Tina Fey’s ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ Heads to Netflix
Tina Fey’s ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ Heads to Netflix, If “30 Rock,” their screwball sitcom about television’s backstage antics, had lasted a bit longer, Tina Fey and Robert Carlock say, they might have pursued a plot about the fatuous executive Jack Donaghy and his further degradation of the traditional broadcast TV model.
As Ms. Fey explained, “He was going to have some kind of NBC app so you can see a show in your food.”
Mr. Carlock added, “The shows were going to appear in your soup.”
What was once comic fodder for Mr. Carlock and Ms. Fey, Emmy Award-winning collaborators who have worked together since “Saturday Night Live,” has come true for them, more or less.
When their new comedy series, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” about the survivor of a cult (Ellie Kemper) rebuilding her life in New York, is released on March 6, it will not be shown on NBC, the network for which it was created and where Ms. Fey has been a signature talent.
It won’t be shown in a bowl of consommé either, but it will have its debut on Netflix, the streaming video service that has become home to a roster of well-regarded original shows (“Orange Is the New Black”) and resurrected series (“Arrested Development”).
One could interpret this turn of events as an ominous sign for the future of cutting-edge comedies on broadcast networks. But Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock see their unanticipated arrival at Netflix as an opportunity to develop their voice and break boundaries they faced on “30 Rock.”
Using another media metaphor in a recent interview, Ms. Fey compared the transition to the provocative broadcaster Howard Stern’s move to a satellite radio service.
“It will take time to find a new rhythm, but now you can say and do whatever you want,” she said. “I guess what we’re saying is, we’re going to humiliate strippers.”
From its conception, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” has been a much-anticipated project as well as a potentially problematic one.
When “30 Rock” concluded its seven-season run in 2013, Mr. Carlock and Ms. Fey began to contemplate a follow-up project. NBC encouraged them to develop a series for Ms. Kemper, who played sweetly naïve characters on “The Office” and in “Bridesmaids.”
Inspired by the actress, who Ms. Fey said possessed “sunniness, but also strength,” she and Mr. Carlock began to spin out some unlikely sitcom heroines for her: a baby who survived getting stuck in a well or a woman who woke up from a coma.
The premise they instead settled on cast Ms. Kemper as a woman who has spent 15 years living underground, told (but never quite persuaded) by a crackpot preacher that Armageddon has occurred. She then re-emerges into a world whose cynicism she does not share.
Ms. Fey said she and Mr. Carlock liked the idea of “a person who doesn’t know a lot of things, but then also knows a lot of weird things that she can impart to people.”
“You believe her when she takes charge, even if she doesn’t quite know what she’s doing,” Mr. Carlock added.
Ms. Kemper said she connected with the Kimmy Schmidt character because she is “resourceful and crafty and incredibly tough,” and perhaps shares other qualities with her.
“I do have this big round moon face,” Ms. Kemper said. “So when I smile, it’s a big smile.”
But Ms. Kemper said she was wary of a series that could be seen as making light of a potentially serious ordeal, though she ultimately trusted that Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock would treat the scenario appropriately.
Ms. Fey said, “In my heart, I believe it’s O.K. to tell a positive story about a survivor, and we’ll see if that turns out to be correct or not.”
The series (which also stars the “30 Rock” alumna Jane Krakowski as Kimmy’s high-society employer; Tituss Burgess as her ostentatious roommate; and Carol Kane as Kimmy’s landlady) was snapped up by NBC in the fall of 2013 and given a commitment of 13 episodes.
But the show was not announced on NBC’s fall 2014 or spring 2015 schedule, even as production continued, and some of its principals began to scratch their heads.
“It’s only scary to someone working on the show, because you think, ‘Ahh, why are they postponing it?’ ” Ms. Kemper said. “But it’s out of my hands. What can you do about it?”
Behind the scenes, Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock were in constant conversation with Robert Greenblatt, NBC’s entertainment chairman, watching as comedies like “Parks and Recreation” were reaching their conclusions and new ones like “Bad Judge” and “A to Z” were failing.
Soon, they realized, NBC would have no dedicated comedy bloc and no like-minded shows to support “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” and started discussing whether another network could show it.“I do want to dispel the notion that it was canceled,” Ms. Fey said. If she and Mr. Carlock wished, NBC “would have aired it, and it would have done an 0.6,” she said, citing a low ratings figure.
“They wouldn’t have just not aired it,” she added.
Mr. Greenblatt wrote in response to emailed questions that if Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock “had not wanted to go the Netflix route we would have done everything we could to make it a hit on NBC.”
“Nothing would have made us happier than to have Tina’s next show after ‘30 Rock,’ ” Mr. Greenblatt wrote, “but I also would rather see it go to Netflix than put her in a position to not succeed due to our limitations at the moment.”
He added that Ms. Fey has “agreed to do her next show with us, and by then we’ll be in a better position to assure her success here at NBC.”
Because “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” is produced by Universal Television, a corporate sibling of NBC, the network had an incentive to keep the show alive and quickly found a willing partner in Netflix.
“It’s incredibly funny, in the same kind of rhythm of ‘30 Rock,’ but also totally original,” said Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer of Netflix. “It was a completely unexplored area for television comedy, and that’s what I get excited about.”
Days after Netflix executives visited the set and watched some episodes, the company announced in November that it was acquiring the series and ordering a second season.
“I wanted the creative talent to know that we were committed to the show,” Mr. Sarandos said. “It’s not a wild bet that Tina Fey’s return to television is going to be a success.”
Mr. Sarandos said Netflix asked for no creative changes to the show and would have allowed Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock revert to its original working title, “Tooken,” though by that point they were already committed to “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”
Netflix also allowed them to let episodes run longer than the 22 minutes mandated by advertising-driven networks, a time limit that proved constraining on “30 Rock.”
In the editing process, Ms. Krakowski said, “we always lost between five and seven minutes of ‘30 Rock,’ even though we spoke as fast as we did. I think we all started talking so fast on that show so our jokes wouldn’t get cut.”
Netflix, which gained some marquee talent from the acquisition, is not yet declaring all-out victory over its network TV rivals. “They’re built to attract big audiences at the same time,” Mr. Sarandos said of networks like NBC, which he said was still succeeding with event shows like “The Voice.” (Netflix does not disclose its own viewership numbers, though Mr. Sarandos said it gets “enormous” cumulative audiences for shows like “The Office” and “30 Rock.”)
“We can take the time to find the audience that will love this show,” he added. “We’re just not under any unique pressure to do it at, say, Thursday night at 8 o’clock.”
Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock said that there were natural, tonal differences between shows designed for broadcast or on-demand audiences and that these distinctions might benefit “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” on Netflix.
On broadcast networks, “if you try something a little dicey, it’s rude,” Ms. Fey said. Knowing that they are guaranteed another year of “Kimmy Schmidt,” Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock said, they can address happier challenges, like balancing the freedom of longer episodes and fewer content restrictions with the light and freewheeling tone established in Season 1.
“I sincerely doubt that we’re going to open Season 2 with a long, graphic sex scene with Ellie in it,” Ms. Fey said.
Although, Mr. Carlock replied: “She’s so amenable and so great. We’d say, ‘Look, we’re on Netflix now.’ ”
Ms. Fey was fairly certain this would not happen. “We’ve met her mom,” she said. “We’re not going to do that to her. Unless we can’t get up to 24 minutes.”
As Ms. Fey explained, “He was going to have some kind of NBC app so you can see a show in your food.”
Mr. Carlock added, “The shows were going to appear in your soup.”
What was once comic fodder for Mr. Carlock and Ms. Fey, Emmy Award-winning collaborators who have worked together since “Saturday Night Live,” has come true for them, more or less.
When their new comedy series, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” about the survivor of a cult (Ellie Kemper) rebuilding her life in New York, is released on March 6, it will not be shown on NBC, the network for which it was created and where Ms. Fey has been a signature talent.
It won’t be shown in a bowl of consommé either, but it will have its debut on Netflix, the streaming video service that has become home to a roster of well-regarded original shows (“Orange Is the New Black”) and resurrected series (“Arrested Development”).
One could interpret this turn of events as an ominous sign for the future of cutting-edge comedies on broadcast networks. But Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock see their unanticipated arrival at Netflix as an opportunity to develop their voice and break boundaries they faced on “30 Rock.”
Using another media metaphor in a recent interview, Ms. Fey compared the transition to the provocative broadcaster Howard Stern’s move to a satellite radio service.
“It will take time to find a new rhythm, but now you can say and do whatever you want,” she said. “I guess what we’re saying is, we’re going to humiliate strippers.”
From its conception, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” has been a much-anticipated project as well as a potentially problematic one.
When “30 Rock” concluded its seven-season run in 2013, Mr. Carlock and Ms. Fey began to contemplate a follow-up project. NBC encouraged them to develop a series for Ms. Kemper, who played sweetly naïve characters on “The Office” and in “Bridesmaids.”
Inspired by the actress, who Ms. Fey said possessed “sunniness, but also strength,” she and Mr. Carlock began to spin out some unlikely sitcom heroines for her: a baby who survived getting stuck in a well or a woman who woke up from a coma.
The premise they instead settled on cast Ms. Kemper as a woman who has spent 15 years living underground, told (but never quite persuaded) by a crackpot preacher that Armageddon has occurred. She then re-emerges into a world whose cynicism she does not share.
Ms. Fey said she and Mr. Carlock liked the idea of “a person who doesn’t know a lot of things, but then also knows a lot of weird things that she can impart to people.”
“You believe her when she takes charge, even if she doesn’t quite know what she’s doing,” Mr. Carlock added.
Ms. Kemper said she connected with the Kimmy Schmidt character because she is “resourceful and crafty and incredibly tough,” and perhaps shares other qualities with her.
“I do have this big round moon face,” Ms. Kemper said. “So when I smile, it’s a big smile.”
But Ms. Kemper said she was wary of a series that could be seen as making light of a potentially serious ordeal, though she ultimately trusted that Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock would treat the scenario appropriately.
Ms. Fey said, “In my heart, I believe it’s O.K. to tell a positive story about a survivor, and we’ll see if that turns out to be correct or not.”
The series (which also stars the “30 Rock” alumna Jane Krakowski as Kimmy’s high-society employer; Tituss Burgess as her ostentatious roommate; and Carol Kane as Kimmy’s landlady) was snapped up by NBC in the fall of 2013 and given a commitment of 13 episodes.
But the show was not announced on NBC’s fall 2014 or spring 2015 schedule, even as production continued, and some of its principals began to scratch their heads.
“It’s only scary to someone working on the show, because you think, ‘Ahh, why are they postponing it?’ ” Ms. Kemper said. “But it’s out of my hands. What can you do about it?”
Behind the scenes, Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock were in constant conversation with Robert Greenblatt, NBC’s entertainment chairman, watching as comedies like “Parks and Recreation” were reaching their conclusions and new ones like “Bad Judge” and “A to Z” were failing.
Soon, they realized, NBC would have no dedicated comedy bloc and no like-minded shows to support “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” and started discussing whether another network could show it.“I do want to dispel the notion that it was canceled,” Ms. Fey said. If she and Mr. Carlock wished, NBC “would have aired it, and it would have done an 0.6,” she said, citing a low ratings figure.
“They wouldn’t have just not aired it,” she added.
Mr. Greenblatt wrote in response to emailed questions that if Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock “had not wanted to go the Netflix route we would have done everything we could to make it a hit on NBC.”
“Nothing would have made us happier than to have Tina’s next show after ‘30 Rock,’ ” Mr. Greenblatt wrote, “but I also would rather see it go to Netflix than put her in a position to not succeed due to our limitations at the moment.”
He added that Ms. Fey has “agreed to do her next show with us, and by then we’ll be in a better position to assure her success here at NBC.”
Because “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” is produced by Universal Television, a corporate sibling of NBC, the network had an incentive to keep the show alive and quickly found a willing partner in Netflix.
“It’s incredibly funny, in the same kind of rhythm of ‘30 Rock,’ but also totally original,” said Ted Sarandos, the chief content officer of Netflix. “It was a completely unexplored area for television comedy, and that’s what I get excited about.”
Days after Netflix executives visited the set and watched some episodes, the company announced in November that it was acquiring the series and ordering a second season.
“I wanted the creative talent to know that we were committed to the show,” Mr. Sarandos said. “It’s not a wild bet that Tina Fey’s return to television is going to be a success.”
Mr. Sarandos said Netflix asked for no creative changes to the show and would have allowed Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock revert to its original working title, “Tooken,” though by that point they were already committed to “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”
Netflix also allowed them to let episodes run longer than the 22 minutes mandated by advertising-driven networks, a time limit that proved constraining on “30 Rock.”
In the editing process, Ms. Krakowski said, “we always lost between five and seven minutes of ‘30 Rock,’ even though we spoke as fast as we did. I think we all started talking so fast on that show so our jokes wouldn’t get cut.”
Netflix, which gained some marquee talent from the acquisition, is not yet declaring all-out victory over its network TV rivals. “They’re built to attract big audiences at the same time,” Mr. Sarandos said of networks like NBC, which he said was still succeeding with event shows like “The Voice.” (Netflix does not disclose its own viewership numbers, though Mr. Sarandos said it gets “enormous” cumulative audiences for shows like “The Office” and “30 Rock.”)
“We can take the time to find the audience that will love this show,” he added. “We’re just not under any unique pressure to do it at, say, Thursday night at 8 o’clock.”
Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock said that there were natural, tonal differences between shows designed for broadcast or on-demand audiences and that these distinctions might benefit “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” on Netflix.
On broadcast networks, “if you try something a little dicey, it’s rude,” Ms. Fey said. Knowing that they are guaranteed another year of “Kimmy Schmidt,” Ms. Fey and Mr. Carlock said, they can address happier challenges, like balancing the freedom of longer episodes and fewer content restrictions with the light and freewheeling tone established in Season 1.
“I sincerely doubt that we’re going to open Season 2 with a long, graphic sex scene with Ellie in it,” Ms. Fey said.
Although, Mr. Carlock replied: “She’s so amenable and so great. We’d say, ‘Look, we’re on Netflix now.’ ”
Ms. Fey was fairly certain this would not happen. “We’ve met her mom,” she said. “We’re not going to do that to her. Unless we can’t get up to 24 minutes.”