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 pitched their police-station comedy to the studio where Schur had a deal, but the studio's sister network let a rival channel buy the show.

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

Fox cancelled the show in May 2018 after five seasons; the outcry from fans and celebrities was so loud that a rival network revived it the very next day.

Who plays the stern, deadpan Captain Raymond Holt?

Andre Braugher played Holt in every episode from the 2013 pilot to the 2021 finale; a two-time Emmy winner for dramas, he earned four more nominations for this deadpan comedy role.

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

Kwazy Cupcakes hooks Holt after Gina introduces him to it in season one's 'Tactical Village'; he drops it on learning that Hitchcock has reached the same level.

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

Cheddar is Holt and Kevin's corgi; the series finale reveals Holt's long-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 chairs Columbia's Classics department; the squad first meets him at Holt's birthday party in season one, where Jake strains to impress him by faking an interest in The New Yorker.

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

Mac is born in the season 7 finale, 'Lights Out': Amy goes into labour at the precinct during a Brooklyn-wide blackout while Jake races across the borough to reach her in time.

Which action film does Jake Peralta quote constantly and call his favourite movie?

Die Hard is Jake's obsession; in season three's 'Yippie Kayak' he finally gets to live it out when armed robbers take hostages in a store where he is trapped after closing.

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?

Kyra Sedgwick plays Wuntch, Holt's old colleague turned rival; at the end of season two she engineers his move to the NYPD's Public Affairs Division to get him out of the Nine-Nine.

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?

Adrian Pimento returns to the Nine-Nine after 12 years undercover in Figgis's organisation; his wedding to Rosa is put off when the squad has to fake his death.

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

Cagney and Lacey, the 1980s CBS series about two women detectives in New York, gave Terry's twins their names; a third daughter, Ava, arrives on Thanksgiving in season three.

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

Yogurt it is: 'Terry loves yogurt' is the catchphrase of a muscle-bound sergeant who starts the series on desk duty, afraid that street work could leave his daughters fatherless.

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

Nikolaj is the Latvian boy Charles and Genevieve adopt in season four; the couple met when Charles and Jake cleared her name after she was framed for a crime.

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, whom Rosa starts dating in season two; she breaks it off in season three, deciding she is not ready for marriage.

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 before midnight; the stake was Holt declaring him an '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 revealing that he changed the champion's belt to read 'Amy Santiago, will you marry me?'; she says yes.

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, less than four months after its premiere; Andy Samberg won Best Actor the same night.

For its LGBTQ+ portrayals, Brooklyn Nine-Nine won which organisation's 2018 award for Outstanding Comedy Series?

GLAAD gave the show its 2018 Media Award for Outstanding Comedy Series; its commanding officer, Captain Holt, is an openly gay man whose husband is a recurring character.

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'.

Which positions did Terry Crews play in the NFL before turning to acting?

Defensive end and linebacker: Crews, an 11th-round pick of the Rams in 1991, was cut repeatedly and earned extra money painting portraits of his teammates.

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

Homicide: Life on the Street, set in Baltimore, grew out of a book by reporter David Simon, who later created The Wire; the Pembleton role won its star a 1998 Emmy.

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.

After a bomb threat ruins their wedding venue, where do Jake and Amy finally get married?

Outside the precinct: with the venue evacuated in the season-five finale, Boyle and the squad throw together a ceremony there that same night, and Holt officiates.

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

The State's eleven members wrote, directed and edited their mid-1990s MTV sketch series themselves; its alumni went on to make Reno 911! and Wet Hot American Summer.

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

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

A 1986 flashback shows which pair as the Nine-Nine's star detectives?

Hitchcock and Scully were the squad's hotshots in 1986, when they brought down a mob boss; they then quietly kept some of the seized cash for an informant who had been denied witness protection.

Which exam does Amy Santiago pass in season five, earning the promotion she has long wanted?

The sergeant's exam is Amy's hurdle in season five; she passes, and by the series finale she is chief of the city's police reform programme.

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

Ballet: Rosa attended a prestigious ballet school until she was expelled for 'beating up ballerinas', as she reveals in season one's 'Halloween'.

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 which fellow NYPD honouree upstages him?

Horse: Sergeant Peanut Butter steals Boyle's spotlight at the ceremony, and their one-sided feud lasts until Boyle needs his help to rush Jake to the precinct in the season 7 finale.

In the Brooklyn Nine-Nine finale, why does Jake Peralta leave the NYPD?

To be a stay-at-home dad: with Amy's new job leading police reform, Jake quits so that his son will not grow up with an absent father, as he did.

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.

After losing faith in policing in season eight, what does Rosa Diaz become?

A private investigator: Rosa resigns from the NYPD at the start of the final season, while the friends she leaves behind push for reform from inside.

Which network revived Brooklyn Nine-Nine a day after its 2018 cancellation?

NBC stepped in once Hulu had passed; its chairman admitted he had regretted letting the show get away to a rival when it was first sold.

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 the dance troupe Gina founded; in season two's 'Halloween II' her troupe-mates drop her, because the college classes she is secretly taking have kept her from rehearsals.

Which sitcom shared a special comedy hour with Brooklyn Nine-Nine right after the Super Bowl in 2014?

New Girl went first, with Prince as its guest star, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine followed in the hour after Super Bowl XLVIII in February 2014.

Why did Brooklyn Nine-Nine scrap four new episodes in June 2020?

George Floyd's murder and the protests that followed led the showrunner to bin four episodes that were 'all ready to go', Terry Crews said, and start the season again.

What does Jake win from Amy in season one's 'The Bet' by making more arrests?

A date with her was the stake: Jake plans the 'worst date ever', a stakeout cuts it short, and he starts to develop real feelings for his partner.

Rosa's coming out to her parents fills Brooklyn Nine-Nine's 100th episode, titled after which family ritual?

Game night is the Diaz family ritual: after her parents take the news badly, her father comes round, and the squad starts a weekly game night of its own at Rosa's apartment.

Which actor plays the perpetually hungry detective Norm Scully?

Joel McKinnon Miller studied opera at university, and the show put it to use: lazy Scully turns out to have a fine operatic tenor voice.

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.