Parks and Recollection - Ben Schwartz: Woman of the Year (S2E17)

Episode Date: February 15, 2022

Pawnee is flush with guests! Today Rob and Alan welcome the legendary Ben Schwartz on the pod to talk about the 17th episode of season 2. In "Woman of the Year" Leslie is upset when Ron wins an award typically meant for women. On today's episode find out why Ben made it a game to make Retta laugh, how this episode helped loosen-up the character of Jean-Ralphio, and which character Ben originally auditioned for. Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone] The Parks Dept. receives a letter from the Pawnee chapter of the IOW (Indiana Organization of Women), which Leslie believes is her congratulatory letter as the recipient of the group's Dorothy Everton Smythe Woman of the Year award. Much to her horror, the award has actually gone to Ron in recognition of town projects Leslie primarily developed. Ron privately acknowledges the award as a ridiculous mistake; however, uses the opportunity to mess Leslie before later recommending her as the award recipient. When IOW director visits Ron, it’s revealed that a man was strategically chosen for the first time for marketing purposes. Frustrated with the politics of the awards, Leslie and Ron plan for him to make a disparaging acceptance speech condemning the awards. However, at the ceremony itself, Ron instead publicly presents the award to Leslie, who tries to present it instead to Ron, who precedes to present it back to Leslie. The next day's newspaper proclaims Ron the winner, with Leslie and Ron later deciding that the award is meaningless, anyway. The plaque is thrown into a wastebasket, where Leslie later secretly retrieves it.In a subplot, Tom drops off a temporary liquor license renewal at the Snakehole Lounge nightclub, where the owner Freddy (Andy Milder) tells him they are seeking investors who can buy a share for $10,000. With only $4000 to spend, Tom reveals part-ownership in a nightclub is a longtime dream of his, and seeks partnership from his fast-talking friend, Jean-Ralphio (Ben Schwartz), who contributes $5,000. Still in need of $1,000 to seal the deal, Tom seeks further help from his co-workers. Donna expresses an interest, but decides against it when she meets Jean-Ralphio,  Meanwhile, when Andy's band-mate Burly (Andrew Burlinson) tells Andy he can no longer live with him, April helps Andy look for an apartment. They find one near her house, prompting a smitten April to note that they can carpool to work together. But when Andy learns Tom needs $1,000, he forgoes the apartment to give Tom the money as a gift. April is surprised by the choice and disappointed with the result. In the episode's final scene, Tom is shown enjoying his nightclub part ownership, until he learns Donna has bought three shares herself.

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 Ben, you had a question for us.

Yes, my question, first of all, hi, how are you, Rob? How are you, Alan? Lovely to see both of you. So good to see you again. Really good to see you. And then my question was, what is this? What happens here, is my question, kind of. Yeah, so that's hard. It's hard to articulate, really. Here's what's great. I have a Harvard-educated partner. Okay.

So whenever a question is above my intellect, I just turn to the smart guy. Alan, what are we doing here? I mean, my degree was in biology. It has no, bears no relevance to anything I've done in my life the last 20 years. It truly has no That's crazy. You have a biology major? That's what you graduated

with? That's right. You can tell my work, right? Yeah, of course. It's the same stuff. Well, the answer is we start talking about an episode of parks and rec and then we inevitably derail to something totally unrelated and then shoot the shit our friends perfect so i think you could do that you think you could do that yeah this sounds fantastic actually yeah i'm loving the tapestry behind you this is so this

is what you guys are seeing right now you're seeing a little bit behind the music this is where i record all my voiceover for my animated movies and shows. Wow. So I built this in my little in my closet and so this is like this is supposed to be the soundproofness behind me. There's a carpet here. That's what I talk into.

Is this where Sonic was recorded? No. Sonic is too. They wouldn't let me do the Sonic here but DuckTales and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and all the ADR for anything during COVID happened here. Sonic, they come in and put in a higher quality blanket behind you. Yeah, yeah. I'd go to Jim Carrey's house for Sonic.

Yeah, exactly. I don't know, man. I feel like I'm looking at Abbey Road. I think I'm looking at where the real magic happens. I mean, you kind of... This is... I think we know that this is exactly like Abbey Road. I think I'm looking at where the real magic happens. I mean, you kind of... This is... I think Robbie and Nilda, this is exactly like Abbey Road. Yes. Yeah, I would

say there's as much audio history in that room. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's certainly more relevant at this point. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Should we talk about the episode, Rob? Do you want to do a welcome at all? Yeah, who knows? Who knows? Listen, welcome, everybody. We're already getting down here. Today is a big day. We have Ben Schwartz with us, the legendary John Rolfio. Wow. And we have a great episode we're talking about today. It's called Woman of the Year, and it was episode 17 of season two, which aired on March 4th, 2010, was written by Norm Hiscock and directed by Jason Wallenier.

That's right. Canadian legend, Norm Hiscock, kids in the hall he's he also saturday night live in king of the hill and he worked with greg on a billion he's uh helped show run uh the show i'm currently on called space force with greg this year he came on oh wow that's right he was amazing my favorites man he's one of my favorites huge story guy very sweet guy too he's got that sweet nicest person in the world and jason walter is an incredible director this is a good episode. Natalie attired Jason Walner directed the Borat sequel. Yeah, he wears a suit on set because he looks so young that people think he's a production assistant. So he told me very early on when I started directing, I was like, what do you do? He's like, well, I like to wear a suit because people think I'm too young to direct.

So I wear a suit to set. So I was like, okay, that's good advice. Is that where you got the suit idea, Alan? Really? No, I was wearing that kind of before. So you know what? Jason doesn't get total credit for that. But yeah, that's when I used to wear what Polar would call soft blazers

all the time. Yeah, that's a good phrase for it. A soft blazer. A kind jacket. Yes. It's just like, it's not too structured. Well, let me go through the episode synopsis and then we can chat freely. I'm curious to know, Ben, if how much of this you remember, so get ready. I didn't know what this was, Rob.

I should have contacted either of you. When I saw what the title of the episode was, I was like, oh, I haven't seen these episodes since they've aired. This is great. It's perfect. I watched this one literally 10 minutes ago, finished it 10 minutes ago, so I know exactly what it's about.

Oh, it's very fresh. But could never in a hundred years have told you what it was until then. But now everything is like, I remember everything. Well, there we go. So here's the synopsis. Very exciting. Most exciting part of the show. The Parks Department receives a letter from the Indiana Organization of Women. Much to Leslie's horror, the award she's been waiting for has gone to Ron

in recognition of town projects Leslie primarily developed. Ron privately acknowledges the award as a ridiculous mistake. However, he uses the opportunity to mess with Leslie before recommending her as the award recipient later. It's revealed that a man was strategically chosen for the first time for marketing purposes. Frustrated with the politics of the awards, Ron publicly presents the award to Leslielie who tries to present it instead to ron who proceeds to present it back to leslie the next day's newspaper proclaims ron the winner with leslie and ron with leslie and ron later deciding that the award is

meaningless anyway the plaque is thrown into a wastebasket where leslie later secretly retrieves it in a subplot i love this phrase in a subplot that we don't use that that often in a subplot a b story tom drops off a temporary liquor license renewal at the Snake Hole Lounge nightclub where the owner, Freddie, tells him they're seeking investors who can buy a share for $10,000. Tom reveals part ownership in a nightclub is a longtime dream of his and seeks partnership from his fast talking friend, the legend, Jean-Ralphio, played by Ben Schwartz, who contributes. But Tom is still in need of one more thousand dollars to seal the deal. Tom seeks further help from his co-workers. Donna expresses an interest, but decides against it when she meets Jean-Ralphio and hates his guts. Meanwhile, when Andy's bandmate Burleigh tells Andy he can no longer live with him, April helps Andy look for an apartment.

They find one near her house, prompting a smitten April to note that they can carpool to work together. But when Andy learns Tom needs $1,000, he forgoes the apartment and gives Tom the money. In the episode's final scene, Tom is shown enjoying his nightclub part ownership until he learns Donna has bought three shares herself. That's the tag. We even did the tag in the synopsis. Jesus. That's the episode. The episode's over now.

The podcast episode's over now. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in. See you next week. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we all did. that's the episode the episode's over now the podcast episode's over now thank you thanks for tuning in see you next week i hope you enjoyed it as much as we all did parks and recollection is produced rob i don't know if you were in the show yet for this one were you no and that's and that's what's been really fun for me actually is to um do these episodes leading up to my appearance in parks and rec and because i'm really just an audience member. I mean, I have no dog in the fight. I wasn't there.

Didn't know anything about it. So I get to comment on the episodes as just as a fan. And it's super, super fun. And and also watching these episodes, I get to go, oh, that's where that had its, you know, origin. Right. I wanted to ask Ben while we have them. Oh, yeah, because I'm heading out in like two minutes. After the synopsis, we've got about one minute left in the episode. Uh, like, I don't

know. I want to talk to you about like how, what you were doing when you started doing this character, what you were thinking. Yeah. What was it? Because I know the lines were crazy. I like Harris Whittles wrote a lot of the lines. I remember we were writing all this, this shit kind of as a room, but, but we were excited about casting you. We always wanted to cast you. When you came to set, everyone was reading the lines, what was going through your mind building this character?

Well, I'll tell you the way that I got it was that I had a meeting with Katie Dippold. Oh, no, I had these shorts that I did for ESPN where I interviewed athletes a long time ago, and Mike Schur saw it, and then he had a meeting with me, Harris Whittles and Katie Dippold when Katie was still on the staff. And he said, Hey, and they were interviewing me about the role of, um, Amy's police boyfriend. Do you remember that

role? Yes. Yes. Officer Dave. Yes. Officer Dave. And so we did it. We had a good time. They're like, you're just too young for this. But I remember what Mike said. He goes, think about the show, like the Simpsons, you know, there good time. They're like, you're just too young for this. But I remember what Mike said. He goes, think about the show like The Simpsons. You know, there's all these different characters that, you know, are around the town and we'll get to meet. So hopefully someone will pop up. And then the behind the scenes part of this is that someone had emailed my agent being like, hey, we have this role for Ben if he's interested in. And nobody ever told me. And then the assistant at the desk passed on the role for me without even telling me that it came through, which is like the scariest thing in the world because this role ended up being such a huge deal for me.

And then I didn't even know about it. And then Katie Dippel emailed me. She's like, oh, I'm so bummed you're not joining us. I was like, what are you talking about? Joining you for what? She goes, Parks, we just found out you passed. I go, what are you, crazy? Whatever it is, I'll do it.

Nobody ever told me. And so they said, okay. And then I emailed and I guess someone was like sub Whatever it is, I'll do it. Nobody ever told me. And so they said, oh, okay. And then I emailed, and I guess someone was like subbing in at a desk for a day and made a mistake somehow. And then I just, I literally told Katie, I was like, I don't even care what it is, do whatever it is. Whatever it is, I'll do it, of course. And she's like, okay, great. And so then I went in, and the first time I kind of read it in front of anybody was when I did that first scene, the interview with me and Ron Swanson, and I did it once in rehearsal, and then Mike sure came up

to me in my ear and says, he'll be coming back. And then he ran up to the writer's room to write the next episode. And it was like the best feeling in the world. A legend was born. But no, I remember that story distinctly, and it drove me wild to think about it. Do you know that someone passed

on me? Yes, because we later talked about it and because you became such a huge part of the show and we were saying, oh my God, this is why actors get so paranoid about stuff because if we didn't happen to know you, because obviously you knew Katie and Harris and I think we had met already and you were around UCB,

we all were friendly with you, but if we hadn't known you and we're on an email text basis with you, et cetera, like you would never have known. We offered you, straight offered you the part. Dude, I would love to. So, so I've never heard your side of the story at all, but what was said, like, I didn't know anything. All I know is when Katie emailed me, I would love to find out. Cause then I've, I told that I've still told the story maybe once in my life because i'm afraid of embarrassing whoever did it yeah but whoever did i'm sure murder whoever did it well it all worked out well but but we were we were what happened on your side you guys offered me the role you guys

knew you were going out to me and then what did you hear back yes we offered we offered you the role this was one of the two weirdest moments in park's history in casting i think was offering you the role and then knowing again that you were excited about the role you'd already met with us you were friendly with us and yeah i told mike i do whatever he wants exactly and then it's like i remember i want to i don't know if it was mike or somebody but someone came back through and was like yeah bench sports passed on this role and we were like what we couldn't like it's not like we couldn't believe it because like oh maybe he has another show or something but but we all we all were like we should reach out to him and just see what's going on because it it's possible we just want to preserve the

scintilla of a hope that there was possible there was a miscommunication and that's what it was and it was like you appeared in how many episodes 20 30 who knows how many episodes it was literally that crazy that's like rob is that not the actor's nightmare that's the nightmare my blood is boiling literally my blood is boiling right now by the way i said that was that was one of the two weirdest moments in casting history the second was when we straight offered verner herzog to play a part in parks and he immediately accepted so that was the two those were the two the two ends of the spectrum. That's right. Mike walking back in the room and said,

Werner Herzog's in. We're like, what? We offered to him almost as a joke because we knew he would pass. He said yes. Schwartz said no originally. I can't believe that. And I can't believe someone passed on my behalf

without telling me I was offered the role. It was such an insane thing that I never really talked about it because I was like, wait, this can't happen. I assumed that it was the assistant that was covering the desk that said something I don't know what. And by the way, I don't think I was attached to a show. And even if I was, it was a guest

star, so I could have done it. So it was all very, it made me very sad. And then I hate confrontation, so I didn't do anything about it. You look, your career ended up being great, so it didn't matter. It didn't matter. It didn't matter't matter but you're right if i didn't know you guys i never would have gotten the email being like are you sure i'm like are you sure about what you passed like passed on what i don't even what are you talking about whatever it is i'm in and she's like oh great

and that was it and i came to work like two days later i mean we're all lucky that it happened because it was to me it was a unique matching of actor to character that is almost irreproducible. I have a question for you guys because I wasn't there for the cooking up of all of it. Like how, and you can see it in these two episodes you've been in now so far. The first one, the hair is not there yet. The hair has not arrived. It will be arriving. The hair has not arrived.

It will be arriving. And when we talked about the first episode, which Katie wrote, when we had Katie on the show, and she was great, you hadn't discovered your John Raphael signature singing of dialogue yet. That makes its appearance in this episode and made me super happy.

Well done, Rob. He has arrived. Can I tell you also, makes its appearance in this episode and made me super happy because i felt like john he is he has arrived can i tell you also the first time i met rob was we it was on set and obviously i'm sure everybody says something come on but like i've seen rob my entire life rob is a part of cinema history when if you're someone my age you've watched rob literally your whole life growing up and he's always like he's always incredible actor but also the you know handsome and lovely and amazing and so i met him and there's a little bit of nerves when you meet someone like that because when you see them you see the version of them from movies instead of like them as a human and rob there's no way you remember but uh it was a couple episodes in from whatever and i met him and i go hey man i'm such a big fan he goes oh my god my kids love you

and i was like wow I said, really? He goes, your character on this show is one of their favorites. They go crazy. And it made me like any anxiety I had kind of went away because I feel like I already got approval from someone in that family. So like, and it was very relaxing. And it gave me confidence to like go even crazier. Because like if you watch John Ralphio at the beginning,

he's kind of like douchey and then slowly, like slowly becomes a cartoon character. So it's like me trying out riskier things and crazier things and Mike being like, sure. Yeah. Keep going. Yeah. Okay. So it was like a, yeah, but that sing songy part Rob was in that episode, it said the dialogue and then in brackets it said sing songy. said sing-songy. So it did say it in the writing. That's so interesting. It just says sing-songy, and then I kind of like decided what that meant. And then it went well, and then all of a sudden, every script had a sing-songy in it. Yeah, we took that ball and ran with it.

This one's, I am flush with cash. Which is the one, if I ever go to bars, that's the one i hear more than anything one oh man flush with cash and um i got run over by lexus i hear a lot i got run over by lexus that's got a real catch to it technically i'm homeless technically i'm homeless is a big one wait so when you guys wrote the character this is amazing for me because i've never asked it i never learned anything about my character what was the how did you guys how did it even form and then how deep into it were you guys like oh ben should play that there were a couple things first of all this is exciting for me alan i never got to i don't even read this i yeah i don't think we've ever talked about it it's it's it all is sort of building on itself right so it's like at the at the beginning it was like

well it's nice for it would be nice for tom to have like a friend right like literally started like okay he he brings this guy in in that interview episode where ron is entering interviewing for assistance he ends up hiring april but having written that scene so basically katie was saying we wrote a scene for this jean ralphio character the character that would be known as jean ralphio it was a side pod with katieippold and Harris Whittles, who were friends of yours. And it was kind of this like, they went off and started writing this one scene

and obviously came back to the room after that. But I do believe, and Katie puts it this way, Harris was like, hold on a second, took over the keyboard, started typing words. And she said like, the beautiful mind music played. And it was like, he was like, just let me, like, it was as if he was possessed by the spirit of this character, Jean-Ralphio,

and started writing all of this nonsense, which, you know, Harris is so good. You know, he was so good at writing just really sort of fucking whimsical, you know, like, fun, funny jokes, just pure comedy. And the other aspect from the sort of fucking whimsical, you know, like fun, funny jokes, just pure comedy. And the other aspect from the sort of the story structure character world building side was one thing that we've talked about, which is you have Tom, who's this kind of silly character.

And like, in a lot of ways, he's very selfish and very superficial. But what if, what if, as in Frasier, you know, in Frasier, he's kind of like, you know, urbane and a little bit of feet, and he has a brother who's more so. He has Niles. So what if Tom had a Niles who was more selfish and more superficial and more of an idiot than Tom? You might like Tom by comparison. So we basically like put all those ingredients into the blender. And then like you were saying, you can see in these early episodes, it's already funny, right? Those lines are funny. You're doing a great job. But then almost like a Pokemon evolving, like a Pikachu evolving into a Raichu. You'll see later episodes of Jean-Ralph. By the end, you're wearing like fluorescent pink. You're wearing two ankle bracelets. Your hair is six feet tall. It's really, it's so, so this was the beginning,

but those were kind of the ingredients, right? It was all those things. I love hearing that. There was a, there was a beat later on when we were really going for it where mike sure said hey i don't i think you should just pop up you should never enter a room you should just pop up out of nowhere and i'm sure there i think there's a scene with rob and nick where i literally just pop up from behind in between both you guys it's later on yep and i remember just like like this sitting and then uh they'd say actually i'd wait for you guys to say your lines and i'd literally just pop up and then in the real human version it would have to be that neither rob nor nick looked but like down for like that whole 30 seconds

i was just waiting for the perfect time to pop up and say something that's the stuff that i that we've discovered in going through the show because I just love that no one did that reality check on that. Like the mics, no, no, pop up. And nobody, wait a minute, so if he pops up, what are we saying?

We're saying, what, he was sitting here and they didn't see him. Well, that wouldn't be real. It's like, just be funny. We started really, you know, look, the Saperstein family,

everyone involved with John Rialfio, Mona Lisa, and of course, Henry Winkler as well. Like, we kind of were like, you know what? We're real enough with a lot of the show. This stuff is going to be funny. This one is just going to be funny. And we also, like, season one, Greg Daniels would always come in and be like, you know, in the office, it's like we always do small, real, relatable comedy, right? Just grounded, like really.

It's like we always do small, real, relatable comedy, right? Just grounded, like really great. And then later on in seasons where literally people are appearing out of nowhere, we'll be like, remember, small, real, relatable. This is a documentary about a small town government in Midwestern Indiana, right? It's just like this. And then it was like, yeah, something really wild happening. You know, I'm obsessed with hair men's hair i didn't know that yeah i'm very obsessed with men's hair really oh yes i i could do a podcast about that who's your top person who's your

person like this is if i could have anybody's hair it would be this human being boy yeah it might take some time you know what i don't i don't mean to be a dick But really the way it works Is I'm more worried about Hair that I don't want Oh very interesting Yeah It's juicier Yeah

And I look I look at people who Like I'm gonna go You're Losing your hair And you're in the business Rob was just like Fix it

Fix it man Fix it You're on camera Get the Get them. Get them plugs, get them plugs. I remember when I came to LA for the first time. So when I was in New York, I would get shitty haircuts. Then when I came to LA, I didn't have someone to cut my hair. There wasn't anybody to cut my hair because I didn't know anybody in LA yet. And I was auditioning and auditioning and I got a role for a Mitch Hurwitz pilot. Mitch Hurwitz is pilot after

Arrested. And it was me, Richard Dreyfuss, and Mary Steenburgen, Jason Biggs. And it was going to be this great thing. And I go, I am so sorry my hair looks like this. I will get it cut the second we film. And he goes, oh, no, you will not. And I go, I'm sorry? He goes, you will not cut that hair. And I said, oh.

He goes, that's like, it's a great character trait for your thing. So I said, OK. And then I started noticing, only when I came to LA and had a lot of hair, that men would come up to me and be like, whoa, man great character trait for your thing. So I said, okay. And then I started noticing only when I came to LA and had a lot of hair that men would come up to me and be like, whoa, man, look at that, dude. That's incredible. And like men would be so interested in the, like the hair. It's a big thing in LA, I guess, hair in New York and nobody cared. Because you're all wearing berets and pork pie hats.

Oh, that's true. We're all like holding baguettes and wearing berets. right but no but your hair but i could that you answered my question because my thing was like how does he work other than as crazy john ralphio if his hair is 17 feet tall it's your real hair it is my real hair it's never not my hair they they like made it bigger the second we realized that they liked they liked um it being big then anytime i went in we were like let's do something insane with it so oftentimes when i did this show i was doing a different show at the same time was like either undercovers or house of lies and if i knew i was filming this i just would like not cut my hair for as long as i could before filming and

then afterwards i let the other show cut it but it was it became like a fun thing where like the hair team which was amazing. I was like, do whatever you want. And they would just go crazy. So each one would be like a different style. It was great. I remember it was always disappointing when he had to shoot another show right before. So it's like, ah, it's not that long today.

I know. I agree. It's like J.J. Abrams needed him today. He needed to cut it. It was a bummer. When does Mona Lisa make her first appearance that's not for a while for a while right yeah I think

it was just me for a while and then I don't know where the idea came with what happens if John I mean the idea that already it's like what you're saying like Tom has someone that's you know a little bit crazier than he is like when did the idea in the writing room be like but what if this person had a family?

Yes, that's, Greg Levine is saying season five, episode 16. Yeah, that is deep into the show. That's deep in. That's beyond the point where like, this needs any resemblance to reality. We're like, yeah, fuck it. Hi, Greg.

Guys, I have to tell you, as I've been prepping these episodes with Shultz, I've been going through old scripts and old files on my computer. And I thought it'd be so fun to go through the script, the shooting draft of the script to see what was intended, what was written, and then what Ben came up with on set. And so there's this one moment, it's around five minutes into the episode. It's when John Ralphio arrives at the Parks Department. Tom says, hey. And in the episode, as it airs, John Ralphio's line is, Big T, what it do, nephew? Sorry, Ben, I'm not as good as you. teabag which is great and then it says they do a hip-hop handshake hug which is so funny to me that the hip-hop handshake hug action line is what turned into that amazing just brushing each other's

shoulders moment between tom and john ralphio yeah and this is an example of when you have funny actors and of course we're talking about disease and ben schwartz two of the funniest guys in the world like you have that sort of ability to just let them go and let them improv. And this was, you know, in the, in the run of the show, we,

we had loosened up to that point where people would riff and, and, and totally make up different nicknames. And so, yeah, teabag is fine, but then it was more fun for him to say, big T,

what to do nephew. And this, and this is kind of the beginning of him running his mouth and just being a motor mouth and just being a motor mouth And just saying too many lines And fitting stuff in and rhyming And all that stuff singing And when you allow your actors to get that freedom on stage

It really just improves the show Yeah Do you remember when You made that really sweet birthday video for my son I had you Oh Yeah i had you um make a like i said they love john ralphio they're they're so excited that we're talking again today they're grown men now but um like the single best thing i could have gotten them i did and that was uh i was i filmed me on the set going hey john owen it, it's your dad. And this is a birthday video.

I just want to say how much I love you. And I went on for like 30 seconds. And then showed up boing, boing, boing from below the frame. John Ralphio. Was I dressed as? I was probably dressed as John Ralphio too. Yeah, no, it was. I do remember doing that.

It was the first episode that Mona Lisa lisa was in which she also i think into the frame as well i hope so i mean that's a perfect phrase for what we do into the frame we straight up boy yo-yoing into the frame um and then of course you you get the amazing opportunity to have henry winkler as your father and i mean on it's the best it's isn't it isn't it the best oh it's the coolest thing in the world and also it's like I remember I went there first of all it's the Fonz man it's like it's crazy it's the Fonz I remember telling my

parents my parents like flipped out and so I went to set I met him and I had back pain and I was like yeah I hurt my back he's like where does it hurt and he's like here and he like cracked my back and made it feel better and I was like are you kidding me just like the jukebox how he like hits the jukebox that's what i was gonna say he basically did that to you yeah jukebox your back yeah it was incredible and i remember being

and then we were i there's a great uh him and i became like friends and i love him still we talk still and i remember we were walking through uh radford and a person came up to me and goes, I'm so sorry, Henry. I hate to interrupt you. Nicest guy in the world, by the way. He's truly the nicest person in the world. He goes, I'm so sorry, Henry, but I came to one of your happy day shows. It was this season.

And he goes, and you talked to me that day. And he goes, stop. I remember. You were great. We had a conversation about and he remembered it and the guy almost like cried he's like really he's like yes i hope your family's doing well and like this he gave this guy such an incredible experience and he was like so happy and thankful and um but he was the best and for me to improvise around him because parks let me

really kind of go nuts was very exciting because he wasn't quite as used to people going way off script like that and he found it very exciting and like he didn't quite know it was like very very very fun it was like a little kid he was the best i got to do a lot of work with the three of you i'm remembering and this is episodes way in advance yeah and and he is the nice he without a doubt might be the nicest man in show business he truly is there's a scene where it was you and rashida and me and him and i was we were like dressed in the same pajamas i remember that really uh well yeah there's a notion there's a not so subtle notion that you guys might sleep in the same bed absolutely and i'm

downloading pornography or something like that by mistake or that's exactly the scene rob can i ask you a question am i allowed to do that on this podcast you remember how i asked what this podcast is is this part of the podcast yeah it's all part of the podcast um you came from something like west wing where you had to be word perfect correct like i mean you can't say and tell me if this is wrong because this is just lore from talking to shift but you can't say i'm if it's i, you have to say I am, correct? Absolutely. If you say ah and it's um, then you're going again. Really?

Yep. Like, do they stop halfway through the line and say, no, no, no, stop? Or they wait till the scene's done? No, they wait till the scene is done, and then someone comes up with everything circled in ink that you said wrong. This would be... They have someone whose sole job, sole job, is to do that.

I mean, it's making me anxious even talking to you about it. Because then I would just be worrying about memorizing the words as opposed to what I'm saying. But okay, so my question, I have a bunch of questions about Westman that I'll ask you later. My question is,

going from a show like that to a show like this where there is leniency, we always do the words, always do the words, but there is leniency afterwards and there's leniency within the words.

What's, is the experience, is one more exciting for you? Is one like, one fit you better? What is your experience going from one to the other? Because those are

pretty big extremes. Yeah, well, and that's the fun of it and that's what you always are trying to figure out what is this experience going from one to the other? Cause those are pretty big extremes. Yeah. Well, and that's the fun of it is, and that's what, what you always are trying to figure out. What is this, what satisfies you in your job? Right.

And for me, that's the satisfaction is, is to be able to have both of those experiences. Cause they are so diametrically opposed and to feel like you can be facile and do both. I, I, um,

I remember talking to, um, I feel like it was Jason Bateman and he was potentially going to do the newsroom. And he asked me, he said, I heard Aaron Sorkin is like letter perfect. And by the way, Aaron had won the Academy Award that night. This is the after party. And, and I go, yeah, no, no, you have to do exactly as it's written. He goes, well, but what about like, you know, if you had your own take on it or you felt like. I was like, nope. He goes, yeah, no, no, I understand. But what about if you felt like you had something of your own experience or maybe it didn't fit in your mouth and you wanted. I was like, nope. And he said, well, I don't know if I could do that. I go, look, you have to be, you have to take pleasure in execution.

Like you have to get off on running the perfect route as a receiver. Oh, wow. You run that route and the more succinct and perfect, you don't make your route up. You don't go out and get open. You know, it's like, just, we're just playground. I'm going to go and you go, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not, that's not it. It's, you're going to, it's a button hook. It's five step drop. It's a, and it's, it's all timing plays. And you have to be able to, one of those people that gets off on that and, and who understands that there's a beauty in it. And then the other part of it is, it's one thing to have to be letter perfect for a hack. And it's another thing to be letter perfect to a genius.

be letter perfect to a genius you know sorkin by the way has his fingerprints all over this episode not just this podcast episode rashida is not in this episode because she was filming with social network with sorkin yeah with sorkin the sorkin fincher joint so that's why she's not in this one which is wild to think about like that was concurrent man that was concurrent what about movements rob were you allowed to move or they had they told you exactly where to be for every single line like no no he he they there was there was none of that he didn't um aaron and they they're not that it's like so like so in this thing i think you should walk up to the window when you say there's none of that um that you know and by the way there's i don't want this to be interpreted that somehow aaron and people who work like aaron he's not alone david mammoth's the same way neil simon was the same way sure people come from the

theater traditionally are more like that um they love actors and they want inspiration from actors but the words are the words and you are there to service the words and so to come to parks where you know you like you say we always did the script. We didn't make this up. These are Alan Yang and all these amazing writers. The scripts are amazing. They were amazing. There's no need to improve them. Zero need to improve them.

But we had the opportunity to do that. And it was, and that was celebrated. And, and for me, it just felt so freeing and just so much fun. I loved, I love doing both, but the other I can only do with people who are absolutely brilliant writers. Right. And by the way, brilliant actors as well. That show obviously is,

you know, one of the best shows of all time, but it's like, if you don't have a shift and all the people that you guys had were the best actors in the universe. And we had people come in who are great actors, some of whom who've won Academy Awards and just got steamrolled by the West Wing experience.

They just could. Makes me very anxious. Makes for an incredible product. Makes for an incredible product and a great show. Oh, thank you. Anyway, Parks and Rec. Sorry, I always wanted to know.

I never got to talk to Rob about West Wing because it was very exciting. No, I like that, man. But Ben, you know that Mike Schur will tell you that parks and rec is the comedy version of the west wing like if the drama takes place in the west wing then where would the comedy take place well in the parks and rec department yes i remember hearing

that yeah they're sort of cousins in that way right instead of the nuclear codes or whatever it's like there's a possum on the golf course that's what you do it i do remember when we were doing parks one of the biggest things i would tell people is that it's like we have like a hall of fame writing staff and i i oftentimes just because i write as well it's like you think about the staffs that you have for parks it's like alan and harris and norm and dippled and chelsea peretti and it's like there and Harris and Norm and Dippled and Chelsea Peretti. And it's like there are so many incredible human beings that were on the staff that it's crazy. It's like an all-star team. It's like the men's olympic team from 92, Alan.

Yeah. No Chris Middleton. But, yeah. No, I look back and it's the same thing right i look back it's like oh my god like no like look norm is running space force and norm was on this show right like you were saying dan gore was on this show like all these people who became showrunners became huge movie writers they're all here and and i think i think this episode is like you know you watch it back and it just totally holds up story-wise it's so good there's a thing we were

talking about like you know the joke around comedy writers is like, oh, are you a joke person or a story person? And Norm was always a story person in the room because, like, he just had an impeccable sense of, and this is really, this is not trivial. It's hard to do. To have that compass of when a story works and to figure out if the characters are behaving in character and if the ending is satisfying and all that stuff. And this episode is really like that. Because in that talking head that starts this episode with Ron saying, you know, like he immediately says, I don't care about this award. Like I know I won this and it's dumb.

And like I'm just going to let her kind of dangle in the wind because Leslie cares about awards too much. That's the whole episode. So you get that in minute two and you understand what's happening and you're not mad at either party. You understand that Leslie's being silly and you understand that Ron loves her ultimately and is going to do the right thing. And that sets up all the comedy.

And then I was, I was, I was admiring the twists and turns. Let me ask you a question. Cause you, you know, all that stuff. Yeah.

You were talking about the first thing that, that I wrote in my notes. It, cause it's very, very, it's a very specific uh thing to immediately reveal to the let the audience in on what the plan is there's there are a lot of versions where you don't until the end then you're like oh my god oh or maybe you do it in the middle so you

kind of the best of both worlds maybe but the the that you guys um forfeited the that reveal was clearly specific and my guess was it was we're just worried that unless the audience knows immediately why ron's doing it they're not gonna like him is that was that the thinking yes there were believe me tons of arguments in the writer's room writer's room but it was like uh if you don't know the truth you're not just acting like a dick and you're like oh i don't i don't know why he's doing that and because he could part of the comedy is him taking glee in it right part of the comedy is him sort of smiling like the like a cat who ate a canary right that that nick offerman smile and so i think what ended up being you know why we were okay with it was

there were a couple twists later on the episode right the lady from the organization comes in that's a twist and then when he's up there at the podium again it's another twist because ron just gives the award to leslie so that's another twist there's an incredible beat in that and i think that the idea that you sell it early you tell the audience what they're in on early allows you for a beat of like when swanson gets his photo taken which as a character he never would do that and if you didn't warn the audience for him they'd be like what is going on yes but instead you're so excited and he's like this i mean i just watched this episode 10 minutes ago he's like and should i should i hold on to the pot and it's like you relish knowing that he is really a good guy and just messing with her in

the time one thing i want to talk about is because this the theme of this is awards and the theme of this that is hammered and hammered and hammered some more is the words don't mean anything um and i love it and i love the uh the uh the and i'm going to start using this i'm not really into institutional gratification that that is fucking institutional gratification is the most brilliant thing I've ever heard of. I've never heard it used as a euphemism for ridiculous awards, but I'm going to start co-opting the phrase. But I do seem to remember many times that the show was not nominated. And I'll do you one better that Amy Poehehler never sometimes just never was nominated just not nominated you're like okay so there's seven leading ladies in comedy better than amy poehler

as leslie nope really is that true did she not get nominated oh yeah there were years where she didn't get nominated definitely years where she didn't get nominated. Definitely years where she didn't even get nominated. She definitely never won, but absolutely. That's insane. Is that true? Yes. Do you guys remember this? At a certain point, I think Poehler and Jon Hamm hosted a party that was like Emmy losers party because they would lose the Emmy every year.

It was just like a fun thing they were joking about. Did the show get nominated, Alan, or no? The show only started getting nominated later on in the run. So I do remember going season, God, I want to say three or four. It started getting nominated. Never won, but, and never got nominated like frequently, right? It was never like a sweep, but the show started getting nominated later in the run. I remember people would ask me like, oh, like now, i feel like netflix has made this thing such a bigger uh thing but it's like

now they're like oh my god how nervous were you like jumping into this i was like oh when i got in there nobody nobody was watching the show yeah it was getting canceled every year we literally got canceled every year every single year the mic would be like yeah we're like we're giving an ending where it could kind of get you know like we have no idea everything and so like it was never like it was never like oh my goodness like oh even even when we were rolling and it was like you know where people liked us we still nobody was watching like every year there's a chance of it was it wasn't gonna get picked up so um i i remember i remember someone asked me that i was like oh it oh, it was like, I was, I was a little nervous for the first one just to figure it out.

And then like, I'm surrounded by people I've seen, like I was an intern for UCB for ASCAP. So I saw Amy every Sunday doing the garbage and recycling for UCB when I first met her. Aubrey was, was younger than me at UCB when we were coming up. Katie, I improvised with Katie still. She does my improv show anytime I do it at Largo. It's like, so I knew all these people and Aziz i knew so i knew all these people coming into it so it felt like it just felt like hanging out with my friends and then the more we did it and as you guys kept going the the stories get a little bit more surreal in a way and all of a sudden it feels

like a ucb type experience too where we're just like going there and having fun and it it was one of my favorite things in the universe to do. Cause it felt like I was just hanging out with my friends. And then even beyond that, it was like, yeah, you could take some risks too. Like you'll have time to, we're going to do it as is. And then there'll be, I forget, fun run, you guys would call it. It's like, all right, now do whatever you want. And then like, it was just so much fun and so freeing. And it was so quick. Sometimes I would film like undercovers in the morning, come to you guys for like two hours and then go back to undercovers. It was just like, you guys move so quick

and you lit the room. So it wasn't like lighting the face, like all my other shows that I do. So it was like so freeing. And like you were on camera on every take. So it wasn't like, so nobody was saving shit for like another take. We were all

just going for it so everybody was a hundred percent everybody was going for it and everybody was so locked into what they would do with their character in that moment that if you give them the right words which you guys did every time it was like kind of let us fly a little bit and it was it was the man that show was i remember uh there was a season where you were people were like it was time for like renegotiations and stuff like that. Not for me. I was like a guest. Nothing, nobody cared.

I took literally whatever. There was whatever. Your agent was like, take whatever. Your same agent passed on it. Take whatever. Take the minimum. To be fair, it was never my agent. It was an assistant that was whatever.

I love my agent. But I remember someone was like, it was like renegotiations. And I remember Offerman pulling someone aside and being like, we are so lucky. Do you know how lucky we are right now? We all like each other. We're making great, like, it was such a beautiful speech that I got to be around when he was talking about it. And this is a gentleman who's been around for a long time and has had opportunities,

but never like, he was Ron Swanson, which is one of the best characters on television. And so I loved hearing that. He's like, we're just so lucky. We're so lucky that we get to be a part of this. This does not happen often. You know what I mean? But it was just the best. I had the best memories about that show. Yeah. Making something good with people you like, right? I mean, that's the dream, man. That that's the dream it was like and i remember so even watching in this show it's like we were talking about building characters like in this episode we start to learn who donna really is like don't we were building we're just learning about john ralphio we're learning about donna because there's that scene you do with her and it's you know it's so funny when she turns against you but you know and then the end of the end of the episode, she, she, she reveals she's bought,

you know, three shares or whatever. She's like, she's improbably wealthy, which I love. But do you remember shooting that scene? I mean, that's,

that has a lot, that's the flush with cash scene, but, uh, I do. It's yeah. I do remember shooting that scene. I remember trying to make,

I remember something that I started to do, uh, as we went on is like, I try to make the person next to me laugh. Like that would, that was like, cause I feel like when you could see someone like, and like,

if you get Offman to laugh, he like laughs like a little baby and he's like mustache moves. Cause he doesn't want to laugh. And so like air like seeps through his, like tightly, his lips are so tight, but like, I used to love trying to make people laugh.

And so for Retta, I was like, we did that scene a couple of times and then I started playing with it and getting like way. And this is still like when John Raphael was kind of more of like a douche guy and like slowly didn't, hasn't loosened up a little bit. But this is like the first scene

where you start to see him like loosen. And I did it a couple of different ways and I just kept trying to make her laugh, like adding more shit. And it was the best. That scene was so fun. and that was like when i started to be like oh we could play a little bit too because the first yeah first uh episode i did it was just like don't get fired just get through this and hopefully they'll let you do it again

and then like they're like oh no they like what you're doing keep doing it um yeah there's i think there's a gag reel scene i think you make i think you eventually make red a laugh right i think there's we cut together you do a gag reel the rap party every year i think we may have cut together you improvising and adding on and on and on and finally right up breaking i mean you would aziz would laugh too by the way aziz would break all the time yes it was fun to get aziz to break yeah it was the best making anybody laugh was just the it was just the it was just the best you know what i mean and it's also so fun to be a guest star because I get to just come in and like zap a quick scene and leave. And I'm like fresh and can't wait.

I'm so excited to be there. You know what I mean? And you guys have been filming every day, you know, many hours a day. And I get in there being like, hi, how are you? What was every day? You know what I mean? It's a very fun thing to just come in there, get a very silly in uh and then leave i remember anytime it was over i'd be like oh i gotta leave it's such like a bummer part that's that's also what people don't realize

it's like if you're number one on the call sheet like on a show like you're just shooting so much right you're shooting so much and then as you go down it's like sometimes it's nice to be a guest star it's nice to be number six on the call sheet nobody's like you know shoot your days out and not be there all the time but yeah i was you know amy was always putting in the hours on the show they both have their things i mean i my version of john ralphio was i got when i got to play eddie nero on californication and it was it's very similar it was like a big swing character like that character could do no wrong in the sense that there wasn't anything too big the character was a cartoon it was basically a cartoon and i got to waltz in crush have fun

do whatever i was excited to see the character come back and then i'm gone and then ducovny is there 16 hours a day for 17 years yes it's the it's so fun it's uh it's a it's like an incredibly it's just lucky it's just a very lucky lucky thing and i'm always impressed like whenever i'm in a show where i got heavy lifting or i'm uh you know i'm one or two in the call sheet for a movie or something like that then it's like it's like i'm always impressed when an actor comes because there's something else to it where it's hard to come in i remember i did did this movie, Billy Crystal, and I'm in there every day of the shoot, and we had an actress,

and she only had like two days or three days, and her first scene was in a live mall that was actually working, and it was a one-shot up an escalator where we had this huge conversation, and I was like, it's so unfair because I've had 13 days to get loose and great, and I've worked every day, and I'm in a rhythm now, and I know my character inside and out.

And this is her first day and she has to figure out what she's doing. And there's a live mall going on. Her name was Eloise and she crushed it. But I was like, you really have a respect

for guest stars that can come in there and crush because you got to remember, oftentimes it's just someone coming in, not knowing anybody, having not really knowing

what their character is, not knowing where they belong in the group of everybody is. But Parks picked the best. If you think about the guest stars on Parks, it's insane. It's insane. It's insane. And even like Perd Happily, who's one of my favorite actors in the entire show.

Yes. Or like Mo Collins, who crushes. And then it's just Paul Rudd. There's so many incredible people. And you guys put us all in a place, the writers and the actors and Mike put us in a place where you just felt comfortable immediately. So you didn't have to deal with the being nervous part. You were just ready to have fun immediately. Yep. We should do a town hall while we have Ben.

Let's do it. Wait, is it town hall or is it town howl? This will be a town hall, I think, because it's not an audio one. But, you know, we usually pick a location for the town hall. I think because Ben's here, let's do it at the Entertainment 720 headquarters. Oh, for sure.

Let's do it in that weird, wide-open white space that Roy Hibbert and Detlef Schrempf came to. Oh, my God. Roy Hibbert's favorite day of his life, he tells me. Yes. And he has, like, two kids. Oh, man. Talking to Roy about TV was... You wouldn't believe the shows he had.

He's like, you ever seen Squidbillies? He was like an adult swim fan. It was very like, that was Roy Heber, one of the Indiana Pacers. Wait, what's the town hall? Oh, can I also say, you know, every night you're talking about that gag reel. There's one time where I was just on set, and sometimes Mike would do this, where there was a town hall. That's what it is, right? The town hall where everybody like speaks yeah and so like uh they go what about you go up there and just

start complaining about whatever and I did it and it was so I never made the episode it was so fun and then they kept the camera on me when I was leaving so I kept trying to leave but I picked the row that Chris Pratt was in and I just the whole for like no joke, like 120 seconds, which is so long. I tried to get around him and I would not leave. Like I kept, he kept, was in my way. And I just tried to get him and I just made him laugh. And it was like my favorite thing. And I wish that it exists somewhere, but never found it. Wait, can we summon John Raphael?

Sure. What does, what does he want to say? He just wants to say, do you want to go to the town hall? I think you do. Okay, here we go. Do you want to go to the town hall? I think you do. All right, we're doing great.

Rob's going to have you recording drops all night but that that has to be guys that has to be a sound board thing that that we drop in as needed we now own that we now own that shorts we now own that all right so what is this town hall what happens here town hall is a question from a listener a question from a listener so we'll get right into it the town hall question comes to us from amber and. A question from a listener. So we'll get right into it. The Town Hall question comes to us from Amber. And this is Amber from SoCal. So very broad range. Maybe she lives all over Southern California.

The question is, was there ever an idea to create a bigger posse for Tom? Jean-Ralphie was great, but were there additional strange characters that got cut? Good question, Amber. I think the shortest answer is no not really i think what we ended up doing is expanding jean ralphio's posse so jean ralphio so tom didn't get a posse we're like we like jean ralphio like we you know we you know i you know obviously we gave him uh henry winkler his dad and and also uh jenny slade playing mona lisa um i would also like to pivot from that to just favorite jean ralphio moments um like one of my favorites i don't know if you remember this

one uh schwarz but it's basically like you apply for a job at this accounting place i think and oh yeah you come in you do the interview and you get rejected all in one shot it was one take basically so it's the tag of an episode and it's something like you interview it goes really poorly and you're like i didn't get it yeah it makes sense bye it's like i don't know if you remember shooting that really made me laugh it was my one of my favorite things because i exit the same way that i literally exited the same door i entered which was i thought such a funny specific where like i enter. And by the way, I remember that scene because the woman is a guest star. She was great.

She was right in front of me. And I literally do, I go through the entire office and I don't think I ever stopped talking. And I talk at the beginning and everything's positive. And I talk so much that he clearly knows he's made a mistake. And I remember we had to get it in the timing had to be perfect where i end my last sentence right before i get to the door so like sometimes i would have to like like rush like the the the other people to like move a little bit quicker and something the timing of that was so difficult but yes i love a one shot also because i love how real it all feels i remember that that was a great moment and it was one of the first times ever that mike sure

texted me and asked what i said in a scene years later i don't know if you remember this al but mike called me uh or he or something and he's like hey what do you say uh i i he thought i said like uh like dime or something like that i said i say ds like she's a like she's a 10 but i say it in spanish and nobody understood what i was saying and i was like i said yes and he's like what did you do what happened there and i said yes and he goes like oh yeah of course this also reminds me of the time where i've been doing the show a little bit and people started to really like my character and i would have done parks every up you know like and i and undercovers just ended and house of lies hadn't started yet i hadn't gotten yet so there's a

chance i could have jumped on the show. And then someone had asked him like, what about like John Ralphio having a spinoff or John Ralphio like, and he goes, I don't think anybody wants to see, I don't think anybody could take more of like 10 minutes. And I was like, he's right. He's like, what would happen? It would just be, was there ever any conversation

of making me a full-time member or just it would make no sense? I think it was what you said, which is like, we love it in the time we have allotted in the show, but we're afraid. It's almost like too much power. Too much power concentrated. It's like a nuclear weapon. Too much comedy power.

Yeah, exactly, right? It has to be wisely used. So yeah, it's like a heavy dosage medication, like an upper so it would just be too much the way he explained it was so funny he's like you couldn't take it's too much you couldn't take it if you had a spinoff what are you gonna fight like what what how are you gonna follow it there's no straight man yeah exactly you'd also like have to make it more normal no one wants no no one wants that jean-ralphio said jean-ralphRalphio's like, oh, it's like, I'm not getting along

with my brother or whatever. There is one line I snuck in that some people notice that when, Rob, you must have been there. We're leaving

the snake hole lounge. Everybody's hammered off of that drink, off of that. Yeah, snake juice. Yes. Oh, you definitely were in there because I remember

in that scene, I had a scene with you and then I think Amy directed it or Amy wrote it and I asked her, I said, hey, can I make up a rhyme about Rob? Because he's the only person we didn't make up a rhyme about. What about if I just... And she goes, yeah, definitely, go for it. I forget if it was Dean or Amy, but I remember someone gave me the go ahead. So that's like the boss man thing, that rapper there. But at the very end of it, we're all in a car, smashed in a car. Yes. lost man thing, that rap there. But at the very end of it, we're all in a car, smashed in a car, and Jim is on the roof, tied up on the roof. And so the whole beat is like, and I forget if it was a mic pitch or I made it up or what happened,

but we're there and everybody like, there's a big fart joke or some joke and everybody laughs. And the last thing I say right when it gets quiet is I'm so alone. Yes, it's you saying that. It's just an earnest moment of Jean-Ralphio, just not a joke, just saying I'm so alone yes it's you saying that it's just an earnest moment of john ralphio just not a joke just saying i'm so alone and then it ends very few people caught it yes i don't know

i don't know if it was written i i mean uh greg levine would be able to know that somehow but it was like it was i remember thinking that was so funny that in this moment he's with everybody and everybody's drunk and for the first time people like accepting him and so he literally got so drunk that he that he says like i'm so alone and no and nobody fucking cares yeah yeah i remember thinking that would be so funny um i don't know if we did it once or twice but i remember it i remember it i remember when you did it because it would make me laugh i didn't obviously i didn't laugh as chris but made rob the actor laugh and i i'm almost certain you did it once and it was an improv and it made it in it was fucking so odd very little video from parks and

rec very little but i have a video of all of us in the car singing together and i like pan around the whole thing and it's like one of the coolest videos of all time did we sing a song weren't we singing yes we did yeah we did we were just song some pop some you know one of the z special some song i'd never heard it was the best that show was i mean it's the best you look back on some of the jobs i mean like rob your career has been pretty remarkable it's like i'm sure you look back at some jobs and you're just like fuck man we were so so lucky yep one one one tangent that make that is interesting um so i was on the show for four seasons by in the middle of the fourth season we always shot on the same sound stage same stage at the parks and rec department Never left other than when we left, but we're there all the time.

We shot the scene you're talking about in the car, in the basement. Apparently there was, it turns out there was an entire soundstage below our soundstage that I never knew existed. And while we were shooting there, they shot an entire season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia below us. And I never knew i have shots of me dressed as john ralphio at that bar and i sent him to glenn uh from sunny and he's like what the fuck is going on how are you on our sets it was great they were literally below us every day we never saw them i don't know what went on and then by the way when we went that was that set i'm convinced i'm convinced they're gonna have a class action lawsuit one day. I don't know what went on. And then, by the way, when we went, that set, I'm convinced they're going to have a class action lawsuit one day for, I don't know, what's going on. That was the moldiest, gnarliest, most depressing set ever.

And I was only on it for eight hours with you doing that car scene. Oof. Did we do that in a set? Yes. Wow. It was a poor man's process, 100%. Wow. It was a set. Yes. Wow. It was a poor man's process. 100%. Wow. It was a set.

Wow. Yeah. This is great. I don't know what more anybody could ask for. I don't know what more I could ask for. This was, will you come back for more fun and hijinks when you have time? Of course. This is super fun.

It's also, I got to learn stuff I never knew. I never, it was, oh, there's one other fact that I never got to do a table read. I don't know why. Was that a purpose thing, Alan, or no? We didn't generally have that many guest stars do table reads. So maybe it was just that. It's pretty simple.

Yeah, because I think it was an extra, I don't know. Because I don't think like Rod ever did anything. For sure it was a cost thing. For sure, it was. A cost thing. Morgan Sackett being like, no. Harris always played John Ralphio is what I was told. Harris played John Ralphio.

I've never, so I never, I've never been to a table read for Parks. Wow. And the first time I ever did any of the words was when the cameras were rolling and that was it. I didn't realize that. I was one of them to record the West Wing table reads, which, which played like radio shows. They were like very, very serious.

And like everybody brought their A game and the Parks ones were the only other ones because they were as funny, sometimes funnier than the shows. They were like very, very serious and like everybody brought their A-game and the Parks ones were the only other ones because they were as funny, sometimes funnier than the shows and I just wish, how is that not, like I would buy that. I would download the table reads of that show in two seconds. Yeah, we should have filmed them. It's amazing that like, in a day when

they monetize everything and squeeze every dollar out of everybody, the fact that no one's ever figured that out is a mind blower to me anyway this episode by MeUndies MeUndies squeezing a dollar out of everything

alright everybody thanks for coming to Pawnee Parks and Recollection it's me Rolo signing off with Alan Yang and wait

I think John Rolfio needs to sign off Robin Allen Parks in Recollection There you go. Thank you to Ben Schwartz. That's so good. It's good to talk to you guys.

Thank you so much for coming on, Ben. Thank you so much. And thanks to producer Schulte. Thanks to Greg. And goodbye for Pawnee. Bye. to shulty thanks to greg and uh goodbye for punny bye parks and recollection is produced by greg levine and me rob shulty our 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 Stitcher.