Tina Fey Makes Netflix ‘The Four Seasons’ Her Cozy Home

After building comedy milestones from 30 Rock to Mean Girls, Tina Fey has found a new sweet spot on Netflix with The Four Seasons—an adaptation of Alan Alda’s 1981 drama that blends cozy ensemble warmth with grief-heavy turning points, including Nick’s death i

By the time Tina Fey keeps repeating the same word—“cozy”—the room is already laughing along.

In an interview ahead of The Four Seasons’ season two premiere. Fey said she loves the show’s tone and that she “keep[s] using” the term “‘cozy.’” She joked that everyone on the series “probably wants a drink every time” she says it. then pointed to what she’s been trying to protect from the beginning: a relaxed ensemble experience built around comedy legends.

For this series, that ensemble isn’t theoretical. Alan Alda—whose 1981 semi-obscure drama the Netflix show adapts—appears via cameos in seasons one and two. and the cast includes Carol Burnett. Rita Moreno. and other luminaries from the original dramedy’s world. Fey’s version brings that spirit forward with Will Forte as the character’s husband. along with Kerri Kenney. Marco Calvani. Erika Henningsen. and Colman Domingo.

Fey’s own career path helps explain why this particular “cozy” home landed. After 30 Rock wrapped in 2013. she stepped into a Hollywood moment when funny women were becoming some of the town’s most bankable stars—alongside contemporaries Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy. Instead of chasing the spotlight. Fey pushed her energy behind the camera. co-creating or executive-producing seven more sitcoms and writing and/or starring in multiple films. She also adapted her Mean Girls script—made into a Tony-nominated musical—for a film version of that musical version of her original comedy.

Even with nine projects in development over the next few years, Fey says The Four Seasons is where she’s settled in: a Netflix adaptation that started as a one-and-done limited series, then found enough staying power to keep expanding.

The first major shift came from how the writing team—Fey. Lang Fisher. and Tracey Wigfield—approached characters once the movie became a “rewatched favorite.” Fey said they expanded the story so they could “see more of Anne. ” who “kind of disappears in the movie. ” and “go deeper with Ginny” and the rest of the group.

That decision sets up the show’s tension: it’s built for warmth, but it doesn’t flinch when the tone needs to tighten.

Season two picks up where season one left off. tracking the lives of three long-term couples across four vacations together over the course of one year: Kate and Jack. Nick and Anne. and Danny and Claude. By the end of season one. their cozy dynamic is shattered when Nick (Steve Carell) declares he’s leaving his wife. Anne. and soon takes up with a much younger woman. Ginny. The seismic shift drags uncomfortable truths about their marriages. aging. friendship. and the lives they believed they’d built into the open—before the story turns again.

In a freak car accident, Nick dies.

It’s the kind of grim rupture that could break a show that’s rooted equally in comedy and drama. But the performers describe it as fertile ground.

Forte said “Those highly emotionally charged situations are my favorite places for comedy to come from.” He pointed to the tension but also what keeps it grounded: when something very dark is happening. it’s “so normal for people” to try to say something that lightens the mood. “So it stays grounded. ” he said. “but it’s also such a heightened state that some pretty shocking stuff can come out.” He added. “Which is pretty fun.”.

Fey compressed her own feeling into a single line: “Well, honey, my grief is funny.”

For the writers, turning Nick’s death into meaningful season-two material is also described as a challenge they can’t wait to face. Fey called it “thrilling,” and she contrasted it with the kind of comedic pacing that framed her earlier work.

In 30 Rock, laughs-per-minute was the benchmark. In SNL, idiosyncratic experimentation was the currency. In The Four Seasons. she said dramatic turns can be treated with “both genuine gravitas and grounded humor. ” and she framed that space as a new frontier. “Letting something like Nick’s death happen was kind of thrilling. ” she said. explaining that episodic TV—especially the broadcast format with “22-episode seasons”—often forces writers to prevent too much from happening. since the goal used to be to “run for eleven years.” She described how stasis worked in that structure: “People don’t get married until season seven; they don’t have a baby until season eight.”.

Netflix’s newer pace changes the rules. Fey said it’s “exciting to let these things happen,” and now the question becomes what amount of change still feels real—“Does it feel like we’re going too fast?” She added that going “past season one” is the harder lift.

Netflix made that decision quickly, and now a third season and beyond seems like the next step. The show’s ratings are tracking even better than season one’s. Season one immediately shot to the top of Netflix’s Most Watched TV in the U.S. chart. It also earned a 78 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes for season one. With 13 critics now weighing in on season two, The Four Seasons sits at 85 percent fresh.

And that brings Forte back to his own confession—the kind of thing that only makes sense if you’re trying to honor a legacy while making the story your own.

Asked how the show and his character were derived from Alda’s film. Forte said plainly: “Well… I haven’t seen it.” He said he has “two young kids. ” and when they were first doing this. the movie “wasn’t on Netflix yet.” When it finally was. he admitted the practical distraction: “I was like. ‘Your priority is just the frickin’ diapers.’” He said it feels “so disrespectful because I love Alan Alda with all my heart. ” and that he’s now making himself commit. “This is the year we watch it!”.

Forte also offered his own reasoning for how he approached the role. framing it as an acting choice rather than a checklist of imitation. He said: “I came up with a better — different — answer.” He told the story as freedom: “There’s no way to portray the Jack character exactly the way Alan Alda did it.” He wanted “complete freedom” and didn’t want to “feel lured into imitation.” “I didn’t want any of that in the performance. ” he said.

Fey, barely suppressing a snicker, said Forte was essentially positioning himself as the Daniel Day-Lewis of the situation. Forte responded with deadpan humor: “Yeah… And now I’m retiring to fix shoes.”

For now, what’s certain is that the show’s mix of cozy ensemble storytelling and sudden emotional shocks has already found its audience.

Seasons one and two of The Four Seasons are out now on Netflix.

Tina Fey The Four Seasons Netflix Alan Alda Will Forte Steve Carell Carol Burnett Rita Moreno Lang Fisher Tracey Wigfield Only Murders in the Building Mean Girls 30 Rock Rotten Tomatoes