tribeca film festival 2016

How the Creators of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Learned to See NYC Through Kimmy’s Eyes

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s titular Kimmy is another in a long line of TV dreamers who fled their small towns for the wonders of the big city. The difference, of course, is that Kimmy finds herself in NYC after 15 years spent held captive in a bunker by a very handsome cult leader — and that causes her to view and approach New York City with a sort of childlike wonderment.

Seeing New York though Kimmy’s lens is the job of Robert Carlock, who co-created Unbreakable with Tina Fey. Shortly after the release of the show’s second season on Netflix, Carlock spoke with Vulture senior editor Jesse David Fox and Bloomberg’s Katherine Oliver for the final episode of The City of Scenes, a limited-run podcast jointly produced by Vulture and Bloomberg that discusses TV and film made in New York City. In the interview, Carlock discusses how Kimmy’s NYC differs from that of 30 Rock (for which Carlock wrote for seven seasons), finding ungentrified neighborhoods to shoot in, and the joys of casting in New York.

Podcast: Viewing NY Through Kimmy Schmidt’s Eyes