The Story Behind the Hilarious “I Want it That Way” Brooklyn Nine-Nine Intro

Even if you haven’t watched the precise episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine where criminals sing a brilliant rendition of Backstreet Boys’ “I Want it That Way” – you’ve seen it! The clip of the song has been circling social media for years at this point. Here’s the story behind how a throwaway idea made sitcom history!

Brooklyn Nine-Nine – “I Want it That Way”

The idea was, that the scene was centered on identifying a killer based on his singing voice. The idea of having a song in the episode and having the perps sing was tossed around, but finding a song that would be the perfect fit was the challenge.

The first thought of executive producer Luke Del Tredici was to use a Disney song – particularly the one from The Little Mermaid about Triton’s daughters. However, it wasn’t deemed iconic enough, so the thought process continued. Ideas kept bouncing back and forth until one stuck, and it was taken to the table and read by the producers, and it was “I Want It That Way!”

How the Table Read Went

The table read went so well that the producers and creators of Brooklyn Nine-Nine decided to use the song on the spot. But the person they had to convince was leading actor Andy Samberg.

Their thought was, that if Samberg liked it, everyone would. And that’s exactly what happened at the read. He began chuckling while reading the script, and that was it—the song was in. It was killer, and everyone had so much fun listening to it, everyone knew it would be a special scene.

The Shoot Was Fun to Do

Everyone buckled down so the shoot could go the right way, and even Andy tried his very best—he wanted to be perfect. At one point, he couldn’t hit the right notes, but after a few takes, he nailed it. And that’s when everyone knew the scene would be fantastic.

One of the directors of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Jaffar Mahmood, even said it felt like a barbershop quartet, especially since they took some time to harmonize and sound more or less like the Backstreet Boys.

The directors of Brooklyn Nine-Nine were proud when the shooting began because they instantly knew it would be gold! Del Tredici even commented that this one scene would be the most popular thing they had done yet. Turns out, it was!