Parks and Recollection - Li'l Sebastian (S3E16)

Episode Date: July 26, 2022

Today Rob Lowe and Alan Yang have a huge show for a small horse when recapping the season three finale of Parks and Recreation. In "Li'l Sebastian" Leslie and the Parks Department organize a memorial for a departed friend. In this episode you'll find out how an awkward encounter in the writer's room caused one of the funniest jokes on the show, which character is like Colossus from The X-Men, why changing Tom's career trajectory was important, an update on Biff Yeager, and a huge bombshell is revealed by producer Greg! Come for the Parks and Rec trivia, stay for the AC/DC trivia!  Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone]   Leslie announces Li'l Sebastian, Pawnee's beloved celebrity mini-horse, has died and the parks department will hold a memorial service for him. Tom suggests they hire Entertainment 720 for the event, a production company recently started by his friend Jean-Ralphio. Jean-Ralphio encourages Tom to come work with him at the company, but Tom isn’t sure if he wants to leave his city hall job. Meanwhile, the extremely health-conscious Chris finds out he has tendonitis, and takes the news so seriously that he questions his own mortality. Leslie and Ben continue their romance despite a no-dating policy at city hall, but they have difficulty keeping it a secret. Ron finds out and warns them that Chris will fire them if he learns about it.  As the city prepares for the memorial service, Leslie and Ben are caught making out by a maintenance worker named George (Biff Yeager), so they send him home with a gift certificate in exchange for his silence. What Leslie and Ben didn’t realize was that George had the propane for Li'l Sebastian's eternal flame, which results in later confusion behind the scenes, which they struggle to fix throughout the night. Jerry is sent to get propane for the flame but buys lighter fluid instead; this causes a huge fireball to shoot into the air when Ron lights it, which singes off most of his facial hair. Leslie and Ben are relieved, however, when the crowd applauds in the belief the fireball was staged. Entertainment 720's show also proves to be a hit with the crowd, which makes Tom further contemplate quitting his job.  At a party afterward, Andy receives praise for his Li'l Sebastian tribute song, "5,000 Candles in the Wind." April sells many Mouse Rat CDs at an inflated price, which spurs Andy to ask her to become the group's manager. Indirectly responsible for nearly killing Ron, Leslie and Ben agree to no more secret displays of affection at work. Ann, who previously dated Chris and had trouble getting over him, offers comfort to Chris for his depression. This makes him appear romantically interested in Ann once again. A conflicted Tom decides to resign and accept a job with Entertainment 720. Meanwhile, Ron is confronted by his evil ex-wife Tammy (Megan Mullally) at the party—but both Ron and Tammy are horrified to learn his other ex-wife, also named Tammy (whom he calls "Tammy 1") has also arrived in town.  Leslie is approached by scouts looking for potential candidates for elected office, which has always been one of her dreams. Impressed by the memorial service and the harvest festival Leslie previously organized, they believe she would be a good candidate for upcoming city council seats, or possibly the mayoral position. With the expected increased media attention on her personal life, the scouts ask whether Leslie has any secret scandals in her life. She denies any such scandals exist, thus omitting her secret relationship with Ben, and the scouts promise to contact her about preparing an electoral run.

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. We are wrapping up season one with one of my favorite episodes, yang great season thank you for for

all you do it's been so fun and we're going out with a bang with this one yeah big episode this is a this is a this is a blast episode 16 of season three this is this is this is a real one man and it's also a super size cut super size cut on Peacock. Yeah. Check it out. Check it out. Check out Peacock. Subscribe. Do we get a cut of that, Rob? I'm going to call my lawyers immediately. Yeah. I just met with Susan Rotner who runs Peacock.

I should get five cents for saying that. For saying that it's on Peacock. But no, it's a huge episode. Huge episode. Little Sebastian. I mean, say no more. Yes. Shall we get right into it?

Details, talking, talking, talking Alright, episode details The title, Little Sebastian Written by Daniel J. Gore Directed by Dean Holland Two heavy hitters, two previous guests of this show Two heavy hitters They did a lot on this show Hard to say who did more than them

Other than the showrunners and the actors Original air date, May 19th, 2011 the blurb leslie and the team put together a memorial service for little sebastian tom makes a big life decision and chris reacts badly to a health problem i love tom makes a big life decision that's reminiscent of do you remember the mad men blurbs that they would do like when you look at at TV Guide, it's like, it's literally like the least informed. Don lives a day. Like it's literally like Don opens a letter. It's like, wait, what?

Like what happened to this? Just Matt Weiner, the showrunner, just totally not giving them anything. Just very funny. I do wonder how those things go if it is the showrunner like or is it just some drone at a at a at a you know a company that's it's it's falls to them it's like yes it's so boring i think it depends but i like we were just discussing uh my new apple show luke we they asked us for the episode synopses so we wrote those me and matt hubbard are my co-creator and or he wrote most of them,

actually, shout out to Matt. But I think you can leave it to someone else, but I think we got scared that they'd be bad. So we wrote our own and I think that's probably what Matt Weiner did too

because he's probably a control freak. He's probably like, you know, that's why that show's good. But yeah, you don't want to give anything away. Why would you say

what happens in the episode? I mean, just to tease it maybe. Just to tease it. Well, there's a whole new philosophy of people out there that think that actually giving it away if it if it's titillating enough it gets them into the tent and that people will sacrifice story surprise for for eyeballs but i read a study i'm not joking this is going to kill every you know director sharner out there but i read a study that said the more people know about a movie the more spoilers they have the more they enjoy it which seems totally counterintuitive but i but i that's what the science says i don't know if i agree with that i agree with it having i mean i mean having

spent the last 30 years watching television with my wife i know there are people who are like is he gonna kill her like what's what this movie's about we're gonna we're gonna find that out but we'll find out at the end of the movie yeah i'm like what what why would you want to know that now asking questions that's my mom to my mom will just say like he's about to kill her it's like or whatever he's just narrating the whole thing just the whole it's like a you know what it is it's a live rewatch podcast as you're watching it yes it's just it's like having us narrate it while you're while you're watching the episode maybe that's another idea but uh yeah so that's why you always fight it in a trailer like when you're cutting a

trailer you're always like i don't want to give away everything. But the trailer people will usually tell you, like, you have to give away some stuff, and that's what draws people in. So, a little trailer. All right, let's get into the notes. The episode on Peacock that most everyone watches now is actually the producer's cut with six additional minutes of material that weren't part of the original version on NBC. I actually noticed that while watching. I actually felt like there was some stuff. I wasn't sure which stuff was new, because I don't have a photographic

memory of what we caught, but I did feel like new stuff. This episode introduces Mouse Rat's iconic song, 5,000 Candles in the Wind. This quickly became the unofficial album of the show, song, anthem, whatever. Mouse Rat would perform it at each year's wrap party,

along with Nick Offerman on saxophone. Do you remember the bass lick to it? Absolutely. I could play most of the songs. I'd have to figure out the key. I think it's probably in G or D, which is like all Mouse Rat songs are either in G or D, just always a 1-4-5 progression. But I have this photo of Nick from, I believe, probably this year's rap party, either season three or four. And he has a saxophone. He's sitting on a pool table and he's wearing a sleeveless shirt. He has a sleeveless shirt and a hat on and it's delightful.

But yeah, Mouse Red would play at the end of every year. We had a rap party and we would play all the songs from that year and we'd always play 5,000 Candles of the Wind. Really fun. Can you beatbox the bass line for me right now, 5,000 Candles of the Wind. Really fun. Can you beatbox the bass line for me right now? 5,000 Candles of the Wind? Here's the secret of the Mouserat bass lines. I just play the root notes and just play quarter notes.

That's great. There's almost no fancy. Like the one song that Mark Rivers did it right, I think it was Two Birds Holding Hands. There was a bass line. I was like, what is this? Actually, you know what? I actually will say this. 5,000 candles in the wind, it does do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.

There's that part. There goes... Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Right? It does do that. I will say, playing it live, didn't always do that. Not a very good bass player. Just barely getting by. I'm very much into isolated bass. I don't have too

much time on my hands i wouldn't say that because i'm super busy but what i'm doing with the time i my hands could be debated by people because my new thing is isolated bass lines to pop yacht rock songs like i'm very i'm very much into youtube the isolated bass line for Dancing Queen. Oh, really? Are they just batshit? They're insane, dude. Oh, really? They're insane.

There's something really interesting about that. My version of that is I played in a punk rock band, so it's really easy. My real band before Mouser, not really a real band, but a band, an actual physical band, very simple bass lines because it's a punk rock band, but there's a band called Rancid, and they have a bassist named Matt Freeman who plays crazy bass lines. So if you listen to those isolated bass lines,

it's like... It's insane, and no band, no punk rock band does that. So I agree. They're difficult. Bassist never gets any love. Bassist is just usually the chill guy. He's not crazy like the drummer, doesn't need attention like the lead singer. band does that so i i agree it's um they're difficult bassist never gets any love bass is just like like usually the chill guy yeah he's not crazy like the drummer doesn't need attention like the lead singer not a ham like the the lead guitarist bass is just kind of chill keanu reeves

bassist of dog star you know that's that's the vibe but uh paul mccartney yeah that you know that's the exception right he's he's something he's something he just played so far he just played so far i saw that the bass on um silly love songs one of my favorite bass lines yeah That's the exception, right? He's something. He just played SoFi. He just played SoFi. I saw that. The bass on Silly Love Songs. One of my favorite bass lines. Yeah. Playing that Hoffner.

Playing that Hoffner lefty. All right. This episode features guest appearances from Megan Lally as Tammy, Ben Schwartz as John Raphael, and Detlef Schrempf as himself. Recurring character on the show. Producer Greg. Greg Levine is in a scene that was shot for this episode specifically for nbc.com it's an advertisement for entertainment 720 and he thanks tom and john ralphio for makes making him millions of dollars is that still available greg

can we watch that somewhere is that on nbc.com does nbc.com exist it's now peacocknbc.com slash org um no uh i think it exists on some random sites that have like Dailymotion or whatever that have clips. But I still get like a nice, you know, 10 cent or 30 cent check every few months. Thank you for my part. Enjoy a stamp. Buy a stamp with that every three months. Free, free. The full-length Mouse Rat album andy sells to kyle

is called the awesome album not to be confused with chris pratt's character star lord's mixtape and gardens galaxy called awesome mix volume one i guess we know what he likes he has the same he has the same taste across genres and across works of fiction in some scenes earlier in the episode i found this very noticeable nick's mustache looks fake these scenes were shot after he shaved it off for the fireball stunt so we'll get to that but uh take take note as you watch the episode when andy and april are trying to write the song for little sebastian andy sings champion champion in season 4 episode 16 sweet 16 andy is looking for his dog champion and sings the same line to the same tune while calling for him. We'll get to Champion.

I love Champion. Yeah, Champion was somewhat based on a dog that lived in my house named Fenway. He was a three-legged dog. We'll get to that, though. That's future episodes. Look forward to that. And the great Biff Yeager makes another appearance as George. Checking in on the Yeager bubble, his Star Trek trading card.

Now going for $499 on eBay. Shout out to you, Biff Jaeger, making some money for people. All right, let's get in the synopsis. Synopsis, here we go. Leslie announces Lil' Sebastian, Pawnee's beloved celebrity mini horse has died, and the Parks Department will hold a memorial service for him. Tom suggests they hire Entertainment 720 for the event A production company recently started By his friend John Ralphio John Ralphio encourages Tom to come work with him at the company But Tom isn't sure if he wants to leave

His City Hall job Meanwhile, the extremely health conscious Chris Finds out he has tendinitis in his shoulder And takes the news so seriously That he questions his own mortality I love that scene Leslie and Ben continue their romance despite a no-dating policy at City Hall, but they have difficulty keeping it a secret.

Ron finds out and warns them that Chris will fire them if he learns about it. Just a little bit of story background here. We talked about this being a funeral for a person. We talked about a human being dying. We talked about Mayor Gunderson dying. We talked about Councilman dexart dying um we talked about you know i i think it's just there was something about there's a history

of of of sort of funerals and death in comedies ironically right there's the chuckles the clown episode of what was that the mary tyler moore show um and and i think mike had sort of this memory you know he had the not institutional, but just memory of these shows. There was something about that. Ultimately, we felt like tonally for this show, it was just a little too sad to have a person die. So we're like, what about Lil Sebastian? I think it was the lightning bolt in the room. It sort of struck everyone that this was the right balance and everyone could be really sad, but they would be comedically sad.

So I think that's why the the red room settled on on little sebastian uh being the person who died not the person the the entity that died i would argue that it's sadder that little yes absolutely i mean there's that scene where not to cut ahead but you are chris trager is crying fanatically at the at the uh at the service and and we rack to ann watching him just being appalled at how much he's sobbing. But yeah, he's the one character that both Ron Swanson and Chris Traeger will just cry dramatically at their demise. So it was really, really funny. There's a question here in the notes. Were there ever any other ideas for other animals?

We talked about in the previous episode, a harvest festival where we had all talked about Einstein, the world's smallest horse. And I still have that email chain about Einstein. I think it was probably discussed at some point. Greg, do you remember if we ever discussed it being another kind of animal? I think it was always a little horse. It was always a miniature horse. And we always enjoyed that you couldn't call it a pony. It it's like that's not a pony it's a miniature horse very different it's miniature it's a miniature horse um so it was never yeah it was never a chameleon or lizard or anything like that we um the idea of little

sebastian came from the idea that there were these small town mascots and little heroes that are animals like a punxsutawney phil right? But once I think we nailed that it was a little Sebastian, it was kind of clear once you found the article that that's who it would be. Yes, yes. And let's not forget the scene where Chris has slight tendonitis in his shoulder and immediately fears death. I mean, that comes up later. We haven't gotten to the Richard Nygaard stuff,

but he has some hang-ups about his physicality, which makes sense. I wonder if Tom Brady's like this, if he's neurotic about anyone who takes care of their body that much. At some point, this actor, Cooper Thornton, who plays Dr. Harris, I don't know if you remember acting with him. He's very funny, but he's like, what's the solution for this? Get in a time machine and go back to when you're 20 but i like at this point that you know he you're 40 something in this and and uh you know it's it's like i don't know you feel your mortality do you remember acting in the scene the um well yeah it was it was a great moment where you guys the writing staff found a whole other um for Chris to play.

And as you said, it led eventually to Dr. Richard Nygaard, the sort of existential fear of mortality and death that was so, you would think at first blush, is counter to the eternal optimist, positive Chris Traeger. And now you realize that it actually is informing why he's so positive, because if he's not positive, he's in a dark, deep pit of despair. And that was a super funny, cool idea. And we made a meal out of it in ensuing episodes.

Yes, it's a razor's edge. And I thought it was organic to the character. It didn't seem unearned episodes yes it's a razor's edge and i thought it was like it was organic to the character it didn't seem unearned but it was a way to broaden right it was a way to like you know you you know play something else you you've played upbeat positive sunshine pointing at people knowing everyone's names we get that but this other side of chris was is was also very funny because you know also i feel like we haven't seen you play that we haven't seen rob you know we haven't seen rob blow that. We haven't seen Rob Lowe play that that much either. So that was kind of fun.

But yeah, very dry. You know, I love that scene between the two of you guys. Also, a big hit of Ben Schwartz in this episode. Yes. Jean-Ralph, you got run over by Alexis is very, you know, very like happens 30 seconds into the episode. And it's like, how did he earn the money? Oh, he got hit by a car and he got a settlement.

So that's the genesis of Entertainment 720 is essentially suing somebody or getting hit by a car. It's like a classic scammer, better called Saul-type incident. But yeah, it kicks off that story. And it feels like a natural progression for tom and john ralphio we we talked a lot in the writer's room about characters not remaining static you know this was not the kind of show that it was going to reset every episode we wanted slow but gradual and um and and earned character progression and one of the ideas was that tom was kind of entrepreneurial and eventually would find the business that

was right for him, which did not involve him working at City Hall, which is difficult in the show, but this was the first of many ideas and businesses that he would run. I also wanted to point out that when Ron, the flag's at half-mast and Ron is a talking head and he's like, at first when I saw the flag at half-mast, i thought another bureaucrat ate it so he's just happy that someone died i mean it's a pretty harsh joke like that's like set up for the joke he's just he's just a bullion and joyful and and sort of reveling in someone being dead and then he then the turn is like then it's like you know that half mass is too high for little Sebastian. Show some damn respect to put it at the bottom, basically.

But I was like, boy, the first half of that talking head is rough. He's reveling in a man's death. One of my favorite bits in this episode is the custodian. Yes. Interrupting the moment of silence. It's such, that's like, to me, that's the sweet spot of my what i think is funny that is a suit and the music is great everything about is great but there's a whole story behind it right there is watching it makes me laugh for a million reasons it's funny on its own even if you don't know any of the backstory but to let people in on what the origin of this was. Sometimes at Parks and

Recreation, not often, but sometimes the writers would stay late. And when the writers stay late, just imagine this kind of like open room with a bunch of couches. That's where we all sit. There's 10 people, 12 people, whatever. And we sit there all day. We eat lunch there. We have snacks. We're just pitching ideas. We're there at 10 in the morning, whatever, throughout the whole day. And you're just sitting in that same room. And the air gets stale. People are walking around sometimes, but you're just in that room. So imagine you're there at 10 a.m. 5 p.m. rolls around, 7 p.m. rolls around, 9 p.m. rolls around, maybe 11 p.m. rolls around. It starts getting late. People start getting

punchy. You've just been in that room for a while. Now, imagine you're stuck on a story idea. You can't crack it. You've been there for 13, 14 hours, whatever. You're sitting around staring at the same 11 faces. You're sitting in there. And then a custodian walks into the room. You've hit a silent patch. No one's saying anything. It's awkward. Mike's not saying anything. Dan's not saying anything. Aish does not say anything. Harris doesn't say anything. We're just sitting there. A custodian comes in to take out the trash. It's so late. That's how we know it's late, right? Someone comes in after hours. He is listening to it is like a speaker on his belt and and blasting music and the song he is blasting is shania twain's man i feel like a woman it's amazing it's you so you

could wait i'll never forget looking around the room every like we didn't want to laugh at this guy because it's like why but but i'll never forget emily spivey emily spivey was a delightful writer wrote for snl works you know wrote wine country with amy and just could not couldn't contain herself greg levine was there i remember he had to leave the everyone was loud and like greg had to leave the room it was this moment that just you know just cut through everything and was just we'll never forget. It was really funny. He went in everyone's office just blasting this song, taking out the trash and eventually left.

But boy, when he left, the room just erupted. And it's just this bonding moment. It's just so funny. And so we did. It's so triumphant. It's like 1130 or midnight or whatever. And you're just hearing that song. Everyone knows it. Shania Twain, massive superstar. But boy, it's like 11 30 or midnight or whatever and you're just hearing that song everyone knows it's an i20 massive superstar but um boy it's so funny i just remember people's

faces and and and yeah and then you know hopefully and we put it in the show we just we just essentially shot it exactly like that and i'm sure on set dan conveyed it exactly to to dean and it works it works as a thing even if you don't know the backstory. So I'm glad you enjoyed that scene. Late Nights really produced two really great moments from this season. This one and the calzones. That was another very late, punchy night. Oh my god. And someone pitched calzones and

an hour later there were 30 calzone jokes. And it's just late night delirious right this time. That's just that. I'll neverious that's just that i'll never it's just so silly i mean there's a reason there might be a reason why you know on snl legendarily they they stay up all night one night and write stuff you get silly you know you get you get kind of silly boy there's a lot to talk about this in this episode we're gonna say like this is uh worth

worth mentioning at 320 if you pause it you can see the entertainment 720 business plan that tom has written up entertainment 720 will do everything. And that includes meal planning, child star training, prom planning, actor and singer booking, open air acrobatic choreography, trust fund advisement, livestock training and counseling. I don't know who wrote this stuff. But Greg, did you write that stuff? Or did props department write that? I don't know. I think that might have been a props department thing, but it's just the ridiculousness of we'll do everything. And i think if i remember correctly there was a version where it says we will learn how to do those things for you yes that's right yeah we we don't yet know how to do just a tiny additional joke um and then one last thing before

we move on the synopsis um ben's butt dial to ron uh i'm sure they had fun recording that leslie likes to do kiss impersonations of politicians, including First Lady Elmer Roosevelt, who likes a lot of tongue, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Just a tour de force for Nick Offerman, who just had to sit there and watch and enjoy this and react and got a lot of laughs. But yeah, this very in-character.

Also, classic Mike Schur, very rated G romance. He's not about to write a sequel to Basic Instinct. He's a man who enjoys just talking about kissing. That's it. That's it. go. As the city prepares for the memorial service, Leslie and Ben are caught making out by a maintenance worker named George Biff Yeager, so they send him home with a gift certificate in exchange for his silence. What Leslie and Ben didn't realize was that George had the propane for Lil Sebastian's internal flame, which results in later confusion behind the scenes, which they struggle to fix throughout the night. Jerry is sent to get propane for the flame but buys lighter fluid instead. This causes a huge fireball to shoot in the air when ron lights it which singes off most of his facial hair leslie and ben are relieved however when the crowd applauds in the belief that the fireball was stage entertainment 720 show also proves to be a hit with the crowd which makes tom further contemplate

quitting his job that is a great plot that is a great tight comedy plot i mean that is just a clinic it's yeah and i think i i correct me if i'm wrong greg this episode was not easy to break finales are difficult oftentimes but that is like you're saying it's it's a bit byzantine but it kind of works right it's like it's a sequence of events that is caused by the character's flaw, which is that they're cheating, or not cheating, but, you know, doing something they shouldn't, having an affair with a coworker,

and it causes a huge comedy set piece, right? And so it's kind of like A to B to C. Causality was something that was really important. That's something that Trey Parker, Matt Stone, when I worked on South Park briefly, were like, because because because yeah and so the same thing greg downs mike sure same thing if you're ever it's a writing tip if you're thinking about writing don't never do and and then and then and then no because leslie

and ben were you know making out they get caught by the maintenance worker because he catches them they put him off his task because he doesn't do that jerry takes over. Because Jerry puts lighter fluid in the thing, the fireball happens. So it's just, that's right. That's why it works, right? There's a clear delineation of events, and it's funny. Before you guys go on, Alan, you alluded to the fact that this was a hard episode to break. In fact, it was, and I spent last night preparing for this by reading the table draft, because I remember this was a little difficult, and I didn't put in the notes.

There are two significant changes, but I want to let you guys in on them when we get to the end of the plot. Once we talk through it, tell me what you think about them. I'm on the edge of my seat. I want to know. I was there, and I don't remember, so I definitely want to know. The table draft, so for those who are uninitiated, we'll do a table read. And that's generally the week before we shoot. And hopefully it goes well. And if it doesn't go perfectly, we might go in there and tinker or there might be a dramatic overhaul. We have sometimes rewritten episodes entirely between Wednesday and the following Monday. I remember some weekends rewriting entire episodes on Saturday and Sunday.

Like, hey, can you take half the draft? And Aisha will take half or whatever. And you got to do that. So I'm curious about that. Let's talk about Tom for a second. A lot of evolution. I feel like season one, there's kind of a Jim from The Office aspect. I think we talked about that when we were going through those episodes. We were just kind of looking at camera, reacting. As the character became more like Aziz, I think, and we tapped

into more of what he does, we realized he's kind of like a hustler, right? He's into business, he's into entrepreneurship. So I remember distinctly at the beginning of every season, when we would do the writer's retreat, we would talk about what the character might, you know, what their arc might be for the season. And one of the arcs was he goes off and does other businesses. So I think Entertainment 720 was pitched and then in between seasons after the season during that writer's retreat, I definitely remember deciding where that would go. But it's such a silly a silly idea you know i think that one of the reasons it works is because it's very comedy forward and i'll never forget that giant white room we'll get to that but at the at the end of the uh the end of the episode in the tag there's a giant essentially warehouse where entertainment 720 is yeah i don't think anyone here was on set for this fireball but man i almost

can't believe that's got to be a stunt person number one just to let you in when we whenever there's a stunt like that there are endless meetings right it's like you're lighting i almost can't believe they let us do it because uh i still uh i i work for i guess universal studios that's that's my home studio and boy they are very risk averse we had a scene where a character jumps into a pool and they're like he can't jump into a pool i'm like people jump into pools and then i was talking to matt hubbard he's like yeah i did a pilot and uh the actors were not allowed to run like it's like they can't run i was like they might fall i was like jesus like where have we gotten in terms

of liability but uh yeah shout out to jerry decania who runs physical production at universal he's like i don't think they should run it's like oh man but uh uh the uh no so this scene there's a giant fireball i guess that's a stunt person who who faces the fight if you'll notice they're facing away from camera that's not nick offerman i would assume um and there there is a giant fireball i don't think that was even enhanced at post i could be wrong maybe we'll get an update on that but uh very uh we try to do these things safely. I mean, listen, people

they tune in to Parks and Rec for the pyrotechnics. The stunt work is The spectacle. It's basically a Marvel movie. Before we knew those existed. You're here for the visuals. You're really here for the

outstanding, the camera moves, the dolly moves, the cranes, all that stuff. I remember distinctly pitching on this too, the shades of black for the memorial ribbon. It's Jean-Ralphio and Tom. And the colors of black include Obsidian, Onyx, Midnight, Lost Soul, Rolling Blackout, Sleeping Panther, and Void by Armani. So I remember this was in there. Yeah, Void by Armani. I think we probably have a list of a hundred of these, but I remember distinctly. That's a very fun thing for a writer's room.

It's just, okay, different ways to say the word black, and then you just pitch a million of them, and they get in the episode. And it's fun. You see who wins. It's kind of like a competition to see who gets their joke in um oh this is interesting so there's uh two of lil sebastian's horse friends are ladybug and coconut then coconut takes a dump on stage this moment was unscripted but it was funny so they decided to keep it instead of editing it out when tom comments on it in the walkie talkie, that was based on our actual production team commenting on it on their walkie

talkies. So they like basically the horses, uh, you'll be surprised to know the horse taking a dump was unscripted. So I think, uh, I think people were just reacting to it and it is, there's something funny about being very official,

you know, over the walkie talkie. It's like, there was also a moment. I remember when we were shooting this scene where there was this i don't think it lived in the cut where there was this elaborate very solemn that i think amy brings the horses out on stage and it took forever for them to sort of circle around and it was that it was the comedy of something taking so long that it goes from like awkward to painful to when will this end to you know this is kind of funny to

this is hilarious but you have to commit to the time and i don't i don't think it actually was in the cut but boy it made me laugh shooting it yeah it's almost like the simpsons rake joke right so sideshow bob stepping on a thousand rakes but in a 21 minute episode which is packed with you know a miniature horse funeral and 500 character story moves at the end uh including leslie getting tapped by people to to run for office like it just probably wasn't enough time for horses slowly circling although i'd love to see the outtakes i'd love to see horses just gently moving around it was really funny always a fan always a fan uh we get a little jean ralphio donna interaction which i always love jean ralphio saying i hope you brought a change of clothes because your eyes are about to piss tears

and then donna saying you're nasty like that that is classic more more classic uh john ralphio always a joke machine um i was like the best john ralphio one is is in this one where he says yes he tells tommy needs to live his life like that cow from the video yes and then i was like that's already a joke but then tom corrects him that little sebastian was a horse and john ralph he says, because he followed his dreams. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's just funny stuff.

It's just funny stuff. So we have to comment on Nick Offerman's look after he gets his eyebrows burned off. And it's like, this guy gets his eyebrows burned off and his hair looks crazy. I don't know how they did that. Was that a wig? Like, it looks crazy i don't know how they did that it was that a wig i like it looks crazy it's very curly it's a you know it's it's it's it looks matted it looks like animal fur almost and uh uh his mustache looks insane i know what happened they shaved it off and put some prosthetic and mustache stuff on but um i was surprised also like he suffered no burns did anyone think so like

maybe that's just the ron swanson legend right that he's such a superhero maybe he's impervious maybe he's like colossus from the x-men um just impervious to burns or whatever uh but yeah it's one of the weirdest he almost looks yeah i'm trying to think who he looks like he looks like a cartoon his cartoon character for sure yeah he looks like. He looks like a cartoon character. He's a cartoon character for sure. Yeah, he looks like a- It's like, it's Wile E. Coyote. Yeah, it's that crossed with like a Family Guy character or something. There's something about his face or the shape of his face like afterwards.

It's so strange. Other songs played during Lil Sebastian's memorial, besides 5,000 Candles in the Wind, include Wild Horses by the Rolling Stones and A Horse With No Name by America. 5,000 candles on the wind, include Wild Horses by the Rolling Stones and A Horse With No Name by America. This has got to be the time the Parks and Rec music clearance department answers their phone having been asleep all season because we never do music. So they must have been like, what, a Rolling Stones song? It's like, oh, we can clear that. All our music budget is used on this song because there's no music in the show. I would have pitched, I think it was a huge missed opportunity

with one of my favorite yacht rock songs, Wildfire. It's actually about a horse that dies. There you go. Wildfire. In a snowstorm.

Wow. And it's super sad. Let's go back in time and shoot it again. Shoot it again. What are other horse songs? I'm trying to think. Well, better yet,

horse death songs. Yeah, so true. Old Town Road, sex travel back in time right yeah uh yeah so i'll think about that send a minute if you got them all right let's continue with synopsis at a party afterwards andy receives praise for his little sebastian tribute song 5 000 candles in the wind april sells many mouse rat cds at an inflated price which spurs andy receives praise for his little sebastian tribute song five thousand candles in the wind april sells many mouse rat cds at an inflated price which spurs andy to ask her to become the group's manager indirectly responsible for nearly killing ron leslie and ben agree to no more secret displays of affection at work and who previously dated chris and had trouble getting over him offers comfort to chris for his depression this makes him feel romantically

interested in ann once again a conflicted tom decides to resign and accept a job with entertainment 720 meanwhile ron is confronted by his evil ex-wife tammy at the party but both ron and tammy are horrified to learn his other ex-wife also named tammy who he calls tammy one also has arrived in town that's a lot a lot of i you love the big like courtyard party scene. Everyone get your stories done. It's like, that's how it is. That's a finale though. I mean, that's a finale.

Like I'm having just shot a finale of the new show, a season finale. It's very similar where it's like, they're all in the same place and they're all talking to each other. That's, that's a TV show. That's a TV show. It's a lot. It's a lot of stuff to wrap up. It's the end of the year you gotta wrap it up yes um you know just to let people in on this it's it's kind of i think mike subscribes to this theory and i subscribe to it too a bit which is you know something from greg daniels as well which is

just get as many balls up in the air as you can at the end of the finale make it as juicy as possible as many cliffhangers cliffhangers you can at the end of the finale make it as juicy as possible as many cliffhangers cliffhangers for everybody why not and then hope and pray that over the summer you can figure out what happens next you don't need to necessarily know because you'll figure it out you got a team of smart writers hopefully you've thought about the characters enough so that was kind of the theory here so for instance when donna runs in to alert ron and tammy 2 that tammy 1 has showed up we didn't know who tammy 1 was we didn't have an actor yet we didn't know what the character was but it's like we'll

figure it out that's a funny beat it's a funny escalation it's a funny turn let's figure out who tammy 1 is right we do that over the summer um you know it's and same thing kind of with leslie stuff which we'll talk about in a second and the tom stuff it's like okay we know we have entertainment 720 but we don't know exactly what happens we'll figure it out so that's kind of with the Leslie stuff, which we'll talk about in a second, and the Tom stuff. It's like, okay, we know we have Entertainment 720, but we don't know exactly what happens. We'll figure it out. So that's kind of what happens in between seasons.

Just a peek behind the curtain. Celebrity death songs. Quick detour into celebrity death songs. I think the biggest one cited in this show, El Jean, Candle in the Wind, right? It says Marilyn Monroe and Princess princess die i didn't realize marilyn monroe was part of that i guess uh i guess oh no that's the remake that's the original no no the best is yeah it was the original is marilyn monroe right yes and then i always thought it

was so weird i mean i love elton i love him as a i know as a friend in his music he's the man but i always thought it was so taking the lyrics of that hit and changing them to princess Diana. Almost weird. It almost sounds like a, a bit. It almost sounds like something like a comedy bit. yeah,

it's like, well, you lived your life as if you couldn't go to the Duran Duran concert. You wanted to, because the crown wouldn't approve it. And you're like, what? It was really bizarre, I have to say. It was almost like, was he just like,

I don't want to write a new one. There's also that. Yeah, it's like, eh, you know, should I call Bernie up? Nah, you know what? Let me just, let's just do it. But you know what? Great song.

I think more people know the Princess Di version right so yeah i certainly more i i i i'm a big uh like like fan of of songs that have weird eerie deaths like the wreck of the edmund fitzgerald anybody know that song wow wow that's a great it's a entire ship that goes to everybody dies on the record of the edmunds is gerald and everybody number one you know it's a number one hit and one of my one of my favorites that i actually did as a spoken word performance at the just for laugh festival oh my god Montreal yes i uh i did a what year was this? A spoken word of 90, it was right after Austin Powers. So what? It was, and I did it as Robert Wagner. Okay. So that's pretty obscure.

There you go. There's the impersonation aspect. Just for Last is fun. I've done Just for Last as well. It's fun. I feel like I did a panel there and enjoyed Montreal. I remember we were shooting in Rome or in Italy, and then we flew from Rome to Montreal and did the panel. It was very fun. It's a good city. Shout out to Montreal, everybody. Shout out to JFL, just for laughs. Do it again sometime.

Maybe we'll do this podcast there. Or as they like to say, juste pour le rire. Juste pour le rire. Just a couple more celebrity deaths. ACDC, Back in Black. That's about celebrity death? Bon Scott, it says here. I never knew that.

I didn't know that. Neutral Milk Hotel and the Airplane Over the Sea, mentioned in a previous episode. It's about Anne Frank's death. And The Long Winters, The Commander Thinks Aloud, Space Shuttle Columbia. I'm getting in the Zoom here. Bon Scott was the original singer of ACDC. That's wild. I actually didn't know that you know you come for the parks and rec trivia stay for the acdc that's right that's right all the overlap the overlap venn diagram of uh early hard rock heavy metal fans

and uh and parks and rec fans all right let's keep marching forward here synopsis leslie's approach by scouts looking for potential wait there's more story there's more story it's 26 minutes long it's almost over it's almost over how can there be more story we've done nothing but talk about things that happen it goes on and on quickly it moves quickly oh my god it's a finale it is it's a finale you gotta pack it all in it's not. Oh my god. It's a finale. It is a finale. You're right. You gotta pack it all in. Yeah, you do. It's not a penultimate episode. It's a finale. Leslie's approached by scouts, looking for potential candidates for elected office, which has always

been one of her dreams. Impressed by the memorial service and the Harvest Festival Leslie previously organized, they believe she would be a good candidate for upcoming CB council seats, or possibly even the mayoral position. With the expected increased media attention on her personal life, the scouts ask whether Leslie has any secret scandals in her life. She denies any such scandals exist, thus admitting her secret relationship with Ben. And the scouts promise

to contact her about preparing an electoral run. And by the way, there's a digital tag that's not even in the synopsis where we go to Entertainment 720. We'll talk about that in a bit. But Amy's performance when she tells them there's no scandals, very magnetic. You can read it on her face. And then we rack to Ben. She plays a lot of emotions. We had a lot of bits in the writer's room about William and Elizabeth, who are the two people who come. It's a little bit like they step out of another show because they're very serious. It's almost like a weird drama scene near the end of the episode. But these i mean god bless them they're they're they're doing it right they're doing what we told them to do their names are johnny sneed

and antonio raftu but uh they're very serious and it's like it was like did they was were they supposed to be on the gray's anatomy set name it mean, you know what show they could have been from? I do. Ray Donovan. Ray Donovan. They could have been. But they are very serious. And it's also like, I like the idea that Pawnee is this small, sleepy, theoretically backwater town, but there's a whole political consultancy

firm who's swooping in to see who decides who's going to run for city council. It's like, damn, who's paying these people yeah like what where's the money in there william and elizabeth are they like living in like a two-bedroom or like like are they living in studio apartment how are they paying their bills where's the money in this anyway it is a funny joke later on where i think future episode where he's like are you guys together like anyway that is one of my favorite jokes about those two characters.

But, you know, we didn't know. And just speaking back to whether we, you know, the cliffhanger idea, kind of like throw all the balls in the air, story balls in the air, and just figure them out later. We didn't really know what she was going to run for. So, like, we kind of threw city council and mayor up there. And we knew it would be a campaign for some kind of public office because that seemed like a reasonable next step but we left a lot of it uh unspecified and i think that's another little trick i think that people probably pick up on but yeah that's it's it focused on how it complicated leslie and ben's romance because that's what we knew would happen but uh yeah i this this season also was 16 episodes. And the reason was, I see here in the notes, people are asking, why was this season 16 episodes? Was it the writer's strike?

The answer was, we were pushed to mid-season. So we did not premiere until mid-season. So instead of a 22-episode order, we only needed to do 16. I mean, this show was all over the schedule. It was really moved around there was a show called outsourced that got picked up ahead of us i think in that aired that season at the beginning they were really excited about that show and then uh we got pushed to mid-season and then from then on i think after the first three years were really sort of a bumpy ride i

would say i just i mean that's, look, you know, network executives and the suits take a lot of shit all the time from creative people and some of the time it's unearned and some of the times it's earned. But I just want to take a moment for all of us to consider a world where they're like, hey, Parks and Recreation,

why don't you guys take a seat? Because we've got Outsourced coming on. So you guys, why don't you just cool your jets for a've got outsourced okay coming on so you guys want to just cool your jets for a while felt like that happened almost every year it was that it was outsourced and it was whitney i think the windy coming show there's a few other ones i forget what else but and every year it was like hey parks and rec we love what you guys do sort of so why don't you guys just chill because we really think we got lightning in a bottle with Whitney. I mean, no one's foresight is 20-20, but it certainly seems in retrospect that they weren't exactly sure what they had in the show.

I always heard the, I don't want to name names, but it was somebody running the network. Literally was like, I don't think that show's funny. I'm sorry. I don't get it. It doesn't make me was like i don't think that show's funny i'm sorry i don't i don't get it doesn't make me laugh i don't get it that checks out and then but when when that's what you're dealing with that's how you end up with you know short order 16 then it's eight then it's six and maybe you're not maybe you're in the fall maybe you're not it's like they just ran this show around like, it got no respect. And it survived. It survived like a cockroach just survived. Let's not forget the tag of this episode, which is batshit insane.

Mike Schur, here's a quote from him. He called the episode's final scene, which was filmed in a completely white 15,000 square foot office of Tom's Entertainment Company. Maybe the craziest thing that's ever been on a series i personally remember going to this set um and playing basketball with detlef schrimp i have photos where i'm for some reason wearing a gray p coat and and then posting detlef schrimp up i guess it must have been cold in that warehouse but i remember playing with them i remember playing with lorenzo or one of our pasAs, and Aziz, and Ben Schwartz. Wait, wait.

Can I just say, between you and Lorenzo, you're not tall men. No. I'm about 5'10", and Detlef Strumpf is about 6'10". Lorenzo is not a tall man either. Lorenzo was probably, I would say, under 5'6". But Lorenzo was beloved. By the way, shout out, Lorenzo. We love Lorenzo was probably, I would say, under five foot five. He's under five six, let's say. So he's but Lorenzo was beloved, by the way. Shout out, Lorenzo. We love Lorenzo.

Yeah. Everyone loved him and he was rapidly promoted and he was kind of one of the liaisons between the brains and all the cast. And so they kind of like the he would interface between the director and the writers and the cast. And, you you know always there for everybody very reliable um great energy so shout out to lorenzo if you're listening or if anyone knows lorenzo say hi uh just really quick uh final thoughts on this episode just want to run through gifts parties and jobs there's a couple parties or there's a couple jobs and there's definitely a party celebrating little sebastian huge party in courtyard where everyone all the stories get wrapped up there's a new job for april mouse right manager and there's a couple jobs. And there's definitely a party celebrating Little Sebastian. Huge party in Courtyard where all the stories get wrapped up.

There's a new job for April, Mouse Rite manager. And there's a new job for Tom, Entertainment 720. And there's a new job for Leslie, running for public office. So there's a fair amount. There's a fair amount there. This is a packed season. I got to pop in and tell you some big changes that happened from an earlier version. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Two significant changes and they changed in one week from the table draft to the shooting draft so one of the big ones i want to get your take on it is that ron finds out and and tells leslie and ben that he knows that they've been sleeping together at the very end of the episode and what happens earlier is that the same custodian who came in with Shania Twain's man, I feel like a woman, catches them making out. And that starts the feeling of maybe we're not being careful enough. And so, Ron reveals in Act 3, he knows that they've been sleeping together.

And they decide to tell Chris tomorrow that they have this thing we're just going to tell him and just see what happens and let him tell us you know what our fate is and they decide to make out one last time and they stumble into chris's office and chris is making out with tammy Do you remember this? Wow. What? Wait, what? Do you remember this? This is a bombshell. This is producer Greg coming in with gold.

With just haymakers. Yes. What? Yes. That's insane. It flummoxed me the same way it did you. Was this set up? Did we have him, like,

because he was, like, he was thinking about his mortality, and, like, he just wanted, like, a fling or something, right? And that conversation with Anne about seizing life, and then Tammy comes in, you know, super, you know, hot as she does,

and they stumble in, and they see that he's making out with some woman we don't know who it is and then chris and leslie say hey hey and then uh uh we see it's a pixelated tammy wearing no top right oh wow of course if you have tammy sounds like a dan gore pitch but yeah it close pixelation um but that isn't that a little bit stakes negating because the stakes are that chris will catch him but then if they catch chris doing that like isn't that a little bit steak anyway now i'm talking like a studio sec or another writer in the room being like well this is why we shouldn't do that but we ended up

not doing it i can't believe we read that at the table i have no recollection of that me neither in a show called parks and recollection i have no recollection of that. Me neither. In a show called Parks and Recollection, I have zero recollection of that. And we were there. Presumably, you were reading it and I was there listening and I helped write it. So that's very crazy. But I'm glad we didn't do that. It seems wrong. And Tammy, obviously Tammy 1, Megan Mullally.

Yes, Tammy 2. Yes, yes. Technically Tammy 2, but yes. The original Tammy is Tammy 2. And we have a Tammy 0, as we'll learn about soon enough. Yes, there was Technically Tammy 2, but yes. The original Tammy is Tammy 2. And we have a Tammy 0, as we'll learn about soon enough. Yes, there was also Tammy 0. That's when you know the show's going on a long time, when you get a Tammy 0. My pitch is that the reason it didn't happen is that Nick Offerman, after the table read, went to Mike Schur and said,

Listen, Megan Mullally is my wife. She has already made out with Rob Lowe in about last night. And I cannot have it again. That's what I think happened. Again, again. That's crazy. I was going to say,

that would have been interesting. You did it already. I did it. Years ago. I did it. Years ago. Hollywood is a small town sometimes. It's a small town. It is. Keep that in mind. Okay, one more. It's going I did it. Years ago. Hollywood is a small town sometimes. It's a small town.

It is. Keep that in mind. Okay, one more. This is going to be hard to top that. I know. It is hard to top it, but I had to do it in order of sequence. The idea that Leslie's approach to run for public office did not exist until the very end of the shooting draft we made. It wasn't in the table draft.

It really wasn't in a lot of our notes. It was a whole scene or two written at the very end of the shooting drafting made. It wasn't in the table draft. It really wasn't in a lot of our notes. It was a whole scene or two written at the very end. And as I was reading the script, I think I realized what we all realized, which is that Leslie is actually quite light in the end of this episode. She pretty much has this one moment with Ron and Ben and then going in and seeing Chris making out with someone else. And so like you were saying, Alan, I think what we talked about in the room was, let's just set up a whole bunch of stuff. And I think the other thing, if memory serves me right,

is that we always wanted to do a storyline about her running for office. But I think we're nervous about doing it so soon into a show that's about politics, not wanting to make it a campaign show. The West Wing had just, I think, at the same time done like a season and a half of a political campaign. And then I think the realization was, we're going to do it. Let's do it. And let's just commit to it right now. That I remember. I remember just the long discussion of, should we do the campaign season four or not? And by the way, speaking of all the executives and what they're, I think in the back of Mike's mind was probably, well, how many seasons is this show going to go? If we're going to do it, just do it, right? Let's do it. Why are we saving

bullets, right? That's kind of the thing that we talked about in the room. So we knew we were going to do it eventually, so it made sense. But I do think that the counter argument to that was this show was pitched and presented and conceived as a show about public service of non-elected officials, basically bureaucrats. And then we're like, okay, well, are we going to immediately go into that? And it ended up being fine. You know what? People don't watch it for the job. People watch it for the characters.

So that's ultimately what happened. And it's ultimately what happened. And it's like a new situation. It's a big Greg Berlanti who's a very proficient, prolific, great showrunner, movie producer, you name it. When on Brothers and Sisters, he would always say, if you have a good story idea, tell it, tell it now.

Don't wait for the next episode. Don't wait for next season. Tell it now. Yeah. You have it. Like you got the juice, like use it, man. You got, by the way,

it's a Easter egg. Fun fact uh i live in greg berlanti's old house no there you go it's like kind of funny i was like oh yeah that's kind of funny but uh um yeah he's absolutely very prolific uh all right greg great uh trivia great great uh information about the table re-changes i didn't remember that stuff always always adding value always adding value. Always adding value. Let's go through the oops moments quickly. At 1906, Ron claims he's cried only twice in his life.

Once when I was seven and hit by a school bus. And then again when I heard that little Sebastian had passed. However, he fails to mention the time he cried in his office with Leslie. In this office with Leslie after Tammy took control of his life in season two is Ron and Tammy. I didn't remember that. That's kind of interesting. I believe the joke used to be I was seven and hit by a Jeep or something.

Anyway, I don't know why we changed it to school bus. They're both funny. Donna mispronounces words from Jerry's Italian poem, but later will reveal Donna is an opera singer. So wouldn't she know how to pronounce these beautiful foreign words? In fact, Donna will later sing the flower duet from the opera Lakme later in the series. That's kind of interesting.

Amazing. Kind of interesting. Episode MVP, Most Valuable Pawnee, and which character moment in this episode sticks out to you the most and why? Little Sebastian. Come on. Wow, Little Sebastian.

A hornet opera, Little Sebastian. That is great. I would say first star, Little Sebastian, second star, Mouserat for the song, which is Eternal. And then third star, The Fireball. Yes, agreed. That's it. Call to action.

Listeners, let us know who your MVP is by tweeting at Team Coco Podcasts or by using the hashtag Parks and Recollection. Shall we do the town hall? Yes, the final town hall of our season one. Final town hall. Very exciting. We'll do it on the stage of the Little Sebastian Memorial, where the legendary 5,000 Candles of the Wind was just performed. Take it away, producer Rob Schulte. Hey, Rob, Alan, Greg, Schulte.

This is Corey. I'm from New York City. I love Parks and Rec. I have rewatched it over and over again throughout the years. I don't think any television comedy has ever done such a great job of building a world with all these different characters, you know, so far in the background, but so funny and so memorable.

And, I mean, I guess there are a few that come close, maybe Freaks and Geeks, maybe Community, but I was wondering if you guys had any ideas of another show that really created this immersive world. Thanks for what you're doing. I love it. Well, that's a great. Thank you. I mean, what do you, The Simpsons?

The Simpsons is probably number one. And there's a couple of things about The Simpsons. That's the biggest world ever a couple things about The Simpsons that's the biggest world ever created partly because there are what 30 seasons or something 700 episodes or whatever it is shout out to the people there, Matt Selman one of my friends helps run that show and a bunch of the writers are buddies

but I mean they've done incredible work for so long and in a way we would talk about Springfield a lot in the Riders of Roof Parks as we continue to build our world up. I was actually going to mention Community too, because their run obviously wasn't as long as The Simpsons, and they shot right next to us, which was kind of cool.

They were our NBC neighbors. I keep thinking of animated shows, because Futurama also was almost like, obviously, a future version of The Simpsons, or Rick and Morty is really a world-building thing action i will say this that's credit thank you for cory for pointing it out because parks did a really specific job of doing that like not many shows build out the town like that i was thinking like seinfeld does a little bit of it you know they ran a long time and you start to get to know the diner and that you know the

you know babu and all those other characters the dentist but they don't come back in the same way that they do in in parks and rec you know it's like you see you see pert happily like 50 times you know you just see him a lot of times and there's not a lot of not a lot of sitcoms that do that so a lot of them are the animated ones i found um i don't know i'm family guys another one right in south park they're they all kind of build worlds but a lot of those are animated you know 30 rock maybe 30 rocks good yeah 30 rocks good again it feels like you know what's interesting is 30 rocks about new york city in some way so it's like they have a zany world but it's not it's not a fake made up or i mean it is dr spachemin i mean yeah that that's a good one i i feel like i i and people do come back right it's like but it's not like parks it isn't it's not like parks yeah it's it's

just a different thing where i think because it's here's the here's the oh here's actually an idea that actually answers the question it's interesting because it's a fictional town right like like 30 rock is new york and it's a zany version of new york but but but but but parks and rec it's like ponies made up so York, but Parks and Rec, it's like, Pawnee's made up. So, you know, we could take a lot of liberty in sort of building all these side characters. But no, it's a good point. I think that's one of the strengths of the show, for sure. And it's something that, you know, I don't think was intended necessarily from the beginning. It was something that built and built and built organically. And sometimes that's the best way

to write a show. One of the inspirations for the show, but one of the joys of watching any of these shows like Community or Parks or The Wire or whatever, is watching the show and seeing these people, even if they pop up in the background and it connects to pieces and you just feel like you're being taken care of by the people who make it. That they're like, we have an idea, we have a world, and we're bringing you into it. That's great. And The Wire is a great call because we did talk about that show incessantly in the writer's room. You know, Mike was obsessed with it and a lot of the writers were obsessed with it. We actually had a chart of, this is some of the time killing the writer's room. Maybe this is why we ended up staying so late and the guy walked in playing Shania Twain. We had a chart of all of these other shows and who the writers were of the characters on that show so

for the wires like this guy's presbo this guy's you know stringer bell this guy's wow like like it was really and then we did that for game of thrones we did that for breaking bad we did that for madman jesus i was sterling yeah we sex is i was sterling i think i was i was but did you do it for a battery's character donovan we did you do it for rory's character ray donovan we did not do it for ray donovan maybe you know what when we do the reboot of parks and rec we'll have to do it for raid who gets to be ray oh that's a real i don't know any other characters on the show but yeah guys i have the chart i have the chart it's called who are you it took seven seasons to make and i'll let you know that every person has a wire person a game

of thrones a character a breaking bad character uh and then in the biopic who would star as them and so we'll tease that that exists and we'll uh we'll we'll tell people about it coming up cliffhanger for next season uh yeah i mean what a great season guys thank you so much everybody we'll be back soon with the next season i'm taking that as a legally binding pickup from team coco and sitcher uh thank you all for listening thank you all the people who wrote in and and sent in town halls and town howls uh keep them coming and hopefully we'll get to do some more episodes and more seasons subscribe where you get your podcast five star review on apple thank you to schulte and greg of course everyone everyone involved in the show, and goodbye from Pawnee.

For now, we'll see you next season. Cliffhanger. Parks and Recollection is produced by Greg Lev 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 colinitaroff 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.