Inside The 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Writers Room

Brooklyn Nine-Nine was a surprise hit for FOX this past season, including raking in two Golden Globe Awards. So what’s it like behind the scenes at the fictional 99th Precinct? We sat down with writer Laura McCreary to get some insight into the show’s explosion of popularity and how all the laughs come together.

“It’s definitely exciting,” Laura said of Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s success so far. “We had no idea. Obviously FOX is always behind the show, and there was great promotion to start, but we really had no idea if people were watching, how the momentum was doing.”

She called working in the writers’ room “great. I’m so blessed to work and go sit and laugh with people every day. Our season one staff was ten people including [creators and executive producers] Mike [Schur] and Dan [Goor], which is a little bit small, but it’s great. Everyone is just hilarious.

“You go into this room, and in this scenario I didn’t really know anybody,” Laura continued. “It’s this whole chance to meet all new people and different comedic voices…and there’s always somebody building something crazy out of dry erase markers and turning it into a weapon.” Sounds way more interesting than your typical office!

She wrote three of the first season’s twenty-two episodes, and we asked her how the installments get farmed out amongst the writing staff. “It’s case by case for sure,” she told us. “On this show, [we] come together as a group, and somebody maybe would have a pitch, or Mike and Dan would come in and say this is the direction we want to go today.

“Sometimes the person who pitches [an episode] will end up writing it. Most of the time, in this case, it was just who was sort of free, and maybe who Mike and Dan thought were suited for the episode.”

What can Laura tell us about the upcoming second season? “I’m excited,” she enthused. “I think we set some really fun starting points for ourselves with Jake [Andy Samberg] going undercover and Charles [Joe Lo Truglio] and Gina [Chelsea Peretti] hooking up. We have a big place to start. And season two of a show, you can start to explore the other characters in some ways. We can look into Holt [Andre Braugher] a little deeper. I’m looking forward to that, too.”

“I just feel really thrilled to be on the show and to be with such awesome, fun people,” she reflected. “I love that our characters are kind of diverse, that we don’t have to shine a light on that. And it’s fun to be on a show that people kind of know.”

Brooklyn Nine-Nine returns to FOX at a later date; season one is now watchable on demand and also available for pre-order on DVD.

Photo Credit: FOX Networks

Inside The ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Writers Room

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