'The Good Place'
At TCA, the creator of the new NBC sitcom called the Damon Lindelof drama "the model for this show."
When Mike Schur stopped by the Television Critics Association summer press tour to promote his new NBC comedy The Good Place, he made an unlikely comparison.
He likened the upcoming series starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson to former NBC hit Lost, calling the drama "the model for this show." He also talked about running the pitch for The Good Place by Lost executive producer Damon Lindelof beforehand, something Schur first revealed at the show's Comic Con panel last month.
"The way I was imagining [The Good Place] going was sort of the Lost way of cliffhangers and big events and dramatic things that change the course of characters lives and stuff like that, in every episode," said the Parks and Recreation creator. "An average episode of the show has a contained story and then at the end, something kind of dramatic happens, and it sends the show spiraling off into a different place."
The Martian and Cloverfield writer Drew Goddard, who directed the series' pilot per Lindelof's recommendation, was also on hand for the panel. He acknowledged that he'd been a fan of Schur's for quite some time, and was drawn to the show's quirky premise. "Everything I've ever done has been characters who care about each other dealing with strange circumstances — that's really the soul of everything I'm attracted to," he said.
Schur added that the concept for the series was birthed out of a desire to not do another show about "lovable goofballs in an office setting" after spending 12 years working on Parks. "[I thought,] maybe I should try something else," he said, adding: "It's very fun."
The Good Place premieres Monday, Sept. 19 at 10 p.m. on NBC.
Mike Schur
