Daniel Radcliffe Explains How His Love For 30 Rock Led To His New NBC Sitcom — Watch Video

Back when Daniel Radcliffe was starring in "Harry Potter" movies, he was living every week like it's Shark Week.

Radcliffe, best known for playing the boy wizard in the blockbuster "Harry Potter" film franchise, was a big fan of "30 Rock," and now he's starring alongside "30 Rock" alum Tracy Morgan in the new NBC sitcom "The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins" (premiering Monday, February 23 at 8 pm), with "30 Rock" veterans Robert Carlock and Sam Means as co-creators and showrunners. 

Radcliffe loved the way "30 Rock" balanced "hyper-specific, very smart, funny jokes that are for, like, nine people" and dumb, broad comedy, he tells TVLine in the video above: "They can balance smart and dumb better than anyone, and I use 'dumb' as a complimentary word there." He also loved the rapid-fire pace: "If you don't like a joke, or it doesn't make you laugh, don't worry: There's going to be another one in three seconds." He admits that Morgan's "30 Rock" character Tracy Jordan was a personal favorite of his: "I feel like [he] and Jenna are probably the lines I can quote the most."  

Radcliffe fit right in with the cast of comedy veterans on "Reggie Dinkins," too, Morgan says: "He wouldn't be around if he couldn't! We'd eat him alive!" His co-star Bobby Moynihan adds: "People don't realize what an amazing physical comedian Daniel is. You'll see that towards the end of the season. It's shockingly rude how funny he is in this series."

Before "Reggie Dinkins," Radcliffe worked with Carlock on the animated series "Mulligan" and on an "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" interactive special for Netflix. "We actually wrote this [role] for him," Carlock reveals. "And we were just thrilled that he signed on. We loved the idea of him and Tracy together."

In "Reggie Dinkins," Daniel Radcliffe plays Arthur, a pretentious documentary filmmaker who is hired to follow around former pro football star Reggie (played by Tracy Morgan) and film him as he attempts to come back from a damaging scandal. We learn in the premiere, though, that Arthur is trying to make a comeback of his own after having a meltdown on the set of a Marvel movie and torpedoing his career. 

Arthur and Reggie actually have a lot in common, Radcliffe notes: "That's the journey of the show: watching these two guys who at first have very little in common sort of figure out that they need each other, and then, as the series goes on, figure out that they actually like each other." And Radcliffe says he and Morgan went through a similar process off-camera: "We are very, very different as people, but... we realize that we really care about each other and like each other. I am very fond of Tracy, and I want to look out for him." 

Arthur is "trying to be professional, trying to be the objective documentarian," co-creator Sam Means points out, but he and Reggie "do have this shared experience, and they uniquely understand each other in a way that not many other people do." 

Press PLAY above to hear more from Radcliffe, Morgan and the rest of the "Reggie Dinkins" cast and crew, and let us know in the comments: Will you be watching?