Young Sheldon Season 7 Pays Homage To Modern Family's Top-Rated Episode

CBS is pulling out all the stops for the 7th and final season of "Young Sheldon." To Make sure the third episode, titled "A Strudel and a Hot American Boy Toy," packed a punch, co-creators Chuck Lorre and Steven Molaro took notes from the highest-rated episode of "Modern Family" on IMDb. This is "Connection Lost," the 16th episode of Season 6, which is filmed solely on Apple products and sees the Dunphy-Pritchett-Tucker clan interact entirely through technology. The episode is told from the point of view of Claire (Julie Bowen) who, even at an airport in Chicago, is determined to keep her family organized as she uses FaceTime, iMessage, Facebook, and email to communicate with them.

Like Claire, Mary (Zoe Perry) is currently separated from most of her family because she's in Heidelberg, Germany, with Sheldon (Iain Armitage). But an exorbitant phone bill forces her to limit her conversations with them — until George (Lance Barber) suggests they start writing letters instead. This pays homage to the beloved "Modern Family" episode but puts a mid-'90s spin on it by bringing back the lost art of letter writing.

Discussing how he came up with the out-of-the-box idea, "Modern Family" co-creator Steve Levitan told The Hollywood Reporter, "This just came from life, and it made sense." Likewise, the transition from phone calls to letter writing feels like an organic move for the Coopers and it even helps some of the characters express their feelings. Whether or not Lorre and Molaro introduced this plot device in the hope of replicating the success of the "Modern Family" episode is unclear. With a 7.6 rating on IMDb, it doesn't quite measure up to the 9.5 "Connection Lost" scored, although the episode certainly makes an emotional impact.

"Young Sheldon" can balance comedy with serious subject matter. In "A Strudel and a Hot American Boy Toy" there's no shortage of jokes, but the Cooper family's letter-writing campaign also elicits some heartfelt emotions. First Mary pours her heart out, passionately expressing her love for her husband as their distance makes her realize she often takes him for granted. Writing to each other brings them closer together — just as the video chats do for Claire, Phil (Ty Burrell), and Jay (Ed O'Neill) — and soon other members of the family follow suit. Even Georgie (Montana Jordan) puts pen to paper to profess his love to Mandy (Emily Osment). 

But it's Sheldon's parents' love letters that really tug at the audience's heartstrings since George's impending death is looming over the show. As "The Big Bang Theory" fans know, Sheldon's dad dies when he's 14 years old and his birthday isn't far away. What's more, while "Young Sheldon" has slipped some continuity errors past viewers, this is one event that's not going to change. "I don't want to say what you will or won't see, but things will get addressed," executive producer Steve Holland confirmed to TVLine. "We are not beholden to every joke that was ever made on The Big Bang Theory, but we do feel beholden to the larger canon and the larger events that shape Sheldon's life. We want to honor those," he revealed. Sadly, the end is getting closer for George, and also for the show's fans.