Parks and Recollection - Jerry's Painting (S3E11)

Episode Date: June 21, 2022

You never know when inspiration will strike while visiting Pawnee—and today Rob Lowe and Alan Yang are inspired by S3E11 of Parks and Recreation! In "Jerry's Painting" Chris deals with community uproar over Jerry's new painting, and Ben tries to help teach Andy and April responsibility after he moves in with them. On today's episode you'll hear why Ben couldn't just live alone, how it was important for Chris to deliver non-jokes in a humorous way, and how a misbehaving Leslie strengthened the character. All of this and a grammar lesson from Mario! Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone]  Leslie Knope feels powerless at work because a policy set by Chris Traeger, which forbids workplace romances, is preventing her from dating Ben Wyatt. Meanwhile, now that he is staying in Pawnee permanently, Ben decides to move out of the motel where he has been living. Andy Dwyer and April Ludgate offer him a spare room in their house, since their previous roommate moved out and left the house to them. Although the two have been living by themselves for only a week, the house is a complete mess with no everyday items like plates or utensils available. Ben decides to teach a reluctant Andy and April how to properly live like adults.  Meanwhile, the parks employees attend an art show exhibiting paintings that will later be hung in government buildings. Jerry displays his painting of the fictional topless centaur Greek goddess Diaphena, which looks exactly like Leslie. Jerry explains he subconsciously painted Leslie while thinking about powerful women. Instead of being embarrassed, Leslie feels empowered by the painting. Tom, however, is humiliated because a pot-bellied cherub in the painting shares his likeness. The next day, local conservative activist Marcia Langman (Darlene Hunt) compares the painting to bestiality, deems it unsuitable for a government setting and demands it be destroyed. Leslie goes on the news program Ya Heard? With Perd! to rouse public support for the painting by portraying it as a depiction of a powerful woman. However, she is undermined when reporter Perd Hapley also has on adult film actress Brandi Maxxxx, who defends the painting by comparing it to pornography. Chris convenes a meeting of the Pawnee Public Arts Commission to rule on whether the painting is acceptable. Despite Leslie's eloquent defense, the commission fears the nudity is offensive and decides to destroy it instead of risking public backlash. Leslie retaliates by stealing the painting. After cleaning up around the house, Ben gives Andy and April money to buy common household items. Although they almost waste their money on frivolous items, Andy insists they need to take Ben's advice. April admits she is afraid of growing up because she does not want them to lose their unique personalities, but Andy assures her they will not change.  Chris angrily demands Leslie bring the painting to city hall the next day to be destroyed. When Leslie reluctantly agrees to do so, Jerry expresses disappointment that she would give up so easily. Feeling empowered again, Leslie asks Jerry to quickly paint another, similar painting, only this time with Tom as the centaur. Leslie tells Marcia the new painting is the original one but painted over. With no more nudity in the painting, a frustrated Marcia gives up her quest to have the painting destroyed. Ben later confides to Andy he likes Leslie but is unable to ask her out because of Chris, but Andy tells him if they truly care about each other, then it will eventually happen.

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 As usual, it is I, is my, is I That's what my mom, the English teacher would want It is I, Rob Lowe, not it is me It is I, my, is I. That's what my mom, the English teacher would want. It is I, Rob Lowe.

Not it is me. It is I. I'm going with that. It is I, Rob Lowe, otherwise known as Rolo. And the great Alan Yang is with me as usual. What's up, Rolo? By the way, isn't it it is me? I don't know.

I'm not a grammarian, but I think it is me. Anyway, it's in the predicate of the sentence. I don't know. I really don't know. I can tell you one thing you went to harvard i didn't i'm going with you i'm changing i i'm redoing it is me it's me it's me well if i mean who who's better at grammar than mario he says it's me mario so that's that's that's really who we should be listening to so we'll go with mar here. Yeah, right. For sure. We got a good one today. Another good one.

Very comedy forward. By the way, I was halfway through this episode. I was like, there's still more twists. There's a lot of twists in this one, too. In a story that keeps developing, if I were to put it happily. In a story that won't stop developing. Yeah, very busy, busy episode in the middle of season three so we'll get to the details let's go all right episode title jerry's painting written

by the legendary norm hiscock we got to talk norm today we got to get him on the pot he's a he just he canadian dude chill dude there since season one co-created kids in the hall with those guys has just been doing it forever. He does that show Space Force with Greg Daniels. Anyway, Love Norm, directed by Dean Holland. Of course, we love Dean. He's been on the show before.

Original air date, April 28th, 2011. The summary of the episode, Chris deals with community uproar over Jerry's new painting, which features a nude Leslie. And Ben tries to help teach Andy and April responsibility

after he moves in with them. Notes, notes, the original broadcast ran 10 minutes longer than usual because it followed an extended episode of The Office, which featured the last appearance by lead actor Steve Carell. Rumor has it this Office episode hurt Parks' ratings more than they helped. So I don't know. I don't know if that's true or not. We'd have to go back and dive through the numbers. Other notes. First appearance of Mara Marini as Brandi Maxx, the porn parody version of Leslie.

Actor Biff Yeager plays electrician George Williams. Biff also portrayed Lieutenant Commander Argyle on Star Trek The Next Generation. And his trading card has a price bubble that mysteriously keeps growing

bigger and bigger. Those are deep cut notes. Notes. I love that. Who's into that? Can I ask who's into the Star Trek next generation price price card prices? Okay, great.

I think it's Sheltie. So that is an unbelievable piece of trivia. So do you think his, his card is worth more than others? I will get Sheltie on. So Sheltie used to produce the greatest gem podcast, which is the Star Trek podcast. Why do you think his card is worth more than others? We'll get Schultz. So Schultz used to produce the Greatest Gem podcast, which is a Star Trek podcast. But maybe it's rare or something.

Maybe it's like a, I don't know. Maybe it's because he played George Williams. Yeah, an electrician on this show. But by the way, oh, wait, we have a correction on the grammar here. Oh, yes. Hit me. Traditional grammar rule states, this is from Greg Levine, when a pronoun follows a linking verb such as is, the pronoun should be in the subject case. It's also called the nominative.

That means it is correct to say it is I. There's no way that's true. There's no way that's true. Tell it to Mario. He's not saying it's a I, Mario. He's not saying it's a I, Mario. It is I. It's a I, Mario. It is I, Mario.

That doesn't work. I mean, that's... Well, first of all, it's not very on brand for him. It is I, Mario. Oh, man. Hey, we'll see when Pratt voices Mario in the Mario movie, right? Isn't he doing that? Yes, he is.

How is this dude Mario and Garfield? That's range, baby. That's range. I know. It's incredible. What is it? That's the cat that he's in. What is he into? And Pratt's like, he's into sausages? Is that what he's into? No, you're going to get him

blown up. You're going to get the Garfield fans after this dude. He has to know that he likes lasagna. I'm sorry. It's lasagna. But I was like, it's sausage? Pratt was like, it's lasagna. Who knew? He knew. He was deeply offended that I didn't know. I mean, he hates Mondays and he loves lasagna. And I was like, look, Pratt, I can't keep up with all your iconic wish over work. What do you know?

Hey, man, he's the Lego dude. Yeah, I love it. I love it. But it is funny. I mean, we should do a Garfield podcast as well. He hates Odie. He hates Nermal. He loves lasagna.

Okay. So good. All right. Let's get going on the synopsis. We can talk grammar and Garfield and Mario all day, but let's get in the synopsis. Leslie Knope feels powerless at work because a policy set by Chris Traeger, which forbids workplace romances, is preventing her from dating Ben Wyatt. Meanwhile, now that he's staying in Pawnee permanently, Ben decides to move out of the motel where he's been living. Andy Dwyer and April Ludgate offer him a spare room in their house since their previous roommate moved out and left the house to them. Although the two have been living by themselves for only a week,

the house is a complete mess with no everyday items like plates or utensils available. Ben decides to teach a reluctant Andy and April how to properly live like adults. So this beginning to the story really made me laugh because all due respect to the show it's we it's a great writing staff we understand mike is a great showrunner it's a good writing staff but the idea that ben white an adult man who's very smart and like is an account like it was an accountant and like has a great job and decides to move in with these two numbskulls is so funny to me like you know you like that is tv what that that you have to understand that is one of the just keep them in the world it's just like keep them in the world keep andy and april in the world

and like it ends up being really funny by the way i think it makes it all worth it it's a little bit silly he wouldn't do this but you know what this isn't a real documentary we make yes we have ben make this silly choice and then you just kind of live with it in my opinion but it's very funny listen i'll go you one further like i said in the last podcast i i never bought into the the workplace rule yeah i just never did i always felt like it was complete phony baloney stakes to keep Leslie and Ben from being together. And I had to carry that water for episodes. Yes, you had to carry it a lot. And sometimes I will say this.

If you like a show or maybe even love a show and you love the characters, you love the comedy, you love the actors, and you love a lot of the jokes, you can get over stuff like that. Because again, hopefully you're not looking to this for it to be a literal documentary or textbook about what it means to be a low-level government employee in South Central Indiana or whatever it is. In this case, it's like, I went with it. I was watching this. It's like, you know what? The comedy with Ben and April and Andy was great. It's really funny. All that shit was so funny so i i don't know it's it's i really enjoy this you got and the other thing is when you're doing an ensemble you as you alluded to just now is you have to figure out ways to to come up with combinations of people why would they be together well the classic is is is um rashida is the nurse yes when they were

like they're like wait i'm sorry we don't want to go to the hospital. What are we doing in the hospital? One of the most difficult challenges. Yeah. And the show was, it's already difficult. You know, we have 10 characters in the show.

And so it's like, okay, this episode, it's Chris, Andy and Donna or whatever it is. Right. It's like, why are they together?

You look, you're making a show, you're making a show. And, and so you do the best you can to make it realistic. And TV has changed a little bit, but, um, I don't know. It, to me, it was so enjoyable was so enjoyable so fast and fun that it didn't really bother me um i what i did enjoy um was this talking hand that you have the very beginning

of the episode and it's so funny because it's a joke that's not a joke the the setup is the surprise comedy they say something comedy is about surprise sometimes and in this case you have you set it up as if you have some magic formula about being great at setting people up and then your answer is so obvious like that's the joke right it's essentially like you know i'm good at setting people up what i do it's something along the along the lines of i look at what people's most admirable qualities are and then I try to find someone whose qualities are compatible and I bring them together. Like, so it's just literally like, it's just the most logical thing anyone would do, right? It's like, I tried to find two people that would like each other and bring them together. That's essentially the joke. And so that kind of joke is all just in the delivery. That's literally,

that's literally you having to just sell and play it straight, by the way, like play it straight. Like you really believe it. Exactly. Like I'm going to impart some amazing knowledge. Exactly. You never would have thought. That's a great comedy move that I love. Yes.

Where the pretext is I'm about to bestow insane knowledge that only I can give to you. And then it's something that everybody in the world already knows. Yes. It's always a great move. It's really, really funny. And it's kind of a tried and true kind of type of joke but this there's a specificity to that and specificity to the performance that really worked for me um there's also a weird thing i want to point out which is this is for the real nerds in there uh for you guys to know like it there's a scene where ben first talks to tom in the courtyard that sets up

the b story where ben is like i need a place to live can i live with you know how is your place etc the scene begins with something that's almost never done in the show which is a tilt down from the sky so like you know you never like in this show there's no establishing shots stabbing shots you like there's very few establishing shots there are but it's like in all wide or something to start the scene we we start from the sky and then we see the cupola of Pawnee City Hall, which is Pasadena City Hall. And then it tilts down in the courtyard to see Ben walk in and talk to Tom. What people don't maybe know, people maybe don't know about this is that courtyard is inside a soundstage. So I guess what we did, I didn't edit this episode, but I guess they tilted down from just the ceiling

and then later replaced it with the sky in post. So this was to sell that the courtyard was actually outdoors. Look at the scene. See if you can see where the seams are. See if you can see, because it is not outdoors. They are inside a stage. And why now? I don't know. Maybe they had a VFXx maybe it's like a rooster's million like vfx budget thing they had they had to just get rid of some money but yeah what do you say what do you got there you got some answers well you telling the story alan reminded me triggered this memory i have from the room when dean came in saying he had this idea

because he directed this episode had the idea for this shot and like i think i think we can do this and i makes me want to have dean back actually to talk about this and we got to because i think he was quite proud of this idea that we could use the set you know our stage to actually do something that we could not normally not do so he was quite proud of that you know i will say this dean dean as we all know grew and grew and grew as a director and he was probably watching films and watching like things that were more frankly more complicated to direct in some ways visually with with effects and all that stuff and you know you often do this when you're shooting a different kind of show that's not a mockumentary so he probably got excited and like yeah why not

do it I'm not complaining about the shot it's just it just was like it was funny to me that yeah this this episode I mean he was directing it's probably one of the reasons why but it wasn't like this is the finale and we're blowing it out it was like no just kind of a random episode in the middle of the season like we're gonna do this anyway take a look at that and shout out to dean for coming up with that idea okay yeah this is a a little piece of trivia that that that greg levine points out there's a scene at 425 where april spits her gum into annie's mouth and uh this was not scripted so this must have been something she just did to pratt on the day which is honestly quite horrifying basically probably needed an intimacy coordinator to be on set that's right but no no it's uh i think they

were buddies and it was all good, but, uh, it looks like she's about to break immediately afterwards and she does not. So, um, you know, that's just another thing. That's one of the hazards and joys of working with Aubrey is you might get gums spit in your mouth. You never know what's going to happen. Uh, and yeah, shout out to a couple of these rules for living with them. I thought these were really funny. Um, we'll, we'll rifle through them quickly. No front door use must crawl in the back window. No personal phone conversations. If you speak to April in Spanish, you must use the formal Usted. You can't use electricity after 6 PM. If you watch a sad movie, you have to wear mascara. So we see if you cry, no noise allowed on Mondays and no TV after breakfast. But this whole scene was really fun to me because Pratt is like, we leave TV on all the time. You know, when we leave the house, we leave it on. So it seems like we're home when we're not. It's an idea I'm trying to patent, he says. But yeah,

I mean, honestly, this B story, we'll get into it more, but I thought it was gold. I thought it was really, really funny. We'll continue on the synopsis. Meanwhile, the park's employees attend an art show exhibiting paintings that will later be hung in government buildings. Jerry displays his painting of the fictional topless centaur Greek goddess Diaphina, which looks exactly like Leslie. Jerry explains he subconsciously painted Leslie while thinking about powerful women. Instead of being embarrassed, Leslie feels empowered by the painting. Tom, however, is humiliated because a potbellied cherub in the painting shares his likeness. The next day, local conservative activist Marsha Langman, played by Darlene Hunt, compares the painting to bestial's little cherub is so funny it just it was one of those things that just shooting it i could just stare at the painting of him

is this cherub and laugh it was absolutely genius it's very funny i like feel like this was kind of a breakthrough moment the writer's room and it was like once the painting idea was pitched it was like people building and building and building um i also want to uh point out a little easter egg of uh look at the deer in the lower right hand corner of the painting because its face is very fucked up it looks like it looks like it's like a a wolf or a dog or a bear in addition to being a deer anyway kudos to the province department they have to do a lot of shit to get stuff like that together. In fact, they had to make two paintings, spoiler alert. But the deer is messed up in the face.

Just take a look at it. It looks like a very strange hybrid animal. I also like how Leslie is the goddess and that Jerry painted. It's sort like creepy and weird there's a lot there's a lot going on psychologically with the old jare bear huh it's established he likes his blondes you know that's true man that's true i mean it's really uh i i love also like it's kind of been established that he's a painter because there's an episode,

I believe in Go Big or Go Home, he's painting by the lake and he's painting like a beautiful painting. And I think Leslie throws it into the lake. So if you're really thinking about it, it's been established. It doesn't come out of nowhere. It does come out of nowhere how fast he ends up painting these, but we'll leave that for the future. Yeah, always fun to have Marshall Langman return from the SSFS.

She's so good. So funny. So brilliant. Very funny. She was in the Pawnee Zoo episode when Leslie married the gay penguins. funny so very funny she was in the ponny zoo episode when leslie married the gay penguins and it's always helpful to have her as a character because she can be an antagonist like a pretty clear cut uh uh you know proxy for um you know people who don't want to have any fun people don't want to stick in the mud yeah it was also like season one leslie was a little bit of a stick in the mud and later on we created other sticks in the mud that she could fight against so that

was kind of a difference between the seasons um greek gods and goddesses rob you got it you got any thoughts rola what uh what your favorite greek gods and goddesses are i think this is going to be another abstention for me i don't want to offend uh any of the greek gods you're afraid of offending the other gods yes i would i would never never ever dare to uh uh to exalt one over the other. Yes. It's actually, so is it true that- I will say, though, if I had to pick, it might be Poseidon because I really like that movie they made about him. Well, there you go, right?

It wasn't so- The Poseidon Adventure. Oh, Poseidon. I thought you were talking about Wrath of the Titans or Cl or clash of the titans or you know what was that release the kraken movie wasn't it yeah it wasn't that oh god oh it's yes what is it it's with harry hamlin there's well there's more movies about about greek gods and you might think hercules i mean he's a demigod but there's i mean there's a lot of xena will show up on her show xena shows up on the show. Ron dates her.

I don't think she's... Is she a god? No, she just... I don't know. She's a warrior princess. She's not a god. But is it true? Do you guys know?

I don't know. Like, who does... I think... Isn't Zeus appearing in the Thor movies now? There's... I think Zeus is showing up. I think it's played by Russell Crowe, maybe. But anyway...

That sounds about right. Yeah, that seems about right. Yeah. Same with him. Saw Jeff Goldblum at dinner the other day. He's in those movies. Russell Crowe maybe but uh anyway that sounds about right yeah that seems about right yeah saving them uh saw Jeff Goldblum at dinner the other day he was he's in those movies anyway little side tangent really truly he was he was at Mother Wolf anyway uh uh uh what else we got here oh we love Ron's welcome speech at the art show by the way the art show was like a you know one of those premises that like okay okay, we need another venue. What do they do in the Parks and Rec Department?

Was it an eternal struggle? And the writers were like, what are the other things they do? It's like, yeah, they'll throw an art show. They'll be like an art exhibition. But I really enjoyed this speech. I'll go through it a little bit. But Ron just standing up because Leslie makes him do the speech. This room has several paintings in it.

Some are big, some are small. People did them, and they're here now. I believe that after this is over, they'll be hung in governed buildings. Why the government is involved in an art show is beyond me. I also think it's pointless for a human to paint scenes of nature when they could just go outside and stand in it. Anyway, please do not misinterpret the fact that I'm talking right now as genuine interest in art and attempt to discuss it with me further end of speech um classic there's like five on character jokes there

it's amazing that's it's great that's a just a genius speech really good and and uh by the way we already did an art episode with the camel so there's like another art episode so we had to like get your other round of art jokes in but anyway um i also like your uh talking head uh chris not enough talking head um where you're open we want to establish that you were not a stick in the mud or a prude and so we i think we did that by going beyond and saying like i'm not opposed to new like nudity and art like i've posed nude i performed a nude production of cats which is really a wild a wild cap to that joke. It's like, you have?

It's such, I love that moment. I really wish if we could go back and do any of Parks that we would just at least do a flashback of Chris Traeger as a nude Mr. Mistoffelees. I was going to say Mr. Mistoffelees was my pick as well. Yes. Come on. Who played Mr. Mistoffelees in the new Cats movie? All I can remember is James Corden

Yeah, I think it might be James Corden Yeah, well, he was not nude He was not nude Alright, let's continue on Leslie goes on the news program You heard with Pert, one of our favorites To rouse public support for the painting By portraying it as a depiction of powerful woman

However, she's undermined when reporter Pert Hathaway Also has on adult film actress Brandi Max, who defends the painting by comparing it to pornography. Chris convenes a meeting of the Pawnee Public Arts Commission to rule on whether the painting is acceptable. Despite Leslie's eloquent defense, the commission fears the nudity

is offensive and decides to destroy it instead of risking public backlash. Leslie retaliates by stealing the painting um i feel like i correct me if i'm wrong greg we kind of work backwards on this one where the idea was she goes on perth happily uh a porn star appears with her and then it's like yeah we're the same right you and me are together on this like this is like we're the same kind of person but wasn't there an origin of that like someone someone god i can't i can't

remember what that the original story was but it was someone it was basically the idea of someone putting their arm around you and and defending you but then you're like wait a minute i'm not i'm not on the same page as this person like that's that's kind of where the origin of the story was but i'm blanking on what the original uh origin of because i i think there was like a real life instance of this or something i just remember that was kind of the kernel of it and i remember also the debate over the just uh justice potter stewart uh quote about i know pornography when i see it which by the way ends with the wildest maybe the dirtiest joke in parks and rec history where where branny mac says for me it's when the penis goes in, which is like, I almost feel

uncomfortable even saying that. I'm just quoting the show. This aired on NBC. That's unbelievably filthy. I didn't write that line. I don't know. She just says it in the show. I was like, god damn. Parks going hard on this. It's funny.

It's funny. There's also, so another, Pert has a lot of lines in this. Pert has a lot of jokes in this. He says, what some would say are human breasts. He also asks, are centaurs real? Which is, like, I think there's a hidden underbelly of Pert where it's like, is he a human being or not? Like, is he an alien in human clothing like this is this is very possible yeah i would i wouldn't put anything past purd

happily um and this is one of the episodes where leslie actually misbehaves in one of the most i think egregious ways right she steals the painting and then she tricks uh she tricks marcia langman later like it's i i kind of like it i kind of like she's on a kind of a run of like misbehaving which is like you know i you know as we say we sometimes want to mix it up and have her have her be bad right i like i like when and i just love when polar gets to play that kind of mania yes you know when she gets to play that like devilish sort of mania is is just a great gear she does really well she's very mischievous she has an impish quality and she's very likable doing bad things

you know it's like it's just very uh it's it's it's it's like she manages to make it like well you want to see her screw up it's kind of fun and and yeah she has a very winning quality of that so um yeah one of the things and and by the way that's something that you sometimes deal with with the network and studio is they don't want your main character to do bad things and then the whole thing is like they're not likable they're not likable like make sure we see that they're a good person or they're good you know the phrase right the phrase is we you have to protect the character yes protect the characters i mean i bring it up sometimes too, but it's a balance.

You don't want them to be horrible. You know, I think the writer's sort of answer to that usually is, we don't want the character to be likable. We want them to be compelling. We want them to be interesting. We want them to be complicated. We want them to be psychologically complex and sort of watchable, compulsively watchable, right?

It's like, is Tony Soprano likable? want them to be psychologically complex and sort of watchable compulsively watchable right it's like is tony soprano likable it's like you kind of just you're intrigued he's doing weird stuff you know it's like what is he doing yeah no one's like walter white man that guy's likable he's a monster he's like he's not likable enough what if he instead of drug dealing drugs he's a good teacher uh but yeah that's anyway it doesn't come up that often anymore but sometimes uh let's continue on meanwhile after cleaning up around the house ben gives andy and april money to buy common household items although they waste although they almost waste their money on frivolous items andy insists they need to take ben's advice april admits she's afraid of growing up because she

doesn't want them to lose their unique personalities but andy assures her they will not change um i really enjoy these andy and april jokes when they're eating uh turkey chili off of frisbees was a funny thing that i really enjoyed and he and then when they come back i really enjoy the sequence where uh you know he's like did you buy you know ben's there then andy and april come home and he's like well did you buy the Ben's there, and Andy and April come home, and he's like, well, did you buy the stuff that you need? And then Andy pulls out the marshmallow shooter and fires marshmallows at him for like a minute, and he's like, does that answer your question? And then there's that perfect Adam Scott pause,

and he goes, no. He's just like, no, it doesn't answer my question. But it's like, it's just the, I don't know. Again, that story got me. I was like, they're going to real Bed Bath & Beyond, he's just like no it doesn't answer my question but it's like it's just the i don't know again that story got me i was like that they're going to real bed bath at bn like buying stuff and yeah i don't know i enjoyed it relatable likable relatable relatable yeah but there's also the bit where where uh another just adam bit that i really enjoyed was uh uh he says i have full confidence in you you're gonna spend that You're going to buy the right stuff.

They leave. And then he has a talking head. He's like, there's a 30% chance they'll both die, which is just like a classic. Like he's fixated on this, fixated on this. You know, we talked about this a little bit. This is a really clean split between A and B story. So like sometimes it's really hard. I actually think that's an easier way to write stories because as opposed to characters are

crossing over in between, like that is so difficult. That is so difficult. And like, this is such a strange, like this is my own personal tangent in terms of figuring out writing, directing, all that stuff. Like this happened really early on for me because like you don't really have a conception of structure. I think a lot of times if you're a total novice and like watching Star Wars or any of those movies, there's a power to cross cutting. There's a power to cutting in between stories.

And if you structure it correctly and pace it correctly, you can build momentum by cutting in between stories. you can build momentum by cutting in between stories. And sometimes you'll see shows that find their sea legs by figuring out what kind of quantity of story to put in each section of that makes sense. And like if you watch the, I don't know, Star Wars is a weird example, but there's like, there's sequences where like, oh my God, it's building because you're cutting between stories, which is a little counterintuitive, but there's just this power to that. And sometimes it gets complicated. Sometimes we'll break stories and like Ron is in two different stories. It's like, I don't think it's going to work. Like you can't do it time-wise first of all, but it's also like, it's just kind of messy. It's kind of muddy.

And so oftentimes you'll have stories like this, which is the alternative, which is it's a total clean demarcation between the two. And then you get in a situation where sometimes one story has too many beats. And then it's like, oh, shit, we have four A-story beats in a row. That also becomes a problem. And that might happen all the way up into the edit room. You might be in the edit room. It's like, we need a B-story beat here, but we don't have one. So that stuff needs to be figured out. But I found that stuff to be kind of fun

problem solving in some ways you know i was looking through the notes just now to remind myself some things and i saw alan we were talking about that that specifically when we had very clean a and b stories and they're like what's chris going to be doing in this and what's ron going to be doing this were two of the focuses right and chris shows up uh you know hopefully i think to guide the uh you know the ethics of the story along and there's a for a while there was going to be a like a very small run or perhaps where ron was going to commission a piece of art from jerry and just to give him something but then you watch the episode he's very light he has he has enough he has enough yeah then you watch it's like okay

he has enough and that's the thing you're also servicing so many characters and so many actors it's like so that's part of it too uh okay so chris angrily demands leslie bring the painting to city hall the next day to be destroyed when leslie reluctantly agrees to do so jerry expresses disappointment that she would give up so easily feeling empowered again leslie asked jerry to quickly paint another similar painting only this time with tom as the centaur leslie tells marcia the new painting is the original one but painted over with no more nudity in the painting a frustrated marcia gives up her quest to have the painting destroyed ben later confides to andy that he likes leslie but is unable to ask her out because of chris but andy tells him if they truly care about each other then it will eventually happen um yeah man this is uh again i i really enjoyed the the b story

the development of andy april as as as fully formed characters they just it's cool to see andy like do something again you have all this comedy from him but he's like eh he's not a total idiot at the end and he's you see them kind of mature a tiny bit, right? And that's character development, right? We talked about like in the writers room, we would talk about the vectors these characters are going on and how they're growing over the course of the season in the series. And one of them was April and Andy kind of maturing a tiny bit.

Obviously not changing, but, you know, it's literally kind of, it's kind of alluded to uh you know in the episode they actually have a conversation about that it's always a good episode when andy gets to say a line like is your penis between the front arms or the back legs regarding the the final painting yeah i i also i also saw it as like commentary like oh you know what like if a guy's topless it's fine you can put that in thing like it like looking back on it with a 2022 lens it's like yeah it's just kind of like oh you could change it to a male torso and it's totally fun but also yeah i was pointed out we were about to talk about this earlier but jerry uh an extremely fast artist because he painted that new one in like seconds

a little bit of a story flop you think about it too hard but uh maybe he had a maybe he was maybe maybe he was had like tracing paper or something maybe he was like chasing it over but it kind of strains credulity uh leslie and tom are on the phone at the end with uh with gail it's just funny to imagine that it's christy brinkley on the other end because she had not yet been introduced i believe so yeah we didn't know who it would be didn't know who you probably had a lot of different ideas in your head didn't know who it would be um final thoughts on the app, Rolo? Again, this is one where I wish I had stolen at least

one of the paintings. Yeah. Where are those? That would be really fun to have. Where did we, do you know where it is, Greg? I remember reading an interview a few years ago, and I'm pretty sure Amy actually still has the mural, the painting, not the mural, mural excuse me of diaphina

oh wow she should i gotta ask her gotta ask her that's the right person to have it um yeah very funny episode and we're we're in the pocket here we're in the pocket it's it's it's peak parks peak parks we're in we're in the zone we're in the zone um very funny episode uh oops moment the adjusted painting looks similar to tom but has six pack abs that's an oops because as we all know aziz in real life has eight pack abs that's a joke that's a joke that was written in there it's not it's uh i assure you uh i was at a pool party with him yesterday uh he does not have he does not have eight pack abs guy likes eight he's a skinny guy where you got a little bit of a little bit of a belly a little bit of a belly cleaning up my

photos on my phone and came across a photo of aziz and I sitting in my jacuzzi. Yes. Which, by the way, it's such an odd, random. It just made me smile. It's like, just Aziz and I just chilling in the jacuzzi. It's so funny, man. He always is scared because his dad has a little bit of a belly. His dad's a tiny man, but he's always like, I don't want to get a belly like my dad.

It's like, you know, it's genetic. You know, it's genetic. So he's like, he's always scared about that. It's like, you know, he's eating a lot. He's eating a lot. Yeah. All right. Episode MVP, most valuable pawn in.

Which character moment in this episode sticks out the most to you and why? This is a tough one because a lot of people have really good stuff in this. I know. I'm really torn. I almost want to give it to Jerry because he painted the painting. I was going to say Jerry, too.

You know, he gets his name in the title. He's just kind of, and I, you know, this one, he's just kind of sweet. It's just kind of like he carries a little bit. This is a shout out to Jim. Jim, Jim was a guest on the show. Let's give this one to Jerry. Yep. I'm with you.

Jim O'Hare, MVP. All right. Listeners, let us know who your MVP was by tweeting Team Coco Podcast or using the hashtag Parks and Recreation. Shall we take a trip to the town hall? Do you want to go to the town hall i think you do today it's a town howl oh it's a howl it's a howl you know i love those house where where should we howl i i think we can be topical let's do it the public arts commission we never do it there we're

gonna do it in front of the Public Arts Commissions. And they're going to... I like our casting on this, too. We're trying to get kind of artsy-looking people, but not really. So let's do it in front of the commission and see what they think about this town. Howl. Should we play that out, Cholteep? Howl away.

Hey, Rob and Alan. It's Jared from Columbus, Ohio. I'm a huge fan of everything on Parks and Rec that's made it to the screen, but I'm particularly fascinated by the stuff that hits the cutting room floor, especially the bloopers and the times when the cast gets a case of the giggles. Two questions for you. What's the worst case of the giggles that you can remember on set, and how did you and the cast compose yourselves to get back on track and finish the scene?

I can only imagine the struggles you had with this group. Thanks, fellas. I think, well, you know, as I always say, I think that there's a school of comedy that kind of looks down on the fact that you break when you act in comedy. Like, it's a badge of honor to not break. And there are those people who famously can't be broken. And I'm one of them and that's why you never in in the gag reels at the end of the year i'm never in them because i will not break i take it as i take it as a as a badge of of honor but that said uh there's a an episode which we will get to where we all have food poisoning and we're writhing around on the floor of my office

and adam scott is doing like crawling like a worm to like like pick up a phone or something and i it just it i could not keep it together i could not keep it that's great i did notice that i think you almost never broke because it's like we had a pretty good cat our cast didn't break a ton but some people were more guilty than others some people broke a lot more but i don't feel like you broke a lot i feel like i remember that scene and i think i correct me if i'm wrong like sometimes it's just like the physical stuff i sometimes i think it's physical stuff or like stuff that's a little blue or something that you just don't normally hear like yeah a really well-written joke like sometimes it's really funny in the cut it's great for the show but it's not going to make you break it's usually the the weird stuff like the stuff or you see someone they're wearing

something weird and like they're just having to do something embarrassing like that to me like often gets the actors to break like another example this that i remember on set was uh also involved adam where it's a scene where joan calamezzo it's him and disease and joan calamezzo joan calamezzo you know adam had to she's excusing herself to go to the bathroom and he's like are you going to powder your vagina like it was just him saying that like it was basically that she was implying that that was like the previous line i'm not selling it correctly but he the three of them just could not get through this like and it's that thing where it's like okay okay never

mind you'll have this time this time it's that 10 times right it's like it's it like it's it's really funny right it's like see it is the thing is it is like seasickness like yes once one person gets a case of the giggles it can be contagious yes and that's fun but if you um i i encourage you all to go on youtube and there are i think our our gag reel bloopers are on there and they're pretty funny they're pretty fun to watch and you'll find it and greg levine this alerts me to the real line which is is Joan Kalametsu is excusing herself. And she says, I'm going to go powder my nose amongst other things.

And then Ben says, is she going to go powder her vagina? Which is, I mean, it's just, again, it's him saying the truth, right?

Which is like, but it's just that it's literally that, which is like, whatever you get the joke. But, but for whatever reason, I don't know. It just,

it just, it just, I think you can see outtakes from that scene. So I don't know. I don't know. It just, I think you can see outtakes from that scene. So I don't know. I don't know the food poisoning one is in there, but it's, again, I can only imagine, like, again, these things. And it's contagious, too. It's contagious. And fun. And always fun when it happens.

Always fun. Until it goes too far. And then it gets fun again. And then you've got to make your day. But usually we're making our days. So it's okay. Thank you very much, Jared, from Columbus for sending that town howling.

Please send in all your future questions, email them, send in voicemails, all that stuff. Great episode, Rollo. Yeah, really fun. And we're back next week with another one of my favorites. I'm not going to talk about it right now.

You have to go subscribe and come back and do your thing to see the next episode. That's right. Thanks for listening. Subscribe where you get your podcasts, Five Star Review and Apple. Thanks to Schulte and Greg. And goodbye from Pawnee.

And we will 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 rob low for low profile jeff ross adam sacks and joanna solitaroff at team coco and colin anderson at stitcher gina batista paula davis and brit khan are our talent bookers the theme song is by mouse rat aka mark rivers with additional tracks composed by john danik thanks for listening and we'll see you next time on parks and recollection this has been a team coco production in association with stitcher