THE BEAUTIFUL IDEA THAT A WASHED-UP FORMER ALCOHOLIC BALLPLAYER OF LIMITED INTELLIGENCE AND A PERENNIAL PH.D CANDIDATE CAN FALL IN LOVE WITH EACH OTHER: Michael Schur discusses in great detail the brilliance of Cheers, noting (among other things) the importance of Vera:
They did such a good job establishing this place at the bar where they spend all this time, and in certain ways, all the characters need it as a place to be. [Vera served as a] genuine reminder that there’s a life that exists outside the camera. If they didn’t have that, it would be The Iceman Cometh and it would be incredibly depressing: These awful fat alcoholics who didn’t leave the stupid bar, but they did a great job reminding you that these people have lives outside of the bar.
And in the midst of discussing his favorite characters:
I loved Coach and Woody because Coach and Woody are very stupid and stupid is the nuclear weapon of comedy. In terms of pure belly laughs, nothing will ever beat stupid people.... On The Office it was sort of half Michael and half Creed. Creed’s all crazy and stupid but Michael’s really the moron, and on Parks and Rec it’s Andy. You know pretty much every comedy show has one character whose primary character trait is stupidity, and they always are really funny.
Maybe part of the problem of commenting on these things is that Schur says so much that there's nothing left to say. I loved the Office and P&R is my favorite sit-com right now (don't know if I love Louie better, but it's not a sit-com), but until I read this piece and AV Club's ep-by-ep breakdown of last season of P&R and the NYT piece about the Decemberists and Infinite Jest, I didn't know how serious and deep a thinker he is about his craft. Bonus points for being not creepy or obsessive or self-destructive about it, like, say, Dan Harmon or the angry man whose name rhyme with Surt Kutter.
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