After a five-season run on Fox (and one very short-lived cancellation that most fans would probably like to forget), “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” makes its debut on NBC tomorrow night. And while the “Nine Nine” squad is more than excited to move into the Peacock’s precinct, they do realize a few creative problems are presented by their network leap: a limitation in crossover possibilities.
“I want that ‘This is Us’ [crossover]. I’ve said I’ll settle for nothing less,” star Andy Samberg (who plays Detective Jake Peralta) told reporters during a press event last month.
“If that were the case, then Sterling K. Brown on ‘This Is Us’ would be a murderer,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” co-creator and showrunner Dan Goor chimed in.
We’ll jump in here to remind you that Goor is, of course, referring to the Season 5 episode “The Box,” in which Brown guest-starred as Phillip Davidson, a dentist who Jake and Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) spent an entire night interrogating until he finally confessed to killing his partner.
And now we’ll remind you Brown plays Randall Pearson on the Dan Fogelman-created tearjerker — a beloved husband, father and fan-favorite member of the Big Three.
“Oh, yeah,” Samberg said, clearly remembering all that himself. “But that’s OK. I’m sure they’d be fine with it. (laughs)”
Relax, Randall’s rap sheet will remain clean — at least for the moment — as Goor confirmed there “have been no plans for” a “This Is Us” crossover. “Crossovers are really tough,” he admitted. “I think they’re always better in theory than in practice.”.
Samberg agreed, noting they did “do one” with “New Girl” when the two shows were both on Fox, but yeah: “They’re hard. (laughs)”
Meanwhile, Joe Lo Truglio (Detective Charles Boyle) and Terry Crews (Sergeant Terry Jeffords) were at the same press day and had similar mixed feelings about crossing into crossover territory — though Crews has already been put to work on one other NBC series, as the host of “America’s Got Talent: The Champions.”
“You know what’s weird is, we did kind of have one with ‘This Is Us’ with Sterling coming on the show, you know?” Crews said. (Oh, we know. See above.) “And it’s wild, because I’m a big fan of ‘The Good Place.’ But when you see characters that are on ‘The Good Place,’ like Captain Holt’s husband, [Kevin]-”
“Marc Evan Jackson,” Lo Truglio interjected.
“Right, Marc Evan Jackson. [He] plays a different character [on ‘The Good Place’], so you start to wonder, ‘Can we do this?’ I don’t know.”
Now here’s where we interrupt again to remind you that a) Mike Schur is an NBC staple, as both a co-creator on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and the creator of “The Good Place and b) yes, a crossover with Kristen Bell-led sitcom would mean that Holt’s husband, a college professor, is leading a double life as a demon in the Bad Place.
“We’re limited now,” Lo Truglio said.
“Yeah! We’re all in these universes,” Crews added, with Lo Truglio noting, “we’re in the NBC family of characters now.”
However, Crews offered up the possibility of “maybe just characters from the ‘Office’ showing up in the precinct” sometime, with a solid “Why not? (laughs)” endorsement from Lo Truglio.
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” Season 6 premieres Thursday at 9/8c on NBC.