Parks and Recollection - Aisha Muharrar: Bus Tour (S4E21)

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

The writer most compared to Leslie Knope, Aisha Muharrar (Parks and Rec, Hacks, The Good Place) joins Jim O’Heir and Greg Levine to discuss “Bus Tour”. In this episode, Aisha breaks out her Parks notebook recounting the time Amy Poehler helped her out of a jam, the logistics of maneuvering a full-sized campaign bus through a small Los Angeles neighborhood, the hidden sweetness of April Ludgate, and just how many pies to the face Jim had to endure while filming.  Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email at [e-mail]!

We're getting together to talk about all the things we used to do The laughs, the passions, the little Sebastian's, the pets we fell into And we're putting it on in a podcast Then we'll send it up into the sky We're calling it Parks and Recollection Come on, little podcast Spread your wings and fly Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Parks and Recollection.

This is a really exciting show for us. But before we tell you who's here, let me say who I am. I'm Jim O'Hare, better known as Gary, Larry, Jerry, Terry, even Barry. And then I have my co-host, who is... It's Greg, Greg Levine. It's great to be back with you, Jim. And it's also great to be here today because one of our favorite people from the entire time of working on this series is here with us in the studio. One of the all-time greats.

Yes, it's just very special. So we could chat about so many things, Jim. As we do. As we do, but I think we just jump right in and say hello. You heard her cough. You'll love the rest of what she has to say. She's an author, TV writer, producer, an author of the upcoming novel

Loved One. She has written and executive produced mega hits like The Good Place and Hacks, as well as, of course, our favorite show, the show that brought us here, Parks and Recreation. Please welcome Aisha Muhar. Hey, Aisha. Thanks so much for having me! What a great... Hello! It's so great to be here. Even just seeing the two of you, it's like this counts as a Parks and Rec reunion, which is always great to experience. Yeah, we have an official reunion happening here. Aisha started

on the series very early on. It was season two, so it only done six episodes of season one, and then was with the show, with us for the whole run after that. Yeah. And so, I mean, it just feels like when I think of the series,

I happen to have been there before you. Yeah, that's true. That is true. But I can't think of Parks and Rec without Aisha. I agree. You know what I mean? Not just your presence and being in the room and on set. Tell us your story about coming to Parks and such. You know what I mean? Not just your presence and being in the room and on set.

Tell us your story about coming to Parks and such. Oh, yeah. Well, I was born on... No, I take it all the way back. You grew up in Bayshore. Yes, I did. I grew up in Bayshore on Long Island. Parks, I submitted. My agents told me about it.

I'd already seen the show, season one. I'd worked on one other show before, so I was still kind of new to the whole TV world. I worked on an animated show called Sit Down and Shut Up. And that was really fun, but it was canceled after one season. So I was available.

And I had written a spec of the Sarah Silverman program. Do you recall that? She had her own TV show. And I felt that an immature I'd written a spec of the Sarah Silverman program. Oh. Recall that? Sure. She had her own TV show. And I felt that an immature woman felt like the right voice for me to practice and get my jokes on. And Mike read that and I was brought in. And I had a meeting with Mike and Greg, which was pretty funny because I thought I had messed it up because Greg asked me a question about, something was like, Leslie and Mark,

like, how do you like their pairing? And I said, like, I don't know, are we supposed to be rooting for them? Oh, okay. And it was like, oh, that's good. But I was like, oh, I shouldn't have said that. You, the showrunner, like, I guess they must have liked that. And I said my favorite movie was Clueless.

That was Mike's wife's favorite movie. So, like, I just, I had been on a couple of these type of staffing general meetings and it hadn't come together yet. And for this one, I specifically remember saying, I'm just going to be myself. I'm just going to fully be myself and we'll see what happens. And then I got the job and it worked. So that was great. Right. And you know what's really wild. And again, you can say this with all different types of jobs. I say it about parks all the time for me. The interview, whatever got me the job, it was life-changing. And the same for you, because not only did it get you parks,

but now you have Mike and Greg who think you're amazing. And then you continue to work on shows with them. And that is, boy, that's not the pat on the back. But it's all because you had one great interview. And now here you are. So many great shows later. I know. It's amazing.

And the thing is, like, I mean, Mike, he was a little closer in age to me. So I didn't know as much about his work. But I was already so excited to, like, he'd already created Parks. And I was already excited. Greg had written my favorite episode of The Simpsons. We were talking about it in the room. I remember we were talking, what are your favorite episodes? And Greg had written it.

And I watched Amy on SNL. So it really felt like, I think people have talked about this before, some of us who were the younger writers, like a grad school for comedy writing, where it was like, these are the best people you could learn from in terms of making television, writing a comedy series. There's no better group of people to teach you about how it all works and how to be on, like, Greg told me how to be on set

for my very first episode of Kaboom. Like, here's what you do. Here's how you interact with the actors. Like, he,

you know, created and run the American office. So, he knows a lot about how to work with great actors. So,

you know, and now that's just ingrained in my head. So, that's my baseline. If I get advice from anyone else, I've already gotten the advice, you know, from the best people. So it was pretty, that part was amazing. And that's very true when I think about the makeup of the writer's room, especially in the early days where it was.

I think generally now when you picture a writer's room for a show, there's a lot of upper level, top, higher more experienced writers and then a smaller group of those starting out with titles of staff writer, story editor and such but on Parks, it was the opposite it was Greg and Mike and there was Tucker Colley season one

and Norm Hiscock and who had worked on plenty of shows because that's important I think to know how to balance both writing. Mike Scully. Right, Mike Scully. People who had been able to go through production to know it's not just about writing something funny, but we have to actually make something

and keep the engines going. But also just a bunch of young or inexperienced or new writers who had all the potential, all the talent, but maybe not the experience of doing it. And so for so many people, when we think of, I think also these heavy hitter comedy writers who came out of Parks, like Aisha, like Katie Dippold and such, it was Megan Amram.

And it was everyone's generally either first show or first show that was live action that was being produced. I'd worked with cartoons. Yeah. And you still did on part. A little bit. Some have said my acting is cartoonish. But whatever.

Some pratfalls. That'd be for a very fun room. Being on set, just a quick thing about when I first started. I remember my first episode, I was working with, it was for Kaboom. And we had a joke. And Jim, I'm sure you'll remember this, like sometimes there'd be a joke and it might not be working for some reason. We might want to do an alt or add to it. There was a particular joke in the script that we had worked on together in the room, not just me writing the script, but together in the room over and over,

so many alts, so many alts. And we brought all of them to set and none of them were working. And, you know, someone said, okay, let's see if we can get a different joke. And I was like, different joke? Like, this is a joke that like Mike Scully has worked on. This is a joke that like, how am I going to now in like the two seconds before we have to go back into shooting the scene, work on this joke? And Amy, Amy came over and was like, let's work on it together. And it was like, that's what I'm talking about in terms of that immediate real experience.

And I don't know if another comic actress of her talent and ability would have done that. Like, she doesn't have to work with me as staff writer. But it was like, oh, we need a joke. We're on a team. We're going to do it together. And so, like, you know, the pressure was off me. And that's something Jim, I think, also talks about. It was a very, we talk a lot about how the park's writer's room and set was like a no assholes kind of place, right?

And if people didn't really work well or jive, like sometimes they weren't asked back or their character never wound up showing up again. very egoless room and set in the sense that you could have a moment like that when you can picture maybe other shows, the number one on the call sheet may not want to just say, all right, I'm going to get into the weeds and work on this. Like in their own chair. This is why you're paid, right? Or to figure this out. Amy had one goal and that was that we all do the best we can do. There was no egos. There was no any games ever played. Like, you know, I've heard on shows, you know, number one will be the last to set because, you know, they have to present. And now if everyone else is ready, now the number one will show up. We never had any of that craziness. We just didn't have it. And I will say what must be amazing for you, Aisha, is that, and I'm not a writer, so I haven't spent tons of time in a writer's room, but they are not all equal.

And some are tension-filled. Some are just the pressure is crazy. But I think the way Mike ran it and you guys all merged together, it was just the opposite. Not that you guys didn't have pressure. I know there is. My God, you got to put together 22 episodes a year. So there's a lot of pressure. I know there is. My God, you got to put together 22 episodes a year. So there's a lot of pressure. I know what you mean. And definitely

like you're saying, Eaglest, that's the key to it. That it was very much that we were working as a team. And I think, you know, Mike and Amy had met, I think they met on SNL or at least they worked together on SNL for a long time. And that show is very collaborative. Writers and actors together. And I always felt

like that's how we were. It wasn't kind of like writers are over here, actors are over here. Number one actor does this. And you're on the top. Like it's that show is just like, oh, who can play this role? Oh, you kind of look like this senator. So you'll be the senator. Not like it's very much whoever is needed and whoever can do the best in the moment. And I feel like with our cast, that's what it was like, too, where it was like, who can do this funny thing? And it was such a deep bench that oftentimes it was like, well, actually four or five of them

can all do this. But sometimes it would also be really specific where it was like, no, this is something where like, you know, Red actually has an amazing voice. This is going to be a very funny, like, you know,

like there were specific things and we knew things that the cast members like, like, oh, you know, Adam's actually a Star Wars fan, so he'll get a kick, you know, like that type of stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was just, yeah. Very giving.

And people, I don't know if everyone knows this, we've probably mentioned it before, but the writer of the episode spent the episode with us as we were shooting it. So they were there to punch up. They were there to sometimes totally recreate something if it wasn't working. And did you love that part of it or did you feel safer in the room? That's interesting. I think I loved both in different ways. I think that on set, you're the only writer. So there is a little more of like the buck stops here. You have to make things work in the moment. There's a little more of that pressure. There's also a sense that sometimes you're carrying the room's wishes.

Like, you kind of already know how a joke evolves. So, it's like, yeah, we could do that. But actually, we kind of already talked through that. And we got, like, five steps ahead. And now we're, so. And you know how it plays in, like, well, that's actually quite necessary to hear it said this way. Because that's going to pay off later on. You have to kind of know where everything's going on.

Yeah, yeah. But I really liked it. And I also like being with our crew, too, because, like, you know. The best. The crew is the best. And all the departments, they have maybe, like, four or five people in electric, like, four or five people in cameras. When you're the writer, you're the only writer. So I hopped around to the different departments at lunch because it was like, it was almost like high school where it's like, oh, the different departments often sit together.

Not in a clicky way, but more like, oh, the camera people are sitting together because they have to give up. They're on different schedules. Yes, they all have different schedules. So it gave me a chance to learn about the different departments and learn about the people who were making the show. It was really fun. And then the writer's room was just, that felt more like just my home because I spent so much time there. You spent more time with your family, your friends. It becomes your center in a way when you're on staff on a show.

Yeah, I think it's, yeah, exactly. When we used to get the day of days, I would be upset. I'd be like, oh, I'm off on Thursday. Oh, that sucks. Because I just loved being there, whether I was in the scenes or not, because of the people. It was just great people to be around at all times. The other night, you know, I'm doing a show here in Kansas City. Johnny from Parks showed up to the show, one of the camera guys. You know what I mean? So these are friendships that have stayed all these years.

And I think it was special. I really do. I want to do one last thing. We pulled a piece, a Vogue piece written about you in 2014. Amy Poehler was quoted as saying, quote, Aisha has this real sense of justice. She's a peaceful warrior. Her scripts on Parks and Rec are always funny and touching and whip smart, just like her.

And I wanted to call that out also because as we jump into this episode, it's so fun to have you here because when I think of all our times at Parks and all the rooms and all the variations of the writers who've come in and everything, I think your voice and your point of view as a writer, as a person, is so woven into the fabric of the series. You're in the Mount Rushmore for me of the room. Oh, thank you. And so with that, Don't disappoint us. You're also just incredibly kind. You're just an incredibly kind, lovely person. You guys are so sweet.

Thank you. I'm changed. Oh, it was changed, right? With that, we are talking today about the episode Bus Tour. It was written by Aisha Muhar and Alan Tour. It was written by Ayesha Muharra and Alan Yang. It was directed by Dean Holland, originally airing on May 3rd, 2012. And Jim, Ayesha, you don't know this, but Jim is like the world's greatest blurb artist.

He's going to give us a blurb. Okay, here is our blurb. Trailing Bobby Newport by only two points in the polls, Leslie and her team set off on a campaign blitz around Pawnee in the final 24 hours leading up to the city council election. But things take a surprising turn when a key member of the opposing campaign passes away. Meanwhile, after a surprise pie attack out on the campaign trail, Andy launches a full investigation to find the pie perp.

And Chris finds an unexpected love connection. Now you can see why the blurb is so popular. No, it's great. You summed it up, especially having recently watched the episode. Yeah. This episode is directed by Dean Holland. Yes, he did a wonderful job. I loved working with Dean.

He was an editor on the show, as we know. And the editors were down the hall from us. So Dean was someone we saw in the kitchen in the morning. Like it was very much part of the writer's room life for Dean to walk in. So it's always fun when we were working on an episode with him because it was just like, oh, just another part of the member of the family as opposed to like a visiting director who'd be great for other reasons, but always great to see Dean. He did a great job. The cast loved him. So it'd always be fun. Well, Dean will wind up having directed, I think, a full fifth or quarter of all Parks

episodes. Wow. And I think was also the go-to when it came to, we're doing a very big set piece or we're going to go travel. I mean, you have an episode coming up very soon where they go to Washington and it's Dean. Anytime we went, it was because

it made sense to have your director, producer, the person who knows the show pretty much better than almost anybody and a very loved director for the cast. Definitely for the cast.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Very comfortable. I totally agree. Absolutely. This episode, we alluded to guest stars. It has an appearance

by actor and writer Mike O'Malley, who's best known for his role of Jimmy Hughes on Yes, Dear! and Bert Hummel. Hummel? Hummel? Humblee. Hummel, Hummel. Hummel.

I think it is Hummel, yeah. Hummel. I think they made a lot of jokes about humming. I clearly watched a lot of the series and it stuck with me. I'm so sorry to those of you. I'm going to take out my little notebook because if you remember from Parks, I was often the writer most compared to Leslie. And I do have my preparation right here. Very Leslie style.

Look at this. So great. Oh, my God. Let's jump right into our synopsis. win close enough to taste, Leslie and her staff board a full-size campaign bus deemed the SS NOPE to canvas the streets of Pawnee in a final push to sway undecided voters. But the team hits their first roadblock when Tom discovers the vans the NOPE campaign had rented to drive Pawnee's elderly citizens to local polling stations are suspiciously no longer available. Meanwhile, due to a pie-throwing incident, obviously,

that meanwhile doing a lot of work, Andy has reprised his alter ego role of Burt Macklin to act as Leslie's personal security. There's no one better than Burt Macklin. Burt Macklin is a favorite. There's nobody. He's a real favorite of mine. The costume is so simple.

You know what I mean? Because it's Andy. It has to be simple. Yeah, it has to be. It's the FBI jacket and glasses, but you put it on, you're like, oh, he's Burt Macklin today. We've seen him enough that we know he's Macklin. And I remember

when I think of this episode, I think of you, Jim. I mean, I do. I genuinely do because the pie going into the face slow motion, I remember shooting that and just being like jim is so like he's like it was like you were such a pro it's like you're getting someone is shoving a pie into your face and you're fully jerry like you're fully in the mode i was just like so impressed like it was so funny that visual of leslie pie oh my god i had forgotten

about that and we had that on the board in the writer's room for a while. Like we remember we kept it up because it was like so funny. And we, so like that it was. And when I went back to look at the episode, I was like, that scene is actually like what? 15 seconds or 20 seconds.

But in my mind, like that is the episode. With the pie in the face. Especially his build up with the reveal. The reconstructing the pie in the face? And especially his build up with the reveal. The reconstructing the pie in the face. Where Andy slowly brings it into Jerry's face and then says, don't close your eyes. Yes. Yes.

I'm closing my eyes because people wouldn't close their eyes. Yeah, that's natural. And he's like, no, no, no, don't close your eyes. That would be natural. And you're, Jim, yes, there's this little moment you do when it does hit your face that like you can see Jerry at this moment be like, oh, this is my life. This is happening. And it's just like your eyes flutter a little bit. And I was cracking up watching it.

Just fully in the present. It has to be a big shout out to hair, makeup, and wardrobe because we did that a number of times. hair, makeup, and wardrobe because we did that a number of times. And so what they would do is they kind of tented me outside real quick and did the quick switch. They had the new outfits. They did the hair. Because, you know, the pie was in my hair.

It was on my shirt. Maybe that's why I remember it as being longer because we were actually shooting it for such a long time. But then on air, it's only... But it is a very... I think in the Jerry moments and the grab bag of great Jerry moments

of the series it's definitely up there right it's iconic yeah I want to talk a little bit about some stuff

before that. We have our campaign bus, which is great. It has the nope2012.com advertisement. We actually made that site. Like NBC bought that site. No, none of the park sites are still live. But the Wayback Machine, the internet site, you can search for it. And I did last night.

There are little screen grabs from it. But it was full of campaign slogans, stops. We tried to build that out. And I realized I actually still have access to the Note 2012 Facebook account. So maybe she should run again. But what's interesting, the way this episode is set up is so fun because everything's going great for Leslie in the beginning. She's fresh off a debate win.

She's gaining on Bobby in the polls. She and Ben are in that love where they can't get through a two-minute announcement without making out. She's trying to manifest being sworn in. Talk about dating the episode. President Obama is in the crowd. But it's a great setup because obviously, you know, things are not going

to go well for her, but you feel really happy for her because it's been 20 full episodes of like an uphill battle for her, right? The whole season is for the campaign. So I found that scene, while just very cute, was so important to remind everybody like, this is where we are.

Yes. Things are close, but when they're close, you feel like they can go south for her. And I remember for season four, talking a lot about how each, maybe not every episode, but a lot of episodes would have to begin with someone saying, here's where we are in the race. Here's how close Leslie and Bobby are. And I think, like, I saw the episode before this where it's a similar type of thing where it's like, okay, this is how close they are because it was like, it's airing weekly. It's not binging.

So you have to kind of remind people, okay, where are we? What's happening? What are the stakes? Like, is this a close space? Is it not? Right. So we had a few times

where we were writing things that were like, okay, how can we make it different this time that they give an update once again of where she and Bobby are. Right. And there's a great moment when she does,

when Ben announces it and like, you know, we're neck and neck, we're tied in the are. Right. And there's a great moment when she does, when Ben announces it, and like, you know, we're neck and neck, we're tied in the pulse, whatever, and everyone applauds, and Red has this great look like, oh my God, it's actually happening. It's so sweet.

Okay, we talked about Burt Macklin. What I love is the bit in the bus where he's going through and he's giving code names to everybody, right? All related to to his thoughts about them and sex with him or what he would think

so obviously Andy's the eagle one obviously Anne has been there done that she's like okay April currently doing that Donna it happened once in a dream. Cut to Donna, she gives a wink.

Yeah, like, of course. Chris, if I had to pick a dude, That's so brilliant. And then Ben, Eagle 2. Ben is just so, oh, thank God. Yeah, having to wait through all the others. Then you briefly hear it when he announces Leslie later.

Leslie later, I think becomes, I'd be lying if I hadn't thought about it. Yeah. That to me feels like one of those bits where I think about our time in the writer's room also, like, we'll crack everybody up. Yes. Like, this is just a fun comedy game. That was definitely a room where we were coming up, where it was snowballing. You could feel it happening. We were like, okay, then it will be this, then it will comedy game. That was definitely a room where we were coming up, where it was snowballing. You could feel it happening and we were like,

okay, then it will be this, then it will be this. Yeah. Almost like, and we've talked about this term that we use in the room a lot, cut bait. It feels like cut bait,

which is like, at the end of the day, these 30 page episodes, 35 page episodes have to become 20 minutes of television. Things get cut. Plot is important. A side joke like this

that becomes ultimately a 30 second run. It's like a significant chunk of time. You have to decide. Well, it's funny because before this, I listened to the episode, the beginning of the episode where Chelsea's on, and she had talked about going back to look at the script. And I was like, oh, I hadn't thought about that.

And I was just about to leave to come here. So I looked and I saw the emails Alan and I had sent each other. And there's an email where he says, oh, I just did this cold open. And I was like, it's so funny. I love it for this episode. And then he's like, it will be cut. And it was cut.

It was, I had no memory. I read it and I was like, I have no memory. I definitely didn't shoot it. I don't think it even made it into like the table draft, but it was like something about like Ben. And it was funny, like Ben trying on new glasses, but it's like,'re saying, Greg, there were so many things

and that, you know, I think Greg and Mike were really good about focusing on story and character first. And then this idea that like, okay, we're all funny. We'll be able to come up with more jokes. But the important thing is that

the story holds together. The actors are doing interesting things, like the characters are all being used. So like, and then we'd add jokes. But then sometimes we get a joke like this with an Andy run where it's like, oh, this is, you know, is this story? No, but it's fun.

Like, you know, we want to keep it. Yeah. And it becomes- Sometimes we'd be able to keep it. Right. And you think back now we're watching it, it cracks us up. It clearly cracked it.

I think it's very entertaining and it's worth the real estate. And, you know, ultimately it's what? It um a 40th of an episode is this one little run yeah and is it mike and greg that you're gonna make that final call because it's gotta i'm not a writer but i can't imagine it's really mine because like at that point greg i was was back on the office i think mike's in the room with us every day. He's making the calls. I think sometimes we lobbied him for certain things. Like if there was something

we really liked as a room or something a writer really liked, we might say it. But we often were all on the same page. So I don't know if Greg, I can't really think about something where someone was like, oh, that didn't get in.

I'm upset. It was always something better. Like it was always replaced by either a better joke or it really was like, there's just no time. We might get in, I'm upset. It was always something better. It was always replaced by either a better joke where it really was like there's just no time. We might get in a fun run. We might find some way to include it. Or if it was really good and there was no time, I think we would find a way to put

it in another episode. There was also a lot of trust too because do you remember, Gary, that sometimes something that we had worked on that we liked at the beginning, a joke we love, we'd do table. We'd do our punch-up room. And then by the time we were about to shoot, it was like, is this still funny? And we'd have to really try to go

back. And we'd have the check draft where, you know, Greg would have checked to see how big a laugh we got. And we'd go back, which I think is so helpful. And I've worked on other shows. It's like, it's really helpful to have that because if you've been around something for a while, you do start feeling like, oh, maybe that's not... Let me just explain because for those who are. Oh, you haven't covered the

check track? No, with people obsessed with the nuance of this. Oh my gosh, I've introduced a new thing. No, this was great. This was a Greg Daniels thing he did at the office and we brought it to Parks. And I think it was phenomenal in which myself or one of the other writers assistants or Greg's assistants sometimes would, during the table read, would literally make check marks next to things that got laughs. And the check marks would be bigger or smaller or more of them.

Chuckle, little laugh. Yeah, just, and throughout the script. And that check draft sat with us in the writer's room during the rewrite. And sometimes you'd be like, well, that got a huge laugh. Is it worth killing it just because we're trying to solve this story problem

or you always want to pitch on new jokes that's what you did when you punched up an episode you're constantly pitching on jokes but that got a laugh let's keep it and it becomes an important tool I think in the rewrite so that you don't get in the weeds of rewriting and lose the good stuff yeah great point

in our next chunk of synopsis realizing the importance of the Pawnee seniors vote, Leslie sends Tom, Ron, and Donna to the van rental company to get to the bottom of things where they find out they've been outbid for the vans by the Newport campaign. Meanwhile, a despondent Chris volunteers for every menial task to try and distract himself from his string of failed relationships. Chris Traeger is wearing his Bumbleflex. Yeah, with Leslie's face on it. With Leslie's face on it. So we've now seen him wear Bumbleflex. We've seen him wear Bumbleflex at other times. And now he has personalized it with Leslie's face.

Okay, so Chris Traeger is like hanging on by a thread at this point. Literally a thread. We have like really been like putting this guy through the ringer. Like he'll talk later in the episode about losing out on women to Ron Swanson, to whatever. This guy is just a sad. He says, this has been a difficult year for me romantically. Melissa Girkage, Ann Perkins, Andy's professor. Lots of disappointment.

So clearly it's mainly in the relationship category. But if I keep my body moving and my mind occupied at all times, I will avoid falling into a bottomless pit of despair. Yeah. So stakes for him are high. Yeah. Stakes are very high. And Chris is normally very positive.

But even his depression has a certain excitement. Oh, yeah. I mean, the guy's like, there's a scene when he's biking past and faster than the bus. Yeah. Which I think was another moment that was pitched in the room, which was like, wouldn't it be funny if... Yeah. And it's funny. It's funny when we get those, like, cartoonish,

like we were talking, you know, before about the cartoonish element of it is always great. Right, like, that's not possible, but the guy did it. Yeah, but Chris Traker, if anyone could do it, he would be able to do it. Yeah. And I love the way they shot it. It wasn't a green screen.

It wasn't a truck. He was on the damn bike pedaling around. Yeah. I think we shot it in the Sherman Oaks area, right? It must have been around that same area where Ann's house and the park. And the pit. Yeah. Because we were up and down the same streets with that bus.

Like, going everywhere. We had cops in front of us, cops behind us. It was a whole thing. So, we had to stop suddenly, and then, yeah. and the pit because we were up and down the same streets with that bus like on every day we had cops in front of us cops behind us it was a whole thing to stop suddenly and then yeah so we get Mike O'Malley in the episode

who's so funny playing a schmuck and a jerk I don't remember how the casting came about but I do remember that Mike was talked about

early on for a series regular potentially I think he was in the conversation for Ron Swanson. That's what I thought when I was, I was like, I don't know, I'm glad you remember. I think there was something about like, it was again, this sense of like some people would audition, you'd want to see them again, you'd wait until there was a role that fit them and you'd bring them back. Right. And in this sense, I mean, he was potentially going to be on the show.

It's hard to picture Ron being anybody but Nick Offerman now, obviously. Of course. But then, yeah, I was just talking about, you have this grab bag of people that you just love who came in and maybe not right thing.

And then it's also a testament to Alison Jones and Nancy Perkins who cast the pilot of Parks and Alison did The Office that she would also have people. She's like, these are great people. These are smart,

super funny people. I'm just going to keep bringing them in in front of showrunners and directors and they will get their moments. Mike's also a successful writer and everything.

And you auditioned for Ron. That's right. Yeah, everybody did. It was a coveted position to audition for Ron. That's originally how I came to Park. You didn't want to talk about it. And then I was like, oh, I also write stuff too as well. But if you want to go a different,

we want to be provocative. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just put a mustache out on me. Yeah, yeah. But this storyline is so funny. It's just a very simple, like, we need these vans for seniors voting. It just becomes an excuse to have these people in contention, right?

Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's so funny because it's like every group pairing you get, it's like, oh, this pairing, of course. But it's kind of like that with everyone. But it's like, oh, Ron, Tom, and Donna. Like, there are certain—remember talking at times about, like, sometimes we talk about, like, the history of the Parks Department. Who's been there for a while in the sense, like, okay, Ron and Donna and Jerry have probably been there for a while. Like, we wouldn't always make it into the show, but we kind of had this sense of backstory in our mind of, like, okay, they go way back.

But they were there before Leslie was there. Yeah, the sense of that. Yeah. And sometimes you wouldn't, you know, you would mix pairings together and be like, oh, we haven't seen these characters in a while. So that was really fun to do with like the three of them having a story where it's also like a common adversary. They're not at each other's throats for any reason. They're just working on something specific. In that story, there's another thing where I remember a scene and I guess it must have been cut.

Do you remember? It's like after the car accident and then Tom, Aziz gets out and Tom says, you almost lost me, Ron. Do you remember that? And we were so, I remember like Al and I quote, like repeating this over and over again. Like, oh, this is so fun. And then I looked and I was like oh it's not in the episode but I thought it aired so I don't know

if it was a peacock thing or something but I really thought just that he like holds Ron later or maybe it was cut before but it was like it's after the accident

which isn't much you know like Donna is in control of the car but afterwards you almost lost me it's such a funny point of view,

which is like, I almost died. You, and then Ron would have survived. You almost lost me, Ron. Yeah.

It's like, think about it, Ron. Think about your life without Tom. And it was just like this very funny, sweet moment.

So, but I guess it was cut at some point. I don't know. But yeah. I also love this moment. I forgot about this where Ron just very quietly at one point when he talks't know, but yeah. I also love this moment. I forgot about this, where Ron just very quietly at one point

when he talks to Mike's character, Man of Man, he's like, all right, I'll pay the $10,000. I'm like, oh my God, this guy's got a lot.

And we talk about this also. There was a scene, I think a moment in Ron and Tammy's where we meet Tammy one and zero and everything and all the gold is alluded to. He's a lot of gold. He's like, I have a certain amount of gold buried.

Yeah. This guy's probably loaded. Yes. He's yeah. Right. He doesn't buy anything. He just, you know,

buys plain meat. Yeah. You know, where's the food and stuff. Yeah. And he's got like, he just will calmly, quietly offer to pay $10,000 so that they have vans for seniors to vote for vote, which is important. This is important. Yeah.S. will calmly, quietly offer to pay $10,000 so that they have vans for seniors to vote.

Yeah, for vote, which is important. Which is important. Yeah, yeah. You got to show up. You got to vote, everybody. You got to vote. I don't know if you've talked about it this season. Do you remember this, Greg, that we wanted in season four?

You know, Leslie was running, but it's a show. It's an ensemble show. We wanted to have moments in the season where each character makes a very clear sacrifice for Leslie and for the campaign. And you see Ron offering the money here. But also, Donna crashes her bands, which at this point we know is like one of her prized possessions. It's been talked about constantly. We remember her tackling someone during a hunting trip because they thought she had to. Yeah, when everyone's drunk in it, she's like, no one better throw up.

And I'm like, it's a big thing. So then for her to just, you know, willingly destroy it in that way and, you know, and they're not going to pay for it. Like that's, it's a big thing. So that, I don't remember everyone's sacrifice, but I do remember us talking about how at some point, everyone in season four would do something that would represent a big sacrifice for the campaign. That actually reminds me also of early days talking about the season. I hadn't thought about this,

but there was a time when I think Mike was saying that, that we didn't want to fall into the trap of every episode being Leslie and Ben are doing a campaign thing, plus some outside problem that they're dealing with. And how to make the campaign stories interesting and also not fall into the trap of what West Wing had actually just done very well. But they were just coming off of a big campaign storyline season. And we didn't want to do just another thing that felt very duplicative of that.

And so how to make this a Leslie and X person story that was campaign specific. Right. So this would be a Leslie and Ben. This would be a Leslie and Don or Tom moment. And it didn't have to be in the A story, but it allowed us to feel fresh about stuff that felt like had been a well-paved path.

We've seen enough campaign storylines, I think, on TV. Well, that year, I think there were two more. It was like we, there hadn't been that many. And we're like, that's okay. We can do, no one's doing it in a comedy. And then Modern Family did one. And then This Is Us did one, which isn't a comedy, but it was still all, it was on NBC.

So it was this interesting. That's so funny. I forgot about that too. Wow. Well, look at that. Memories flood back when we talk about the show. Let's keep going. Out on the trail, Leslie's campaign rally is going great. She's nailing her stump speech, and the crowd is loving the t-shirt cannons and nope rally dancers.

That isn't until a reporter asked for a comment about Nick Newport Sr. And caught up in the rally spirit, Leslie doubles down on her criticism of the Newport family, calling him a real jerk, only to realize in horror that Nick Newport Sr. had actually died earlier that day. And the reporter's question was in reference to his passing. campaign manager, Jennifer Barkley, uses the opportunity to try and stop the Note campaign's final push, calling on Leslie to postpone any further campaigning out of respect for the Newport family. She is a genius.

She's a genius. The best money can buy. A sick, sick genius. Right, and she owns it too, which is so funny. Another great guest. I mean, amazing. Katherine Hahn was always so fun to see her on set and so great to work with

and just up for anything. I felt, I don't know if you felt this, Jim, as being one of the actors, but sometimes it would feel like when guest actors came, some people felt like they immediately got in and it was very much like, oh, this person could be in the cast. Absolutely. And then also guest actor, I said

my favorite movie in my interview with Mike was Clueless. And then Paul Rudd is there. And it's like, this is great. You know? Rewatching this season, Paul Rudd as Bobby Newport is so funny. And the character is so funny for him. And these moments where he just like,

oh, you're both like a sweet little man and a boy and an idiot. Who's your dad? Yeah. Yeah. It's so sweet. It's so sweet.

I just think it's a pull-on moron but just sweet as hell. I was talking a blink look in the eye but just a warm heart. Yeah. And it's perfect casting.

I always think that you can think of something being perfect casting when you cannot picture a single other actor portraying that role. That's when like it's perfect casting. I always think that you can think of something being perfect casting when you cannot picture a single other actor portraying that role. That's when it so perfectly works. And Paul Rudd is so funny in this. And we in the room, I think, would get so excited. You get Paul in an episode.

You have Catherine Han coming. And you realize, oh, but yes, this is great. We have so many fun new toys in a way to play with and characters. But you have your people. You have Jim and Retta and Aziz and all these people who have to be in the episode too. I know. I mean, I was looking, I was like,

I'm amazed we got this done because I'm looking at, you know, it's a very active episode for all of the cast. And then we have all these guest actors as well. There's this great little moment where in crisis, Leslie calls for the team to gather around her in order of how much she trusts them. And Anne and Ben just immediately fight her. Oh, yeah. I love that.

Head to head in a way, but then everyone just stays where they are. The boyfriend. Yeah.? Oh, yeah. I love that. Like, head-to-head in a way, but then everyone just stays where they are. The boyfriend, the best friend standoff. I love that. We played with that later on in an episode where it's kind of like

never call a boyfriend to do something that a best friend would do. Oh, yes, yes, yes. I love whenever Anne and Ben, two pretty mild people, like, peaceful, would have those moments

when it came to Leslie where it would suddenly get kind of aggressive and a little bit like who does he love or who would turn to more yeah I know Leslie

she's I'm her number one yeah very sweet well also we've talked about this how the Anne and Leslie's relationship is foundational to the show

it's really I think it's the backbone on which the show was built and it's sweet how much Anne has come to just like love her and not just see her

as this other this person who helps her but like a genuine like rock in her life and how Ben feels the same way and then there are you know

the potential tension between that is fun and notice when Leslie says you know who I trust in order of you know who she trusts and Jerry takes a step back

because he knows he will not be at the top of that list. And it's not even like no hard feelings. It's just like, oh, I know, I should immediately step back. I will step away from this.

Well, let's keep pushing on because there's so much story. We're alluding to it right now. Running out of time to turn things around and convinces Leslie to go to the Newport residence to apologize to Bobby in person. But when the SS note tour bus pulls up to the wealthiest state,

the team realized they've fallen into Jen Barkley's trap and unwittingly crashed Newport seniors memorial service. Meanwhile, after finishing all of April's tasks, Chris tracks her down looking for more to do, but rather than another list of to-dos, Chris receives some advice instead. I can tell you guys, coming from the actor point of view, this was one of my very favorite episodes to shoot because, as I've said many times, I love when we're all together. And there was a lot of togetherness on this one. We drove around in that damn bus for hours. We got to fall forward and backward because we were in this bus. And then just the way it all happened, this was one of my faves.

I just, I remember this week being exceptionally great. I mean, every week I loved. This was like an even more exceptional week. No, you were all too. And I remember, I think we were outside the bus. There were times when we were on the bus, like when he's going around saying the code names. But I think for that, it was just cast and camera on the bus. I don't know we were on the bus, like when he's going around saying the code names. But I think for that,

it was just cast and camera on the bus. I don't know if you remember. I think it was too. We were laughing so hard. And I think, and I'm embarrassed by this because when I rewatch the episode, at one point when we're all kind of falling, I think I'm laughing in the episode.

It wouldn't have been, but we were just laughing so hard because it was happening. We were falling. We were trying to hold on to things. And again, those are my favorite moments because just all of us

having a great time together. That's so funny because I was wondering about that. I remember reading that I'm a fan of Star Trek and I watched The Next Generation. Great. And you know,

when they would shoot like battle scenes in The Next Generation, like the actors, like the set wasn't moving or shaking. So the actors would just like move their bodies as if it was happening and they would move the camera at the same time and it's just so funny to think of these like trained it's funny think of patrick stewart like a trained shakespearean actor just like shaking yeah we didn't have our cast they were like this bus is going we're going to actually these people through. They put us through it. We were shaken. So, yes, we have this great physical comedy.

But then we have this other little scene with April and Chris, which is so sweet. You don't see Aubrey this way. She gets to be sweet every now and then. April gets to have her moment. And I think Chris and April have had moments together and she pulls him out of it. She's given him a hug before. Yeah. It's a nice little moment. And it's, again, one of these things where it's like, we have so many

things to do in this episode. It's like, that is something where it's like, could that have been... But it's like, no, that's a very important part of that story. You want to see April in the episode. You want to see Chris. We've got to get everything in there. Oh, and I'm remembering also Doug

we also heard Happily's in this episode another guest actor oh yeah yeah very briefly but enjoyably

as always oh it's always enjoyable when Perd's in the scene yes yes yeah it's a really it's just

it's a nice moment with Chris and April who have had a run where you know he wanted to make her his assistant and she fought that and now she's coming, she's giving him advice and she's looking out for him.

The softening or the heart opening, so to speak, of April Ludgate's arc is very sweet. Growing up too. Growing up, yeah. Her line is so perfect because he tells her he's like in a very dark place and he talks about Millicent and all this stuff. And she just goes,

okay, first of all, dark places are awesome. Secondly, Anne is kind of lame. So way to dodge a bullet. And Millicent is Jerry's daughter. So two bullets. Yeah. And he's like,

oh, okay, fair. Got a lot of friends. Yeah. He kind of was like, all right, yeah, that's a good way of it. And I was thinking about it. Are the two bullets Anne and Millicent? Yeah., are the two bullets, Ann and Millicent?

Yeah. Or are the two bullets, additional bullets, Millicent and Jerry? Because you're dodging having to be attached to Jerry. I think it's Ann and, and the Millicent, but it's really Jerry.

I think it's like Ann, and then the bullet is Jerry, but parentheses, like through Millicent. Yes. A hundred percent. Yes. Okay.

Even though we'll learn later that Jerry's home life is wonderful and Chris would have been so lucky so lucky to be part of the Gurgage household.

Oh my God. The Gurgage family reunion. Oh, sure. Let's wrap up because we have a nice chunk but it's the end of our synopsis. Unfazed by the tour bus blunder

Leslie sits down with Bobby to offer her condolences and grateful for Leslie's outreach, Bobby admits that he was only running for city council to gain his father's approval. The two share a heartfelt

moment and Bobby finds the strength to address the press outside his home, throwing his support behind Leslie while also plagiarizing the story she has just shared with him. Meanwhile, with the campaign coming to a close and realizing her handshake deal with Newport Senior might not

be honored, Jen Barkley drowns her sorrows in the tall drink of Chris Traeger. Now back at Triple B Auto, negotiations have ceased, and in the last ditch effort to win back the rental vans, Donna uses her car to block Bill's truck from exiting the lot.

Enraged, Bill taps her bumper to make her move, prompting Donna to throw her car into reverse and crash into his truck. Meanwhile, back in the bus, Andy is fixated on getting to the bottom of the pie fiasco. And after replaying the footage over and over, he realizes the pie thrower's intended target was actually Ben, not Leslie, leading him to deduce that the perp is none other than Sewage Joe. Sewage Joe, of course.

As Leslie and Ben wrap things up outside the Newport mansion, Andy spots Sewage Joe in the crowd and confronts him, but is unable to stop one last pie launch, which lands squarely on Ben's head. Okay, a lot of stuff, but a lot of stuff is wrapping up in the story we were talking about in an episode that has

a lot of things going on. Let's work backwards. So the pie. Yes, the pie. I remember shooting that too, and it's interesting because when you see it, you kind of assume that they're pretty far from the target. Right.

Right next to you, and you're talking to him, and then it's like, he just throws the pie like two feet. And it immediately hits that, and it was like, it's like he just throws the pie like two feet right right and immediately it's bad and it was like it's just like a very funny moment

it's a very easy throw yeah it's an easy throw like Andy's just not on top of it and I'm sure there was probably some production limitation too where it was like

okay they're actually pretty close together but I can make a joke out of it but there's that great moment he's deducing what it is he's like going through the film it's like the Zapruder film, right? And he's figuring it out.

And he's really analyzing it. And then he makes the realization that Leslie wasn't the target. And then he draws on the whiteboard with permanent marker, which happened in the writer's room. Oh, my gosh. Who did that? I don't remember who did it. I don't know. I don't know why, but I felt like it was like a Katie kind of a thing.

I thought it was Dan, but I don't know. Could have been Dan Gore. But it happened. And I feel like, you know, I think you're right. I think it was Dan. There was a moment. Art imitates life.

We were like, yeah, let's show someone doing this. And to have something you did later be something Andy does. Yes. You probably should not have done that. That's never a good place to be. And Sue's show is so funny. The way that Kirk Fox always delivers the line is so great. Yeah.

Anyway, it's a perfect, I think, a perfect way to end the episode. Also to bring in someone new. Just another great. Yeah, just another Pawnee. Yeah, in the Springfield, Pawnee kind of type life where anybody can be pulled and it's fun. It's like you thought we had enough guest stars. No, there's one last in the last few seconds. Right, right, right.

Jim, we've come to that part of the episode. You know, I love it. Ayesha, you're about to hear some of Jim's crap. It's the stuff we didn't get to that he wants to make sure we call out. Jim, can you give us a load of your crap? Sure. Just one moment when Andy is, you know, he's figuring out the pie situation and he goes, luckily, it only hit Jerry.

So no damage was done. Thank you, Andy, for that. And then when they're trying to figure out what the plan is going to be when they're on the bus and Leslie's trying to have everyone give their opinion. And April goes, I wasn't listening, but I strongly disagree with Ann. That is, I just love when they do that. I loved when the bus ran into Newport's memorial sign. Brilliant. And then Amy tells this beautiful story about, you know, her mother and all Bobby got from it was, oh, now I get it. Your mom and my dad are both dicks. Yes.

Like he did not at all grasp. I understand. So funny. I get it. Don't know. Oh, yeah. And then uses a story. Yeah.

Yeah. And then anytime Andy going, Macklin, you son of a bitch. That is just my favorite. Yes. So that's some of the crap we didn't get to. I love it. Jim, thank you once again for giving us your crap. You know

how much I appreciate it. We also, I love to call it out, our Gifts, Parties, and Jobs segment. Oh, Gifts, Parties, and Jobs. Yes, the great realization that every Parks episode pretty much has a gift, a party, or a job, and sometimes many. Well, Gifts, Parties, and Jobs today,

I think the campaign rally kind of feels like a party, but not an official party. There a job. And sometimes many. Well, gifts, parties, and jobs today. I think the campaign rally kind of feels like a party, but not an official party. There are dancers. There's dancers. There's gifts being given. T-shirts. Those are gifts. Those are gifts. Everyone just at the end of the day wants a t-shirt. We all like a t-shirt. Who doesn't like a t-shirt? That's right. And Leslie brings a fruit basket

to Bobby Newport. Yep. And Andy takes on the new job of Leslie's bodyguard in this episode. So we have gifts parties. I mean, it really is. We got all three, baby. Yes. And Jim, we have to say goodbye to everybody.

Aisha, you are one of my all-time faves. I always love doing Jerry episodes, Jerry scenes. It's so great to work with. It's so great to see you here. It's so good to have you here, Ayesha. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Oh my God. We have to get her back, Jim. Yes, yes. Please, please, Ayesha. You got

to come back. This has been unbelievably great. Thank you all for listening. Text this episode to your group chat. Give us five-star reviews wherever you're listening. Thank you once again to our great team and from all of us here at Parks and Recollection, goodbye

from Pawnee. Parks and Recollection is produced by me, Lisa Berm, and engineered by Joanna Samuel. The podcast is executive produced by Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, Colin Anderson, and Nick Liao. Paula Davis, Gina Batista,

and Brit Kahn are our talent bookers, along with assistance from Maddie Ogden. Our theme song is by Mouse Rat, a.k.a. Mark Rivers, with additional tracks composed by John Danek. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time on Parks and Recollection. This has been a Team Cocoa production.