Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Trivia | 40 facts about the series

«Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt» is an American streaming television sitcom created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock.

Let’s find out more about the series!

1. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is an American streaming television sitcom.
2. It was created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, starring Ellie Kemper in the title role.
3. The show was created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock when NBC executives asked them to develop a show for Ellie Kemper
4. It premiered on March 6, 2015 on Netflix.
5. It ran for four seasons ending on January 25, 2019.
6. It also had an interactive special premiered on May 12, 2020.
7. The series follows 29-year-old Kimmy Schmidt (Kemper) as she adjusts to life after being rescued from a doomsday cult in the fictional town of Durnsville, Indiana, where she and three other women were held captive by Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne (Jon Hamm) for 15 years.
8. Throughout its run, the series received critical acclaim.
9. Actually the critic Scott Meslow called the series “the first great sitcom of the streaming era”.
10. It received a total of twenty Primetime Emmy Award nominations, including four nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series and a nomination for Outstanding Television Movie for the 2020 special: Kimmy vs. the Reverend.
11. Tina Fey stated that they found an “innocence” about Kemper’s face, but also noted there was a “strength” to it.
12. One idea was for the show to center on Kemper’s character waking up from a coma, but this idea was abandoned in favor of the cult-survivor storyline.
13. The show was initially under development for NBC under the title Tooken. However, this was later changed to the current title. Ater all eventually NBC sold the series to Netflix.
14. Tina Fey has stated that this was in part due to NBC “not feeling confident about watching comedies”. Prior to the network switch, NBC planned to air the series as either a mid-season replacement or as a summer series.
15. When the show was sold to Netflix and given a two-season order.
16. On June 13, 2017, the show was renewed for a fourth and final season,^[19][20] with the first 6 episodes premiering on May 30, 2018.
17. The second half was released on January 25, 2019.
18. Artwork for the show’s opening sequence was produced by a team at Pentagram that included feminist artist Deva Pardue.
19. The show’s theme song, “Unbreakable”, was produced by The Gregory Brothers and written by Jeff Richmond.
20. It is a tribute to The Gregory Brothers’ YouTube show Songify the News – auto-tuned news interviews that became popular videos.
21. It specifically parodies the mannerisms of Antoine Dodson in the “Bed Intruder Song”.
22. Richmond also wrote “Peeno Noir”, a song performed by character Titus Andromedon during season 1, episode 6 of the series.
23. Before he came to Hollywood, Jon Hamm (Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne) was a high school drama teacher at the John Burroughs School in Ladue, Missouri. One of his drama students was Ellie Kemper, who plays Kimmy.
24. The first seven episodes of the series were edited with the assumption they would be aired on NBC and adhered to a twenty-two-minute time limit and included transitions for commercials.
25. After the show was acquired by Netflix, the episodes were re-edited to remove commercial transitions, and jokes that were previously omitted due to running time constraints were reinserted.
26. Tina Fey wrote the role of Jacqueline with Jane Krakowski in mind. The character actually wasn’t featured in the original version of the pilot. Her scenes were written, filmed later and edited in after the episode was completed.
27. A video clip of Jane Krakowski as a child can be seen in the opening credits.
28. The theme restaurant where Titus works is based on Jekyll & Hyde, a similarly themed restaurant in Manhattan, New York. The scenes in the restaurant were actually filmed at Jekyll & Hyde located in the West Village
29. Tituss Burgess’ character Titus is an actor with a dream of Broadway. In reality, Burgess has starred on Broadway four times
30. Jacqueline Voorhees’ dog in this show is the same dog Krakowki’s character, Jenna Maroney, owned on Tina Fey’s previous comedy 30 Rock (2006).
31. Tina Fey and Jerry Minor’s characters of the bumbling prosecutors in season 1, which aired in 2015, were based on prosecutors Marcia Clark and Chris Darden of the infamous O.J. Simpson murder trial. Aside from the physical resemblances; during the course of the trial and afterward, Clark and Darden were accused of incompetence and rumored to have been in a relationship. Although in 2016, Fey admitted that after watching The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016), she felt differently about Clark and Darden and regrets having spoofed them.
32. Just like on Tina Fey’s previous show, 30 Rock (2006), Fey’s husband, Jeff Richmond composed all of the show’s music, and also serves as a producer and guest director.
33. Because of Tituss Burgess’ Broadway background, the show features many Broadway star cameos such as Jefferson Mayes, James Monroe Inglehart, Nic Rouleau, John Cullum and John Bolton.
34. Kimmy’s full name is Kimberly Cougar Schmidt
35. Multiple references are made to Jon Hamm’s role as Don Draper on Mad Men (2007) including Kimmy saying he “claimed he wrote the ‘buy the world a Coke’ commercial” and calling him a “mad man”
36. The first name of Jacqueline’s stepdaughter, Xanthippe, is a nod to show-runner Tina Fey’s Greek heritage. “Xanthippe” is an ancient Greek name, belonging to several minor figures in Greek mythology, as well as to the historical wife of the philosopher Socrates. The character of Xanthippe on this show is depicted as an extremely difficult and contrary adolescent. The little that appears in Ancient Greek literature about the historical Xanthippe also implies that she was extremely young when she married Socrates, and that she had a difficult and argumentative personality. Antisthenes called Socrates’ wife “the hardest to get along with of all the women there are-yes, or all that ever were, I suspect, or ever will be?”, though Socrates also says that he specifically wanted a wife who had a challenging personality, which was the reason he chose Xanthippe. The name literally means “yellow horse” (“xanthos” meaning blonde/yellow and “hippos” meaning horse).
37. Was chosen by The Guardian as the best television series of 2015 in the December 17, 2015 issue.
38. The first and second seasons begin with renditions of “Let It Snow”.
39. Kimmy’s mother says she had Kimmy when she was seventeen. Lisa Kudrow is exactly seventeen years older than Ellie Kemper. However, Kemper is five to eight years older than her character Kimmy.
40. The characters Kimmy and Titus often reference the show Seinfeld (1989). Carol Kane (Lillian) appeared on an episode of Seinfeld (1989).