'Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage' Stars on What's to Come as the 'Young Sheldon' Spinoff Starts Filming
When Rachel Bay Jones and Will Sasso joined Young Sheldon in Season 6 as Audrey and Jim McAllister, the mother and father of Mandy McAllister (Emily Osment) and in-laws of Georgie Cooper (Montana Jordan), they had no idea that their guest-starring roles would soon turn into main roles on the spinoff, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage. They were just excited to be part of the Big Bang Theory family that executive producer Chuck Lorre had brought together. And now they’re excited to keep finding out new things about their characters—in front of a live studio audience—on the new family sitcom, which began filming last week and premieres on CBS this October.
Parade caught up with Jones and Sasso during the Television Critics Association summer press tour just before the start of filming.
“I feel so fortunate to work in a space like this, with people at this level. And I feel that from everyone that works on the Chuck Lorre shows, where immediately, once you step on set, you're around groups of people who are happy to be there,” said Sasso, who previously had a recurring role on Lorre’s sitcom Mom. “And it shows in the work. And it's really important for an audience, especially of a family sitcom.” He said that when the people who work on a show feel connected to each other, it comes across to the audience. “For Rachel and I, getting to step on to Young Sheldon, with a crew and a cast and an entire team has been together for so long, and are like a family, it's immediate. You feel like a family. And we hope that that will translate.”
“I think that audiences feel that,” Jones agreed. “That's part of why they love Chuck’s shows, and why Young Sheldon was as big of a success as it was. It’s like that's that one little piece that you don't know you're picking up on. It’s that real family feeling. That’s why audiences feel like they're part of our family—it’s because there is a family to feel part of.”
Georgie & Mandy will film in front of a live studio audience
The biggest stylistic change from Young Sheldon to Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage is that the spinoff will be a multi-camera sitcom filmed in front of a live, laughing audience like a play. It will be a return to the format of The Big Bang Theory, the show from which Young Sheldon spun off, rather than the single-cam format of Young Sheldon.
It’s a familiar format for Sasso and Jones, both of whom have extensive experience performing in front of live audiences. Sasso was on the sketch comedy series MadTV for many years, and has appeared in numerous other multi-cam sitcoms throughout his career. And while Georgie & Mandy is Jones’ first series regular TV role, she has major Broadway cred, having won a Tony, an Emmy and a Grammy for her performance in the hit musical Dear Evan Hansen. She’s excited not only to be a regular on a TV series, but that it’s on a multi-cam show in front of an audience.
“It feels like there's a lot of what I grew up with and what I cut my teeth on in theater,” she said.
Sasso said that while there won’t be much improvisation going on—“When you have Chuck Lorre [and co-creators] Steve Holland and Steve Molaro, there's nothing that needs to come from inside”—the presence of the studio audience creates opportunities for spontaneity. “With an audience there dictating, ‘is this funny?’ we hope to keep the cameras on the whole time and get absolutely everything,” Sasso said.
“And they're big cameras, but we can roll them back into the dressing rooms and out to the parking lot too,” to capture every potential spontaneous moment, he joked.
Learning about their backstory & finding out their future
Both actors are looking forward to exploring Mandy and Jim’s history and their relationship in greater depth than Young Sheldon allowed. “They're a couple that's been together for over 30 years, and I'm excited, as I hope audiences are, to learn what their backstory is, what they were like as high school or college sweethearts,” Sasso said.
Jones agreed, and added that she’s also interested in finding out more about what the future holds for Mandy and Jim, now that their lives are changing with the addition of Georgie and baby Cece to their family. “We can really get in and see who these people are,” she said. “See their multifaceted nature, how they are as parents, who they are with each other.”
Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage premieres Thursday, Oct. 17 on CBS.
