William "Billy" Sparks was a neighbor of Sheldon, who claimed on The Big Bang Theory that he was one of his childhood bullies. He was mentioned being on Sheldon's all-time enemies list in "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary" and "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver", where Sheldon claimed he shoved a Mexican Peso up Sheldon's nose. He appears in the series spinoff "Young Sheldon".

Character Overview

Young Sheldon

Season 1

Billy is introduced when Mary takes Sheldon to explore outside for a moment. Just when Sheldon is about to go back home, Billy comes to him with his chicken to scare him, unbeknownst to Sheldon. Billy calls Sheldon a doofus in order to catch his attention, then he holds Matilda up close to Sheldon in hopes to scare him, Sheldon does so and runs away, Billy calls Matilda a good girl while Sheldon screams for Mary. (Pilot (Young Sheldon))

Billy was in the chicken coop and Sheldon asked him about making friends, but he could not help with that question. (Rockets, Communists, and the Dewey Decimal System)

Billy has a crush on Missy he gave her a basket full of eggs. When the Cooper family cooked and ate those eggs, they became violently ill from food poisoning as it turns out those eggs were Salmonella-contaminated. (Poker, Faith, and Eggs)

Sheldon wrote on a TANDY 1000 SL System computer that Billy Sparks threw a chicken at him. (A Computer, a Plastic Pony, and a Case of Beer)

Billy plays Dungeons and Dragons in the Cooper house garage with Sheldon and Tam Nguyen. Mary comes in, sees the contents, and discourages them from playing due to the mention of demons. The next day at Sunday School, he recites verses Jeff wanted the entire class to learn. He raises his hand and says he knows the two new attendees, Missy and Sheldon. A week later at Sunday School, he was called on, but asks to go 3rd. Afterwards, he attends Sheldon's only meeting of the “Church of Mathology”, where he chants “Hallelujah” and eats some food. (Demons, Sunday School, and Prime Numbers)

Season 2

On Halloween, Billy goes out trick or treating with Sheldon, Missy, and Tam Nguyen, dressed as Superman. While they were going to different houses, he had to pee and goes behind a tree, where he accidentally pees a little on his cape. (Seven Deadly Sins and a Small Carl Sagan)

Billy comes over to Meemaw's house and sees the racoon taxidermy at the yard sale. He has 50 cents and wants to buy the statue, but make a deal with Missy; he would pay her 10¢ a week for a whole year and he gets to call her his girlfriend, but Missy haggles and they both agree on 15¢ a week and if he says hello to her at school she says it back. (Carbon Dating and a Stuffed Raccoon)

Season 4

Billy, Sheldon, and Missy buy school supplies to prepare for school, Sheldon explains the difference about college ruled paper to which Billy replies that college is hard, Brenda tells Billy that he doesn't have to worry about college. Missy tells Mary that her name is "Melissa" now, Billy gets confused about it since his underwear has the name Billy while Sheldon and Missy tells him its like how they call him Billy, but his real name is William. Billy gets shocked from it then asks Brenda whose underpants is he wearing. (Freshman Orientation and the Inventor of the Zipper)

Season 6

Billy tries to give some candy to the chicken, but is yelled at by his mother. His mother asks George to ask Sheldon to tutor Billy in Math, which Sheldon does. They talk about math and the concept of zero. Over the course of time, Sheldon helps him enough that he passes his math test and not get held back in 6th grade. Adult Sheldon in a voice-over says Billy spent several years in the 7th grade. (Blonde Ambition and the Concept of Zero)

He had noticed his mother and George Cooper going into the chicken coop often. As a result, he tells Missy about it. (Ruthless, Toothless and a Week of Bed Rest)

At Medford Middle School, the school day ends, but his mother did not pick up him. He talks to Missy a bit and speculates whether her father and his mother are dating and could get married, but is denied this thought by Missy. (A Launch Party and a Whole Human Being)

Billy was in Darlene Wilkins's class and is writing an exam. Missy asks him if he knew why his mother was at the hospital, to which he replies about Mandy having a baby. Darlene Wilkins comes and tells them to not cheat. (Teen Angst and a Smart-Boy Walk of Shame)

Season 7

When Missy goes to Billy's house to watch TV, Missy gets the idea to throw a party after finding out Brenda is gone. Later, Billy buys beer at the Mini Mart when an incident occurs that Missy makes Billy realize that people can mistake him for a grown up. Later, while Missy is helping set up the party, Billy gets a call from his mother. Brenda finds out that they're having a party and that she's okay with it. Later, Missy and Billy throws the party and launches fireworks. It is unknown what happened to Billy after the party. (A Frankenstein's Monster and a Crazy Church Guy)

The Big Bang Theory

He was first mentioned in "The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary", when Sheldon tells Raj that Wil Wheaton ranks 6th in his all-time enemies list, right between director Joel Schumacher, who nearly destroyed the Batman movie franchise, and Billy Sparks, who lived down the street from Sheldon and put dog poop on the handles of his bicycle.

In "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver", Sheldon says to Howard that coins lodged in a body part is not a source of amusement, Sheldon then tells Howard that when he was 5, Billy Sparks shoved a Mexican peso up his nose, to this day, it takes Sheldon 45 minutes to get through the airport.

In "The Spock Resonance", while Adam Nimoy, Leonard Nimoy's son, was interviewing Sheldon for a Star Trek documentary, they get to Sheldon's childhood. Sheldon mentions that when he was eight, Billy Sparks cornered him in the school play yard, so as Spock would, Sheldon gave Billy his first ever Vulcan nerve pinch, it just resulted in Billy breaking Sheldon's collarbone, Sheldon can still hear it click.

Family

  • Father: Herschel Sparks
  • Mother: Brenda Sparks
  • Sister: Bobbi Sparks
  • Aunt: Sylvia

Trivia

  • Although Sheldon (who frequently tends to exaggerate or even outright lie about his childhood in The Big Bang Theory) has claimed that Billy was one of his childhood bullies, but events involving Billy that were in Young Sheldon appear to disprove those claims as he's most often merely seen being clueless and dimwitted, often having little idea what goes on around him most of the time.
  • Despite initially acting like a bully, over the course of Young Sheldon he's become more happily dim-but-harmless, and even seems to like spending time with Sheldon on occasion. His sister Bobbi Sparks is the only one who is bullying Sheldon.
  • Billy has been shown to be slow and dimwitted as evidenced by multiple scenes in the show like when his mother said that whenever his Spanish teacher would say "si", Billy would respond by saying "See what?"
  • Billy did ask out Missy in season 5, but she turned him down. The only reason why she turn him down in middle school and high school was because that appearances are everything. Missy is very pretty and being seen with Billy Sparks isn't going to help her social life. Billy gave up asking her out. Billy and Missy decided to stay friends when George stopped Billy from asking her out because Missy would reject him.
  • According to Sheldon in a voiceover in Season 6, after passing his test where he got a 68, he went on to 7th grade and ended up staying there for several years.
  • Despite McClure being billed as a main cast member since Season 5, Billy continued to appear infrequently. He was only listed as such in the episodes that he appeared in, similar to Jeff Difford.

Appearances

Appearances

The Big Bang Theory Episodes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Tot
Season 1 0
Season 2 0
Season 3 I M 0
Season 4 0
Season 5 M 0
Season 6 0
Season 7 0
Season 8 0
Season 9 M 0
Season 10 0
Season 11 0
Season 12 0

Appearances

Young Sheldon Episodes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Tot
Season 1 I 6
Season 2 P M V 7
Season 3 M 9
Season 4 M M 8
Season 5 I 7
Season 6 I 4
Season 7 M 2
Appeared M = Mentioned Did not appear Not aired/Not available
V = Voiced C = Cameo F = Flashback I = Indirectly mentioned P = Pictured
v · e · d
Young Sheldon Characters
Main Characters Main Sheldon Cooper  ‧  Mary Cooper  ‧  George Cooper Sr.  ‧  George Cooper Jr.  ‧  Missy Cooper  ‧  Meemaw  ‧  Jeff Difford  ‧  Billy Sparks  ‧  Amanda McAllister
Recurring and Minor Characters John Sturgis  ‧ Tam Nguyen  ‧  Paige Swanson  ‧  Veronica Duncan  ‧  Brenda Sparks  ‧  Herschel Sparks  ‧  Victoria MacElroy  ‧  Evelyn Ingram  ‧  Wayne Wilkins  ‧  Hubert Givens  ‧  Sheryl Hutchins  ‧  Gene Lundy  ‧  Tom Petersen  ‧  Le Nguyen  ‧  Trang Nguyen  ‧  Mai Nguyen  ‧  Kim-Ly Nguyen   ‧  Barry Swanson  ‧  Linda Swanson  ‧  Erica Swanson  ‧  Dale Ballard  ‧  Selena  ‧  Robin Difford  ‧  Jana  ‧  Marcus Larson  ‧  June  ‧  Grant Linkletter  ‧ Linda Hagemeyer  ‧ Pat  ‧ Professor Boucher  ‧ Jim McAllister  ‧ Audrey McAllister  ‧ Amber