Parks and Recollection - Costume Designer Kirston Mann: Telethon (S2E22)

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

Pawnee fit check! Today Parks and Rec costume designer Kirston Mann joins Rob Lowe and Alan Yang to talk about the 22nd episode of season 2. In "Telethon"  Leslie struggles to fill the overnight hours at a local telethon when Tom and celebrity guest Detlef Schrempf are sidetracked at the Snakehole Lounge. On today's episode you'll hear why Ann Perkins is the best dressed person in Pawnee, how Kirston helps get to the bottom of the Ron Swanson suit mystery, as well as  a unique story about Pawneean Denise Yermley! Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone] Leslie has volunteered to work on the 24-hour "Pawnee Cares" diabetes telethon and orders everyone in the office to work the phones for multiple shifts. Tom is assigned to pick up retired basketball player Detlef Schrempf from the airport, the special guest for the telethon. Leslie is excited because she has been allowed to program her own four-hour block, but her co-workers are upset to learn it runs from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Additionally, she has already been up for 24 hours creating T-shirts for her staff to wear for the telethon.During lunch, Mark tells Leslie that he is going to propose to Ann. Ann suggests that Leslie get some sleep, but she plans on consuming Sweetums bars to stay awake for another 24 hours. As the telethon begins, Leslie is already exhausted and is falling asleep. With time to kill, Tom brings Detlef to the Snakehole Lounge, but the owner, Freddy (Andy Milder), refuses to let him go because Detlef is bringing a lot of business, delaying Leslie's big headliner. Andy's band, Mouse Rat, is asked to replace Detlef, but when they complete all of their songs, Leslie has nothing else to put on the air. Ron volunteers to demonstrate how to cane a chair, but his presentation is so boring that the telethon actually starts to lose money.Desperate for something to put on, Leslie tells Mark that he should propose to Ann in front of the camera and he agrees. Not long after, however, Ann confides in Leslie that she wants to break up with Mark, citing that he is simply not the one. Meanwhile, April tries to make Andy jealous by flirting with someone over the phone, but it backfires when it turns out to be Joe (Kirk Fox) from the Pawnee sewer department. Andy is forced to kick Joe out of the studio when he actually arrives to bring April to his van.The telethon's talent pool becomes so low that Leslie is forced to flip a coin in front of the camera and talk about her favorite episodes of Friends. Jerry is allowed to play the piano, but everyone dismisses his skilled playing as a racket. Mark finally returns to propose and walks on the set with the ring, but Leslie stops him by mooning the camera. Detlef Schrempf and Tom finally arrive at the end of Leslie's programming block. Detlef presents a check for $5,000, allowing the telethon to bypass its $20,000 mark. Despite being awake for two days straight, Leslie goes to Ann's house so they could talk about Mark. She then promptly falls asleep on Ann's couch for 22 hours.

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

How are ya? Hi Kirsten, when I see you I get really, I start thinking, am I wearing the right clothes? Do I, are these appropriate clothes for me? Do I look like my character? And you look, oh, no way. Where did you get that T-shirt? Wow.

Oh, my God. That's amazing. You're wearing a perk, like a Motley Crue font perks crew. Yep. You're in it. Yes. All the whole cast is here. Oh, my gosh.

What season is it? So, Kirsten, by the way, our amazing costume designer for Parks and Recreation and many, many, many other illustrious shows. And she's wearing a baseball jersey type t-shirt that says Parks Crew. Crew spelled C-R-U-E with an umlaut over the U, like Motley Crue. And it's got cartoons of all the characters. What season was that from? That was the final season. Oh, wow.

And then the whole crew, like a concert shirt, everybody's name is on the back of the shirt. You guys didn't get one? I don't know if I got one. I didn't get one. I'm very sad now. Rob is on the shirt. He didn't get one. I'm very sad now. Rob is on the shirt. He didn't get one. He's drawing.

He's in it. I think you chipped in for the shirt, Rob. I think it was. Maybe I don't know. Maybe I got one. Maybe I lost it. That's sad. But happy to have Kirsten on the show.

Very, very, very exciting. Very exciting. Thank you so much. So good to see both of you. I know it's been too long. And this is a good episode that we're talking about today. This is Telethon, one of my favorites. for the entire series. Poller said the scenes in which Leslie uses sugar rushes to re-energize herself at night only to crash later

were very reminiscent of some of her own all-night experiences working on Saturday Night Live. Another quick one, Amy was nominated for an Emmy Award for Lead Actress of her overall work in the second season, and Telethon was the episode she submitted for consideration. It's got a lot. Yes. Here comes the summary, the synopsis parks and recollection alan

yang roblo here we are episode 22 of season two the writing debut of one amy poehler star of the show plays leslie nope and it was directed by troy miller very frequent director um and of course our guest for this episode is kirsten mann our costume designer. Here comes the synopsis. My synopsisters and brothers, Leslie has volunteered to work on the 24-hour Pawnee Cares Diabetes Telethon and orders everyone in the office to work the phones for multiple shifts. Tom has decided to pick up retired basketball player Detlef Schrimpf, former Indiana Pacer, from the airport, the special guest for the telethon. Leslie's excited because she's been allowed to program her own four-hour block. It runs from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., and she's already been up for 24 hours creating T-shirts for her staff.

Anne suggests that Leslie get some sleep, but she plans on consuming Sweetums bars to stay awake for another 24 hours. Also, at lunch, Mark tells Leslie that he's going to propose to Ann. Intrigue builds. As the telethon begins, Leslie's already falling asleep. With time to kill, Tom brings Detlef to the snake hole lounge, delaying Leslie's big headliner. Andy's band and my band, Mouserat, plays and Ron volunteers to demonstrate how to cane a chair. But his presentation is so boring that the telethon actually starts to lose money. Classic bit. Desperate for something to put on,

Leslie tells Mark that he should propose to Anne in front of the camera, and he agrees. Not long afterwards, however, Anne confides in Leslie that she wants to break up with Mark. Meanwhile, April tries to make Andy jealous by flirting with someone over the phone,

but it backfires when it turns out to be sewage Joe. Jerry's allowed to play piano to fill time, but everyone dismisses his skilled playing as a racket. Mark finally returns to propose and walks on set with the ring, but Leslie stops him by mooning the camera. We're doing a lot of butt stuff in the show. Amy loves a butt jam. More butt stuff.

Detlef, Shrampton, Tom finally arrive at the end of Leslie's programming block. Detlef presents a check for $5,000, allowing the telethon to bypass its $20,000 goal. Leslie goes to Anne's house so they can talk about Mark. She then promptly falls asleep on Anne's couch for 22 hours straight. End of episode. It's got puppies. It's got Detlef Schrempf. It's got clipboard mouth.

One of my favorite things. Clipboard mouth. Classic. Classic. Yeah. I mean Shrimp. It's got Clipboard Mouth, one of my favorite things. Clipboard Mouth, classic, classic. Yeah, I mean, who among us does not love Clipboard Mouth? Sue's Joe and Skinny Chris Pratt. There's a huge range of Pratts, and there's a lot of mouse rats in this episode because they're just in the background of, like, every shot. It's just like, oh, it's just like they're in the background playing, so a lot of mouse rats. We have the perfect person to ask this question was there ever a thought that mouse rat should dress

more like the east street band or or like david bowie's band like or or should it be more grunge kurt cobain like what was that what was this sort of template I think we were just going a little more Midwestern band, you know, like replacements. But just a few years later. And I do love watching Alan dance like the pogo in the background. Kirsten, at a certain point, Kirsten just let me wear my own clothes. So she was just like, just wear your own clothes. That's when the bass player character in Mouse Rat just started wearing ties and shit it's like all right well i don't know what he's doing but that's that's my own wardrobe uh but yeah always very fun and he's

always andy's wardrobe is always fun too it's just that very grungy sort of trapped in the 90s look for him yes there was never a thought to have andy in the the axle Rose bicycle pants and big leather coat. No, we never, we, I don't think Chris would have gone there. Not his vibe, not his vibe.

Well, Kirsten, we, since we have you here, we, we might as well start by asking you, you know, how did you get into this amazing line of work?

That's so fun. And you're so well suited for it. And then how did you start working on parks um i went to parsons for set design and then i started working in the art department and i was looking at the costume department thinking what are they doing i jumped ship and the rest is history i started working in costumes. And how I came upon Parks is I was working on a show called United States of Tara. And one of the directors there was directing also on Parks and moved me over to Parks and Rec, which was like the best thing that ever happened to me. Because my whole future careers, including working with Alan today, is Parks and Rec. There's always one degree from

Parks and Rec. Yeah. Who was the director who brought you over? Craig Zisk. Oh, yeah. I love Craig. He's my neighbor, actually. He lives near me. He's one of the nicest guys in the world. He's directed a bunch of Parkses. It's weird to say Parkses, but I'm going to keep saying it. How else is there? And yeah, and Kirsten has done so many shows as as i mentioned we're currently working on a show with my rudolph together she also did some brooklyn i9 some good place some forever some yeah so so many episodes so many shows how fun do you so do you love i mean i can answer for me but but you do you enjoy doing these comedies because it it's just so much fun, right? It's the best.

I always say I have the best job in the whole world. So all the listeners out there, I have the best job in the whole world. So when you came on to Parks, at what point in the show's run did you, were you there from the very, very beginning? Or did you come on a few episodes in? I came on a few episodes in. So listen, maybe we've gotten to the bottom of one of the great mysteries.

When the show became great. Yeah, exactly. We went from Ron Swanson wearing suits to Ron wearing wool sweaters. Maybe this was your first bit of input. Yeah. And the little, the three button polos. Yes. That is a mystery. It's one of our favorite things in this first few episodes this was your first bit of input. Yeah. And the little, the three button polos.

Yes. That, that is a mystery. It's one of our favorite things in this first few episodes, talking about Ron wearing suits and it's like, well, he looks so strange. And then Kirsten saved the day. But I would,

I will say that I do feel like I slowly tried to make it my own, you know, I feel you in the show. I kind of get your aesthetic and your style, and it works really well for this tone of show. And quite frankly, we're working on a show now that's just kind of similar, sort of, you know, but it's generally optimistic.

It's very colorful. It's just every character. You can, you know, we were going over characters for this new show. It's like every character you can tell immediately if i said if i show you a set of clothes if i show you an outfit you know exactly which character is that sounds trivial but ultimately it is really important and it visually affects so much about how you take in a show did you have favorite characters on on parks

and rec uh that that you love to dress and you know, tell me about anything interesting or what compelled you about each character, maybe. Well, I could circle into Rob, who never did an episode without me. That's right. And the thing I love about this episode is that this episode leads to your first episode. That's right. And so we get to see Anne saying goodbye to Mark.

And that means that Chris Traeger's on his way in. So it's like this perfect bridge. And so what I most remember about this week of shooting, Rob is going to visit you on your, you were at Brothers and Sisters. Yep. And we did our fitting and I had so much fun because you, Chris Traeger was so up my alley,

the preppiness and the like quirky preppy that I love. And so this week was the week that we shot this episode was like a big week in lots of ways because you were coming on and Scott was coming on. And one of my favorite things you said to me, Rob, was you were like, put me in blue and my eyes will go pow. The man knows what he looks good in. And I just like, I always think of you like when I think about blue, pow, pow. That's right. You know, the other thing is Rashida Jones is kind of a little, not kind of, is a sort of little fashion, Easter fashion icon of her generation.

You know, and she's a very specific, she's got a commercial that's on right now. And she's in five different scenes within the commercial. And I'm like, yep, that's Rashida outfit. Yep, that's Rashida. Like, yep like yep i mean she has a very specific taste and i wondered if if you had any thoughts on how that informed ann perkins and perkins and perkins was probably quietly the best dressed woman in pony but very quietly because we couldn't go. I mean, Rashida has such great style and she's brave with style and she's so cool. So we had to pull back her cool factor, but we definitely were able to like, Anne had a little style if you're really looking.

But she never had as much style as Rashida not in the biggest stretch of your imagination right you gotta hold her back you gotta hold her back that's her future shows that's for when she's in a Sofia Coppola movie she can dress uh dress fancier that's down the road it's very fun also I I mean I went shopping with Rashida in New York and we had the best time. And she is so willing to, like, take it to the edge. And she's just the best. Yeah. She always counted her have cool glasses.

Always, like, cool glasses and, like, cool accessories. Cool everything. I just want to follow Rashida around. Again, her dad was Quincy Jones. She's got cool DNA. Pretty cool DNA. Yes, she does. Yes, she does yes she does but um so

this episode was like it was such a bridge episode also to like a whole other part of parks and rec yeah and it feels that way you can feel it it's the calm before the storm exactly exactly so i mean i think you're kissing ann in the next episode so she she moved on spoiler alert no i'm kidding no it's totally fine yeah next week next week is the master plan it's the first uh appearance of chris drager and and ben wyatt so very very very exciting um was there a general vibe you had when when you were deciding to to dress these pawnee characters and people in the office and people in the town? What were you kind of going for? Did you research in terms of how people in the Midwest dressed or what was your

vibe? For sure. I tried to make it as real. And Mike Schur is so good at that, who's the creator of the show. He really wants to keep it based in reality. And so I feel like we really, we tried for that with a little twist. And you get a lot of opportunities in this episode, Telephone, because there's so many people in it. I mean, the entire cast is in it, but then you're meeting all kinds of people on the actual telephone. Right. Alan, who's the name of the singer who comes in and sings the Eurythmics song? It's so amazing. Denise Yermley.

Denise Yermley. I don't know why I remember that, but I think she appears in multiple episodes. I think that was like a Katie Dippold obsession where she would keep pitching things that Denise Yermley could sing. And think about all of the characters that show up besides our regular six to eight characters, right? That's amazing. I want to see more of the, there's like a one shot of, it looks like a singing group, like the Von Trapp family kind of. Yeah, yeah.

In terrible like barbershop quartet type outfits. But you never get to, I want to know more about those people. It's such a rich world. Yes. And the telethon is the perfect way to shine a spotlight on it. It is. And it's just such a good construct for an episode because you just get a litany. You just get sort of a parade of these guest characters.

And I think at first in the writing staff, we were a little bit hesitant to spend too much time with these outside characters because you want to build your guys up. But now that you're 20-some-odd episodes into into the series you kind of know what your characters are like and and that's when you get to have fun with these kind of one-off characters and bring them in for one line two lines a couple jokes and it just makes the world so rich and people love those side characters you know and and they come in and just get those jokes off and and jerry gets a couple great moments too he has the He does the magic trick with the egg and then he plays the Brahms waltz, which is always really funny.

Oh, I wanted to also mention, we struggled in the writer's room for a while with like, is Jerry good at stuff and they still hate him or is he just bad at everything? And we kind of did both. We never really settled on it. Like in the camel episode where they make a mural, he makes an amazing mural.

And in this one, he's like a genius level level piano player and then later we kind of went away from that but in a couple episodes he is very talented and they still hate him which is kind of a different game but it's still funny i don't know leslie's reaction shot where she's listening to him play the brahm brahms waltz is yeah super funny she's like all right enough of that noise like they hate it and it's really beautiful. Yeah, it is funny. I mean, it's hard to go wrong with Jerry. It's hard to go wrong. Yeah.

Yes, yes. We talked about Martin Housley, Denise Yermley, Barney Varm, the accountant guy. The best. Joe Sewage, Mouse Rats in there. Pert Happley's in there. Pert does the worm. Legendary gif. hapley's in there heard does the worm legendary gif by the way heard doing the worm and he looks like i'm not sure what he's in it's a very bold choice he's got very primary color kind of top

going on yes yes he was having a bit of fun that day you know he's our newscaster for people that don't know and yeah um he was just in his wacky mood and obviously he was heading towards doing the worm i think he's wearing a purple shirt with cut off sleeves and then like zubaz pants or something right like i was i remember first seeing that yeah yeah i don't think i was on set for that shot so when i saw it in the cut i was like what i honestly the ron swanson line is what the fuck are you doing pert happily and i was like what the fuck are you wearing it's very funny it's uh it's truly truly special i also like like looking through all these episodes at little things that make me laugh like um we have maybe the best green screen that parks and rec ever did in this episode. It is a, if you notice it, it's early sunrise.

Detlef Schrempf is driving Tom to the telephone. I remember this, yes. Yes. And it literally looks like a Terrence Malick movie. Like, usually we just, we didn't care about any of it. We literally just didn't. We'd be like, green screen looks shitty. They'd throw a bunch of GoPros in the thing.

It was like, what the hell ever? Nobody cared. But this, man, I mean, it really looks like the dawn is breaking over pawnee i was like blown away somebody should have gotten an emmy it's an outtake from tree of life yeah yes it's very tree of life badlands vibes yes yes kirsten do you remember anything from this episode that like did you have to dress datliff shrimp like he's six foot ten or something like ten yes i think we did i mean i think he wore his own pants and we threw a shirt on him but he was he was dressed very casually as you know and and that that was very funny because aziz was so dressed up with his three-piece suit that ends up just being his vest and his hat and his whole

thing yeah what what kind of stuff did you buy for aziz he has a joke about shopping at brooks brothers boys in this episode but what did what kind of stuff did you buy for aziz for this episode and in general well it's so funny i probably and i'm trying to remember but i probably did had to try it had to brooks brothers you know i probably tried to like make it accurate but um aziz was very fun to dress and i and i feel like that's thanks to you alan because you always added a little like i mean one of one episode where he was constantly changing his clothes and you and i actually went through the rack and kind of were like, yes and no. Like, what would Tom Haverford do? And throughout the seasons, I feel like Tom really came to, like, such a great place for me as a costume designer.

Like, he had such an art in fashion. It probably also lined up with Aziz making more and more money and figuring out which brands he liked and stuff. Oh, completely. Like, he's like, I want to wear this kind of jacket or whatever, right? Yeah, exactly. That's so funny because that does happen, but we got to have so much fun with it in addition because he wasn't afraid to be too big. Yeah, yeah. I remember you and I always used to get together and laugh about how far can we go with putting me in the most ridiculous shirts that maybe a 12-year-old would wear. Yes.

Yes. Like big stripes. Oh, so cute. Oh, yeah. I loved it. In our poster for our modest little podcast, I'm wearing a striped shirt that I was channeling you. You were. Because I know you and I would pick that off the rack because it's ridiculous.

Yeah. It's like not a shirt a man of my age should ever be seen in. Oh, I loved it. But Chris would wear it and he would pull it off. He totally pulled it off for sure. What were the ideas for Leslie and Ron respectively? Like I know you want to be relatively, you know, real to, to what a government sort of employee would wear,

but you also want them to look good. So what was the sort of balance there? That's we kept Amy pretty, you know, she wanted to stay basic, but we made her when she, on her off days, I feel like we did her very cute sweaters that could be sort of seen as

Midwestern. And the interesting thing, I think even in this episode, Amy was pregnant with Abel. And so we were always kind of working out how to make her look and not look pregnant. And the one thing I'll say about Amy is she's the least vain person I've ever worked with. And my joke would be, she'd come, I'd said a few things in her trailer and then she'd walk out and she'd go, this looks good. Right. And it would, it would be like, oh my God, you look so brave.

You know, she just was like, I'm done. I put this first thing on and I'm like, no, it doesn't work. I like that. That's very comedy friendly you know that's like you know it's a lower a lower maintenance or like let's just go do the jokes and make people laugh yeah people people who it's funny my wife cheryl i love her to death obviously married a long long long time but sometimes when we when i do comedy it's she sometimes isn't a fan sometimes because um i don't care about how I look.

And the more ridiculous I look, the better I like it because you can't have vanity and do comedy. You can't have any of it. So it doesn't surprise me at all that Amy is like that. You just, I mean, if you don't want to look, you know, as ridiculous as you possibly can, you're kind of done before you start. So it doesn't surprise me that Amy's like, I don't care how I look. Yeah. And I've done a lot of things with, you know, Amy and I have continued to work together a lot. I did Wine Country and Moxie and making it, baking it.

But, you know, that carries on. it with Maya. But, you know, that carries on. Even when you're doing a big show like Telethon, where there's a lot, you know, a lot of things happening, all my goal is, is to make sure that every single person is teased apart from our main cast and from each other. And so I think that's the goal. And that's what I try even to keep them all Midwesterners, but all like rays of the sun. I like that. The other thing that my pet peeve on bad wardrobe on TV, it's usually on cheap TV, but you'll see it all the time if you pay attention, is everybody's in clothes that are absolutely brand new. Like brand, brand, brand, brand new. Like if you watch the Disney channel,

every single person in every single show, it's like you can still see the folds. Yeah. The hanger marks. Thank you for saying that. That is a really good, when I first started Parks, I had every single thing that was in existence washed with a little, I mean, we call it teching, but it's basically like tea dyeing, like take everything down to a worn level.

I love learning the jargon. Chris Traeger got to be a little crisp. Yes. I got a little crisp. You got to be a little crisp crisp and everybody else was a little bit a crew curses up at 5 a.m every morning ironing his workout clothes exactly it's just like the other thing is there's um white shirts i'm a big white shirt guy and and and how many have you ever been a part of uh the discussions with the directors of photography who go crazy with

yes with white shirts because like they want they want you to dye it with tea takes the curse off the whiteness because dp's traditionally don't like it on the west wing my character was known for his white shirts and i fought them on that and won and i have these amazingly crisp white shirts on west wing and it's something i've sort of kept wherever so whenever i come on a show i'm like no no i will be wearing white thank you no tea for me yes exactly so that is something we're very and it depends which dp you're working with and dp's director of photography and mike trim was very loose with us the first sign you have a bad dp is that that's where they want to plant their flag on your white shirt completely my favorite is like if you're going to do a new like like a talk show or a show and they send you a an email that says don't wear uh a certain pattern because it will strobe i go this is gonna be a long interview yeah it's it's it's the it's

the moiré that's what they say it's moiréé when your shirt has a checked pattern. And you just, oh, we got to change his shirt. It's like, oh, God. But there are lots of secrets. So anyway, yes. And I love fighting for the white, white shirt. Some things in life are worth fighting for, I think. so this was the first episode officially written by amy and she would later go on to write more episodes and she would also direct episodes and that was always fun because i mean at a certain point i think you know actors getting to direct it you know it it makes sense especially if they're paying a lot of attention when they shoot because they know everybody and they know their character and they know the show and so it was always fun when she directed i remember this episode later on uh called i think the debate where um there were a ton of cameras going at the same time because that's just how

that episode was shot and it was like there's eight cameras going but we also happen to have five people on set who had directed episodes so amy was directing and then mike was there dean was there and morgan second was there and I was there. We were all like looking at two monitors each. It's like, oh, this is like my dream of how the show runs. It's like everyone's there and then we're just talking about it and that's how it gets done, you know? And, you know, everyone has opinions, but it's such a collaborative process. So I always remember, you know, how deferential she was in some ways, also very authoritative,itative but and she's gone on to direct movies and other shows and and you know this was kind of i believe some of the earlier stuff she directed so that's kind of fun well not only that this is um so the way it works

with the emmys people is the studio submits you to the television academy like your producers the studio pick an episode and they give it to them. And then you either are nominated, not nominated, win, not win based on in theory, your whole work over the season, but nobody can watch the whole season. So you pick an episode. This was the episode that got Amy her nomination, first nomination for outstanding uh uh comedic performance it is it is kind of crazy uh amy never won an emmy for this show and never and uh you know obviously she she did a great job and it was it was nominated every year by the way and neither did steve carell steve never this is one of my great things people talk about emmys and awards and look they're great you get them you don't get them that's all it's all good but the notion that for seven straight years on on television there was someone funnier than steve carell in the office really seven years not true yeah it's it's also great to go look back and again no no shade on this guy but i think tony shalhoub was winning like eight in a row for

monk or something for the show monk yeah which which was very, very, very funny. So you just never know. But I do remember coming on the show and people being like, man, well, that Nurse Jackie, that's, you know, what are you going to do? There's no Parks and Rec. Another thing I think, Greg, you and I were talking about was because Amy was Leslie Knope, like literally was her, she kind of had a little bit more conviction and courage in pushing Leslie to places that you might not otherwise.

And in terms of if you weren't playing that character, you might want to keep her a little more likable or protect her. And in this episode, for instance, she does something relatively unlikable, which is she tries to convince Mark to propose to Anne on live TV to save her own telethon. And that's kind of an almost a more selfish color to Leslie that we hadn't seen for a while. But I think Amy believed in that story move. And at the end of the day, she pulls it off, right? So she has to make a mistake in order to buy it back with Anne. And that provides a lot of shape and emotion to the episode. So I think that's something that Amy definitely pushed for and made the episode better. But you know, it was the start of, you know, she's just such a creative powerhouse in every way and was able to, you know, do a great job writing a draft in addition to obviously being an incredible lead actress. So it was fun. It was fun to see.

Yeah, that's one of the things I like so much about the episode is the fact that it's kind of got that sweet cringe going on you know that that yeah i think amy knew how to take her character to that place that we wouldn't hate her afterwards but kind of love that kind of weird darkness that she could bring to it there's levels of cringe like there's some cringe tv and cringe comedy that for me is just too cringy and like i like it for a minute but i don't want to watch it for three minutes or four minutes or certainly not a whole episode so i think the bullseye in this in the telephone episode is is right in the sweet spot where you're like oh no but you also love it it's like the it's like the the character building a character that the quote is the villain you love to hate meanwhile most of the time you just

hate them you know but every once in a while you hit the sweet spot and i think that happened with with the cringe on this one yeah same thing and and and i agree and and and this also kind of dovetails in with the the element that mark brandanowicz that character was leaving the show you know and and so that kind of all kind of worked in concert. As we mentioned, you know, the next episode is The Master Plan, where Rob Lowe and Adam Scott join the show. And so in this one, we had to start figuring out a way that Mark would leave. And that sort of began with Anne sort of losing, you know, her romantic interest in him so and in the in the ultimate part like park's ethos the relationship isn't gonna work out so it's goodbye there's no like he's gonna get gunned down in the street or he's gonna he's gonna die rescuing a child in an ice flow there's like like he's not getting a hero send off that's not happening and and also he's like relatively takes it okay right he's relatively

empathetic and he you know he acts kind of reasonably and he's like all right i'm i'm out peace out man yeah it's very unceremonious that's for sure there's a couple things that that greg and schultz you have have dug up here there i did notice this while watching it when debating on whether to propose to ann mark asked someone off camera what he should do. So he's like acknowledging that there's a documentary crew filming them, which we basically discarded that notion partway through the show.

So it's interesting to me that that was still happening. I think we did it a fair amount in the first two seasons, but they never wound up making it into the episode. And so what winds up being are these kind of remnants of that. And so... seasons but they never wound up making it into the episode and so what what winds up being are these kind of remnants of that and so you're saying it's almost a mistake it almost should have been kind of altered a bit i think it's been yeah it definitely because you watch you know you watch the office and i think there was a big sort of pushback in the office when they did that later

later later on in the season you know that where they added like the boom guy or whatever and then in modern family which was shot in a similar way they just never they're like this is not a documentary they're people are talking into a camera for no clear reason but it's not a documentary and it's just it's just happening this so the other thing i loved about uh the episode just generally do you have actors who come in not just on parks but in general like who are who are more difficult like they're super opinionated about what they want to wear they don't want to wear or and then how do you handle it that's a good question on parks and rec no i'm like do I divulge? At the same time I was doing Parks, I was doing another show across the lot. And there are people that are very opinionated. And really, my goal with my job

is to make the actor comfortable. I take my own ego out of it. Also, I don't want to make anybody look bad on camera. So I'll be very honest. But the most important thing is for the actor to feel the character. If I have an idea that the actor feels more comfortable in something, I mean, you can sense it in the fitting room where somebody starts to feel like the person that they are supposed to be on camera. And that's the direction I need to go,

not something I preconceived. That's a real thing. Sometimes what you do can make it happen. I feel like I'm part of the process that I get to, and sometimes I get to see the character come alive in the room. I mean, I can remember fitting you and where we kind of were laughing

and all of a sudden it was like, this is so him. And because we had him. And like on the big place with Ted Danson, like we found this feather bow tie and we were like, and Ted was like, all of a sudden turned on to the characters. So there's, there's these moments where you feel like I found the character with the person because they, you know, sometimes an external piece helps the internal piece. For sure.

And it doesn't always happen. And when it does happen, as an actor, you're just so grateful. You're so happy to have been like thrown a life vest where you're like, oh, my God, I don't play this guy now. where you're like, oh my God, I don't have to play this guy now. And that's why what you do is so, so important, particularly when you're coming onto a show like I was, which was already a moving freight train. And you got to jump on board or get your arm ripped off.

So when we figured those little button downs and collared shirts and all that stuff, it was, I was like, oh, I know what to do. Right, right. You kind of just start to feel it. And so that's the biggest joy. And Parks was the dream job. A bunch of sweethearts, a bunch of sweethearts. And this episode is kind of like, you know, it's almost like a metaphor for the show because everyone teaming up could

kind of solve the problem. And, you know, just circling back to Detlef Schrempf, for those of you who don't know that is, he was a former Indiana Pacer. And we wanted the right level of celebrity for this telethon. And we kind of figured, I think basketball is huge in Indiana, Larry Bird, et cetera, Hoosiers. And there are a lot of big NBA fans on the writing staff. So plus his name is fun to say, Detlef Schre Shrimp. It's always funny. So he became a recurring character. I mean, he came back later and then we also later had Roy Hibbert

play himself on the show. And we also had a NBA All-Star, Chris Bosh on the show who wasn't playing himself. I think he was playing a really good high school basketball player. So he was on the Eagleton team, I think. So a lot of NBA cameos on Parks and Rec.

And it was because we had a lot of basketball fans on on the show so that was always really fun it was really fun i do feel like everybody's character and real like sort of merged a little like he you know ron swanson and nick are they have a lot in common yes i also really loved uh the the caning sequence which oh yes wrong god it was so funny i don't know something about nick's face when he's doing it he's like he's like over and under and wait and wait for it you guessed it over like it's it's it's it's it's it's just really good uh comedic acting by him i i just love that part and then of course the money going down when he's when he's doing that sequence was wonderful i actually have a spec script that i wrote years ago that just sitting around called telethon because it's such a right world the behind the

scenes of telethon and because i've done a bunch of them yeah and there's so much stuff that goes on a granted pawnee is not you know uh ho know Hollywood but it's the same thing it's like I can remember George Clooney putting on a telethon for the tsunami disaster and it was like you could see all these stars showing up like hoping they would be on camera to talk but it was sort of up to George and he was sort of like the guru of it and depending on whether he liked you or not you'd like either get to say something incredibly moving in front of america or you just be sitting answering a phone in the background and like every kind of everybody's kind of it was so and then it got to the point where of course i was answering the phone and and people would literally call up and be like oh my god hello rob i'm like

yes how much would you like to dedicate to the tsunami and they um i don't know is renee zellweger next to you could i talk to her and no way yeah and then like and and they'd be like, I don't know, is Renee Zellweger next to you? Could I talk to her? No way. Yeah, and then like, and then it was like, I remember sitting next to Johnny Depp and we were trying to like, they didn't tell us how to get the money from the people and so it was

just a complete disaster and so I've always wanted to really do a deep dive on what really goes on on telethon that's that's hilarious that number one by the way if if clooney did the telethon now uh he should just use his casamigos tequila money to just to just solve everything and then that's right number two telethons also gave us one of the most legendary unintentional comedy moments of the last 20 years which was uh kanye west saying uh george bush doesn't care

about black people yeah and uh standing next to mike myers just looking bewildered it's a great clip just look at my look at mike myers face yes oh it's one of the great it's one of the great moments and it couldn't happen to the you know i've done a bunch of movies with mike obviously and yep knowing how much mike cares about things going perfectly and what a control freak and in the best possible way, you don't get to be Mike Myers without being in charge of details. So the notion that he of all people would be the guy, it's just, it's delicious. I say there are not enough telephones. How about that? Delicious. I say there are not enough telephones. How about that? There's something about it, man. There's something about it. It's such a weird world. You're right. That would be a funny idea. So, you know, it works in the small world of Pawnee and it going on in dayton ohio um on memorial day that's what we did we watched the telethon and i wanted to be on tv then i was an act i wanted to be a young actor and i was like and it says if you go donate i was like i want to go donate it to the local firehouse where it was but i thought if i donated somehow

in dayton ohio enough money i would be on the actual telethon not having any idea that that was in las vegas and i was in dayton ohio not a smart kid i was not so smart but i remember driving all the way down there put my ten dollars in the fireman's hat and being super disappointed that i didn't make it on tv you know but you know what it was it was all for the better good. And you made it on TV eventually. Into an episode. I wasn't in this episode. Well, you're in the next one though. It's actually very exciting. It's a countdown to Rob's episode next week, the first introduction of those two guys. So stay tuned for that episode. One thing I wanted to ask you before we let you go is,

did actors get to keep their wardrobe how often did that happen or did you have to take it back or steal it or did they sometimes steal it i'm always curious about that i don't know if anybody's did you take anything wrong uh no comment because it's like if it's good stuff it's like i know you're supposed to it's like is it a rental what is it like do they do you buy it in return? You know what? I'll tell you what goes on all the time is, because I'm commuting all the time from Santa Barbara. So I come in in literal pajamas. I show up in pajamas and I'm in LA and then I realize, oh, I have a business dinner.

So I will wear my wardrobe, which is presentable to dinner. But then I have to wear it back the next day. So that goes on all the time. That kind of stuff does happen for sure and um where does the wardrobe go it all depends i mean it really does you kind of have to ask the producers if somebody wants a particular jacket or something and and it all kind of works out in the wash but basically all the clothes go back to nbc into a giant place called the asset exchange and every once in a while i'll be an asset exchange for another nbc show and find

like a parks and rec gem that i know i can't reuse because if somebody knew my not that anyone's following me around that's amazing but that's fascinating so there's this big warehouse huge yeah with will and grace with so many great shows and we share you know it's smart for mbc because they make it easier for us to you know right now our show which alan and i doing, it's a universal show, so we can pull from asset exchange and make our party goers look amazing with clothes from past shows. So, it's a smart way to do business. To explain any Western costume, that's still around, right? The famous Western costume? It is still around.

It's so amazing. And if you ever wanted, I mean. They have tours. They have tours. They should have tours. Actually, almost all costume houses, because they're attached to Warner Brothers or Universal, they all have tours if you want to take one. But Western is the most amazing, you know, kind of Lords of Arabia and John Wayne movies and all kinds of things, you know kind of lords of arabia and john wayne movies and all kinds of things you know and you can often find jack old jackets with actors names sewn in them you know it's it's an amazing place

and i have to say i was doing a commercial i was helping a friend i was as, as I said, I wanted to do art department and I went to Western Costume and it changed my life. I went in there and I felt like, oh my God, this place is magic. Now you could go in there and feel like this place is a dusty hellhole. So just like I always send anybody who says they want to do costumes to all the costume houses around town and make them walk up and down every single aisle. And if at the end of the day you feel energized, which is an energizing task, you can carry on in doing costumes. It's like going to the world's greatest thrift store. Really. And I was such a thrift store shopper my whole life, so I loved it.

It's like with extra treasures. A thrift store with Jimmy Stewart sewed into a wool blazer. Or you'll go there and you'll go, wait a minute. This looks like one of the things that the aliens wore on Lost in Space. Or like, you see your movie-going and TV-going childhood flash in front of your eyes on any given rack. It's really, it's extraordinary if anyone ever gets the chance to do it. And they, don't go to Hollywood and Vine. It's boring.

There's nothing there but 7-Elevens. Go to Western Costume if you really want the Hollywood experience. Completely. And just walk through there and you get such history. But it is true when you put that many clothes in that giant of a warehouse. It is a dusty,

hot cave. That is also true. Kirsten, it's Greg. I've been dying to ask you about one character in particular. I'm so glad you're here, which is Jean-Ralphio. Oh. Because you've talked so much about dressing Pawnee was about blending in

and just people being their normal selves, but then he is the exact opposite. And we've seen him two or three times this season but he's about to go off on a whole new tangent soon can you talk at all about the fun or what it was like making john ralphio who he became i'm so glad you circled back around to that because when i when you were asking me favorite characters to dress john rafio definitely and his sister and his father who's henry winkler they were the most fun because we just got to go as far as we wanted and again make sure the creator just kind of let us go wild with him and just thought the character got funnier and funnier

as the seasons progressed yeah it's almost like with these side characters wardrobe and the writing and all of it the performance like you can go a little bit crazier right you can go a little bit broader with a side character they're not in every episode you don't have to think of jean ralphio as that well-rounded a human being right for the main characters you want them to have multi-faceted rich inner lives you want to be you know you want them to behave in character but also have enough range so that they could occasionally behave out of character and you believe it. Jean-Ralphio was essentially a receptacle for the wildest, most insane jokes and Ben Schwartz imprompts. And also the craziest hair in the business.

Yeah. Ben is amazing. He's so much fun. And there's always one in the town i can always make sense you know or two the siblings the twins it totally makes sense uh well thank you so much for joining us kirsten i know you're a very busy person i know that because i know how much work you do with us on the new show so thank you so much for joining us and and uh yeah anything you want to add about this episode or anything about the show?

Otherwise, we'll let you go. I'll just say this is my all-time favorite show, Alan. Maybe until we get this other one going. I love that. I love that optimism. And God willing, we'll have as much fun on this one. But yeah, thank you so much for coming on, Kirsten. We love you.

Thank you, guys. Thank you so much for coming on, Kirsten. We love you. Thank you, guys. Thank you. We have been so happy with the response. So many questions coming in. Please keep sending them in. What's the email address, Shulte, that we can send in? People can send in town hall questions? Of course.

It's parksandrecollectiontownhall at gmail.com. You can also find it in the show description. That's right. So we've been really happy with the feedback. So send in your questions. Where should we do this town hall, Rob? We have tons of options. I think we need to do it at the cable access studios. That's a great idea. This is where the episode takes place, Pawnee Community Access Studios. It's where Leslie spends 24 hours and the whole team is there. So this question that we'll do in the town hall in this public access studios comes to us from Bobby in Burbank.

Bobby asks, hi, Alan, Rob, production team. Love the podcast. I even gave it a five-star review on Apple. Shout out to Bobby. Very, very, very. That's a way to get your question read, by the way. Just mentioned that you gave us a five-star review. Bobby asks, my question is, if in the future this podcast is so successful,

NBC asks the both of you to create a PNR spinoff show, which character would get the spinoff and why? Well, number one, Bobby, this podcast will be that successful. Let's will it into existence. Let's speak it into existence. It's a great question. Thank you for asking. I mean, there's an obvious answer for Rob, which is he plays a character of the show, so he may be biased. What do you think, Rob? Listen, I think it's, first of all, I think it should be about Mouse Rat and Chris should manage the band. I think it's kind of, it's in the genre, but it's also super unexpected. It's in the genre, but it's also super unexpected. And it could be a music show in the style of, there's been a lot of great music shows in the past.

My girlfriend is an actress on the show Dave. Maybe there could be a crossover with the Lil Dicky show Dave on FX. And yeah, it could be about Maserat Traveling Country. All we have to do is get Pratt. We can get Burley. We could get Mark Rivers. And Chris can be, Chris, what kind of music manager would Chris be? Enthusiastic.

And indefatigable. Indefatigable. He would have booked a tour with Dave Matthews in the first day, in the pilot episode. We got a tour with Dave Matthews. You wouldn't be doing one night stands. You would be doing multiple shows a night stands. Yeah. Maybe, you know, in addition to this we get uh we get duke silver we get cameos from ron and and he could open for for some of the shows and that would be really fun he's in the band now i would make sure he's in the band he's essentially in

the band so for those of you don't know mouse rat would play the rap parties at the end of every season and often uh nick would play saxophone with us which was very fun i also think we should do like um what paul mccartney did like linda mccartney went on tour you know did on all that stuff so we should bring all the other characters come with regardless of their musical talent and they're just on stage doing it playing the triangle and stuff i love that tambour Tambourine, triangle, woodblock. Cowbell. Yeah, exactly.

John Ralphio playing every instrument. And there's a funny pitch here from Schulte in the chat. They also solve mysteries, which why not? Why not? Right? It's a band that solves mysteries. Yes. That's great.

Well, thank you so much, Bobby. We're going to take our leave from the Pawnee Community Access Studios. And yeah, write in your town hall questions, parksandrecollectiontownhall at gmail.com. And we'll see you next week. Big episode next week, Rob. The Master Plan. So excited. Your first appearance on the show. Thanks for listening.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and tell a friend. Thanks to producer Greg and producer Shulte goodbye papani bye-bye parks and recollection is produced by greg levine and me rob schulte 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.