The pilot episode of NBC's hit dramedy This Is Us was mind-blowing. We were introduced to four distinct narratives: a young couple (Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia) who lose one of their triplets during childbirth and so adopt a third baby; a 36-year-old man (Sterling K. Brown) who meets his birth father for the first time; an actor (Justin Hartley) who quits his cushy sitcom job; and a woman (Chrissy Metz) struggling with her weight. At the end, we find out Moore and Ventimiglia's children are Hartley, Metz, and Brown's characters, and that Moore and Ventimiglia's narrative takes place 36 years beforehand. It's shocking, weepy, and—above all—convoluted.
But the original concept for This Is Us was even more complicated. In a new interview with People magazine, This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman reveals that he originally intended for the show to be a film—about octuplets. In other words, add five more people to the already confusing aforementioned plot.
“There was going to be a reveal at the end [of the movie] that they were octuplets born in the late seventies or early eighties," Fogelman said.
Fogelman ultimately decided to make This Is Us a television show because he felt its plot would feel constricting in a two-hour film. “The reason I was struggling with [the film] wasn’t the plot; it was about these characters and how I didn’t want to beginning-middle-and-end them," he said. "I wanted to do this continuous story—which felt very much like the theme of the show.”
We're happy he made this call. The characters on This Is Us are too complex to be fully realized in a film. The Pearsons have a backstory worth exploring for two or three seasons (maybe even more). Two or three hours wouldn't have been enough.
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