For Schur

Friends, gheorghies, and silly people, lend me your eyes;

I come to praise Michael Schur, not to envy him.
The dreck that men and women write makes headlines.
The good is oft relegated to the abyss.
Do not let it be so with Schur.

Wel'p, that’s enough Bastardized Bard for one post. Using less iambic pentameter (of the sloppiest variety), today I’m simply espousing the work of someone that most of you are familiar with in one form or another: writer, producer, director, actor, show creator, author, and blogger Michael Schur. 

The dude has proven prolific.

Here’s how many folks know Michael Schur:

1. Fire Joe Morgan co-creator / blogger. Between 2005 and 2008, Michael Schur assumed the pen name of "Ken Tremendous" at Fire Joe Morgan, a short-lived but wildly popular blog with the tagline "Where Bad Sports Journalism Came To Die." Skewerings of shoddy, hackneyed, often cloying platitudes posing as thoughtful sportswriting emanated regularly from a pseudonymed trio of former Harvard Lampooners -- you know, sharp-witted nerds using their wits for inane comedy. (A sound methodology if there ever was one!) 

This was midlife Misery Loves Company and early years Gheorghe: The Blog, so in addition to some mission overlap, there was some occasional direct hat-tipping to FJM at GTB. Those gents were consistently hilarious, and their fine work (evidenced here and here, just for a nostalgic chuckle) inspired some gheorghey knock-offs. Overtly or subtly. 

Whitney Says: I only visited FJM here and there in its day, but it jumped out as a textbook (comic book) template for what rob, Teej, and I wanted to do, even as we were sort of doing it.  Ken Tremendous said in the postmortem that FJM was created "to make each other laugh." That's the piece that resonates most directly with me. Why on earth would the lot of folks at Gheorghe: The Blog have posted and commented on 5,300+ pieces of thought-revoking dipshittery over 21 years here if not for that principal premise?

2. Mose (and a writer) on The Office. He played Dwight Shrute's cousin, fellow beet farmer, and barn-mate on the U.S. version of the show from time to time. Mose, he was called. Amusing oddity.

He also penned a dozen episodes of the show, including "Office Olympics," "Christmas Party," and one my favorite episodes of any show, "The Return." Really great stuff. 

Whitney Says: I watched each episode of the U.K. version of The Office when it first came out on DVD (you know, those silver coasters in your basement), and it strengthened my abs a wee bit from the guffaws -- but tightened my taint considerably from the puckering at so very many awkward scenes. The Americano variety was far more sippable, to me and to many. My US version viewing story arc was similar to that of Jan Levinson -- five years of decent consistency, then fading away with rare cameos (and some psychosis). By then Mike Schur had moseyed on, except a rare pop-in as Mose. 

Others may know Michael Schur as:

3. SNL writer from 1998-2004. I didn't realize he was one until I googled him for this. I don't even know what sketches he wrote or co-wrote. But it's a CV standout for anyone, so there you go.

Whitney Says: Um, nothing. I'm sure he did great stuff, but I don't know what. You may.

4. Parks and Recreation co-creator, (sometimes) writer/director, executive producer. What a solid show. 7 seasons, 126 episodes, 8,316 laughs. The documentarian format from The Office but set in... a government office this time! Despite that carryover, it's utterly fresh and super ridiculous. A-plus characters, with Amy Poehler at the helm of the cast. Thoroughly well-written. 

This 4-minute clip from an episode well past the show's accepted heyday does it no real justice, but I like it, anyway:

Whitney Says: I never watched this show in its initial run (2009-2015). Instead, I got my interest piqued and my fancy tickled once it was on IFC in back-to-back-to-back-to-you-get-the-picture scheduling. I watched the whole thing start to finish in 2022-23. It's catchy, and good fun all the way through. Treat yo self if you have the chance.

Intermission: check out this site -- Bingeclock. You can see how long it will take you to watch a series in its entirety. Lord help us. 

5. Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-creator, (sometimes) writer/director, executive producer. So while Parks and Rec was still rolling along, Mike Schur does what many a resident genius does, branches out and dispenses more goodness while the honeypot is still full. Or something like that. What a solid show. 8 seasons, 153 episodes, 10,898 laughs. (You know, I think I'm really undercutting them on these laughs; there's far more than 3 per minute.)

It seems the documentary thing had run its course, so this was a throwback to classic sitcom land. I read that it had been since Barney Miller since a comedy show really did the cop precinct thing right, which is high praise. And Brooklyn Nine-Nine did it right. Again, a symphony of great characters, the same stellar wordplay, and another killer lead. (You gotta enjoy Andy Samberg for this one to snag you, and I certainly do.)

Side Note: Fans of The State (which several gheorghies are) will see Joe Lo Truglio as prominent cast member Charles Boyle and Ken Marino as a repeat guest. I contend that this is Lo Truglio's finest hour onscreen to date; his character Charles Boyle just gets better with each episode.

Whitney Says: Once again, I never watched this show in its initial run (2013-2021). The 2010's era was back in my drinkin' days, so I was way too busy rocking out to watch network TV, you rubes. But I absorbed every single episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine this year, making time amidst my new marital bliss. I saw that it was available on Netflix and dove in. Well, Netflix offers the first four seasons. I had to deftly make the leap to Peacock midstream. [Title of your sex tape.] Worth it. Binge that mofo. 

Far fewer people know Michael Schur as:

6. Master of None executive producer. Aziz Ansari's starring vehicle ran for 3 seasons and 25 shows starting in 2015.

 

Whitney Says: . . . but I haven't caught any of them. Well, I did start to watch the first episode one night. Alas, a combo of Dale's Pale Ale and a sluggish opening derailed it. [Title of your sex tape. Dammit, wrong show.] Maybe someday, as Robert Smith once sang. 

7. Rutherford Falls co-creator, writer, executive producer. In 2021, after a slew of major victories, Mike Schur embarked on an earnest new show featuring Ed Helms (featured in The Office and guest on B9-9) and Jana Schmieding. Schmieding is a Lakota woman, and the show is centered around the knotty threads of Native American life in a midwest town desperate clinging to its colonial-era history (and colonialism): the town of Rutherford Falls. Helms is a doofy descendant of the town's founders whose identity is inextricably sewn into that genealogy. Many a barb is hurled at Caucasian ignorance/arrogance and the travails of the Native American, both through the years and now. And it's not the only progressive stride the show nimbly makes. It's quite well crafted, but in a comedic way with amiably amusing characters. It's better than I paint it. 

Whitney Says: Yeah, so my sum-up didn't make it sound side-splitting, but compared to Parks & Rec and B9-9, it really wasn't. It entertained and induced many a wry smile from me but almost never made me giggle like the other shows did. The plug got pulled after 2 seasons, just 18 episodes. If you're a Mike Schur completist, which is not actually a thing, it's a quick watch (8.5 hours, according to Bingeclock), but most of you have likely let it slide by and still will. 

What some people -- but not nearly enough people -- know Michael Schur as:

8. The Good Place co-creator, (sometimes) writer/director, executive producer. What a solid show, which is what I said twice before but holds up for sure (pun planned out!) with The Good Place. The premise is simple: a fairly young woman (Kristen Bell) dies and winds up in what some would call Heaven -- but only due a clerical error. She was an absolute skunk of a human on earth, and she's trying not to get outed in the Good Place. I'll leave it at that, because you should watch it.

Why? Well, it's a taut four seasons (53 episodes; 17 hours) rife with tip-top comedy that benefits from the same machete-sharp writing, abandoned laugh track, and solidly silly storylines as the aforementioned greatness. But what separates this show was Michael Schur's true, unending passion: moral philosophy. You know, ethics. What makes us better than the animals... sometimes. Schur is neck-deep in this thinking and has an extraordinary wealth of knowledge and deep thoughts on the subject. Like a whole lotta brain time focused on this stuff. Some backstory:

 

Out of that -- obsession is too much of a pejorative, so I'd call it utter fascination with ethical philosophy -- came The Good Place. If this show is a comedy vehicle, it might look from the street to be a fairly standard sedan with all of the three-punch comedy tropes and resolutions wrapped up by minute :22, but do not be fooled: it's not. The gasoline in the engine, the synthetic blend in the oil tank, the fuel and water in the carburetor, the data in the technology package, the air blowing through the A/C into your face, and even the fine Corinthian leather (h/t to Sentence of Dave) is all imbued with -- steeped in -- the asking, musing upon, struggling with, and answering of pondersome, sometimes ponderous ethical questions about Life and How to Live It.

Random total non sequitur interlude! Life and how to live it! With a story!

Welcome back. Anyway, It's important to keep The Good Place's plotlines cloaked, because there are fun surprises along the way. But know this: it's a hilarious ride may far more intriguing when moral philosophy isn't just noted as part of the plot (the weighing of the protagonist's "belonging" in Heaven is complicated by her pairing with a recently deceased Professor of Ethics and Moral Philosophy) but as a constant undercurrent to so much of the journey that the show makes. 

It's way better than this generic promo pic would suggest

Whitney Says: Yet again, I never watched any of this show in its initial run (2016-2020). I'm staggeringly cutting edge, I know. But I took a flier on the show in late 2023 without knowing (a) anything about the story, (b) that Michael Schur was a co-creator, (c) what Michael Schur had done prior, or (d) that Ethics and Moral Philosophy could make me laugh so much. Even if they constantly slag my elder daughter's new home state (Arizona, sorry, Zoë) and one of the gheorghies' neighboring towns (Jacksonville, sorry, Dan). Good shit, though. 

I was in a strange phase I now call my "Death Groove," one in which I randomly, subconsciously selected certain shows to binge watch during downtime minus the missus (on a plane, late at night when I'm up alone, times when she's traveling the nation in trying to keep the Tree from becoming Timber), all of which feature postmortem humor as a critical component:

• The Good Place
• Ghosts
• Pushing Daisies
• What We Do in the Shadows (sort of counts)

And they were all worthy. But maybe I'm dying?

Nevertheless, I sped through all 53 episodes of The Good Place, and I loved it. Not only that, after I subsequently watched Brooklyn 9-9 and Rutherford Falls and dug in whole hog on this Mike Schur phenom, I started re-watching TGP in its best bits and pieces with the ethical bent firmly in mind. Still great. All the way through the final episodes, which really take you into a deep thoughts mindmaze.

So, take this all under advisement -- if, of course, you want to know how to be perfect, ethically speaking.

But wait! There's more! 

What only a few of you might know Michael Schur as:

9. How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question author. Act now and you can read a Michael Schur-penned book that also braids this kind of philosophical self-excavating with silly comedy!

Really? Yes, really. Amazon tells me: 

"From the creator of The Good Place and the cocreator of Parks and Recreation, a hilarious, thought-provoking guide to living an ethical life, drawing on 2,400 years of deep thinking from around the world."

Alrighty then. I'm game. I just found out about this whilst kicking through the legwork for this post. I'm a ripe huckleberry for the book. Available in audio format as well, narrated by the stars of The Good Place!

But wait! There's more! Come on, Whitney. Enough!!

No!!!

What it would not be possible yet to know Michael Schur as:

10. A Man on the Inside creator, writer/director, executive producer. What a solid show, I hope I'll be saying. It begins airing this Thursday!

Wow.

I can't say for sure what this confluence of talent, television, philosophy, death, afterlife, writing, laughing, blogging, and the least unhealthy bingeing that I do all means, but it feels like it's got to mean something. For now, I'm simply tipping my cap and acknowledging someone who's not vastly unlike many of us herein and who took his wicked smarts and strong penchant for funniness to higher heights than I could ever have aspired to ascend. Wish I could have made such a bad-assed climb.

[Title of my sex tape.]