Why Annie Potts Ignored The Big Bang Theory When She Joined Young Sheldon

The inimitable Annie Potts plays the role of young Sheldon Cooper's (Iain Armitage) grandmother, Connie "Meemaw" Tucker, in the "Big Bang Theory" spin-off prequel "Young Sheldon." Because the older version of the character (June Squibb) is a fairly prominent presence on "The Big Bang Theory" and Potts therefore had ample material to draw from, one might assume that she studied Squibb's work on the original show quite faithfully in order to find out what Meemaw was made of.

However, Potts opted to go another route. She didn't take cues from Squibb's performance — and, as it turns out, she had a very good reason for this decision. In a 2024 interview with Den of Geek, Potts revealed that she chose to ignore the "Big Bang Theory" version of Meemaw and focus instead on what "Young Sheldon" wanted to convey. Fortunately, she had more than just the scripts to go with, since she was able to use the show's pilot episode (in which she doesn't appear) for her own research on the "Young Sheldon" universe:

"Well, they did not hire me until after they'd shot the pilot, so I had the benefit of being able to see the pilot and base my decision to join them on that, which was beautiful because often, you're not quite sure what you're signing on for. But the pilot was so beautiful, so funny, and so touching. I thought, 'Oh yeah, this is [it],' and I mean, that was my source material. I didn't go and look at 'The Big Bang Theory' and see how she acted then. I treated that as if that was a separate universe because I couldn't really build on what was done there. I was going on what they were writing then."

The prequel series was built in a way that you can watch "Young Sheldon" without first seeing "The Big Bang Theory." The show's deliberate choice to use a "Frasier"-style fast and loose approach to move past any "Big Bang Theory" restrictions allowed Annie Potts to build her own Meemaw performance. At the same time, both versions of Meemaw still share key character traits that make it clear it's the same person. 

Interestingly enough, in one key way Potts actually ended up making her Meemaw more similar to the June Squibb iteration than the makers of the show originally intended. Their initial plan was to make Potts' Meemaw visually distinct from the "Big Bang Theory" version by depicting her with her family's signature dark hair. However, Potts came up with one of Meemaw's coolest style choices on "Young Sheldon" by insisting that the character's hair already be gray during the events of "Young Sheldon." Not only does this make the character pop visually, but keeping her hair color unchanged also adds welcome consistency to Meemaw's path from "Young Sheldon" to "The Big Bang Theory."