Greg Daniels spent a lot of time in 2024 thinking about the future. Well, specifically: How to conclude Upload, Prime Video’s quirky, sci-fi comedy that involves evil tech billionaires, rogue AI, clones, love and death — all set in 2033.
“We debated all sorts of cool things in the writer’s room, like the spinning top at the end in Inception,” says Daniels, Upload’s creator and executive producer. “We knew we couldn’t end on a cliffhanger, and there had to be a beginning, middle and end. So, we did something that felt intense and satisfying and romantic.”
The four-episode fourth season — premiering in full August 25 on Prime Video — keys in on the relationship between Nathan (Robbie Amell), a participant in the luxurious digital afterlife program known as Lakeview, and Nora (Andy Allo), an employee at the company overseeing the cyberworld. At the end of season three, both the original Nathan and his physical replica in the real world were captured by the evil corporate goons. Only one survived, sort of. “Nathan has been wronged by a lot of people,” Daniels says. “We’re tying up his loose ends.”
Prime Video
Daniels — the five-time Emmy-winning writer and producer who developed the beloved The Office and co-created King of the Hill — still can’t quite wrap his brain around how much the world has changed since Upload premiered in 2020. He boasts that some of the series’ nifty inventions, such as self-driving cars and 3D-printed meats, have become a reality. On the flip side, “I don’t think we can put AI back in the bottle,” he says. “I just hope that we’ve trained good AIs to be more powerful than the slightly bad ones.”
One cultural consistency: Great television. Daniels says he and his wife, veteran Emmy-winning entertainment executive Susanne Daniels, love to regularly sit down to watch the likes of Murderbot, MobLand and Adolescence (“the best show in the last five years”). They also enjoy to watch reality TV offerings like Below Deck and Love Is Blind. “I should probably be on a Stairmaster,” he jokes.
And when he compiled his My Seven Shows list for The Television Academy, he decided to salute throwback series that served as major influences in his illustrious career. Check out his picks below.
I Love Lucy (1951-57, CBS)
CBS
My first memory of being very involved in a TV show was when I was a kid in New York. Growing up, my mom would always have dinner ready just in the middle of I Love Lucy. It was incredibly frustrating because I was trying to find out how the episode would end. Obviously, this wasn't live on TV; it was in syndication. But I loved that show and remember just that feeling of being like, “No, I'm not leaving the screen. I need to see how this ends!” But I did go to dinner. She went to the trouble of making it.
Star Trek (1966-69, NBC)
Paramount+/CBS
To me, Star Trek is a great character comedy. Bones [DeForest Kelley] and Kirk [William Shatner], like, their relationship is almost a form of The Odd Couple. They’re great characters, they totally know what their rules are as characters, and their interactions contain a lot of comic relief. I also thought the sci-fi and adventure were always interesting and super-fun — like, “oh, look, those guys have gigantic heads and they’re betting on humans!” [“The Gamesters of Triskelion” from Season 2]. That’s funny stuff. I don’t think I ever treated it as a drama.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-74, BBC)
I was about 12 when Monty Python hit on PBS in America. And me and all the other 12-year-olds who were into comedy just went around being like, “I'd like to buy a budgie!” [from “The Dead Parrot” routine]. We’d do voices and [perform] all the sketches to each other. That was our thing. This was huge for me because it started a love of British comedy and writer-performers.
The Odd Couple (1970-75, CBS)
I loved this show growing up, and I think this is still a character comedy masterpiece. I have one brother — so, when there are two brothers in a family, they tend to split the world. I loved the dynamic between these two men, Felix [Tony Randall] and Oscar [Jack Klugman], that lived together and constantly feuded over their worldviews. The acting was so good, too.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77, CBS)
CBS
When I’m looking back on my writing career, and what I really liked back in the day, I was probably more influenced by The Mary Tyler Moore than anything else. It’s a wonderful, well-made, super-feel-good show. Mary Richards was super-appealing, kind and optimistic; you root so much for this character. Ted Knight is an amazing comedy actor — and his character, Ted [Baxter] — was so great, too. So was Lou Grant [Ed Asner]. This is a workplace ensemble with a lot of heart and so clever. It’s just a total classic.
Saturday Night Live (1975-, NBC)
NBC
I’m talking about the ‘70s-era of SNL — I ended up working on the show in the ‘80s and I’m subtracting shows that I worked on. The ‘70s just hit hard for me because, when you’re a teenager, you’re really influenced by the comedy you see. I remember I was in line to see a movie and I was behind John Belushi, and I got his autograph. His “Samurai” sketches were a favorite. But I might have liked Dan Aykroyd even better. Aykroyd is so loopy and a great comedy actor.
Cheers (1982-93, NBC)
NBC/Paramount TV
I love the poignancy of Cheers, and how that tone starts off with the title sequence and that song. It’s set in this bar, and yet all these emotional flavors are mixing at the same time. I also think the pilot is probably the best-written single episode of anything, which is why I always tell aspiring writers to go look at it. It’s all in one location, and it had a great story: Diane [Shelley Long] thinks that, at the beginning [of the pilot], she's about to go get married to her boyfriend. So she is just waiting at the bar for him to return with the ring. She goes from such a place of superiority to such a low, right in this one episode. The relationship with Sam [Ted Danson] is set up, and by the time the episode is over, you’re all-in on the whole thing. It’s just incredibly, artfully done.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Upload's final season premieres Aug. 25 on Prime Video.
