Parks and Recollection - Andy and April's Fancy Party (S3E9)

Episode Date: June 7, 2022

Today Rob Lowe and Alan Yang are celebrating love in this landmark Parks and Recreation episode! In "Andy and April's Fancy Party" April and Andy's dinner party turns into a surprise wedding. On today's podcast you'll hear why this unwieldy script gave the actors more drive, how airconditioning can be funky on set, the silliness of a rare Donna and Ann B-story, and why Tom Cruise had a tooth removed in The Outsiders. All of this and the first appearance of Orin! Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone] The episode begins with Ron horrifying the entire parks department by pretending to pull his own tooth out with a pair of pliers. After everyone flees the conference room, and Tom passes out, Ron admits to camera that it was a prank and that a dentist had removed the tooth the previous day. In the next scene, April and Andy invite everyone to a dinner party to celebrate their one month anniversary, while Ben explains a job offer dilemma to Leslie which could potentially take him away or keep him in Pawnee.At the party, Leslie discovers that Andy and April’s dinner party is actually a surprise wedding.  Leslie spends most of the party trying to dissuade April and Andy; however, Ron believes it is not Leslie's place to interfere with their decision. Tom is thrilled when Andy makes him his best man, but his excitement quickly fades when Andy also asks Ron, Chris, Ben, and Derek to be his "best men". In an effort to “best” the other best men, Tom tries to throw an impromptu bachelor party to set himself apart, but ends up falling short.In a surprisingly touching ceremony, Andy and April officially become husband and wife. With the help of some sturdy advice from Ron, Leslie accepts their decision and realizes that there’s no right way to do things when it comes to love. The ceremony is followed up with equally heartwarming moments of April telling Leslie how much she means to her and Andy makes a speech to the guests, claiming Tom as his "best" best man and explaining that life is short and that he and April simply did what made them happy. Inspired by Andy’s honesty, Leslie asks Ben to stay in Pawnee, and is pleasantly surprised when he reveals that he had already accepted Chris’ offer that would keep him in Pawnee. In a B story, Ann goes to a singles event at a bar where she runs into a very territorial Donna. At first Donna views Ann as competition, but after witnessing Ann’s painfully awkward social skills, Donna takes Ann under her wing and teaches her some player moves. When Ann hears about Andy getting married from Leslie, she feels deflated and wants to leave, but Donna tells Ann to forget her past and enjoy herself in the present, which Ann ends up doing.

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 Welcome to Parks and Recollection.

I'm your trusty host, Rob Lowe, a.k.a. Chris Traeger, joined by Alan Yang, writer, producer, actor, bassist. Extraordinary. I'm in this one. Yeah, it was weird. I was like, oh, producer, actor, bassist. Extraordinary. I'm in this one. Yeah, it was weird. I was like, oh, this is weird. I know. You got some acting to be,

you got some screen time. A lot of acting. Are you in the Screen Actors Guild? You have to be in the Screen Actors Guild. Oh yeah, I laugh because my girlfriend's a real actor. She's on that show, Dave, on FX. But we get our SAG stuff at the same time.

So like every time we get SAG stuff in the mail, I'm like, two great actors just working in SAG. This is right. She makes her living doing that. Yeah, it's really good. How are you doing? How many guilds are you in? I am in SAG, I'm in the Writers Guild,

WGA, and I'm in the Directors Guild, DGA. That's very impressive. I'm honored to be in your presence. That's all I'm in the director's guild, DGA. So I think that's it. That's very impressive. I'm honored to be in your presence. That's all I'm going to say. Man, this is kind of one of the all-timers, man. This is an all-timer, and I really

have distinct memories of shooting this episode because, as we mentioned, we were both on set for this one in the same room. And just like a landmark episode, very crazy uh kind of decision by by the producing team that what happens in this episode but yeah let's let's get into it episode title is andy and april's fancy party season three episode nine written by katie dipple directed by michael trim uh one of our dps actually who became a director on the show

as well and was directing other stuff as well um original air date, April 14th, 2011. This was a two-week break between this episode and the previous episode, Camping. And the blurb, ain't it April's party, turns into a surprise wedding, but Leslie does not approve. Apologies if that's a spoiler for you, but you know what? You should probably watch the episode before listening to the podcast. So no apologies. Take the apology back. Nopes notes. April and Andy's full names are revealed. April Roberta Ludgate and Andrew Maxwell Dwyer. Like that. Andy is wearing his Reggie Wayne jersey at the wedding.

This is a callback to the Christmas scandal episode when April gives Andy the jersey as a Christmas present. A lot to get into. Let's get into the synopsis. The episode begins with Ron horrifying the entire parks department by pretending to pull his own tooth out with a pair of pliers. After everyone flees the conference room and Tom passes out, Ron admits to the camera that it was a prank and that a dentist had removed the tooth the previous day. In the next scene, April and Andy invite everyone to a dinner party to celebrate their one-month anniversary, while Ben explains a

job-offered dilemma to Leslie, which could potentially take him away or keep him in Pawnee. Got to get to the cold open, by the way. It's a pretty wild cold open. I remember those fake teeth that he had and that he's pulling it out. This feels like a Dan Gore special. He loves kind of like body horror comedy. So it feels like that was partly his brainchild. I could be wrong. Yeah, it was a very funny bit. I it feels like that was partly his brainchild. I could be wrong.

Yeah, it was a very funny bit. I always laughed at that. It was a great, I think one of the best cold opens. Yes. I myself don't have very many horrible dentist experiences. I've never had a cavity. I've never had like a loop canal or anything. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Yeah. You've never had a cavity? Never had a cavity. Yeah, I think it's all genetic, man. I really think it's like you're either born with strong enamel or you, because I feel like some of my friends, it's not like I'm, not like I'm, I'll be honest. I'm not going crazy. I brush my teeth and stuff, but I'm not like a king of dental care.

It's just like, I think it's just, you're born with it or you're not. Because my mom, I think, has really strong teeth and my dad has, gets cavities, but I could be wrong. Yeah. I mean, that's, I think that's just how it goes, you know? Have you had cavities? Are you a normal person? I'm like a normal person. I got all my teeth in my head.

My favorite is when actors get fake teeth put in. That's my favorite thing. And like to try to- Veneers. Or they either get implants or veneers and then then all of a sudden, their voices are just slightly different. I'm not going to name names, but I've been on shows where on the hiatus, somebody comes back and they're just like blindingly white. New teeth. And that little bit of an S sound is bizarre.

are um i remember on um the outsiders tom cruise uh went to a local dentist in tulsa and had a tooth removed because he wanted his character to lose a tooth in the rumble scene and and so tom had that just literally what they call a post which is that what sticks out when you have a fake tooth anyway and i thought that was a serious bit of commitment there yes it's all those fake teeth they just remind me of matt dylan and there's something about where he gets those fake teeth and um but yeah it's it's i love by the way also in this uh cold open that's revealed that ben drives a saturn it's like a very a tooth mid-2000s joke it's like yeah don is talking about her bands he's yeah, no one wants to steal a Saturn. But yeah, that's a great

pull. No from Greg Levine. This is an all-time best episode. One of the top five probably. It's a simple and great premise and activates everyone's storylines. And it also furthers the Leslie and Ben romance. I kind of forgot that aspect. And we'll see later our good friend, the late, great Harris Whittles, kind of

drives the Leslie-Ben plot forward a little bit which is kind of interesting um and it's also it's a really funny opening where they give andy and april give the cards out telling people they're invited but also what to bring and donna's just saying like reading from the card please bring cooked steak like i just like a lot of these bits were like but they're just told what to bring uh really made me laugh so kind of an exciting beginning to this story. Continuing on at the party, Leslie discovers that Andy and April's dinner party is actually a surprise wedding. Leslie spends most of the party trying to dissuade Andy and April. However, Ron believes it's not Leslie's place to interfere with their decision. fear with their decision. Tom is thrilled when Andy makes him the best man, but his excitement quickly fades when Andy also asks Ron, Chris, Ben, and Derek to be his best men. In an effort to best the other best men, Tom tries to throw an impromptu bachelor party to set himself apart, but ends up falling short. A suggestion for the producers here, this episode's a lot of high-speed

comedy and information. As an actor or writer, did it ever feel like it's 10 pounds of sand in a five pound bag, like too much going on? Um, I feel like I remember the script being a bit unwieldy, just like a lot to accomplish. And it's also, I think one of the, the most difficult things was it's about two people getting married and neither of which is the main character, right? So all these other characters, like how do you give them a drive? And, you know, it, it certainly broke pretty naturally that, you know, Leslie's character would want to stop this wedding because it's so accelerated

and that she ultimately would learn the lesson that, you know, she really doesn't have the power to stop this and shouldn't want to control her friends. I feel like also this was, I believe, based on somewhat based on we went around the room and talked about like our parents' wedding stories because or your own. And I believe Dan Gore's parents got married in like two or three weeks or something. And they've been married ever since. So they've been married for 50 years or whatever, and it worked.

So I think that was partial inspiration and kind of justification where you know you just never know you know you just never know i think that's much rarer these days it's like you almost always like spend a lot of time together maybe even live together whatever but um yeah i mean it's a different generation and it worked out yes um there's like there's a few other things in this house that i know it's because like this was on so this set was built on stage. It's basically Burley's house or Andy and April's house. And, um, so it was just a soundstage and it was just kind of, we're just in this room and Rob has talked a lot about being hot on set.

I just remember this room kind of getting hot and like, there's, you know, there's like 30, 40, 50 people in there, including our, all our cast. And then a lot of weird extra guest cast who were in other episodes. You have April's parents, and all of Mouse Rat is there, and then Animal Control is there. It's just kind of a stack. Ben and Derek

are there. And then, of course, April's legendary friend, Oren, who appears at timecode 420 in this episode. That's Oren's first actual appearance. I believe. I believe it is, yes. Legendary characters.

Legendary. And, you know, the thing I remember so much about that set and the stage is it like, can we turn the air conditioning up a little bit? And so I was like, somebody gets in the walkie-talkie, and then they go to some air conditioning plant on the lot and then it takes 30 minutes to turn it on and then it's now it's too cold then you get back on the phone and it takes another 30 minutes it's like such a process it's why are stages always like that i feel like stages i was like it's too hot it's too cold we were shooting a show on

paramount it was like it's freezing and then it's too hot and then's too cold. We were shooting a show on Paramount. It's freezing and then it's too hot. And they have these, if you're in a non-air-conditioned space, they get that tube in that runs the air conditioning in, the big tube. I'll just always, you know, this is a gigantic hydraulic tube that they run into the set to cool it down. But yeah, I just remember all the bodies in this. And it just evoked a lot of memories. There was in the scene where Leslie is talking to April in the bathroom, there's a mouse rat poster with like pictures of all the members.

And I have that poster framed in my house. Yeah, it's like kind of a, you know, you remember that stuff. You know, it's not a typical Parks and Rec model, this episode. It's kind of like a very special episode in some ways, but it's also got a lot of comedy in it. We got to talk about the B story. In the B story, and there seems like there's kind of only two stories in this episode. Tom has kind of a runner C story,

but Anne goes to a singles event at a bar where she runs into a very territorial Donna. At first, Donna views Anne as competition, but after witnessing Anne's painfully awkward social skills, Donna takes Anne under her wing and teaches her some player moves. When Anne hears about Andy getting married from Leslie, she feels deflated and wants to leave, but Donna tells Anne to forget her past

and enjoy herself in the present, which Anne ends up doing. Wild B story. This episode, you remember getting married, you remember the song and the vows and all this stuff. Andy in the in the reggie wayne jersey and then you forget like anna donna like a singles party i was like this is a rare anna donna i was like what wait wait what i hadn't watched the episode in a while i was like oh just a whole other b story with anna donna like a bar and like them talking to dudes and and donna kind of being mean to anna

at the start also she does her trademark uh drinking two shots which i really love which is uh in a lot of uh in a lot of clips of donna it's um oh yeah she donna has that great thing she asks and if she's nell from the movie nell yes great reference it's it's amazing I couldn't believe how many movie references there are in this episode. We tried to not do too much pop culture, but it's kind of fun to see it now. I mean, because she says Nell from the movie Nell, and then Leslie says, is this a walk to remember situation where you're getting married because April's sick? And then Ron says, Julia Roberts, you mean that toothy girl from Mystic Pizza? There's so many references and it's like and we see later there's a swingers reference lord of the rings

wedding crashers fred claus avatar like it's it's so whatever happened our filter of not doing pop culture did not work on this episode there's so much also funny that uh donna just didn't get invited to the wedding or just didn't go like she gets invited in the beginning and then she just chooses i guess i guess the justification by the writers is uh she just wants a date she's trying to hook up that night she didn't go to the she's just not at the wedding i was like okay kind of sad um all right in a surprisingly touching ceremony andy and april officially become husband and wife with the help of some sturdy advice from ron leslie accepts their decision and realizes that there's no right way to do things when it comes to love. The ceremony is followed up with equally heartwarming moments of April telling Leslie how much she means to her

and Andy making a speech to the guests, claiming Tom as his best best man and explaining that life is short and that he and April simply did what made them happy. Inspired by Andy's honesty, Leslie asks Ben to stay in Pawnee and is pleasantly surprised when he reveals that he's already accepted Chris's offer that would keep him in Pawnee. A lot of like real emotion. Like there's a part where a Simon and Garfunkel song comes up and it's April Come She Will. And, you know, there's such a balance in this show. And I think a lot of shows that Mike has created, like're sweet shows, but they generally don't get into really, really, hopefully over the top or sentimental or saccharine moments. But I think in the case of a wedding like this, I think as the writers, I think we felt like we earned a little bit of that right so you do 35 episodes or whatever of pretty comedic stuff and then okay one sweet moment and i think that was the kind of

vibe i was kind of surprised when they just like played the music non-diegetically like under the under the show like that almost never happens right we talked about it tom petty um right at the end of the harvest festival episode but to hear it in this episode was like wow they're just playing a simon and garfunkel song so So I was like, hey, music budget, got to work out these couple episodes. It's pretty rare. But yeah, it's really sweet, man. I just like Pratt and Aubrey together. It was a big

swing. It was a big swing. And the Reggie Wayne jersey he wears, obviously, we got to give props to. At the time, Reggie Wayne was the great receiver for the Indianapolis Colts, and it sets up in a later episode when we actually go to Indiana, go to Indianapolis, and we will do a scene with Reggie Wayne. Reggie Wayne, that's right. Andrew Luck was there and the owner of the team, and we got to hang out on the field.

It all began here with this jersey and his wedding. Hey, guys, you know, I wanted to pop in to say that I remember when this idea was pitched. I remember being in the room. We were on our writer's retreat, actually, which we've talked about. We usually did at the beginning of every season in the early summer to talk about, you know, the season arcs and the shape of certain character stories and pitch on the early episode ideas. This one happened after episode six of season three, because we've talked about the weird shooting schedule that we shot the first six episodes of season three tagged on to season two. And so at this writer's retreat, I remember two big things came out of it. One was the shape and moves and

story moves of the Harvest Festival episode. And the other one was this idea, which was just a germ of an idea at that time. And it was in one of these little pods where some of us were in a room. I remember Mike was in that room and we were sitting around and someone pitched this idea that they got married. I don't remember who it was, but I remember this electricity in the room with everyone's eyes kind of meeting and saying, that's really weird. But that's also a really good idea. And the more you talked about it, the more it just stuck. And I remember the excitement of when we all got together, the different pods kind of report back on our different assignments. I remember the excitement of pitching it to the rest of the room. I mean, I didn't remember Mike pitching it. And just you could see it in the

room and everyone's imaginations are going in that creative space. And you know that you've stumbled on something really cool, really weird, really unexpected, but at the same time, just makes sense. And so that's where this idea was born. When I think about this episode, it makes me think back to like, you know, I just have a set of photos from this set. Like speaking of like the genuine emotion, like it's just such a it's such a time capsule of, you know, our lives at that at that at that time. And it's also tinged with, you know, obviously, you know, there's photos of Harris Whittles there. And like, you know, we were on set that week because, you know, the way you shoot the show is like even you have a little part like we're in the background of all these shots so like people are shooting their talking heads or whatever like we're in the background of all these scenes so we just spent a lot of time on set i remember harris playing songs on the guitar and you know

us pitching jokes for aziz and when he was doing his talking heads and and and um just kind of like a real familial atmosphere because you know as we mentioned before like people aren't always all on set at the same time and in the case of this wedding episode it's like yeah like pretty much all 10 cast members except for donna i guess as we mentioned but but you know a lot of the cast is all in the same room and you know you're kind of celebrating like the show has gotten over this hump and and it's just kind of clicking and and uh you know again like i look back i i think on my instagram there's some photos and it's just kind of clicking and and uh you know again like i look back i i think on my instagram there's some photos and it's like yeah there's photos of you know the whole cast

and and you know they're andy april and chris and and everybody you know we have pratt and and aubrey wearing their wedding outfits and we're dressed as mouse rad and and and harris is in his uniform it's just like yeah it's a really sort of bittersweet kind of memory of this so um yeah it's kind of like a i don't know i always remember this episode and and um and then and then uh this is one of the only mouse rat songs by the way that was not written by mark rivers a little piece of trivia yeah it was like there's this song called the song is a listen to the song this episode it's called two birds holding So yeah, I remember this song not being written by Mark because we would learn all the songs as a band and practice them and record them, whatever. And then in this practice space in North Hollywood, then we would play them on set.

And then at the end of every season, we would play the songs at the rap party. So I remember this song being a little bit more complicated. And just to get into the lyrics very quickly, by the way, it's on Genius.com, formerly RapGenius.com. If you want to Google mouse rat, two birds holding hands lyrics, you'll see. Let's just go through the verses here. April, there's so little time, things I really want to do. Let's fly through the sky because it's so awesome and blue. We fly over the mountains or through the sea we can do whatever we want just you and me two birds holding hands so much better than one we'll do anything together even eat some bacon i guess that's the rhyme there all right oh no let's fly to africa so all over that place so all over the

place is the like i i have to sing that backing vocal yes it's that we can go bowling then hitch a ride to outer space let's fly to that restaurant maybe arby's is the place to be we can go wherever we want because it's you and me so there's a lot of thoughts here i mean it's we can go bowling uh birds don't have hands they're going bowling he's talking about arby's it's really like it's one of the crazier sets of lyrics i've written that look every mazart song has really stupid lyrics but this one i feel like is is really up there in terms of uh weirdness level and by the way he's just playing this song at his wedding so let's never forget that it's very crazy and i think you can tell that mark didn't write it because it's a little

bit more complicated it's like actually a little bit like it's instead of just being three chords like musicians out there know what i'm talking about instead of being like one four five or whatever over and over again it's like it's it's it's actually has a little bit more to it and like they actually watching it was i couldn't believe like they made me sing in it like i'm singing a little bit and it's like's like, what is happening? I actually don't remember that. Mousetrap became Steely Dan for a moment. Yeah. It's like suddenly like it was very crazy.

And of course we got to remember the, the Chris Traeger dance moves in this one. You remember, you remember dancing in this episode? Do I remember dancing in this episode? I, this is, there are certain times in the life of playing a character where you kind of, I don't know, find a new gear, go to the next level, find something surprising, however you want to describe it. In the script, it just says, Chris dances crazily, I think, was the description.

And it didn't say what song or anything. i chose um jump around by house of pain oh that's amazing i didn't know that you chose that song yeah i did because i knew i was thinking what can i just get crazy crazy insane to and that is you know an easy song to do it too so i asked you know a few days before we shot it to make sure we could afford it and that is you know an easy song to do it too so i asked you know a few days before we shot it to make sure we could afford it and that it would clear the legal department we could actually get it and we got it so we had it on the set i had them queue it up to exactly the point in the song i wanted it to be um and and i remember we did one take and so what you see is literally one take. And the reactions you see from the cast are real. And I was still, you know, this was still kind of early, you know, on my.

Yeah. I think this is only about episode eight or nine or something of me being on the show. And I think they were both awed and appalled i think they they truly could not believe their eyes and and um it's it's something it's one of my favorite things i've ever done because it is the um definition of as an actor of i don't give a fuck i just fucking went for it there's there's and there's a great cutaway of of aubrey reacting you can tell her reaction is genuine because she's like what is going on this is like and i think it's kind of i think it's also like you earned some goodwill with the cast because it's like you know you've come in and you're you know you're an

established actor like people know who you are and you've done some drama but it's like no this guy's gonna be this guy's gonna commit you know i think that's like i'm literally looking at this frame right now like there's a little screenshot and you know you can see pratt you can see harris you can see you know or you can see some of these people in the background and it's like there it's just pure joy it's just pure joy that's that's kind of like you know the like this episode kind of like there this episode. There's just this joy to it. And by the way, great gif or great jif. I see we got like a – there's feedback of how do you say gif, and I know there's a split.

But you say gif, right? I feel like I say gif most of the time. I know people like to say jif, but I say gif. It's a gif, and that is definitely in the gifs that are out there over the years of stuff that I've done. And that particular gif of that freeze frame and the dance move, I love when that shows up. Because I had so much fun. It's one of the highlights of playing Chris Traeger.

Well, I have, if I, Stop Pooping is one. And I have to say, this dance. And then, of course, we're going to have Take me out to the ball game later on in a different episode. But those are those are kind of my favorite things I did as Chris. Yeah, just just pure goofy and silly. And yeah, like the way it ties in with the sort of Leslie and Ben story is kind of sweet. Right. It's just like we're just now leaning into it. and ben's story is kind of sweet right it's just like we're just now leaning into it and i think i think there was some sort of you know some patience and some kind of slow playing that

story right it's it they had they had sort of earned each other's respect in a work context and so finally like this episode you know like you said we're nine ten episodes in for for your guys's run and you kind of okay now we start that year and now that's gonna propel us for the back half of the season um but yeah again this i'll just never forget this weird fake midwestern living room with the weird carpeting and the wood paneling and and on a soundstage and a lot in studio city the cbs radford lot of this room i have to say it i i'm a big true crime guy documentary guy and i'm i'm watching this thing on John Wayne Gacy, and it looks a little bit like John Wayne Gacy's house. There you go. John Wayne Gacy, was that the serial killer who dressed up as a clown? Yeah, Pogo the Clown. Yeah. And I think he might have been living in April and Andy's house from the looks of things.

Yes. I mean, we never ruled out that Burley is actually John Wayne Gacy. It could be the same guy. It's just, that's the D story of this episode that got cut. It's in the producer's cut. Trying to think, anything else in this episode, Rolo? I mean, it's a big episode. It's definitely the most emotional,

very famous episode. And in many ways, it's just the most simple. And you could come in and just watch this and know exactly what you're seeing without having watched anything else in the show. And I always like those. background on how why why we decided to get april and andy married so quickly i think one of the biggest motivating factors was that it was just unexpected and surprising and and yet also felt motivated by how these two characters were and i just like the idea that that that it's a love story that works and you know it's exactly the kind of immature thing that they would do and everyone in their lives probably didn't want them to do it. And then it works out. It's kind of beautiful. How long did you know your wife before you got married?

A long time. A long time. We were best friends for a super, super, super long time. And we've been together now 30 plus years. I just went, I golfed yesterday with a man who's 73 years old, met his wife at a Dairy Queen. Within two hours, they knew they were going to get married and they hadn't even held hands. They've been married 55 years. They shared a blizzard at that Dairy Queen.

And that was it. Is this secret a Dairy Queen advertisement? Is this right? Is it guerrilla marketing? Yeah. Yeah. I made a sports bet and lost it. And the losing of the bet was that I had to figure out a way to mention his name in one of the podcasts.

And this fits perfectly because his dad is the story I told. So I'm going to put his name in that story. So I was golfing with my friend Porter Payne. It was a pretty amazing story, by the way. It's like it all tied in. Like the Dairy Queen aspect was like, this is really crazy. Isn't that crazy? Yeah.

Where'd you go golfing, by the way? Oh, just Augusta National Golf Club. Thank you for asking. No way. Is that really the answer? Absolutely the answer. That was the greatest setup ever. I mean, I legit didn't know.

I was like, Rollo doesn't even know this, but I just started playing golf, so I'm learning. I'll play with you someday. It's like an obsession. It was a COVID thing for me. I had never played before. It's like a sport you can play when you're not. People don't know this about me, but I have two torn Achilles tendons that I tore from playing basketball. I don't play basketball anymore,

but golf is awesome. We have to play Pratt. We'll do meet you in Pratt because Pratt and I were texting. I was texting him. I'm on the eighth hole. He's like, bro, are you at Amen Corner? And so, yeah, it was a dream come true. Any golfer out there knows.

It's one of those things, if you know, you know. It's the Sistine Chapel of golf. I just wanted to go. My friend was at the Masters and he was like, oh man, I almost texted you because I had an extra spot for like Saturday or something. But yeah, I would like to just visit first of all, and it exceeds it. Oh, that's awesome. I mean, this episode to me is really just like, this is, when I look back at my photos, like I have maybe the most photos of this episode because it's just like, the show was kind of firing in all cylinders.

And everybody's there. Everybody's there. That's the other thing is like, everybody's there. And you look back, it's like, we're all kind of babies of babies and it's like you just look back and you're like this is think about where everyone went after this and and and this was like this moment where we all we all got to hang out and like just just make the dumbest jokes like think about that john ralphio and and and and and tom uh uh talking head about about wedding crashers and and Vince Vaughn would do as the best man. And it's so of the era too, right?

It's like, and now John Raphael is the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog. So it's like, it's literally like, you know, you never know, man. You never know. All right. Any final thoughts on this episode, Rob? If you want to have a warm and fuzzy,

if you're into warm and fuzzies, this is your episode. It is impossible to not have a little misty-eyed warm and fuzzy at the end of it, and that's always a good thing. Yeah, and it's also cute to have kind of Ron and Leslie and kind of the quasi mom and dad role, right?

It's like, God, this one in the camping episode, we were just watching just Nick is so fucking warm and just like fatherly, this one in the camping episode, we were, we were just watching, uh, just Nick is so, he's so fucking warm and just like fatherly. And it also said, can I like, we've always set him up as kind of like a surrogate dad to April and like, he's just like this wise, wise old dad. And, and it just like, kind of like it fits in perfectly. Um, but yeah, one of the all time greats and, and, and, uh, very rewatchable. Very rewatchable and very sweet. And I don't know. It just works.

You never thought. It's like a dog and a cat getting married. Who'd have thought? April and Andy. April and Andy. Oops moment. No oops moment because I guess it's perfect. Episode MVP, most valuable pawn in.

Wow, this is a great question. What character moment in this episode sticks out the most to you and why i think we have have we ever done co-mvps we've done that yet and we've never done it i think for me this is co-mvp it's april and andy yeah i like that i mean this is because they're you know at the end of the day if you don't invest in them you don't invest in those characters then then none of this works and you got to root for them. They have to be funny, but they have to be real or in a gear that we don't get into all the time, which is kind of an authentic, real feeling romance thing. And particularly, like you said, for those characters, those are, you know, hard comedy characters usually, and they're not the leads of the show and they're they're your investment in them has to carry this episode it's it's a testament to them like it's a testament to the actors as well like i want to say that because it it there's more depth to those characters than

like you said just hard comedy characters and you know they can deliver and i think this relationship between the two characters helped us as writers dimensionalize them and turn them into funny people as opposed to just like, hey, these are kind of cartoon characters or whatever, which is always a temptation, right? So the fact that April hates everything in the world, except for one thing, Andy, and that Andy is an idiot about everything in the world, but when it comes to April, it shows some level of maturity and some level of being an adult. It just helps you round them out

and it's kismet, really. It was sort of like because they were paired together in the hunting trip episode and they were left alone in the office, suddenly they're married next season. I think that's just interesting, interesting storytelling and I'm glad it all worked out.

Listeners, let us know who your MVP is by tweeting Team Coco Podcast or by using the hashtag Parks and Recollection. I want to also just say some runner-ups here. Chris Traeger in House of Pain, a runner-up too, and then a runner-up three, Oren, because we'll see more of him in the future. I can't argue with those. I can't. I'm not going to argue with either one of those. All right. Shall we do a town hall?

Yeah. Do you want to go to the town hall? I think you do. Let's do it. Town Hall this week, not a town howl. Town Hall. I think, listen, we got to do it from April and Andy's house. Why wouldn't we?

Yeah, I think we do it from Burley's living room. Shout out to Burley, played by Andrew Burlinson, who was one of Mike's actual friends. He just stuck in a mouse rat, much like he stuck me in a mouse rat. So it's Burley's living room. April and Andy are living there, and they just squat in his house for years and years. And I guess, you know, ultimately Ben moves in. Anyway, we'll get to that in later episodes, but it's pretty crazy. This town hall comes to us from Erica in Texas.

Hi, Rob and Alan and Greg and Schulte. Love the shout out to them. I'm a huge Parks and Rec fan. I've rewatched and watched the show multiple times. Andy and April's Wedding is one of my favorite episodes, but I've always wondered why the writers of the show married April and Andy off so quickly. P.S. Love the show. And Rob, really love your inside Hollywood scoops.

Thanks to you, I now know what a craftsman house is, among many other things. Also really glad y'all caught the Justin Theroux, Jennifer Aniston connection in the Galentine's Day episode. I felt like I was the only one who thought it was funny pnr predicted the future ha ha ha love the podcast y'all are great erica p from texas dude teaching people about architecture get that architectural digest guess guess i'm not just a pretty face i know about architecture come on i mean honestly like if you want to treat Google Rob Lowe Architectural Digest because there's a gorgeous, gorgeous spread of one of his houses.

That is true. It's one of my favorite things was when I saw that house, I was like, damn, Rob really knows how to make a house work, man. It's a beautiful house. I literally have been on the cover of Architectural Digest more than I've been on the cover of GQ. Maybe justifiably. Those are some beautiful houses, man. Beautiful houses. A great question.

Thank you so much, Erica, for writing in and thank you for the kind words. And, you know, again, it was a little bit like I alluded to earlier. I think, you know, I think you could do the standard thing where it's like not even a will they, won't they, but they're just dating forever, forever, forever.

We just hadn't seen this kind of surprise wedding thing done recently and and and it just made sense for these two characters because they're kind of silly in a way but when you watch this episode it gives them a little bit of emotional depth it's like you know and it's kind of it ended up getting giving leslie a pretty interesting story as well because you know you put in a position where you see your friends potentially making a bad decision, but you have to come around to the realization that you're not in control of their lives. I don't know. It was something we definitely discussed on the writer's retreat. It's the kind of thing where you debate it over and over again in the writer's room and then the pros start to outweigh the cons and it and it propels you into an interesting position right because you you make that decision and then you kind of have to decide how that impacts the rest of the season and the rest of

the show for those two characters um and uh yeah i don't know it also it also gave birth to this episode which i think you know is all kind of worth it yeah uh all right uh legendary episode and another fun one for the show, man. It's really been good going through these. I'm glad you're just a regular in the show now and we can talk about your experiences on set. It's really helping me out. Yeah.

And, you know, these episodes are so distinct to me that it's the weirdest thing. I rewatched them and it feels like a billion years ago and it also feels like yesterday. Yes, I feel like this episode had genuine emotion and I got genuine emotional watching it. So it's been really fun. Thank you all for listening.

Please subscribe where you get your podcasts. Give us a five-star review on Apple. Thank you to Shulte and Greg. And goodbye from Pawnee. See you next week. Coordinating producer is Lisa Berm. The podcast is executive produced by Alan Yang for Alan Yang Productions, Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher.

Gina Batista, Paula Davis, and Britt Kahn are our talent bookers. The 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 Coco production in association with

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