Young Sheldon star Iain Armitage once revealed the things he found 'weird' on the sets of the show

After seven successful seasons, CBS's popular sitcom and a spin-off of The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, came to an end in 2024. Created by Steven Moralo and Chuck Moralo, this prequel to the TBBT series debuted in September 2017 and takes the viewers back to Sheldon Cooper's childhood in Texas during the 1980s and 90s.

So when Iain Armitage stepped into the role of the pint-sized genius for the show, he wasn't just entering the world of theoretical physics and awkward adolescence. He was stepping back into a different decade where, let's say, the technology wasn't as advanced and modern as now. There were several things that Iain found weird from the sets of Young Sheldon, ranging from VHS tapes, rotary phones, to the 80s' fashion favourite flannel shirts.

Here's what we know about it.

Young Sheldon's time travel: Ian Armitage shares what shocked him most about the 1980s

Ian Armitage was only nine when the show debuted. Even though he was not a stranger to performing, what caught him off guard was the props and quirks of the late 1980s. In an interview with Digital Spy in June 2018, Armitage said:

"The phones were pretty weird. There are a lot of weird things. The clothing was very strange, the computers are bigger than my room at home."

Do you know that the first commercial phone available in the U.S was in the early 1980s, and it weighed more than 1.7 pounds? Motorola's DynaTAC 8000x was not just bulky, it was quite expensive too, and priced at around $4000. However, landlines (rotary phones) were quite popular by then, and in Texas by the 1980s, there was a strong, robust network of those devices. However, for Iain Armitage, it was a new world.

It wasn't just the gadgets that puzzled him. Fashion from that era with bold patterns, shoulder pads, and unbreathable fabrics proved to be as bizarre. Annie Potts, who played Sheldon's Meemaw, shared an incident involving the rotary phones. She told Digital Spy:

"Was it you or Montana who had a rotary phone on the set and he was trying to push the numbers on it, he didn't understand the rotary."

When Iain was quick to defend himself as he said:

"I have seen people use the rotary phone, so I did understand it. I think that was Montana."

In the interview, Iain also shared some tidbits about his unusual hobby, ie, classifying precious stones. Additionally, he also enjoyed magic and playing with stuffed toys. He told:

"I do gems. I love gems and precious stones, and I love classifying gems such as diamond and ruby and emerald, and sapphire."

Apart from Iain Armitage, the Young Sheldon cast featured several stars, and they were:

• Lance Barber as George Cooper Sr.
• Zoe Perry as Mary Cooper
• Annie Potts as Meemaw
• Jim Parsons as adult Sheldon Cooper and narrator
• Montana Jordan as George Cooper Jr.
• Raegan Revord as Missy Cooper
• Emily Osment as Mandy
• McKenna Grace as Paige
• Wallace Shawn as Dr. John Sturgis
• Wyatt McClur as Billy Sparks.

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All episodes of Young Sheldon are available to stream on Netflix.

Also read: 7 Young Sheldon moments that you never expected as a fan

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