‘Superstore’ Producers Jonathan Green and Gabe Miller Say Goodbye to Cloud 9

A great series finale is more elusive than one thinks. Someone always complains about how some storylines end and comedies have a tougher time satisfying its core fans. NBC’s Superstore ended after six seasons, and it may have one of the best finales I’ve ever seen. It pays homage to its roots and lovingly looks forward on its characters’ behalf. Producers Jonathan Green and Gabe Miller had a lot of curveballs thrown at them (a pandemic, an early cancellation), but Cloud 9 closed its doors on the highest of notes.

Just think of the difficult decisions Green and Miller had to face when they discovered their show wasn’t going forward with the planned seventh season. There were plans to essentially split Cloud 9 into two sections–the main store managed by Glenn and the fulfillment center headed by Dina. Two shows for the price of one! Toss in COVID precautions and you have a doozy of a season that matches the restrictions the actors and the crew had to work around.

At its heart, Superstore wanted to make you laugh but it also gave you a sense of true family and togetherness. Green and Miller talk with me about ending their production and the state of the network sitcom. Superstore could be the only network comedy nominated if it lands a slot in the Comedy Series race.

Awards Daily: What pressures did you feel to close this special show?

Jonathan Green: We definitely felt the pressure to land these characters in a place where they felt okay but also tie up the loose ends in a realistic way and be true to the show. The whole other pressure came in the middle of the season so we had to pivot to a series finale.

Gabe Miller: We had a whole other plan that would throw us into season seven, so we had to completely calibrate the entire thing and work towards something satisfying without tearing up the things we had as an emotional payoff.

AD: I read how Dina was going to take over the fulfillment center. 

JB: We thought we led up to it with her and Glenn being co-managers and we only had a vague idea of what it would be but we were looking forward to having those two halves of the store.

AD: I’d pay good money to see Dina torturing Justine and Sandra trying to get in her good graces. 

JB: Yeah, us too (laughs)

AD: Of all the shows that confronted the pandemic, Superstore did it in the most realistic way, I think. What was it like to find the groove backstage and then  incorporating it into the plot?

GM: There was a brief time, when the pandemic hit, we thought it would be over in a matter of months. We naively thought that people wouldn’t want to look at that time, but once we realized it was there to stay through the season, there was no question to incorporate it. We were always trying to set our show in the real world where our workers were dealing with real things with the public. They were expected work and sometimes called heroes, but they never got the support from corporate. They walked the walk but they didn’t back it up, and that’s the theme that Superstore always explored. How corporate America views and, oftentimes, abuses the people doing the day to day work.

JG: Along those lines, we saw it as the backdrop of the entire season even though we dealt with it more directly at the beginning. It was also really nice that we could include stories not about the pandemic but it never went away. Someone was always wearing a mask but that doesn’t mean it was the focus of the entire episode.

AD: There could be a relationship arc and one character could have a mask on while the other didn’t.

GM: Yeah.

AD: Unlike a lot of comedies that do dramatic episodes or stories with weight, Superstore avoided making “very special episodes” and it was never cloying. We could see a conversation about consent the breakroom and there were episodes about racism and the unforgettable Mateo storyline. How much did you guys talk about infusing humor into the show when you deal with these things?

JG: Thank you. The main reason for that was the sensibility that we all shared as writers. We primarily wanted to make people laugh so “issues” came into the show because they were what the characters were facing. It just happened to creep into the store as well. It was important to feel like we were never teaching a lesson. It was about the characters. We never thought we had to take anything on.

GM: It helps, at this point, to have the breakroom full of characters that has established attitudes and voices so if an issue comes up, you could have a discussion about it but find the most ridiculous angles. It tended to make everything more fun.

JG: We’d catch ourselves too. Jonah could fall into the preachy trap but we could tell if the writers were trying to say something through him.

AD: With an NPR bag over his shoulder. 

(both laugh)

AD: I have to ask about the reveal of Elias. How long were you guys planning that and how satisfying was it to include that?

JG: That was Justin Spitzer’s push to do that in the finale.

GM: He came for the last few episodes and we liked having the feet complication brought back in the next to last episode. Looking at how to do the series finale, we had a bunch of cards up and we would normally would have cards up with questions that we wanted answered or characters we wanted to see one more time. There’s not time to do it all and Justin liked that it was something we’ve seen the whole time.

AD: I love that. 

JG: There was an earlier version of the script where it was a background actor that we’ve seen the entire time who hadn’t been identified as much as Elias. We did worry that it was too damaging to his character and then casually drop it in. It was funnier to do Elias.

GM: We casually along the way also established that Elias is Jerusha’s brother.

AD: Yeah!

JG: Once we did that, we didn’t think we could have Elias at the bar-be-que at the end.

AD: Oh no!

GM: We couldn’t do that.

AD: Since Superstore is a network comedy on NBC, share with me your feelings on the state of the sitcom. Television is dominated by so many streaming platforms. 

JG: It’s tough to know and it does feel like network shows can compete less. It feels like everything is going to merge eventually and everything will be streaming–at least on the business side. The network model could feel like something the streaming platforms are trying to replicate now and having more broad appeal. Networks are looking at streamers to have shorter orders and more limited series.

GM: I agree in TV comedies, wherever they are appearing, people are looking for compelling characters and stories to follow. Sometimes it’s more serialzied than others.

JG: For viewers, it’s becoming less and less concerning where it is.

GM: On Twitter, people are discovering it on Hulu, but it has the NBC logo in front of it. There is that brand recognition.

Superstore is streaming on Hulu and Peacock.