When “Hacks” won the Emmy earlier this year for outstanding comedy, it shocked pundits who had expected another victory for “The Bear.” Even the “Hacks” producers were gobsmacked, jaws agape as they reached the stage. But for the execs at Universal Television, which produces “Hacks” for Max, that stunning moment came with a little vindication.
“‘Gratifying’ is an understatement,” says Universal TV president Erin Underhill. “It was huge. For me personally, it was a career highlight. This was not a show buyers were looking for. Everyone passed on it.”
The “Hacks” win was not only a shot in the arm for the comedy genre — which is experiencing a bit of a renaissance this fall — but also another notch in the belt for Universal’s comedy division, which is also seeing an uptick in its output.
“It had been a long time since we won that award,” says Jim Donnelly, Universal TV comedy development exec VP, noting the last time was “30 Rock” in 2009. “I think we feel a lot of responsibility working at a place that has done well for so long.”
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Besides “30 Rock,” that contemporary comedy library includes “The Office,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Will & Grace,” “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “The Good Place.” “We’re always comparing ourselves to the past and I think one of the most important things that we can do is create an environment where creators feel safe to take risks,” Donnelly says. “I think audiences are expecting a little bit of surprise from us, so we pride ourselves on trying to know what the audience wants and give them something that they aren’t getting better anywhere else.”
What is a Universal comedy? Donnelly says there’s an “underlying positivity” that can be found in most of the studio’s half-hours. “Our shows tend not to be caustic,” he adds. “We think of comedy as, it makes you feel good at the end of the episode or at end of the season. I think that all our shows do that pretty successfully.”
An example of that is the new Ted Danson series “A Man on the Inside,” from Michael Schur. The comedy about the friendships inside a retirement home recently rocketed to the top of Netflix’s viewership top 10, and has just been renewed for Season 2. “A Man on the Inside” landed on the AFI Awards’ 2024 list of programs of the year, along with “Hacks,” while Danson just scored a Golden Globe nomination in comedy actor (while “Hacks” picked up noms for best comedy, comedy actress for Jean Smart and comedy supporting actress for Hannah Einbinder).
Universal is also finding early success this season with the new NBC half-hours “St. Denis Medical” (from some of the “Superstore” producers) and “Happy’s Place” (led by Reba McEntire).
Underhill notes that Universal has eight new comedies in production. “There’s been a bit of a correction in the marketplace, but we’re continuing to find success as we go to market,” she says. While NBC and Peacock are a priority for Universal TV, the aforementioned “Hacks” (Max) and “A Man on the Inside” (Netflix) were sold to rival streamers; other laffers that have found a home outside of NBCUniversal include Apple TV+’s “Loot,” starring Maya Rudolph.
An early comedy hit for Netflix was Universal’s “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” from producer Tina Fey. These days, Netflix’s laffer team is led by NBCUniversal alums including Andy Weil and comedy head Tracey Pakosta, in addition to Netflix content chief Bela Bajaria.
“Nearly all of the people that I dealt with at Netflix were people who were my bosses at Universal,” Schur says. “There’s also a little bit of a shorthand of, ‘we made this thing together at this other place a long time ago. You remember me right now, we’re gonna do it over here.’”
Up next for Universal: Peacock’s Stephanie Hsu-starrer “Laid,” adapted by Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna from an Australian format, launches Dec. 19. “Laid” is a comedy with an unusual conceit: All of Hsu’s lovers are mysteriously dying, one by one.
“The fact that Universal wanted to do a show like this and not shy away from the tonal blend and the dark comedy of it all, I was really happy to have that experience with them,” Khan says.
Heading into 2025, Universal is behind the Netflix take on “The Four Seasons,” starring the dream team of Tina Fey and Steve Carell, as well as a new comedy set in the world of “The Office,” from Greg Daniels and Michael Koman.
“‘The Office’ spinoff, we’ve not seen anything yet, so that’s a slower roll, but ‘Four Seasons,’ we’ve had the joy of watching some of those cuts,” Underhill says. “And I think it will not disappoint, for sure. I think it’s going to hit all the marks that people want. It’s awesome to see Tina back in front of the camera.”
And Variety can exclusively report that Universal is developing “Local Heroes,” about a group of comic book store regulars who band together to solve crimes in their hometown. The show is inspired by director Kevin Smith’s actual comic book store — and he’s an EP and writer, along with “30 Rock” alums Josh Siegal and Dylan Morgan. The project, being developed for NBC, also comes from Hazy Mills’ Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner, as well as Jordan Cerf.
“We pride ourselves on facilitating collaborations,” Donnelly says. “Sean Hayes’ company has been here for a long time. Josh and Dylan are overall deal writers who have worked in Mike Schur’s and Tina Fey’s camps. And Kevin Smith is a hero of mine and has his finger on the pulse of the genre world. This murder mystery show in a comic book store really fits into NBC’s single-camera workplace, large-ensemble shows.”
Previously announced development include the espionage comedy “Dead Drop,” which writer/EP Dan Goor is writing for Max; an adaptation of the film “Car Wash” for NBC, from exec producer Malcolm D. Lee; and an untitled half-hour dramedy about a DJ from Larry Wilmore, Malcolm D. Lee and Ludacris, for BET+.
With the stable of talent inside Universal having cut its teeth on “Saturday Night Live,” the NBC latenight shows or the studio’s landmark comedies, Schur compares it to a “repertory company.”
“Greg Daniels and Conan O’Brien both obviously got their start in late night. I got my start there, Tina got her start there, Rob Carlock got his start there,” he says. “Jen Stasky started at at Fallon, and now runs ‘Hacks.’ It’s not a coincidence those things are linked. One of the great R&D pipelines ever created, whether it was intentional or not, is NBC dominates late night and hires a bunch of 23 year olds to write jokes for their hosts. It gets them a bunch of experience, and then they eventually move out to LA and create shows for them.”
As for continuing to build back the stable of comedies in a world where the price tag for a half-hour have made things tougher, Schur hopes that the investment remains.
“The economics of comedy have been painful over the last decade, and so the company making them just has to be really committed to it,” he says. “It has to be part of the DNA of the company to say, ‘We are making these; we’re committed to this. This is a part of our history, and it’s a part of our legacy.’ It helps when you’re working at a place that has now going on 50 years of dominating the space in town for comedy. Not every year, certainly not even every decade, but going all the way back to ‘Must See TV,’ there’s just an association — at least for people my age — that this is a good place to try and make comedies.”