Summary

• Greg Daniels' path from SNL to The Simpsons to The Office and Parks & Rec solidifies his sitcom legacy and mastery of mockumentary storytelling.
• Daniels expertly weaves themes and character dynamics into his shows, creating tension and comedic dialogue that resonates with audiences.
• Now developing a new series set in The Office universe, Daniels continues to innovate with a talented team, ensuring potential success.

Greg Daniels, creator of The Office and showrunners who have produced multiple beloved series. Dick Wolf and Shonda Rhimes are classic examples of successful showrunners, while Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling, and Vince Gilligan represent a new guard of TV developers.

Showrunners for comedies, like Kaling, Fey, and Daniels, also often serve as screenwriters and the insular world of comedy has made sure that many creators have spent lots of time together. The web that connects SNL, Judd Apatow movies, and some of the best network comedy TV shows is extensive and complex, with writers, directors, actors, and showrunners swapping roles from one series to the next. Greg Daniels is not only in that web, but there's a way to look at it that positions him as a starting point for many of its threads.

Greg Daniels Is A Screenwriter Who Got His Start On SNL & The Simpsons

Daniels Also Co-Created King Of The Hill With Mike Judge

Greg Daniels began his career as a writer, quickly moving up from small jobs to working for SNL from 1987 to 1990. It was at SNL that he received his first of 21 Emmy nominations and his first of five wins. After a brief hiatus, and one penned episode of Seinfeld, Daniels ed The Simpsons in 1993, which was the start of season 5 and a moment when many of the original writers had left the show. Daniels believed he was coming on board too late, as he told NPR,

"Well, I got to 'The Simpsons' at the end of Season 4 and the beginning of Season 5. And I pretty much felt that the glory days were over and that I had missed the boat, and then it lasted another 20 years."

But against the beliefs of many prognosticators, The Simpsons continued to be a ratings and critical juggernaut over Daniels' next three seasons as a writer and producer. It's that time cutting his teeth on The Simpsons that really springboarded his career. He then went on to co-create King of the Hill with Mike Judge, which lasted from 1997-2010.

Daniels Achieved Sitcom Legacy Status For His Work On The Office & Creating Parks & Rec

Daniels Popularized And Perfected Mockumentary Storytelling

While King of the Hill was and is a beloved series that has only gotten better with age, it was the American adaptation of The Office in 2005 that ensured no one would forget Daniels' name anytime soon. He was involved in all aspects of the show from start to finish and still found time to develop Parks and Recreation in 2009 with The Office screenwriter, Michael Schur. Both series are considered some of the best TV shows of all time and the contribution of their mockumentary-style filmmaking to comedy is as pivotal as found footage is to horror.

Parks and Recreation was originally supposed to be a spin-off of The Office but ended up taking place in its own timeline.

When asked about how he weaved critiques of corporate and government culture into these two shows, Daniels said (via AV Club),

"I think that especially when you’re building a show in the beginning, you are trying to build in themes and interesting things that you know will pay off three or four years from now in of being able to write an episode that you don’t see coming. But it has conflict and it’s about something. And so there’s a lot of effort put into going, 'Ah, what is this about? Why is Parks And Rec different from The Office? What are the themes? Why is [Leslie Knope] so positive and optimistic about government? And yet she works for Ron, who doesn’t even believe in government at all. Like, why are they opposites? Right?' It’s so that there’s going to be tension and different points of view on things going deep into the show.

If they’re set up properly there’s a lot to play off of in the future. You don’t have to constantly be talking about it because it’s kind of baked into their character interactions. So you can just be fun on the dialogue level. I think that the world is the world, and if you approach it with a comedic eye you’re going to notice certain things, certain inconsistencies, certain hypocrisies. And you’re going to be writing about them, maybe over and over."

Daniels' shows have always been characters first, with the comedy and storylines coming out of the characters and relationships he carefully crafts.

Daniels Is Developing A Show Set In The Office Universe For Peacock

Nathan For You Co-Creator Michael Korman Is Co-Developing The Series

After The Office and Parks and Recreation, Daniels developed the shows and Space Force. will end when season 4 finally airs, and the latter was canceled after two seasons. Now Daniels is working on a new series with Michael Koman, the co-creator of Nathan For You (via Peacock). The series will take place in the same universe as The Office, with the documentary crew finding a new subject, a teetering Midwestern newspaper, and the publisher trying to revive it with volunteer reporters.

Domhnall Gleeson (White House Plummers) and Sabrina Impacciatore (The White Lotus) will lead the show, which began filming in July. Greg Daniels, Koman, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, Howard Klein, Ben Silverman, and Banijay Americas are executive producing. With this lineup, it won't be a surprise if the show is a hit.