Mike Schur sitcoms have proven irresistible to NBC, as the network made a “hefty production commitment” to a single-camera comedy less than a month after ordering The Good Place straight to series alongside fellow comedy-catnip Tina Fey’s still-untitled project last August. And just what premise could have wrung such a promise from NBC? Well, when we first got wind of The Good Place, Schur’s series was said to center on “a woman struggling with what it means to be good,” and would presumably deliver all manner of morally-compromised laughs. Now Deadline reports that the newly-introspective woman will be played by Kristen Bell, who will receive guidance from Ted Danson (on the show). And now it all makes a little more sense.
Bell will headline the show as Eleanor, a New Jersey woman who, after realizing she hasn’t been a very good person, decides to nail down what it means to be “good” or “bad”. The requisite “unlikely circumstances” will pair Michael (Danson) with Eleanor on her “self-designed self-improvement course.” It’s not clear if Michael is any more virtuous of a person than Eleanor, but he isn’t exactly being described as her guardian angel either.
Deadline notes that Bell won’t need any time away from House Of Lies, which will soon be filming in Cuba, as the Showtime comedy’s fifth season has yet to be scheduled. Danson’s dancing card is similarly clear at the moment as his year-long stint on CSI: Cyber recently ended. And here’s the point at which we remind you that the last time Bell and Danson appeared onscreen together was in 2012’s Big Miracle, in which they had a whale of a good time.