A recent Q&A with the cast of The Good Place revealed that Ted Danson had spoiled the first season’s climactic twist for just about everyone he met before it aired.
The cast and crew of the break-out comedy got together for a screening and a panel on set on Friday night, according to a report by Entertainment Weekly. There, the show’s creator, Michael Schur, promised that there would be no spoilers for the upcoming third season, revealing that he’s “very spoilerphobic” after working with Danson.
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Warning! There are spoilers ahead for The Good Place. If you haven’t watched it yet, do yourself a favor and check it out before you read on.
Schur said that when work began on the show’s first season, he told Danson and Kristen Bell everything that was coming, including the season’s big plot twist — the reveal that the main characters have actually been in the “bad place” all along. He told them not to tell a soul what was coming.
Bell reportedly stuck to that promise. Even her husband, Dax Shepard, didn’t see the season finale coming. Danson, on the other hand, found the secret too good to keep to himself.
“Ted said, ‘Absolutely, of course, I completely understand, I won’t tell a soul,’” Schur recalled. “And he proceeded to tell literally every single person who asked him, random strangers at cocktail parties, anyone he ran into he’d spill the entire season. And I only found out about that after the finale had wrapped. He was like, ‘Okay, I’m glad it aired because I literally told everyone that happened.’”
In his defense, Danson said that his spoilers were a testament to how groundbreaking the show really is.
“I was talking to John Krasinski, because he knows [Schur] well and loves you,” Danson said. “I went, ‘Yeah, I’m working with Mike Schur and Kristen Bell.’ When I said it takes place in the afterlife, I saw his eyes go, ‘Oh, it’s The Office in Heaven.’ And that pissed me off. I’m like, ‘No! No! See, the trick is I’m actually a demon.’ And he was suitably impressed.”
Krasinksi worked with Schur on The Office, where he was both a writer and the enigmatic face of Dwight Schrute’s cousin Mose.
“And unlike you, John is a professional,” Schur reportedly added. “So he then didn’t tell anyone about it. He kept it quiet.”
While the two chided each other about their different philosophies on secrecy, Schur said that Danson had brought life to his character as he had never imagined. He recounted the scene where the big reveal is made, and saying that he had originally written an instant temper tantrum for Michael, rather than the “wonderful, maniacal, creepy, awful” giggle that Danson delivered.
“It was great, but also we kept feeling like it wasn’t quite exactly what it should be,” said Schur. “We didn’t know why. And Ted just said, ‘Let me try something else.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ And then he did that giggle and it was immediately like a million times better. That’s 100% pure uncut Ted Danson.”
The Good Place is returning for a third season this fall. In addition, Schur reportedly has a number of other series in the works with NBC.
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