Michael Schur and William Jackson Harper turn CitySpace into a “good place”

NBC sitcom “The Good Place” has brought comedy junkies and philosophy fanatics together to answer the same question: what does it mean to be good and what makes ethics so funny? 

Michael Schur, creator and executive producer of the “The Good Place” visited WBUR CitySpace along with actor William Jackson Harper on Tuesday to answer this question for Bostonians.

The show follows Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), a selfish saleswoman who dies and is mistakenly placed in the “good” afterlife under the jurisdiction of Michael (Ted Danson), a god-like leader.

After realizing that she does not belong among her saintly peers, including her soulmate Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper), a professor of moral philosophy, Eleanor tries to become a better person. In the face of evil demons, flying shrimp and omniscient Siri-figure Janet, Eleanor works to earn her spot in the Good Place.

“I literally pitched [NBC] a show about a bunch of people who are dead and studying moral philosophy and they let me do it,” Schur said in an interview before the panel. “Because it was on a network, we had to really keep it moving and it had to sort of clip along.” 

Schur’s style of humor has been widely approved on his other sitcoms, including Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. His interest in philosophy bloomed on The Good Place as he partnered with experts like Pamela Hieronymi, a professor of philosophy at The University of California Los Angeles.

“We gambled that people would be interested in the philosophical ideas of the show if the show was funny,” Schur said. “We always began from that place and then the other stuff, we packed it in like a snowball.” 

Since its debut in 2016, The Good Place has tickled the minds, funny bones, and hearts of all ages. With the release of the fourth and final season approaching on Sept. 26, students, sitcom-lovers, and philosophy fans flooded into CitySpace with moral dilemmas and comic motifs in hand.

Alyssa Freeman, 28, of Brookline, said the show explores a lot of relatable topics that are applicable to everyday life, 

“There’s a lot of deeper meaning to it.,” Freeman said. 

Lydia Moland, a professor of philosophy at Colby College, served as moderator of the event and was the first to dream up the discussion. 

During the discussion Harper recalled Season 2, Episode 6 in which Chidi and Eleanor play out the trolley problem, an ethical thought experiment that requires the subject to make a decision that has no real right answer.

“There’s pros and cons with every decision that you make,” Harper said. “In the world that we’re in right now, what causes that paralysis is that there is good on both sides of a lot of things and there’s disaster on both sides.” 

Moland highlighted scenes from the show that were ethically polarizing yet supportive of plot and character development. 

“If you want to be a virtuous person,” Moland said, “you should be around virtuous people.” 

Though the complexity of moral philosophy found in Kant and Aristotle still puzzles Schur, he boiled the show down to its core, calling it “an argument for humanism.”  

“As long as your goal is, at all times, to think about what you’re doing, ask yourself if it’s a good thing to do, if it’s not, try to figure out a better thing to do and then do that,” Schur said. 

Schur and Harper agreed that trying is the most important thing and that apologies can go a long way. 

“When someone explains to me why they hurt my feelings and that their intention was not necessarily to do that, that they were trying to do something else, and they say they’re sorry,” Harper said.

Applause filled the room as Schur and Harper signed off, leaving fans with one more season of laughter to look forward to. 

“We don’t want to extend something just because it’s fun,” Schur said about the show’s impending finale. “The show is explicitly about not treading water.” 

Even so, cast members and fans alike will take with them the show’s unforgettable jokes and powerful ethical lessons. 

“You’re allowed to be vulnerable, you’re allowed to be ridiculous, and it’s all embraced,” Harper said. “If I could take that away from this set then it will be a much better existence.”