One of the strangest sitcom tropes is the invisible character. These range from Niles Crane’s (David Hyde Pierce) increasingly physically incapable wife Maris in “Frasier” to gentler interpretations of the theme, like Wilson (Earl Hindman) in “Home Improvement.”
“The Big Bang Theory” is no exception to the subject’s pervasive presence, thanks to Howard Wolowitz’s (Simon Helberg) unseen but much-heard mother, Debbie Wolowitz. Mrs. Wolowitz is an aggressive and imposing presence in Howard’s life, yet she is a force for good and an important figure to both him and most of the series’ other main characters.
Since the character is essentially just a voice on The Big Bang Theory, fans may have noticed a noticeable difference in how she sounds in Young Sheldon. That’s not because Carol Ann Susi, the actress who voices Mrs. Wolowitz on “The Big Bang Theory,” was instructed to change the character’s tone to reflect her younger age. The real reason is far more tragic, because Susi actually died in 2014. This is why Pamela Adlon voices Mrs. Wolowitz in the prequel series.
Carol Ann Susi’s tragic death in real life had an impact on the fate of Ms. Wolowitz in-universe
Of course, every character from The Big Bang Theory that appeared in the 1980s and 1990s adaptation of Young Sheldon had to be recast to avoid a situation in which 40-year-olds with permanent stubble played 13-year-olds . old ones. But after Carol Ann Susi died in 2014 at the age of just 62, the situation was very, very different.
“The Big Bang Theory” never shows Howard’s mother, But due to Susi’s death, she was never recast in the series. Instead, the people behind the show responded to the situation with a touching farewell to the character in Season 8, when Debbie Wolowitz became one of the show’s characters Death of important characters. In an interview with The Hollywood ReporterShowrunner Steve Molaro addressed the shock caused by Susi’s death and the way the show’s creatives came to the decision to address the in-universe problem with Ms. Wolowitz’s death:
“It took a while for this devastation to calm down before we could even think about it. We couldn’t bring ourselves to think about it. At some point the needs of the show (forced the issue) and we had to come up with a plan, and I don’t think we could bring ourselves to replace the actor. The thought of that gave us two options: we send the character away – which seemed wrong and wrong – or we do it properly and write it into the show, so that’s what we decided on.”
The character’s appearance in “Young Sheldon” can hardly be described as a new version. When the montage of the series “‘The Big Bang Theory’ Characters as Children” in the second season episode “A Swedish Science Thing and the Equation for Toast” needed a cameo from Mrs. Wolowitz, Pamela Adlon simply stepped in and provided the necessary vocal work.
