Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

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

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.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.