Parks and Recollection - Indianapolis (S3E6)

Episode Date: May 17, 2022

Today we're taking a trip, as Rob Lowe and Alan Yang recap the sixth episode of Parks and Rec's third season! In "Indianapolis" Leslie and Ron journey to Indianapolis to receive a commendation from the state. On today's episode find out why S3E6 could have been the last episode for Chris Traeger, how the Ron Swanson meat meme evolved, how blocking for tv works, and the rare dramatic turn in this episode that raised the stakes! All of this and your host's favorite steakhouses! Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone] Leslie and Ron head up to Indianapolis to receive a commendation at the Indiana Statehouse for reestablishing the Pawnee Harvest Festival. On the way, it is clear that Ron has only agreed to come for the opportunity to eat at Charles Mulligan's Steak House. Ann, worried about the state of her and Chris’ relationship, asks Leslie to look for signs of whether Chris is cheating on her while she’s there. Leslie and Ron stop at Chris' apartment to pick him up for dinner, where Leslie discovers a woman's razor and a pink swimming cap in the bathroom. Upon hearing this, Ann decides to drive up to Indianapolis to confront Chris and his cheating ways. Back in Pawnee, Tom convinces the Parks Dept (including a reluctant Ben) to attend Dennis Feinstein’s cologne launch party at the Snakehole Lounge. Tom hopes to pitch his new cologne “Tommy Fresh” to Dennis, but Dennis is disgusted by the scent and tells Tom the cologne industry is not for him. And back in Indianapolis—to Ron's horror, when he, Chris, and Leslie arrive at Charles Mulligan's Steakhouse they discover it has been shut down by the health department. Chris invites everyone back to his place to eat, but to Ron's further horror, Chris has prepared a vegetarian meal. Ann eventually shows up at Chris' apartment and accuses him of cheating. Chris explains he shaves his legs with the lady’s razor for swimming and that the pink shower cap is from his participation in a breast cancer awareness triathlon. More importantly though, Chris tells Ann that they actually broke up over a week ago. Ann realizes that Chris was so positive in how he ended the relationship that she was totally oblivious to the breakup and is completely mortified. At the Snakehole Ben cheers up a down-trodden Tom and tells him not to give up on his dreams, admitting that he considers Tom his friend. Andy and April, now dating and both broke, hold a contest to see how much free stuff they can get at the party. They earn $218 by posing as staff and accepting tips, but end up feeling guilty and put the money in the bartender’s jar at the end of the night. Seeing how distraught Ann is, Leslie decides to let Ron attend the commendation ceremony solo and instead cheers Ann up with embarrassing dating stories of her own as she drives Ann back to Pawnee. They and the rest of the Parks Dept end up at the Snakehole Lounge and Ben begins to realize that he is in fact making friends with the folks at the Parks Dept. As the night winds down, Ben avenges Tom by pouring "Tommy Fresh" all over the inside of Dennis' parked SUV and a starving Ron goes to a diner in Indianapolis and orders all of the eggs and bacon that they have.

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 Hey everybody! It's time. It's time for Parks and Recollection. And Alan, I don't know about you,

but we are approaching this episode and the next one are very much the sweet spot of the show. Would you not say? We are approaching the culmination of the Harvest Festival arc. This is one of the most legendary arcs in the history of the show. It is.

And Indianapolis, which is what we're dealing with today, is a particularly interesting... I have many thoughts. So much to talk about. You have a personal relationship. Yeah, personal relationship. Should we get through the details here?

Episode title, et cetera, et cetera? Let's remind the folks of what we speak. Okay, we're doing the episode Indianapolis, season three, episode six, written by Katie Dippold, directed by Randall Einhorn. Original air date,bruary 24th 2011 leslie and ron go to indianapolis to receive accommodation from the state while there ron

finds out his favorite steakhouse is closed and leslie thinks chris is cheating on ann drama drama drama yeah how'd you feel about that going? Ooh. We got some quick notes here. Number one, the perfumes and clones that Dennis Feinstein has created include blackout, attack, yearning, thickening, itch, coma, side boop, and his latest, allergic. Which one would you wear of all those? I don't know. I'm trying to think which one of these is least offensive. That's maybe itch. Maybe itch. They're all offensive. So that means you can actually go with whichever one you like.

We kind of have a blackout right now. We're all wearing black t-shirts. If anyone's watching this video feed, the producers know what we're talking about. But yeah. All right. Number two, nope's note. Charles Mulligan's is not a real steakhouse in Indianapolis. Nope. Since Mulligan's closes due to health code violations, it was better slash more legally clearable to have a fictional steakhouse serve as Ron's favorite. So that's not a real steakhouse. Don't go looking for that in Indianapolis. was originally supposed to end Rob Lowe's run on the show. But he loved us all so much that he stuck around for another 70 episodes. So give it up for Rob for sticking around. I'm the thing that wouldn't leave. I just, I was the guest that came for a weekend and ended up moving in permanently. I mean, how great is that though? And how awesome is it to have sort of the opportunity

to not really test drive because that makes it sound like you know but it's almost on both sides yeah it's almost like dating somebody right you're dating somebody you're like hey does it work and we kind of got married for a while i mean we've talked about it a lot but in previous episodes but it it bears repeating this was unlike anything i've ever done in my career in that it was a blind date on, as you say, on both parts. I was like, I'll come in and do six episodes and maybe I'll do more and maybe I won't. And they were like, great, maybe you will and maybe you won't. And, you know, we all fell in love.

But this would have and could have been in an alternative universe. Goodbye to Chris Traeger. I'm glad it wasn't. Yeah, we're very glad it wasn't because for one thing, this podcast wasn't existing. We're glad that is. But also, you know, it truly is, I think, works with the story as well, because as we'll talk about in this episode of this podcast, there's kind of an organic way for Chris to exit the show and then kind of there's an organic way back.

So I think it was handled pretty well. And, you know, we're happy it all worked out uh let's get into the synopsis leslie and ron head up to indianapolis to receive a commendation at the indiana state house for re-establishing the ponty harvest festival see how it ties in there on the way it's clear that ron has only agreed to come for the opportunity to eat at charles mulligan's steakhouse and stop here let me stop here is there any there any, did anybody stop to think about the fact that the two most critical places in the storytelling are the Statehouse and the Steakhouse?

I don't think that, well, here's one thing. The Statehouse turns out to not factor in at all. So that was one slip. It's like, it's truly the thing that was one slip where it's like it's truly the thing where you know it's funny at the beginning of an episode where you just have to like make up a reason why they're going so like it never comes back like i don't think i don't think it ever goes it just like literally like a throwaway you have to do this as a writer right so you have to give them a reason to go yeah and it's like her first talking hand it's like we're

getting an award i'll just never mention again because by the way this is such a packed epic there's like seven stories going on in this episode we're getting an award. I'll just never mention it again. Because by the way, this is such a packed... There's like seven stories going on in this episode. We'll go through them later. But it's so packed. She's like, we're getting an award. It's like, we'd never see that. Never saw the award. It's all about Ron eating steak.

Yes. As it should be. Which is more fun. Which ultimately is more fun. And by the way, a well we would keep returning to. So it sets it up. So Anne is worried about the state of her and Chris's relationship. turning to so yes it's it sets it up um so ann is worried about the state of her and chris's relationship she asks leslie to look for signs of whether chris is cheating on her while she's there

a rare dramatic turn for the show a little bit um more stakesy than the usual episode leslie and ron stop at chris's apartment to pick him up for dinner where leslie discovers a woman's razor and a pink swimming cap in the bathroom upon hearing hearing this, Ann decides to drive up to Indianapolis to confront Chris and his cheating ways. By the way, this is like the first minute of the episode. It's very rich, very packed episode, like I said. We have a prompt from the producers here, which I love. Talk steak and steak houses. Personal favorites.

I would love to get into this. Right up my alley. Right up my alley. Right up my alley is Mr. Atkins. You know, I'm a big protein-eating fool, and I gotta tell you, one of the most famous steakhouses in the world is in Indianapolis. That's right. And it's called St. Elmo's, and not named after my movie, St. Elmo's Fire. Totally unrelated. It's totally unrelated. Just a wonderful coincidence. is filled with celebrity photos as a lot of restaurants have celebrity photos on them.

Let's face it. We've all seen it and some are better than others. This takes the cake because one of the photos they have is a guy pulling Saddam Hussein out of his spider hole. They're also known for their unbelievable um shrimp cocktail sauce it's world famous spicy beyond you can't imagine you can't imagine how they use respirators as they make it because it's so toxic i think and um much later in the show when we'll get to the episode, we, the, the gang actually goes to St. Elmo's in Parks and Rec. And yeah, so, so Rob and I have both been to St. Elmo's.

So that's a great one to shout out. It's in Indianapolis, which is the title of this episode. I want to shout out a couple of New York and LA places, because those are the places I've lived the longest. Uh, Peter Luger in New York and Brooklyn. Classic, classic. Um, don't go there for the service. Go there for the meat Yeah

The waiters are legendarily Brusque Yes Keens is another one I really like in New York LA LA is more of like An atmosphere place for me

I like Musso and Frank Which is really close To where I live Do you know why I actually like Can I just This is just One of the great

Humble brags of all time Get in there Do you know why I like Musso and Frank's Why Someone's star In the hollywood walk of fame is out the side the front door do you want to guess who's oh shit is it really is your star outside moose and frank and there's a whole like hierarchy it's like yeah i got it i

finally got my star in the hollywood walk of fame it's in front of a froger store yeah but you got a you got a good spot you got a good mine. Mine's in Koreatown. Mine's so far away, it's in Koreatown. It's in front of Parks Barbecue, which is also another great place. Yes. By the way, a lot of photos up at Parks Barbecue. Aziz's photos up at Parks Barbecue. We go all the time. Yeah, all the time.

He's up there with Andy Sandberg. So great steaks, great steakhouses. That was a fun detour. Let's talk a little bit about the relationship between ann and chris and uh this this story development i i kind of remember this greg levine you have a note here yeah you know i remember being in a pod which um it was a term we use in the room about just a group of writers who had just worked separately off from the rest of the staff and it was katie dippel the writer of the episode, Dan Gore, and myself in

Dan's office. And I actually reached out to Katie to talk about this just to see what she had to say. And she says that she remembers pitching the idea that Ann doesn't realize Chris broke up with her as just a thing just that tickled her. And then when Dan Gore found it funny, he pointed out that probably Ann wouldn't realize because no one had probably got broken up with it, didn't know it, or her friend got broken up with it. Now, maybe I'm adding a layer of personal connection. I remember this too. I remember this too. Which is true. So, this is based on a true story, I think. I did ask her that specific question, and to her credit, she says, I don't remember. Yeah, I think she was being being diplomatic i think it happened to

either her or a friend of hers and it's it's so fun the idea is so funny like getting broken up with and not realizing and it's so in character because chris trager is so positive and and it's probably never been broken up with before because she's beautiful so that that's kind of the idea of the episode and it really by the way listen to to Katie's episode and Dan's episode of this very podcast. You know, on the B side of it, sometimes I remember also being in the writer's room when we came back. And sometimes, Alan, you remember countless moments of this. Someone would come in and pitch an idea that some people have been working on. And the room just like lit up because everyone's brains could see where all the comedy was going to come from, from such a simple idea. Like, you know that you have a great idea when something can be

put so quickly and simply. So I also wanted to say one thing that Katie reminded me, and it's so off topic, but it's worth bringing up, is that she said that thinking about this episode reminded her that in Dan Gore's office, he had drawings that his kids had done, like tacked to his wall. And the thing that she liked to do was she would like to try to draw pictures better than his kids, but put them up on the wall as well

and just to see what would happen if you would notice. It was so funny. And a slight digression too, we talk about these pods like Greg was mentioning. Oftentimes, if you have a writing staff that's large enough, and they're not always large enough back in the day when we were making 22, 24, 30 episodes a year, whatever, we'd have enough writers to split up into groups, little pods, and we call them pods. And so you might go, hey, Katie and Dan and Greg, we're going to go work on the A story for this. And they'd go try

to pitch for half the day and then come back with something. So that's a way to divide and conquer. And it's kind of really smart because sometimes you sit in a room with 12, 15 people and a lot of people are just kind of out to lunch. It's a way to engage people and sort of, again, divide and conquer stories. I want to also point out, Rob, the moment we really liked here. And we have a screenshot in our research. It's your face. It's when Leslie goes to to your closet opens it up and says oh there's a lot of coats in here and chris replies i like coats it's vintage traeger and as i was watching this episode i realized and we've also talked about the my inspiration for inspirations for playing chris was early a little bit of tom cruise early on that we moved

away from and that i discovered uh partially later that it was kenny g and his positivity and i noticed this line reading and there's another one coming up that are that i would have done completely differently a few episodes down the line i hadn't found that gear yet of, of the sort of the Kenny G like super, like I like coats like that. That's what I would have done later. But yeah. Okay. But in this version,

I literally just say it like flatly matter of factly. So like Chris Traeger does not have a lot of shading. So, so by design and, and, and I hadn't found, I hadn't found it yet. And there's, there are a couple of shading so it's so and by design and and and i hadn't found i hadn't found it yet and there's there are a couple times in here where like you go oh i i don't really have this guy totally down he's a little more real and he hadn't he hadn't gone into that kind of hard comedy character quite yet yeah and i feel that happens with with with writing and acting

kind of simultaneously right it's like the writers find it and the actor finds it and that's when you get the fully formed character but i totally agree it also struck me that you know a lot of times people say that andy is kind of like a is kind of like a dog he's like a golden retriever but in some ways there's there's some dog-like aspects to chris as well he's almost like a greyhound or like a whippet. Yes. It's like, yeah, I like coats. It's just like very, that's where the comedy comes from. Like you said, it's very black and white. It's simple.

Dogs like bones. Chris Trigger likes coats. Yeah. He's like, I like coats. He does. All right. Back at Pawnee, Tom convinces the Parks Department, including a reluctant Ben, to attend Dennis Feinstein's cologne launch party at the Snake Hole Lounge.

Tom hopes to pitch his new cologne, Tommy Fresh, to Dennis, but Dennis is disgusted by the scent and tells Tom the cologne industry is not for him. Back in Indianapolis, to Ron's horror, when he, Chris, and Leslie arrive at Charles Mulligan's Steakhouse, they discover it has been shut down by the health department. Chris invites everyone back to his place to eat, but to Ron's further horror, Chris has prepared a vegetarian meal. Okay, so this is one of my all-time, probably number one memories of making this entire show.

I love it. I love it. The nighttime exterior at the closed-down steakhouse with Nick, where he is so sad that it's shut down and and when he asks about the steaks what do you think happened to him do you think they got eaten like they're living like little puppies that he's worried about it's he that is the funniest we also did a sequence that didn't make it into the show, into the episode in the fun run where he was so desperate to get in when it was locked. These started climbing the building and Nick legitimately started scaling this building,

trying to get in, just making it up and just, just a total improv. Um, and when I sit down next time, I put arm around him hey buddy you want to go back to my place and i talk to him like he's a little boy it's just one of my favorite i'll never forget it as long as i live because no one was funnier than nick ever it's truly so funny because you build that's that's what happened right you build the character for two full seasons of television

and you get into the third season and then you start to subvert right so it's like you see him be tough and manly for 35 episodes or whatever and then he's crying and saying what do you think happened to the steaks that were in there after they closed you think they got easy like that is that is an amazing joke first of all it's an amazing delivery yeah and i think we ultimately realized in the edit this section was so so funny, we expanded it. So one of the lines he has, he has a line that says, they just boarded her up like she's some kind of common warehouse. I should have been here. Like he's talking about the building, like the steakhouse, like it's his relative. That was from the candy bag. So that was from the Mushu candy bag. These

are all alts that we shot sort of extra stuff on the day. And again, in the editing room, you have the luxury of expanding the sections that work really well and trimming the ones that don't work quite as well. So yeah, it's really funny. And ultimately spawns like a million gifts and this episode has... Well, there's some more lines coming up that are legendary lines. But yeah, his love of meat, by the way, it continues to fuel further episodes of future episodes. It's just the beginning. I remember shooting Chris's apartment. I think it's the only time we go to.

Well, it's in Indianapolis, so we wouldn't be there anymore. But I remember shooting it in the worst neighborhood in Hollywood. Like, here we are. We're supposed to be in Indianapolis. Yeah. You know, and obviously we shoot it in L and sound stages and all but this was the most disgusting area and it but there's this beautiful modern apartment but i remember it like it was yesterday it was hot it was 106 degrees outside it was like it was cramped nobody could get the equipment up the steps there's a reason why you shoot on a sound stage because you don't have to deal with any of this stuff.

And I just remember being an absolute nightmare. And Chris's apartment is kind of like a, I don't know, man. It's kind of, I don't know. I've got to be honest. It gave me the willies a little bit. And I have a little bit of post-traumatic stress disorder when I think about shooting that set. of post-traumatic stress disorder when i think about shooting that set it's a and people don't realize this when you know when you when i watch movies now i think about the practical aspects of it right i think like a line producer sometimes location manager all these i'm like man where do

they shoot and i love i i just watch this movie everything everywhere all at once it's a great movie directed by the daniels starring michelle yo and they shot a lot of it takes place in it's a wild movie but a lot of it takes place in a huge office building. And I was like, that looks familiar. I was like, I shot in that building for weeks on my show forever, like years ago. It's the same building, because you see the same locations. It's the same. And that's just the practicality of it. So, you don't think about that ultimately if you're not in the industry as much, I think. But yeah, every time I watch the show, I think back to the actual locations we were in so it sounds like you know that weird modern apartment was in a strange part of town yeah um we also have to have to mention uh uh dennis

feinstein played by jason manzoukas uh he's really really really really funny and we brought him back again and again i think this is his first episode am Am I right? Okay. Yeah. That's the first time we actually see him. Yeah. I, I love the idea that, uh, his, his real name is Dante Fiero,

but they changed it, uh, to Dennis Feinstein because it was more exotic and Pawnee. I have a distinct memory of Dan Gore pitching this because he loved the idea of how exotic a Jewish name would be in Pawnee. So he's like, yeah, I'm just like, so he had that joke, uh, in, that joke in the chamber, ready to go.

It was very funny. At one point, Ben mentions the movie Hope Floats, directed by Forrest Whitaker, which is one of the, I feel like it's a, like sometimes we get on random tangents and the writers are, we got on a Hope Floats tangent and that movie and Swim Fan were movies we would talk about. It's just the most random movies and I love how that stuff gets in the episode. What is it about, that's such a comedy room thing. We're in the middle of writing my new comedy for Netflix and we're in the room and the room is obsessed with Ford v. Ferrari. was walking past a poster for a movie called in good company it's a tophor grace uh uh dennis quaid movie scarlett johannes is actually in it too but it's like yeah that movie it's like it's a movie it's just like a i don't want to say like average movie but yeah it's like it's a movie that

came out at like you know people have heard of it i spent a lot on the grinder we were obsessed with um uh oh god what's the one liev shriver's tv series that ran forever oh uh i love talking about this right ray donovan i was like roy donovan and like roy donovan i think i think what it is if you really do a deep dive on it it's the they're all movies or tv shows that someone other than you love yeah it's it's like their favorite show, right? It's like your uncle's favorite show, Ray Donovan. 100%, it's your cousin, your uncle, or your dad's thing. Like, oh, hey, have you seen Ford v. Ferrari?

And you're like, have you seen Ray Donovan? There's a whole list. So listeners out there, pick your own list of things in this. What would we call this genre it's a really funny genre i mean i just like calling them ray donovan's i mean that's just like wait that's no shade on ray donovan no like a really successful show liam shepard's great i literally like one quick ray donovan story at one point aziz and i were talking about writing a new show together we've talked about it for a while so we had we were like oh had all these ideas. And one of the ideas we're really excited about

is like a guy who's kind of like a fixer and he solves, he's not a lawyer, he's not a cop, but he comes in, solves problems. And he's kind of like a PR guy, but he's not, it's kind of like that. And then we looked it up. It's like, did we just come up with the show Ray Donovan again?

Because I think that's the premise of that show. So I think we just came up with Ray Donovan. It's like, well, we can't do that. That's the show right now. Anyway, what is your Ray Donovan again? Because I think that's the premise of that show. So I think we just came up with Ray Donovan. It's like, well, we can't do that. That's the show right now. Anyway, it's what is your Ray Donovan? What it's like, is it like, you know, is it the closer or is it like, you know, I'm trying to think of shows that are like that kind of that kind of feel. But anyway, you know, Ray Donovan ran seven seasons and 82 episodes. And I also think that a weird, interesting thing about the Ray Donovans, if you will, is they actually tended to run a lot longer than you think with more episodes.

I mean, massively successful show. There's no shade on these shows. You know what? I'll tell you what else is in that. Suits. Yeah, I literally was going to say suits. Rizzoli and Isles suits. It's like this kind of world.

Anyway, I looked at our, we shot this last show on the stages. It was like, man, Rizzoli and Isles shot here for years. Like, way more successful than any show you could think of. For the longest time, I thought Rizzoli and Isles was a coffee table book. Isn't there like a thing like you go to Rizzoli or

it's like in the mall. Oh yeah, I'm gonna get Rizzoli and Isles and we'll get some coffee table books and then we'll walk over and see a movie. I think of them like a Salino and Barnes. That's what it is. I mixed up Salino and Barnes with Rizzoli and Isles. Classic love for me. And then the last

thing I'll mention about the portobello mushroom story. Very funny. I feel like this was a precursor to the eventual burger cook-off story in Soul Mage, which is episode 10 of the season. We'll get to that episode, but I just wanted to mention that it is a little bit of a foreshadowing

when he finds the portobello burgers. He's so funny. Nick, again, Nick is a genius, and he's particularly funny in this episode, but when I reveal the portobello mushroom sizzling on the grill, he looks at it like it's, I don't even know what.

It's a great reaction. And don't even know what it's a great reaction and you're just like it's a healthier option it's a healthier option and eventually shows up at chris's apartment wild move and accuses him of cheating chris explains he shaves his legs with the lady's razor for swimming and that the pink shower cap is from his participation in a breast cancer awareness triathlon more importantly though chris tells ann that they actually broke up over a week ago. Ann realizes that Chris was so positive in how he ended the relationship

that she was totally oblivious to the breakup and is completely mortified. Great twist. It's funny the things you remember. I remember having to deliver the explanation for the razor and the shower cap. It's sort of a mini speech and it had to come out fast and perfect to really work and um i remember being not easy to do it's a mouthful it was a mouthful

go back if you're watching the episode right now, just pull that up because it's very long. It's long. It's a long explanation. Well, that's actually one of the curses of being Chris Traeger is that there's a lot of precision with how he speaks and there's no room for fumbling. No. This guy doesn't fumble his words. You have to get it perfectly and you have to get it pretty fast.

I remember, again, doing the table read sometimes as Chris Traeger. Yes. You had to read it fast. Again, doing the table read sometimes is Chris Traeger. You had to read it fast. You know, the thing I as an as an actor, I am aware of other actors' strengths and shall we say weaknesses. And I love watching bad acting on TV. It's usually on TV because in a movie you have time to get it perfectly. But TV, I've always said if you like a performance that you've seen on television, that person is 10 times better than you even think they are. Oh, yeah. And you'll see actors on TV take a breath in the middle of a speech. And really, all that is, is it just a little beat so they can remember where the fuck they are in the dialogue.

And it's patently obvious once you look at it and it's also i mean think about how many episodes are done and especially if you're number one number two on the call sheet you're just getting massive amounts of information and and you have to memorize that stuff and you might be getting it the day before or even the day of oh yeah you're just delivering these huge speeches and and by the way, our bar for quality has gone up so high. You know what I mean? Like, people are expecting a movie every week. Yep.

Like a cinematic quality experience. And it's challenging. It's definitely challenging with the schedule. So, shout out to all the actors out there trying to memorize lines. It's crazy. I mean, I'm not good at it. Like, I'm not good at memorizing lines. It's very difficult. I'll go one step step further shout out to all those actors who are delivering

speeches without a big breath in the middle but here i'll give you a bad version of it right now here's um okay here's a line from the show they just boarded her up like some common warehouse i should have been there i should have been there that somebody doesn't know the dialogue yeah yeah i and notice and they sometimes they look around they're doing stuff like you know trying to camouflage it as if it's in character i've seen man i've and and honestly honestly like hopefully you get through that the first couple takes and they then they learn the lines as a director you're whatever showrunner you're like you're waiting for you don't give you wait to give notes like for me like if i see that i'm like hey get through the line i know they're trying to remember it so

give them a couple takes right give them a couple takes i was saying i worked on er uh for a bit and i remember learning and would talk about in the tours i gave that uh a few of the actors um would put their lines in the script in the clipboard that they're oh yeah so if you see a few there are certain ones who tended to look a lot at their notes as doctors. They're actually reading the script. Wow. That's great, man. That's for the same for the ER rewatch podcast.

By the way, the most famous version of that is, of course, Brando in Apocalypse Now. Yes. Where he does all those crazy like head turning where he's all of a sudden staring at the ceiling. That's where the cue card is i didn't know that and and then and then he all of a sudden looks down at his at the floor and that's where that cue card is so all those crazy head turns that brandon does in apocalypse are merely him looking for the cue cards that that's legit maybe the greatest movie ever made and i'm like i didn't know that that's it's it's fantastic i also want to shout out one more read from from rob when uh leslie says she found concealer in his medicine cabinet and you say i'm a human being i get blemishes it's very vulnerable vulnerable it's

i remember that that made me laugh out loud because he's so he it he's so crushed by it. I'm a human being. I have dignity. Yeah. Yeah, the agony of the handsome man. Okay. At the Snake Hole Lounge, Ben cheers up a downtrodden Tom and tells him not to give up on his dreams, admitting that he considers Tom his friend. Andy and April haven't even mentioned those kids. They're now dating and both broke.

They hold a contest to see how much free stuff they can get at the party. They earn $218 by posing as staff and accepting tips, but end up feeling guilty and put the money in the bartender's jar at the end of the night. Yeah. Yeah. Andy and April's sea story. I mean, this episode is packed. Packed. This episode's packed.

And it's kind of an example of the park's ethos right some shows we just have them steal it but you know mike schur is a really good-hearted guy very moral guy wrote a book on philosophy being being how to be how to be perfect and and very very opinionated on money yes absolutely uh yeah so uh he has them give back the uh the the end. And I guess I was going to say this earlier, but I wanted to point out now that we're through some majority of the episode, just amazing how much is packed in here. There are essentially seven stories. Leslie is a detective trying to figure out what's going on, Chris. Ron's looking for steak. He's very excited about Charles and Logan's Steakhouse. Anne thinks Chris is cheating on her. She drives up to Indianapolis.

Chris has to break up with Anne and has to break up with her again, essentially, and is explaining what's going on in his apartment. Tom is pitching his cologne to Dennis Feinstein. Ben is looking for friends in Pawnee and figuring out whether he's going to stay in town. And April and Andy are conning people for money because they realize they're broke. I mean, that's so much. Everyone has a drive and that, you know, watching it, I just like, oh man, respect, respect for, for how they ran this show. Cause, cause it, it, you know, it, it just, it just feels very

full and rich. And I think that's a, that's, that's a big part of it. And funny, you're like, and funny because a lot of times you choose between story and plot and funny. Yes. It's, it's just fast and all those stories have inherent comedy in them. So that's big. Yeah, we want to point out also at 14 minutes, 15 seconds in, April becomes Janet Snakehole. That's a kind of recurring alter ego that would come back later. So this is kind of a proto version of that, a fetus version of that. And this was, I really love this. At 14 25, it's my friend and also one of

the podcasters on Doughboys and one of the stars of Tomorrow World, Mike Mitchell, plays Bjorn Lurpis. He's the guy trying to ask Andy for bathroom stuff as Andy fakes being a bathroom attendant. Mike is the host of Doughboys, which is a really popular podcast. And yeah, it was very fun. I've been on the podcast. So it's a fun time. And the Lurpuses are the Osmonds of Pawnee. There's like a thousand of them. That's right. And was he the first one, Greg? Do you remember? That's insane. He is the first one. I looked it up. I think there are 10 maybe 12 more lupuses who will show up some we'll see some are mentioned and i have a very distinct memory late on in the run of

the series i went into editing to chat with mike uh and he was on a computer and i think i asked him what he was doing and he was he he was uh adding information about the Lurpus family on IMDb. That's right. We did on IMDb. We would go on there. It was not full enough. But yeah, so I'm looking right now. Certainly Herman Lurpus, Morris Lurpus, Bjorn Lurpus, Dennis Lurpus.

Morris Lurpus, I believe, was Joe Mandy. I think Dave King was also a Lurpus. I don't know. It was very funny. There's a lot of them. At the end, it was a point where if someone needed a last name, we would make them part of the family. Lurpus was the first person. Yes.

You have a lot of spare time in a writer's room. At least back then we did, it felt like. But yeah, pure Lurpus. Alright, seeing how distraught Anne is, Leslie decides to let Ron attend the commendation ceremony solo. Remember that?

Remember the accommodation ceremony? Oh, yeah. Instead, she hears Anne up with embarrassing dating stories of her own as she drives Anne back to Pawnee. They and the rest of the Parks Department end up at the snake hole lounge, and Ben begins to realize that he's, in fact, making friends with the folks at the Parks Department. As the night winds down, Ben avenges Tom by pouring Tommy Fresh all over the inside of Dennis' parked SUV, and starving Ron goes to a diner in Indianapolis and orders, legendarily, all of the eggs and bacon that they have.

So, yeah, again, turns out it wraps up and people get along and like each other. That's a famous scene, Ron ordering that. Give me all the eggs and bacon. I believe that was a famous scene the ron ordering that i think that's a give me all the eggs and bacon i believe that was a dan gore pitch but i'm not 100 true it's a lot of protein yes a lot of protein this episode sees leslie and ben kind of take caretaker roles leslie for ann and ben for tom and and it's kind of uh it's kind of a flip flop because usually ann is providing leslie with support so i think this one we intentionally uh flip that uh dynamic and and uh sometimes you know you don't want to play the same dynamic 100 times in a row you got and it's providing Leslie with support. So I think this one, we intentionally flip that dynamic.

And sometimes, you know, you don't want to play the same dynamic 100 times in a row. You got to flip it sometimes. Otherwise, it'll get monotonous. It'll get boring. You know, I also think it was interesting. I personally was taking this on when I was watching the episode that some of our more successful characters, like the ones that we see like succeeding

or doing well at things like Leslie, you know, being great at many things and figuring things out, and Anne with her relationships, Ron at eating whatever he wants, or Tom at selling to people. It finds them failing at those things, and instead you have

April and Andy in this lovely sea story kind of coming out on top, being these honorable people who are both having fun, but then give back. I just found this interesting. I think that this episode did a lot of flipping of a script that we normally do. And that generated a lot of comedy.

Yeah. I feel like this one, like I feel like this episode doesn't necessarily get talked about a bunch, but I watching it the other day, I was just like, this is a very good episode. It just feels like,

again, it feels like it's in that pocket and it feels like a lot happens and the characters' arcs are moving in the correct pace and the correct way. And yeah, I enjoyed it. characters failing, that's always kind of a difficult thing to pull off because you want characters to act in character, obviously, but a lot of comedy comes from failing. So when you have a character like Leslie Knope, who is a very competent person, a lot of the struggle we had in the writer's room was how do you make this hyper-competent person funny? Because it's way funnier when someone's an idiot, right? It's way easier in some ways when someone is constantly failing. You look at Homer Simpson or Michael Scott or, you know, classic, just failing, failing, failing. Obviously, that's a little bit easier to drain

comedy from, to sort of wring it out of the comedy sponge. So with Leslie, you know, it's always about putting her in situations that are comedic, having her be competent and yet fail at the same time. You know, that that's always possible, too. And then having the comedy come from her interactions with the other cast members. So, you know, that was that was one of the challenges of the show. I felt like when when there are so many stories in an episode, whether it's Parks and Recreation or on right now on Lone Star on 9-1-1 Lone Star. What happens is, is as the big machine keeps grinding. And there's episode after episode after episode, maybe you're number one or two on the call sheet, you have to focus on what you have

to do. You have to. And so you'll end up watching an episode and going, oh, like you literally miss entire storylines because you don't have the time to be paying attention to other scenes that you're not in because you've got to keep your own own thing going so i often watch stuff and go wow i had no idea that was i get to watch it as an audience member um but in terms of the the time as an actor um to to do your work i think um it's very hard if you're the kind of actor acting styles through the 70s and 80s um you know you would and now time is people just grind it out so fast that you see more the type of actor who comes fully formed with a performance you know the alice and jannies of the world yeah i mean i don't know what you were out i'm sure you've been in the situation some actors they you get to set i mean you might have

had rehearsals already but you get to set and you're rehearsing for another 45 minutes yes blocking and and it's and other actors are okay with the director blocking the scene and that's how we're going to do it and that's how you make your day but some actors that is absolutely not part of their vocabulary i'm going to tell you just a brief story i'm not gonna name the name um if you're a good enough imdb sleuth you probably figure out who it is and it was early on in the run and the scene was crowded bar one bar stool seat is open this is what says in the script uh this character sits in it my character comes up they have a conversation i'm telling you it took 40 i'm not making this up 45 minutes for her to decide

why she would sit in the chair and we tried well because there are no other chairs available that That wasn't good enough. Well, what if I didn't sit and just stood? Well, you can do that too. What if there was no chair at all? So I can say it and on and on every permutation of anything other than there's one chair, go sit in it.

That, that person was not asked back. And, and the thing about the thing about our job and shooting a show or a movie is that ultimately there are an infinite number of ways you can block a scene she could have walked in carrying the chair from outside the bar you know what i mean there's there's so many ways for a scene to be blocked even if it's two people talking in a room someone could be lying on their back okay so you're you're you're a showrunner and director on brothers and sisters not going to name a name

we would be in the kitchen on the kitchen set or the living room set and we would be rehearsing there'd be seven other actors and this actor would go i don't know i'm just thinking why i mean wouldn't this be better if this were outside i'm sorry what director but no but i mean i just feel like it just makes so much more sense if my character wasn't walking in and like why are we in the living room like because that's where we're shooting it today and that's what it says and honestly but like dead serious what would you? So this is where you have to, first of all, it's very important to establish hopefully very positive relationships with your whole cast. So that goes without saying. Right. Where they trust you and you hopefully have some people skills and that's part of the job.

Look, if you're Stanley Kubrick or if you're David Fincher, whoever it is, and you're a genius, fine, go ahead, be a genius and tell people what to do. They'll listen to you because you're a genius. You could have this conversation and ideally hear them out, hopefully hear something that they're actually worried about or that they're actually concerned about for their character in the scene, or if it's something unrelated, or if they're having something going on in their personal lives, or if they're worried about their state and their position in the show. There's so many extracurricular reasons this could happen. So you have to immediately, immediately assess what the root cause is. And ultimately, like, again, in some ways, you have to keep the trains

moving on time, right? You have to get the scene shot. So it's really about balancing this person who needs to rehearse for an hour or wants to set the scene outside or change all of their lines. It's really just ideally a situation where you can talk it out and reach some sort of compromise or barring that, somehow convince them that they thought of your way of blocking the scene originally. That happens too, right? It's like, oh yeah, this is the reason. This is the best way for me. There's that as well. I also love... I've heard stories, again, I won't name names, but you know, season three, four or five, you know, director comes in and they have a way of blocking the scene that you know is going to involve seven setups, right? So like, hey, you walk in here and

you enter the scene and we're behind you at Steadicam and then you go sit down and you go over there, get a, pour yourself a glass of scotch and you walk over there, whatever, whatever. I've heard of a prominent actor who like okay how about this i go i sit down at the desk you shoot me out like that's like that's that's the real well once you know that that's that that number one that calls you a third about gorilla you're not and you're a new director you're gonna shoot that dude sitting down like that guy's gonna be sitting down i love this and by the way and i don't think this is the stuff that people give people who love tvs and movie have no idea that this goes on and it it's so interesting and blocking. And the other thing is that people wonder what acting is about, what makes a good actor, what makes a bad actor. And I'll that is, and you see this more with new young actors.

They don't have any opinions at all. They don't have any choices. They have no point of view. They don't have anything. They're like models that have to be told, you know, it might be a good idea if you maybe, I don't know, maybe just go over and maybe pick up a cup of coffee and come back and sit maybe. Oh, okay. I'll do that that's equally as bad and you see that all the time and that's when you get the sort of bland

lifeless scene where there's no business going look i'm all i'm all for keeping the business normal i don't want too much business but like you've seen seem like it's two people in a room sitting nothing happens you know you there's there's obviously both extremes there's also scenes where like someone's chewing gum drinking coffee checking their watch like there's this too much you know all that stuff that would be richard schiff in the west wing and i love him but it's 400 pieces of business i think i think i did whenever i would do a speech in the west wing a big long. I could almost always turn around and make sure you'd be certain to see Richard Schiff on a unicycle behind me. Yeah, just doing some

business, man. These characters are real. We got to make sure they look real. We can't just have them be stagnant. All right, so that was we'll get back to the episode. Actually, we're done talking about the episode. Final thoughts is a great one. It's a great one and an ultimate in the Harvest Festival arc, Harvest Festival cycle.

There's an oops moment in later episodes. The show cited St. Elmo's Steakhouse as the best in the MLS, as we did on this podcast. That's right. Not really. Well, kind of an oops moment because Charles Mulligan's never getting mentioned again. No. And they literally go to St. Elmo's in the show so that was fun episode

MVP most valuable Pawnee and what say you Rob well I've been singing his praises all episode long you know when you get Nick Offerman talking about about meat hard to beat

him I would say a close number to Ray Donovan he's in the background you can't see Ray Donovan yes Ray Donovan. He's in the background. You can't see. Oh, Ray Donovan. Yes. Ray Donovan. Do you want to go to the town hall?

I think you do. Where should we do this town hall, Rob? There's a lot of options in this episode, actually. Oh, we have to do it on the boarded up steakhouse, for sure. We'll do it at the steakhouse, and we'll do the second town hall at the state house. That never appears. We won't film a town hall at the state house. Wait, is the reason that the state house didn't appear was you thought the audience would be confused that you were at the state house?

There's a deleted scene. You go to the producer's cut. It's like, see the state house. For more of the state house, go to NBC.com for a look at the state house. It's like, wait, what? What did they say? Go to NBC.com. It's like, ah, no.

Okay, so this town hall. Take all that back. It's a town howl. It's not a town howl. Question is from Millie. I'll read it. If you could hang any simple but statement image in your office, the equivalent of Ron's bacon and eggs pick, what would it be? That's a great question, Millie. Also, just piercing at the heart of, are you a therapist, Millie? Piercing at the heart of who we are as human beings. I actually did. I actually had to answer that question for real on the show when we designed Chris's office. Oh, what was your answer? Jack LaLanne. Oh, that's a great answer. And that was, I bet that was early on too. So you were kind of keyed in on this character, huh?

Yeah. I wanted, I thought, who's the greatest health icon in the world? And Jack LaLanne was the man. I mean, he invented it. He invented it, and he had a great one-piece jumpsuit to boot. Yeah, that's a really good answer. This is, I don't have, man, eggs and bacon is pretty good. I was going to say fried rice, just because I like food, and that's a pretty good one. But I also, like, I have a lot of energy, so maybe it's like a yin-yang, and in one half it's fried rice, but the other half it's like a guy running or something. But I also like, I have a lot of energy so maybe it's like a yin yang and in one half it's fried rice but the other half

it's like a guy running or something because I feel like I'm always moving. Or like a treadmill or something. Yeah, Red Bull. We have Red Bull

which is basically, by the way, a thing I never, I don't drink caffeine so I don't drink Red Bull but if I do drink caffeine it's the most powerful shit you've ever felt.

It's like, it's stronger than any drug. Like if I drank a Red Bull right now, my brain would explode. It would be way too powerful because i never drink caffeine uh thank you for the question millie very very powerful question um all right i think that's it for this episode ralph you got anything else i think i think i just it's time to thank all the good folks who continue to listen to this podcast we love you and. And please subscribe to the full McGilla.

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And we need five-star reviews on Apple is always helpful. And of course, Greg and Schulte, you guys, we would be nowhere without you. I'd be waiting tables.

We love it. All right, guys. Goodbye for potty. Thank you, everybody. See you next week. 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,

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