Several TV series with Los Angeles-based productions were forced to pause shooting due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in California.
"Although music, TV and film productions are allowed to operate, we ask you to strongly consider pausing work for a few weeks during this catastrophic surge in COVID cases," public health department representatives wrote in a Dec. 24 email. "Identify and delay higher risk activities, and focus on lower-risk work for now, if at all possible."
For Universal TV, this meant delaying NBC's Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Mr. Mayor, Kenan and Good Girls, HBO Max's Hacks and Netflix's Never Have I Ever. Nearly all those series are expected to resume production on Jan. 11, except for Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which will restart on Jan. 18.
Warner Bros. TV also decided to stop shooting some of its shows, including CBS comedies Mom, B Positive, Bob Hearts Abishola, Showtime staple Shameless and Netflix drama You. The hope is that these series will resume production on Jan. 11.
Finally, Walt Disney-owned 20th Television and ABC Signature placed 9-1-1 (Fox), 9-1-1: Lone Star (Fox), American Crime Story: Impeachment (FX), American Horror Story (FX), American Housewife (ABC), Big Shot (Disney+), black-ish (ABC); Grey's Anatomy (ABC), Last Man Standing (Fox), Love, Victor (Hulu), Mayans (FX), mixed-ish (ABC), The Orville (Fox), Rebel (ABC), Station 19 (ABC) and This is Us (NBC) on hiatus. None of these series are expected to return to work before Jan. 18.
The delay will give Brooklyn Nine-Nine time to address and adapt its portrayal of officers and detectives in the wake of the death of George Floyd, the shooting and paralyzation of Jacob Blake and the larger Black Lives Matter movement. Back in June, showrunner Dan Goor threw four episode scripts into the trash, according to series star Terry Crews. "We have to start over. Right now we don't know which direction it’s going to go in," Crews said at the time. His co-star, Andre Braugher, also said that police need to be "portrayed much more realistically, in terms of this: The convention ... that police breaking the law is okay because somehow it's in the service of some greater good, is a myth that needs to be destroyed."
Created in 2013 by Dan Goor and Michael Schur, Brooklyn Nine-Nine stars Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Stephanie Beatriz, Joe Lo Truglio, Terry Crews, Dirk Blocker and Joel McKinnon Miller. The show will air its eighth season on NBC in 2021.
Source: Variety