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  • How Did Tina Fey’s Comedy About A Doomsday Cult Survivor Become A Hit?

    How Did Tina Fey’s Comedy About A Doomsday Cult Survivor Become A Hit?

    In his review of the new Tina Fey comedy, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Kevin Fallon praised the show for its unabashed positivity in a time when people are going for dark, brooding, cynical shows and protagonists. And it is perfectly spot on. One of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s draws is finding comedy in what is essentially a dark and unusual premise. The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt follows the titular character, played by Ellie Kemper, who was a member of a doomsday cult. After 15 years living underground the cult members are rescued, with Kimmy choosing to move to New York to find a job and live her life. Joining Kimmy in her adventures is a colorful cast of characters including Jane Krakowski as her new employer, Titus Burgess as Kimmy’s new roommate, and the legendary Carol Kane as her new landlord.

    And the best part about the show? All 13 episodes of The Unbreakable Schmidt is available on Netflix. In an interview with ETonline about the show’s beginnings, Fey said, “We made these first 13 episodes for NBC and then we were talking with NBC and they were like, ‘We don’t know where we can put it. We don’t have any shows like this anymore. We don’t have that many single camera comedies coming up.’ And they gave us the opportunity to talk to Netflix. Within like two or three days the whole thing was a deal.”

    Fey also found a brilliant lead actress in Kemper, who’s known for her bubbly characters like Erin in The Office. Talking to NPR about the character, Kemper says, “There’s a tenacity there, that I think, without it, a woman would not have been able to endure a situation like she has endured. So while Kimmy is totally un-jaded and invigorated and optimistic and inspired by this new world she has before her, she’s also very fierce and tough.”

  • Jane Krakowski: From ’30 Rock’ to ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’

    Jane Krakowski worked alongside Tina Fey in 30 Rock and now stars in Fey’s new Netflix comedy, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Jane spoke recently on her role as Jacqueline Vorhees–the woman for whom Kimmy Schmidt (played by The Office’s Ellie Kemper) nannies after being held captive for years by a cult leader. How does Vorhees differ from Jane Krakowski’s 30 Rock role as Jenna Maroney? Are the roles the same or completely different?

    “I’ve always approached them very differently, and it was certainly conscious on Tina and Robert Carlock’s agenda to make them as different as possible,” Jane Krakowski says of the two roles. “At first I was taken aback when people were saying that, because I find the characters so different at their core and in their heart, and I think also because I shot all 13 episodes and I know where this character grows. But in the first few episodes, I see why people would feel that way, especially in the beginning, before you learn more about her. But as I say, I’ve never approached them the same. There’s a vulnerability to Jacqueline that Jenna never had an ounce of on 30 Rock, so I find that they come from very different places.”

    “Tina said to me—which was good to learn after 30 Rock had finished filming—was that at her core, Jenna was a horrible person and Jacqueline is not,” Krakowski adds. “It was good for me to learn that in hindsight after all of the seasons of 30 Rock! But I do think the characters are very different. The sense of humor is written by the same creators and the comedy has the same tone and pace as 30 Rock, and since I’m associated with both, I think people will naturally put that together.”

    Tina Fey obviously saw something very valuable in Jane Krakowski in order to give her the part of Jacqueline Vorhees on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt–even though the role was created and Krakowski dropped into it at the very last minute. In a like manner, Jane Krakowski no doubt saw something spectacular in Tina Fey’s new creation, and realized that even if she was an afterthought, it was no doubt a good one.

    Are these two ladies a guaranteed comedy mix–even if Krakowski’s two roles differ so greatly? The only thing they really have in common is that each plays (or played) off the lead role–Jenna Maroney off Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon and Jacqueline Vorhees off Ellie Kemper’s Kimmy Schmidt. Will what worked so well once work well again?

    Jane Krakowski earned four Emmy nods for her role as Jenna Maroney. Might she find herself reaping similar nominations in her role as Jacqueline Vorhees, too?

    The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is available on Netflix now. Will you be checking out Ellie Kemper and Jane Krakowski in their latest roles?

  • Ellie Kemper Is “Delightful” Says Tina Fey

    Ellie Kemper Is “Delightful” Says Tina Fey

    Ellie Kemper is in full-swing filming now for her new series, created by Tina Fey, called The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

    As Kimmy Schmidt, Ellie Kemper is a young woman who lives for 15 years in a bunker with three other women who were part of a cult.

    They all think that they survived the apocalypse alone.

    When the four women are rescued, of course they go on to do a circuit of talk shows. After the round of talk shows, Ellie Kemper’s character, Kimmy Schmidt, decides to stay in New York City and make it on her own, using only the limited amount of life experience she had in the bunker.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNKEKlXY3Z4

    Ellie Kemper looks awesome in this role, and Tina Fey couldn’t be happier to work with Kemper as her leading lady.

    “She’s just delightful,” Fey told People of Ellie Kemper. “She is so intelligent and energetic and adorable.”

    Tina Fey added, “I think she is so likable and warm and skilled that I hope people really enjoy watching her”

    What sweet words about Ellie Kemper!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2pFXw6_J7M

    Ellie Kemper was excited to work with Tina Fey, as well. After making a name for herself on The Office, The Mindy Project, and Bridesmaids, Ellie Kemper was ready to have her own show.

    And Ellie Kemper was more than ready to work with a woman that she admires very much.

    “I was very excited,” Ellie Kemper admitted about their first meeting about The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. “She’s Tina Fey!”

    The cute Ellie Kemper on the #GoldenGlobes #redcarpet

    A photo posted by Golden Globes (@goldenglobes) on

    Yes, she is. And she is amazing! I am excited to watch this show!

    The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, starring Ellie Kemper, began streaming on Netflix on Friday. The entire first season, all 13 episodes, are now available and Netflix has already guaranteed the show a second season.

    Have you watched it yet? What did you think about it?

  • Tina Fey Calls Ellie Kemper’s ‘Kimmy Schmidt’ Delightful

    Tina Fey has done it again. The SNL alum and 30 Rock star has created yet another hilarious sitcom–this time for Netflix. Starring Ellie Kemper from The Office and Bridesmaids fame, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is about a 20-something woman who escaped a cult to start over in New York City.

    “She’s just delightful,” Fey said in an interview with People magazine. “She is so intelligent and energetic and adorable.”

    “I think she is so likable and warm and skilled that I hope people really enjoy watching her,” Tina Fey adds.

    Ellie Kemper is just as excited about Tina Fey as Fey is about her. She calls her role in The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt a ‘dream come true.’

    “I was very excited,” Kemper says of meeting Fey for the first time. “She’s Tina Fey!”

    Ellie Kemper works with a rat on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Does she harbor any grudges toward Tina Fey for having a rat as a co-star?

    “It was a showbiz rat, so it was calm,” Kemper explains. “It almost felt like a small kitten so it felt doable.”

    Tina Fey created Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with another 30 Rock alum–Robert Carlock. That combination of talents–along with actors like Alec Baldwin, Jane Krakowski, Tracy Morgan, and Jack McBrayer–made for a hit sitcom that ran for seven seasons.

    Has Tina Fey found the same with Ellie Kemper (Jane Krakowski stars in the Netflix series, too) in The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt?

  • Tina Fey On “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” And Netflix

    Tina Fey On “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” And Netflix

    Tina Fey wants everyone to know that her new show, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, was not pre-canceled before it could even air on NBC.

    She just decided to move it to Netflix, instead. No big deal.

    Now that that’s out of the way, Tina Fey’s show will be on Netflix starting Friday.

    The first season, all 13 episodes, of Tina Fey’s new show will be available, and the deal with Netflix guarantees her a second season. That is a guarantee that she wouldn’t have had with NBC.

    Tina Fey and co-creator Robert Carlock sat down for an interview about the new Netflix deal and the show itself.

    The two of them are a little too excited to not have to deal with ratings, and deal more with a growing class of binge-watchers.

    “The whole world [could be watching the show] as far as we know,” said Carlock.

    “We’d know if it was the whole world,” said Tina Fey.

    But, binge-watchers are a familiar brand of people, as Tina Fey feels like the popularity of her hit show, 30 Rock, was mostly due to them.

    She added, “But it will be nice not to have to what we call ‘repilot’ every week. . . . With Netflix, if someone’s watching episode five, you can be pretty confident that it’s because they’ve watched episodes one through four.”

    The beginning relationship with NBC is responsible for the show itself.

    Tina Fey disclosed how the whole process for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt began with its star, Ellie Kemper from The Office.

    “They knew that she was special, and she was the first actor that we said, ‘Yeah, maybe we would like to. Give us a couple of weeks to think about it,’” Tina Fey said.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxfAjp9gSJo

    She continued, “And we thought about Ellie . . . She has this kind of inherent sunniness and optimism, but also strength. She’s physically fit and strong and we’ve seen her do, like, physical-comedy bits where she’s really agile. And so this mix led us on this path of like, ‘OK, what kind of woman could she be?’ We pitched: Is she a woman who has been in a coma for 15 years? We kept wanting versions of, like, a clean slate.”

    Tina Fey insisted that “these things, you know, keep happening. They happen all over the world, this thing of women being tricked, or lured, or sister-wived.”

    So, they came up with the show as it is today. Kimmy Schmidt has been in an underground bunker with a cult for 15 years. When she gets out, she wants to start her life over in New York using the small bit of knowledge that she can squeeze from her very limited life experience.

    Tina Fey’s new show looks so funny! I see a Netflix binge in my future.

  • Netflix Getting New Show ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ From Tina Fey & Robert Carlock

    Netflix Getting New Show ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ From Tina Fey & Robert Carlock

    Netflix announced late on Friday that it will premiere globally in March a new Tina Fey and Robert Carlock comedy series starring Ellie Kemper (pictured). It’s called Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

    Netflix announced that it will be the exclusive home to the first two seasons of the show from Universal Television, which was initially going to be on NBC.

    The show was created by Fey and Carlock, who will both serve as executive producers along with 30 Rock’s Jeff Richmond, Jack Burditt, and David Miner.

    Kemper, who appeared on later seasons of NBC’s The Office, will play a woman who “escapes from a doomsday cult and starts life over in New York.” More from Netflix:

    After living in a cult for fifteen years, Kimmy decides to reclaim her life and start over in New York City. Armed with just a backpack, light-up sneakers, and a couple of way-past-due library books, she’s ready to take on a world she didn’t even think existed anymore. Wide-eyed but resilient, nothing is going to stand in her way. She quickly finds a new job (working for 30 Rock’s Jane Krakowski), a new roommate (Tituss Burgess, 30 Rock), and a new beginning. The cast also includes Lauren Adams, Sara Chase, Sol Miranda and Emmy winner Carol Kane (Taxi, The Princess Bride).

    “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to debut Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt exclusively on Netflix, which has proven to be such an outstanding place for distinctive, original programming,” said Fey and Carlock. “Happily, we will still collaborate with our longtime partners at Universal Television to fulfill Netflix’s two-season order. We grew up at NBC and will continue to develop broadcast projects with them as well. We found the inspiration for this series in Ellie Kemper’s shining all-American face, and we know that she and Kimmy Schmidt have found their best possible home at Netflix.”

    NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt stated: “When the opportunity arose for Tina Fey and Robert Carlock to premiere their new show on Netflix with a two-season commitment, we decided this was the best possible scenario to launch this captivating new series. While it was originally developed for NBC, we have a very drama-heavy mid-season schedule so we’re thrilled about this Netflix opportunity; it’s an instant win-win for everyone, including Tina, Robert, and Universal Television. We’re already talking to these extraordinary creators about new development for NBC, but meanwhile, everyone here from Universal Television will do everything possible to see that Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt becomes a long-running hit on Netflix.”

    Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a production of Universal Television, Little Stranger Inc., 3 Arts Entertainment and Bevel Gears for Netflix.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Cameron Diaz, Jason Segel Talk ‘Sex Tape’ and Being Naked

    Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel took a moment at the L.A. premiere of their new film, Sex Tape, to chat about being naked and, uh, butt pimples.

    “I didn’t have any butt makeup,” said Diaz about filming naked scenes. “If I had a pimple on my butt, I probably would have covered it up.”

    Her co-star Jason Segel, just as naked in the film, gushes, “My butt shows up camera-ready.”

    Diaz and Segel play the parents of two kids who try to add a little spice to their sex life. They make a sex tape, which is accidently uploaded to several friends and family members’ iPads.

    The released tape includes three hours of them trying out every position detailed in the classic 70s self-help book, The Joy of Sex.

    “It’s more of a cookbook, it turns out,” said Segel. “There’s a lot of food in there.”

    Diaz further explained, “It’s all about what you should eat leading up to [a] particular sexual position.”

    When asked what position they found most interesting, Segel replied, “There’s one called, what is it—sausage and pickles?”

    “Cockles and pickles or something like that,” said Diaz.

    Segel quipped that there must have been “some LSD involved” with the writing of the first edition of the book in 1972.

    Rob Lowe and Ellie Kemper also star in the movie.

    Image via YouTube

  • Tina Fey Returns To NBC With New Comedy

    Tina Fey has decided to return to NBC where she rocketed to stardom with Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock. Fey has become a household name due to her immense popularity and wit that she carried with her on 30 rock especially, as the creator, star and one of the writers.

    The latest venture for Fey is another NBC comedy, where she will team up with her producing partner on 30 Rock, Robert Carlock. The series has already been given a 13-episode straight to series order, with Ellie Kemper attached to star in the series.

    It will also be a return to NBC for Kemper, who previously appeared in The Office as Erin the secretary, starting in 2009. Fey and Carlock will write the show together and serve as the executive producers, along with David Milner. Since The Office ended, Kemper has also been in the hit comedy Bridesmaids, and is an actress in high demand because of her success on the show.

    Tina Fey has certainly made an impression with NBC after a number of years in business, and fans will likely be excited for her return as well. NBC’s entertainment chairman said of the new show coming from Fey and Carlock, “Tina and Robert, who cemented their partnership on ’30 Rock,’ have created a new signature comedy for us that is audacious, emotional, and clever.

    The new handheld-camera style show is set to center on a woman who is able to escape from a doomsday cult and start a new life for herself in New York City. The series will run as a half-hour comedy, and is produced by Little Stranger and Universal Television. In a joint statement from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, they spoke of their time with NBC saying “We have been lucky enough to work at NBC for our entire careers and we thank Bob [Greenblatt] and Jen [Salke] for their continued support.”

    The news of the show given a series order also comes after a very successful couple of months for Tina Fey, who recently won an Emmy for her writing on the series finale of 30 Rock. It was also announced recently that she would be returning as the co-host of the Golden Globes, along with NBC favorite Amy Poehler.

    Tina Fey’s new show has not been given a title yet, but it is set to debut in the fall of 2014.