Parks and Recollection - Live Ammo (S4E19)

Episode Date: August 22, 2023

Jim O’Heir (Jerry Gergich himself!) and writer Greg Levine are here to discuss a very “West Wing” episode of “Parks & Rec!” “West Wing” super-fan Greg walks us through all the references, from the episode’s title to the appearance of guest star Bradley Whitford. They also discuss working with animals, Greg’s tours of the “West Wing” Oval Office, Ron Swanson’s reluctant yoga journey, and much more. Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email at [e-mail]! This episode was recorded on July 13, 2023.

We're getting together to talk about all the things we used to do The laughs, the passions, the little Sebastians, 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 Shall I begin us? Please, please, please start today's episode with him saying that. Okay, everyone, welcome to Parks and Recollection. This is a silly one because it started with Jim O'Hare saying, shall I begin us? Shall I begin us? Hello,

everybody. I'm going to begin us. This is Jim O'Hare from Parks and Recollection, the guy who played Jerry, Gary, Larry, Terry, even Barry from Johnny Karate, sitting alongside just the, I'm going to try to get this out, one of the greatest guys I've ever known. And you are? Stop it. I didn't prepare a speech. Everyone's Greg, and I'm here with Jim, and we're talking about Parks and Rec, some of our favorite stuff to talk about.

Also, I want to bring up a little something. I was on the phone the other day with our boy Chris Pratt. God bless that guy. He's a megastar. I mean, megastar would be a correct term for Chris Pratt now, would you say? I think people call him superstars. Superstars, whatever the term is. But you get with him, and it's the same stupid stuff we laughed about during Parks.

He's the same silly, funny. He was with his girls. He's got, you know, he's got the three kids now. And he was with, the girls were at home and they were making him play dress up, whatever was going on. But it just warmed my heart so much. He was very kind and generous.

You know, the book that I've been doing about my years on Parks, he contributed, which was very sweet of him. Which, by the way, a miracle happened. And as of Monday of this past week, the first draft was handed in. It's done. I'm sure there will be edits. I mean, probably not. They're probably going to be like, that's perfect. That doesn't need anything.

Writing is rewriting. But anyway, so yeah, I'm really excited about that. But it was just great to be on the phone with him. And he's a great guy. That's amazing. I could be with him all the time. We just kind of have the same stupid sense of humor. It's great to hear about his family.

You know, we all knew Jack. When he told me, he goes, he's 10 now. That just blows my mind that he's 10 years old. Because when he and I had Jack, he was in the NICU. It was a whole thing, and we were all around for all that. But he's done great. He's done great in school. Anyway, so it was wonderful, and I thought people would want to know that our boy's okay.

That's great. That's great. That's great, and I'm excited for your book. That's amazing. Congratulations. If it doesn't work, if it's a huge failure, I will somehow blame you. I haven't come up exactly with how I'm going to do it. Okay.

Yeah. Or maybe, Sean, maybe Joe. I could blame Joe. It feels like it's her turn. It feels like it might be Joe's turn. Yeah. Someone's going down. It will not be me.

Yeah. Just so we know that. Well, let's talk about from a complete failure of your book to a complete success. Yes. Today's episode. It's called Live Ammo, written by Dave King and Chelsea

Peretti, directed by Tristram Shapiro, originally airing on April 19th, 2012. And the blurb is as follows. When Leslie convinces Councilman Pilner not to cut the Parks Department budget, she unintentionally creates major campaign trouble. Chris and Ron visit a meditation center

and discuss a potential new role for Ron. Mm-hmm. Well, in our notes notes, let's go right into it. Perhaps one of the things I'm most excited to talk about. This episode features the great Bradley Whitford as Councilman Pilner. You know him from Get Out, The Handmaid's Tale, Billy

Madison. Most importantly for today's episode and for me, a dear dear huge huge West Wing fan. He played White House Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman in the West Wing. I just learned before we started recording that Jim O'Hare, producer Sean, engineer Joe have all not seen the West Wing.

And we are shamed. Just so you know, we are shamed. It's a problem. But let me say this. In a way, I'm jealous. Because you should, you will watch the show. And you get to watch it for the first time. And it is tremendous.

It is my favorite show I've ever seen. To me, it has informed so much of my love of politics, my love of writing. It's great. It's very special. And this episode of Live Ammo is filled with little nods to the West Wing. And we're going to talk about them as we get to them. Right.

And I do know Sorkin was the West Wing dude. Good. And he's a genius writer also. And my understanding is Mike Schur, co-creator of Parks and Rec, is also a huge West Wing fan. Yes. In fact, when I was interviewing for Parks and Rec, I didn't realize I was being interviewed for the show.

I think I talked to this on a previous episode. But to set the story up, I went in as an assistant. I worked in a casting office for Alison Jones, amazing casting director. The great Alison Jones. And we came to the set of The Office for a set visit. And Alison knew I wanted to be a writer. And every week she called Greg and Mike to say, you should hire my assistant to be your writer's assistant on your spinoff,

which wound up becoming Parks and Rec. What a generous woman. Amazing. Truly generous. I mean, she's saying, take my employee. Yeah. I mean, I've worked for amazing people and Allison is tops. And I didn't know that that was happening.

And so when Greg Daniels introduced himself to me and said, hey, you want to meet some of the writers? I thought, this is cool. I won like a lottery or like I won something at like a silent auction to like come to the office, set and meet the writers. And I opened a door and Mike Shore and Jen Salat and Paul Lieberstein are all in there. And I wind up talking with Mike. And we spent like 10 minutes talking about two of my favorite shows. He knew I had worked on,

I was talking about what I had done and I worked on The West Wing and we were just talking about The West Wing and I'm like, oh my God. I'm talking about The West Wing

with Mike Shore. Wait, did you work on The West Wing? I was a PA on The West Wing for a season. Oh, well, that's a little nugget.

It's a nice little nugget for the final season. I worked for a year at a company called John Wells Productions that produced The West Wing, produced ER, a third watch, many great shows. So I worked on ER as a writer's PA on The West Wing. And one of my tasks when I worked at John Wells Productions is I would give tours of the ER and West Wing sets for friends and whatever.

And I would always start at the ER set because it's cool to go to a set of a film or a TV show. It's so cool. I still do it to this day. If I'm on a lot, I will sneak on a set. Well, the ER set was so good and so accurate that, I mean, there's like bloodstains on little corners. Like, it was very detailed. You walk a few steps in, you just feel like you're in a hospital, which is not everyone's, like, go-to place to visit. Like, I'm going to go to the hospital to walk around.

Sure, you could point out certain details about the production of ER, but you feel like you're in a hospital. certain details about the production of ER, but you feel like you're in a hospital. Then I would take them in the golf cart over to the stage where West Wing was. And then you get to walk around the White House and you can't follow the White House with the emergency room. So I definitely structured that order. But yes, I worked on the West Wing and a very low point, not low point in my life, a low point in the career. I was a PA. Had you worked with Bradley? Like, did you know him? No, no, no. No, we, no.

I mean, I was just starting out and I spent a lot of the time in the office. But the point being is that I was able to talk about having worked on the show and we were just chatting about our love of the West Wing. And then Alan Alda is in the final season and a half of West Wing.

And another one of my favorites is MASH. Oh God, iconic. Yeah, and so Mike and I are now talking about MASH. And so I walk away being like, oh my God, I just talked about two of the best shows with a writer of the current best show on TV. And then they were like, hey, do you want to come work for us?

And I was feeling, did I just get an interview? That's cool. That's a fun way to get an interview. You don't know you're being interviewed. You don't know you're being interviewed so you're not playing

any of the stupid games. You're just being you. Yeah, good move. So all of that long story. Super long, by the way. Super long. We'll edit most of it. Thank you.

Mike, huge fan of the West Wing. Dave King, co-writer of this episode, huge fan of the West Wing. And King, co-writer of this episode, huge fan of the West Wing. And so there's a lot of West Wing love on Parks and Rec. There are a lot of similarities to the show, I think. And this episode, we'll call it out. There's some Easter eggs thrown out throughout for West Wing lovers. You will have to call those out because I wouldn't know. Well, in our notes, the first one is the title.

Live ammo is a reference to a line from the West Wing that we'll get to. And another great one is that, you know what? I'll save them when we get to them. I'm going to save them. I'm going to notes these notes, Sean.

And, you know, one other notes, because we should jump right into the story is that our friend Chelsea Peretti who co-wrote this episode appears as Zelda

in the press conference scene and a former guest on our little podcast Parks and Rec Collection who then of course became on Brooklyn Nine-Nine

series regular from many many seasons absolutely absolutely is now director of her own movies and is amazing. God bless. Well, should we just go right in? Go in, baby.

Synopsis. I don't know why I did that, but maybe we'll do that from now on. That's okay. Okay. I'll see myself out. Anne gives Leslie a tour of Tom's amenity-filled apartment. At City Hall, Leslie learns that the Parks Department budget is going to be cut and successfully asks the retiring councilman Pilner,

whose seat she is running to fill, to reconsider. In a press conference, April struggles to fill in for Leslie, and Chris reveals that Ron is among the finalists for the assistant city manager position, but he fur must. He fur must. Oh, boy. Wow. One take Bartlett.

That's a West Wing reference, everyone. I've been saying it all the time, and I'll move on to two takes Levine. But he first must ask Ron to join him at a yoga studio for a meditation session. Oh, perfect for Ron. Okay, Tom's apartment. Oh, boy. Tom's apartment. It's great. Yeah, and we shot there a couple times because I remember shooting in that apartment. I can't remember the

scene, but there was something coming up where I'm in that apartment. Okay. Well, yeah, we shot there for one of my episodes in the future. And I loved it. It's described as girl heaven. That's exactly it. And that this cold open has zero relevance

to the rest of the episode. Zero relevance. Right? Like, we don't come back here. We don't, it doesn't start a storyline for Anne and Tom. It doesn't, like, we don't have Tom, oh,

I need to go back to my house, my apartment now to get the thing I saw. It's just, as we were talking about, it is a comedy cold open. It's a little gift.

It's a little amuse-bouche from the kitchen writing staff to be like, here's a little fun little scene. Yeah. Anne is called Leslie

basically saying, get your ass over here. You will not believe this. And as long as Leslie has known Tom, which is obviously a long time, she has never seen this. Right. This is shocking. Right. We have this moment where Leslie shows up at Tom's apartment and she's standing outside.

And Tom gets to the door and he's shirtless. And Lucy's inside and she has use protection and all this stuff. We don't get to see inside. Well, here we are inside of his apartment. Coconut water shelf in the fridge. Cheese and fig platter always stocked. There's a Sudoku book in the bathroom. He keeps the temperature at 80 degrees all day.

And I'm sorry. It is a woman's place. Is that, can I just, I don't under, listen, my wife and I live at opposite temperatures. There's this great, the story I could tell is she was coming home one day and as she opened the door, I was walking to the thermostat. And I was going and she said, okay, thank God. Can you please turn it up? And I said, I'm literally going to turn it down.

Yeah. That's a husband and wife game all of life. I don't, I guess I don't understand why they all, they love that it's 80 degrees. game yeah all of life yeah i don't i guess i don't understand why they all they love that it's 80 degrees i know i guess i don't know it's not me i want it at 68 68 68 is my number okay great yeah all right also there is eye cream he has he has unisex cologne it's all there yeah and as ann will say to leslie he's high the term he's highly in debt yes yes he's heavily in, he's highly in debt. Yes, yes.

He's heavily in debt. He's heavily in debt. Yeah. Heavily in debt. Yeah. But this place has amenities. Amenities and amenities upon amenities. Yes.

I'm going to keep saying it. It sounds like it's sea anemones or whatever, but he's got it. Soft blankets that they just want to cuddle their faces in. Right. It does look lovely. Yeah, it does. If I had to house sit, I'd be like, please. Right. It does look lovely. Yeah, it does. It's like, that's a, if I had to like house sit, I'd be like, please. Put me there.

Sounds great. How, you got to wonder, how far in debt is he? Because Tom gets what Tom wants. Right. He and Donna are doing treat yourself days. Yeah.

Where is it? Because I don't know what a parks department person makes. Right. But I'm guessing it, it's not a huge salary. Right. Maybe he owns the apartment and he's got a second... I don't know what it is, but I

worry about how many credit cards he probably has open. Yeah, I do too. Well, Leslie starts the episode chatting with Councilman Pilner in a walk and talk, right? It's another West Wing, Aaron Sorkin nod. It's our storytelling technique. For the record, I knew that. Even I knew that. That in a walk and talk, right? It's another West Wing, Aaron Sorkin nod. It's our

storytelling technique. For the record, I knew that. Even I knew that. That's a walk and talk because Jim O'Hare loves when he's doing things, different productions, I love a walk and talk. They can be a nightmare because if you have to start over, especially if it's a long walk and talk, because they're wanting to try to do it in a one-er. So you're just getting the, literally, you're just doing it. And you hopefully get through it. So if there's dialogue errors and stuff, it can be a pain in the ass. But I love that.

It's just so normal. It's how people do it. You talk, you have conversations while you're walking. So these are my favorites to shoot. And, you know, but they're different, especially on this show. You've talked about that there was a freedom of movement on Parks and Rec where there weren't. We just had a great conversation with Hadley about setups and we don't need to worry that much about hitting your mark. Oh, rarely did we have to hit a mark.

We had to hit an area. Right. This was documentary style. So we had camera people whose cameras could move based on what they felt was the right thing to capture. In a walk and talk, it's very timed. You have to hit your marks at the right time so that the line ends when you need to. So it matches a cut later on. Maybe your hallway that you're walking is in different places on your soundstage. So you can't just have the camera follow you. It's a much more intense and specific process

and so I'm reminded of Rob Lowe talking in a previous Parks and Recollection episode about also the dedication to the written word, the script that Aaron Sorkin would write that sometimes you're shooting something

and you'll change a word or two or the order but the line is still great because the essence is the same. But on certain things, you know, the writer has, this is what I think it needs to be and this is how I hear it and this is how it should be. And Rob would talk about maybe you said hey instead

of hi. And you got called out? Instead of what? And do you know what that means? We're running it back. We're going to do it again. Wow. I didn't know it was that intense. That wasn't like in an insane way. It's just like this is all written with the plan and let's get that planned out.

Wow. I've done shows in the past where I will get the call the night before letting me know it is a word for word set. Which means, and mostly dramas, almost never, I don't think I've ever gotten that call on a comedy. But if I'm doing a drama, a TV series drama, I have on a number of times been told what's written,

that's how we're going to do it. Yeah. And in parks, we did that too, but then we also got to play. Right. Because we did our fun runs. It allowed for the freedom to still have that fun as an actor while also knowing how to get the words out.

Yeah. Wow, that's intense, especially if you're doing a long walk and talk. Yeah, yeah. And you do a huh instead of a hi. Wow. You could be there all day. Well, Leslie and Pillner's walk and talk is so fun, especially with fans knowing that Bradley Whiffer did a hell of a lot of them

on the West Wing. You know, the sob story that she has to save the park's budget, right? She says, quote, our department is the only thing between her and a life of tube tops and tribal tattoos and barfing in hot tubs. Yeah, she's shown him a picture of a little girl. Right, sorry. I just set that up.

Yeah, just set it up. She has shown him a picture of a little girl, and then that's what she says to him. And that is such manipulation. Yeah, but it's great. It's that up. Yeah, just set it up. She has shown him a picture of a little girl, and then that's what she says to him. And that is such manipulation. Yeah, but it's great. It's great manipulation. Yeah. But that's the options for this little girl.

Yeah. That's it. That's it. Tube tops, tribal tattoos, and barfing in hot tubs. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not against any of that. Don't you love the scene where April is leading this press conference?

Oh, my gosh. God, it's so funny. She's so uncomfortable up there. And she has this great now more respect for all the stuff that Leslie does, that Leslie, you know, I don't have in my notes, but Leslie refers to it as just like a casual press conference, whatever she says.

And it's like, this is a big deal. This is hard. Yes. And these reporters,, this is a big deal. This is hard. Yes. And these reporters, they're looking for trouble. I mean, quote, all due respect,

Ms. Ludgate, but do you even know what you are doing here? And it says, all due respect, Mr. Hamster Penis, but no, I do not.

That's such a perfect It's so funny. Yes. Yeah. This scene is reminiscent of another great West Wing scene in which CJ gets a root canal, can't speak,

and Josh Lyman, a.k.a. guest star Bradley Woodford, goes out and gets schooled by the White House press corps. Oh, there we go. We're going to know that when we watch it, you guys, at some point.

Yeah, you're going to love it. We will know that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Jim, how do you feel about opening our synopsis back up? Open it up, baby. Okay, well, Ben criticizes Leslie for allowing her preference for the Parks Department to get in the way of the election. April struggles as Leslie's substitute,

and Tom suggests that she find some aspect of the Parks Department that she can be passionate about. Ben discovers that instead of taking money out of the Parks Department, Pilner has decided to cut the budget of the animal shelter, leaving the animals with only days to live. Jennifer Barkley, Katherine Hahn, goes on television to label Leslie

an animal murderer. And instead of admitting she was wrong and suggesting they cut the park's budget, Leslie decides, of course, to adopt all the animals.

Yes, and she does. And she does. And I regret that I didn't show up to set that day because the scene with all of the animals in the house,

that is my heaven. They had bunnies. They had pigs. They had dogs. They had cats. I'm really, when I saw... The ingredients

for every great party. It really is because I was in it later. We're all at the park, which we'll get into all that. We're at the park, you know, still doing animal rescue.

But at this point, the animals were all in cages and stuff. So we didn't really get to totally interact. But at the house, I mean, there's a scene where Pratt

is covered in animals. Yeah. And I, that's, anyway, I'm mad at myself. Yeah. I should have saw it.

I should have showed up. It's a problem. I should have been there. No, it sounds like so much fun. So much fun. And it's so, I mean, it's insane

to see all those animals, but it's also so cute. It's so cute. And imagine, because, you know, people have to get, when you're working with animals and I recently did something

where there was a deer involved, like truly a deer with antlers, the whole thing. I've heard of deers. You've heard of them. And it was a holiday thing. And they brought the deer in and we were all told,

be very careful, a little skittish, which killed me because of course I just want to run up and like kiss its forehead and do all this stuff. But then as almost always happens, that deer just started to poop, just started to poop. And plop after plop. And just when the poop was done and we're dying, we're dying, we're laughing so hard. Then the pee comes in and it's like a hose and it's so, and it's just inevitable. So there must've been so much poop and pee on set that

day. There had to be because these are animals and they're going to... There is... Jumping to Mad TV which our beautiful Mo Collins has been our guest and she was on Mad TV. I will sometimes, when I need a laugh, I will jump... There's a holiday episode where Michael McDonald and... Oh, I can't think of his name, but he's playing Connie Chung and

Michael is playing Maury Povich and Rosie O'Donnell comes in with a pig. And you guys go to YouTube and check this out, because as they're doing the scene, the actress, and I can't think of her name, playing Rosie O'Donnell, you can see where she gets the whiff. Because she hasn't seen it happen. This whiff comes in her face, and then it's up for grabs. The whole rest of the scene is up for grabs. Got it. Wow.

So that was not scripted that the whiff would be happening. Okay. But it's animals. And God love them. That's what they do. We're animals. We're animals. But we figured it out.

I mostly use the toilet. Not always. Not always. Sometimes I go in front of colleagues. Oh, yes. In the middle of a shoot. Sure. I will say I do love middle of the night when I let the dogs out.

I'll pee outside. That's right, baby. I'm a shoot. Sure. I will say, I do love middle of the night when I let the dogs out. I'll pee outside. That's right, baby. I'm a man. I'm a man's man. I pee outside. No, no, don't laugh at this. I would think it would be so funny if you just kept going and you kept digging. But the three of us just all walk out.

The rest of the podcast is you talking about this. Anyway, so I'm sorry I wasn't there then. No, yeah. That's what it all comes down to. Well, in our story, April is struggling in this position, right? Yes. To fill in for Leslie. She's clearly very upset when she asked Tom for help.

We rarely see April like this, right? I like how Tom says something like, what does Leslie always say? And April, I don't know, weird stuff about waffles. That's what she says. Right. It's great. But yeah, you don't get to see April this vulnerable. Right.

Scared. Scared. Scared. Yeah. I also love in that little moment with Tom that we get Tom's Snakehole Lounge drinks. that little moment with Tom that we get Tom's Snakehole Lounge drinks. He's talking about the beer Yonce Knowles, which is just

a regular beer put in a sexy-ass mug, and it pairs nicely with the Jay Zima. Ah, Zima. We had a great return. We have a great return from Jennifer Barkley, from Catherine Hahn. She's so great. You know,

there's so many actors out there and so many talented people. But especially on this show, can you picture anyone else playing Barkley? No, no. She's so perfect. She's so perfect.

Yeah, absolutely. Slimy and smart and of course beautiful, all the good stuff. Well, here she labels Leslie a dog murderer. Dog murderer. And I love that she brings out

that adorable puppy to really sell it. You know, she knows how to play it for Bobby's campaign. And when she says, say your goodbyes, Pebble, because Wesley Knope is going to kill you. Oh, my God. She goes, I'm not saying that Leslie Knope is a dog murderer per se. I just think that her actions raise some questions like, is she a dog murderer? Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's just perfect. Yeah, it's great. And then holding up the little puppy. Or as Tom would say, puppy, puppy. Oh, my God. He would make us laugh so hard when he would do that voice. And we get that great moment from Donna and Retta just kills it when she says, Leslie, there's a woman on the phone that says her daughter's scared to go to sleep because Leslie Knope's going to come murder her kitty. That's awful.

Yeah. No, it is awful. It's terrible. That's a real child who's scared. And, you know, we can't forget that Perd's in this episode. Yeah. When Jennifer Barkley is saying about, well, I know she's a murderer, but it's certainly, maybe she is, and purred. Well, I don't know the answer to that, Jennifer, but your tone makes me think yes.

Yeah. That is so perfect. I know, it's so perfect. You don't have a clue what's going on with that tone. It sounds like she could be a murderer. It's like how you said, it had the cadence of a joke. Exactly. In our synopsis, Ron goes

to the meditation center with Chris but refuses to participate. And to help Leslie with her overflow of animals and to help herself get more comfortable in her new role, April decides to throw an animal adoption fair at one of the parks. Leslie and Ben attempt to find another part of the budget

that can be trimmed. So we have Ron who Chris wants him to potentially be his assistant. Yeah, city manager. City manager. And when I think of that, I'm like, you know, Ron has no interest in something like that. But then he does, because he realizes the power he might have to do things like, for example, take down traffic lights. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And eliminate all departments. All departments, right. All of them. It's great because when Chris and Ben show up on the series and come into the parks department where they're all dealing with the budget problems, Chris is this happy, sweet, we can do anything, good cop. And Ben's the one who's like, yeah, no, we have to cut this. Cut it. Right? He's the cut guy. He's the bad cop. And Ben's the one that's like, yeah, no, we have to cut this. He's the cut guy. He's the bad cop.

And so Chris works best with a bad cop. Well, you want to know a real bad cop? I mean, he's a great guy, but Ron Swanson is going to cut and slash and end as much as possible because that is who he is.

He believes in the government doing as little as possible so that the individual can do as much as they want. Be self-sufficient. He has figured out how to cut 85% of the budget. Yeah. 85%. Yeah, it's great. I mean, good for him, but that means the government's not going to be functioning the way you think it's going to be functioning. But unfortunately, for this to happen, he does have to go, he's got to play the game with Chris. And so he does go to this retreat.

But before he goes, he gets a hold of Ann because he needs to say, do you know what this is all about? Because he wants to get a heads up. But what I loved about it is when he went to Ann, he brought her papers because Ron can't just go to Ann and ask a question. There had to be a reason. So he literally, he has no reason. So he hands her papers that are, she opens it up and there's nothing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's so Ron. And that's one of those things I just love. Right. He's like, here are papers. Oh, and by the way, while I'm here. Yes. He can't just be a personal question.

No, no. Cause that's too personal. And he can't just say, Hey,. No, no, because that's too personal. And he can't just say, hey, Anne, listen, you know, you've been to... No. And, you know, he would still call her the nurse. Right. I love that. Yeah. Those are the little moments that the characters, we show who they really are, and we never let that go.

Through seven seasons, it's never let go. Through seven seasons, it's never let go. It's not just the storyline of the episode, but these are real characters that you're watching who have been thought out, thought through, and well executed. That's who you're watching. You're not just watching a funny story. And it's how you become to love a character. It's those little idiosyncrasies that you're just like,

oh, that is so Ron. He would never just go up and talk to her. He's got to have a fake reason. But this is a great segue to something I wanted to talk about, which is that you can get jokes in everywhere on stuff. And you see that in set deck all the time. And you get one here where the restaurant next to the meditation center is called Achilles meal. It's referred to as a Greek restaurant later on. And you get a little, little later on and you get a funny moment. They never say the name of it, but it's called

Achilles meal. And that's just a joke. And you do that because funny moment, they never say the name of it, but it's called the Achilles meal. And that's just a joke. And you do that because you don't know if on the day of, someone's going to use it as the fodder for an improv, but you just put jokes in everywhere you can. I didn't even notice that.

Thank you for the chat. I like it. At the meditation center, we have Achilles meal outside and then they're inside. And Chris very quickly jumps into meditating and you have the great shot of Ron just staring blankly. And then you have a talking head with him later. And you realize that his steadfast refusal to meditate has led him to meditating. It's great.

Like deep meditation. He thought of nothing. His head was empty. His head was empty, which is what Chris is trying to get to and can never get to. Amazing. But he stood there for hours.

I kept thinking, like if I had to just stand somewhere for hours, like I'd be so crabby. Oh, I wouldn't. Yeah, yeah. Just be crab be crabby especially the whole point of it was to be motionless right yes yes yes no it sounds everyone in that lord is that lotus position they're all sitting in though it would have been fun to see ron do that but didn't happen um i love how donna has these made-up backstories for the pets right so great right many of the pets

saved people from burning buildings. One dog was Ray Charles' companion. A cat was supposedly in Boogie Nights. And another dog is related to the fictional Bud Light canine mascot Spuds McKenzie. First of all, I have adopted many animals over my life. They do come up with stories. I really believe they do. I don't care.

You could tell me it did this. You fall in love with a pet. over my life, they do come up with stories. I really believe they do. I don't care. You could tell me it did this. You fall in love with a pet. I don't care. Yeah. You know, I don't care the story. But, you know, yeah, promotion. It's smart.

It's smart. And what I love also, we're doing this because we also have April, who has found something that she's really excited about. She is going to get these animals homes. Yeah, yeah. And I love that for her. Yeah. And, of course, everybody jumps in. Jerry's there.

Don is there. We're all going to make it happen. But I especially love that for her. Of course, it doesn't play out how she wanted. No, but it's nice. You're watching a character find purpose. Yes. Right?

Because she's been desperate to find purpose. Right. Her job is kind of just to avoid working, to be curt and criticize. I mean, her job for Ron as Ron's assistant is to make Ron's life as easy as possible by doing as little work as possible. That's what he likes about her as an assistant. Yes. But no, it's nice to see a character like this find drive. Yeah.

Well, she lit up when she had the idea about doing the animal rescue. She lit up. And I love watching April shine. I like watching April shine. And let's go to an ad. Is your car dull? Well, you can shine it up. Is your car dull? You can shine it up. Opening our synopsis back up, we have Leslie and Ben convince Pillner to cut the budget by releasing employees on retainer,

seemingly saving the park's budget and animals' shelter budget. Chris is impressed that Ron joined him despite his reservations and decides to hire him as assistant city manager. Once he is voted by the city council for another term as city manager. Meanwhile, April is upset when her animal affair concludes with more animals than it started with. We'll get to that. Finally, Anne reveals that she is losing her job as a result of Leslie and Ben's budget trimming. Man, a lot going on.

So much going on. Yeah, it's a lot of moving parts in this episode. A lot of little story beats to follow. I love it. But yeah, there's a lot going on. I think, especially the, I don't know if you want me to jump to this now, but the Ann story. Because Leslie has figured out the problem.

All is good in the world. I have found this rare little thing that people are getting paid that shouldn't be and they need to be gone or off the roster. Okay, we have this money. But then the powers that be are like,

well, if that's still happening, we should check this other stuff. And then Ann is about to lose her job. And it's like from 10 down to one again. It's like a butterfly effect in a way of the stuff. And it ultimately like from 10 down to one again. It's like a butterfly effect in a way of the stuff. It ultimately is a really good lesson for Leslie, who is running

for office, who wants this job, and wants this added weight of responsibility. And it's not as simple as doing things for these purely altruistic motives that there are dollars and cents to figure out. You have to deal with your details.

And in this sense, it means that Anne is going to lose her job. But yes, the annual shelter saved and the parks budget's fine, but some people, including her best friend Anne, are going to be let go. And also, I think they have to remember, Ben tried to express to Leslie, when she was getting this initial budget dealt with, trying to get him to not cut the budget. She really was just concentrating on parks. Well, Ben said to her, if you're a city councilman, you can't just be focused on one thing. It's the city. It's every department. Right.

And that would be a tough lesson for Leslie to learn because that parks department, that's her heart and soul. Of course, yeah. And so that's, I love that. I think that was really important when he said that to her. This will not just be about parks. Yeah. Another West Wing reference, the framed Pilner for Pawnee napkin that's on his desk is, of course, a reference to the framed Bartlett for America napkin that Liam McGarry gave to President Bartlett.

Another reference? I don't understand. Do you know what? Let me, I'll say this. I wrote an episode of the show that had Jonathan Banks in it, who, you know, is Mike Ehrmantraut on Breaking Bad. Worked with Jonathan in 1996 on a remake of Harvey. We shot in Vancouver.

Okay. Yeah, so when I saw him again on set, I was very excited. Amazing. This is my story. Anyway, so when I was in Vancouver, I found it. Go ahead. Well, I had not watched Breaking Bad at this point, but everyone was so amped

that we got him and everyone was like, I want to take a picture with you. And it's Breaking Bad was the drama on TV. Breaking Bad, and everyone's obsessed and I just had not gotten to see it yet, but I knew it was a big deal for these other people. And so

I made sure I got my picture with them. And so that in like a year when I wound up watching, I was like, that's me. That's Mike. And I knew. But that's going to be like you all with West Wing. Like you're going to hear all these references and they're going to be a bit of background noise,

but you're going to watch it and you're going to be like, wait, the pillar for Pawnee Napkin. And you're going to be crying when you see the napkin episode. You are. And I'm saying, I'm saying right now

what sounds like describing a dream to someone. You're going to cry when you see the napkin episode. But there are a heck of a lot of people

at home or in the car or wherever you are right now at the gym. Good for you. Listening. Random. Good for you. Not random. Good for you. Listening to Parks and Recollection.

And you're like, yeah, that's right. The napkin episode. And you're crying right now thinking about it. It's like when you tell people who have never seen Game of Thrones, when you see the Red Wedding. Right. Because you can watch reaction videos of the Red Wedding on YouTube. And it's no spoilers other than you see people

it's literally screaming right sometimes right yeah and i love that i do so i'm glad i thank you this will get me more uh more apt to watch well good great that's that's wonderful um or i'll never see it it's you know who knows um let's also uh call out that we have another writer in this episode as an actor. It's Katie Dippel. Katie Dippel. She is the woman dropping off her own cats at the animal fair that saw a net gain of one pet. And it's so funny. And Katie's so weird and awkward in it.

And I love it. And we got Katie on the show. And I was there that day because we were shooting. I was in that scene. And Katie running away. And Katie, when I say Katie, you know, the character running away. And April chasing after her made me laugh so

hard. And there was something about the way Katie ran. And I don't know if she was doing like maybe that's just how she runs. I don't know. Or if she was trying to do a funny thing. Anyway, because you know it's take after take. I laughed so hard. Because first of all all whenever I see someone having to run in a take

even when I'm watching I'm like oh kill me because you just know it's take after take and so especially someone like me it's like

we're going again like get the ambulance and get those defibrillators because this ain't going to go well and it was take after take

and it made me laugh so hard and the way that just April was screaming at her come and get your effing cat or something like that. Yeah, great moment. So funny. Synopsis is opening up to reveal that Councilman Hauser tells Chris that the city council is currently voting three to two to keep him as city manager. But since Pilner is retiring, whoever is elected will be the new deciding vote. And that Bobby is not happy about Chris campaigning for Leslie in his spare time, so he will vote to remove Chris if he is elected.

Chris comes to Ron to inform him of the bad news, and Ron invites Chris to share a bottle of whiskey with him. And I just want to jump in. Bobby would have no concept of how this was all happening. The people around him would want... Right, but that's politics, baby. Yeah, but I'm just saying, Bobby himself, when she's a woman and Bobby would... No, the Bobby Newport

administration. The Bobby Newport staff is going to want this to happen. Absolutely. You know, we didn't talk about it yet, but Andy in a previous scene is playing with Pilner's ships and bottles

in Pilner that's his world the ships and bottles Andy's playing with it here but we learned that Pilner puts ships and bottles it's his hobby that he loves it it's a nice action for our actor to do it's very specific and it's character building

in specificity. He has them all over. You know this is his thing. And here we have Andy playing with it and just immediately drops it. I like how even better he somehow got the ship out of the bottle. It's perfectly intact. He's like, I got it out. It's like it's one of those

toys you get at a party. Can you get this? It's like, it's one of those like toys you get at a party. Like, can you get this? It's like a brain teaser kind of toy. Yeah. Ah, it's so funny. I don't even really know. Do they get them in there literally piece by piece? So like with tweezers, because they're not opening up a bottle.

I really don't even know how it works. Well, I've never done it myself, but from the one YouTube video I watched once of it happening, But from the one YouTube video I watched once of it happening, I believe that you put it together and then you trigger the opening of it. I have no idea. Do you know what we need to do? We need to find out. Or someone, I know this.

I just feel it in my bones. There is a listener of Parks and Rec. Who's going to know how this happens. Who does this. Who's going to write to us. And we are going to talk about that again. So if that is you, please write to us, please email us, please hashtag Parks and Recollection. Be our ship-in-bottle guru.

We need you. Okay, another West Wing call-out. We've talked about this before. The episode comes from a line where the line is, we play with live ammo here. It's a direct reference to the West Wing episode, The Lame Duck Congress, season two, episode six. Rob Lowe plays Sam Seaborn, and he says to Ainsley Hayes,

we play with live ammo around here. It's a direct line. I believe there was conversation, in fact, between Mike Shore and Aaron Sorkin, which we kind of got the nod of approval. Because it's a thing to quote it without calling it out. Because we're not calling it out. No.

But we wanted that, like, you have my blessing. And we got the blessing. And I'm pretty sure Aaron was talking about how much he loves Parks and blessing and we got the blessing and i i'm pretty sure aaron was talking about how much he loves parks and rec and we love west wing and so there was a lot of love between these i think related distantly related types of interesting hope says april is sad about the failure of her adoption drive but tom suggests that april look on the bright side her affair was responsible for one little girl getting the dog of her dreams. Meanwhile, Leslie and Ben asked Jennifer Barkley to

advise Bobby to fund the animal shelter using his own wealth. Jennifer is initially confused as to why Leslie would give Bobby's campaign such an opportunity for great press. But Leslie confidently responds that she will easily defeat Bobby in the upcoming debate in the following week. Jen Barkley cannot understand a good deed just for a good deed. Her brain does not work like that. But that's not how politics works,

but especially hers. I love how Catherine plays that moment. Right? She's like, no, no. Actually, that's a really great idea. I don't know. I'm really bad at it. Because she immediately is going to cut it down.

Oh, no, no. We're not going to. That's a great idea. I don't know why I didn't think about Matt. I didn't think about it. Why are you doing this? What's in it for you? What's in it for you?

And ultimately, there is something in it for them because she does know that she's going to be able to kick his ass. But there really is nothing as far as it's about saving these animals. In work mode, in work Leslie, there's a lot. Parks is fine. Animal shelter, fine. Her friend Anne has her job. Everything's fine.

Campaign Leslie, this is a win you're giving to your opponent. The person you have to beat. It's not just some also-ran. This is the guy you have to beat. It's not just some, you know, also ran. That's also the, this, this is the, this is the guy you got to beat and you're giving him a victory. And when you're talking about animals, people, and I am one of them, I can watch a movie and people are getting shot and blown up and houses around, blah, blah, blah. The minute you mess with an animal, I can't, I can barely watch the damn movie. It's like people are like, oh, you got to see Marley and Me.

No, thank you. I don't need to sob at the end of the film. And I've never seen it, so I'm assuming I would sob at the end of the film. You would be a puddle. Yes. So it would be a movie I will never see. It's like when people are like, oh, you got to watch March of the Penguins, which is that documentary on penguins. I did watch that damn thing, and I hate everyone who made me watch it. March of the Penguins, which is that documentary on penguins. I did watch that damn thing. And I hate everyone who made me watch it because those penguins, you know, that documentary

on penguins. I'm sorry, but these penguins, they're like, oh, it's such an uplifting. No, they were losing their babies and the eggs. Some of the eggs weren't being hatched because there were, it was terrible. I mean, it was, I guess, wonderful to see their lives. But I felt I was duped. Did you ever see John Wick? John Wick, the piano? Yes.

Yeah, no, no, no. The podiatrist. No. I have a bit of a bunion. I should go see him. Have you seen John Wick? Of course. Yeah, well, you know, it's built on a certain premise of something that happens to his dog early on.

That must have been really tough for you to see. Yes, I don't like any animals. So the reason I bring, I'm even bringing all this up is because they have hit the heart of what affects people. Animals. Yeah. Yeah. And so to say that she's going to kill them,

whatever. And so the fact that they're going to make this all better, Leslie has figured out how to make it better. Yeah. And I love the scene where Leslie, Amy is playing it, where the idea is coming to her, but it's not there. But it's getting there.

Shush, shush, shush. Stop talking. It's good. Oh, but, but, but, but. And then she's got it. Yeah. Yeah. It's like you see the beautiful mind music playing

and like all the numbers connecting. And she's like, hold on. It's coming to me. And I got it. And I got it. Yes. Yeah. Great moment.

And great episode. Final thoughts on this episode. Oh, actually, do you want, before we get your final thoughts, can we get a bit of your crap? A bit of my crap? Yeah. One of my, I think one of the great funny moments is when Ron is next to the meditation place and it's been awful. And he goes, there is, because next to him is the Greek place.

And he says, there is a hot spinning cone of meat in that Greek restaurant next door. I don't know what it is, but I would like to eat the whole thing. Because that is where Ron would go. Yeah. Can I interrupt some of your crap to give a little extra crap? Extra crap it up. I'm remembering now that the actor who comes by, Chris and Ron, he has the bags of food. And he's like, excuse me, ladies.

Whatever. That made us laugh so much. It's just the line, the way he delivered it. It's so like, it almost belongs, it belongs in a completely other TV show.

And it completely, but it's just, excuse me, ladies, just coming through. And I don't know why, but it's, it's hysterical. I love it.

Another great moment that we didn't talk about when Anne realizes she's going to lose her job and they're all talking about it. She goes, well, I don't know. Maybe I should just go back to being a nurse full-time. Leslie, no, I won't let you return to a life of shaving wieners and dodging knife attacks

from meth heads. Right. That is what she thinks Anne does. Right. And Anne quickly just goes, right. Right, right. Because Anne's done this before. In fact, there's a line once when Leslie has a version of this and she says, what do you think I do?

Is that what you think I do? Yes. At this point, she's like, yes, Leslie has this false impression of what my job as a nurse is. She opened heart surgery. She's held a heart in her hand. Yeah. But to say shaving wieners, like what goes on in that time? And meth heads?

Yeah, yeah. Do we have meth heads in that time and methods yeah do we have methods in Pawnee like well maybe we do you know the problem comes to you you don't go to the problem yeah there's also a moment earlier that killed me when um Leslie says if you hear them talking about that blonde pain in the ass that's me yeah she goes that's a me yeah I love because that is she's proud of that she's proud of that. She's proud of that. I think we were, I actually got it, though I did put here in real big letters, Chris is so depressed. And it just made me, you know, and Rob plays that, he just plays it so well. And a guy who's, you know, his looks and his smarts has given him so much in his life.

And his health is amazing. Everything is good. And yet, life does shit on us sometimes. And people break up with us. And we try different things to get out of it. And sometimes it just doesn't happen. And certainly not overnight. So that broke my heart for him.

And also, Katherine Hahn spitting out the water. Oh, yeah. When Leslie said to her, oh, that's not, I wouldn't drink that water. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She realizes. Yeah. Loved it. That's not, I wouldn't drink that water. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She realizes. Yeah. Loved it. That's my crap.

That's a great crap. And do you have an episode MVP for us? Our most valuable pun, Ian? Wow. I didn't put much thought into this one yet about that. Who do you have? Classic Jim O'Hare experience. Exactly.

Mm-hmm. Who are you going with? Well, it's April for me because. Yeah, I think you're right. Well, it's April for me because, you know, she has this great storyline and it pulls on a version of a character we haven't explored that much that maybe we're about to explore some more. And I think Aubrey's great in it. She has so much great comedy with the animals. And I like her scene with Tom a lot where he gives some good advice. And I think that it's a really great April storyline.

I think it's a great April storyline. Again, just because she can't help it, Leslie is always front and center because she's the star of the show. So there's always great stuff from Amy. But I'm going to go with April too. I think that's a valid... And somehow

Jerry. Even though I don't know how, but I'm going to go with Jerry. I, his humility. I have literally no idea how. Do you want to go to the town hall? I think you do. Alright, Jim, let's do our town hall, and I think you do. All right, Jim, let's do our Town Hall. And I think we should set it maybe with all the animals outside.

I love that. You know, you weren't there for all the animal time, but you're here in spirit with the animals as we set our Town Hall surrounded by the animals of the Animal Shelter. Lots of poop and pee and just ribalong. Well, this one comes from Claire Dayton in Ohio who says, Hey! That's how she starts.

Hey! Exclamation point. Hey! I don't know if you've already recorded for this episode, but I have a question I've always wanted to ask. As a huge fan of both the West Wing and Parks and Recreation, I'm an absolute sucker for live ammo and I was wondering if you could have

one character from each show meet, who would you pick? And how do you think they would react to each other? Thanks! I'll turn that to you guys. I'm going to say Bob Branley.

Bob Branley from theantley who played the from the West Wing who played from the West Wing who was a political guy great and then he

came he would come to the Parks Department and be kind of a political guy and we would walk and talk great

so that's who I would go what's so funny Jim in this great improv of yours is that good training baby second sitting you got that yours is that good training baby second sitting you got that right is that you made up a character name from

the West Wing and his job and then couldn't name a person on the show you worked on for 125 episodes and would meet and you're like yes name anybody it doesn't matter because it's wrong, but name it.

Just name it. Okay. Well, you know, in the weird world, I think it'd be funny, Claire, and all of the West Wing fans, if we had Ethel Beavers, right, meet Marion Cotsworth-Hay, her character on the West Wing. And if we had Sam Seaborn, Rob Lowe, meet Chris Traeger. Oh, that would be fun. Right. And if, oh my gosh. And we had now Brad Woodford, Councilman Pilner meet Josh Lyman and on and on. But that's like a weird black mirror type thing.

But, you know. But wouldn't it be weird to have... Martin Sheen played the president. That's right. What about him coming and meeting Chris Traeger? Would that be an odd... That would be fun. It'd be interesting, yeah. That'd be fun. But for me...

And a great pitch for someone who's never seen the show whatsoever. But I don't know. I would like to see someone like Ron Swanson sit down with Leo McGarry, played by John Spencer, the great John Spencer. And just to see, I think they both

have this softness, but also there's this shell, this is how my colleagues should see me and work with me. I think that those two energies would be amazing. Yeah. And you know, do what I would also like to do.

I would like to create a world where April Ludgate is just like an intern or a lowest assistant on the West Wing. And just her character just isn't an episode of the West Wing would be amazing. And what international crisis would she get in? Create, yeah. Create and then somehow solve with the help of her friend back at home, Leslie Knope. So Claire, I don't know if that appeals to you,

but that's my pairing. And for all other West Wing fans and Parks and Rec fans, who would you like to see together? I would love to read that. And let's talk about that, please. We've done it again, Dan. We did it again. Another top-tier episode to go on the Mount Rushmore, the ever-expanding

Mount Rushmore Parks and Rec Collection episodes. I want to thank everyone for listening. Jim, as always, for doing this with me. Thank you. Text this episode to your group chat. Start a group chat. If you don't have a group chat, make some friends. If you don't have friends, get that group chat going. Thanks to our

engineer Joe, producer Sean, and from everyone here at Parks and Rec Collection, goodbye from Honey. This has been a Team Coco production.