Trivia / Brooklyn Nine-Nine

• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Jake Peralta, like Andy Samberg, is of Jewish and Italian ancestry.
  • In "The Apartment", Gina and Jake reference being friends since they were kids and hanging out together. Andy Samberg and Chelsea Peretti, who play Jake and Gina, have actually known each other since they were kids.
  • Terry Jeffords having daughters, owning a minivan, Trademark Favorite Food of yogurt and being an artist all came from Terry Crews' background. His Running Gag of being bullied by his even larger family members comes from Crews being outspoken about the bullying he endured while playing in the NFL.
  • Oddly enough, Gina getting Holt addicted to a cellphone game is based on a real game Chelsea Peretti got Andre Braugher hooked on.
  • Stephanie Beatriz came out as bisexual in 2016. The writers later approached Beatriz if she'd be interested in a storyline where Rosa came out as bisexual to mirror her actress, which eventually happened in the 99th episode.
  • Both Melissa Fumero and Amy Santiago are ethnically Cuban.
  • In certain flashbacks, Jake had the shaggy and unkempt hair his actor Andy Samberg previously had as a member of Saturday Night Live.
  • Adrian Pimento is implied to be of Greek descent like his actor, Jason Mantzoukas. He disguises himself as an Orthodox priest to avoid detection and offhandedly mentions being able to play the bouzouki.
  • Like Scully, Joel McKinnon Miller has a twin brother.
• Adored by the Network:
  • NBC President Bob Greenblatt loved the show's concept and he was not happy when Fox outbid NBC for the project. In fact, the reason why NBC rescued the Nine-Nine so quickly from cancellation was because of how Greenblatt never stopped wanting the show on his slate.
  • E4, which airs it in Britain, also loves the series, and shares scenes from it on its Facebook page constantly.
• Approval of God: Dianne Wiest was apparently very flattered by Boyle's In-Universe obsession with her and even sent the cast a video greeting for their final Late Night appearance.
• Author's Saving Throw: After the Fox cancellation-NBC acquisition drama of Season 5, showrunner Dan Goor declared that the show will no longer use season-ending cliffhangers so that fans will be left satisfied in the event of a future cancellation. He lied....though possibly because NBC renews seasons in advance.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Gina Rodriguez was so enthusiastic about guest-starring on the show as Rosa's love interest that she delayed a vacation to come in and shoot her scenes.
• California Doubling: Set in Brooklyn, New York, but primarily shot in Universal Studios, California. Some exterior shots are very obviously done on the Universal backlot.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • That is Scully singing opera. Joel McKinnon Miller took opera singing lessons in his youth.
  • You don't get Terry Crews and not have him do his pec dance (made famous from the Old Spice Commercials).
  • Rosa demonstrates her dancing skills a few times (albeit with reluctance on her part). Stephanie Beatriz trained as a dancer and was even in a dance troupe when she was younger.
• Channel Hop: From Fox (Seasons 1–5) to NBC (Season 6-8).
• Corpsing: In "Jake and Sophia", during the Cold Open when Holt says "I'd like to play", Rosa's actress Stephanie Beatriz corpses and tries to cover her mouth with her hand. In the rest of the scene she's stoic as usual for Rosa. It was probably the really quick way the "I'd like to play" line is delivered in that and previous takes that caused the corpsing. And narrowly avoided at the end of the scene, after Holt's "hot damn!" The immediate cut to the opening credits following it was required because, according to Stephanie Beatriz, no one could keep straight faces long enough to properly finish the take.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Andy Samberg dislikes Jake's unhygienic characterization and strange taste in food, which is why those aspects are only briefly touched upon in later seasons. In the official podcast, the producers explain that Samberg is sensitive to smells and tastes, and as such, gags involving ketchup, candy or mayonnaise would make him feel sick.
  • Melissa Fumero isn't a fan of the patrol uniform she had to wear for the later seasons as the fabric was stiff, the cut made it difficult to move, and belt was actually loaded with real and heavy equipment. Some of this was alleviated by switching to foam-replica props and leaving some pouches and pockets empty.
• Creator Cameo: That's Dan Goor as the janitor Jake turns the lights off on towards the end of the series finale.
• The Danza:
  • Terry Crews as Terry Jeffords.
  • L. Scott Caldwell's birth name is "Laverne Scott". She plays Raymond Holt's mother, Laverne.
• Dawson Casting: Inverted; while his age has never been specified Captain Holt is old enough to have been an active (albeit fairly young) detective in 1979. Andre Braugher, the actor who plays him, would have been 17 at the time.
• Defictionalization: Now you too can get addicted to playing Kwazy Cupcakes.
• Descended Creator: MADtv (1995)'s Michael McDonald, one of the Nine-Nine's regular directors finally appeared in front of the camera in Season 7 playing Madeline Wuntch's nephew.
• Development Gag: Rosa's low, husky voice is a performance choice by Stephanie Beatriz, whose natural voice is much higher. A large number of episodes will have Rosa affect a higher pitched, peppy Valley Girl voice while undercover or in Sarcasm Mode that is actually Stephanie's normal voice.
• Directed by Cast Member: A number of cast members have directed an episode, particularly in the sixth season, including Stephanie Beatriz (He Said, She Said), Joe Lo Truglio (The Bimbo) and Melissa Fumero (Return of the King). Kyra Sedgwick stepped behind the camera in Season 7.
• Distanced from Current Events: After the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police and the subsequent protests, NBC canned four "ready to go" episodes for Season 8. The showrunners also announced that Season 8 will be retooled to address police misconduct and the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Stephanie Beatriz is legally blind and has to wear glasses, but as they wouldn't fit Rosa's character and Beatriz finds contact lenses uncomfortable, she simply shoots her scenes visually impaired and all
• Executive Meddling: For "Operation: Broken Feather" Joe Lo Truglio was willing to perform a stunt where his arms would have caught fire but the studio stepped in and prohibited the show from setting the talent on fire. The finished episode uses CGI to show Charles being set ablaze. Truglio seemed to be understanding of this, jokingly remarking on Conan that setting their star on fire was "bad business".
• Fandom Nod:
  • Gina telling Rosa that in another lifetime they would have made a hot couple (and Rosa’s agreement with the statement) in Season 5’s “Game Night” has been seen as a nod to Gina/Rosa (or Dianetti) shippers in the B99 fandom.
  • One of Jake and Amy's wedding vendors makes a cocktail called Peraltiago, the fan used Portmanteau Couple Name for the pairing
• Follow the Leader: Beginning in Season 7, the show began a companion podcast hosted by Marc Evan Jackson much like The Good Place, another Mike Schur production.
• Funny Character, Boring Actor: Inverted with Stephanie Beatriz playing the serious aggressive Rosa while being much more bubbly and cheery off camera.
• Hide Your Pregnancy:
  • Played with regarding Melissa Fumero's pregnancy in the third season, in which the producers seem to enjoy bouncing between covering it up with some occasionally ridiculous props, pretending that she's not visibly pregnant, and lampshading the hell out of it at every opportunity. By the last three episodes, they end up dealing with the situation by having Santiago go undercover in a prison... as a pregnant woman.
  • Fumero's second pregnancy, in Season 7, was usually obscured by Amy's dark uniform and utility belt as well as the usual looser clothing and tighter framing. They even found a way to put her in a bomb suit again. At the same time, the writers began a sub-plot about Amy and Jake deciding to start trying to get pregnant.
  • They went with the traditional methods for Chelsea Peretti's pregnancy in the fourth season by having Gina suddenly start wearing baggy sweaters and coats and tightly framing her from the chest up. Also, because Gina is supposed to be more than a little odd, she occasionally stands in weird positions to distract from her belly. Then the writers decided to have Gina suddenly announce that she was pregnant and in a relationship with a Boyle cousin!!!
  • Subtle, but in the finale two episodes of Season 8, Rosa spends a lot of time standing behind tables or holding items in front of herself to hide Stephanie Beatriz's belly.
• Irony as She Is Cast:
  • Amy Santiago is hilariously bad at dancing. Her actress, Melissa Fumero, has been a skilled dancer since she was a child.
  • It's humourous that the high-pitched, friendly, bubbly Stephanie Beatriz's most famous role is as the stone-faced contralto Rosa Diaz, who is, personality-wise, almost her complete opposite.
• I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine:
  • Jorma Taccone plays Taylor, Holt's boss at Frank's Fun Zone during his time in witness protection in the first few episodes of Season 4.
  • Akiva Schaffer plays Brett, the officer Jake accidentally blinded in the Academy, in “Show Me Going.”
  • Jake's and Amy's fathers, who meet for the first time in a Season 5 episode, are played by Bradley Whitford and Jimmy Smits respectively. Whitford played Josh Lyman, one of the most beloved characters on The West Wing. In the show's last two seasons he finds Matt Santos, a young congressman from Texas who shows promise, and convinces him to run for president, serving as head of the campain (and eventually as Santos' chief of staff). Santos was played by Jimmy Smits.
    • Similarly, Jimmy Smits and Bertila Damas (Mr. & Mrs. Santiago) co-starred in the 1991 film Fires Within, and Smits co-starred on Sons of Anarchy with Katey Sagal (Mrs. Peralta).
  • Stephanie Beatriz and Gina Rodriguez became friends while working on a short film called Super Chica. The film never got released, but the friendship endured and Rodriguez jumped at the chance to work with Beatriz on Nine-Nine.
  • A behind-the-scenes example: Kyra Sedgwick took over as one of the main directors during Season 7. Enter J. K. Simmons, her co-star from The Closer, in a prominent guest appearance in "Dillman".
• Milestone Celebration: The 99th episode is treated as this, actually called "99." It involves the death and funeral of the Captain before Holt, the group going to LA and visiting Nakatomi Towers from Die Hard and getting stranded across the country when Holt needs to get back to be interviewed as a candidate for Police Commissioner. It even includes a big revelation about Rosa: she is bisexual.
• Network to the Rescue: Cancelled by Fox at the end of Season 5, NBC announced it was picking up the show a little over a day later.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Cheddar the corgi has been played by Pembrokes of various types: fawn, red, and tricolor.
  • When Cagney and Lacey appeared in Season 7, they were played by different child actresses than before. The new ones weren't even identical.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Rosa's father is a teacher and a traditional Christian, portrayed by Danny Trejo, an actor best known for playing thugs and tough guys.
  • Before this, Andy Samberg was mostly known for playing insufferable, incompetent, Jerkass, immature manchild types. Jake is immature much of the time, but he is also a very competent detective who cares about his friends and eventually becomes a devoted husband and father. He also shows a great deal of personal growth throughout the series' run.
• Playing with Character Type: Andre Braugher as Captain Holt, which requires a lot of the stern, stoic line readings of his past roles, but juxtaposed as The Comically Serious and even outright broad comedy (like when Holt is required to pass himself as straight while undercover, which results in deadpan lines like "I see a pair of thick, weighty breasts and all logic goes out the window.")
• Production Posse:
  • Done by many of the same production team as The Office (US) and Parks and Recreation. As such a number of familiar faces from those shows tend to appear in one-off or supporting roles.
  • Several of Samberg's Saturday Night Live castmates have guest roles throughout the series.
• Promoted Fanboy: The producers have made it a mission to have each of the "Guardians of the Nine-Nine" (celebrities who helped rally popular support after Fox's cancellation of the series) come on in guest roles.
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda is a big fan of the Nine-Nine and helped boost popular support for the show when it was canceled by Fox. Out of gratitude, he was cast as one of Amy's brothers. He even participated in a table read for "He Said, She Said", despite not appearing in it, simply because he loves the show so much and it gave him the chance to play the one and only Disco Strangler.
  • Sean Astin was another prominent "Guardian of the Nine-Nine" who guest starred as a NYPD cyber crimes sergeant.
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: Stephanie Beatriz is bisexual, and her character Rosa Diaz was revealed to share her orientation in "99."
• Reality Subtext: Amy wears her hair up and Rosa wears her hair down because Melissa Fumero and Stephanie Beatriz were worried that, since they're both Latina, network executives might order one of them to be cut if they didn't visually distinguish themselves clearly enough.
• Real-Life Relative: Jake and Amy's newborn son Mac is played by Melissa Fumero's real son, Axel.
• Schedule Slip:
  • Season 4 was put on hiatus and later returned in spring.
  • Season 8 was originally set to premiere in 2020 but was pushed back to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several episodes were also retooled in response to the 2020 BLM protests, leading to additional delays.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • Season 4 was abruptly put on hiatus, on a major Cliffhanger no less, with Fox only saying that the show would return in the spring. When it did finally come back, it was to low ratings and the final six episodes were given a three week burn off. Fans were concerned about a potential cancellation but Fox finally decided to pick the show up for a fifth season.
  • Season 5 was hit hard when it and its lead-in, The Mick, aired against This Is Us, another show with a huge internet following. Fox then moved Brooklyn to Sundays at 8:30^note Where it originally aired during Season 2 and the first half of Season 3 halfway though the season, where ratings improved. Fans believed that they were giving the show another chance and would renew it, but after Fox saw the stellar ratings Roseanne was getting, they decided to revamp their comedy lineup by cancelling every single-camera sitcom they had (Brooklyn was one of them), and replaced them with multi-camera sitcoms (which fits Roseanne). As mentioned below, there was a huge backlash and just a day later, NBC picked up the show for a sixth season. The showrunners, for their part, don't bear any ill will towards Fox saying that they were able to make the show the way it is because Fox executives gave them the necessary freedom and support.
  • Season 8 ran into extensive delays due to scripts being scrapped and the COVID-19 pandemic forcing a long pause in production. Once it was shot, however, NBC decided to dump the season's episodes in the middle of summer and burn them off in just four weeks to end its obligation to the series as fast as possible rather than give it a slot in its fall schedule.
    • In a case of "Screwed by the Affiliate" the air time of the finale had to be moved up by an hour in the New York City market because NBC's affiliate was required to air the New York Giants Thursday Night Football game that was starting at the same time. Many fans in the area were unaware of this due to a lack of alerts on social media and TV guides still showing an 8PM EST airing and were disappointed when they tuned in to NBC right before 8, only to find they were watching the final minutes of the episode.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: It's hard to grasp that Joe Lo Truglio and Winston Story (Charles' doppelganger Bill) are not related.
• Star-Making Role: For Stephanie Beatriz.
  • Really for the majority of the main cast, save for Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, and Terry Crews. Also started the ball rolling for Marc Evan Jackson before The Good Place cemented him as a comedy star.
• Those Two Actors: Andy Samberg and Bill Hader earlier worked together in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs where Andy portrayed Brent, Flint's former rival turned ally while Bill played the hero Flint.
• Throw It In!:
  • "Cool, cool, cool" was an ad-lib Andy Samberg came up with to try and make the cast laugh. It quickly caught on with the other actors and writers and became a recurring feature.
  • According to Melissa Fumero, the "Nine-Nine" chant was created by Terry Crews in a way to boost morale to the cast during Monday mornings or late night shoots. It proved to be so effective, the writers added it in to the later scripts.
  • "Bingpot!" was an accidental mangling of "bingo" and "jackpot" that everyone just ran with in "The Chopper". Subsequent uses are never scripted, the actors throw it in when they feel it suits the scene.
  • Holt's sudden exclamation of "Hot damn!" in the cold open of "Jake and Sophia" was improvised by Andre Braugher. The cut to the opening titles is so quick after that because everyone burst out laughing.
• Tuckerization:
  • Dets. Michael Hitchcock and Norm Scully are named after producers Michael Scully and Norm Hiscock.
  • Fire Marshall Boone is named after producer Marshall Boone.
  • In-Universe, after unearthing dirty laundry and causing a lot of drama on the stage of the cop show "Serve & Protect," Jake is watching an episode in The Stinger and the criminal is a sick, skin carving Serial Killer named Jake Peralta. The female hero of the show shoots him over a dozen times in the chest. Jake is just ecstatic that they used his name on a tv show.
• Un-Cancelled: In record time. The show was cancelled by its network of five seasons, Fox, on May 10, 2018 to massive fan outcry, including many celebrities with no affiliation with the show such as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Guillermo Del Toro, Michael McKean, and Mark Hamill. After Netflix and Hulu turned the show down, NBC (the network that produces Brooklyn Nine-Nine and that aired all the other shows created by Mike Schur at the time) announced the day after that it had picked up the show for a sixth season.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The original premise for the show was that Jake would be the new officer relocated to the 99 after mocking the son of the police commissioner.
  • Rosa's character was named Meghan during initial development of the show.
  • Terry wasn't even planned to be a character, but after finding out Terry Crews was a fan of his work, Michael Schur based Sgt. Jeffords on him.
  • Stephanie Beatriz actually had two auditions for the show, once for Amy, once for Rosa. She credits the first audition for allowing her to become comfortable and win the Rosa part.
  • The writers wanted a out actor for the role of Kevin and reached out to actors like David Hyde Pierce and Victor Garber.^note in the companion podcast, the writers note that there are remarkably few older actors who are out of the closet The initial choices all turned them down, as it was for a guest role on a series that hadn't started airing yet.
  • Lin-Manuel Miranda was in discussions to guest star prior to the show's cancellation by Fox, but couldn't find time in his schedule. He eventually appeared as Amy's brother after the show was rescued by NBC.
  • The writing process for Season 8 was well underway, but things were put on hold and four completed scripts were scrapped so that the writers could determine a new direction for the show in the wake of George Floyd’s death and Black Lives Matter.
  • Joel McKinnon Miller and Dirk Blocker were initially only contracted for three episodes, but would eventually become mainstays of the cast.

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