The highly anticipated Big Bang Theory spinoff Young Sheldon premieres at 7:30 p.m. Monday on CBS. I found it charming family fare and have added it to our weekly DVR list.
Note that this is a special sneak preview episode to take advantage of the Season 11 premiere of The Big Bang Theory at 7 p.m. Young Sheldon will return at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 2. That'll be a Thursday and after Thursday Night Football finishes its run.
Aside: In The Big Bang Theory's season premiere, Amy (Mayim Bialik) will answer Sheldon's marriage proposal from last season's finale. Will she accept?
We all know and love the adult Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) from TV's No. 1 comedy, but this prequel follows the adventures of 9-year-old Sheldon and the rest of the Cooper family living in the God-fearing, football-loving (fictional) East Texas town of Medford in 1989.
Iain Armitage stars as Sheldon, with Zoe Perry as his loving and protective mother, Mary, and Lance Barber as his dad, George, the high school football coach.
Montana Jordan portrays Sheldon's long-suffering older brother, Georgie, and Raegan Revord is Sheldon's mouthy twin sister, Missy.
The always delightful Annie Potts (Designing Women) plays Sheldon's foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, beloved Meemaw, and Parsons (who is also an executive producer) narrates as the adult Sheldon.
The series begins with Sheldon skipping several grades and starting high school -- the same grade as the disapproving Georgie.
Needless to say, Sheldon has plenty of trouble fitting in with the older kids and it all starts when he insists on wearing his bow tie to school. "Perhaps I'll start a fad," he naively quips.
Fascinating trivia: Playing Sheldon's mother runs in the family. Perry is the daughter of Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne), who plays Sheldon's mother on The Big Bang Theory.
Monday will be a big night on CBS. Here's the rest of the lineup.
• Kevin Can Wait returns at 8 p.m. in what promises to be a revamped second season. It's not a spoiler to remind you that Erinn Hayes is being killed off as Kevin's (Kevin James) wife, Donna, and Leah Remini, who played James' wife on King of Queens, is joining the series as Vanessa Cellucci, Kevin's old police partner.
Nine or 10 months will have passed since Donna died, so it won't be so abrupt for the characters.
• Me, Myself & I is a new Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live) comedy arriving at 8:30 p.m. that has an interesting premise. The series follows Alex Riley in the present, when he's 40, but also travels back to 1991 when he was 14 (played by Jack Dylan Grazer, It), and ahead to 2042 when he'll be 65 (played by John Larroquette, Night Court).
Bonus: Jaleel White, who played Steve Urkel in Family Matters, is Alex's best bud Darryl in the present.
• Scorpion returns with Season 4 at 9 p.m. Monday. In the new episode, the gang must work with their old nemesis Mark Collins (Joshua Leonard) to prevent the extinction of mankind.
OTHER PREMIERES
• Star Trek: Discovery debuts at 7:30 p.m. today on CBS, then slides over to the network's subscription service, CBS All Access. If you are a die-hard Trekkie and want to watch the other 14 episodes, you'll have to pay for them. Me? I'll pass.
The prequel is set about 10 years before the time of the original Star Trek in the 1960s and follows the crew as they explore new worlds.
Bonus: The Walking Dead's Sonequa Martin-Green (she played Sasha) stars as First Officer Michael Burnham. She was raised on Vulcan and is Spock's foster sister.
• The Good Doctor debuts at 9 p.m. Monday on ABC. The series stars Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel) as Shaun Murphy, a gifted young pediatric surgeon afflicted with autism and savant syndrome. He has trouble fitting in with others at the hospital. Will his talent allow the others to accept him?
Bonus: Fan favorite Richard Schiff (The West Wing) portrays the hospital's Dr. Aaron Glassman.
• The Brave arrives at 9 p.m. Monday on NBC. This is one of several new series about elite military special ops squads that carry out secret missions "to save the lives of innocent people and execute missions in some of the most dangerous places in the world."
The captain is played by Mike Vogel (Under the Dome). His four-person A-Team includes a super female sniper (Natacha Karam), a Navy SEAL (Demetrius Grosse), a combat medic (Noah Mills) and an intelligence officer (Hadi Tabbal). They're all working with a covert government agent (Anne Heche, Donnie Brasco) and her crack team of computer nerds and analysts.
• The Voice returns with Season 13 at 7 p.m. Monday and stars coaches Jennifer Hudson, Miley Cyrus, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton. Incidentally, there will be some unknown singers along the way to support the coaches.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 09/24/2017