10 Years Of 'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt': Its Legacy & My Son's Time On Set

"Unbreakable! They alive dammit! It's a miracle!"

If you just sang that, you know it's time to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the hit Netflix show, "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," which premiered on March 6, 2015. While it ended in January 2019 after only four seasons, fans can still stream it on Netflix to relive the nostalgia whenever they want.

It may seem silly to "celebrate" the 10-year anniversary of the first episode, but it's an important milestone for my family, particularly my son, Jesse, who was on set for eight episodes between seasons two and four as a background and featured background child actor.

It's been 10 years since the show created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock hit Netflix and won the hearts of many comedy-loving viewers. The show stars Ellie Kemper as Kimmy Schmidt, Tituss Burgess as Titus Andromedon, Jane Krakowski as Jacqueline Voorhees, and Carol Kane as Lillian Kaushtupper.

The show follows Kimmy Schmidt, a woman who is adjusting to life in New York City after being rescued from a doomsday cult where she spent 15 years in a bunker with three other women and the cult leader, Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne, played by Jon Hamm. Despite her traumatic past in the fictious town of Durnsville, Indiana, Kimmy is determined to live her new life to the fullest with optimism, no matter the challenges she faces, and throughout the four seasons the show ran, she faced many unique issues.

The Netflix-original series ran four seasons and was followed up by an interactive film, "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs the Reverend."

When "UKS" first came out, I remember sitting down with my family and binging season 1. We all instantly loved it. This was also at a time where my life felt like it was falling apart and I needed something to make me laugh. This show was just what I needed. Little did I know at the time; I would get the chance to actually enjoy the show up close and personal thanks to my son.

At that time, my youngest son Jesse was 9 years old and in his second or third year as a working child actor. He was mainly doing background gigs to get on-set experience, auditioning for speaking roles, and acting in independent films and projects.

When it came time to start filming the second season of "UKS," my son was working a lot - enough that he had to be homeschooled so we could run in and out of New York City for auditions and background jobs. When I saw that "UKS" was looking for kids for background roles, I instantly submitted him, and he was quickly booked.

After being booked a few times on the show for background jobs, Jesse, now 19, was booked to do a featured background role, a noticeable part in a scene with no lines. He got his shining moment in season 3, episode 3, as the child who trips Jacqueline's boyfriend, Russ Snyder, played by actor David Cross, down the steps in his final moment on the show.

Dressed up in a suit to portray a prep school kid at a country club, Jesse was ready for his big moment. He even got to work with a stunt coordinator to learn how to properly trip the stunt double down the steps. But when it came time to actually film the scene, Cross decided to do the stunt himself, so Jesse got to trip him in his final scene on the show.

"I was very honored to be in the scene, in such a highly rated show, and send David Cross off in his final moment of the show," Jesse said. "It made me feel like a star. The cast members told me how great I did and that boosted up my confidence as a young child actor."

For a child who was only about 11-years-old at the time, this was a huge moment. It just fueled his fire to continue working as a child actor to get to his big break. (Spoiler alert: his acting career came tumbling down when the pandemic hit, but he had seven great years in the industry and may one day get back into it.)

Jesse worked on many sets as a background actor, including "Law and Order SVU," "Gotham," "Blue Bloods," "The Good Wife," "Royal Pains," "The Greatest Showman," and many others. And while he never had a bad experience, the best times on set were always with "UKS."

The actors were always super kind to my son, and he learned a lot while on set. Krakowski, who was almost always on set when Jesse was there, remembered him each time he worked, took pictures with him, and was just the sweetest person. Jesse also worked with Kemper and Burgess and they were both also super nice. He even got the opportunity to meet Fey once and work with actress Anna Camp. In fact, Camp took a pic with all the kids on set that day and posted it on her Instagram, which added to the excitement of being on the show.

"My favorite part about being on the show was interacting with the cast. They were always kind and considerate," Jesse said. "I have pictures with Jane Krakowski, Ellie Kemper, Tituss Burgess, and Mike Carlsen, who played Mikey. Such good times."

And I second all of that as Jesse's "momager," as he used to call me. The cast and crew always took such great care of the kids on set and were so kind to the parents. This industry has a lot of "hurry up and wait" and most times, we were on set for the entire day. The production assistants made sure we knew what was going on, were fed, had snacks and drinks nearby, and just enjoyed the entire process from start to finish.

During Jesse's featured background filming day, he spent some time with the crew during filming breaks. He wanted to know how everything worked, and no one was bothered by that. Everyone was always happy to show Jesse how things worked behind the scenes and that just made him love acting even more.

We were actually on set during part of the final episode's filming. The scene my son was booked for was being filmed in their studio in Brooklyn, where there was a display in the hallway of photos from the show. It made the feeling of the end so real and pretty sad for everyone.

Every experience we had on that set lives on in our memories and there's not a bad moment amongst them. It felt like Jesse grew up so much during his child acting days, particularly on the set of "UKS" and we're so grateful for those experiences.

I still binge the show from time to time. I've probably seen every episode upwards of 100 times over the past 10 years. Just a few days ago I had it on and relived some of those fantastic memories once again.

Thanks to Kimmy and the rest of the cast, we'll always be "unbreakable."