Note: This story contains spoilers from “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” Season 1, Episode 22.
Montana Jordan’s Georgie took one step closer to becoming the tire magnate depicted in “The Big Bang Theory” in the “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” Season 1 finale, as he bought the tire shop from Mandy’s dad, Jim (Will Sasso).
The change was set up in the season’s penultimate episode, which saw Jim considering a potential sale of the store, citing that Georgie Sr. (Lance Barber) was younger than him when he died. While Jim considered an offer from his rival, Georgie steps up in the finale with an offer to buy the shop — a choice that EP Steve Holland said comes out of Georgie’s “youthful confidence.”
“He just jumps in and believes he can do it,” Holland told TheWrap, adding that there’s a bit of Georgie in Jordan, himself, as the “Young Sheldon” actor jumped into multicamera production for the spinoff series without hesitation.
“Georgie just feels like he can jump into something and work really hard at it [and] he can succeed,” Holland said. “I don’t think this will always hold true [but] so far, life has taught him that.”
Ruben (Jessie Prez) jumps in to provide the rest of the offer with Georgie, marking an unprecedented sign of trust after seeing Ruben grumble about Georgie’s seniority at the tire shop due to his familial relationship with Jim. Holland noted the shift came out of a desire to weave in work stories with what’s going on at home for Georgie and Mandy (Emily Osment).
With Georgie and Ruben, who Holland said “don’t necessarily love each other that much” becoming business partners, Holland teased a new dynamic going into Season 2, full of opportunities for stories. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
TheWrap: Mandy has been keeping this secret about her ex-boyfriend being her new boss, which really riles Georgie up. Why is it something he’s struggling to get past?
Steve Holland: It was more than just that she’s working with her ex, it was the fact that she had been doing it and keeping it from him that makes him less OK with it. Georgie is young — he doesn’t have nearly as much experience in life and in relationships as Mandy — and I think that might be a little bit of an insecurity for him. As much as we play Georgie as being driven and responsible and mature, he’s still 20. He’s still pretty young and not super experienced at life and relationships, and his jealousy felt real.
As they fight about it, Georgie’s age seems to be something that Mandy uses against him and Georgie is particularly sensitive to. Do you see that as a hallmark in their relationship or will it shift over time?
I think it’s always going to be a part of their relationship. 11 years is a pretty big age gap, especially where they’re at in life. The interesting thing about their relationship and those two actors who have that actual age gap in life, is they don’t look like it. You have to almost remind the audience sometimes that there’s this age gap here, because when you see them together, they look like a great couple — it doesn’t look like one of them is so much younger than the other.
What challenges might they Georgie and Ruben face as they start out running the shop?
I think they’re both getting into this thing over their heads. I think Georgie is brash and full of confidence, but he’s never run a big business before, and he and Ruben don’t always get along. Ruben probably feels, rightly, [that] he should be the senior partner. He makes the joke about it in the finale, but he’s got more experience. He’s working on his degree and he doesn’t take Georgie very seriously, so I think there’s going to be a lot of fun opportunities for conflict there.
Georgie says with the deal he makes they won’t be moving out anytime soon. Will they stay at Mandy’s parents home for all of Season 2 and the foreseeable future?
Certainly moving forward in Season 2. It’s always a trick — in sitcoms, especially multicam, you have to keep a little bit of the status quo. We want to keep our characters living [under] the same roof and at some point, why would they still live there? This seemed like a good opportunity to acknowledge that — there’s a reason they’re still going to be living here.
This season you had a good balance of seeing Mandy’s family alone while also incorporating Georgie’s family, whom we know so well. Is that about the balance you want to have moving forward?
I think so. I think we felt like at the end of the season, we had found a really good balance where I think we really got to use the “Young Sheldon” characters a good amount. It felt right, but it always felt like, at least to us, that the show was still “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage,” and the show really centered around that. And when we found opportunities to use Meemaw, Missy and Mary, that it was sort of in support of this show, but it felt right. They feel like they’re a part of this world. And obviously those actors are great and those characters are fantastic, so it’s really fun to use them and get to bring them back in. I feel like this was a pretty good balance when we use them fairly often.
What was it like bringing everyone back for that Mother’s Day episode?
Really, really fun. One of the great things in having Mary on the show is that her and Audrey really don’t get along, so it’s always fun to throw the two of them into a room together and just watch the sparks fly.
The series introduced two new characters in Ruben and Connor. What’s it been like developing them across Season 1?
One of the interesting things about this first season is that we had a core cast that we knew — most of them were from “Young Sheldon.” Ruben and Connor were the two new characters that we really had to figure out. It was actually really fun going into this season with those two actors and figuring out these characters. [With] Connor, I think we really got to lock in on who he was about halfway through … and it was really fun to get see him to a point where he could carry storylines. Ruben was a little trickier, because, yes, he’s great, but most of the stories didn’t seem to live at the tire store. That was one of the thoughts of having him buy into the store — it’ll be a great way to bring this actor we love more into these stories.
With the Season 2 green light, what have you already started brainstorming or throwing around for next season to explore?
We’re going to actually get a little bit of a break, and then we’ll be back in a few weeks to start the room up and start talking about what next season is. We spoke with Chuck [Lorre] about it a little bit when we were moving into this finale, and what that could mean for next season, so just in the broadest strokes, but we really haven’t dug down into it yet.
Lots of viewers of “Young Sheldon” might not have watched “The Big Bang Theory.” What are you finding for this spinoff — do you think it’s a lot of the “Young Sheldon” fans following?
My guess is that it’s a lot of “Young Sheldon” fans following, but I would have thought that about “Young Sheldon,” that it was mostly “Big Bang” fans following. For “Young Sheldon,” things changed when it went to Netflix — it found a whole new audience and a younger audience, especially, that hadn’t seen “Big Bang Theory.” There’s history with these characters, but we really want the show to be an open invitation and not require people to feel like they have to have done the homework of other shows to come to it. I think you can come to this without knowing those other shows, and I don’t think you’ll be lost.
Have you talked about how long you would want the show to go for?
We’re just enjoying it. It feels to us like it’s a show that’s got legs and can go on. It’s not a premise show that’s going to run out of story. It’s a relationship show, and there’s always stories in relationships. I hope it runs forever — is that too much to ask for?
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage” Season 1 is now streaming on Paramount+.
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