New Girl alum Jake Johnson has been tapped as the lead in NBC‘s single-camera comedy from Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-creator/executive producer Dan Goor and executive producer Luke Del Tredici.
Johnson will play the lead role of Mickey, whose character description provides more insight into the untitled comedy’s premise beyond the original one-liner: a workplace comedy set in the world of private detectives, which continues the proud tradition of Los Angeles private eyes that began with Philip Marlowe and will end with this show.
The half-hour centers on Mickey (Johnson). Smart, cynical and heartbroken, but trying to pretend he’s not, Mickey is a private investigator with a knack for solving cases. Formerly an LAPD cop until his life imploded three years ago.
Goor and Del Tredici are writers/executive producers. Universal Television, part of Universal Studio Group, is the studio.
NBC now has three pilots headlined by stars of signature Fox series of the late 2000s and early 2010s, with New Girls‘ Johnson joining Bones’ David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel, the leads of NBC’s The Rockford Files and untitled Dean Georgaris/John Fox drama, respectively.
In 2026, Johnson will be seen in The Sun Never Set at SXSW, his fourth collaboration with Joe Swanberg, in which he stars opposite Dakota Fanning and also produced; the series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, opposite Tatiana Maslany for Apple TV; and the pickleball comedy The Dink, opposite Mary Steenburgen and Ed Harris, also for Apple TV.
Prior to that, Johnson starred in, wrote and directed the Hulu movie Self Reliance, reprised his role voicing Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and starred in the HBO Max series Minx. He is repped by UTA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.