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Tracy Morgan is back in the sitcom game, and has reunited with a few of his Saturday Night Live cohorts to do so.
***The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins***stars Morgan as the eponymous former NFL star who was banned from the sport after he was caught in a gambling scandal. Looking to revitalize his image, he goes around his manager/ex-wife Monica to hire filmmaker Arthur Tobin to make a documentary about his career. But his journey down memory lane proves to also be one of growth for Reggie, Arthur, Reggie's friends and family.
Alongside Morgan, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins features a star-studded cast including two-time Emmy nominee Daniel Radcliffe as Arthur, Invasion's Erika Alexander as Monica, Saturday Night Live vet Bobby Moynihan as Reggie's best friend Rusty, Previous Way as Reggie's fiancée Brina and Jalyn Hall as Reggie's teen son Carmelo. The series, created by Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt pair Robert Carlock and Sam Means, has scored universal acclaim from critics, netting a perfect 100% "Certified Fresh" approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Ahead of the show's premiere, ScreenRant's Liam Crowley interviewed Tracy Morgan, Daniel Radcliffe, Bobby Moynihan, Precious Way, Jalyn Hall, Robert Carlock and Sam Means to discuss The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins. When asked about reuniting with both Moynihan and Tina Fey for the sitcom after first working together on Saturday Night Live and later on 30 Rock, Morgan described it as being "easy like Sunday morning ," also sharing that Fey is "really happy about the turnout of the show."
Morgan went on to describe Fey as not just being a friend, but "my sister for what she's done for my career," both on SNL and with 30 Rock, which he says he's "binge-watching" in his free time. Comparing the seven-season satire to "a tall mountain [that] when you're right up on it, you got to move back ," he finds himself looking back on his time with it and recognizing it to be a "funny show" and feeling he, Moynihan and Fey are "back in the saddle again" with Reggie Dinkins.
Moynihan also acknowledged how Saturday Night Live had a big hand in his reunion with Morgan on the new NBC sitcom, recalling how "Tracy hosted SNL my first year" and, as such, he got to see the two-time Emmy nominee "in all his glory." He further described his experience with Morgan on Reggie Dinkins as being "the best" time, pointing to the first scene their characters have together in the season in which they're improvising to be a lot of fun and that "SNL affords you this friendship " with other comics:
ScreenRant: We have references to Marvel and real NFL players, but we also go in offshoot directions. Reggie Dinkins is obviously a fictional character. Where do you define that line between where fiction ends and reality begins?
ScreenRant: I was at theMercypremiere last night and I ran into a friend, Kyle Gordon, and I was telling him that I just watched the screeners for Reggie Dinkins, and I was pleasantly surprised to see his face. He does great work on social media. He's done a couple of things in film and TV. On the lines of casting someone like Kyle, when you get a social media personality like that in the show, what does that process look like? And on a broader note, do you think that that's opening up the scope to bring more social media personalities into fictionalized storytelling?
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ScreenRant: You wear a lot of different hats with this character. You're the agent, you're the mom, you're the ex-wife, you're arguably the life coach at times. How did you find that balance between all the different sides of Erika?
ScreenRant: Did either of you two grow upHarry Potterfans? Was this just crazy, surreal?
Scott Gries/NBC
ScreenRant: Carmelo is such an interesting place. We have that stage where our parents are our heroes forever, but then a switch flips where you realize they're human beings too. Do you think Carmelo still idolizes Reggie with those rose-tinted glasses or is he starting to see the cracks of who he really is?
ScreenRant: Brina is not necessarily with Reggie just for money, fame, attention. She sees something in him. What is that quality she sees in Reggie that no one else does?
ScreenRant: Did you get to work with Kyle Gordon specifically?
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