The Hollywood Reporter has brought word that the acclaimed fantasy comedy The Good Place from The Office creator Michael Schur and led by Kristen Bell (House of Lies) and Ted Danson (Bored to Death) will come to an end with its upcoming fourth season.
RELATED: Kristen Bell To Make Directorial Debut In The Good Place Season 4
In The Good Place, Bell’s Eleanor has died after a selfish, not-so-nice life. She’s met in “the good place,” a.k.a. heaven by Michael (Ted Danson), who explains that she’s come to heaven and will live a wonderful life with her soulmate Chidi (William Jackson Harper) in her dream house with dream friends. The only problem is, she’s been mistaken for a different Eleanor, one who has led a life full of good works. This isn’t her soul mate or her dream house (it’s full of clown art) or anything she actually likes. She and the friends she makes have to figure out what’s going on before something terrible happens. In season 2, Eleanor and her friends have an entirely new take on what’s actually going on in “the good place,” and who Michael is. The first two seasons are currently streaming on Netflix.
Talking to THR, Schur revealed that unlike his previous NBC sitcoms, The Office and Parks and Recreation, this series was never designed to be a long-running project:
“Obviously because of that DNA, where status quos get blown up so frequently, this is not a show that is destined to be on for nine years,” he told THR in December. “It’s not a 200-episode, Friends kind of a deal. It’s not a hangout show. So, yeah, we’ve given it a lot of thought, and we have a certain plan, which I think you’ll get the sense of in the fairly near future.”
The 43-year-old showrunner discussed that following the smash success of its first season, he realized he needed to map out how he wanted the story to go to see how long it would run, coming to the conclusion four seasons was the reasonable plan.
“Once I settled on four seasons, I didn’t tell anyone — except the writers. I didn’t tell the studio or network because I wanted to make sure that I was right and I wanted to leave open the possibility that as we as a team developed the show, I wanted to allow the possibility that something could change and there was more I wanted to do. But it was pretty much always four from early on as a general map.”
The acclaimed series joins the ranks of series coming to their ends in the 2019-20 broadcast season, which includes ABC’s Modern Family, CBS’ Criminal Minds and Madam Secretary, Fox’s Empire, NBC’s Blindspot and The CW’s Arrow and Supernatural.
RELATED: Musical Dramedy Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist Gets Series Order at NBC
The Good Place stars Danson, Bell, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, Manny Jacinto, and D’Arcy Carden, all of whom should be back for season four. In addition to executive producing, creator Mike Schur serves as writer and showrunner. David Miner, Morgan Sackett and Drew Goddard also executive produce. The Good Place is produced by Universal Television, Fremulon, and 3 Arts Entertainment.
