Young Sheldon producer reveals Big Bang Theory Easter egg hidden in finale

Young Sheldon hid a major Big Bang Theory Easter egg in the closing moments of the Season 7 finale — and it dates back to the start of the original series.

At the end of Episode 14, the last-ever episode of Young Sheldon, he leaves Texas after his dad’s funeral and finally arrives at Caltech. “Are you lost?” a professor asks him. “No, I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be,” he says, before striding off into the distance.

Most viewers wouldn’t have taken much notice of who he spoke to — but his name is David Saltzberg, who worked on The Big Bang Theory as a scientific adviser.

CBS

In an interview with Variety, producer Steve Holland opened up about the final shot of the series. “Our last moment was always going to be Sheldon at Caltech,” he said.

“And, as we were writing, it just made sense after the death and the grief of the funeral to end on a little bit of hope that Sheldon is walking off into this new chapter of his life where we know good things happen to him, and a fun little Easter egg that no one will or should know.”

Just as Dire Straits’ ‘Walk of Life’ brought Young Sheldon full circle (it’s the first song that plays in the show’s pilot), Holland and co. felt it was fitting for Saltzberg to appear.

“We were talking a lot about the professor who stops and asks him if he’s lost. That’s actually David Saltzberg, who’s been our science consultant since the beginning of Big Bang. We’ve actually figured out he has probably been involved with this character longer than anyone other than Chuck and Jim Parsons, because he did the original Big Bang Theory pilot,” Holland explained.

“All the way up until now, he’s been involved with the show, and so we were talking about who it could be and we had lots of pitches.

“We ultimately wanted to make sure it wasn’t distracting, that people were going to be like, ‘Oh, that’s someone famous,’ because it’s Sheldon’s moment. But we also knew no one would know who David was but it was our little acknowledgment of how long and how important David’s been to the show, so that’s awesome.”

Speaking to Humans and Science, Saltzberg earlier explained how he got involved in the franchise. “Well, the amazing thing was I never planned on getting involved in Hollywood and entertainment. I moved here to UCLA because I really liked the department and the things we were doing, and I lived here in Los Angeles,” he said.

“When you live in Los Angeles, and you go out to a party or with friends, you often meet many many people that work in show business, and I was kind of this odd duck who didn’t. And that’s the way it was, for a long time, and just by chance, through a friend of a friend of a friend, who knew the producers that were putting together this show with some science dialogue, they wanted to run it past a physicist.

“And since my friend knew that I lived here in LA, he asked if I would help out his friend. And so I did that, and you know, 12 years later we had done 279 episodes and were the number one comedy. It kind of surprised me, I never expected it. And we continue now with the show, as you mentioned, Young Sheldon, for more years.”

Make sure you read our breakdown of Young Sheldon’s ending, check out what we know about Young Sheldon Season 8 and Georgie and Mandy’s spinoff, and find other new TV shows to stream this month.