‘Brooklyn 99’ Was Just Salvaged By NBC After Fox Dropped It

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By Lisa Yelsey May 15, 2018

We mourned too soon! On May 10, we sat shiva for the cancelled feel-good sitcom “Brooklyn 99,” an ensemble show about a police precinct in Brooklyn.

Baruch Hashem, a mere 31 hours later, NBC announced that it was picking up the sitcom for a 13-episode order.

According to NBC entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt, NBC initially passed on the “Brooklyn 99” pilot. “If we knew Andy Samberg was going to be cast in the show, we never would have sold it to Fox,“ Greenblatt said. Andy Samberg, the Jewish comedian and actor originally known for his Lonely Island sketches on Saturday Night Live, plays the almost shockingly likeable detective Jake Peralta.

NBC, let me be real — I get it. “Brooklyn 99” took a few episodes to win me over, but now I can barely remember a time before I looked forward to Halloween largely for B99’s heist episodes.

When Fox announced it was canceling the show, fans started campaigning for a renewal, with celebrities like Mark Hamill, Sean Astin and Lin Manuel Miranda taking to Twitter. This unlikely grouping joined together in what looked like one of the world’s greatest group chats:

The online conversation has continued escalating to show us a better alternative to “Guardians of the Galaxy”.

If this whirlwind has taught me anything, it’s not to give up hope even when life seems quite dark.

Lisa Yelsey is an intern at the Forward.

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