Featuring an impressive cast led by Andy Samberg and created by Parks and Rec’s Mike Schur and Dan Goor, Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine is far and away the most promising new comedy of the fall. The cast and crew spoke to reporters today at the TCA press tour, explaining what to expect from the series. Here are some highlights (via Variety, E Online and Zap2It):
“This is not like Police Squad, as big a fan as I am of Police Squad. This is a workplace comedy that happens to be set in a police precinct, is the simplest way to put it. The idea is that they’re real cops and the crimes they’re investigating are real crimes. They’re real human beings and they’re doing real things. We want it to seem like it’s a real police precinct … That’s a key component to make sure it wasn’t a goofy parody, that people understood that these are really good detectives.” - co-creator/exec producer Mike Schur
“It’s important for the show to work – if he’s actually [a good cop], you care. When we first talked about it, he was going to be like McNulty in The Wire, except he was doing gags in the office.” - producer/actor Andy Samberg
“We didn’t want to do a case of the week, necessarily. [The cops] could be on parade duty and frustrated they’re not solving a crime. That being said, when we do do a crime, there will be some very high stakes, kind of murder-y crimes. And there will be some silly stories.” - co-creator/exec producer Dan Goor
“I loved Barney Miller. We read this survey of actual police officers and detectives and the question was what is the most realistic depiction of police work on TV and overwhelmingly they said Barney Miller. You’re not constantly running at top speed down the street chasing a criminal. A lot of it is life in the police house and the relationships you form with other detectives.” - Mike Schur
“To show up and just be handed 25 great jokes is the best thing that could happen as a comedian.” - Andy Samberg
“Andy is a producer on the show, and it’s not just in name only.” - Dan Goor
“I was not looking to do a TV series at all, but I was a huge fan of Parks and I had seen what a tremendous job these guys had done with Amy [Poehler], who is basically my hero and my idol.” - Andy Samberg
“This is the winning team. This is the best thing I’ve looked at in years.” - actor Terry Crews
“It’s new and its challenging, the idea of improving and finding the comedy edge. It’s very important to be truthful and engaged with all the comedians so that I can play on the same playing field. So when they toss it to me, I can toss it right back. And that’s a real challenge, but I like it a lot.” - actor Andre Braugher
“Our intention is to play his [Andre Braugher’s openly gay character Ray Holt’s] relationship in the same way you would play a heterosexual relationship between the captain and his wife,” says Goor. “I think that that would definitely be a fun thing to explore. There are two married characters on the show, there’s [Terry Crews’s Sgt. Jeffords] and there’s Holt. In talking to cops, we talked a lot about how the job impacts relationships and we’d really like to explore that through both of their relationships.” - Dan Goor
