Lisa Kudrow may be best known for playing Phoebe Buffay on Friends for ten seasons, but she has now joined a project to play a character who sounds pretty far from good old Phoebe. She'll star in a brand new pilot ordered by Amazon, called Good People, and she'll play a college ombudsman who realizes she's not quite as in touch with the younger generation as she needs to be.
In Good People, Lisa Kudrow plays Lynn Steele. A college ombudsman who has championed women throughout her whole career, she becomes seen as disconnected with the next generation of young people. Described by THR as a "tired, mercurial force of nature," Lynn works in an office featuring three generations of women.
These women work to find their way through a changing cultural climate, and discover that different generations view feminism in very different ways. They'll tackle ethics, race, sex, class, gender, and social constructs in the process of doing their jobs.
Oh, and it's a comedy. The plot may sound quite dramatic, but Lisa Kudrow will be called upon to flex her comedy muscles again. As of now, Good People has only been ordered by Amazon as a pilot, so there's no guarantee that it actually will become an ongoing series, but I can see Amazon wanting to move forward as long as it's a decent episode.
Amazon doesn't have nearly as many comedies as dramas, and a comedic genius like Lisa Kudrow could grab an audience. There's a reason why streaming outlets are so prepared to spend huge chunks of change to secure the rights to Friends. Thanks to Phoebe, Kudrow will pretty much always have fans wherever she goes.
Good People hails from creators Lee Daniels and Whitney Cummings, who created Empire and 2 Broke Girls, respectively. Cummings will join Lisa Kudrow in front of the camera as well as working behind-the-scenes on the pilot. For her part, Kudrow is also an executive producer, along with Daniels and Cummings. The two creators co-wrote the pilot, and Daniels will direct.
If Good People scores a series order and joins The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon's comedic slate, it will mark Lisa Kudrow's first series regular role since the end of Web Therapy on Showtime back in 2015. She has contributed to other shows since then, though, including Scandal, BoJack Horseman, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Grace and Frankie. Additionally, she executive produces Who Do You Think You Are?
Although she has contributed to streaming series in the past with BoJack, Kimmy Schmidt, and Grace and Frankie, Good People will take Lisa Kudrow to Amazon for the first time. The streaming game is heating up more and more in recent years, and Kudrow could be quite a big get for Amazon. Hopefully her costars on the pilot won't be as rude as one of the Friends actors was to her!
There's no news at this point of when we might learn if Amazon is going to move forward on a Good People series, but there are plenty of TV options now and in the coming weeks, despite all of the season finales airing this time of year. And if you want a Phoebe Buffay blast from the past, Netflix hasn't lost the rights to Friends yet!
