This Piece of 90s Technology Got Young Sheldon Fans All Confused
People of all ages love the Young Sheldon series.
For some, this series is a reminder of how they grew up watching The Big Bang Theory, for others it's a nice bit of nostalgia, as the prequel tells the story of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Still, many fans were not born during the events of the series, so many aspects of the early 90s seem quite unusual. Well, dear veterans, it's time to share the secrets of those days with the younger fans out there!
Of particular interest is a piece of technology from the nineteenth episode of season 5 that puzzled fans who did not live in the early 90s. At the second minute, Sheldon walks into his sister's room to find out where their parents are. But something completely futuristic appears on the screens. Something that doesn't fit the era. Or so it seems!
Long story short, the cognitive dissonance among fans was caused by the fact that Missy was listening to music on wireless headphones. And that's 1992! Bluetooth technology will only be introduced to the general public in 6-7 years. Is this an obvious anachronism that the crew overlooked during production?
Someone suggested that it might be non-electric noise-canceling headphones that allow Sheldon' sister to study better. However, we can clearly see that the girl is singing along with the song (and we can even hear it partially).
"They are probably the headsets they sold back then with an AM/FM radio built in," Reddit user egomann says.
The mysterious technology turned out to be a wireless radio with headphones (or rather, headphones with a built-in radio?). These were actually used in the late 80s and early 90s. The headphones were battery powered, so they could be worn anywhere.
What's more, the retro enthusiasts have even managed to identify a specific model that Missy had! Made in Korea by the American company RadioShack (a division of Tandy Corporation at the time), this is an AM/FM Headset Radio 12-186. Despite the futuristic design that fits the aesthetic of the cyberpunk genre, these headphones have been around since the mid-80s.
All in all, Missy turned out not to be a time traveler after all, and such headphones were fairly common in 1992. In the meantime, we will continue to scour the series for any interesting historical artifacts!