Now, all of that isn’t to say that Rise couldn’t or wouldn’t have successfully gotten developed for TV had This Is Us not existed.
Audiences love watching feel-good stories but considering how heavy TV’s anti-hero vibe has been in recent years, it basically took _This Is Us’ existence to remind us that it’s still fun to watch heartwarming stuff, too.
(That’s obviously a vague generalization, but still.)
Based on author Michael Sokolove’s Drama High, Rise _is perhaps not the most traditional story, but it tells of a passionate and dedicated high school teacher, Josh Radnor’s Lou Mazzuchelli, who lit a fire beneath his town whenever he took over his school’s dwindling theater department and turned it into a hub of excitement, not only for the school population itself, but for the entire blue-collar town.