Throughout television history, loads of shows have tried in vain to get viewers to care about love stories. On the bright side, however, there have been some truly great TV couples over the years. Of course, just because viewers start to care about a TV couple doesn’t mean that they enjoy every element of their story. For example, when The Office’s Jim and Pam almost had a sound guy come between them, most of the show’s viewers were outraged.
Fortunately for the people who worked on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, most of the show’s fans grew to care deeply about the series’ main couple, Jake and Amy. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that every part of the fictional couple’s story panned out the way they were planned. With that in mind, it begs a fascinating question, what were the original plans for Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Amy and Jake?
Brooklyn Nine-Nine Developed An Extremely Passionate Fan Base
No matter how much work people put into a television show, they all know one thing right from the start, every series can only be on the air for so long. As a result, most of the time when it is announced that a show has been canceled, people accept that decision and quickly move on. However, when Brooklyn Nine-Nine was unexpectedly canceled, fans were so outraged that it was quickly announced that the show was set to return on a new network.
Of course, as any Brooklyn Nine-Nine fan should already know, there are a lot of different reasons to love the show. For example, Brooklyn Nine-Nine starred several extremely talented actors that seem like great people which is why many of them have a lot of viewers on social media. On top of that, Brooklyn Nine-Nine often did a great job tackling extremely serious topics. For example, when Rosa came out to her parents, that storyline was arguably handled to perfection. On top of that, there is no doubt that Brooklyn Nine-Nine featured some lovable couples including Holt and Kevin as well as Jake and Amy.
Why Amy And Jake Dated On Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Given the fact that a lot of the best TV and movie couples are portrayed by extremely attractive actors, some people may think people just want to see good-looking people fall in love onscreen. While it would be a lie to pretend like there is no truth to that perception, fans tend to invest in on-screen couples because of something that matters a lot more, chemistry. After all, even if they are portrayed by gorgeous actors, when screen couples lack chemistry then people don’t care. For example, since Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie lack chemistry, their 2010 movie The Tourist came and went without much fanfare.
Since Brooklyn Nine-Nine was so popular throughout its time on television, its co-creator Dan Goor has been interviewed about the show’s success many times. According to what Goor has said in the past, during Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s casting process, the show’s producers knew how lucky they were. After all, when Andy Samberg and Melissa Fumero read together, everyone became “very confident” that Jake and Amy would become a beloved couple because of their chemistry.
Sadly, just because producers think two actors have chemistry together doesn’t mean they necessarily are right. However, when Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s sought the feedback of a test screening audience who got a sneak peek of the show, their belief in Melissa Fumero and Andy Samberg paid off. The reason for that is that according to the audience’s feedback, Jake and Amy’s chemistry tested “through the roof”. On top of that, even though Sandberg and Fumero are married to other people, some viewers initially wanted them to be another TV couple who took their romance off-screen.
Of course, it should go without saying that casting two actors with loads of chemistry was a great thing for the people in charge of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. However, according to a Buzzfeed article, it seems like Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s writers struggled to script Jake and Amy at first in a way that took advantage of Melissa Fumero and Andy Samberg’s screen chemistry.
During the production of Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s second episode titled “The Tagger”, a cold open was filmed that featured Amy and Jake arguing. Even though Jake and Amy lit up the screen when they appeared on camera together, producers struggled to “figure out” how to script them arguing early on without going too far. As a result, that cold open was scrapped and replaced with one in which Holt takes Jake to task for being unprofessional.