‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ Season 3 Almost Included A Major Trump Storyline


Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt comedy hasn’t shied away from edgy, mature, or political humor in its first two seasons on the streaming service. It’s been part of the joy in having the show on Netflix rather than as a network sitcom with a home on NBC, as it was originally intentioned. In the lead up to Season 3, the writers discussed a few storylines and jokes that they just couldn’t fit in at a Tribeca Film Festival panel for the show. The lack of these stories isn’t because Netflix is limiting their freedom though, sometimes timing really is the culprit.

Since Kimmy takes place in modern-day New York — albeit a hyper-realistic version of the city — it only makes sense that they might consider addressing one of the most talked about (even if not for good reasons) New Yorkers right now. But Trump apparently only gets a mention in the first episode of the season apparently, which is disappointing but not without good reason, according to show creator Robert Carlock. At the panel Carlock spoke about the timing of the season and it’s effect saying that “one of the unfortunate things” about their shooting timeline this year was that they wrapped things up pretty much entirely before the election took place. He shared,

“We declared kind of early to ourselves in the writer’s room we didn’t feel like we could deal with this. We didn’t want to take a guess because we would have been wrong. It’s too bad because it was an election between a woman and a bully.”


That last part could have merited some hilarious references, considering what Kimmy things of bullies. But Carlock did fit enough jokes about the current President in since there was “mostly just a desire to make sure we were attacking him in some way.”

Another fun reference also got cut due to time constraints but this one was because of tricky filming schedules. Jack McBrayer, AKA Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock almost made it into an episode. Fey explained,
“I said, ‘Would you want to come down and just put on your weird ’70s suit like you’re still the president of NBC and just walk through the shot?’ He had like a 30 minute break from this play and he came down and got all suited up and we just didn’t get it in time.”

We can’t always get what we want, but that would have been a great appearance. And one that would have further contributed to the “Kenneth is immortal” running joke.

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