On Oct. 22, “Parks and Recreation” producer and “Brooklyn 99” co-creator Dan Goor encouraged students to “do something that interests [them]” rather than corporate recruiting in an event at the Rockefeller Center for Public Policy.
Goor, who wrote and produced “Brooklyn 99” and “Parks and Recreation,” was joined by government professor Russell Muirhead and Tuck professor Charlie Wheelan for a conversation on the television industry, the state of late-night comedy and students’ career decisions.
The event, entitled “The Correct Answer to Absolutely Everything — An Evening with a Comedy Writer,” had 120 in-person and 200 virtual attendees, according to Madison Piel, the Rockefeller Center’s public programs officer.
Goor — who studied biochemistry at Harvard University — also pursued theater and improvisation comedy as an undergraduate.
“My goal was to be the funniest person at the college,” Goor said.
Muirhead, who was a doctoral student at Harvard when Goor was an undergraduate there, joked at the event that he “can’t remember” if Goor was funny then.
Goor said that his career in professional comedy began unexpectedly when, four weeks before he was supposed to start medical school, he and a friend submitted a manuscript to “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and landed a writing job.
“I was 23 years old and I don’t think I realized how crazy it was that that had happened,” Goor said.
Goor later went on to work at “Last Call with Carson Daly” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” He earned Emmys for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for “The Daily Show” and “Conan.”
In 2005, Goor pivoted to sitcoms, starting as a writer for “The Office” before working as a writer, producer and director on “Parks and Recreation.” After the show ended, Goor and “Parks” collaborator Michael Schur created “Brooklyn 99” in 2013.
The eight years of Brooklyn 99’s run were the “best” of Goor’s life, he said. Since then, he has produced “Grand Crew,” co-created “Killing It” and developed a show with a pilot “likely” to be shot in March.
In an interview with The Dartmouth after the event, Goor expressed concern about late night’s ability to “thrive.”
“Late night is having trouble competing with [TikTok and YouTube],” Goor said. “They are constant, they’re immediate, they get to come out first and they’re fed to you by the algorithm.”
The television industry more broadly is also going through a “tough time” due to the “algorithmization of life,” Goor said at the event.
“The biggest hit comedies are not comedies at all,” he said.
Streaming services have replaced “hang-out shows” — where you watch the next episode because “want to spend more time” with the characters — with shows that revolve around “propulsive plot engines,” according to Goor.
An added challenge is that some streaming services do not publish the numbers of viewers, making it harder to gauge shows’ popularity, according to Goor. For example, Gour said that only when “Brooklyn 99” was cancelled in 2021 did he see the “huge outpouring” of fans.
Goor ended the talk with a message for college students: “follow your dreams for as long as you can.”
“There is so much pressure now to do corporate recruiting or to become a doctor,” he said. “When we were in college, there was a notion that you should do something that interests you and do something that you love and that you will still be qualified to do something like go to law school.”
The message struck a chord with students making career-related decisions.
Sophie Cohen ’26, a member of Dartmouth’s Can’t Sell Culture comedy group, said she found Goor’s advice to continue pursuing comedy “whether or not it seems like a clear path” to be “really helpful.”
“A lot of people have said much more discouraging things based on the state of the current industry,” Cohen added.
Sara Shelton ’26 said events this term — including both the Goor event and a talk by comedian alumni at the Hopkins Center for the Arts’ reopening — have caused her to more seriously consider comedy as a career option.
“I wouldn’t have said that a month ago,” Shelton said.
