Michael Schur Reveals The Best Thing He's Ever Written

Usually, I don’t want to hear about baseball this time of year. I love baseball. I love the excitement of the playoffs and the World Series. However, for most of my thirty years as a fan, my beloved Texas Rangers have only made it to the fall classic twice (both of which they lost). This year is a different story. They aren’t in the World Series yet, but the Rangers are getting close. Since I’m riding the high of them winning seven straight postseason games, I jumped at the opportunity to write about baseball this morning.

Another big baseball fan is Michael Schur. The former SNL and The Office writer has seen his share of successes. Not only did he write on those comedy classics, but he has also created and co-created a few staples of his own. He and his former The Office boss, Greg Daniels, co-created Parks and Recreation. Schur paid that forward by co-creating Brooklyn 99 with former Parks and Rec writer Dan Goor. It is from Schur’s mind that The Good Place emerged. Yet, according to Schur, his greatest work remains unproduced.

It was announced that Schur would write a TV show based on The Field of Dreams in August 2021. By June 2022, the show was canceled. It was sent to the benches despite several episodes being written and a baseball field being built in Iowa. NBC/Universal, who was to produce the series, “changed their mind,” according to Schur. The show was being shopped out to other networks, but as of now, it does not have a home.

In a recent interview, Schur explained that the series was to focus on integration. Instead of being a love letter to nostalgia, as the movie did, the show was going to focus on the dangers of nostalgia. It would emphasize how just because the past seems magical to some, it wasn’t that way for everyone. Kristen Bell, Nick Offerman, Andre Braugher, and William Jackson Harper were all going to be on the show.

What’s striking about this revelation was Schur’s intention to focus on integration. A League of Their Own, another adaptation of a popular baseball film, took a similar approach. League ended up getting a full season but was canceled by Amazon while in production for the second season. At least NBC/Universal was honest with Schur. Amazon tried to blame the strike, which is bullsh**. There are plenty of stories to be told about the history of baseball. Hopefully, people who are passionate about the sport get to tell them. If studios are too gun-shy to make what the creator of The Good Place called his best work, then what hope is there?

Legendary comedy writer Michael Schur called the fourth episode of his "Field Of Dreams" TV reboot that never came to be, "the best thing I've ever written."

His explanation 👇 pic.twitter.com/Vz9zGZXxNb

— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) October 17, 2023