Surprise! A beloved character is returning to Young Sheldon for its seventh and final season. When does Tam return to Young Sheldon? Read on to learn everything we know about the anticipated comeback of Sheldon’s childhood bestie.
Young Sheldon is the prequel series to the massively successful CBS show The Big Bang Theory, which ran from 2007 to 2019. It follows a young Sheldon Cooper (Iain Armitage) growing up in East Texas in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Jim Parsons, who originated the titular character on Big Bang, serves as the narrator and an executive producer. The series first premiered in 2017 and is currently on its seventh season, which will also serve as its last.
When he was 15, Ryan Phuong joined Young Sheldon as Tam, Sheldon’s childhood best friend, in Seasons 1 through 4. Tam made 29 additional appearances in Season 4, but the last time we saw him was in April 2021 when he was a senior at Medford High, and Sheldon was a college freshman at East Texas Tech.
In a recent interview with TV Line, the show’s executive producer, Steve Holland, revealed that “Tam is going to be back.” When the site asked Holland whether Tam’s return will be informed by what we learned about his character on Big Bang, he replied, “I think there will be a nod to that.” CBS has not announced which episode of Season 7 Tam will return in.
Tam was initially introduced in The Big Bang Theory, and his adult counterpart, Robert Wu, made his first appearance in Season 12. In the episode, Sheldon revealed why Tam landed on his enemies list. “When I got accepted to grad school at Caltech, I was afraid to move so far away from home, so Tam said he’d move out here with me and be my roommate,” Sheldon explained to Amy in the scene, according to our sister site. “Then over the summer, he got a girlfriend… even after reading all the pamphlets I gave him about social diseases. Anyway, Tam stayed with her in Texas and I had to move out here all by myself. It was [scary]. I was lonely. I thought I’d never make a friend again — and for a long time, I didn’t.”
As for what happens to Tam after Young Sheldon, we know that he marries his girlfriend Beth and has children. His son was considering attending Caltech when adult Tam and Sheldon reunited in 2018.
Phuong’s upcoming return will be special as Young Sheldon bids farewell for good. In November 2023, Deadline reported that Season 7 would be the show’s final season.“ Being able to tell the origin of Sheldon Cooper, and expanding the story to include the entire Cooper family has been a wonderful experience,” said executive producers Holland, Molaro and Lorre, in a statement. “We are grateful to our fans for embracing this chapter of the Coopers these past six seasons, and on behalf of the entire Young Sheldon family, we’re excited to share this final season with you.” While fans were devastated by the news, they also knew that the sitcom would end eventually based on certain plot points in Big Bang.
In addition to Tam’s return, viewers will also likely see the death of Sheldon’s father George Sr. in Season 7. Holland previously said he felt the death of his father was a pivotal moment for Sheldon and shaped him into the man he becomes on Big Bang.
“That is a thing that happens in Sheldon’s life. This is the same character [from Big Bang]. We are living in the same universe as Big Bang and that sort of world building is important. Big things that [Adult Sheldon said] happened in his life without a doubt happened,” he told TVLine ahead of the Season 7 premiere. While Holland did not directly confirm if George Sr.’s death is happening, he noted, “I don’t want to say what you will or won’t see. He did hint that “things will get addressed.”
