Comic-Con 2016: How Damon Lindelof inspired The Good Place

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Updated on July 30, 2020 12:18PM EDT

If The Good Place becomes a big hit for NBC, Mike Schur will owe Damon Lindelof an expensive bottle of champagne.

Before he penned the single-camera comedy that stars Kristen Bell as a self-absorbed woman who is sent to a Heaven-like place by mistake, Schur (Parks and Recreation) asked the Lost creator to help him workshop a few ideas over lunch.

“It was an ‘Is this anything?’ lunch,” Schur recalled. “This was the idea he got most excited about. He was very encouraging, and he was the one reason that I got Drew Goddard (who helmed The Martian) to direct the pilot.”

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Lindelof’s help was also vital because Good Place, which also stars Ted Danson as Bell’s Afterlife mentor, will be serialized.

“Every episode has a huge, twisty cliffhanger at the end of it,” Schur said. “It takes a lot of forethought and careful planning. I needed Damon for advice.”

The Good Place debuts Sept. 19 at 8:30 p.m. on NBC. See the cast describe the show below:

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