{"id":1182226,"date":"2025-11-25T08:58:34","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T16:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/?p=1182226"},"modified":"2025-11-25T08:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T16:43:09","slug":"a-man-on-the-inside-mike-schur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/a-man-on-the-inside-mike-schur\/","title":{"rendered":"A Man on the Inside Creator Mike Schur on His Jumps from SNL to The Office to TV History"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Man on the Inside<\/em> creator Mike Schur followed an enviable and proven path to success \u2014 the same one taken by Conan O\u2019Brien, Greg Daniels, and Colin Jost, among others. He worked on the Harvard Lampoon,<\/em> then landed a writing job on Saturday Night Live<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his career was just beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schur is one of the most prolific creators and showrunners in TV history. After leaving SNL<\/em>, he joined Daniels on the American adaptation of the British series The Office<\/em>, then worked with Daniels again to co-create Parks and Recreation. <\/em>From there Schur co-created Brooklyn Nine-Nine<\/em> with Dan Goor, and went on to create The Good Place <\/em>and co-create Rutherford Falls.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He returns today with Season 2 of Netflix\u2019s A Man on the Inside<\/em>, which he created based on the documentary The Mole Agent. <\/em>It re-teams him with The Good Place<\/em> star Ted Danson, who plays a widowed professor,. In Season 1 he went undercover in a nursing home to investigate theft, and this season he\u2019ll go undercover at a university. Season 2 will also pair Danson with his real-life wife Mary Steenburgen, both of whom Schur honored at the Emmys in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schur has also served as an executive producer of Master of None<\/em> and Hacks<\/em>, and his many other credits include co-writing the devastating \u201cNosedive\u201d episode of Black Mirror<\/em>. He\u2019s currently working on the upcoming series Dig<\/em> with Parks<\/em> star Amy Poehler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Schur is also prolific when not working in television. For 12 years, he has co-hosted The PosCast<\/a><\/em>, a podcast mostly about baseball that tends to drift into other subjects as well. And he\u2019s behind the Ken Tremendous social handle, where he wittily bounces from observations on baseball to television to politics. One recent day \u2014 following Jimmy Kimmel being pulled from the airwaves at the behest of the Trump Administration \u2014 he wrote succinctly: \u201cI\u2019m a single issue voter, and my issue is \u2018the government shouldn\u2019t be fascist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How sharp is he? So sharp that when, during our interview, we struggled to remember the word referring to the love words, he quickly suggested: \u201clogophilia?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when we pressed him on how he became so productive, he stressed pragmatism, not preternatural recall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And gave a lot of the credit to his many collaborators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Schur on SNL<\/em> and Weekend Update<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
(L-R) Jason Mantzoukas as Apollo Lamrkis and executive producer\/director Michael Schur on a Season 2 episode of <\/em>A Man on the Inside. Photo credit: Colleen E. Hayes\/Netflix \u00a9 2025<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MovieMaker:<\/em> <\/strong>Not everyone who\u2019s a writer on SNL<\/em> goes on to create or co-create so many shows. How did you become a showrunner, many times over?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Schur: <\/strong>There are sort of two big jumps, I would say. The first was at SNL<\/em>. Weekend Update<\/em> is its own little mini show within a show. It\u2019s a 10-minute chunk of the show that requires its own little staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After I\u2019d been there for a couple of years, my friend Rob Carlock had been running it with Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon anchoring, and he left to go write for Friends<\/em>, and I remember thinking, \u201cWho\u2019s gonna take that job? That seems hard.\u201d And then SNL<\/em> producer Mike Shoemaker was like, \u201cHey, we want you to take over Update<\/em>.\u201d And I was like, \u201cI don\u2019t know how to do that. What are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said, \u201cIt\u2019s easy \u2014 you\u2019ve got a couple writers, you write a bunch of jokes, and you go through the jokes, you pick the best jokes, choose graphics, you do this, you do that. Yeah, it\u2019ll be fun.\u201d It was an early lesson in the fact that sometimes it seems like, \u201cWow, the people who are running that or doing that job must really know what they\u2019re doing\u201d \u2014 and no, they don\u2019t. They were just there at the moment that they needed someone, and they stepped in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MovieMaker:<\/em><\/strong> This was at the start of the 2001-2002 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Schur: <\/strong>Two weeks before the first show, 9\/11 happened. \u2026 And I kept thinking, \u201cWell, surely someone will say, \u2018We shouldn\u2019t leave it in this dude\u2019s hands.\u2019\u201d<\/em> But they said, \u201cThis is your thing. Figure it out.\u201d Tina and Jimmy had been doing it for a year already, and they were already very beloved. And Mike Shoemaker was always around, and other people were around to help. But it just became clear that I had to grow up very quickly and figure out how to kind of command a little platoon unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MovieMaker: <\/em><\/strong>And you were 25. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Schur:<\/strong> Again, I need to emphasize this: I did not do this alone. There were three full-time writers. There was a co-producer named Scott Weinstein, who was great. Mike Shoemaker was around. Obviously, Tina is herself an incredible producer. This was a big team effort, but I did think: \u201cIf I don\u2019t kind of grow up a little bit right now, I\u2019m in trouble.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that was a big leap from just being a guy who wrote sketches to a person who had some actual responsibility, and doing that job for three years, I think, really prepared me for show running in general. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Show running is infinitely more complicated than producing Weekend Update<\/em>. But for Weekend Update<\/em>, you had to call edits of things, and you had to make quick decisions, and you had to be very decisive. And you had to scramble a little bit between dress and air to make sure that things went well. And you had to manage talent, and you had to do all of the things that you have to do as a show runner \u2014 on a small scale, but you had to do them all. So that was the first step. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Schur on The Office <\/em>and Learning From Greg Daniels<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Lilah Richcreek Estrada as Julie and Ted Danson as Charles in <\/em>A Man on the Inside. Photo credit: Colleen E. Hayes\/Netflix \u00a9 2025<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MovieMaker:<\/em><\/strong> What was the second?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Schur: <\/strong>The second step was, I left SNL<\/em> and went to work for The Office<\/em>,<\/a> and Greg Daniels, who had adapted The Office<\/em>, was not just a show runner, but he was a teacher. He was a professor.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had met with hundreds of people \u2013 executives and producers and show runners and people who had written pilots \u2014 and when I met with Greg, I sent my agent an email that said, \u201cI don\u2019t think adapting The Office<\/em> for American television is a good idea at all, but if that guy hires me, I\u2019m going to take the job, because I feel like he\u2019s going to teach me how to write.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re trying to make the jump from New York late night to L.A. primetime, you need a mentor. You need an instructor. You need a sensei. And Greg was just so thoughtful and scientific in the way that he approached the job. I just had this feeling: \u201cI need a person like that to tell me how to write.\u201d Forget showrunning at that point \u2014 I just wanted to be learn how to write. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working for him is like taking a PhD-level class in writing for TV. I often took notes during the day, as if I were in a class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MovieMaker:<\/em><\/strong> Do you remember any specific eye-opening moments?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Schur:<\/strong> Someone would pitch something, and Greg wouldn\u2019t just say \u201cNo,\u201d or, \u201cI don\u2019t think so, let\u2019s keep pitching.\u201d He would say, \u201cI don\u2019t think that will work, and here\u2019s why.\u201d And then he would explain. And sometimes it could be frustrating. But if you tuned in, it was incredibly eye-opening, because you weren\u2019t just getting rejected. You were learning why you were getting rejected. I found it wonderful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MovieMaker:<\/em> <\/strong>It seems like you\u2019re writing constantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Schur:<\/strong>For better or worse, my approach to this has always been, if I think something sounds fun or interesting or challenging, I say yes, and if it doesn\u2019t, I say no. And there have been times that meant that there was only one thing I was working on, and there were times when that meant there were five things. And it\u2019s important to note that I\u2019ve rarely done them alone. Most of the things I\u2019ve done have been in collaboration with other people, which makes it more fun. I loved the the SNL<\/em> world, and The Office<\/em> was very much like that, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the things that I\u2019ve done have been with a lot of other people involved. If you just look at my IMDb page, it looks like I somehow have 40 hours in the day, but really that\u2019s because most of those things are being done largely by other people, and I\u2019m playing some role in them: I\u2019m overseeing or producing or advising or being a consigliere in some way, but the hard work is being done by other people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Hacks<\/em>: Jen Statsky had worked with me on The Good Place<\/em> and on Parks and Rec<\/em>, and she and Paul W. Downs and Lucia Aniello, who created that show, came to me after The Good Place<\/em> wrapped and said, \u201cWe have this idea,\u201d and pitched it to me. It was fully formed and vibrant and real and three-dimensional in every way that you could ever hope a show could be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My joke since then \u2014 when people ask what I do on Hacks<\/em> \u2014 is that my number-one job was giving them directions to Warner Bros. so they could pitch it. That\u2019s a show that I am so proud to be associated with, but not a show I\u2019m actively working on every day at all. That\u2019s their show, and my role has been to advise when they want me to, and to give them notes when they want me to, and otherwise to stay the hell out of their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Schur on A Man on the Inside<\/em>, Ted Danson, and Demographics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Ted Danson as Charles in <\/em>A Man on the Inside. Photo credit: Colleen E. Hayes\/Netflix \u00a9 2025<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MovieMaker:<\/em> <\/strong>One thing you always used to hear is that networks and streamers want younger audiences, but you decided to build A Man on the Inside<\/em> around a Ted Danson character who\u2019s a retiree. Why did you want to do something so potentially risky?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Schur:<\/strong>One, I love Ted, and if I could write for Ted for the rest of my life, I\u2019d be perfectly happy. Two, I thought the movie that it was based on, The Mole Agent<\/em>, the documentary, was just a lovely movie that really struck a chord with me. I\u2019m also turning 50 in a couple months, and my generation, our generation, is now facing all of these issues with our parents, and we\u2019re going to be in their position in another 20 or 25 years, right? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So it\u2019s all in front of us, and we can see it coming, both with our own parents and then our own lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I just thought it was tapping into something very fundamental and true about the human experience, and when I\u2019m trying to figure out what I want to write next, I don\u2019t get much past that: \u201cIs this something that\u2019s interesting and real and true?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then also, you know that old adage of \u201cOh, the 18 to 49 demo, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s gone now. That was based on advertisers. Now it\u2019s based on subscribers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a whole lot of people over the age of 65 who have Netflix subscriptions, and they\u2019re going to want to see stuff that they like. Netflix\u2019s whole attitude is, \u201cWe\u2019ve got to appeal to everybody.\u201d They\u2019re trying to make everyone in the world want a Netflix subscription. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, I don\u2019t know anyone of any age who doesn\u2019t like Ted Danson and doesn\u2019t like watching him act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Man on The Inside Season 2 arrives on Netflix on November 20. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main image: Executive producer and director Mike Schur, left, with actor Sam Huntington on the set of A Man on the Inside<\/em>. Photos by Colleen E. Hayes\/Netflix \u00a9 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMOTI_204_Unit_00202RC.jpg: Ted Danson\u2019s character, Charles Nieuwendyk, goes undercover in academia in Season 2 of Mike Schur\u2019s A Man on the Inside<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AMOTI_204_Unit_00706RC.jpg: A Man on the Inside. (L to R) Lilah Richcreek Estrada, who plays private investigator Julie Kovalenko, with Danson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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