Have you ever heard of the show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt? 30 Rock? What about Parks and Recreation? Do any of those ring a bell? We often hear about television series’ and their stars but sometimes the writers and show runners go a bit unnoticed.
Two bigtime “behind the scenes” names in comedy television are Robert Carlock and Mike Schur. Carlock helped create and write 30 Rock with Tina Fey, he is also the co-creator of the Netflix hit Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with Fey. Schur worked on The Office. He also brought us the wonderful Leslie Knope and her eclectic group of friends on Parks and Recreation. Both showrunners worked together as writers on Saturday Night Live. They sat down with Variety to discuss Emmy nominations, SNL, and working in a changing television landscape.
Carlock won a collection of Emmys from his time working on the critically acclaimed cult comedy 30 Rock, Schur’s Parks and Rec has been snubbed year in and year out. “You chose the wrong female ‘Weekend Update’ anchor to hitch your wagon to. Mine’s better,” Carlock said to Schur, of Amy Poehler and Fey. Carlock works with Fey, and Schur with Poehler. “The simplest way to put it is that your actors, writing, and show are objectively better than mine,” Schur joked.
Both 30 Rock and Parks and Rec barely hung on in the traditional ratings system of broadcast television. Schur explained the ratings system as “checking the newspaper for baseball scores and not having the West Coast scores.” “It’s like if they reported ‘at press time the Mariners beat the Angels 1-0 in the second inning’—you wouldn’t rely on that information as being accurate. That’s what we’re doing to this day (with TV ratings). Until we stop doing that the perception of network television as troubled is going to continue, and it’s very silly because it’s not an accurate reading of how people are watching,” Schur said.
Carlock and Fey have a new pilot for NBC with Tracey Wigfield, they are also working on season two of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Schur has a series order of 13 episodes for a series on NBC. He is also the creator of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and has a Netflix series with Aziz Ansari in the works.