There are few milestones more important for a sitcom than its 100th episode. That’s the moment where most shows officially reach syndication status; with over 100 episodes, the network can now play one episode each weekday for the entire year without ever having to repeat, giving casual viewers plenty of chances to get invested (or re-invested) in the show. So, when a series hits its 100th episode, that’s a good sign that the amount of money the cast and crew make from residuals is about to increase.
The importance of syndication has declined a bit in the streaming age, where many viewers no longer use cable and therefore are not tuning in to whatever’s currently playing. (This was but one of many issues that led to the 2023 writers’ strike.) Still, this hasn’t stopped a 100th episode of any sitcom from being cause for celebration. If nothing else, it’s a big accomplishment for a show to last that long and still have viewers invested. The majority of shows don’t even make it past the first season.
It was particularly impressive for “Young Sheldon” since its 100th episode was also the 379th episode in the “Big Bang Theory” TV universe. The episode in question, season 5’s “A Solo Peanut, a Social Butterfly and the Truth,” aired nearly 15 years after the character of Sheldon Cooper first graced our screens, and there were still two seasons left before the Sheldon-centric spinoff wrapped up.
However, this episode didn’t reference much from its parent show; whereas some fan expected young Leonard or young Penny to unknowingly cross paths with the Cooper family, the 100th episode instead focused partly on Paige (McKenna Grace), a recurring character who never appeared nor was mentioned at all in “The Big Bang Theory.” It’s also the episode where young Georgie (Montana Jordan) learned he was going to be a father, and the mother was a character who had never been mentioned in the series’ parent show either.
The 100th episode of Young Sheldon celebrated itself on its own terms
In a 2022 interview with TVLine, “Young Sheldon” co-creator Steve Molaro discussed a lot of the thought process that went into the show’s 100th episode. “We were a little hesitant to try and intentionally make a quote-unquote special episode. I don’t think viewers at home are terribly aware of the number,” he explained. “Our main goal was to put out an episode that we thought was good and we were proud of, rather than force it.” Regarding the lack of “Big Bang Theory” Easter eggs in this episode, Molaro noted:
“We typically work in Easter eggs as they come up organically. It’s not often that we’ll build an entire episode around them — though there are one or two, obviously, like when Sheldon wanted to see Stephen Hawking speak and his father took him to Pasadena [in the aforementioned CalTech episode]. I don’t even think we thought about [whether] there was a ‘Big Bang’ Easter egg we could squeak in.”
As for why the show’s writers chose to give Paige so much focus? It was mainly because Paige, another child genius who served as Sheldon’s rival in early seasons, had one of the more interesting storylines in the whole series. She started out as a gimmick character before her parents’ divorce sent her down a very different and more troubled path than Sheldon. In a lot of ways, Paige’s a good example of how the spinoff had grown so far beyond its parents show; Sheldon’s relationship with her had become compelling for reasons that had nothing to do with the question of “How’s this gonna tie into adult Sheldon’s life?” Paige didn’t need to have been mentioned in “The Big Bang Theory” to get audiences invested in her life. As Molaro put it:
“We were just trying to find an episode that we were excited to write, more so than doing anything special because it was number 100. This story of Paige came up, and we thought it was interesting that it involves two child prodigies who are in college at age 12. But it’s also deeply rooted in the emotional growth of those characters and the show itself.”
By its 100th episode, Young Sheldon had fully found its identity
This 100th episode of “Young Sheldon” was also part of the show’s transition into being less of a comedy and more of a dramedy. With Missy going through a rebellious streak, Paige having a serious identity crisis, and Georgie learning he’s about to be a father way too young, things were getting surprisingly heavy on this show, far more so than they ever did on “The Big Bang Theory.”
“It wasn’t a black-and-white decision, like, ‘Hey, let’s start making this a dramedy,'” Molaro explained. “There were always elements of it, and a while back we started telling a few of those [more dramatic] stories and it started to feel right.”
The shift also felt like a natural result of the lack of a laugh track on “Young Sheldon,” which was one of its main differences from its parent show early on in its run. The safer choice would’ve been to keep the same format, but the spinoff’s grounded, single-camera approach helped it distinguish itself from day one. When the show did take the plunge into more serious, dramatic storylines, the lack of laugh track helped it shift tones easily. But the real reason for the series’ tonal shift simply came down to the kids getting older. As Molaro noted:
“The kids were getting to an age where we could lean into it more, and tell stories that felt like they mattered to us. It has been a natural evolution, which is how we like things to grow when they can, and we’ve stayed more on that road. I think it’s working.”
“Young Sheldon” is currently streaming in its entirety on Max.