Spoilers for Nobody Wants This can be found throughout this story, so if you haven’t watched it yet, maybe check out what’s coming to the 2025 TV schedule.
Kristen Bell and Adam Brody have been the talk of the town in recent weeks after their fun rom-com series Nobody Wants This hit the Netflix schedule. Fans have latched onto the quirky premise, about a rabbi dating a sex podcaster; however, what I really feel has made the show most likable is the cast’s rapport and ability to improvise some unlikely scenes. In fact, we previously learned their meet-cute was unscripted, but I was shocked to find out another one of Season 1’s hysterical scenes was not actually written.
A funny side plot in Nobody Wants This Season 1 is that Rabbi Noah is in a recreational basketball league with his boys, and they are flat out terrible. Joanne (Bell) still goes to the games with some of the other wives while trying to get in good with them as the lone shiksa, and it does not go well. That is, until her sister pulls out a bunch of booze in a moment that was never actually written for the series. The full story, per editor Maura Corey?
The basketball episode where he plays the basketball — there’s this drinking montage, right? Where [the wives and girlfriends of the players] are taking shots when they miss. That wasn’t originally in the script. When I put it together, I’m like, ‘Where’s the footage for the montage?’ and my assistant [Jen Rosenthal] says, ‘There’s no montage.’ I’m like, ‘No. We’re doing a montage.’
I have no idea how the player wives and girlfriends were supposed to interact before the drinking montage came about, but it’s a highlight of the season for me, and I’m so glad Corey shared this detail with Indiewire. The guys are so bad at basketball, instead of drinking when they make a shot, they cleverly (or not so much) start drinking and cheering every time their men miss, leading to an excess of alcohol. It’s very funny, and it all came together in the editing room after the entire sequence had been shot.
So basically, from all of the unused takes and unused angles, [I edited one together] and then I’m like, ‘Alright Jen, you’re about the age range of these guys, which song would you use?’ And she goes, ‘Chumbawamba.’ And it just worked out really funny.
Previously, showrunner Erin Foster admitted that Adam Brody has no idea how to open a wine bottle in real life. In fact, the party scene in which Noah meets Joanne was supposed to just have him casually opening a bottle of wine. However, he honestly sucked so bad at it while cameras were rolling and he and Bell just went with it, to the point where he even cracked a joke about being a sommelier.
When funny people get together, I expect that to come up with some funny one-liners, but it’s moments like these that really highlight why Nobody Wants This has been such a win for Netflix. It’s refreshing premise, it’s idea to put Bell and Brody together, and it’s otherwise very, very funny cast all make the rom-com sitcom a real win for the streaming service–and unlike many of Netflix’s other more sexually explicit romances, this one’s sex shop jokes are played for humor and not bedroom shenanigans, which means it’s (probably) OK to watch with your mom this holiday season. It’s no wonder Nobody Wants This has already been renewed for Season 2.
