What prequel series follows Sheldon Cooper as a child in East Texas?

The prequel series that follows Sheldon Cooper as a child in East Texas is Young Sheldon. The sitcom explores his childhood and adolescence before the events of The Big Bang Theory.

Young Sheldon premiered on CBS in 2017 and is set mainly from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s. Iain Armitage plays the young Sheldon, while Jim Parsons—the original series' Sheldon—narrates the story and serves as an executive producer. The show follows Sheldon as a gifted but socially awkward child growing up in the fictional town of Medford, Texas.

His family is central to the series: Mary and George Cooper raise Sheldon, his older brother Georgie, and his fraternal twin sister Missy. Sheldon begins high school at age nine and later attends the fictional East Texas Tech, where he studies physics and interacts with professors such as John Sturgis.

Young Sheldon ran for seven seasons and concluded in 2024. It is a prequel, but it also expands or revises some details previously mentioned by adult Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory. A related follow-up, Georgie & Mandy's First Marriage, continues the Cooper family story.