CBS’s upcoming Big Bang Theory-meets-The Wonder Years spin-off, Young Sheldon, has managed to lure veteran actress Annie Potts into its polymathic and precocious grasp. Potts—who starred in Ghostbusters, Designing Women, Toy Story, and any number of other well-remembered comedy projects—will play Sheldon’s “Meemaw,” a character from BBT’s expansive mythology, who was played by June Squibb in a single main-series appearance.
An endlessly supportive, whiskey-swilling Texas grandma, Meemaw has been a running joke on the CBS show for years, as the one member of his family the adult Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons, who’ll narrate the new series) actually likes. Potts joins a cast that includes Iain Armitage as Sheldon, Lance Barber as his dad, George Sr., and Zoe Perry as his mom, Mary. (Perry is the daughter of Laurie Metcalf, who plays the god-fearing, Jesus-loving Mary on the regular show.) Young Sheldon debuts September 25.