LOS ANGELES – Emily Osment considers co-star Montana Jordan “peaceful.”
“Montana’s got a really beautiful viewpoint and it shows” on their series, “Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage,” she says.
The two met when she was a guest star on “Young Sheldon,” the series that launched Jordan, and thought he looked like Patrick Swayze.
“He’s Georgie in so many ways,” she adds. “My family is from the South and he reminds me of so many people there.”
Montana Jordan and Emily Osment play a young couple dealing with plenty of issues in "Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage." The "Young Sheldon" spinoff debuts this month.
When the characters clicked, producers decided to put them together and, one child and a couple of career changes later, they’re the centerpiece of the first “Young Sheldon” spinoff.
So far, the series has resonated with fans of that show and its mothership, “The Big Bang Theory.” “Georgie & Mandy” gave them a studio audience (something Jordan didn’t experience with “Young Sheldon”) and something Osment was familiar with through a host of other series.
Emily Osment stars in "Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage."
Making her mark as a child, Osment attracted attention in “Spy Kids 2,” then segued into “Hannah Montana,” the Miley Cyrus series that brought record audiences to a Disney Channel show. Music ventures followed; a host of Disney specials and movies were a given.
By the time she got back to series television, Osment was an industry veteran, recording songs when she wasn’t acting; touring when she wasn’t doing voiceovers.
She got her first taste of Chuck Lorre’s comedy empire as a guest star in “Two and a Half Men” and, from there, has been steadily employed by the uber-producer behind “Georgie & Mandy's.”
“What I thought was going to be my first and only week on ‘Young Sheldon’ (turned into) a call the following week and the following week and now here I am today,” she says. “My expectations were very normal. They just got blown out of the water by Chuck, who’s kept me employed for 14 years now.”
Montana Jordan as Georgie and Emily Osment as Mandy do a lot of decision-making away from her parents in "Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage."
Lorre’s shows – like the ones she watched while making “Hannah Montana” – were comforting. “I would come home from working all day and my dad and I would have dinner and we would watch ‘Cheers.’ As I got older, I’d watch ‘Big Bang Theory.’ It was just something we did.”
That “comfort television,” Osment says, is what “Georgie and Mandy’s” offers. “The reason shows like ‘Young Sheldon’ are so authentic and so relatable is because they really are about real people and a real family dynamic. In the case of Georgie’s character, he shows who he is as a person when he runs into any sort of speed bump. Because he’s been coasting, living at home, being an 18-year-old, this roadblock came into his life, and it’s caused him to step up.
“That proves that (Mandy and Georgie) together are a very good team.”
The two execute a tango in the opening credits of the show and, true to form, they rehearsed until it was flawless.
While a single-camera show (like “Young Sheldon”) allows a director to shoot a scene until he’s pleased with what he sees, a multi-camera one (like “Georgie & Mandy’s”) has an audience that becomes a consideration.
Montana Jordan and Emily Osment star in "Georgie and Mandy's First Marriage."
Jordan – a newbie to the studio audience world – took to it quickly. Osment, a veteran multi-cam actress, didn’t even consider the shift.
“I’m not thinking about the audience,” she says. “I’m thinking about my performance and how to bring my best self to the stage, every day.”
Renewed for a second season, “Georgie and Mandy’s First Marriage” should let its stars explore other areas of the relationship.
“I think when you put two kids in 1994 in east Texas trying to raise a baby together, there’s going to be issues,” Osment says.
A divorce perhaps? “There could be a second marriage between them, but I hope it’s my only marriage,” she says.
