Thursday, March 28, 2024

Craig Robinson Rewrites His History for New NBC Comedy

Peri Gilpin and Craig Robinson attend the NBC's 2015 New York Summer Press Day.
Peri Gilpin and Craig Robinson attend the NBC’s 2015 New York Summer Press Day.

*Comedian Craig Robinson stars as the title character in the delightful new NBC comedy “Mr. Robinson.” The series is inspired by Robinson’s time working as a music teacher in the Chicago public school system, at the start of his standup and music careers.

Craig is best known for his role as Dunder Mifflin employee Darryl Philbin on NBC’s Emmy Award-winning series “The Office.” His success with “The Office” led to roles in comedies such “Pineapple Express,”  “Hot Tub Time Machine,” “This Is the End” and “Peeples,” co-starring Kerry Washington.

Craig chatted with EURweb recently about his new series, which co-stars Meagan Good as his love interest, and he told us that he credits writers/executive producers the Cullen brothers for not only giving him his first role, on a series called “Lucky” which aired on FX, but they also reformatted “Mr. Robinson” after an initial pilot was shot – reworking it to play up Robinson’s strengths performing live as a stand-up comic. As Craig said, the “craziest dudes in Hollywood switched it up to multi-cam, and it is what you have before you today.”

The name of the club in the series is called Flo Jack’s, in honor of Craig’s real life mother and father. “My brother is in my band, in real life, and he’s on stage with me under Nasty Delicious, he’s playing the bass behind me,” Craig said. We asked what other aspects of his personal life are incorporated into the show:

Craig: It’s close to my life in these ways: I am from Chicago. I am a musician. I have a band. My band is called the Nasty Delicious. I did teach at a school in Chicago. And of course, Meagan Good is on the show and I have a crush on Meagan Good. But the writers created the world that you have on “Mr. Robinson.”

Your character’s personality, his weaknesses seem to be music and Victoria (Meagan Good). What are his strengths?

Craig: Well, that’s exactly right. Surprisingly, he cares more about these kids than he thought. He was viewing teaching as a means to an end but once he got into the music part of it, and fell in love with the kids, and the staff is quirky but cool, he cares.

Principal Taylor (Peri Gilpin) is the funniest female television character to come along in quite a while. Tell us about the inspiration behind her.

Craig: This is the Cullen brothers at their finest. She has that dichotomy to where she’s battling within, and nobody knows what she’s battling. Then here I come and she sees me as a threat but she also sees me as somebody that the kids look up to, so she knows I’m an asset. She’s a reformed party girl tuned principal.

You’re an actor, stand-up comedian, and musician. Any personal ambitions yet unattained?

Craig: I appreciate your words but I have a long way to go. I have this gift for bringing people together. I’d like to see people come together because there’s a lot of stuff out there that’s trying to separate us. I’d also like to cut an album, do some more shows, learn some more languages.

What kind of advice do you give aspiring comedians?

Craig: I’m sure it’s cliche at this point but – Be. Your. Self. You’re the only one of you that we got so let’s see who that is.

Craig will star in his first romantic drama titled “Morris from America,” slated for a 2016 release. In the meantime, check out “Mr. Robinson” airing Wednesday August 12 at 9/8c on NBC.

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