‘Harlem’ Creator Reveals Changed Storylines and How the Show Wouldn’t Have Existed Without Amy Poehler
[This story contains spoilers from the Harlem season three finale.]
After three seasons, Harlem has wrapped in a nice neat bow of a series finale, something creator Tracy Oliver was adamant about when she learned her Prime Video comedy was being canceled.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
“I don’t want to be one of those shows where — because I’ve been that viewer — you’re like, ‘you’re just going to end like that?’” she tells The Hollywood Reporter in the conversation below.
Giving audiences a satisfying conclusion to the series that centered around the lives of four friends — played by Meagan Good, Jerrie Johnson, Shoniqua Shandai and Grace Byers — in the New York City neighborhood it’s named after required Oliver and the rest of her writing team to make a complete pivot halfway through the scripting process. That included, Oliver reveals, swapping the original character she planned to go through a motherhood journey in season three for Camille (Good) to give her and her longtime on-again off-again boyfriend Ian (Tyler Lepley) the happy ending she saw from the outset.
In the chat below, Oliver shares the details of the original storyline she had in mind and her plans to bring the fictional Girls Trip musical Angie (Shandai) starred in on the show, based on her box office-topping 2017 comedy, to fruition in real life. She also praises executive producer Amy Poehler for Harlem‘s existence and expresses hope the show finds a new home on another network.
***
Audiences were very surprised to find out this was the third and final season of Harlem. Why are you ending now?
Well, if it were up to me, I would do at least one more season. But it wasn’t up to me, so we are doing three seasons. I was given a heads up midway through the writers room that this was 90 percent likely going to be the last season. When I learned that, I literally gutted the entire season that we had planned out and started from scratch, which was very stressful. I don’t want to be one of those shows where — because I’ve been that viewer — you’re like, “you’re just going to end like that?” And that’s how I was planning to end season three with this crazy cliff. You would have been really mad, I’m telling you, if we had ended the way I originally planned.
What were the storylines you had in mind for the characters that you ultimately didn’t get to do?
One of the stories in season three that we scrapped was Quinn (Byers) actually being the one to get pregnant and have a baby. We did a kind of blended family plot that started as a single mom by choice storyline, then met the partner and kind of back-doored into a family situation, which I’m seeing a lot in real life now. People just decide, “well, I’m not going to wait for someone else to choose me, I’m just going to do this,” and then somehow that manifests itself into a partnership in some unexpected way.
What did changing the motherhood journey to Camille’s character allow you to accomplish?
There was a lot that came up through Camille. The issues of fertility, her being told she had a diminished reserve and it was probably not going to happen for her, and then it does end up happening. We’d heard of that story, against the odds people end up conceiving. Sometimes you even do IVF, it doesn’t work, and then you count yourself out and it happens. Or there are women in their 40s who find themselves pregnant. These are all against-the-odds stories, but it does happen. So with Camille, I was like, “Let’s give her this story that she never saw coming. Let’s do the against-the-odds storyline and see what happens when we go down that path.” What I loved about it, the romantic in me, is that this crazy story got her the love story.
Ian and Camille ending up together, was that always the plan?
I knew I wanted them to end up together, but I never — if you had told me in season one that she was going to have a kid and be a single mom and that’s how we were doing it, I would have been like, “Why would we?” I never predicted going down that path.
Angie, on the other hand, didn’t get her romantic happily ever after.
That was a debate for me. I could give her this amazing love story, but then when I go back and look at Angie in season one, she’s an artist. She’s most excited about her career. Her wish fulfillment storyline is making it as an artist. Finally being able to support herself and knowing that she’s good enough, and that she had what it took to succeed. That’s the most fulfilling Angie storyline, not the wedding. I didn’t want to do the wedding, because that isn’t everybody’s story either. I still think it’s going to happen for her. I still think she’s going to meet that person. It’s just not going to happen all together— and he wasn’t the right guy. I felt great about her arc because that’s where she started. She started broke and then at the end has a secure path and a job that’s going to springboard her to something great, and I love that.
Is Girls Trip the musical something you’re going to explore in real life?
It is now. It was a complete joke in the beginning. I was like, “This is so dumb that we’re doing this. I cannot believe we’re doing this dumb musical.” When I wrote “Drugs in My Booty” and sent it to an actual Broadway songwriter, I was like, “How embarrassing?” But he was like, “This is hilarious. I’m going to have fun with it.” Suddenly it just took on this life and became interesting to me. Malcolm Lee, who directed Girls Trip, I asked him to do a cameo in the show, so he’s on set and he’s watching our fake musical production, and he’s like, “Tracy, this is actually good. This turned out better than you sold it to me on the phone.” I was like, “I agree. I didn’t know it was going to be good.” So now we’re talking about it.
Is there a chance another network or streamer might pick up Harlem?
I hope so. I would love to see it have a second life on Netflix or something.
What was it like working with Amy Poehler as one of the executive producers of this series for the past four years?
What I will say about Amy Poehler is that this show would not exist without her. I will love her forever because I wrote Harlem as a spec, which is to say I wrote it for free, and it was sent to her company as a writing sample. They were looking to hire a writer for a different project and my agent was like, “I’m going to send this to her as a sample that you can do something else,” and then her exec was like, “I actually love this. I’m going to pass this to Amy.” Amy read it and was like, “Well, why are we not doing this show?” So then I get a call that they want to sit down with me and I thought it was going to be her exec, and it was Amy herself.
I’m a comedy girl, so, SNL… she’s a legend to me. Amy Poehler was just sitting there like, “Hey, girl,” and then she said to me, “Why hasn’t this been made?” I said, “Well, they said there was no audience for it.” This is before Girls Trip came out, so I want to be clear that Amy had the vision before then. She said, “Well, I want to help you get this made because you need to have this on the air. I love this.” She championed it and then three weeks later, Girls Trip comes out and kills, so then Amy was like, “Let’s go sell this thing.” She attached herself to it, vouched for me way before Girls Trip and I am forever grateful to her.
Speaking of Girls Trip, where do things stand with the sequel?
I’m working on the Girls Trip 2 script and The Blackening 2 script. I’m excited about both of those.
***
All three seasons of Harlem are currently streaming on Prime Video.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
Sign up for THR's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
