97 Fun Facts About Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Which two writers, who had worked together on Parks and Recreation, created Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Dan Goor and Michael Schur created the show in 2013; the two had been Harvard classmates and both wrote for Parks and Recreation before pitching a police-station comedy.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine aired its first five seasons on which network?

Fox aired seasons one through five, from the September 2013 premiere until the show's cancellation in May 2018.

Who plays the stern, deadpan Captain Raymond Holt?

Andre Braugher played Captain Raymond Holt from the 2013 pilot to the 2021 finale, earning Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Which mobile game does Captain Holt become addicted to in season one?

Kwazy Cupcakes, a match-three phone game, hooks the normally unflappable Holt in the season-one episode 'Tactical Village', where the squad catches him playing it obsessively.

What is the name of Holt and Kevin's beloved corgi?

Cheddar is Holt and Kevin's corgi, a regular since season one; the series finale reveals Holt's secret tattoo to be Kevin's head on Cheddar's body.

Kevin Cozner, Holt's husband, is a professor of what at Columbia University?

Kevin teaches Classics at Columbia University, where he chairs the department; he is played by Marc Evan Jackson, who also played Shawn on The Good Place.

What is the name of Jake and Amy's son, born at the end of season 7?

Mac, short for McClane, is Jake and Amy's son, born in the season 7 finale 'Lights Out' during a citywide blackout in New York.

Jake constantly quotes which action film, and even names his son after its hero?

Die Hard, the 1988 Bruce Willis thriller, is Jake's all-time favourite film; he quotes it constantly and dreams of living out its Nakatomi Plaza scenario.

Which crook, played by Craig Robinson, steals only Pontiacs and keeps escaping Jake?

Doug Judy, the Pontiac Bandit, first appears in season one posing as an informant on the Bandit before revealing he is the car thief himself and slipping away.

Which cop, nicknamed 'The Vulture', is notorious for swooping in on nearly solved cases?

Keith Pembroke, 'The Vulture', is played by Dean Winters; he first swoops in during season one, snatching a murder case the squad had all but closed.

Which actress plays Madeline Wuntch, Holt's despised long-time rival in the NYPD hierarchy?

Wuntch and Holt were once partners and friends; she once banished him to run the NYPD Public Affairs Division to humiliate him.

Jake and Holt hide from Jimmy 'The Butcher' Figgis in witness protection in which state?

Florida is where Jake and Holt spend six months hiding in the town of Coral Palms; once the squad takes Figgis down, the whole precinct is punished with the night shift.

Which unhinged former undercover detective, played by Jason Mantzoukas, gets engaged to Rosa?

He had spent 12 years undercover inside Figgis's organisation, and the wedding was derailed when he had to fake his own death.

Terry's twin daughters are named after which classic TV cop duo?

Cagney and Lacey, the long-running CBS series about two female NYPD detectives, inspired the names of his twin girls; a third daughter, Ava, arrives in season three.

Terry famously refers to himself in the third person and declares his love for which food?

Yogurt is the food: his third-person declaration that he 'loves yogurt' became a season-one catchphrase, and he is forever eating it at his desk.

What is the name of the Latvian boy Charles Boyle and Genevieve adopt?

Nikolaj is the Latvian boy Charles and Genevieve adopt in season three; Charles's fussy pronunciation of the name, which no one else can match, is a running gag.

Gina Linetti has a child, Enigma ('Iggy'), with a member of which colleague's family?

Iggy's father is Charles Boyle's cousin Milton Boyle, played by Ryan Phillippe; Gina's maternity leave in season five was written around Chelsea Peretti's real pregnancy.

Which musician plays Marcus, Holt's nephew, who dates Rosa in season 2?

Nick Cannon plays Marcus, Holt's nephew, whom Rosa dates in season two; the rapper and TV host is best known for hosting The Masked Singer.

In which annual event do the detectives compete for the title of 'Amazing Detective/Genius'?

The Halloween heist began in season one when Jake bet Holt he could steal his Medal of Valor; the winner is crowned 'Amazing Detective/Genius'.

Which season-five episode ends with Jake proposing to Amy in the evidence lockup?

HalloVeen, the fourth episode of season five, ends with Jake having the champion's belt re-engraved with a proposal; Amy says yes, and the squad erupts.

Which real Brooklyn precinct's building was used for the exterior of the fictional Nine-Nine?

The 78th Precinct's station house on Sixth Avenue in Park Slope supplies the exterior shots; the NYPD's Brooklyn precincts are numbered only from the 60th to the 94th.

Where was Brooklyn Nine-Nine actually filmed?

CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles housed the precinct sets throughout the run; the show shot on the Studio City lot, using New York only for establishing shots.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine's first season won which major award for Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy?

The Golden Globe for Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy went to the show in January 2014, the same night Andy Samberg won Best Actor in a TV comedy.

For its LGBTQ+ portrayals, the show won which organisation's 2018 award for Outstanding Comedy Series?

GLAAD gave the show its 2018 Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, recognising Holt's marriage to Kevin and Rosa's coming out as bisexual in season five.

Before Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Andy Samberg was a cast member of which show from 2005 to 2012?

Saturday Night Live employed Samberg from 2005 to 2012, where he and Lonely Island partners Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone popularised Digital Shorts such as 'Lazy Sunday'.

Terry Crews played which position in the NFL before acting?

Defensive end and linebacker were Crews's NFL positions; drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in 1991, he also played for the Chargers and Washington before acting.

The actor who plays Holt earlier starred as Detective Frank Pembleton in which 1990s police drama?

Homicide: Life on the Street, set in Baltimore, ran from 1993 to 1999; the Frank Pembleton role won its star the 1998 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

Stephanie Beatriz, who plays Rosa, voiced which lead character in Disney's Encanto?

Mirabel Madrigal, the only Madrigal without a magical gift, is voiced by Beatriz in Encanto (2021); she also played Carla in the film of In the Heights.

Melissa Fumero, who plays Amy, made her professional debut on which soap opera?

One Life to Live gave Fumero her first professional role, Adriana Cramer, which she played from 2004 to 2011 before moving into primetime comedy.

Joe Lo Truglio, who plays Boyle, was a cast member of which 1990s sketch comedy troupe and MTV series?

The State, the sketch troupe whose MTV series ran from 1993 to 1995, counted Lo Truglio among its eleven members alongside Michael Ian Black and Ken Marino.

Terry Crews played the dad, Julius Rock, in which earlier sitcom?

Everybody Hates Chris ran from 2005 to 2009 with Crews as the strict, penny-pinching father Julius; he voiced the role again in the 2024 animated revival.

Scully and his best friend, the precinct's lazy ageing detectives, peaked in which decade?

The 1980s were their heyday: a season-six flashback to 1986 shows Scully and his partner as fit, sharp hotshots before decades of decline at their desks.

In the pilot, Terry explains Amy's competitiveness to Holt by noting she grew up with how many brothers?

Seven brothers, the sergeant tells Holt in the pilot, left Amy always trying to prove she is tough; that drive fuels her lifelong need to impress authority figures.

Rosa was expelled from a prestigious academy for which discipline after fighting her classmates?

Ballet was her training: Rosa spent years at a ballet academy before being expelled for beating up ballerinas, a backstory revealed in season one.

Which West Wing actor plays Jake's absentee father, airline pilot Roger Peralta?

Bradley Whitford, Josh Lyman on The West Wing, plays Roger Peralta, the pilot who abandoned Jake as a boy; Katey Sagal plays Jake's mother Karen.

Boyle wins the Medal for Valor for taking a bullet for Rosa, but is overshadowed by a heroic NYPD what?

Horse: Sergeant Peanut Butter, an NYPD police horse, steals Boyle's spotlight and becomes his nemesis until Boyle must ride him in the season 7 finale.

In the series finale, who becomes captain of the Nine-Nine?

Terry takes command of the Nine-Nine in the finale, after Holt is promoted to deputy commissioner and Amy becomes the chief running their police reform programme.

At the end of season 4, Jake and Rosa are framed for armed robbery by which idolised lieutenant?

Melanie Hawkins, the corrupt lieutenant played by Gina Gershon, frames Jake and Rosa; they serve time at the start of season five until the squad proves her guilt.

A French-Canadian adaptation of the show launched on Club Illico in 2020 under what title?

Escouade 99 is the Quebec remake, shot in French; it premiered on Quebecor's streaming service Club Illico in 2020 and drew criticism for casting white actors in roles that were Latina in the original.

How many episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine were made across its eight seasons?

153 episodes were made in all, from the September 2013 pilot to the two-part finale 'The Last Day' on 16 September 2021.

Which earlier sitcom did the creators feel had last made good use of a police-station setting?

Barney Miller, the ABC sitcom set in a Greenwich Village squad room from 1975 to 1982, was the creators' touchstone for a workplace comedy inside a police station.

What is the name of Gina Linetti's dance troupe?

Floorgasm is Gina's amateur dance troupe, a running gag she promotes to anyone who will listen and whose routines she uses to assert her status as the precinct's star.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine and New Girl formed the lead-out hour after which NFL title game?

Super Bowl XLVIII, played on 2 February 2014 at MetLife Stadium, was followed by a special hour of New Girl and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

How many 'ready to go' season-eight episodes did Dan Goor scrap after the murder of George Floyd?

Terry Crews said the season's direction was being reworked; it also incorporated the COVID-19 pandemic.

How many episodes made up the final, eighth season?

10 episodes made up the final season, which premiered on 12 August 2021 and closed with the two-part finale 'The Last Day' on 16 September 2021.

Rosa Diaz came out as bisexual in which pair of milestone episodes?

The 99th and 100th episodes, '99' and 'Game Night' in season five, carry Rosa's coming out, first to Boyle and then to the squad and her parents.

Which actor plays the perpetually hungry detective Norm Scully?

Joel McKinnon Miller plays Scully from the 2013 pilot to the 2021 finale; he had earlier been a regular as Don Embry on HBO's Big Love.

In a celebrated Brooklyn Nine-Nine cold open, Jake Peralta has a police line-up sing which Backstreet Boys hit?

I Want It That Way is sung by five suspects so a murder victim's sister can pick out her brother's killer. The Backstreet Boys later filmed their own version of the scene.

Which Broadway star guest-stars in Brooklyn Nine-Nine as Amy Santiago's golden-child brother, Lieutenant David?

Lin-Manuel Miranda plays Lieutenant David Santiago, whose spotless record makes Amy seethe. The siblings join forces when Brazilian criminals try to frame him for drug abuse.

Which famous science broadcaster plays himself in Brooklyn Nine-Nine as a friend from Sergeant Jeffords' gym?

Neil deGrasse Tyson drops by the precinct to help Gina Linetti cram for an astronomy test. Jeffords knows the astrophysicist simply as a workout partner.

In the series finale of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, why does Jake Peralta announce he is leaving the NYPD?

To raise his son full-time, Jake gives up the badge so Amy can take on her demanding new post. He refuses to repeat the absences of the father who walked out on him.

Which sitcom star's character has her car commandeered by Jake Peralta in a Brooklyn Nine-Nine crossover episode?

Zooey Deschanel turns up as New Girl's Jess Day, who is visiting New York when Jake takes her car to chase a suspect. He promptly crashes it into a newspaper stand.

In the Brooklyn Nine-Nine pilot, Captain Holt's first clash with Jake Peralta is an order to wear what?

A necktie is the battleground: Jake mocks the order until he grasps that Holt sees it as a sign of belonging to a team.

Which Brooklyn Nine-Nine co-star went to elementary school with Andy Samberg, mirroring their characters' shared past?

Chelsea Peretti shared a school with Samberg decades before she played Gina Linetti, the friend Jake has known since childhood. In the story, Jake is the one who got Gina her job at the precinct.

Which movie comedian plays himself in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, trading insults with an undercover Jake Peralta at an auction?

Adam Sandler had played Andy Samberg's father in the 2012 comedy That's My Boy. Former quarterback Joe Theismann also appears as himself and has his leg accidentally broken by Jake.

Which actor earned an Emmy nomination as the dentist grilled all night in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode 'The Box'?

Sterling K. Brown plays a murder suspect with an answer for everything. The bottle episode barely leaves the interrogation room, pitting the three men against each other until Jake finds a way to crack him.

What hits Gina Linetti in Brooklyn Nine-Nine moments after she finally praises a text message from Charles Boyle?

A bus mows her down mid-sentence, soon after she had said she would rather be hit by one than get another of his texts. She spends the next few episodes recovering.

Which veteran screen tough guy plays Oscar, the intimidating schoolteacher father of Rosa Diaz in Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Danny Trejo plays Oscar Diaz, who takes it badly when Rosa comes out as bisexual but soon tells her he accepts her. Her mother needs rather longer.

Which actress plays Sophia Perez, the defence attorney Jake Peralta dates in the second season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Eva Longoria plays Sophia, who has a fling with Jake before he learns she is defending a man he arrested. She ends the romance after he arrests her boss for cocaine possession.

Norm Scully of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, who also speaks fluent French, has a surprising talent for which kind of singing?

Opera is his hidden gift: the slovenly detective is a fine tenor, one of several talents nobody expects from him. He can also read Morse code and piece shredded documents back together.

Food-obsessed Brooklyn Nine-Nine detective Charles Boyle sends out a weekly email ranking which Brooklyn staple?

Pizza is his specialist subject, though his tastes more often run to bizarre foreign dishes that revolt the rest of the squad.

What forces Jake Peralta and Amy Santiago to marry outside the precinct in Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fifth-season finale?

A bomb threat clears their venue, and the culprit proves to be a criminal Amy once arrested. Charles Boyle rescues the day by staging the ceremony right outside the station.

What strikes Brooklyn just as Amy Santiago goes into labour in the seventh-season finale of Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

A blackout traps Captain Holt and Jeffords in a lift, so Amy runs the emergency response until her waters break. She gives birth in the precinct itself.

Which comedian plays Seth Dozerman, the Brooklyn Nine-Nine captain who drops dead after catching Jake and Amy kissing?

Bill Hader lasts two days as the efficiency-obsessed Dozerman, whose weak heart gives out when he catches the pair kissing. His death exposes their new romance to the whole squad.

Which sitcom veteran plays Karen Peralta, the art teacher who raised Jake alone, in Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Katey Sagal plays Karen, who horrifies her son by getting back together with Roger, the husband who walked out on them both.

On which holiday is Ava, the third daughter of Sergeant Jeffords, born in season three of Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Thanksgiving is her birthday: Jake is minding Jeffords' pregnant wife Sharon when her waters break. He ends up as the baby's godfather.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine guest stars Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone are Andy Samberg's partners in which comedy group?

The Lonely Island trio met at junior high in Berkeley, California. Its other two members both directed episodes of the police sitcom as well as appearing on screen.

Which actor from The Good Place plays Kevin Cozner, Captain Holt's equally deadpan husband, in Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Marc Evan Jackson plays Kevin, an academic as stiff and formal as his husband. The couple's pet names for each other are simply their full professional titles.

Which star of a 1990s New York cop drama plays Amy Santiago's father Victor, a retired policeman, in Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Jimmy Smits, once Bobby Simone of NYPD Blue, plays a father as fond of binders as Amy is. He disapproves of Jake until the two crack one of his old unsolved cases together.

Which Parks and Recreation star plays Captain Holt's ex-boyfriend Frederick, a gynaecologist, in Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Nick Offerman plays the ex whom Holt lost by hurling his duck ornament off the Brooklyn Bridge. Holt must finally confess to it when the squad needs a doctor to help deliver a baby.

Which comic actress plays Karen Haas, the U.S. Marshal guarding Jake and Holt in hiding, in Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Maya Rudolph plays the marshal, the pair's only link to their old lives during six months under assumed names. The mobster they are hiding from later captures her.

Which NFL running back plays himself in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, as a useless witness to a prison van escape?

Marshawn Lynch somehow fails to notice nine convicts escaping right beside him. Jake and Amy then turn the manhunt into a wager over whose apartment they will share.

At the end of season one of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Jake Peralta is publicly fired so he can secretly infiltrate what?

A Mafia clan, the Ianuccis, is the target: the sacking is staged so Jake can work undercover for the FBI. Before leaving, he blurts out his feelings for Amy.

In the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode 'The Bet', what must Amy Santiago do once Jake Peralta makes more arrests than her?

Go on a date with him, on his terms: Jake plans 'the worst date ever' and gets to make every decision until midnight. A stakeout cuts it short and leaves him seeing Amy differently.

Which illness forces Jake Peralta and Captain Holt into nine days of shared quarantine in Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Mumps strikes them both mid-investigation, so they carry on working the case from Holt's house. Jake had only suggested the cold case to keep his captain company while Kevin was abroad.

In Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Charles Boyle's engagement to food writer Vivian Ludley ends when he refuses to move where?

Canada is the sticking point: the pair had become engaged within weeks of meeting at Captain Holt's birthday party, and Boyle will not leave New York.

After quitting the NYPD before the final season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Rosa Diaz takes up which line of work?

Private investigator is her new trade: having lost faith in the system after the George Floyd protests, she helps victims of police misconduct.

Which actor, also Mayhem in a long-running series of insurance adverts, plays the Vulture in Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Dean Winters plays the smug Major Crimes detective who swoops on nearly solved cases and takes the glory. He later commands the Nine-Nine for a spell and steals Jake and Amy's wedding venue.

Which real TV crime-drama actor plays the star of fictional cop show Serve & Protect in Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Nathan Fillion, best known as the crime-solving novelist of Castle, plays an actor who starts behaving like a real detective when a laptop vanishes from the set. He turns out to be the thief.

Which future action-series lead plays a young, muscular Norm Scully in a Brooklyn Nine-Nine flashback episode?

Alan Ritchson, later the towering hero of Reacher, shows Scully as a chiselled hotshot detective. The flashback reveals that he and his partner were once the precinct's finest.

Which classic muscle car did Jake Peralta of Brooklyn Nine-Nine buy outright on his very first day as a cop?

Ford Mustang, a 1967 model, is the car Jake dotes on. He eventually sells it to repay a debt to Jeffords.

Which top NYPD job does Captain Holt campaign for through season five of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, only to lose out?

Commissioner is the post he craves, and he reads the result by email at Jake and Amy's wedding party with a face nobody can decipher. The job has gone to his rival John Kelly.

After learning he made detective too soon, Madeline Wuntch demotes Captain Holt to which job in Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Patrol officer is where she sends him: Holt had spent only a month in uniform before his promotion, so his old rival makes him serve the missing time on the beat.

In a Brooklyn Nine-Nine flashback, which food sends the careers and physiques of Scully and his partner downhill?

Buffalo wings at a restaurant called Wing Slutz did the damage. The pair kept going back partly to watch over its manager, secretly an informant they were protecting.

The One Thing, the food truck Charles Boyle launches in season five of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, specialises in which item?

Meatball subs are the one thing on the menu. A former employee burns the truck down, to Boyle's relief: the business was swallowing his time at home and running up debt.

Which punishment does the Brooklyn Nine-Nine squad receive for defying orders to help capture the mob boss Figgis?

The night shift is their penalty, announced by stand-in captain C.J. Stentley. They return to days only when his incompetence gets him removed from the precinct.

The two creators of Brooklyn Nine-Nine first met years earlier as students at which Ivy League university?

Harvard is where the pair met, long before they wrote together on Parks and Recreation. They chose a police station for their next comedy because so few sitcoms had used one.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine won only two Emmys across its whole run, both in which behind-the-scenes category?

Stunt coordination brought both statuettes, won by Norman Howell in 2014 and 2015. None of the cast's Emmy nominations for acting ever became a win.

Which directing duo, fresh from the cop comedy 21 Jump Street, directed the pilot episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine?

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directed and executive-produced the first episode. Their Lego Movie reached cinemas a few months after the sitcom began.

Stephanie Beatriz, who plays Rosa Diaz in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, was born in which South American country?

Argentina, in the city of Neuquén, is her birthplace: she is the daughter of a Colombian father and a Bolivian mother. She moved to the United States with her parents at the age of two.

Which Brooklyn Nine-Nine cast member is the son of the actor who played Hoss Cartwright in the western Bonanza?

Dirk Blocker, who plays Scully's equally idle partner, is the son of Dan Blocker. His father played Hoss in more than 400 episodes of the western.

Which serial killer does Jake Peralta finally catch in season three of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, then give away the credit?

The Oolong Slayer had eluded police for a decade. Jake lets a police chief take the glory for the arrest in exchange for Captain Holt's return to the precinct.

Hiding in witness protection under the name Greg, Captain Holt of Brooklyn Nine-Nine works at which kind of business?

A family fun center called the Fun Zone employs him. The dignified captain covets its assistant manager's job, only for Jake to join the staff and be handed it.

In the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode 'Moo Moo', what has Jeffords gone out to find when a fellow cop stops him?

His daughter's blanket, nicknamed Moo Moo, has fallen from the car, and he is almost arrested near his own home after finding it. He files a complaint despite the risk to his career.

After passing the lieutenant's exam in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Jeffords faces a transfer to which part of New York City?

Staten Island looms because the Nine-Nine cannot afford a lieutenant's salary. Wuntch, of all people, fixes the budget so that he can stay.

The Jimmy Jab Games in Brooklyn Nine-Nine are named after Jake Peralta's mangling of which world leader's name?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came out of Jake's mouth as 'Armen Jimmy Jab', and he also believed the Iranian president was the king of Iraq. The contest fills a dull wait for a motorcade.

What is the title of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's two-part series finale, in which the squad says goodbye to the precinct?

'The Last Day' aired as a double episode in September 2021. Its near-namesake 'The Last Ride' is a fourth-season story in which the precinct faces closure.