11 Shows Like Young Sheldon You Should Watch

Packed with nostalgia, sentiment, and a sense of humor, "The Big Bang Theory" spinoff "Young Sheldon" manages to become a creature entirely its own that stands tall and separately from its parent series. Sheldon Cooper (Iain Armitage) may have started life on that sitcom, but its prequel explores young Sheldon's personal timeline, flashing back to a more vulnerable time in the 1980s and peeling back years of falsehoods he'd told his friends about his cheating father, cold mother, and brutal siblings. The end result is still funny, but the show is more of a comedic dramedy than it is a classic comedy like the original.

Naturally, the series isn't the only show that had fun flashing back to the past, or even the first sitcom to talk about what it's like to struggle below the poverty line. With its thoughtful character portraits, "Young Sheldon" resembles many of its sitcom forefathers. Here's a list of similar comedies that will tickle your funny bone and break your heart, all with a single joke.

Much like Sheldon Cooper in "Young Sheldon," Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) has a lot to say about his past from the vantage point of his present life — and he, too, has a different voice when speaking about it. Actor Daniel Stern voices the older Kevin's thoughts about his youth, just as Jim Parsons does for Sheldon. The biggest difference between the shows is that Kevin's living through the turbulent Vietnam War-era 1960s, which will shape his thoughts about the world for the rest of his life. And, much like Sheldon, Kevin's "Wonder Years" aren't all sunshine and roses, something adults will notice after rewatching it.

Kevin's surrounded by the rest of his family: gruff dad Jack Arnold (Dan Lauria); sunny mom Norma (Alley Mills); free-spirited hippie sister Karen (Olivia d'Abo); and bullying older brother Wayne (Jason Hervey). They all struggle to stay connected as they grow and evolve over the show's ever-changing time period, but forever lighting Kevin's way is his next-door neighbor and lifelong crush, Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar). He also leans on his best friend, Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano). While the show is slightly more serious than "Young Sheldon," it's definitely cut from the same narrative cloth.

A successful single-camera sitcom set in flyover country, "The Middle" takes a look at the extraordinarily ordinary world of the Heck family as they stumble through life together. Throughout the course of the series, they experience your average rites of passage while trying to keep things from falling apart.

The Heck clan includes Frankie (Patricia Heaton), the show's narrator, family matriarch, and car saleswoman; quarry manager dad, Mike (Neil Flynn); rebellious eldest son, Axl (Charlie McDermott, who hasn't been onscreen lately because he's been following his music career); spirited can-do optimist, Sue (Eden Sher); and dour mini proto-younger Sheldon, Brick (Atticus Shaffer), who has a tendency to punctuate a sentence he just said by repeating it in a whisper.

America loved the wacky-yet-relatable adventures of the family, and it was a hit. It was also a long-lived precursor to "Young Sheldon" in a bunch of ways, from the aforementioned single-camera set-up to its focus on a pint-sized genius protagonist. Fans of the "Big Bang Theory" spinoff will likely love every bit of the Heck family's wild ways.

"The Goldbergs" is another show that bears incredible similarities to "Young Sheldon." Flashing back to the 1980s from the 2010s, the sitcom explores the life of the growing Goldberg clan in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. Much like the "Big Bang Theory" prequel, the show utilizes a combination of bittersweet humor and fond nostalgia for the '80s.

The protagonist is budding filmmaker Adam Goldberg (Sean Giambrone, with Patton Oswalt providing voiceovers from adult Adam), whose love of pop culture and 1980s sensibilities portends his hoped-for future as a big-shot Hollywood filmmaker. Along for the ride are his self-described "smother," mom Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey); apathetic furniture salesman dad, Murray (Jeff Garlin); popular wannabe musician middle sister Erica (Hayley Orrantia); jock and striver older brother Barry (Troy Gentile); and that wise sage, Beverly's beloved Pops, Albert Soloman (George Segal).

The show's adventures are wildly disparate and can focus on everything from Adam's failed attempt at throwing a rager to a full-on tribute to "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" that features cameos from the beloved film's stars. Both strongly grounded in the real world and touched with a fantasy, the series is a charming, highly pleasing trip.

"Raising Hope" and its direct predecessor "My Name is Earl" both present a delightfully cockeyed view of family life lived below the poverty line. Unafraid of sentimentality, it's also blackly comedic, with a sharp edge and plot lines that would definitely make Sheldon's mother, Mary Cooper's (Zoe Perry), jaw drop.

The series centers on pool boy Jimmy Chance (Lucas Neff), whose one-night stand with a serial killer who's later placed on death row results in the birth of his daughter, Hope. Jimmy decides to raise his kid solo, albeit with the help of domestic worker mom, Virginia (Martha Plimpton), landscaper dad, Burt (Garret Dillahunt), and his irascible grandma, Maw Maw (Cloris Leachman).

While striving to do his best for Hope, he meets grocery store cashier Sabrina Collins (Shannon Woodward), upon whom he develops a crush and who harbors a big secret. "Raising Hope" combines the sweet with the sour in an effortless way that made audiences adore it. For all of the softness it might lack, it has a hidden but enormous heart.

For sitcom fans whose roots are planted in the recent past, "Reba" is more than an internet meme. A series about a dysfunctionally functional extended family dealing with brand-new starts, it is sweet, filled with spirit, and has a certain sense of brassy humor that fans of "Young Sheldon's Meemaw (Annie Potts) will take to like a duck to water.

When the series starts, Reba Hart (Reba McEntire) is having the worst day of her life. Her dentist ex-husband-to-be, Brock (Christopher Rich), has just confessed that his dental hygienist, the unctuous Barbara Jean (Melissa Peterman), is pregnant with his child. The news is quickly followed by an announcement from their teenage daughter, cheerleader Cheyenne (JoAnna García Swisher), that she's pregnant out of wedlock thanks to star quarterback Van Montgomery (Steve Howey). Weddings and birth announcements aside, Reba now has to navigate raising her three kids — also including sardonic musician Kyra (Scarlett Pomers) and cheerfully dopey Jake (Mitch Holleman) — alone. What's more, she does all of this while coping with co-parenting with Brock and Barbara Jean, two people she's less than happy with. Meanwhile, Cheyenne and Van have to embrace adulthood and parenthood while living out of Cheyenne's pink teenage bedroom.

If that punchy premise doesn't pull you in, as an additional bonus, two actors familiar to "Young Sheldon" viewers are regulars on this show. Reba McEntire (June) plays Reba Hart, and Melissa Peterman (Brenda Sparks) plays Barbara Jean. Though they never shared a scene together on "Young Sheldon," the two women have gone on to co-star on NBC's "Happy's Place."

Another grandmother of the sitcom genre, "Roseanne" focuses on the lives of the lower-middle-class Conner clan, who live in Lanford, Illinois. The semi-dramatic, sometimes thoughtful, and always personal stories told in "Roseanne" weren't afraid to question the status quo and never hesitated in their quest to shock the bourgeois.

Rosanne Conner (Roseanne Barr) is a working-class factory employee who just wants to build a better life for her three kids while her husband, Dan (John Goodman), dreams of opening his own motorcycle shop. The children — popularity-obsessed Becky (Lecy Goranson, who was infamously recast during the show's run), jockish and artistic Darlene (Sara Gilbert), and everyday kid DJ (Michael Fishman) — are often off in their own world. But the Conner family won't give up until they manage to make better lives for themselves and touch their dreams, come rain or come shine.

Lively, filled with brio and spirit, "Roseanne" has aged exceedingly well, making it a popular syndication staple. As a bonus connection, "Young Sheldon" mainstay Zoe Perry is the daughter of "Roseanne" regular Laurie Metcalf (Jackie Harris).

Another single-camera sitcom based on the real-world experiences of a celebrity, "Everybody Hates Chris" is all about the youthful life of Chris Rock, who, unsurprisingly, provides his own thoughts upon events from his past in voiceover form while viewers watch them unfold on the screen. "Young Sheldon" fans will appreciate the show's refusal to get too sentimental with its game.

A young Tyler James Williams plays the series' youthful Rock, who grapples with growing up in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York, in the 1980s. His family — hardworking, loving but tight-fisted dad, Julius (Terry Crews); tough hairdresser mom, Rochelle (Tichina Arnold); popular brother, Drew (Tequan Richmond); and bratty sister, Tonya (Imani Hakim) — grow and change around him. There's also Greg Wuliger (Vincent Martella), Rock's nerdy best friend. Chris and Greg are frequently the victims of bully Caruso, and step by step, Rock makes his way toward superstardom. Archly knowing, achingly funny, and lovingly tender, "Everybody Hates Chris" is witty and caustic but loves its central family and fondly presents their foibles to the audience.

The Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan definitely opened up a lot of hearts while the long-lived "Modern Family" was in production. Filmed documentary-style, much like "The Office," this sitcom uses interviews and "candid" footage to portray its central family's ups and downs.

At the center of the storm is Jay Pritchett (Ed O'Neill) and his young second wife, Gloria (Sofía Vergara). With his first wife, Jay conceived Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Claire (Julie Bowen), both of whom have families of their own. Claire married Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell), and they have kids Haley (Sarah Hyland), Alex (Ariel Winter), and Luke (Nolan Gould). Mitchell has adopted Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) with his husband, Cameron (Eric Stonestreet). Gloria brings her son from her first marriage, Manny (Rico Rodriguez), into the family and gives birth to son Joe during the course of the series. The middle ground is where they mix it up, form a family, and live life together.

The sitcom's impact on the television industry is difficult to oversell. After all, "Modern Family" definitively proved that the single-camera sitcom was a viable art form, which paved the way for "Young Sheldon" and the twisted familial roots of the Coopers. Of course, it's well worth watching all on its own merits.

It's fascinating that so many nostalgia sitcoms that ran after "The Wonder Years" walked are based on the lives of celebrities. To wit: NBC's take on the life of Dwayne Johnson, who plays himself in "Young Rock." But he isn't the only one taking on the mantle of role-knowing and mouth-shutting wrestler-turned-Hollywood superstar; in fact, the show's narrative is split between three timelines.

The first timeline follows Johnson at the age of roughly 10 (Adrian Groulx), living his life as the son of wrestler Rocky Johnson (Joseph Lee Anderson) and grandson of Lia Maivia (Ana Tuisila), who runs Hawaii's pro wrestling territory. In his mid-teens, Johnson (Bradley Constant) copes with poverty and familial strife. Then there's his 20-year-old self (Uli Latukefu), who audiences watch as he deals with life as a collegiate athlete and his nascent professional wrestling career. Finally, Johnson steps in to play himself sometime in a not-so-distant future where he's running for president.

The ambitious series is gently comedic and occasionally dramatic. Its crisscrossing timelines will definitely appeal to "Young Sheldon" fans who enjoyed following Sheldon's story to its conclusion.

"Grace Under Fire" is another working-class sitcom that often features seriocomic, bittersweet humor. For every plotline featuring Grace Kelly (Brett Butler) coping with rent hikes and sexism on the job, there's one focusing on the antics of her kids. Sporting a tone that was popularized by "Roseanne," fans of "Young Sheldon" will find that the series often has the same humor-tinged lump-in-the-throat feeling as the latter sitcom.

The series focuses on Grace, an oil refinery worker from Victory, Missouri, who finds herself trying to keep things afloat in the wake of her divorce from her abusive spouse. She's also a recovering alcoholic and worries often about falling off the wagon or her kids repeating her mistakes. In her closely knit brood, there's prank-pulling Quentin (Jon Paul Steuer/Sam Horrigan), independent and cheery Libby (Kaitlin Cullum), and tiny Patrick (Dylan and Cole Sprouse). Grace gets support from her neighbors, Nadine (Julie White) and Wade Swoboda (Casey Sander), and makes friends with fellow recent divorcee and pharmacy owner Russell Norton (Dave Thomas). If you've laughed and loved with the Coopers, then recreating that experience with the Kellys is a fine next step.

If all else fails and you need a show that's even closer to "Young Sheldon," then you can't go wrong with the further adventures of Georgie Cooper Jr. (Montana Jordan) and his first wife, Mandy McAllister (Emily Osment), in the direct follow-up sitcom "Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage." It has everything you liked in "Young Sheldon" with a more forward-facing romance.

In the wake of the death of George Cooper Sr. (Lance Barber), Mandy and Georgie have taken their young daughter, Cece, and moved in with Mandy's parents. Sweet Jim (Will Sasso) and caustic Audrey (Rachel Bay Jones), both known quantities to "Young Sheldon" fans, do what they can to help the young couple settle into married life. Georgie works at Jim's tire store, while Mandy goes back to waitressing, but their ends barely meet, and Mandy continues to flounder in the shadow of her spoiled brother, Connor (Dougie Baldwin) — a character fans of "Georgie and Mandy" have a huge problem with. All the while, fans are watching and waiting for the tipping point that will result in their much-foreshadowed divorce. "Young Sheldon" fans will have to keep tuning in to find out how that happens, a task they likely consider no hardship.