Parks and Recollection - Canvassing (S1E2)
Episode Date: September 21, 2021Alan Yang and Rob Lowe have set up shop in Pawnee and are venturing into the second episode of Parks and Rec. In “Canvassing” Leslie Knope and her committee attempt to gain support for the park pr...oject, but a town hall full of unhappy residents forces Leslie to filibuster her own meeting! Will Alan and Rob freak out about an unethical Leslie? Why was canvassing originally slated later in the season? Does "Rock Band" hurt or help a writer’s room? Learn answers to these questions and more by listening to today’s episode — and ask your own by emailing us at ParksandRecollectionTownHall@gmail.com or Leave a 30-second voicemail at: (310) 893-6992
Transcript
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We're getting together to talk about all the things we used to do
The laughs, the passions, the little Sebastians, the pets we fell into
And we're putting it on in a podcast, then we'll send it up into the sky
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, our podcast where we visit our old friends in Pawnee one episode at a time.
I am literally Rob Lowe and I'm here with my co-host Alan Yang.
What up Rob?
Alan Yang has been writing on Parks and Rec since he was a wee puppy.
Yeah, it's been a long time, but yeah, it's been funny watching the episodes because I haven't
seen them in a while and it's like, man, it's like a different world. Seeing all these actors,
they look different and you know, it's just like we're in a different part of our lives
back then for sure.
And today's episode is the canvassing episode, which is the second episode ever of the show that aired on April 16th, 2009.
That feels like a million years ago.
Written by Rachel Axler and directed by Seth Gordon.
Now, do you remember Seth Gordon, the director?
Gordon. Now, do you remember Seth Gordon, the director? Because is he the same Seth Gordon who I remember as an actor in the late 70s and 80s? Am I right or am I wrong?
I think it's a different Seth Gordon because I believe this Seth Gordon came from the world
of documentary. He did a documentary called King of Kong, which is an excellent documentary.
And then he went on to do a bunch of movies and stuff. So it was great to have him on board. He's
a very successful director. And I think this was pretty early on in his career so i think
it might be dueling seth gordon's the world can never have too many that's what happens i would
like to hand it over to you alan give us our uh our synopsis and what this episode did leslie
nope played by amy puller plans for an upcoming town hall meeting about her proposal to turn the
pit into a park.
She invites her mother, Marlene Griggs, no, but Marlene only feigns interest. Leslie holds a
subcommittee meeting and city planner Mark warns her it might be too early for a meeting with the
public. Leslie, however, remains confident about the meeting and says the gang will be doing
neighborhood canvassing to try to win support for the park. But the canvassing is a total bust.
Only citizens against the park show up to the meeting and loudly voice disapproval.
Ooh, they say.
In an attempt to turn the meeting, yeah, classic town hall, second town hall in two episodes.
In an attempt to turn the meeting around, Leslie tries several tactics, like planting
Intern April in the audience and droning on about construction specifics.
But eventually,
Leslie resorts to filibustering herself to save the project from complete shutdown.
After an intense public comment flogging, Leslie emerges victorious and the park project is not derailed. So that's a very quick summary of this episode.
Listen, the reason we're doing this podcast is so many people love it and we love it and we love
our experience doing it. It's fun to go back and look
under the hood um but that said when i looked back at this episode i'm struck by a couple things um
and i want to ask you alex you were there please i was a young pup doing the best i could could
contribute um all right so here's here is my question first of all i was stunned to meet
leslie nope's mother now maybe i wasn't paying attention, which is entirely possible.
But I don't remember Leslie Knope's mother in my four years on the show.
Am I wrong?
It's wild.
It's wild.
It's wild.
So, yeah, it opens with Marlene.
And you're like, man, now I remember being in the writers room talking about okay well we want to give
this show something of an emotional hook
in addition to the work stuff and I think
the logic was okay obviously
she cares about the pit and the park
and Ann Perkins who she just met but it's like
do we need emotional heft so
we had her seek
her mother's approval so that's like the
beginning of this episode and
again I was not in charge of the show. This is purely Mike and Greg were the showrunners like making
these creative decisions. But, you know, I think it's at the time, you know, we talked about the
pilot, right? We talked about the pilot last episode. And generally, the pilot is widely
conceived to be the hardest episode to write. But I think a close runner up is episode two, because episode two,
you're like, okay, we have the show, we have a setup. We talked about premise pilot versus new
guy pilot versus sort of a regular episode of the show version of a pilot. Parks, as we talked about,
is kind of a premise pilot, right? We set up what the show is. It's Leslie finding this pit and
deciding to turn it into a park, meeting Ann Perkins, all of that stuff. Okay, great. If you have a premise pilot, it's not really a typical episode of the show. A premise
pilot sets up the world. Then you're essentially kind of in episode two, figuring out what the show
is and how these characters interact. And I think Rob, you know, I think you totally picked up on
something interesting, which is Parks and Rec started out as a workplace show, but not all the characters were in the same workplace. Because you got Leslie and Tom and
April and Ron, they're kind of in the same office. But then a lot of the other characters
have different jobs, are in different parts of the world. You got Mark, who's a city planner,
you got Ann, who's a nurse, and then you have Andy, who's just Ann's boyfriend. So there was
a challenge early on in the show of trying to bring these characters together
and put them in the same stories and so this episode it's done by putting them on a committee
together and then the workplace the quote-unquote workplace is just their their sort of goal of
getting this park made so i mean this took a lot of work man took a lot of work in the writer's
room i mean that first scene with leslie nopin her, I mean, that was some full Sandra Bullock 1990s movie Steel Magnolia stuff going on there, man.
That was heavy.
And don't you feel bad for Leslie?
It's like, man, you think about these later seasons.
She's so upbeat.
And then in these early episodes, she's just kind of getting shit on by people.
Like, man, I feel bad for her.
Like, her mom's being mean to her.
It's like, no, don't be mean to Leslie.
I love Leslie.
But you're so early on in the show.
We weren't doing that yet.
Parks somehow lived to fight another day.
And when you look back on it,
the number one thing that's so different is
Leslie just gets hammered all the time
in these early episodes.
You know, it's going to be a recurring theme on this show
that, thank God, NBC let the show live, right?
NBC let the show live. Let it sort of get get air on you know get sort of the ground under its
feet and figure out its way and and um you know became the show we we know and love but um without
that I think it's tough right because some shows don't spring fully formed in in the first couple
episodes and that's certainly the case with this one so as I said you know you're you're looking
to sort of figure out all the character dynamics, episodes two, three, four, you're trying to figure out, you know, what we would call it in the writer's room, sometimes an ur episode, a ur-episode, basically, like, what is the sort of elemental version of the show? What are the main conflicts? What are the sort of, you know, what is the ideal version of an episode of Parks look like? And so you can, you can figure out like in this episode, like we're still trying to sort of gain our, gain our footing. And, and,
and like you said, Ron and Leslie were usually opposed in this one. Ron's pretty light. You know,
you think about Parks, you think about Leslie and Ron, kind of the two, you know, hugest characters
in the show and Ron's pretty light in this one. So, you know, I think we're still figuring it out
and just a window into the process of writing these episodes. We, we rewrote episode two for like 12 weeks. We rewrote episode three for like
eight weeks. And then episode four happened to be one that I wrote the first draft of.
And after that draft, we had to shoot almost immediately. So we just ran out of time. Like
the shooting kind of, you know, it's like you, you spend like three months rewriting the first
couple and there's like, Oh shit, we got to shoot Monday. And it's like, I'm not saying,
I'm not trying to divert blame on that, but it was certainly, I remember me and Greg and Mike,
and we got together at some point. It was just like, oh shit, we got to shoot this on Monday.
And it catches up with you, man. It catches up with you. So yeah, it's, it's just figuring out
the show. And these were, these were late nights. I remember. When people ask what it's like
to do a network television show, not a streamer.
A streamer, you sip espressos all day and tell people,
I don't feel like delivering my episodes until I go to the south of France for six weeks.
That's the way they do it over there.
Sounds like you're describing my life now.
I'm kidding.
This season, I decided we don't want to make another season of Master of None
until I explore the Dalai Lama's life in Tibet for six months.
And they go, great, do it.
Don't spoil our next season.
Yeah, don't spoil our next season.
But on network TV, I feel like the schedule is so unrelenting that it feels like you're
hanging over the engine, hanging over the front of the engine of a freight train, laying
down the rails.
It 100% feels that way because it's so relentless, right?
It's so relentless.
And Rob, you know this. So the writers will work on the script for a long time, right? So we'll break the story. We'll write the outline. We'll send it to networks, to studio. They'll give us notes. We'll rewrite. It comes back to the room, rewrite, come back, punch up the jokes. Then you do a table read. So generally the table read is a week before you shoot. And by the way, if that read goes poorly, which every show has reads that
don't go perfectly, you might start from scratch. You might start from scratch. And once I'm getting,
I'm looking at producer Greg right now, he remembers, but you might have to start over.
And that means you're frankensteining a script, which means that all the writers are pitching in
and writing different scenes. And that's how you get behind, right? So you're trying to stay ahead.
You're trying to have scripts ahead of time, But man, it is exactly like that train track metaphor you said,
because you just fucking run out of time.
It's just too many episodes.
We've only made 25 episodes of Master in like seven years.
It's insane.
That defies logic.
Well, it's impressive that they make any sense,
much less that they're good.
But yeah, I mean, look, it's so crazy to watch this episode.
So if people are watching along, you even see moments where Leslie is unethical, right?
She starts out, she talks about cheating in high school.
It's like, Leslie doesn't cheat.
Like, she doesn't cheat.
She's a paragon of virtue.
Like, how dare you do that to Leslie?
But, you know, again, that's the kind of thing where you're just kind of calibrating the
character and kind of calibrating where the comedy comes from.
Right.
And and in this one, again, it keeps coming back to it feels like in these episodes, it's everyone in the world against Leslie.
I was shocked by that moment, actually, that little moment where Leslie talks about cheating and also sort of her edge.
Yeah.
She's always been ambitious.
This ambition had a little bit of edge to it that so i'm curious about the two like
that if you okay the speech she has in this episode about cheating when she was young there's that
version but then there's the version where she finds her voice and it would be something like
this you tell me if i'm wrong this is how the character would change she'd be like yes i cheated in uh in in junior high and then i did not leave my room
for the depression that i had for six months that would be the leslie nope we know and love or it
would be turns out everybody in my class cheated i of course did not yes that's what it would be
right you're right on it and and you you should, let's do season eight right
now. Let's do that episode. Rob, you get it written by credit. We'll pitch it out together.
Yeah, no, totally. And I think one of the things, again, season one, you were trying to not only
figure out the characters. One of the most important things when you're writing comedy is
what are the characters flaws? Like that is ultimately, you know, in drama as well, right?
What are their flaws
what draws you to them what are their vulnerabilities a flaw also gives you a comedic
game and so in this episode we're again it's you can feel the writers figuring it out obviously
amy figuring it out along with us and and in this one yeah she's she's a little bit immoral and i
think later on exactly what you said her flaw would be she cares too much she's too pure she's
too overbearing.
She's too good at her job. And in these early episodes, you know, you're still looking for,
maybe she's a little bit unethical or maybe she's, you know, a little bit insecure and all that
stuff. And it's kind of fascinating if you're a fan of the show to see that stuff change over time.
I always wondered too, again, because this show started at its first iteration with the network going to greg daniels
going the office is a massive hit we love it would you do a spinoff and obviously it became parks and
rec but i always wonder if this early leslie we're seeing isn't really without an unconscious or
conscious version of of a female michael scott mean, I can't speak for those guys.
I'm sure when you make a massive world-changing hit,
it's in your DNA a little bit, right?
You think back to the lessons you learned on that show.
You think back to those lessons, and I'm sure they're like,
well, yeah, look, in that show, you get a lot of comedy
about the boss making mistakes and being a very inappropriate character.
But you realize, look back, they're completely
different shows. And that's, again, sort of a good reminder that you have to write to the talents of
your performers, number one. And number two, you know, having Mike in the mix was interesting
because Mike became such a creative voice for the show and, you know, ultimately ran the show for
the later seasons. And his ethos is a little different from The Office's. It was a little
bit less cringey comedy and a little bit more hopeful, optimistic, heartfelt comedy. And I think you see, just like
you said, Rob, when you were saying, you know, well, season four, Leslie would be this. I think
we actually see inklings of that later on in the episode when she does the filibuster, because that
is sort of comedy of her solving the problem and being hyper-competent and being smart and doing something that, yes, is funny,
but also is more in character of her being super sort of hyper-competent and figuring something out and doing kind of the right thing.
And later on in the episode, or later on in the series, rather, we see more examples of that,
where she brings everyone together, she does something crazy, but all in the interest of getting the job done.
So that's kind of what the filibuster is. that was something we kind of gleaned from some of
the research we did um we actually went to some town halls when the filibuster happened i was like
ah this is this is the beginning is the show we know and love that moment was she filibusters
first of all it's laugh out loud funny and it's's the comedy, as you say, of her being super diligent at what
she does in a really, and using that as an opportunity for comedy and not plot.
Yes. I got a note from the producer here that says, take credit for the filibuster. It was
your idea. Here's my thing about taking credit for ideas. I don't remember almost anything like
that I came up with. Like I always like, I hate to take credit for anything because I'm always like, did I come up with that? And by the way, that's a big
thing in writer's rooms where people will fight like after the fact, like that was my joke. It's
like, no, that was my joke. And people will like argue over credit. I'm just like, look, man,
everyone writes everything. Even if an episode has your name on it, everyone worked on it. I always,
there's very few things that I remember. Like I wrote that, like I just, I just, I almost don't care, but I also am like, man, like that's a hard thing for
me to say. I definitely took credit for that. If Greg, if you're telling me I wrote it, maybe it's
in the notes, but I don't know. I can't remember. I'll say it. Alan Yang has fingerprints. Let's
put it that way, are all over the filibuster moment in this episode, which for me is the quintessential moment.
The other thing I notice is so much of this,
of these episodes would have comedy in them
in the later episodes.
And in these early episodes,
they're sort of plot,
but like there's just a little thing
where they come into,
I think it's Anne's house
and Pratt's character characters playing rock band,
right?
Yeah.
And there's like,
I mean,
there's that joke.
That's the joke,
but there's no other joke around that.
And I promise you in season two,
there would have been all kinds of jokes about like what song,
talking heads about why they were playing that song.
By the time I got on the show, you'd have the famous candy bags.
And the candy bags, right?
That's what we called them, right?
Yeah, yeah.
And the candy bags were a list of jokes, sometimes 20,
that when you did your talking head, you would do,
and maybe they would use them and maybe they wouldn't.
But you had to do them.
And that's how comedy- driven the talking heads became is in this episode on this episode
number two the talking heads are just that's why it was important for us to go to the meeting it's
like really dragnet style exposition almost it's almost like a doc it actually is like a documentary
which we went away from a lot in later seasons but yeah that scene where they walk in on on andy
and mark and april playing rock band kind of made me laugh looking back at it because there was a time, there was
a period of time in the writer's room where we had a rock band in the office. And it was the
most massive time waster I've ever seen on any show I've ever worked on. We would play for hours
and it was like Mike would play with us. So he's the boss. So we were just like, yeah, if we're
going to play another, let's play another Beatles song on Rock Band.
We would play for hours.
So that was a huge time waster.
So it made me laugh to see them play My Own Worst Enemy by Lit.
And then the other thing was Andy talks about his band in this episode.
I forget about how early that comes up.
He talks about the band.
And in this band, the band has a very off-color name.
He says the band's called Just the Tip.
And then that band, I guess, would become Mouse Rat.
And in the public forum, he's like,
yeah, we're looking for a bassist.
Like, we need a bassist.
That bassist ends up becoming me in the later episodes.
I'm like, that's me.
I guess I applied.
Like, I heard about that from the thing.
So that was very funny to me. You always wanted to be in the band.
Come on.
You were in that writer's room lobbying.
What did Mike Schur play in Rock Band?
What instrument was his instrument
he kind of did everything uh we didn't have a ton of great singers in the room so that was always
kind of an embarrassing thing it was always like you know just kind of uh just kind of getting
along i don't think anyone was super good at the game but um as we played more i think we got better
and better but if you're a writer out there and you're listening to this be a comedy writer because
in those writers rooms you get to play rock band.
For me, sometimes the best bits aren't necessarily the performances or the writing or any of it.
Like it's the technical stuff of how you make a TV show, which I continue to love, even though this is my business.
I love how people make a television show.
And one of the things I noticed about this episode is there's one car scene.
It's clearly the first car scene in the series.
And I'm telling you what, I promise you they shot this episode with store-bought GoPros.
They did not have it together at all.
It's like, you know, like the old GoPros
that you were first out where everything was like
vaguely a sort of fisheye lens, sorta.
So your face was like just a smidge distorted.
That's what that, that scene was.
I was like, wow, okay. okay yeah the other thing i noticed is
like some of the talking heads were just super profile like you don't see their faces like
there's like one with their moms like wait what is this like i can barely see just a different
filmmaking technique like that's like that's what i would shoot for a drama or something yeah it's
like it's like a 824 movie it's like yes you're like pointing it's like yeah like you know like
very slant it's a robert eggers movie it's like the fucking lighthouse're like pointing. It's like, yeah, like, you know, like very slanted. It's a Robert Eggers movie.
It's like the fucking lighthouse.
Yeah.
I was like, man, Parks and Rec season one going wild with the cinematography.
Well, listen, then don't get me started on this one.
So what is the, you guys have a name for it.
I used to know it.
I'm aged and can't remember anything. When there are private scenes that in theory, the documentary crew wouldn't be allowed to be in they always
shot them through windows or a distance and what were what was that called was it was on this slug
line it would say i i certainly remember enjoying writing those scenes because you would get
not only through the performance spy shot spy shot that's what it was that's what it was spy
shot you remember so see you know i did not. That's what it was. Spy shot. You remember.
So see, you know.
I did not remember.
That's Greg Levine,
who is the quickly becoming the MVP.
Greg, it's clear.
I'm so glad Greg is in the room here.
And Greg Levine not only wrote on all the parks and recreation,
but more importantly,
he ran the computer in the writer's room.
Yeah, absolutely. But the, I can't absolutely but but the i can't believe yeah i
can't remember that but you know there's an intimacy there and we would use those scenes
again like you said to show when there's something that they don't want the documentarians to know
and there's immediately just filmmaking wise and you know much later in my career i start
directing and figuring this stuff out but you get this extra layer that's really really powerful and so i think you know
we didn't want to overuse it either but we do use it once in this episode i think it's like
through the through the door you know and and in this episode and what i couldn't believe was
this spy shot the way it was shot made it look like the spy was a stalker and was going to come and murder people.
This episode brought me completely back.
I remember that house.
I remember that barking dog.
This is the weird stuff that actors notice.
There's an off-camera dog barking during someone's coverage in this and the canvassing.
And the sound is awful.
It's real, man.
It's real.
It's like you guys really were going for the documentary stuff because by the time i got there like hold it hold it hold it please the dog barking five blocks away could we say can we
get somebody on that please there's somebody just said just hold it just sit in the sun
it's really true i mean i think we really again i think every show takes on a life of its own right
and i think this is you know one of the examples of, of we tried, I think season one, it came based on some of the
research that again, the show did as a whole. And I think some of the ideas Mike and Greg had where,
you know, before this episode and before the writer's room, we went to Claremont city hall
and we talked to a city manager and a city planner and we learned about, to Mike and
Greg's credit, they wanted to learn what the actual process was if this were real. If this
were a real documentary, if there were a pit and people were trying to make it into a park,
we talked to the people in local government and they just laughed. They're like, it'll take years.
It'll take years. There'll be so many steps and it will be annoying as fuck. Like it's going to be really annoying.
Like it's just going to be really annoying.
And, you know, I think that gave Mike and Greg some ammunition and it inspired them
because they're like, okay, this seems like fertile ground for a show.
And, you know, the other thing we did was we went or we sat in on town halls and it
was not too dissimilar from what we see in the show, which is a lot of people going on
and talking and talking and talking, and a lot of them not making any sense. I'm not saying
everybody. I'm not saying these town halls are a waste of time. They're the lifeblood of our
democracy. But a lot of the people in the town hall are not really making a ton of sense. And
a lot of the city council members are doing nothing. They're just not even listening. And
they're just like making notes or like doing other shit all the time and so that was kind of we're like oh real life is is pretty funny in this
respect and i think we kept putting those town halls into the show because it was people rambling
on and on and and and some of the people we put in you think what they say is crazy like there's
some there's some wilder stuff that happens at those meetings if you ever sit in on them you
can sit on them virtually now i think you can just go you can go to the meetings and i actually know a friend of mine is on the la
city council now i'm like man that is a tough job that is a tough tough job well and also there are
um depending on how the town's governments are set up some town halls so some city councils have
a lot of power like la they have tremendous power they basically run the city the mayor basically does nothing in la um but in in
pawnee they're kind of mid-level effective i love the i love the town halls i love they make me
laugh they're my favorite part as a fan of the show and they were always super fun to do because
they're just free shots on goal for you guys for the writers it's just a joke bag and you get funny
actors and the ones you love they keep coming back and some of them even like have personalities later on like there's one guy who who keeps
leading chants like he just starts leading chants so like and it was just a guy who who just every
meeting you become like okay what chant can this guy do and he must have appeared in 10 episodes
he just keeps coming back and then and little things i can can notice Ron Swanson in the episode when the town hall goes awry.
Ron Swanson is disturbed by it and tries to help Leslie through it.
Later on, Ron Swanson will be looking into the camera gleefully and applauding.
It's figuring out character dynamics, and you're totally right.
Again, it's just hard to watch these, or I should say it's great.
It's not hard because it's fun.
It's just hard to watch these, or I should say it's great.
It's not hard because it's fun.
It's fun to watch these first episodes and go, Ron Swanson doesn't have a pompadour.
Yeah.
Wait a minute.
Ron Swanson's in a suit.
The suit drives me crazy. What?
He's wearing this beige suit every episode.
Like, this is so weird.
Because I used to marvel at the fact that it always seemed like it was hotter than Hades
when we shot Parks and Rec.
Always. Partially, we shot Parks and Rec. Always.
Partially we were in the,
in the Valley.
Um,
if you know anything about LA,
you know that if you're in the Valley,
it's always 10 degrees hotter for sure.
And Ron,
um,
Swanson,
not only wore sweaters,
but they were wool.
And I was just,
I just couldn't believe that Nick had to wear that every single day but in the
beginning of the show he's in a suit yeah he's like dapper it's like it's like and poor nick
you know just a soldier he never complained but just yeah i remember those red sweaters
of the basketball episode he wore to sort of mirror bobby knight and he's just constantly
wearing sweaters like layers and layers i'm like dude it's a hundred degrees meanwhile it's supposed
to be like cold in indiana so everyone's wearing like heavy clothes that happened a lot on parks right it's
like people wearing a lot of like it's a christmas episode meanwhile it's 100 degrees in la it just
this seems like an episode for me well because it's second episode as you say and it's you're
really digging into the characters now so back on the theme of leslie not being the leslie that
she became she has a joke in here that she would never say in season two and that joke is i've got sunscreens for all of your beaks and then she looks at tom
and goes you won't need any can't do that i can't do that not doing that joke today can't do that
man i mean it's so funny because so many people work on the show are like you know super woke
people now but it's it's 10 years ago the climate was different it's like when you go back and watch
friends or something like god damn they're doing some crazy stuff on Friends. And
everyone was watching that show, but look, the world has changed and that's not a bad thing.
Yeah. It is interesting to go back and look at how comedy is always a barometer of the times that,
more so than drama, is really a barometer of the times you're living in.
Yes. That's actually a good point. That's actually a good point. Here's the thing I'll say also about
comedy. You know, I'm not saying people don't get enough credit, but I will say when people talk
about the greatest, greatest works of art, of film and television, you know, you always naturally go
to the dramas. But comedy is hard. It's really hard to execute correctly. And when it's bad,
everyone hates it. And it's, you know, like you can do kind of a mediocre drama. It's like, yeah, it's fine. You know,
you don't see that. But if you have a comedy that no one's laughing at, it's like, it's bombing,
it's bombing. And there's a, the floor is low. The floor is really low. So no, it is fun working on,
on, on, on comedies you believe in and, and, and that work, man. And it's, it's a, it, by the way,
it's a more fun shoot day. Forget the writer's room. Like Rob, like you can speak to this, you know, a comedy shoot day is just, it's just different.
I talk to actors all the time who do both and it's a drama is like at the end of the day,
man, what a great day of work. Everyone was in tears and you go home and you're sad.
So it's like, that's your good day. Right. And in comedy, it's like, yeah, everyone had a great
time. Everyone's laughing, going for drinks after like it, it is, it is this bonding thing. So,
so that's something I talk about my friends who do do both like you it it's it's fun man i like to mix it up because you know
there's some stories that need to be told dramatically of course but but comedy is fun
and i think i'll keep coming back to it until i'm aged out and i have nothing funny left to say
same same i mean i always people when they asked me what doing parks and rec was like as an actor um i had just come
from doing brothers and sisters drama uh with sally field and close to flockhart and uh john
robin bates and greg berlanti were the guys who were in charge of it so all good but it's drama
and man i was done by the time i was i, I literally ended that show with me with a piece of rebar
through my head, like Steve Martin with the arrow. That's, that was how my character went out. I mean,
that, that tells you how done I was, um, because you can only do so much of that and it just takes
it out of you. And I did, I did four years on that show and then I did four years on parks.
And when I was done on parks, I felt like I'd never started.
The only thing that felt like work was how early I had to get there.
That's it.
The rest of it was like, oh, and Amy's here.
Great.
Oh, what time is Pratt coming in?
Oh, he's, is this easier?
Nah, he's not here today.
Oh, well, I'm going to see him on Thursday.
It was like going to a party.
Yeah.
And it's like play.
And the more people in a scene, the better.
It's like, oh my God, I haven't done with with with aubrey recently i haven't done a scene
with adam recently and like yeah we still we still keep in touch man it's it's just very fun and um
i feel like you know aubrey texted me one second before this this recording she was like do you do
you have any recommendations for madina like can you help me with this one restaurant it's like
yeah we're still buddies and that's i don't think that's the case on every show right i think uh again i testament to i'm a broken record
with this but testament to mike and testament to amy because it comes from them and and the
atmosphere that they set but it's it was a really good group i feel like no bad apples and and and
just really fun and that's what people want to hear i know they want to hear that but it is true
on this one it's like we're not lying like it is true it was no and it is not it's not true on everyone you know i i've i've been on shows that were
wildly wildly six and and some that were wildly wildly unsuccessful but where people were just
the atmosphere was not good and then i've been on a couple shows in particular where there was a lot
of dissent among the actors and you would just think, oh, my God, do I have to work with this person again?
That happens.
It does.
Not on this.
I mean, and I think that love and respect.
And you know what I think it stems from?
Look, it's Greg and Mike's picker at the end of the day.
They're responsible for who's on the show.
They're responsible for who's on the show.
And the people on the show are not only nice people, but they're all, this is the thing, super, super generous.
Like they want the others to be as funny as they are, if not funnier.
Yeah.
And that's certainly, you know, that was true of the writer's room as well i i really feel like you know a lot of talented people but really just uh uh you know a dream job in a lot of ways i loved seeing aziz again because we're watching these characters as embryos
growing into full-fledged comedy beings and when he put the headphone on and started making the cold calls i was like ah
here we go but even that wasn't the version it would have been down the line because and here's
what i go what's different about it why is this the beginning of tom haverford we love but still
not the tom haver we love and here's my thought here
i'm going to posit this to you alan yang tell me if i'm right the main thing even though he's doing
his double speak like running a game on people which tom did all the time what he's not doing yet is he's not name checking every single culturally significant thing in the planet.
Not once.
And that there's no way he gets through that moment in later scenes without quoting Kanye West or talking about Yeezys or something really even more obscure.
No way.
Yeah, you can feel it. I was actually going to say something really even more obscure. No way.
Yeah. You can feel it. I was actually going to say something similar about those moments. We're talking about the filibuster being a sort of unlocking moment for Leslie's character.
For Z's, when he's in those scenes doing the headset thing, and then even at the end where
he's hustling, I think he pitched some of these bits. I think some of these were improvised,
some of them weren't, but he goes up to the Don Cement guy and he's like, here's a jingle for you.
He's doing that.
That's all kind of improvised and some of it was improvised anyway.
And you can feel like, yeah, his energy is just much higher when he's allowed to kind
of cut loose like that.
And you'll see that.
And then, of course, later on, there's a lot more rappers referenced, but in this one,
I also like just the last line of
the episode which is very sort of i think you know character building for leslie which is you know
andy's neighbor lawrence is leaving he's like hey park lady you suck and leslie's like hear that he
called me park lady like that's like see like making it you know an optimistic turning any
negative into a positive you know looking on the bright side and and and so that's
all in there i think in this episode it's sort of a melange of that and the sort of more cynical
ruthless version of leslie and i think that part falls away and so um you know a lot of funny jokes
in this episode but but uh that one was really sort of on character by the way this is the
apparently one of the only episodes where jim o'hare is not in out of all and he actually technically is in it very glancingly
at the very very top the camera pans through yes and you see him in the background but he has no
this is the only episode of parks where he has no presence whatsoever so the best episode and
that's why it's the best episode because jerry is not in it i mean we know when jerry gurgich
is in something it's hard to be good.
I mean, everybody who knows Parks and Rec deeply knows how we feel about Gary Jerry Gergich.
I could be wrong, but I think that Retta, who plays Donna, is credited as Retta Sirleaf.
She's still using her last name.
as Retta Sirleaf.
She's still using her last name.
This became,
before she became Retta, one name,
which I think is
such a baller move.
I mean.
Yeah, I really like that.
I like that she uses one name.
I forgot that
that was her last name.
Yeah, I was,
I can't even pronounce it.
I'm looking,
reading it right now.
I don't even know
because she's.
Retta, yeah.
When you go one name,
you're throwing down the gauntlet.
I mean, you,
when you decide
you're a one, you're a one namer, you're like, you know, Madonna, Cher, Bono.
I mean, you're saying, I've arrived, motherfuckers, and I am throwing down for the rest of my life.
And she does.
But this is, clearly, she hadn't made that call yet.
Shall we do the potty town hall?
Let's go. Let's do it.
Let's town hall.
So this is a segment where we take questions from you guys, the listeners, the citizens.
Why don't we do this one?
This question comes from Margaret in San Diego.
What is something Rob learned from being Chris?
Here it is.
Water.
Have it in my hand.
Be hydrated.
I am 90% water.
And so are you.
I would say, yeah.
I mean, look, Chris's thing is, is optimism and it's like you got, by the time I came on the show, you guys were so dialed in.
that were coming in and that's why when i came in i had a meeting with you guys and the writing staff and you guys just got to know me and wrote to me and to my foibles and things that made that
make me different than any other actor that would have done it and the health part of it and the
sort of optimism and the energy um that that became the hallmark of chris and um because i
think that's one of the things that that has, that has always driven me. And, um, what Chris taught me was just to hold onto that stuff and, um, of course to be hydrated. And, you know, if I'm going to have a, a vitamin that's big enough, um, that may be a choking hazard to make sure I have someone, you know, with me, uh, to help me do that in case I need the Heimlich. That was a move that Chris had that I particularly
thought was really, really smart. I love that, man. I also drink so much water, it almost might
be unhealthy. Too much water. But yeah, that's a secret, man. That's a secret to energy. But
it is funny when you take aspects and characteristics from the actor or actress
themselves and put them into the character. And then it's almost like a, a, a recircling where like, oh man, like those elements of
myself kind of redouble into my own life.
Right.
That's like, it is true.
I think, I think that was true of a lot of the actors.
Like, yeah, I'm going to lean into this.
Like this, this character is like a heightened version of myself.
It's like, maybe I am like that.
You learn even more from it.
But, um, yeah, certainly it was a character was really fun to write for it.
And, and, and, um, you know, obviously you brought so much to it thank you all right that was ponytown hall
you know what we haven't talked about and that maybe this is and it's so interesting i i think
that it's indicative we haven't mentioned once mark brandanowicz we'll talk about him at some
point obviously he's gonna come up but man it's a loaded cast. Everyone's super funny
and super, like Rob said,
in the tone of the show.
And then when we added,
you know, Rob and Adam,
same thing.
It was like,
everyone's really funny
and they're great.
It was like,
people forget in the West Wing,
Moira Kelly was second build.
Moira Kelly?
Yeah, you just don't remember this stuff.
And it was like,
by the end of the first season
of the West Wing,
it was like glaringly obvious.
It happens.
It happens.
It does happen.
It happens on a lot of shows that you don't even remember.
You know, you get, yeah, I don't know.
By the way, I'm a big fan.
I'm a big fan as an EP producer of when you know that, do something about it early and not late.
Yes.
Think about we did another hundred episodes without him.
A hundred episodes.
Yep.
And that's all we have for this episode.
I hope you enjoyed listening to our recap of canvassing episode two of Parks and Rec.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and tell a friend.
Thanks to producer Greg and producer Schulte.
See you next week.
Goodbye from Pawnee.
This episode of Parks and Recollection is produced by Tamika Adams, Greg Levine, and me, Rob Schulte.
Our coordinating producer is Lisa Byrne.
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 brit khan are our talent bookers the theme song is by mouse
rat aka mark rivers with additional tracks composed by john danik thanks for listening
and we'll see you next time on Parks and Recollection.
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