Nearly five years have passed since Andy Samberg's Brooklyn Nine-Nine wrapped on NBC, but the beloved comedy never stays out of public consciousness for too long, and not just because of its availability with a Netflix subscription and Peacock subscription. The iconic "I Want It That Way" cold open from Season 5, in which Det. Peralta turns a suspect lineup into a boy band experience, still goes viral from time to time. Now, nearly a decade after the Backstreet Boys-inspired scene first aired, B99 writer Lang Fisher opened up about starting episodes on laughs.
The cold open in question popped back up on my X feed recently after the debut of the Backstreet Boys' Super Bowl commercial, with the T-Mobile version of "I Want It That Way" already accumulating more than 7 million views on YouTube alone. Whenever BSB go viral for something, it's all but guaranteed that the Brooklyn Nine-Nine Season 5 clip will start circulating again. I spoke with Lang Fisher, who was a producer and writer across Seasons 4 - 6, at SCAD TVfest, and she weighed in on the cold open that just won't quit:
I mean, that was a really classic and wonderful cold open. Writing those cold opens for Brooklyn Nine-Nine was really a joy, and it was like its own extra job. We had a board of cold open ideas. But it's always nice when you work on a show and things resonate after a while and people still find things funny. That show was also such a lovely cast and such a wonderful show to work on. It makes me really happy that it's still hitting.
While Lang Fisher didn't write the specific episode that featured the BSB cold open, she's certainly qualified to talk about the importance of cold opens on Brooklyn Nine-Nine during that era. Later going on to co-create Never Have I Ever with Mindy Kaling and The Four Seasons with Tina Fey, Fisher has stayed in the realm of comedy and delivering laughs.
And if you're in the mood for a laugh right now, you can always revisit Episode 19 of Season 5, called "DFW," streaming on Netflix and/or Peacock, or just check out the lineup of suspects singing their best Backstreet Boys on Brooklyn Nine-Nine below:
In case you have any doubts about how popular this clip is eight years after it aired and six years after the show ended, know that the above video has 44 million views on YouTube and is the #1 most-watched video on the official Brooklyn Nine-Nine page by far. The runner up at #2? The exact same clip with just a couple of seconds shaved off, with 22 million views. The Backstreet Boys themselves were even brought into the joke, reenacting the scene on TikTok:
Brooklyn Nine-Nine ranks as one of the best sitcoms in NBC history for a good reason! Of course, the show actually started out on Fox, with the first five seasons airing on that network before being cancelled in 2018. NBC then rescued the sitcom, bringing star Andy Samberg back to the network where he'd spent all of his Saturday Night Live days. Lang Fisher was involved in the show on both networks.
She's busy elsewhere than network television nowadays, with a second season of The Four Seasons on the way to Netflix. It remains to be seen if Steve Carrell will return after how Season 1 ended, but Tina Fey, Will Forte, Colman DOmingo, Marco Calvani, Erika Henningsen, and Kerri Kenney-Silver are expected to return. The new season will arrive at some point in 2026. In the meantime, you can always go back to the days of Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
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