All good things must come to an end, even if it’s literally The Good Place.
Michael Schur, the creator of The Good Place, has announced that the series will end with season 4 set to air this fall. “After The Good Place was picked up for season two,” said Schur, “the writing staff and I began to map out, as best we could, the trajectory of the show. Given the ideas we wanted to explore, and the pace at which we wanted to present those ideas, I began to feel like four seasons – just over 50 episodes – was the right lifespan. At times over the past few years we’ve been tempted to go beyond four seasons, but mostly because making this show is a rare, creatively fulfilling joy, and at the end of the day, we don’t want to tread water just because the water is so warm and pleasant. As such, the upcoming fourth season will be our last.”
It’s always nice, no matter what the show is, that the people work on the show get to choose the endpoint. “I will be forever grateful to NBC and Universal TV for letting us make The Good Place,” said Schur, “and for letting us end it on our own schedule. I will also be forever grateful to the creative team, both on-screen and off, for their hard work and dedication to a very weird idea. We ask the question very frequently, on this show, what do we owe to each other? The answer, for me, is: I owe all of you a whole lot.”
The departure of The Good Place is going to a tough one on NBC as its comedy slate is fairly low at this moment. When the pilot season rolls around in early 2019, the Peacock network is going to have to keep an eye on comedies more than any other genre. Finding a comedy, however, that clicks with audiences isn’t always an easy task, however.
Meanwhile, Schur has set up a five year, nine-figure deal, with Good Place producers Universal Television. The new deal reportedly pays him $25M a year to stay with the company. With that sort of money in play, Universal is going to be anxious to get a series of his on the air as soon as possible.
The Good Place season 4 will debut in the fall on NBC.
