In the midst of the upcoming fall TV seasons that will be premiering, Mike Schur and Dan Goor, creators of "Parks and Recreation," are bringing one of the most unique series of all to Fox.
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” a police comedy premiering later this month on Fox, stars Andy Samberg as Detective Jake Peralta, a laid-back cop who is told to grow up by his by-the-book boss Ray Holt, played by Andre Braugher of “The Mist.” Terry Crews from “The Expendables” also stars, along with Melissa Fumero from “One Life to Live” and Joe Lo Truglio from “Reno 911!”
With the gambit of pilots debuting this fall, ranging from Fox’s “Sleepy Hollow,” to ABC’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Shur and Goor feel like Nine-Nine stands apart because of its unique, cop-comedy genre.
“In this day and age where there (are) 10 million shows about every genre, every setting, every location that is possibly imaginable by the human brain, that made it seem like kind of an exciting challenge,” Schur said. “The more we talked about it, the more it seemed like something that, at least in the half-hour network comedy world, was at least somewhat unexplored territory.”
Goor agrees that the idea was unique and felt fresh.
“We thought it was a cool way to have interesting characters, both in the police department, and in terms of the people that they interact with, so that it’s an interesting subsection of humanity that cops get to deal with,” Goor said.
One of the show's main aspects is that Samberg’s character, Peralta, is continuously finding himself in situations that may be a bit over his head, with Braugher’s character, Ray Holt, coming in to clean up the messes Peralta left behind. Peralta’s talent for somehow managing to find a way to screw up becomes one of the show’s funniest running jokes.
Schur explained that the central tension of the show is the head-butting relationship between Peralta and Holt. Peralta is a talented detective, but he doesn’t exactly play by conventional cop rules, which is a point of contention for Holt, who conducts himself in a more professional manner.
Samberg said that working with Braugher, who is known as a traditionally serious actor, has been an excellent learning experience.
“As an actor, I am completely in awe of him," Samberg said. “Because of that gravitas that he has and that actual acting training, and because that’s so the opposite of where I come from and how I’ve gotten into comedy, I feel like our characters play perfectly into our experience leading up to this point.”
"Brooklyn Nine-Nine" marks Samberg’s return to television after departing from his seven seasons spent at “Saturday Night Live” in May 2012. Although Nine-Nine has certainly shifted Samberg from working on the skit-based SNL, to working as the same character on a weekly basis, Samberg said the adjustment has been relatively smooth.
The hardest part, Samberg said, has simply been making the transition from night owl to early bird in order to adapt to his new working schedule.
Overall, Samberg said he likes the cop-comedy genre, as well as the workplace and procedural aspects of the show.
“When it comes to workplace comedies, there is really no one else I would want to work with than these dudes,” Samberg said.
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” premieres Sept. 17 at 8:30 p.m. on Fox.
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