NBC’s new sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins tells such a hysterically believable story that it may have some wondering if an actual Reggie Dinkins is wandering among us.
Executive produced by Tina Fey and co-created by 30 Rock masterminds Robert Carlock and Sam Means, The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins plenty of laughter and mockumentary ridiculousness inspired by the increase in sports documentaries throughout the years. The new NBC sitcom — starring Tracy Morgan, Daniel Radcliffe, Erika Alexander, and Bobby Moynihan — follows disgraced former NFL star Reggie Dinkins (Morgan), who falls from grace after being caught gambling on his own games. Desperate to get back on top, Reggie hires a blacklisted film director, Arthur Tobin (Radcliffe), to direct a sports film that will successfully rebuild his public image. But with the Oscar-winning Tobin on a different page than Reggie about the project, their mutual comeback stories will be easier said than done.
So, is The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins actually inspired by anyone in sports? NBC Insider chatted with show runners Carlock and Means about the origins of the new NBC sitcom, and while there are plenty of gambling scandals within sports, this is a truly larger-than-life rendering.
Is The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins based on a true story?
Short answer: Nope. While the hilarity of Reggie Dinkins’ downfall is certainly rooted in the reality of many sports scandals, the sitcom isn’t based on any actual player from the NFL. The idea for The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins was inspired by the increase in sports documentaries and films in recent years.
Those stories of mind-blowing athleticism have a certain melodramatic hallmark, and showrunners Carlock and Means thought they could flip that narrative into a mockumentary-style hoot. But first, they’d need their subject: a disgraced athlete who could deliver the punchlines.
“It started with Tracy,” Means recalled, adding that they “immediately thought” of Radcliffe as Arthur Tobin, writing the character specifically for the Harry Potter icon. “There’s an odd couple aspect to it, and then, of course, the fun is, OK, how do these guys overlap? What do they share in common? How are they going to become friends?”
How sports documentaries inspired The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins
The show runners then had a “long” meeting with Fey and Morgan in which they painted the mythic picture of disgraced NFL star Reggie Dinkins. “As a high school student, [Reggie] was an all-city football player and track star and has that kind of jock mentality. And, we at the time, had been watching what continues to be a kind of firehose of sports documentaries out there,” Carlock recalled, listing off acclaimed titles like The Last Dance, Beckham, and Pete Rose’s 2024 documentary.
Carlock said that with that much source material, he and Means felt confident in delivering a “fresh” take on the mockumentary style, especially with the inclusion of Radcliffe as a former hot-shot director at the helm of the fictional sports documentary.
“We had it pretty well fleshed out and knew we were playing to strengths,” Carlock explained, while Means mentioned their previous experience in mockumentary-style episodes. They graced audiences with must-watch hits like 30 Rock’s Season 5 episode “Queen of Jordan” and the iconic “Party Monster” episode of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Considering Morgan’s mythic tenure on 30 Rock and Radcliffe’s guest appearance on Kimmy Schmidt, the puzzle pieces quickly came together for Reggie Dinkins.
“We knew we’d like to work in that format,” Means told NBC Insider. “It gives you so many different tools for storytelling, and different kinds of jokes, and just a whole different way of doing a TV show that we really enjoyed. And watching all these sports documentaries of athletes looking back on their lives, that’s a whole different language that we can now embrace and play with.”
Watch The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins on Mondays at 8:30/7:30c on NBC and the next day on Peacock