Philosophy Professor Todd May and ‘The Good Place’
Ada Lambert | April 6, 2023
A part of Warren Wilson College’s (WWC) legacy is the phenomenal faculty that it attracts. Todd May, an adjunct philosophy professor, is one of them. Before his time at WWC, May had a notable involvement in the show “The Good Place.”
“The Good Place” is a critically acclaimed television series that aired from 2016 to 2020. It explored philosophical ideas about ethics, morality and the afterlife in a comedic and thought-provoking manner.
May's expertise in philosophy and his ability to explain complex concepts in an accessible way made him a valuable asset to the show's creative team. His contributions helped shape the show's narrative and characters, as well as its exploration of ethical dilemmas and moral philosophy.
As a philosophical consultant for the show, May provided insights and expertise on ethical and moral concepts that were central to the show's storyline. Many of his ideas came from one of his novels, “Death.”
“I've written a number of books and one of them was a little book on death and “The Good Place” is about people in the afterlife,” May said. “One of the writers on “The Good Place” saw my little book on death and called Michael Schur, the showrunner.”
Mike Shur is a prominent producer in comedy television. On top of “The Good Place,” Schur is the co-creator of “Parks and Rec,” co-creator of “Brooklyn 99,” head writer on “Saturday Night Live,” and was a writer and producer on The Office.
“Mike read the book, and decided he will contact me because he does this sort of thing,” May said. “He will just contact people when he wants to ask them questions. So he emailed me out of the blue, the subject was titled ‘question from a TV producer.’ He told me who he was and, well, “Parks and Rec” was my daughter's favorite show. I didn't know about [“The Good Place”] but once he told me who he was, I realized this is a guy who is fairly well off.”
May and Shur opened a line of communication about the philosophical direction of the show.
“I told my spouse when I discovered it and said, ‘well, he wants to have a phone conversation. This guy doesn't know it yet, but I'm gonna be on the set,’” May said. “I emailed him back, and I said, ‘instead of a phone conversation, why don’t we Skype?’ So the first time we talked we Skyped for like two hours. We just got along really well.”
After a few conversations, Shur began to send May scripts to check the philosophy on them. This led to the opportunity for more involvement as the show went on.
“Before the third season, I said, ‘look, I got funds from my university, and I can show up in the writers room,’” May said. “So I spent the day in the writer’s room for the third season and a day in the writer's room for the fourth season just talking about philosophy. They would tell me stuff they were interested in and I would talk with them for like eight hours each time.”
May had not made any appearances on the show and was not expecting any additional role other than the philosophical consultant — until the last season of the show.
“A week before the shooting of the final episode, the producer called me up and said, ‘do you want to have a cameo in the final episode?’” May said.
In the show, one of the main characters, Chidi, is an ethics professor. The series finale starts off with Chidi teaching. May chimes in during the discussion.
“Somebody corrects Chidi and says, ‘I don't think that’s what the book says, I think the book says this,’ and Eleanor says to the person, ‘I think Chidi should know about this because he designed “The Good Place”,’” May said. “This person responds, saying, ‘no, I think this is right because I wrote the book.’ And that was me.”
May’s role in the ending of the show extended further than a quick cameo — his philosophy was what drove the show to end with the character’s deciding it was best to move on from the afterlife.
“There’s an argument in philosophy about whether immortality would be good or bad,” May said. “I've argued in my “Death” book that it would be bad, so that's influenced the ending of the show.”
May was also responsible for a guest feature in the second to last episode of the show. They were in search of a philosopher that would connect with Chidi’s character.
“He says, ‘Tell us somebody’ and I said, ‘Okay, Aristotle was really bright, but he didn't think women were really quite human so and then Plato who did think that women were human but was really an elitist and there are other people.’”
In an effort to choose a less-known, yet groundbreaking philosopher, May recommended a Greek woman named Hypatia.
“I said, ‘Let me suggest a dark horse to you, Hypatia,’” May said. “There are three advantages to taking her. One is that she is a woman and most philosophers here to decide from are males. It's gonna be nice to get a woman on the show. Second, from what people know, was a really good person, way better than a lot of other philosophers. The third thing is if you put Hypatia on there and your cool quotient is going to go through the roof because viewers are gonna think that we know these obscure philosophers.’”
After the show ended, May retired from his professor job at Clemson and moved to Asheville. He contacted WWC and offered to teach a course every semester.
“When I got here, I wrote to a few schools and said, ‘Look, I'm available to teach a course if you like,’” May said. “There were a couple of possibilities. WWC just looked like the most interesting one. So I taught ethics in the fall, I’m teaching anarchism now, and then next fall I should be teaching the philosophy of war. I want to teach animal rights next spring.”
May is hoping to stay and teach at WWC for a while and wants to take strides to get students more involved in the realm of philosophy.
“My experience so far for almost two semesters has been just completely positive,” May said. “I would like to get involved in helping develop some intellectual activities and find little bits and pieces of ways to be helpful while I’m here.”