Young Sheldon is set in the fictional town of Medford, Texas. When the series started, Sheldon was nine years old, and as a boy genius, he was already attending high school. He didn’t fit in because people — including his family — didn’t know how to deal with his intellectual capabilities. But over six seasons, Sheldon has matured in multiple ways as the series sets the stage for its biggest tragedy. Here’s a timeline that shows when Young Sheldon takes place.
Updated on February 18, 2024 by Katie Doll: Young Sheldon is coming to a close soon with Season 7. Although Sheldon is still young, he has set great milestones during his childhood on the show. This article has been updated to expand on when Young Sheldon takes place and the approximate ages of the Cooper children.
The first season is the easiest to determine what year Young Sheldon is set in. Sheldon’s opening monologue in the pilot included the line, “Nobody I knew in East Texas in 1989 cared about Newtonian physics.” Throughout the rest of Season 1, there were a few nods to the general time period. There were multiple Star Trek references and an episode where Sheldon’s mother expressed her dislike for one of Sheldon’s Watchmen comics — a miniseries that ran from 1986-1987.
Additionally, there was an episode dedicated to the Dungeons & Dragons uproar that swept the country at that time. Naturally, Sheldon’s mother thought that the game came from the Devil. This year, Sheldon starts high school as a freshman like his older brother Georgie, while Missy is still in elementary school. George also has his first heart attack and takes his sons to see a space shuttle launch.
Young Sheldon Season 2 Is Set in 1990
The season also referenced Missy’s Cabbage Patch Dolls, which came out in 1983. Other important events that happen this year are Sheldon taking his first college class where he meets Paige, another child prodigy, and John proposing to Connie.
Young Sheldon Season 3 Takes Place in 1991
In Season 3, Sheldon nearly completes his senior year of high school as John goes to a psychiatric hospital. One can assume that Young Sheldon Season 3 took place in 1991 based on its pop culture references. The most notable was Georgie taping Baywatch over one of Sheldon’s Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes.
Young Sheldon Season 4 Occurs in 1991-1992
Young Sheldon Season 4 started a new chapter for Sheldon. He graduated from high school and began attending college full-time in the fall of 1991. He was only 11 years old. Sheldon had trouble with various aspects of college, but he started to work things out — until he took Professor Boucher’s engineering class.
According to The Big Bang Theory’s timeline, he took that class in 1992, and it was the reason why Sheldon disliked engineering. Season 4 also had references to the 1984 film Footloose and 1989’s Road House. Other events rounding out the season are John being fired from his current job and Sheldon becoming Dr. Linkletter’s new lab assistant, much to Dr. Linkletter’s dismay.
Young Sheldon Season 5 is best dated by a reference to the recent passing of science fiction author Isaac Asimov, who died in 1992. That made sense because, at that point, Young Sheldon was clearly trying to slow its timeline down to fit in more content before Sheldon’s father George also passed away, dramatically changing the direction of the series.
Major pop culture references in Season 5 included Sheldon watching The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross and debating the merits of Lost in Space, Star Trek and The Next Generation. Season 5 marks a big change in the Cooper household as Mary and George’s marriage starts to crack with Pastor Rob and Brenda stepping into the picture. Georgie also meets Mandy, who is over a decade older than him and is pregnant with his baby.
Young Sheldon Season 6 Is Set in 1992-1993
In its sixth season, Sheldon is 12 years old and is still attending college, but is starting to think about his future in graduate school. Mandy and Georgie have a baby named Constance and get engaged by the Season 6 finale. Sheldon and Mary also embark on a summer trip to Germany as a tornado strikes Texas, leaving Connie’s house in shambles.
One episode was about the film Basic Instinct, which was released to movie theaters in March 1992. Since a VHS copy of the film was available in the episode, Season 6 must take place in the second half of 1992 and continue into 1993 because Georgie turns 18 and was born in 1975. The season has also referenced a pair of 1987 movies: Fatal Attraction and Dirty Dancing.
Young Sheldon Season 7 Should Take Place in 1993-1994
Young Sheldon Season 6 continued into 1993, then the seventh season should take place between 1993 and 1994. George’s death happened after his extramarital affair sometime in 1994 or 1995, when Sheldon was 14.
That means he could die in Season 7, or the writers may push that off to occur as an off-screen event, post-Young Sheldon. It’s even possible that George could die in the future Georgie and Mandy spinoff that’s in development.
