Michael Schur
Michael Schur
Michael Herbert Schuris an American television producer and writer, best known for his work on the NBC comedy series The Office and Parks and Recreation, the latter of which he co-created along with Greg Daniels. He also co-created the FOX comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Schur is also known for his small role on The Office as Mose Schrute, the cousin of Dwight Schrute...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth29 October 1975
CityAnn Arbor, MI
CountryUnited States of America
People don't seem to make the connection between their tax money and the benefits that they get from their tax money, like free education, and the fire department, and police protection, and everything else. It drives me bonkers, because it's pretty straightforward to me.
I think if you're too concerned with being cool or hip or liked, you can't really make good TV because sincerity and coolness are opposites.
And personally I will say that Amy Poehler deserves about a thousand trophies and so one is a good start, and I'm hoping this is the first of a thousand. That's my personal hope.
If the doors aren't open, just kick them in and keep walking.
My favorite TV show of all time is 'The Wire,' which has the feeling of a project-based show. You draw in people from disparate parts of the world, and they have to work together to achieve a goal.
All of comedy at some level is trial-and-error, whether it's a stand-up trying out jokes or a comedy show trying stories.
My favorite sitcom of all time is 'Cheers.' That's a perfect example of how, like, people made fun of Cliff, but you never got the sense that they didn't like Cliff.
You can't just sit around in leopard-print slippers and drink champagne all day and think everything's gonna work out somehow.
People think of taxes as money just being robbed from you. They don't consider the benefits of paying taxes. The benefits that they get and also the benefit of just being a part of a large group of people: a town, or a city, or a country, or a society that allegedly should stand together and all try to help each other.
For storytelling purposes, there has to be conflict, but that doesn't mean the people have to be mean. I've never liked mean-spirited comedy.
As a viewer of TV shows, I always like shows more when I just feel like the people in charge have a plan. You can just tell sometimes, 'Oh, there's a plan there. They have an idea for how this is going to unfold.'
Sometimes you've got to just commit to the idea and press forward and trust that you made the right decision.
Society is completely unreasonable. People want everything and want to pay for nothing. They panic if they think about their taxes being raised, but if their garbage collection is a day late they scream and yell.
I care more about making sure the story is correct and the characters are behaving in character than I do about the individual jokes.