NBC’s new primetime comedy “Stumble” is a love letter to cheer. Or ought to that be “Cheer,” the hit Netflix docuseries that catapulted a sport with high-flying stunts, squad drama, bedazzled uniforms and many make-up, into the cultural zeitgeist?
For “Stumble” showrunners Liz and Jeff Astrof, it’s each. Like a lot of America, the siblings say they grew to become obsessive about the champion cheerleaders of Navarro Faculty and their no-nonsense coach Monica Aldama, whose exploits have been captured in Greg Whiteley’s two-season collection that premiered in 2020. The present broke the notion that cheerleading was merely made up of pony-tailed women waving pompoms on the sidelines, showcasing the athleticism of the game, its competitiveness and its variety — the cheerleaders, female and male, got here from various social, financial and racial backgrounds.
Jeff watched the documentary on the insistence of his sister and was shortly hooked.
“I said, ‘You know what we should do? We should do a show where Monica goes down to the worst college in America. We’ll call it ‘Stumble,’” he remembers throughout a current video name with Liz.
The concept tumbled of their heads for a time, but it surely took some time for it to raise off the bottom. Each siblings have been busy engaged on completely different TV tasks — Liz on her Fox sitcom “Pivoting,” and Jeff on his Starz horror comedy “Shining Vale” — when the 2023 Hollywood strikes hit. However the timing allowed them to consider “Stumble” once more.
“That’s when I really dug in,” Liz says.
“And we got to call Monica,” Jeff provides. “She’s our best friend. We even put that in the pitch, that she’s our best friend now.”
After I relay the sentiment to Aldama over a separate video name from New York, the place the present is being filmed, she smiles and laughs. “Oh my goodness, they are the absolute best,” she says in her comfortable Texan twang.
The previous Navarro coach serves as an government producer on “Stumble” and likewise as its cheer guide, bringing her a long time of expertise as one in all America’s high collegiate cheer coaches. And whereas the present, premiering Friday and streaming subsequent day on Peacock, takes some components from the docuseries — it’s a mockumentary — it’s essential to notice that “Stumble” isn’t a one-to-one adaptation of “Cheer.”
The collection follows Courteney Potter, performed by Jenn Lyon (“Justified,” “Dead Boy Detectives”), a champion cheer coach on the fictional Sammy Davis Sr. Junior Faculty, who’s fired after a problematic video surfaces. Tammy Istiny, performed by Kristin Chenoweth, takes over as interim coach — although she’s not as heartbroken about Courteney’s departure as she initially lets on. Courteney isn’t deterred, nonetheless, and she or he finds one other teaching job at Headltston State Junior Faculty in Oklahoma (the group mascot is a sweet button, the city’s predominant trade), the place she works to construct a squad from the bottom up. The character could be very loosely based mostly on Aldama, sporting the identical flowy blouses, skinny denims, heeled boots and all-business perspective.
Courteney Potter, heart, performed by Jenn Lyon, could be very loosely based mostly on Monica Aldama.
(Matt Miller / NBC)
“She is incredible,” stated Aldama about Lyon. “I can tell she has put so much time into studying me [and] cheerleading coaches. She asks very thoughtful questions when it comes to how to deliver a line, or if the wording is correct. We never actually sat down and spent a long time with questions. And it’s fascinating to me because it’s body language, it’s delivery, it’s everything — she really did a great job.”
In the meantime, the squad consists of misfits, hotheads, third-year “seniors” and even a narcoleptic tumbler with a strong cut up. A few of the characters really feel acquainted — they’re an amalgamation of personalities from “Cheer.” Krystal (Anissa Borrego) would possibly remind you of Gabi Butler, the cheer influencer, and Dimarcus (Jarrett Austin Brown) has a fiery spirit just like La’Darius Marshall, whose combative relationship with Aldama got here to a head in Season 2 of “Cheer.” However in any other case, the similarities are fleeting.
For Aldama, engaged on the collection marks one more shift in her life and profession, a lot of it spent in Corsicana, Texas, the place Navarro is situated and the place she nonetheless calls house. After serving as head cheer coach for practically three a long time, she retired in 2023.
“You know, it’s scary to have change,” she stated. “What I have learned about being in the spotlight is that there are going to be a lot of things said about you. … I view things a lot differently now.”
Her retirement got here after a collection of occasions: First, Jerry Harris, one of many breakout stars of “Cheer,” was charged with intercourse crimes involving minors in 2020. Season 2 confirmed how the group grappled along with his arrest; Harris pleaded responsible in 2022 and is at the moment serving a 12-year sentence. Then in early 2023, a civil lawsuit was filed by a former Navarro cheerleader, who accused Aldama of trying to maintain a sexual assault declare quiet. Aldama steadfastly denied the accusations, and her identify was later dropped from the swimsuit.
The Astrofs’ objective was to lean into the nice issues that “Cheer” showcased, emphasizing how a lot “Stumble” is a free adaptation. “There’s darkness in everything, and we don’t go there,” stated Jeff in reference to Harris. “For me and for Liz, the music is fun, the underdog nature of these kids and … seeing these actors do cheer and some of them … hadn’t even been in TV shows before. It’s like that excitement — it’s contagious. That’s what we’re looking at.”
Finally, the occasions of the previous haven’t deterred Aldama from making an attempt new pursuits. In any case, her path was already curving towards Hollywood. After “Cheer” grew to become successful in 2020, she was forged in Season 29 of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars,” giving her a style of the limelight outdoors of her world. She additionally launched a memoir in 2022. Now, she’s making an attempt her hand at scripted tv with “Stumble.”
“It’s obviously very different because I am learning a lot. I ask a lot of questions,” she stated. “They [Liz and Jeff] asked me many times, ‘How deep do you want to go?’ I want to be in every meeting. I want to learn. I want to hear every conversation … but I do a lot more listening than anything at this moment.”
1. Showrunners Jeff and Liz Astrof on the set of “Stumble.” (Matt Miller / NBC) 2. The forged on set with Monica Aldama, who’s the present’s cheer guide. (Danielle Mathias / NBC) 3. Aldama on set. (Matt Miller / NBC)
The Astrofs have been within the trade as writers and producers for greater than twenty years, every creating their very own tasks for tv. Although they’ve labored collectively earlier than — Liz on Jeff’s collection “Trial & Error” and on Season 2 of “Shining Vale” — it’s the primary time the pair have joined forces as showrunners.
Engaged on “Stumble” and arising with a pilot collectively was straightforward for the siblings (Jeff: “We wrote the whole thing on Post-it notes”). It’s evident they’re shut, typically finishing one another’s sentences in the middle of the interview. And so they agreed that having Aldama was important to creating the collection, notably when it got here to depicting the cheer routines and getting the nomenclature proper.
“We needed to have authenticity to cheer, because we didn’t know anything about [the] cheer world,” Jeff stated.
“We had to have Monica,” Liz stated. “I really just wanted to meet her. I wanted her to be involved in every single thing, just so I could see her every day.”
Her experience was essential to them as was getting the world of cheerleading proper. To assist with that, Aldama enlisted Dahlston Delgado, who was featured on “Cheer,” to work as a choreographer on the present. Collectively they recruited extras with cheer expertise by way of social media and thru their many contacts within the cheer world. The forged did most of the routines, however stunt doubles have been utilized in some situations, and actual cheerleaders have been used as a part of the Buttons, Headltston’s squad.
Aldama and Delgado got freedom to resolve what routines would appear like, whereas the Astrofs would deal with writing the dialogue for the present. “In a script, we’ll just write, ‘The team does an incredible cheer,’” Jeff says. “We’ll be in a production meeting, and Monica and Dahlston will be like, can you explain what you mean by ‘incredible cheer’?”
They ran with the restricted steerage, nonetheless, placing collectively routines shortly, rehearsing in a few hours and taping them. “I think everybody not in our world just could not believe how quickly they learned a routine, with most of them not knowing each other and not ever working together,” Aldama stated of the cheer squad. “They were just talented.”
“She’s magical,” Liz stated.
“Monica is, even from the pilot, she’s so good at what she does, I would let her do toe surgery on me,” Jeff stated.
Kristin Chenoweth as Tammy Istiny, left, and Monica Aldama as herself within the “Stumble” pilot.
(Matt Miller / NBC)
Aldama even makes a cameo within the first episode, comforting Chenoweth’s Tammy when the Sammy Davis squad learns Courteney has been let go. Whereas she could also be used to being in entrance of the digital camera these days, Aldama considers what extra she’d love to do behind the scenes.
“I think everybody has their strengths,” she stated. “And writing … I like where I’m at right now, where I can read the script and say, ‘Well, maybe this,’ and add a little bit to it. I would definitely be open to producing other shows in the future.”
For the showrunners, the compressed timeline between when the present was picked up by NBC in July to manufacturing to air meant that they needed to make some compromises, together with the place the present was filmed. The pilot was shot in Georgia, however they wished to shoot the collection in L.A., the place the writers’ room is predicated, however it will definitely landed in New York due to the monetary incentives and it’s the place a lot of the forged is situated. (The Astrofs wouldn’t thoughts if it ended up in L.A. sooner or later.)
Nonetheless, they’re optimistic about how the present will likely be obtained and having Aldama on board so as to add credibility from a cheer perspective was the final word objective for them as a result of they love the game.
“We just want to be funny with heart and, like, just people root for it,” Jeff stated.
Identical to a cheerleader would.
