Was originally supposed to be a mid season replacement on NBC for the 2014-2015 season. Netflix picked it up with a two-season commitment after NBC dropped it.
Before he came to Hollywood, Jon Hamm (Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne) was a high school drama teacher at the John Burroughs School in Ladue, Missouri. One of his drama students was Ellie Kemper, who plays Kimmy.
The first seven episodes of the series were edited with the assumption they would be aired on NBC and adhered to a twenty-two-minute time limit and included transitions for commercials. After the show was acquired by Netflix, the episodes were re-edited to remove commercial transitions, and jokes that were previously omitted due to running time constraints were reinserted.
Tina Fey wrote the role of Jacqueline with Jane Krakowski in mind. The character actually wasn't featured in the original version of the pilot. Her scenes were written, filmed later and edited in after the episode was completed.