Coach Stars Reunite on Young Sheldon

Whether you’re a diehard fan of The Big Bang Theory or somebody with reverence for the 1990s, Young Sheldon has definitely been delivering on nostalgia. That especially proved to be the case on the series’ most recent episode — which featured a reunion between two 90s icons that was decades in the making. The fourth episode of the series’ current fifth season, “Pish Posh and a Secret Back Room,” included a scene between series regular Craig T. Nelson and Bill Fagerbakke, both of whom starred together on the long-running ABC sitcom Coach. In the scene, Nelson’s Dale met at a bar with one of his cop buddies, Fagerbakke’s Jake, after Connie (Annie Potts) decided to open a secret gambling room.

“It’s been wonderful having Bill Fagerbakke come play with us,” Young Sheldon executive producer Steve Molaro recently explained to TVLine. “Craig T. was thrilled to work with Bill again. When I touched base with Craig about it beforehand, he was immediately into it. Having watched them on Coach for so long, it was a treat to get to see them work together.”

“Even though they are playing different characters, that chemistry is so natural,” Molaro continued. “They happened to be playing two old friends, catching up in a bar – so some of that was happening in real life as well. Plus, getting to work with the voice of Patrick Star from SpongeBob is a huge bonus in my book.”

Coach, which ran for 200 episodes from 1989 to 1997 on ABC, starred Nelson as Hayden Fox, the coach of a fictional Minnesota State University football team. Fagerbakke portrayed Michael “Dauber” Dybinski, Fox’s assistant coach. After the series ended in 1997, Nelson and Fagerbakke reunited on a 2004 episode of The District.

There were brief talks about potentially reviving Coach beginning in 2015, with the new iteration picking up 18 years later and find Nelson’s Hayden Fox interrupting his retirement to become assistant coach to his own grown son, who is the new head coach at an Ivy League school in Pennsylvania that is just starting up a new team. The revival initially received a straight-to-series, 13-episode order, and a pilot was filmed, but the project was ultimately cancelled due to mixed responses and creative differences. Both Nelson and Fagerbakke would have returned for the new series.

What do you think of Young Sheldon‘s Coach reunion? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!