‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ is ‘alive again’ at NBC
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – How did the cast react when NBC rescued cult comedy “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” after Fox canceled it after five seasons?
“It felt like you’re alive again,” Terry Crews told the Television Critics Association press tour Wednesday.
“I felt pretty confident we’d land somewhere, maybe blindly so,” star Andy Samberg said.
NBC, which produced the series for Fox, plans a shortened, 13-episode run due early next year and maybe more beyond that.
The news about the low-rated show was one of the biggest TV events in May.
“I don’t know if it was a slow news day or what, but the story of the show getting canceled and then rescued struck a nerve,” Samberg said. “It’s a show we’ve loved making and are so proud of,” so he was glad it put the show back in the “zeitgeist” (though he hates using that word).
It was a liberating time for Crews, who testified on Capitol Hill in June about his sexual assault by a powerful agent who Crews said groped him.
“For me and for a lot of people out there, I call it the summer of freedom,” he said. “It’s all about freedom and telling your story. But I had friends and family on the show, (so) I felt secure enough that I could tell my truth and still go to work, along with all of the women who came forward.”
What’s next for “Brooklyn”? Fox’s finale saw the wedding of Samberg’s detective Jake Peralta and Melissa Fumero’s Amy Santiago, so they’re headed toward competitive domestic bliss.
“They’ll maintain that same dynamic, but it will be fun to explore it through the lens of marriage,” Samberg said, joking, “Mostly small, detailoriented story lines about their finances.”
“Gosh, that day they combine their bank account, it’s going to be a big day,” Fumero added.
Co-creator and executive producer Dan Goor said the often-slapstick comedy will again tackle more substantive issues. (Last season dealt with a dramatic active-shooter story).
“We intend to continue go- ing down the road with Rosa’s ... interactions with her parents and her coming out” as bisexual, he said of Stephanie Beatriz’s hard-edged police officer. “We’re really interested in trying to do a #MeToo storyline; it’s something we’re actively talking about in the writers room.”
But the show’s not changing much and will probably be paired with tonally similar NBC sitcoms, such as “Superstore” or “AP Bio.”
“The mandate from NBC is, ‘We know this show, we love this show, please keep making the same show,’ ” Goor said. “It’s the same show; it’s going to be even better.”
Except maybe, Chelsea Peretti joked, there’ll be “peacocks in the theme song.”