Parks and Recollection - Hunting Trip (S2E10)

Episode Date: December 28, 2021

Everyone loves a trip to Pawnee! Today Rob and Alan venture off into surprisingly familiar territory when they watch the 10th episode of season two. In “Hunting Trip” Leslie tries to prove she can hang with the guys by inviting herself on Ron's annual hunting trip. On this episode find out which cast member wants to ruin Alan’s life, get a masterclass in improv-Amy Poehler, and hear a little memory from our buddy Chris Pratt about working with Aubry Plaza.Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone] In an effort to prove she can be one of the guys, Leslie leaves April in charge of the Parks Dept. and insists that she and the other ladies of the Parks Dept. tag along on Ron’s annual “Trail Survey”, which is actually just a secret hunting trip the men of the Parks Dept. go on each year. Once on the hunt, Leslie proves to be an excellent hunter and an increasingly threatened Ron agrees to Leslie’s challenge of who can shoot more birds. The two split up and not long after, we hear a loud shot, Ron shout, and it’s revealed Ron has been shot in the head. Leslie claims responsibility for shooting Ron to protect a fellow Parks employee, prompting Ron, in the end, to call her a “Stand-up guy”. Meanwhile back at the Parks Dept. April and Andy bond and potential chemistry is sparked when April gives Andy multiple hickeys to make Ann jealous.

We're getting together to talk about all the things we used to do The laughs, the passions, the little Sebastian's, the pits 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, welcome, welcome everyone to Parks and Recollection It's me, Rob Lowe, who will eventually play Chris Traeger Not today, not in this episode. Not in the episodes you've been listening to so far.

But they tell me, at some point, my character will show up in this show. I hear they actually went back and edited all the episodes on Peacock. You're not in any of them anymore. So it's just going to be a watch party. Just a watch party. They took you out of like 80 episodes. It's crazy, man. I don't know.

Look, I wasn't in charge, but I heard that happen. Alan Yang, I blame you. I blame you. Listen, at this point, I should just do a podcast about The Sopranos. I like that show, too. That's a good show. I mean, yeah. Look, man, I think it's been instructive watching this thing.

What's up, everybody? What's up, Rolo? Good to talk about another episode. But yeah, man, we're getting there. What really like what is this episode 10 we got we got 12 more till your episode and so yeah i mean oh boy but this is a good one this is uh this is a very good one this is uh season two episode 10 that's right season two episode 10 the episode's called hunting trip a classic episode first aired november's called Hunting Trip, a classic episode. First aired November 19th, 2009.

This is a really good one, man. Written by Dan Gore, directed by Greg Daniels, powerhouse team. Yeah, this is one of the ones people talk about. Why don't you do the synopsis? Because I have thoughts. I have many thoughts on this episode. I can't wait. Yes, I have a lot of thoughts about this one, too.

This is great. So the episode synopsis, synopsis fans, here we go. In an effort to prove she can be one of the guys, Leslie leaves April in charge of the Parks Department and insists that she and the other ladies of the Parks Department tag along on Ron's annual trail survey, which is actually just a secret hunting trip the men of the Parks Department go on each year.

Once on the hunt, Leslie proves to be an excellent hunter and an increasingly threatened ron agrees to leslie's challenge of who can shoot more birds the two split up and not long after we hear a loud gunshot we hear ron shout and it's revealed ron has been shot in the head great act break leslie claims responsibility for shooting ron to protect a fellow parks employee, prompting Ron in the end to call her a standup guy. Now the way that's written, it's almost like protecting the viewer, but we spoil these things. So she protects Tom. Like it's Tom who shot Ron.

So the way that's written, it's like, have you seen it or not? Hopefully you've seen it because you're listening to this, but yes, Tom shot Ron. Meanwhile, back in the parks department, April and Andy bond, and there's potential chemistry that sparked. When April gives Andy multiple hickeys, that's off screen. We don't show that in NBC. April gives Andy multiple hickeys to make Anne jealous.

So a really big episode. Man, it's fun and rollicking, man. It's fun and rollicking. It's, well, I was going to say, it's so frenetic, and not in a bad way, but it's like there's yelling and screaming and running and it has a completely different energy i think maybe than any other episode in the run of the series definitely up to this point too i mean we're a far cry from the

pilot right we're a far cry from paperwork and and sort of the comedy of drudgery, the anti-comedy sort of, as Rob Lowe put it, the independent film nature of some of the first season. Like, this is not that. This is like, it literally opens with, basically, Andy started working as a shoeshine guy, and he gives everyone piggyback rides. So, the beginning of the episode is a series of frenetic piggyback rides all around our set. it's like god damn the set is pretty big like he's it's it's a really funny cold open he gives tom a piggyback ride and gives uh he gives leslie a piggyback ride it's really funny definitely has um the most um tom haverford small jokes per capita for sure i know those even those by way, not just small jokes, but there's way

too many jokes about him being like derogatorily being called a woman, which like is kind of out of character for Leslie. No, it's like, we don't do that anymore. But Leslie's like literally calling him like less of a man and like, Hey man, this is 12 years ago. Let's remind everybody it's 12 years ago. So it's a different time, but, but you know, we've all, we've all learned, we've all grown and changed, but, but yeah, it is certainly some of those things that by the way we'll get to some other stuff in this episode and the next one that that are kind of shocking but um yeah this one's this one's really sort of uh i don't know it's it's sort of a quintessential ron and leslie story there's there's just so much between the two of them with with ron especially in the beginning

of the haunting trip where leslie's just nipping at his heels like this terrier you know and that's kind of their dynamic the whole time that's true i mean you know someone once said that comedy is made for the time that it exists in and that's that's very very true yeah i think there's definitely something to that so you know you could still watch this now and it's not so so dated but yeah there's there's certain certain aspects of it's like yeah we wouldn't do that today poor aziz he just got rock ruckus in this one he's he gets carried by multiple men in this episode he gets carried by andy and by ron ron lifts him up like he's a sack of potatoes and then he gets carried around and ron says he weighs nine pounds or something like that which is is like, you know, I think he's probably buck 20 or so.

It's just so, I don't know why it's so funny, but it is. I mean, well, because he's such a petulant guy in the show. You know, he's just desserts. Just desserts. Leslie Knope is such a noted feminist icon comedy character that the notion of her trying to fit in with the guys is is kind of a a good a good storytelling place to be and and uh leslie's idea of what guys would want to do and talk about and have fun with is is a great area for comedy and it always leads into uh yeah guys love it when uh you show them you're better at something than something they love, better than they are. That's a great win to win friends over.

One of the main themes that the show kind of comes back to again and again was the idea of a woman succeeding in a world that's kind of designed against female succeeding. And that was very true in government. That was very true in politics. I mean, if you look at, just look at everyone in the history of the country who's been elected president and uh name how many women there are but so that was one of the themes and especially you know i think that's taken a little bit more for granted now but but 12 13 years ago even having the lead of your comedy show be a woman as opposed to a man was a bigger deal i would you know you again you take that kind of for granted now yeah yeah it's it's it's more 50, 50, it's more equal right now. Not that

we've, we've overcome everything, but, uh, so that was one of the, the, the, the themes that I think, you know, was ripe to be tackled throughout. So I think the idea of the men's hunting trip came about kind of as a response to wanting to do it, wanting to do an episode about that theme. And then there's this pretty legendary jump cut sequence where Amy is talking to the park ranger and explaining why she shot somebody, because she's a woman. And I think that was an instance of,

we had a few alts lined up, and then it was like, okay, let's just let Amy Poehler be funny for 30 minutes. And so I think we just let the camera roll and she just improvised a ton of shit. And the result is what you see in the cut. So they filmed this. Here's the thing. I know nothing.

I was not there when they made it. I know nothing. I'm merely a Parks and Recs. Ask me questions. I'm a Parks and Recs fan. But this is that cottage, the hunting cottage. I have shot in five billion trillion times it's like i think we did the west wing debate camp camp david there i think in brothers and sisters uh that was like you know sally field's second family pie making home or whatever the hell they did on that show i mean i have spent more time at that damn poison oak infested backlot area deep in the hills of silmar yeah is that disney

ranch or is that a separate i think it's disney yeah it's disney ranch there's there's a thing called disney ranch that that you know every time you see it like like rob is saying the wilderness or forests or a cabin or a lake, it's all on Disney Ranch. You'll start seeing the same places pop up and up again. There's only so many places in LA to shoot. They do. Once in a while, people pull it off,

and even a jaded person who has done a lot like me gets fooled. Somebody was like, yeah, they shot the entire season of Justified there. I'm like, what? He's like, how? with like somebody was like yeah they shot the entire season of justified there like what it's like how i didn't you still that's the you know what that is the magic of tv because i've seen a lot of shows that shot like places that i've shot before but then there's so many that again they're unrecognizable like there's parts of west world west world you think of this like big big like

you know it's like a 200 million dollar show someone that they just shot on like the universal backlot it's like yeah it's just like they're still $200 million show. Someone that they just shot on like the Universal backlot. It's like, yeah, it's just like, they're still saving money on a show like that. They're not building those sets. They just exist. And you're like, what? When you go and walk around in person, it looks like shit.

You're like, this looks like shit. I don't know how this works on a big budget show, but that's kind of the magic of what you see in real life versus what things show up like on camera. I really do think that there's something to that. I have a philosophy, and maybe it's just because I love Parks and Rec so much, love The Office so much,

love 30 Rock so much, love Always Sunny in Philadelphia so much. All the shows, they look thrown together. It's like nobody cares about the makeup and hair. The lighting is rudimentary. But I love that, and then I think i can name you a handful of comedies that are so super glossy and high end and they're not funny do you think there's a correlation between glossy thousands of extras and you know dewy movie star close-ups that just aren't funny,

and all the shows I mentioned which are killer and look like shit. I think about this a lot, because as someone who makes shows and directs shows, and some of them are comedic in nature, I love things to be beautiful, but I definitely understand where you're coming from, which is there's something about a show that feels a little bit handmade, that feels a little bit like you're kind of with the characters, right? You take away some of the artifice when you're kind of running and gunning and you're just getting natural reactions.

You're cross shooting, which means shooting two people at the same time. So you get the natural sort of reactions. You're not going back and doing the reactions over again look i like for a lot of the shows i work on to look beautiful but there's something to something that doesn't look too fussed over right you look at the office it's like the office obviously was designed to be a mockumentary and it feels real because it's not it clearly wasn't set up by 200 people and janice kaminsky right it wasn't it's not it's not robert elswit shooting it it's not christopher doyle well all my dp cinematographer heads out there like these are these are name drops for you these are these are for no one but you but but it it's it's definitely um i think it's naturalism right

it's naturalism does it feel real's naturalism. Does it feel real? And that lends itself to something being funny. And in the case of like Always Sunny or classic shows, it's like, then you're talking about the tradition of multi-cam sitcoms and you being programmed to laugh by seeing that standing set and just cutting quickly, right? Cutting and being able to move quickly on your feet. But yeah, I agree with you. There's something, Surf Slime has really, really beautifully shot things.

It's like, yeah, but it kind of took all the air out of it. Oh, and also just as an actor, having done both in my career, I remember coming to Parks and Rec and being, it was so refreshing that you just, you just went on the set and you did what you were going to do

with your other actors and you found stuff and the cameras had to find you. Sounds subtle, but it's huge. It's huge. And I started, you know, the first real thing I directed was Parks and Rec and no marks. There's blocking, but it's loose. You know that because the cameras can find you, you know, and the blocking is just, you know, where the actors are walking to and the sort of movement in the scene. is just, you know, where the actors are walking to and the sort of movement in the scene.

And, you know, you're not really setting up shots in the same way that you are in, you know, things I worked on later. It's very different. So it's fun, man. And you get some chemistry and some camaraderie that way too, right? Sometimes, you know, sometimes you sacrifice performance, you sacrifice spontaneity in the name of getting a cool shot. And you sometimes that's bad for comedy. So, but man, I mean, this, this, this episode, it, it, it really, it hits on a lot of things that are hallmarks of Parks and Rec, right? Like I said, the Ron and Leslie stuff, it also hits on issues of sexism, you know, that that's, that's addressed in episodes like Beauty Pageant and Woman of the Year. It's kind of recurring theme in the show, right? And it builds a few relationships that we didn't have prior. So, sometimes when you're doing a show with this many characters and this many episodes

a season, you have to make some pragmatic decisions as far as who's in what story and what stories you're choosing to tell. So, this episode, you know, everyone is pretty much in the cabin and up on this hunting trip, except for two remaining characters, April and Andy. And so, this is an example of this pragmatic decision of having those characters there and April and Andy back at the office, resulting in something pretty fruitful, which is that they kind of have this turning point in their relationship. The Andy and April saga really takes a turn in this episode, and it was kind of a little bit by happenstance. I think the writers maybe had an inkling that there might be something interesting there,

but what really happened is they had so much chemistry, and there was a lot of ad-libbing and improvisation, and they had a lot of chemistry together. So in some ways, it was a little bit of a happy accident, where the pragmatic decision of leading April and Andy back at the office together led to something really amazing and led to these two characters building this really incredible relationship that was very touching and sweet over the course of the show. To me, it jumps off the screen so much that I would have thought you guys had planned it. We asked Chris Pratt, our good friend, to tell us a little bit about filming those scenes with Aubrey and what they did in this episode. Take a listen. Yeah, I mean, it was great.

It pivoted into becoming like a really nice love story for the entire, you know, arc of the show from whatever that second season on um and it's another example of sort of just throwing these ingredients together seeing what happens and then rebranding it it's a little like a pharmaceutical company you know they're like just you guys take all these pills it's a heart pill and then it gives you a boner you're like it's a boner pill uh we intended the entire time for this we're gonna call it uh viagra then sell it you know so like you throw all the ingredients in and what and the ingredient here was a chemistry between uh april and andy and i think april i think i have to credit aubrey i have to credit her completely i mean she as a, her character, April was into irony at all costs.

And, and I think the idea that she likes nothing and she has a boyfriend who is a gay guy who she makes out with periodically or her best friend. And, you know, like she's just not impressed by anything and she's a total hipster and everything is bathed in irony. I think for her to have affection for somebody who's like a big kind of American goofball who sings like Pearl jam, knockoff music is the ultimate in irony. It's exactly what you would expect her not to like.

And I think that's why instinctively she was so compelled to like it because it was like unexpected and so people have likened our relationship to like a dog and a cat being in a relationship together like like a golden retriever and like a really uh angry black cat that you know it was great it all started the chemistry was all right there it was a lot of improv a lot of goofing around us just kind of having fun together while the rest of the show and the a story was on this hunting trip so we got to really just have the space to ourselves which in a big ensemble workplace comedy like that doesn't often happen everyone's sort of fighting for their opportunity to do something funny or say something funny so for it was like you know if uh two of the jackson five showed up for rehearsal one day and they're like let's see what we can sing together you know i mean like tito and jamal

uh uh uh and they're like wow you guys sound pretty good together we should have a little side thing going so that that relationship did really take on a life of its own and uh was right up there with my very favorite part of being on the show it really is an example of the luxury in some ways of a show that runs for a long time and that has longer seasons like this you adjust you get to see not only what your actors do but what they do with each other and you don't know that right you don't know that in the pilot think about the pilot of this show. Can you imagine the in, we're going to write the intern and Anne's boyfriend, this lunkheaded guy who broke his legs. They're going to get together. No, you would never, you would never. Yeah. We, I think we thought, so Greg Levine's pointing out

producer Greg saying we thought they'd have a friendship or something. Unlikely friendship was kind of one of the things we talked about And, you know, obviously became much more They get married Yeah, I mean, Aubrey has always brought such a succinct, like, her special sauce I just saw her, I guess she's written a book as a witch or something? It's called The Christmas Witch Well, there you go And she's chosen to go on the talk shows as the witch

And that is the definition of being a tough nut to crack um if you look no further than showing up to you know good morning america dressed as a witch and you know you're you're a tough nut to crack yeah so i mean i and and what i always liked about her character was she's the only person who could ever possibly pull off that sort of note that that that she's so good at hitting. Yeah, and she's so great in this show because she's able to be deadpan and she's able to be sort of ironic and sort of above it all, but there's still that you can feel that there's that tiny hint of vulnerability

and that you think that you realize she's doing it because, you know, she's hiding something or she's feeling a certain way, but, you know, she's able to convey that at the same time. And I definitely, as far as her being a tough nut to crack, I do remember meeting her season one and you know, we exchanged phone numbers and we were texting a little bit. And then every so often she would text me something like, I'm going to kill you or I'm going to ruin your life or, you know, it's just, just every like couple months out of the blue. So that's, that's what being friends with Aububrey was like especially keep in mind at the time she's

like 21 or something right so she do but she yeah she likes to fuck with you so yeah that's a very very fun to ruin your life just yeah it's like what the hell man it's 11 p.m what is this okay oh it's having to have a texter with her in like three weeks but yeah cool she I remember Aubrey meanwhile she clearly she was texting you death threats in the middle of the night but I I know she was always texting with Bill Murray and I was very impressed with that I was super impressed that like she

had the direct line to Bill Murray who literally no one in show business can get a hold of like it's the stories are legendary doesn't have an agent doesn't have a magic as he't have a manager. He literally has an answering machine, a machine, an answering machine where you go,

he's like, this is Bill Murray. If you'd like me to be in a movie, leave the information to the beep and maybe he gets back to you. This is true. Meanwhile, Aubrey Plaza was like texting away with him all the time. And I was like,

wow. And that's part of the reason he ended up appearing on Parks. You know, he, you know, Aubrey, Aubrey knew Bill and, and, uh i think rashida knew him a little bit too and and i think they they put the hard full court press on him to get him on the show one of my um favorite pictures i ever took on the set of parks is me and on a park bench in front of one of the great murals with aubrey on one side of me and bill murray

on the other yeah that's awesome yeah maybe we hey, I know it's going to be an NFT that I'm going to sell for a billion dollars. But it was funny watching the episode because there's still things, look, it's hitting its groove, but there's still things that make me laugh when I see them because they're so jarring. In the beginning of this episode, Ron and Jerry and Mark seem to be great friends. They're really good friends. And you're like, wait, what? Because you know what the dynamics are ultimately in the show, right? I've seen every episode of the show. worked on every episode, but I've seen every episode. You go back and say,

why are they buddies? Like, they're just like really good friends. Like, I don't know. They're not friends in the majority of the show, but in this one, you know, they're buddies. When Ron Swanson fist bumps Jerry under the table. Yeah. I mean, you're still figuring that out. You're trying to build the dynamics of like the guys in the office are all buddies, but that would obviously never happen later. So, I mean, you're still figuring that out. You're trying to build the dynamics of like the guys in the office are all buddies, but that would obviously never happen later. But I found that really funny. Is this the first mention that Jerry has three daughters at home?

Yes, I think it is. It was the whole thing was like, this is the only place I don't have to sit down to pee. And I think that, again, that's an idea of the world kind of being iterative, where in a show like this where there's so many episodes, you put that little nugget in, and then he's like, hey, what is Jerry's family like? And then it's like, yeah, he's $3. Oh, what if they're all beautiful? By the way, you know this very well, they're all beautiful. You date one of them at some point, and then he's married to Christy Brinkley, of course. And so, that all becomes part of the mythology. But it starts with a tiny

talking head in this one, right? It's like a tiny talking, it kind of reminds me of, you know, a bunch of my friends have worked on The Simpsons and write for that show. And at one point they were, you know, that show has a million episodes, if whatever, a thousand episodes. And at one point there's a character named Carl, who's a black man in the show. And there was a throwaway joke that he was, I think from Finland or some Scandinavian country. And it was a joke, but it's in i think from finland or some scandinavian country and it was a joke but it's in so then they just were like okay i guess carl is from finland now so they just did that for the rest of the season like the rest of the series like i don't know that's what i was gonna ask you is for the sake of a joke a good joke really a good joke you've

now saddled him forever you've chosen what his backstory is. A major character in the show for one joke. Now there's no turning back. This is why writers have anxiety because you make that decision and it's like, oh, God, you just like you can't you can't go back. That's in the show. It's canon. You can't suddenly be like, you know what? He has eight sons. Like, you know, what happened to his daughters?

Like, are they dead? Like, what happened? That is a real Like, you know, what happened to his daughters? Like, are they dead? Like what happened? That is a real thing, man. That is a funny, by the way, that's a great directorial choice, I thought, where he says that talking head and then some commotion happens and Ron got shot. And so it's using the talking head

where he's being interviewed as a kind of misdirect, which like I thought was kind of cool. I don't remember. I didn't remember that watching. I was like, oh yeah, that's kind of a cool choice. They did that talking head and it becomes a scene. Not only does it become a scene, but it actually has legitimate stakes. I mean, a lot, a lot of times what's funny about comedy is there aren't real stakes or there are stakes that make you laugh. But like, you're like, holy shit, as an audience member watching, you're like, oh Jesus Christ, somebody actually member watching, you're like, oh, Jesus Christ, somebody actually got shot.

You're like, whoa. This is also why comedy writers are jealous of drama writers because we're like, it's exactly what you said, which is we're trying to write stories with human stakes, emotional stakes, which are the most important, but usually it's piddling, right? It's small potatoes, and then it's

a drama, it's like, who killed his daughter? That obviously has stakes. It daughter like that like that's that obviously has stakes it's very obvious why that's important but often oftentimes for comedy it's like you know it's like these two like she wants to take over this guy's desk he wants to they want to switch places in the office like so low stakes it's like but it's important because like it's really about their jealousy of whatever. It's like you're going for something emotional. But it's always funny. Who shot this guy?

That is ultimately the simplest plot. And it does work. Totally worked. Guy left out loud with Donna screaming. The noises she was making when she was screaming that her Mercedes had been shot. She was crushing it in this episode. A seminal Donna episode. Because we find out that she's a little bit materialistic. She lives the fine life. It's like, how does she have a Mercedes? Like,

what's going on? She literally tackles Leslie for one of the act breaks. Like, she full-on, I think, a stunt person, but ran and tackled a lot of physical comedy in this episode. But, but yeah, it's a great Donna episode. She gets some great runs with Tom, like, you know, and that's followed up in the subsequent episode. But yeah, that stuff was great. And I also want to shout out Greg Daniels, who directed this episode. Very quick anecdote about Greg, and this is not meant to be insulting in any way. This is all out of love, but he's a brilliant writer, right? He's a brilliant writer. Like he, you know, he's a brilliant writer, right?

He's a brilliant writer. He's created some of the most important television shows of the last, you know, 30 years between The Office, Parks and Rec, King of the Hill. Like those are important comedy shows in some ways. Maybe the story's apocryphal, maybe not. I'm gonna say it anyway. In that cabin that you talked about that is on the Disney Ranch

that you shot in all those other shows, you know, he comes in, you know, as the director, you're in charge of everything, right? Not just the actors and performances, but the production design and the furniture's arranged in a certain way. And he comes in and it's just like, he's a mad professor, right? He's thinking about everything. There's a million things going on. He's probably thinking about the blocking, where the actors are going to move, the camera, where everything. And he's like, I just don't think the bed should be there. I think it should be over here and everything, we should move. Everything should move 90 degrees. Let's put this over here, this over this. So everything, they're like, okay, well, we're about to shoot, Greg. Like, should we move this stuff?

He's like, move this stuff. He's like, move the stuff. So everything gets moved. The people come in, they move stuff all around the room, takes an hour, whatever it is, 45 minutes. He comes back in, he looks at the room, he thinks for a long beat. And then he's like, move it back, move it back. Like, this is not like, it's like, yeah, sometimes you make the, sometimes you make those decisions as a director. It's like, it's not going to work. Like you were like, I was wrong. I was right. Like, and, and like, to his credit, he at least admitted that it wasn't the right thing, but, but yeah, that was sometimes a microcosm of, of, of the writer's room as well, right? You go down a path and it's not necessarily fruitful, but, you know, it's worth it.

Yeah, and I think the bigger the director, the more balls they have to do it. I mean, you know, the great stories of David Fincher on Zodiac, where, you know, and I'm not kidding, would do 70 takes. And the actors, because Downey told me, Robert Downey Jr. told me the story. And he'd come to the thing and be like, I think we kind of got it. He goes, he goes, um, yeah, let's just do a couple more. And Downey walks off and he hears Fincher turn to the script supervisor and go, delete all the takes. So now they're at one.

That's, that's very much kubrick right fincher definitely is thinking about kubrick doing that i i heard you know a similar story about sydney pollack in in in uh eyes wide shut right sydney pollack brilliant director actor in his own right and there's a scene where he's playing pool with tom cruise right and forget 70 in one day like they were shooting this pool scene for for days just a day after the same scene over and over again and at a certain point again what i heard was after maybe a day you know five days or even longer than a week or something pollock comes their city pollock goes over to kubrick it's like do you think we got it like do you think we got the

scene and kubrick he's like i think it's pretty good and and and and kubrick is like well do you want it to be good or do And Kubrick is like, well, do you want it to be good or do you want it to be right? Like, do you want it to be like, do you want the scene filmed in the right, like, do you want it to be correct? And it's like, God, but you can't argue with the movies. You can't argue the results, right?

It's like, and same thing with Fincher. Like Fincher, I think has a legendary quote also where he's like, there's 500 ways to shoot a scene and only one of them is right. Like 499 of them are wrong. It's like, I'm, has a legendary quote also where he's like, there's 500 ways to shoot a scene and only one of them is right. Like, 499 of them are wrong. It's like, I'm sure he thinks that way. And then you've got Clint Eastwood who he will like, okay, let's rehearse. And he'll secretly move his hands like rolling and the camera will roll on a rehearsal.

The actors have no idea. And then they go, okay, I think that's about enough of that. Move on. And like, what? We get it. What? on a rehearsal the actors have no idea yeah and then you go okay i think that's about enough of that move on and like what we get what what the wait what and and he doesn't never calls action just says go ahead when you're ahead What do you say, town hall it up? I think we should town hall it Yeah Where do we want to do it? Where do we want to place our town hall today?

I've been thinking about it Maybe over at the Snake Hole Lounge I feel like having a drink tonight Yeah Let's get messed up. And, you know, if you really want to do it, order some snake juice. But I would be a little hesitant on that one. Snake Hole!

Let's do it. All right. We got a town hall question. This one comes from Steffi. Is it Steffi Graf? Is it Steffi Graf? I hope. I can only assume it's Steffi Graf.

I mean, there's no way of knowing what let's just say it is but i'm gonna just say yes it's from steffy graph and i'm gonna say germany graph yeah she's home with andre watching the show just having some questions listening to the pod big fan what is your favorite prop stolen from the set ding Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Done. Got it. Roll out of the rescue. I have it. I saw it. I just saw it. It's on my desk at my home all the time.

It's my desk placard that says Chris Traeger, city manager. That's so sweet, man. That's really sweet. Did you just steal that? Did they just take it? Did someone give it to you? Although I have to say when I rapped on this show, and I thought when I rapped on the West Wing, it was a big deal and emotional and all that. But rapping on Parks and Rec, which we'll talk about when we finally get to it, was one of the most emotional, wonderful days of my career.

And part of it was the gifts that I was given by were so thoughtful from Mike Schur and Greg and the cast. But also, you know, I was brought onto Chris's office and said, anything you want, you know, take it. And that is what I took. I took the little Chris Traeger thing and it's at the front of my desk at home in perpetuity. That's beautiful. That's really good. I actually, I have something similar, which is I have a mouse wrap poster. So this was the mouse wrap poster

that was hanging in Andy and April's house. And I can picture it because it's in my garage right now, but it's basically a black poster with the mouse wrap and it has the logo and it has pictures of all four of us. Right. So it's, it has like our posters and our names. So it's like, you know, Andy Dwyer is whoever, and as, as, as, you know, vocals. And then, uh, my, I think my name was tennis theme. I think my name in the show for a while was Michael Chang was a tennis player.

So that was like an in-joke, I don't know, for nobody, because I never say my first name. But yeah, it was some picture of me smoking, even though I don't smoke. So I remember that. It was very, and it's in my house. So very sweet. Very sweet. A good question from Steffi Graf in Stuttgart, Germany. All right. That's the town hall. I think that's all we got for today's episode. I had a really great time. I had a good time. Good to be at the snake hall. I'm going to go drink some snake juice, and in the meantime, join us

next week for more Parks and Recollection. Tell your friends, get on those boards, the Apple board, give us some good reviews, or not. Listen, we're big enough. We have success in other areas. We can take it if you don't like it. We can take it. Be honest with your opinions. But that said, give us a good rating. And we'll see you next week. I love it. Thanks to producer Rob. Thanks to producer Greg. Bye for money.

This episode of 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. and recollection.