Parks and Recollection - Leslie's House (S2E14)

Episode Date: January 25, 2022

Today in Pawnee Rob and Alan are headed to a friend's home. In "Leslie's House" Leslie abuses her power when she brings in community center teachers to help throw a dinner party to impress Justin. In today's episode your hosts discuss the writer's choice to make Leslie a hoarder, a joke that sparked the creation of Tigertail, and how architecture can affect an audience. Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone] A remorseful Leslie tells a group of Recreation Center teachers the Pawnee budget has been cut by $1,000, and five of their classes will have to be cut, but exactly which classes has not yet been determined. Later after an excellent date in Indianapolis, Leslie and Justin decide their next date will be in Pawnee. Feeling pressure to make their date equally exciting in Pawnee, Leslie decides to host a dinner party at her home with all her “interesting friends” from the Parks Dept. Ann comes to Leslie's house, and finds a hoarder’s paradise. When they find themselves unable to clean it, Leslie calls Maria Portlesman, who teaches cleaning courses at the recreation center. She declines payment and hints she would prefer preferential treatment when Leslie cuts the classes, despite Leslie's assurance this will not happen. When Leslie realizes she has not prepared any food for the party, she calls a culinary teacher from the recreation center. Later, at the party, Andy complains about Justin to April, who makes Andy happy when she proposes putting chewed up gum in Justin's pockets. Eventually, Tom's ex-wife Wendy arrives. Tom expresses anger that Leslie invited her, especially because Ron is romantically interested in her. When Ron impresses Wendy by eating a hot red pepper, Tom attempts to eat a bigger one, but has to run to the bathroom in pain. When Justin starts yawning, a worried Leslie calls in other recreation center teachers to make the party more interesting, including a belly-dancer, a fencer, a caricaturist and an origami teacher.Eventually, an accounting teacher arrives, believing demonstrations are being held to determine which class will be cut, much to the anger of Ron. The teacher gives a very boring accounting lecture, which puts Justin to sleep. The next day, Leslie is before the Pawnee Disciplinary Committee on charges of abuse of power. Leslie calls Justin as a witness and questions him as to whether he enjoyed the party, to which he answers an emphatic yes. Afterward, the committee rules no further action will be taken, mainly because Leslie turned herself in and paid $1,000 restitution to the recreation center so no classes would be cut. When Ann asks why she did it, Leslie said it was to get an honest answer from Justin about the date, under penalty of perjury. The episode ends with Justin encouraging Tom to ask Wendy out.

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, welcome to Parks and Recollection.

I am Chris Traeger, and this is Alan Yang. Hello, Alan. Now, you just identified yourself as your character's name. Is that a choice? I like doing that. I've decided from here on in, I'm going to be Method. Rob Lowe. You're going to do the entire podcasting character.

He's going to be like, oh my God, this was a TV show? Yeah, yeah. Rob. I'm in a TV show? Rob Lowe, he's some other person. Chris Traeger is who I am today. Well, on the set, listen, you know, on the set, you don't look me in the eye. some other person. Chris Traeger is who I am today. Well, on the set,

listen, you know, on the set, you don't look me in the eye. You call me only by my character's name. And whatever my character's job is, that's what I have been doing for two years leading up to playing that character. You know that about me. If you're an Irish 19th century cobbler,

you're just making shoes for two years and speaking in an Irish brogue. That's you. I said that at like every episode. I've said, I love this episode. But the truth of it is, you know, this is the reason we're doing this podcast because you know what? Let's face it. The show's pretty damn funny. Don't you think?

It's in a nice groove. This is a nice region of the show. We're coming into some really good ones. This one's called Leslie's House. And it was episode 14. Jeez, already episode 14 of season two aired on January 21st, 2010, written by the great Dan Gore

and directed by Alex Hardcastle, who has a character named after him, Softcastle. Alexis Softcastle. Alexis Softcastle. I'm on tenterhooks. Please give me the synopsis. We got to get into the synopsis.

Synopsisters, synopbrothers, here we go. A remorseful Leslie tells a group of recreation center teachers the Pawnee budget has been cut. Exactly which classes to be cut has not yet been determined. That's the cold open. Feeling pressure to make her next date with Justin exciting, Leslie

decides to host a dinner party at her home with all her quote-unquote interesting friends from the cold open. Feeling pressure to make her next date with Justin exciting, Leslie decides to host a dinner party at her home with all her quote-unquote interesting friends from the parks department. Anne comes to Leslie's house and finds a hoarder's paradise. It's horrifying. Leslie calls Maria Portalsman, who teaches cleaning courses at the recreation center, and hints she would prefer preferential treatment when Leslie cuts the classes. And then when Leslie realizes

she has not prepared any food for the party, she calls a culinary teacher from the recreation center. Same story. Eventually, an accounting teacher arrives, believing demonstrations are being held to determine which class will be cut, much to the anger of Ron.

All the while, Andy complains about Justin to April, who makes Andy happy when she proposes putting chewed-up gum in Justin's pockets. The next day, Leslie goes before the Pawnee Disciplinary Committee complains about Justin to April, who makes Andy happy when she proposes putting chewed-up gum in Justin's pockets. The next day, Leslie goes before the Pawnee Disciplinary Committee on charges of abuse of power. Leslie calls Justin as a witness and questions him as to whether he enjoyed the party, to which he answers an emphatic yes. Afterwards, the committee rules no further

action will be taken, mainly because Leslie turned herself in and already paid $1,000 in restitution to the recreation center, so no classes would be cut. Very packed episode. And we, you know, we get to see more of Justin in this one. I mean, I'm a huge Justin fan. Huge, huge, huge.

Thoreau is my, he's my guy. I met him once backstage at Ellen, as stars are wont to do. That's how we meet each other. I was struck by a number of things. He and his then girlfriend, Jennifer Aniston, were trying on racks of clothes to go to the premiere of something that night. And I was looking at the clothes going, oh, Jen, I think these are great. And only to be told, no, those are Justin's because he's tiny.

There you go. He is the tiniest man. He's like- But he's jacked. That's the thing. He's a small jacked man though. He's jacked. That's the thing.

The camera makes you look jacked. The other thing is, he wrote one of the great movies of all time that people should be reminded of. He wrote Tropic Thunder. Tropic Thunder, that's right. Yeah, I did find it funny. Obviously, we met Justin in the last episode, the setup.

But in this one, we see Aziz's character really into Justin. He loves Justin. And they became really good friends. So, I've met Justin, especially his brother, Sebastian. And I became friends good friends. So I've met Justin, and especially his brother, Sebastian. And I became friends with Sebastian. And yeah, he stayed in Justin's place in New York. This was pre the Jennifer Aniston era. But yeah, he was a very nice guy.

And Justin now owns a bar called Ray's in New York with Nick Braun, who's in succession. And so I know Nick a little bit. So yeah, it's kind of a fun... They have a bar in Lower East succession. And so I know Nick a little bit. So yeah, it's kind of a fun, they have a bar in Lower East Side and yeah, it's a fun place. So shout out to Justin and Nick and their bar. It's very fun.

Well, there's a lot of good stuff in this episode. I mean, it's called Leslie's House. So I just want to talk for a minute about the actual house. So here's the thing. When I see a craftsman house, I know I'm watching television. I know it's either a commercial or it's a, or like this, an episode. For only people on TV live in craftsman homes. And I certainly don't think that people live in craftsman homes in Pawnee.

I'm just saying, if you're out there, start taking score of how many craftsman homes, because what it does is it does a lot of storytelling for you because they're beautiful. They're beautiful,

but they're not expensive. They just sort of tick every demographic box that you're looking for as a storyteller. And that's why there are so many craftsman homes on television. I didn't realize the architectural expertise. I love that the episode is called Leslie's House

and you're like, let's talk about the house. Let's talk about the house. I took it literally. But I actually hadn't thought about that. It is a very specific architecture. I mean, and I don't know how common that is in the Midwest. I feel like they're not. You're right.

I think they're much simpler generally, right? I mean, I haven't spent a ton of time there, but yeah. To me, it screams Los Feliz. I was just looking in my notes since we're talking about Leslie's house and the look of it, and I have that it was actually a location in Altadena, which is directly north of Pasadena, which is where the Ipani City Hall exterior is, as we've discussed. And, you know, just looking it up a little more, Altadena derives its name from the Spanish alta, meaning upper,

and dina is in reference to Pasadena. And Pasadena comes from the Ojibwe word meaning crown of the valley. So the more you know. Again, let's not go into a huge digression about the architecture of Los Angeles, but what is interesting about L.A. is every house looks different in terms of like, some of the streets are really sort of diverse architecturally. Like you'll have a Spanish next to a mid-century modern next to a craftsman.

And so it's kind of good for shooting because you can pick the right kind of house. But in this case, you know, I guess Leslie lives in a craftsman, which who knows. But I actually, to keep going on the house, I was actually curious, you know, what you thought about the decision to make her a hoarder. Because I got to say, this was hotly debated in the writer's room. Because we wanted there to be something funny, some reveal about who she was, because you get to see her house for the first time.

And I personally am like, I'm not sure we should have made her a hoarder. But I don't know what you thought. Okay. Only because you asked this. It's going to be a little bit of a, of a security story, but craftsman house give me post-traumatic stress. And the reason was I was once on location

and the house I was living in that I had rented, but I hadn't seen yet, was a craftsman. And when I went to move my family in, and I had two infants at the time, it had been lived in by a hoarder. Oh, my God. So this episode was a sort of horrible flashback. It was horrible.

I opened... Traumatic watch. Sorry about this one. No, I opened the refrigerator to put our... We brought our own baby formula or whatever. And there was cheese in the cheese drawer that was five years old. I gotta ask, did you eat some?

I smelled it. Honestly, it was so... I don't know if there's just something about craftsmen and hoarders but I was profoundly depressed by Leslie Knope's house

it's almost like in retrospect again keep in mind this is still you know we're midway through season 2 but you know in a 125 episode show I feel like if we had a 125 episode show, I feel like if we had done this episode season five, I don't think she would have been a

hoarder. I think it's like, no, she keeps her house in order. She's super organized. If anything, she makes you take your shoes off and has a place to put your shoes and has a container for literally everything in her life that's labeled with a label maker or something. That's what I was going to say. Her house would be like Cheryl L that's labeled with a label maker or something.

Well, that's what I was going to say. It's her house to be like Cheryl Lowe's house, the house I live in. Yeah, there you go. Where every single, like there's a Doritos, and it's a drawer, and then another one says Lay's Potato Chips, and that's another drawer,

and it's like whatever that label maker thing is, is like, she's gone wild. Yeah, it's like, no, put the rolling pin in the rolling pin drawer. It's like, this is because there's a tiny thing for like every single thing. But yeah, that was really, you know,

I don't know. I do remember arguing about, like, sometimes you get into arguments and they get pretty heated. I don't know how heated this one got, but it was like, should she be a heart? Is it, does it, is it, does it, is it care? Something,

something we talk about is, is something character damaging. Like if you add an attribute to a character, do you, are you making the audience not like that character essentially? And of course there's, characters have to have flaws, right?

But sometimes, you know, sometimes an argument you have is like, Oh, that's character damaging. We shouldn't have that, you know, and hoarders, you know, that's, I'm not saying hoarders are bad people. I'm just saying it is a specific characteristic that we gave Leslie that, you know, I don't know.

Did it ever occur to you? I'll leave it to you. Did it ever occur to you that there might be somebody in the writer's room who's trying to sabotage Leslie Knope? Yeah, did secretly take that one? I thought you were going to say, is there someone in the writer's room who's a hoarder saying like, it's not so bad. Like, it's kind of good,

right? Isn't it kind of sexy how she has shit everywhere? It's like, no, that's not good. But no, that,

so, but we made the decision. It never, you never hear about it again. Like, do you ever see her? I mean, you go to like her and Ben's house.

Like, yeah, her and Ben move into a new place. Anyway, you very rarely go to her house. I was shocked. You go to April and Andy's house a lot more. move into a new place. Anyway, you very rarely go to her house. I was shocked. You go to April and Andy's house a lot more. I was shocked to see it.

I was like, oh! Speaking of the fierce debate over this, guys, for what it's worth, I want to offer the counter opinion. I mean, I was rewatching the episode last night, and I actually thought it was such an elegant choice to make Leslie a hoarder. I mean, of course, calling her a hoarder full stop isn't doing the character choice justice. I mean, she's a Leslie version of a hoarder. She's keeping things like old birdhouses and those newspapers with the first rumblings of Iran Contra. She's like an endearing hoarder. I think it's an endearing character flaw. But yeah, I hear what you're saying, Alan, that if the first time you go to Leslie's house, it's in season six, you know, chances are she wouldn't be a hoarder, her house would be so organized and immaculate.

But I think that's because her character would have progressed and grown and improved. So by that point, after six years of stories, the reveal of her being a hoarder would seem incongruous with the person we know and now love. I was actually reading recently that apparently a messy desk can actually inspire creativity and make you work harder that like it fosters a fertile work environment and so yeah I actually love the choice because at first it's unexpected but the more you spend time with it I mean sure the sight of all that stuff is overwhelming but the more you spend time with it the the more it makes sense. And I think it makes sense with who Leslie was at this point in the life of

the series. Um, and I think the best shows, I mean, not to be a humble brag, but I think like the best shows give you stories and choices that are unexpected, but then make you go,

yeah, that's exactly how it should have gone. And, and also it's that thing that, you know, on a show show all of a sudden you'll realize hey we've never done this before and they literally say I can't believe I've never been to this house before I mean it's they actually

say it they actually say saying the subtext saying saying just we call that laying the pipe too it's like it's some exposition it's like I've never been to this house before this is why this kind of thing yeah that's it's on the west wing was a big deal like if it was a big discussion exposition. It's like, I've never been to this house before. This is why. This kind of thing. Yeah. On the West Wing,

it was a big deal. Like, it was a big discussion when they went home with the character for the first time. Huge, huge, huge discussion.

Like, you know, we might as well, like, we're going to Mars. No, we're just going to go to Josh Lyman's apartment.

It's fine. But it was like, you'd have thought we were reinventing the wheel. Yeah. You learn a lot about your characters when you see that. So, yeah.

I do like that anytime we have Ron Swanson in food, you know I'm down with that. And when Ron goes, would you mind if I bring a large number of deviled eggs? Deviled eggs. That is such a great Midwestern. And also, can you, if I bring a platter of deviled eggs, can is such a great Midwestern. And also, if I bring a platter of deviled eggs, can you

guarantee fridge space? Fridge space? I'm 99.9% sure that was Harris Whittles pitching that joke because he would always talk about fridge space and going to a party, bringing something, and there's no room.

A lot of irritants in his life, but that was one of them. So I think that was him. Fridge space. Fridge space for the eggs. And then he arrives with the eggs. He's like, I think you know where these go. You know, he has to. So that was very enjoyable.

The other thing he does, he has a drink called an Old Fashioned in this episode. And the only person I've ever known to order an old-fashioned other than Ron Swanson was Gwyneth Paltrow. Peas in a pod. Peas in a pod.

They both love meat, right? She's a huge meat person. She's a huge everything person. She's a connoisseur of all things that we should all enjoy. But old GP, she loves her old fashions. And my thing is, you know, I don't drink. I've been sober 30 years.

But if I were to drink again, and you know, could happen tomorrow. Let's hope not, man. Because it'd be a really, a whole different podcast, believe me. Yeah, let's not do that, buddy. But I would only want to order drinks that have cool names like that.

Like a Harvey Wallbanger, an old fashioned, oh, you'll love this. So I went on vacation recently and my son still enjoys Shirley Temples, right? No way. And they're great. John Owen. Yeah, yeah.

John Owen's really down with Shirley Temple. By the way, if you haven't had a Shirley Temple since you were eight years old, listen to me. Revisit that shit because it's so good. It isn't too sweet?

No. You didn't find it too sweet? Oh, it's so good. And then, but then there's the one that you put the Coke in. Roy Rogers. Except I mixed it up

and ordered a Rob Roy. So that has alcohol in it, right? Which I found out, thank you. I mixed it up and ordered a Rob Roy. So that has alcohol in it, right? Which I found out, thank you. Turns out a Roy Rogers and a Rob Roy are very different. That's pretty confusing, man. That's like something very close to Shirley Temple that's heavily alcoholic. But so did you drink the Rob Roy?

Well, they gave it to me. And first of all, it comes to you, the Rob Roy comes to you in a martini glass. Yeah, so this isn't it. And I'm like, well, okay, the guy's? Well, they gave it to me. And first of all, it comes to you, the Rob Roy comes to you in a martini glass. Yeah, so this isn't it. And I'm like, well, okay, the guy's being cute, I guess.

He's trying to be like, show me that he's a happening bartender. All right, whatever. And then I put it up to my face and it was literally

fumes were coming off of it. Not only does it have alcohol in it, but it had, you know, literally vapors. I mean, I'm reading the ingredients to a Rob Roy

right now. Scotch, whiskey, sweet vermouth, bitters, and just a cherry for garnish. So, it's pure. It's only alcohol. Every one of those ingredients is alcoholic. Even bitters are mildly alcoholic. Everything except for the cherry was alcohol. So, that's it. So, how did this bartender not go, give me the look? Really? Because this was like at 11 o'clock in the morning. We were having like a brunch. There with your son. You know what? Give me, it's essentially a scotch Manhattan.

Yes. Give me a scotch triple. I have a question for you. Is April's, we get to see April's gay boyfriend's boy and his boyfriend in this episode. Derek and Ben. Derek and Ben, yes. Now, is Ben modeled after Chastin Buttigieg?

Wow. I mean, I'm pretty sure Chastin Buttigieg was probably like 17 years old when this was airing, but I don't know. He's probably 23 or something, but I never thought I was getting

very heavy Chastin Buttigieg vibes. Wow. Chastin has glasses though, doesn't he? I've seen pictures of him without his glasses, but it's that

corn-fed, Midwestern, sweet-natured, vaguely blondish face. Yes. I believe he's played by Josh Duvendek. He has a very cherubic, kind of beatific face. He's kind of like, yeah.

He's very, like you said, corn-fed, Midwestern. I think that was the point. Because I think Derek is played by Blake Lee, who's one of Aubrey's friends. So, he's kind of like, he's brunette and he you know he's just kind of a handsome guy but yeah they're both kind of just like handsome guys but they recur

a lot in the show I think they come back a lot later yeah I think it is Chaston I don't care today I think one of my things I enjoyed in this episode was Andy's wardrobe I don't know why he's dressed like this, but he has a white long-sleeve button-down

shirt unbuttoned to midway down his chest, but he's wearing a white undershirt. So it's like he has the... You're seeing like... It's almost like a Fabio-type shirt where it's unbuttoned down a ton where you expose your chest, but he's wearing a very high-cut

undershirt. So've never seen that. I don't know who made that choice or who allowed. Maybe it was Pratt. Maybe it was... I don't know, but it's so bizarre and it never changes. He's kind of working as a server during this episode, but I couldn't stop looking at his weird shirt.

I did want to point out, Aziz Googling India felt pretty real. He was learning about it, running to the bedroom to Wikipedia India. That made us laugh a lot in the writer's room. And I made Aziz laugh too, because there is something to the idea of second generation Americans or children of immigrants and how little you know about your home, your quote unquote home country, because you may have never been there. Like I remember, you know, at this point, I think, you know, Aziz had probably only gone back to India and he would always tell me about, yeah, you go back there. It's really hot. Like you're trying to play like Game Boy. Then like you come home, right? It's like, you know, like you see your relatives, you know, you don't speak the language, you barely speak Tamil. You know, he's from, he's from Kerala. I think that's the southern

part of India. But so that felt really real to me. For me personally, my parents are immigrants from Taiwan. And between the ages of zero and 28, I had been to Taiwan once. So I've gone once when I was eight for my grandpa's funeral. So if you ask me anything about Taiwan, I had zero knowledge. Literally, if a white person was like, yeah, tell me about Taiwan and had been there a lot, I would not know how to answer. So I learned a lot more about Taiwan in the interim. I went back with my dad in my late 20s. And then I tried to learn Mandarin because I didn't learn that much Mandarin growing up. And then I made a movie called Tiger Tail about my dad's childhood in Taiwan and him growing up there and then coming to America.

And I learned a lot more Mandarin and I learned a lot more about Taiwan. So from that tiny joke of Aziz Wikipedia in India, it was certainly meaningful to me. And we made an episode of Masternod about our parents too, called Parents. And so in that one, we go back to India, we go back to Taiwan as well.

You never know where stuff's going to happen. You never know where that's going to happen. You never know where that's going to strike. Yeah. This episode also reminds me a lot of the famous Office episode. And I think that might have even been called the dinner party. But obviously, the Office has got the cringe factor. And this is a bunch of people together who like each other and are just being funny. Yeah.

I mean, that episode is really sort of the height of the cringey comedy on that show. And early on in the run of this show, I think it was trying to find its voice and differentiate itself from The Office. So I think it, by this point, has done that. And a much sort of, like you said,

friendlier, warmer show, positive, upbeat, energetic, kind of madcap, a little bit silly. All of those things were things that The Office was less of. The Office tended to try to be a little bit more grounded, a little bit more observational, a little bit more melancholy, bittersweet. And so this show was kind of the counterpoint to that. I will say in this episode, actually, Leslie's a little more annoying than she is

usually. She's really pushing. I get that she's nervous about her date with Justin, but she's so desperate. It almost is like, again, I think about her from later seasons where she's so sort of right about everything. And in this one, she's like, she's just like kind of on everybody.

You know, it's really a more annoying version of Leslie than I'm accustomed to. But, you know, obviously she does the right kind of on everybody. It's really, it's a more annoying version of Leslie than I'm accustomed to. But obviously she does the right thing in the end. I also wanted to shout out Barney the QuickBooks guy, the accountant, who is a great character.

And he comes in and this is his first appearance in the show. And later we would use this guy to kind of set up Ben Wyatt a little bit because Ben Wyatt was an account, you know, essentially an accountant. And later on, one of my favorite things was how much Barney, the QuickBooks guy loved Ben Wyatt. And so in this one, he's just super boring. He comes in and teaches Quicken or QuickBooks or whatever. But yeah, I love that character. He's so funny. He's so real. He's real.

When he says that this goes on for another 45 minutes, it's so believable. It's really like it just, yeah, I love that dude. There's also some more food stuff. Ron eating a pepper and then Tom

eating the pepper in this one. Of course, this is how you eat it. That kind of thing. He eats the pepper. And then I remember he eating the chewing tobacco in Hunting Trip. It's like,

this guy just has digestive problems in every fucking episode. He doesn't learn. Yeah. It's like, well, why are we always

making him eat stuff? And then someone literally says like, yeah, he's real colon issues. It's like, Jesus, this is in the show like why is this

in the show but yeah I also loved when when Ron goes don't eat that son and he does and Aziz says Clay says shit

or fuck and it's bleep the beep is so loud yeah maybe it was my television but in the mix somebody's like can that

just make the beep louder it might be funnier yeah yeah we're somebody's like, just make the beep louder. It might be funnier. Super loud beep. I also want to shout out Ron's game of asking questions to the questions. He's answering questions with questions. I thought that was really funny. That was a funny game

for him. What's the direct quote where Leslie goes, ask any woman, she'll tell you. She's always wanted to go on a first date and put somebody under penalty of perjury and ask if they enjoyed it. Whatever, I've butchered the line,

but that notion is really funny. It's every girl's dream, right? Every girl's dream to ask a guy on her oath whether he enjoyed the date or not, and he did. So yeah, pretty good one, pretty good. Vintage Leslie Knope. Vintage. Now,

at what point does ain't... I think we're approaching the point where Amy was pregnant with her second child at some point. You might be right

because what I believe happened is season two, we had an episode order of 24 episodes. And then because Amy got pregnant, NBC very kindly and generously asked if we could shoot six more before she got too pregnant.

I was like, oh, that's a nice thing to do to a person who just got pregnant. But we did. We accommodated them. So we shot the first six of season three almost immediately after the filming of season two. I just remember it being chaos because everybody was trying to figure out how to make it easy for Amy. Yeah. Oh, I have one more thing to add.

So this is... And also I want to shout out the idea that we gave Andy his own Jerry at the shoeshine stand. So there's a character named Kyle. So one Jerry apparently was not enough for us. So I don't think this is his first appearance, but it's one of his early appearances. So Andy works over the shoeshine stand.

He's kind of on an island over there. So there's another character named Kyle who looks kind of like a sad sack. And he's the guy that Andy makes fun of. So it's kind of funny. There's like another Jerry in the show who's like the low status character. And this happens later,

but later, later, later on in the show, I believe Jerry and Kyle meet and Jerry makes fun of Kyle. So it's like, oh, there's a pecking order where Kyle is even lower status than Jerry. So I thought that was funny. I think that's like season six or something. But yeah, it's really funny.

It's like we added another low status character. It's very funny. was funny. I think that's like season six or something. But yeah, it's really funny. It's like we added another low status character. It's very funny. Well, you know, it's like the old Laverne and Shirley opening. Schlemiel! Schlemazel! Do you know what Schlemiel and Schlemazel are? I do, but do you want to explain them to the listener?

I do because it's basically what you're describing is a Schlemiel is the person who spills things. The schlemazel is who he spills it on. Yeah. There's always someone lower than you, basically. Yeah. It's the greatest.

So Andy is the schlemiel to his schlemazel. That's true. So basically, it's, yeah, it was just funny because also you never see Andy be mean to anyone and he is mean to Kyle. So again, it's the kind of thing where everyone in the show is nice to everybody except for one person and in his world, it's Kyle. So yeah. Oh yes. And coming up soon, Jerry is mad at Kyle during the famous Ron and Chris Traeger hamburger cook-off episode. I think that one has my name on it. And you're in it.

You play Chris. I cook some hamburgers. I think they're vegan, though. Yes, yours. I remember literally writing that line. It has a crisp of Taleggio cheese on it. I think it's turkey, I believe. But yeah, I don't know.

I remember. And I remember having to ask you how to say But yeah, I don't know. I remember. And I remember having to ask you how to say taleggio. Taleggio cheese, yeah. Well, stay tuned

for that episode. We clearly remember it. I think that's the food. Some of the recipes were good. Yeah, that's the

food and stuff and grain and simple episode, I think, I believe. That is coming up. It's coming up.

There's so much more to look forward to on this podcast. I know I've had fun. How about you? I've had fun. How about you? I've had fun too. Shall we hop into a town hall?

What do you say? Oh, let's. All right, let's do it. Let's do it. Time for a town hall question. And I know where I want to have this one. Where do you want to have it, Rolo? I want to have it at the Sweetums factory.

Yes. A lot of accidents at the factory. Probably a lot of immoral behavior. Probably some union busting and production of unhealthy sweet materials. But we're going to do it right on the factory floor there, huh? Child labor, probably. Yeah.

It's run by very immoral rich people, right? I think that gets revealed over the course of the show. So it's bad people making a bad product that poisons people. So that's where we're going to have it. The fumes alone are going to knock us on our ass. So, all right.

This question comes to us from Ruthie from Oceanside. What was the most complicated episode to shoot? And was there ever one that almost didn't happen and last minute all came together? If so, do tell! Thank you for your enthusiasm, Ruthie. Very, very cute question. Most complicated episode to shoot.

I have one answer, which is mainly like a location type thing. I believe it was season six. It was kind of a two part episode called Moving Up and I just remember one of the things that was weird about it was that it took place partially in San Francisco

so we went up to San Francisco to shoot some of it so I remember going up to San Francisco with Pratt and Amy and Adam and we shot some of it in San Francisco. So there's always the complication of that. But then at some point,

First Lady Michelle Obama appears in the episode, but she was not available in either LA or San Francisco. So what we did is we flew to Miami to shoot Michelle Obama and then pretended Miami was San Francisco. So that was a complicated, circuitous journey and very strange. But yeah,

of all the travel in the show, faking Miami for San Francisco was a very weird one. I also can remember, seems like Pratt was involved in every complicated shoot. April and Pratt at the Grand Canyon. Yeah. You go all Pratt at the Grand Canyon. Yeah. You know,

they go all the way to the Grand Canyon for that one shot. That was one. But the most amazing thing about complicated shoots on this show to me is, and this is why I love Mike Schur. Mike Schur made it very easy

for all of us to pursue other things while we were doing this show. Because everybody on the show had their own thing going on. Aziz had his tours. All of us were doing movies and other things. And I've been on shows where they're just assholes. Just assholes. And they don't let you do it. It costs you money and opportunity. And Parks was so amazingly user-friendly, and that was a Morgan Sackett thing, and I will always be in his debt. His answer was always,

we'll find a way to make it work. And they found a way for Chris Pratt to go away and do Guardians of the Galaxy. And they didn't have to do that. They absolutely did not have to do that. They could have been, hey, bro, you have a contract here. You're not doing that movie.

And to their credit, they did. But that then meant that, you know, you guys had to write those storylines why he wasn't there. And then you ended up in London and why he looked shredded in the episode, which is hilarious. Yeah, I always like coming back.

He was completely ripped. And we just answered in one line. He's like, yeah, I stopped drinking beer. It's like that was like literally just one line. But yeah, that was, you know, I feel like, you know, I learned a lot from Mike working on the show. And certainly when, you know, I've gone on to run other shows. You know, look, man, this is not weird.

I love the job. I'm very, very proud of the work and I like to put all I have into it. But we're not doctors. We're not saving lives. We're not paramedics. Let's try to be flexible and treat everyone as kindly as possible. And if there's any way to make things like that happen and to be flexible like that, like by all means, you know, like I think that's really important.

And, um, you know, I, I think it's, it's that generosity spirit, you know, it does get not to be,

not to be too treacly, but it's sometimes it comes across in the show, right? It's like people care about each other and they're treating each other, right? I had just come, I literally had just come off of a show that had 17,000 other cast members in it.

And I'd be like, hey, I have an opportunity to, you know, it's my son has got a piano recital. No, no, no. It's not going to happen. We don't have a script. We don't know what it is. When I get the script,

maybe I can do it. But Dan says, no, it's just not We don't know what it is. When I get the script, maybe I can do it, but Dan says no. That was literally what it was. Every single day. And then you show up at 7 a.m. and you wait for 10 hours and they're finally ready for you to shoot at 5 p.m. or whatever. And it's like, oh, this is...

And that's the other thing. I know we've harped on it in the past, but it really helps to have the scripts on time and that helps everything. Guys, buddy showrunners out there, try to get your scripts done on time. The most important thing is that they're good. But the second most important thing is that you have them ahead of time

so you can plan the show. And by the way, if you're lucky enough to have actors that have mojo going on outside the show, that is only good for the show. It's not the worst thing to have a movie star on your show. So yeah, if that happens, it's great.

Hey, I'll pipe in with my thoughts on this town hall. I know I don't answer them all the time. But yeah, you know, for this one, I know the question was about the most complicated to shoot, but I first actually want to call out what I think was one of the most complicated to write. And the one that sticks out for me would be canvassing from season one. You know, we talked about it a bit in the pod for that episode, but that one took a long time to break.

Weeks were spent breaking that episode. And then we spent a lot of time sitting around the computer getting ready for the table draft. And then we spent a lot of time around the computer getting ready for the shooting draft. And even beyond that, we were working on it every day as it shot, we will send out new pages for the next day of production. And having worked on other shows and hearing stories, I know that can be kind of commonplace process for other shows. But it didn't tend to be for parks. And I think the reason it was so tough was because it was the second episode. And you know, the feeling in writing, at least in TV, is that actually one of the hardest episodes to write isn't your pilot, where you introduce

everything and everything's new. It's your second episode, where you have to have forward progress in your story. But at the same time, you also need to reintroduce your characters and reintroduce the situations for perhaps people who didn't see the first one. And also just so it gets more familiar with people and familiar with viewers. And so that one took a lot of time, but then it turned out great. In terms of production, you know, the ones that jump out to me as being the most complicated to shoot were the ones with those big, big set pieces, with a huge set, with tons of extras, lots and lots of moving parts.

And those are episodes like in Season 3, Harvest Festival and Lil' Sebastian. And then Season 6, just like Alan, like you said, moving on. But for me, I'll call it out because of the unity concert, which was like legit and actual concert. Um, I don't recall a single episode that was scrapped last minute because it didn't come together, but we definitely had those episodes where it's like 2 AM in the writer's room and everyone is staring into space, trying to think of a fix for a story problem. And you think, um, you're never going to you think um you're never going to get it you're never going to solve it and then

you know you get strokes of genius like ben's love of calzones and you get through it so yeah all right well this is fun we've got more coming up next week so thanks you guys we appreciate all the support hope you're having as much fun listening as we are making it. And we will see you next week. All right. Thank you, Producer Schulte, Producer Greg. Bye for plenty. Parks and Recollection is produced by Greg Levine and me, Rob Schulte. Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm.

The podcast is executive produced by Alan Yang for Alan Yang Productions, Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher. Gina Batista, Paula Davis, and Britt Kahn are our talent bookers. The theme song is by Mouse Rat, a.k.a. Mark Rivers, with additional tracks composed by John Danek.

Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time on Parks and Recollection. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.