Creator Michael Schur has had a foothold on TV comedies for years, with beloved series like Parks and Recreation, The Good Place, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. His latest, A Man on the Inside, premiering on Netflix Nov. 21, brings together stars from two of those shows—Good Place‘s Ted Danson and Nine-Nine‘s Stephanie Beatriz. Alongside co-stars including Mary Elizabeth Ellis (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Lilah Richcreek Estrada (Chicago Med), Danson and Beatriz meet up in a San Francisco retirement home. There, Danson’s widower Charles is attempting to stave off his retirement blues by working to solve a mystery that only someone with access to the Pacific View Retirement Residence can solve, while Beatriz’s Didi manages the operations there. The series draws inspiration from the 2020 Oscar-nominated documentary The Mole Agent, which took place in a retirement home in Chile.
Danson and Beatriz sat down with TIME to discuss their memorable firsts—the first time they met, the first time each solved an on-screen mystery, and the first time both felt like they had “made it” in the entertainment industry.