An unknown legend: Michael Schur. The best sitcom writer ever.

Growing up Jewish in Ann Arbor Michigan and Hartford Connecticut, Michael Schur graduated high school and Harvard with an english degree and the comedy writing experience from being the president of the Harvard Lampoon. He started his career working on Saturday Night Live first as a writer and then going on to be a host of the Weekend updates segment. He worked for SNL from 2001 to 2004 winning an Emmy as part of the cast in 2001 and notably tackling the tough task of hosting a comedy show a few weeks after 9/11. After leaving SNL in 2004 he went on to start working on american version of The Office, which released in 2005 and started casting and writing in 2004. The first season was adapted and the first episode was almost shot for shot of the UK version, leaving little to no room for Schur’s own writing to change the bulk of the episode. While many episodes of the Office are credited with different people writing, Schur was the last step of the process for almost every episode. At the time the first season of The Office received mixed reviews from both critics and general audiences. Fans of the original UK office couldn’t get behind this version, including the cast. John Krasinski, unknowingly told Schur that he didn’t think the writers could replicate the UK office after his audition at a bar not knowing Schur was the showrunner. Several changes were made to the show that all seemed to turn out for the better, Phyllis and Toby were both crew members that made it in as characters when Schur liked their personalities on screen. Schur realized that the UK office worked for the Audience in the UK but needed to be adapted to american screens and the actors' strengths. Simply looking at Michael in season one and season two would show the change of the whole show. Michael goes from being a bad, douchey boss to a carefree, fun, boss that can get some work done if needed. His hair isn’t slicked back and the color grading on the show overall is more vibrant. The second season brought more success to the show, and more critical acclaim after not knowing how long they could continue with the poor viewership of the first season and episodes of the UK office quickly running out he knew that he had to change it up. For the next six seasons the office went on to be a very funny popular show that millions of people watched and talked about.

In 2008 with the office releasing its fourth season and filming its fifth, Schur knew that the office would not be able to go on forever even with the popularity and viewership of the fourth season when he and Greg Daniels started working on a spin off of the office following Ann Perkins after she moved and left the Scranton branch. The more they worked on it the more they realized that Parks and Recreation should be its own standalone show. Schur along with his now co-writer began working on Parks and Rec on the side of the office. With the last few episodes of the office season 5 overlapping with the first few episodes of Parks and Rec. Almost as a mirror to The office, the first season of parks and rec didn’t have the popularity, or viewership that they would have hoped, with Parks and Rec being called a bad Office imitator with the same workplace environment and the cutaway headshot style of the office. With these concerns being voiced at the time it probably confused Schur and Daniels because other than one actress, and a similar style to the office nothing was really the same as the office. The office and really all of Schur’s work is centered around character. Without Dwight, Michael, Jim, or Pam the office is basically a different show at that point, as we find out when Michael leaves for the last two seasons of the office. Unlike the UK and US versions there are really no characters that are the same. Looking at the “boss” characters of the offices we have Michael Scott and Ron Swanson, who could not be more different in personality. Both funny in their own way these two characters are certainty and definitively their own characters. This goes for every character in each show, who in the office is most like Leslie Knope? I would probably say Dwight since they are both the passionate work go-getters of the groups, but again they could not be more different in attitude and how they work with the other characters in the shows. With season two Schur and Daniels knew they had to make some changes to the show to increase popularity. Unlike the office however there is one big difference that made the show change, the changes to the cast particularly Chris Pratt, and to a lesser degree Adam Scott and Rob Lowe. While Pratt wasn’t a brand new character he did jump from a guest on the show to a main character, Schur and Daniels wrote a large portion of season one while still working on the office, and not knowing who would play some of these characters. When Pratt was cast as Andy Dywer, Schur and Daniels knew he needed more screen time but didn’t want to rewrite the whole season just for one character. So they waited for season 2 and let Pratt show off his improv comedy chops at full force. Schur even jokingly said in an interview that some of his favorite lines in the show were improvised by Pratt and from a writer's perspective it made his job a lot harder to write jokes and lines as good as Pratt. Pratt pushed both the writers and the other actors to be as funny as him because he is so naturally funny. There are several cut clips that are possibly the funniest lines in the show that were ad-libbed by Pratt but were unfortunately cut due to them being too inappropriate for network television. While Parks and Rec with its third season was not in competition with the office any more and was the established Schur show on television it didn’t have near as many of the issues that would befall every other show that Schur worked on, not losing huge cast members, no real issues with the channel or constant critical backlash and streaming services pulling viewers away from cable TV it went on to have seven seasons. The last season jumping forward three years and feeling a little off from the rest of the show, the characters staying on the show and giving it their all made it not feel as disconnected as the last two seasons of the office. The last season, while not confirmed by really anyone, is what I would like to think of as a trial run for The Good Place, which I will elaborate more when I get to that show.

Starting a few weeks before the sixth season of Parks and Rec Brooklyn Nine-Nine on fox with Dan goor as his co writer and Andy Samburg both starring and producing. Continuing the office workspace setting but dropping the head shots and not trying to make it a mockumentary. This time with a group of detectives in Brooklyn, leaving the small town setting of the previous two shows and the cities that Schur grew up in. Fox started releasing the first episode of each season in September and the final episode in spring, most often may. After five seasons fox dropped the show in may 2018. Negotiations started immediately with NBC to have them pick up the show, fan backlash to fox started immediately, within 30 hours of canceling the show NBC had officially picked up the show for 13 episodes, a half-season, which was then increased to 18 and released in early 2019. A thirteen episode season released in early 2020. Now sitting in 2021 the eighth and final 10 episode season is set to release in august. With NBC not sure if they could release another season after each season they released, and fox dropping the show you would think that the show would be plagued with bad viewership and reviews. Although the show has less viewers compared to the office and Parks and Rec, streaming services were taking viewers away from cable television. Compared to the viewership of other shows around the time it had comparatively more viewers than Parks and rec. One reason I think that the show had some hesitation from channel executives was its political placement. Unknown to pretty much anyone involved, this show when they started would become a way to tackle the issues that would come to the viewers in its later seasons. The office didn’t do anything like that, and parks and rec only really tried to get more people excited getting involved in government. Especially in the NBC seasons there are some episodes where the main plot of the episode is racial issues, sexual harassment in the workplace, and a whole season was based on police corruption. It never seemed like these episodes or seasons were forced nor lacked comedic value because of the serious plot lines. Which started becoming more and more prevalent in its later seasons with more media attention from the police. Combining both the success of brooklyn’s political and serious plots and Parks and Rec’s experimental season seven culminated in Schur's next project.

In 2016 alongside brooklyn 99’s season four Schur took a leap of faith and left the workplace for his next sitcom, actually leaving earth and the physical world. The Good Place was and still is one of the most unique ideas for a comedy series ever. Taking place in “The Good Place” being this show's version of heaven, the show took philosophy, fantasy, and Schur’s writing prowess to have it work in a comedy sitcom. Work it did, over the four season run it maintained good viewership, better than some seasons of Brooklyn 99. Getting fourteen Emmy nominations, two golden globe nominations, and all seasons staying above 90% on critical reviews on Rotten tomatoes. The show was universally loved. So why did the show end with half the amount of seasons as all the other shows before it. The creators themselves decided to end the show at the height of its popularity. A quote from Schur himself: “Given the ideas we wanted to explore and the pace at which we wanted to present those ideas. I began to feel like four seasons - just over 50 episodes - was the right lifespan.” Given that the Office was probably the most famous show to go beyond its lifespan with the last two seasons, Schur learned when to stop a show. In my opinion he did it and ended the show perfectly. Then the most recent Schur show started, “Rutherford Falls” being the first show to not air alongside an established Schur show and to be released on a streaming service. Given that the season started a month ago the numbers show that it has enough ratings to at least be granted a few more seasons and the season has not even finished yet it’s unsure how long or what schur’s plans for the show are. Given the almost flawless writing for the past four shows he’s worked on I have high hopes. Michael Schur has entertained millions of people with his shows and has mostly gone unnoticed to the general public, hopefully now that you know that these great shows all came from one person you can see and appreciate his work as much as I do.