In its first season on air, This Is Us quickly became a fan favorite drama. The family-focused show is so popular that NBC renewed the show for its second and third seasons at the same time. But what if it were a movie, instead of a TV show?
This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman revealed to Emmy magazine that was almost the case. Apparently, he'd originally come up with the concept of the Pearson family's story as a film screenplay. Oh, and there were eight siblings, not just three (four including the baby Rebecca and Jack lost).
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"There was going to be a reveal at the end [of the movie] that they were octuplets born in the late '70s or early '80s," Fogelman told the magazine, according to People's exclusive first look at the June issue, which isn't online yet.
"The reason I was struggling with [the film] wasn't the plot; it was about these characters and how I didn't want to 'beginning-middle-and-end' them," Fogelman told Emmy magazine of This Is Us. "I wanted to do this continuous story — which felt very much like the theme of the show."
In the Emmy feature, the show's cast and crew also praised This Is Us' ability to touch on difficult and real issues.
"There will be black men my age who are very thankful for the representation, older people, younger people, gay, straight, transgender," Sterling K. Brown, who plays Randall Pearson on the show, told the magazine. "[I've had] conversations across the board, talking about how this show is something special, that it's entertainment and edification, but it's also healing in a very beautiful way at a time in our country when things seem incredibly divisive. I feel like everybody — Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives, what have you — can enjoy the subject."
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