‘Parks & Rec’ creator returning to NBC with show starring Kristen Bell
Oh man. Back in the Veronica Mars days, I had a most massive of crushes on Kristen Bell. And I loved the shit out of Parks & Rec. So the two of them joining forces for a new show on NBC? That’s enough for me to actually turn on that channel.
Mike Schur — whose track record includes creating Parks and Recreation, producing the best years of The Office, and writing for FireJoeMorgan — is coming back to NBC with a new sitcom starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson. Yes. This is good. All of this is good. Deadline elaborates.
Good Place, which NBC ordered to series last summer based on a pitch, centers on Eleanor (Bell), a woman from New Jersey who comes to realize that she hasn’t been a very good person. She decides to turn over a new leaf by learning what it actually means to be “good” or “bad,” and then trying to make up for her past behavior. Danson plays Michael, who, through an unlikely set of circumstances, comes to be Eleanor’s guide through her self-designed self-improvement course.
This new series is a kind of mini-reunion for Bell and Schur, who worked together on Parks and Rec when Bell appeared as Amy Poehler’s Eagleton nemesis, Ingrid de Forest. For Danson, it marks a return to comedy after dramatic turns in CSI, CSI: Cyber, and the second season of Fargo. Although I suppose that’s not really accurate, because “return to comedy” implies that it wasn’t hilarious when he investigated a murder using a Roomba earlier this season on CSI: Cyber. Either way, good news about the new show!