Posted in: NBC, TV | Tagged: Reggie Dinkins, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins

Reggie Dinkins Creators Talk All-Star Cast, Title Inspiration & More

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins' Robert Carlock and Sam Means discuss the ensemble comedy, working with the all-star cast, and more.

Robert Carlock and Sam Means have been nothing but comedic gold throughout their careers, with Carlock's roots in the cult ABC variety series, Dana Carvey Show, and the late-night juggernaut of Saturday Night Live, and Means establishing himself on Comedy Central's The Daily Show. On top of their impressive careers, the duo collaborated with SNL alum Tina Fey on several hits, including NBC's 30 Rock, Prime Video's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Netflix's animated series Mulligan. Their latest is the football-centric mockumentary The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins that reunites them with star Tracy Morgan (SNL, 30 Rock) playing the title character of the disgraced NFL player trying to make a comeback with the help of a struggling filmmaker, Arthur Tobin (Daniel Radcliffe); Monica (Erika Alexander) his ex-wife and manager; Brina (Precious Way), his girlfriend and influencer; Carmelo (Jalyn Hall), his and Monica's son; and Rusty Boyd (Bobby Moynihan), his former teammate who lives with Reggie's basement. Carlock and Means spoke to Bleeding Cool about creating the series with Fey as an EP, balancing their familiarity with Morgan, Radcliffe, and Moynihan with Alexander, Way, and Hall, while organically leaning into their talent, and how they surprised themselves by how deep they tapped into their talent pool. The following contains a minor spoiler.

The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins Creators on Reginald Perrin Title Inspiration, Casting, Improv, and More.

What's the inspiration behind The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins? Was the title inspired by the BBC's Reginald Perrin?

Carlock: A little bit, yeah, although we did name him "Reggie Dinkins" before we came up with the title, but it was a little nod to that and to a lot of things called The Rise and Fall, and as with Reginald Perrin, we wanted to invert that. This is a story of someone.

Means: His fall is in his past.

Carlock: Yeah, someone who's trying for a second chance.

Now, of all the pairings, how did you get Tracy and Daniel together?

Carlock: At the very beginning, Tracy came to Tina [Fey] and came to us, and said he wanted to do something, and we ran with that. We've worked with Dan a couple of times in the past, on a Kimmy Schmidt episode, and he did a voice on an animated show that we did, Mulligan.

Means: We knew how funny he was, how funny it could be. We're excited to show a broadcast audience just how hilarious Daniel Radcliffe is.

Carlock: The poster in your mind comes together quickly when you think of the two of them together. We loved the image of that, and what they bring to the camera is such a fun contrast, while both are super funny, super engaging, and endearing.

Now, how did you assemble the rest of the cast with Erika, Bobby, Precious, and Jalyn?

Means: I don't know what we did to deserve…

Carlock: Right?!

Means: It really came together surprisingly easily. Erika was the next person we cast after Tracy and Dan. She's a legend, someone we love and look up to, and I couldn't believe that she wanted to do our stupid TV show.

Carlock: Yeah, you get a list of names, and you say, "Well, how about Erika Alexander? Let's start there." We had a phone call with her, and I guess we didn't scare her off too badly.

Means: Yeah, and funnily enough, she's done so much with Living Single and Last Man Standing in addition to all her movie work and everything, but she'd never done a single-camera show, so this was new to her in the same way that the mockumentary format was something we hadn't done before. It was a fun collaboration on everyone stretching and growing together.

Carlock: Yeah, and Bobby, we've worked with before, and obviously, SNL and everything. You need that just as if these other people aren't funny enough, having Bobby to go to, and then you know traditional casting for Jalyn and Precious, who popped off the screen so well. It's so fun to write these new voices, too.

Means: Yeah, we've been so lucky with the cast, but Bobby, much like Erika, was. I mean, of course, we would want Bobby! We could get him, right? He said, "Yeah."

With so much of the comedic talent on board, was there a lot of room to do improv aside from what was scripted?

Means: You know, it is tight with the constraints of a broadcast schedule and the 21 and a half minutes. There's not always as much as we would like, honestly, but absolutely, these actors are so funny. We were remembering one in episode…I want to say, two where Rusty [Moynihan] is in his archive in the basement, the Weird Al Yankovic food poisoning song. We had written super quickly that [bursts into tune] "This food is poison," and he had thought about it, and on set was adding a bunch more lyrics to the song.

Carlock: We ended up using a bunch of it.

Was that Dean Winters doing the voiceovers for those ads [Reggie was watching]? I was wondering how you got him on board for that?

Carlock: I mean, he's in our stable of people who are nice to us. I texted him and said, "Would you like to come do a voiceover?" And he said yes. He doesn't need to do that, but there's no better New York voice.

Means: Still good.

Carlock: He did a bunch of hilarious improv. I don't know how much, if we used much of it, but like, who was he calling? I can't remember. He had some good New York. He's had some New York-specific insults for people.

The premiere episode of The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins is available on Peacock, with new episodes resuming February 23rd and releasing Mondays on NBC through April 13th.

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