The new detective comedy from the Brooklyn Nine-Nine creator has found its lead star, and the first story details are revealed.
It was announced in January that Brooklyn Nine-Nine duo Dan Goor and Luke Del Tredici were developing a pilot for NBC. It is part of the network’s larger effort to bring the focus back to star-driven pilots, with shows led by television veterans such as David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel, and Peter Krause.
New Girl Jake Johnson as Nick Miller shrugging and smirking
That trend will continue, with Deadline reporting that Jake Johnson has been cast as the lead of the untitled detective series from Goor and Del Tredici. Johnson, who is known for his run as Nick Miller on the sitcom New Girl, will play Mickey. Described as smart, cynical, and heartbroken, Mickey is a former LAPD cop who is trying to cope with the fact that his life imploded three years ago.
On the whole, the pilot is a half-hour workplace comedy that takes place in the world of detectives. It continues the proud tradition of Los Angeles private eyes that began with Philip Marlowe, albeit teasing that the proud tradition will end with this show. Marlowe is the iconic private eye, created by author Raymond Chandler, who greatly influenced the genre.
B99 creator Goor, wrote some of the best Brooklyn Nine-Nine episodes, and Del Tredici will write and executive produce the pilot. It marks Johnson’s return to network television after starring opposite Cobie Smulders in the short-lived ABC drama Stumptown. He also recently had a leading role in the two-season raunchy dramedy Minx.
Up next, in a busy time for Johnson’s filmography, the Into the Spider-Verse actor will have a main role in Apple TV’s dark series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed opposite Tatiana Maslany. He’s also in two films, which are The Sun Never Set alongside Dakota Fanning and the pickleball comedy The Dink, with Mary Steenburgen and Ed Harris.
Johnson’s detective pilot is a single-camera comedy, like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and it comes as NBC has put renewed importance on pilots. These are essentially episode presentations to the network, with executives choosing to pass or approve a project based on what they see. Pilots, once at the center of pilot season, have somewhat fallen out of favor as networks have greenlit fewer shows and relied more on spinoffs of established franchises.
There are other reasons that pilots have taken a backseat, such as executives preferring to skip the pilot process in favor of slowly developing a series over several months and even years. But the approach by NBC of bringing in recognizable names to revitalize a long-standing method of producing network television could generate another gem like Brooklyn Nine-Nine.