from “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” so there have been nonetheless different possibilities for the forged to say goodbye and shed a number of tears collectively. 

Not solely that, however Barber additionally had a secret cameo throughout George’s funeral, wearing drag, and he is set to seem in Georgie’s desires on “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” so it looks as if regardless of Barber stepping away for the filming of his character’s loss of life reveal, he is not executed enjoying the Cooper household father determine anytime quickly.