Parks and Recollection - Media Blitz (S3E5)

Starting point is 00:00:00 We're getting together to talk about all the things we used to do The laughs, the passions, the little Sebastian's, the pits 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 Well, hello everybody. It is your favorite podcast, Parks and Recollection. I am Rob Lowe and I'm joined with my partner, Alan Yang. How you doing, Rolo? What's going on? This is a Wednesday. We're recording this on a Wednesday. It's amazing.

Starting point is 00:00:50 It's exciting for us to actually not be doing one of these on a weekend. I mean, it makes it feel like it's an actual, like, it seems more professional, I think. It's more of a workday. It's going to have a workday feel, just like put on your hard hat, get your lunch pail, and record a podcast during your lunch break. Right, Rob? And we got a good one today. This is a, well, I'll save my comments for the appropriate time in this discussion. But I particularly like a very specific area of this episode.

Starting point is 00:01:20 I think I know what you're talking about. And it's a, honestly, I would say a legendary episode. I would say it is up there in the annals it's it's retired to the rafters the episode is media blitz written by harris whittles directed by david rogers original air date february 17th 2011 and it is episode 5 of season 3 one of the finest seasons of the show quick blurb leslie hits the pawnee media circuit to promote the Harvest Festival, but Ben freaks out on air when his past is exposed. Yeah,

Starting point is 00:01:49 really, really wonderful episode. Our notes to start the episode number one, this is a big one, Rob Lowe, Rob Lowe in the building, Rob Lowe's opening credits moment is at 245. Do you remember this? Do you remember this scene? It's point, it's double finger guns, I believe. Double finger guns, that's right. And you're wearing like workout clothes. I remember this scene? It's point, it's Double finger guns, I believe

Starting point is 00:02:05 Double finger guns, that's right And you're wearing like workout clothes I don't know, that's like, I mean you're wearing workout clothes a lot in the show But in this specific shot, I believe I think it's in the, is it the scene in the Did I go visit Ann Perkins in the hospital? Am I stretching, I think, in this? Yes, I think, yeah

Starting point is 00:02:20 Probably wearing some precursor to Bumbleflex But yeah, you're pointing at the camera And yeah, it's a trademark some precursor to Bumbleflex, but you're pointing at the camera. And yeah, it's a trademark movement. It goes in the opening credits. I love identifying those moments. So thank you for that research. I wanted to pop in to tell you guys, I think the exact moment it's Aubrey.

Starting point is 00:02:38 April's come to talk to you in your office about potentially moving to Indianapolis. And we have Anne behind you stretching. And you're walking April through the possibilities of what life in Indianapolis can be like I knew yeah the stretching was a very big thing there for a while and I'm not the most limber person Chris Traeger is Rob Lowe is not that's that's why you're one of the finest actors in America it's the stretch people didn't know people thought you were you were flexible and that's what they say in acting you know know, I thought the part was really a stretch. Get it? There you go. Our second Nope's Note. Ben's backstory was originally intended

Starting point is 00:03:10 for Amy. So I guess Amy, I mean Leslie. But the Ben backstory, yeah, very, very specific and it gets hashed out. We'll talk more about it later. But that was something that was thrown around in the writer's room as potentially an interesting backstory for Leslie Nope. And it later got repurposed for this new character. I think it all worked out thrown around in the writer's room as potentially an interesting backstory for leslie nope and it

Starting point is 00:03:25 later got repurposed for this new character i think it all worked out for the best but yeah we will discuss that in a bit third nope's note and final one matt besser who plays crazy ira founded the ucb upright citizens brigade theater alongside amy puller matt walsh and ian roberts so it was cool to have him in the show um he and amy obviously go way way, way, way back. And yeah, he plays a prominent role in this episode. And the Upright Citizens Brigade is, I mean, I'm always blown away by that. We take it for granted because we are friends with all these people, Alan. But the fact that somebody was like, I know, let's start our own comedy troupe is such a cool thing. It's so super cool.

Starting point is 00:04:09 thing it's so super cool i mean in the annals of the groundlings and uh you know uh second city yep you know to have and and to have it be in that mention in that breath which of course it is and and for good reason i will say during the making of this show i personally spent a lot of time at the ucb theater i wasn't a performer there but i just you know so many people in comedy were in and around the theater and they were performed there, you know, backstage, the green room, like all these guys, Nick Kroll, who's in this episode, Besser, Walsh, all those guys. And then the younger generation who is now, you know, killing it out there. Aubrey Aziz, they would all, they would all perform. A lot of our writers perform here with Harris Whittles, Katie Dippold, et cetera. So many people there. So yeah, we spent a good amount of time there and It was a bit of a breeding ground for Parks and Rec.

Starting point is 00:04:45 You could go to the performer page and identify a bunch of people who did guest spots and recurred and were in the regular cast as well. So really important theater. And yeah, it's a very, very big spawning ground for comedy. Shall we jump into the synopsis?

Starting point is 00:05:01 Oh yes, this is the best part. Leslie, Tom, and Ben promote the upcoming Harvest Festival on several Pawnee media outlets, starting with the local morning radio show, Crazy Ira and the Douche. Matt Besser and Nick Kroll. The duo begin asking Ben questions about his time as a teen mayor in Partridge, Minnesota, having discovered he bankrupted the town. Ben responds awkwardly and is unable to defend himself to Crazy Ira and the Douche's taunts. Tom proposes dumping Ben from future media interviews but leslie insists they cannot

Starting point is 00:05:29 because he's the only one who can handle complicated questions about the budget um so yeah we talked about ben's backstory it comes up very loosely the whoop there it is stuff in the master plan and then um here it comes the chickens come home to roost because he actually bankrupted the town which i thought was a very funny twist and very specific i think i believe mike shore came up with it a long time ago and it really fitted well with his character and you know he delivers such amazing comedy uh in this episode based on that emotional very emotional grounded basis this is a great um this is i think the first episode uh of the sort of Chris Ben episodes where Adam just gets to throw down. And I think where you guys as writers just gave him the touches, as the basketball players say.

Starting point is 00:06:16 You got to feed the big man, give him his touches. And he got him in this episode. And he just crushes. He's so funny trying to explain himself in these interview situations yeah and that's one of the great things about adam is is his incredible amount of range i mean if you've seen him in stepbrothers if you've seen him in parks and rec if you've seen him in the uh the current show severance on apple tv which just got renewed for second season congrats to adam um but no he does drama he does comedy and he does comedy in several different ways like

Starting point is 00:06:42 in this episode he's very sort of you know he's fumbling and he's awkward and he's nervous. And then if you watch him in Step Brothers or some other shows, including the one I'm working on right now, he's kind of a douche and he's kind of an asshole. And in this one, he plays opposite the douche and is instead playing like kind of nerdy and sweet. And that's kind of two different comedy wheelhouses. And you're right. I think, you know, we were adapting to Adam and learning what his strengths were. And it kind of was like Chris Traeger.

Starting point is 00:07:07 We had, you know, a clear game for him right off the bat. And now we're kind of finding Adam's groove. And this is one of his biggest comedy episodes, to be honest. I also love the, I think they've made appearances, but this is the first big Crazy Ira and the Douche episode where they get a lot of screen time. I think they've been on before, if I'm not mistaken.

Starting point is 00:07:29 I think they might have been mentioned. I'm not sure if they appeared. Greg, we can maybe check on that. But one of the things I would definitely want to talk about was Nick Kroll, who at the time was somewhat established, but was still a bit up and coming. This was a decade ago, if not a little more. And now he's carved out such an

Starting point is 00:07:45 amazing place for himself. You know, he created the show Big Mouth, um, and he did Oh Hello with John Mulaney and he's just done so much. I'm so happy for Kroll. Uh, he and I go way back and I remember when he was, you know, an up and coming standup and improv guy and, and, and just kind of getting out there and Kroll just, you know, treats everyone with a lot of respect and he's super funny and really talented. And it's, it's good to see a good guy, uh, really, really come into his own and, and, uh, man, he's, he's got his own comedy empire now. So shout out to Kroll. He's amazing in this and what better guy to do multiple voices than Nick Kroll? You know, he's, he's able to do it all. But these morning shows are insane. And like, so you have to,

Starting point is 00:08:24 like, if you're in LA, here's a little behind the show business thing you're in la you're in the la time zone right but these morning shows are obviously during the morning during drive time so you have to get up like five in the morning la time to do drive time east coast so you're like no coffee barely awake and they're like um you're gonna be on in about 30 seconds. You'll be talking to Billy and Silly from Philly. And it's the Morning Zoo River. They come on and they're just like, ah, blah, blah.

Starting point is 00:08:52 And you're like, what the? And they all sound exactly alike. No matter what city you're in, it's the river, it's the zoo, it's the gang, whatever it is. Yeah, that was kind of the origin of this story. I think is like every city has it right in LA when I was growing up, it was Kevin and Bean. So it was Kevin and Bean. And, uh, they had, by the way, Jimmy, the sports guy was Jimmy Kimmel. He ended up becoming very, very successful, but he was the radio guy. And yeah, it's, it's this morning zoo type thing. We also loved thinking about and pitching on the sound effects that the, uh, kind of unfortunately

Starting point is 00:09:24 named China Joe would play because Greg Levine, there's actually a little tidbit, Greg Levine would play sound effects in the writer's room, as we've mentioned in the past. And in later episodes, he would replace China Joe as the character Jewish Greg. So he would actually play essentially himself in the show and he would play the sound effects. And by the way, same kind of deadpan expression which really cracked me up in this and um you know there's some there's some there's some gems in this that certainly there's this joke uh that seems to me like a harris whittles joke which is uh leslie saying there will be hay rides at the harvest festival and uh curl says hey ride me is what crazy irish mom said to me so there there we go that's very uh

Starting point is 00:10:02 very vaudeville very vaudeville i'll never forget when i got named jewish greg because i think it's realized that's the part i was born to play when we were in the the writer's room and the actor played china joe who's amazing wasn't available right and everyone said i should do it based on playing sound effects in the writer's room and i think mike said well what should he be called? And it might have been Dan Gore. It probably was Dan Gore from across the room shouts, Jewish Greg. No thought instantly put in the script. No other second pitch. It was perfect.

Starting point is 00:10:33 There you go. Another Jewish man identifying you. It wasn't anti-Semitism. It was another Jewish guy. It was okay. We're all good. But yeah, this was so fun to shoot. And you'll notice there's a little Easter eggs during these call--in segments the people calling in are a bunch of the writers so the first guy who

Starting point is 00:10:49 calls in is me is is is me is me doing the phone call and for some reason adopting a slight southern accent not not from south but yeah you gotta you know you gotta stretch you gotta you know perform a little bit he this character's from eagleton in the show so you know he's a slight southern accent it's uh it doesn't it doesn't really sense, but it got in the cut, so there it is. Well, you know that they say that Indiana, where our show takes place, and Ohio are more newscasters and famous broadcasters have come out of that area of the country because of the lack of geographically identifiable language traits. Yes, that's right. It's very flat. It's very sort of, I love looking up these sort of, you know, linguistic maps of America and what terms are used where and what accents are used where. It's fascinating. If you Google this stuff, you can find it and you can take a quiz.

Starting point is 00:11:43 And if you answer the quiz truthfully, it can usually pinpoint exactly where you're from. It's really kind of cool. But I recommend that. I don't know what it's called, but if you Google that, you can find it. It's pretty fun. And yeah, this episode really broke open, you know, just to give you some insight into the writer's room. We realized it was ultimately a little bit more about Ben than about Leslie. You know, we had had, you know, umpteen 20 some episodes about Leslie. And in this one, it's like, yeah, let's learn more about Ben because he's a huge part of the show. And, you know, it's episode five, season three, and he's going to be a love interest for Leslie. And it really started to incorporate Ben into the storyline. And again, building on what Adam did in the Ron and Tammy

Starting point is 00:12:20 episode, being nervous around cops. In this one also decided he's uh nervous on on tv and uh nervous around pert happily so we'll get to that portion but uh let's move it in the next part of synopsis uh the other story april accepts an offer from chris played by roblo to move to indianapolis to be his secretary andy begs april to reconsider offering to perform all the tasks she hates doing for a month ron volunteers to help claiming that he does does not want to lose April as an assistant while denying he cares about April and Andy's relationship. Anne is increasingly frustrated that Chris had not asked her about coming to Indianapolis with him and is concerned about where the relationship is headed. So, yeah, I mean, this was and this is a little bit of the research. How strategic was the Indianapolis storyline? Was it schmuck bait? And that's kind of a term that the writers use when there's a plot turn

Starting point is 00:13:09 or a possibility or a threat or something that increases the stakes that the audience knows is not going to happen. I would argue, you know, schmuck bait that like Leslie's going to die in the episode. Like she's not going to die. Like the show's about her. But I would say this is a little less schmuck baity for me because number because number one you know adam and rob had just started on the show and it was for all people knew it was possible that they'd be written out or that rob is going on to star in his own show or whatever so it's a little bit less in that respect and i also think you know there's precedent for shows having someone move away into another city and just staying there for you know a little while and coming back so i think it's borderline schmuck bait but yeah that's a term you can throw around

Starting point is 00:13:49 with your friends who are some for some reason impressed by you knowing uh comedy tv writer lingo is schmuck bait it's a good one it's one of my favorite uh writer's room terms and it happens all the time you know also worth adding but might be helpful is that we also were trying to build in, and not a spoiler for the next episode, but a major storyline that was going to be happening with Chris and Anne in the next episode, if I remember correctly, about their relationship.

Starting point is 00:14:15 And so the idea being that Indianapolis was a real threat out there. It just might not have been for that character. And it also, I think, also helped to establish that as Chris perhaps is leaving for Indianapolis, Ben is slowly starting to fall in love with Pawnee at the same time. Absolutely. And, you know, we also see in this sort of story that Andy and April are growing closer together, and we see Ron emerge as their father figure, because it's just like such a natural role for him. Even, by the way, let's shout out to the cold open where he's typing on the typewriter, one of my favorite cold opens figure because it's just like such a natural role for him even by the way let's shout out to the cold open where he's typing on the typewriter one of my favorite cold opens

Starting point is 00:14:47 um and he's just listing all the words he knows and just typing them all i think that was born out of just the idea that ron is a sort of man out of time and he's just like he's just placed on the earth he's eternal and he loves this typewriter he hates technology and he's uh he's the tom hanks of pawnee yeah tom hanks famously only uses typewriters and collects them yes he's uh he's the tom hanks of pawnee yeah tom hanks tom hanks famously only uses typewriters and collects them yes he's a huge that's the way to get to tom hanks if you ever want to talk to tom hanks get really into typewriters and you can finagle a meeting with him i bet because uh that's his his passion when you come out to la and you guys are on hollywood boulevard because all the stars are there always walking up and down Hollywood Boulevard. And you see Tom Hanks,

Starting point is 00:15:25 you don't want to hit him with Saving Private Ryan stuff. No. Or any of that. Talk Underwood. Underwood typewriters. Is that a type of typewriter? I think it is.

Starting point is 00:15:33 Yes, Underwood. Let's see. There's a Royal. It's not Royale. There's a Royal. There's an Underwood. Those are the only two I knew. I was terrible at typing, incidentally.

Starting point is 00:15:57 I have to point this out. If there's anyone who wrote for the show at the time, they will know what I'm talking about. So if any of them are listening, there is a man, a citizen who comes in to the desk and asks Andy a question. He asked him to find his bird and Andy says, okay, or whatever. And then the man says, there's no time he can fly. And we just want to say that there's just for some reason, the way this guy did that read, it was our favorite thing maybe ever in the show. It's just a day player.

Starting point is 00:16:26 It's just, we would say there's no time he can fly every day in the writer's room, just imitating this guy's cadence, something about how he delivered it. I don't know. It was because it was not how we expected. I think it was not. I think he hit the word fly. I don't know. It was just something about, so if you this episode at at something around five minutes and he says there's no time he can fly um it's up there so we'll point these out periodically over the course of the show the things that we just stuck it's stuck in the writer's room for some reason i also it's that thing of i'm never endingly fascinated with how With how an actor can be horrible. Yes. With just one line or crush it. Transcendent.

Starting point is 00:17:09 With just one line. Transcendent. One line is all it takes. And sometimes, sometimes Rolo, sometimes the borderline between the two is really faint because sometimes it's the borderline between horrendous and genius. We've been there. We've seen it. We're like, oh, this is not usable. Then it's like, oh, they did it.

Starting point is 00:17:29 And it's crazy, but it's interesting. But that is, I totally get it also when actors come in and they want to put a spin on the line. Usually I'm trying to like, hey, man, say it like a normal human being and we'll get in the cut and it'll be all good like that. And I want to be patronizing, but don't put a crazy accent or spin on it and we'll be good. But yeah, sometimes it's genius. The famous story that I always love is Gary Oldman. You know the story. Oh, I think I heard about the story like two days ago, but go ahead.

Starting point is 00:17:52 It's in the movie with Natalie Portman and John Reno. The professional. The professional. Leon. Leon the professional. Yes, the professional. And he says, I want all of the police here. I want you to get them here.

Starting point is 00:18:12 And the guy goes, how many do you want? And he turns and he literally screams, everyone. And it's very famous on the internet. Yeah. and it's very famous like on the internet yeah and it was and it's fat it's fat it's famous way over the top like beyond beyond beyond beyond beyond yes top and uh i read an interview with gary and he was like the director just said okay now just really yell one just scream one and they both were like this is ridiculous this is they did he did it more for fun than anything and it's one of the most famous moments of of his everyone well that also by the way is the actor's lesson and he knows this better than anyone but you know i talked to my

Starting point is 00:18:57 girlfriend about it she's like look if they ask you to do something crazy and you do it once you know they're gonna put it in the cut like you just as soon as you you have it put on film you know they have the option because it exists on celluloid they can put it into the movie or show so that is the actor's risk you know um but i also love thinking about i thought where you're going with it was i heard a story this is a nod about gary oldman as it was about i believe it was about pierce brosnan but some director was talking about him and he's like yeah he showed up to set and we had not discussed this and he was just doing like a crazy accent I don't know if there was like southern accent or just like

Starting point is 00:19:30 he was like oh we don't want this and it's just spitting the rest of the movie like trying to convince him not to do that and then you think about like Pirates of the Caribbean or whatever Johnny Depp showed up and did that accent and it worked it like no one wanted I don't think anyone wanted him to do that I think he just did it and it made the movie somehow so these things you never know. It like no one wanted. I don't think anyone wanted him to do that. I think he just did it and it made the movie somehow.

Starting point is 00:19:45 So these things you never know. It's the single greatest acting choice in the history of the business, in my opinion. And it's batshit crazy. And it's like a $250 million bet. You know, I'm sure when the studio got those dailies, they were like, what is he doing? No, this is not going to work. For sure. They were like, can't you be more like Jake Gyllenhaal

Starting point is 00:20:05 in Prince of Persia? Yeah, exactly right. They were probably frantically on the phone like, can we get Robert Downey Jr. in here to play the pirate

Starting point is 00:20:11 as someone else? But it worked. So, I don't know, that seemed to have worked. All right, moving on with the episode, Ben's past comes up

Starting point is 00:20:19 during Leslie's interview with newspaper reporter Shauna Malway-Tweep, shout out to Alison Becker, who asks why Pawnee should accept financial guidance from someone with a poor budget managing record like Ben. Tom and Ben go on the television show You Heard with Purd in hopes of redeeming Ben's image, but this interview is even worse. Ben launches into a furious, incoherent rant when his past is brought up. As a result, several businesses consider pulling their

Starting point is 00:20:43 sponsorships from the Harvest Festival. This is one of the greatest sections in Parks history. This scene here. Who hasn't had gay thoughts? Sometimes I think I need glasses. Is there another bird joke? I swear I keep seeing a bird in the studio. I don't know what was going on in the writer's room. We just kept thinking about birds.

Starting point is 00:20:59 I also want to add the quality of the video. First of all, Aziz holds up a DVD. He's like, here's the tape. And then he puts it in and it's like very low quality. He's like, what is it? This is just a different era. It's like, it's very quaint. It's very cute. And, you know, any time Perd Happily is around, money.

Starting point is 00:21:17 It's one of my favorite. I mean, I don't know. In the citizenry of Pawnee, it's so hard because there's so many killers that Perd made me laugh. He might be my favorite. He might be. It's just, it never got old. He has one lane and one joke and it never, ever failed to crush.

Starting point is 00:21:35 He's really up there for me. And also, it's so fat. Like, we, you know, everyone loved him. So, that's why you see him revolve from he's a reporter with one line to he's doing a war the worm on the telethon and then he has his own talk show now it's like the writers are just on like he is there he was our crack like he was our crack okay he's like we just cannot like we would write him into every episode at a certain point at a certain point like he was so the character got so crazy he would pretend to hold a microphone he wouldn't even have

Starting point is 00:22:03 a mic in his hand he's like i'm pertap happily and i'm really realizing now i don't have a microphone like it's just like what but he would do everything in that one cadence and it was so funny and it's just i don't know it it i don't know he just was perfect for the role and obviously he was a real newscaster that's why and every time it makes me laugh also because sometimes you'd be on set with jay uh who played pert happily and he would kind of read it more normally. And then I would go up to him and he'd be like, more like a newscaster? I was like, yeah, I just do it more like a newscaster. I just do it like a newscaster. Like, that's every cadence. That's the bit. And he killed it. And by the way, like, if you're casting shows now and you read for newscasters, you'll see Jay Jackson. He'll come up and read. He's

Starting point is 00:22:40 been a newscaster in tons of things. And I like to think that they're all part of the Parks and Rec cinematic universe. Like, I believe he part of the Parks and Rec cinematic universe. Like, I believe he's in the Fast and Furious movies. Whenever I watch Wolf Blitzer, he's like a Perd Hapley because he cannot come back from a news report without giving you a Perd Hapley. Like, yes, the Ukraine is a violent place where war is happening, and bad images continue. In a story that won't stop unfolding, the Ukraine war continues. It just, like, just the same. Yeah, it continues to unfold.

Starting point is 00:23:16 Yeah, it just, endless fun to write, and I think that was some of the most fun we had in the writer's room, was just pitching on Perth Hathaway lines. We would write tons of alts. I think that was some of the most fun we had in the writer's room was just pitching on per capita lines. We would write tons of alts. There's also a great scene where Tom drives Ben to the interview. And it's fun to see Aziz and Adam together. You know, I think they have a very fun dynamic. I think it led up to seeing these scenes probably helped inspire us with the Entertainment 720

Starting point is 00:23:39 storyline. And, you know, behind the scenes, Adam and Aziz became pretty good friends. They're both men with narrowish shoulders Who have a good sense of fashion and a sense Of style and you know you just Keep going and you maintain these friendships In the business so yeah great Great dynamic between the two

Starting point is 00:23:58 Of them that keeps persisting throughout the rest of the show They can almost share clothes They can almost share clothes I think Adam's a bit bigger So but yeah, trying one last effort, Leslie decides to use her upcoming interview on Pawnee Today with Joan Calamezzo to perform damage control. During the interview, Joan

Starting point is 00:24:15 asks biased questions about the festival and Ben's past Annoyed, Leslie brings Ben on stage to give him a final opportunity to explain himself. Ben again begins to freeze up at the questions from people calling in, but finally pulls it together and vigorously defends himself. By the end, the questions switch back from Ben to the festival itself, making the media blitz a successful one after all. What a story. What a story. Joan Calamezzo. I mean, they're all here.

Starting point is 00:24:42 Another one. Yeah, this is kind of like, this is again, kind of the peak of, look, of showing the media personalities in Pawnee. Joan Calamezzo, played by Mo Collins, was really fun to write for as well. She was in a lot of episodes. And, you know, I think the contrast between Joan and Pert is really funny, too. I like when Joan Calamezzo gets increasingly more drunk as we get to see her in Pawnee. Yes, I think in my mind, the headcanon is that her personal life keeps getting worse and worse, unfortunately for her. And so her descent into maybe alcoholism is increasing. But yeah, there's that legendary later scene.

Starting point is 00:25:23 God, I'm trying to remember the episode where Tom and Ben are joan calamadso and kind of being flirty with her and she's like i gotta go to the uh to the bat what is the joke here greg i'm trying i'm gonna i'm gonna mess it up but it's basically like are you gonna go powder your vagina was i think the punchline and i that that scene they could not say that line without laughing like it just we'll get to that episode but it was one of the longest i've ever seen people not not be able to not break like they just could not stop doing they're just laughing every time and it was aziz and adam again i'm pretty sure that the episode so you know i think it's born and raised in the third episode of season four when the book tour we'll get there there. We'll see you in 20-some-odd weeks.

Starting point is 00:26:06 Yeah, but yeah. But again, this is kind of like the genesis and the height of a lot of these media personalities. And yeah, you're right. We kind of figured out, again, how to write Joan and make her funnier and funnier and funnier, I think, as the season progressed. I just wanted to pop in with one thing

Starting point is 00:26:24 since we've been talking so much today about actors delivering lines, like about delivering something. Well, is that I remember Alison Jones would sometimes say about a potential actor, they're great, no one's going to do a better job at this. Just trust me, or this person has it in them. And sometimes when you're developing a

Starting point is 00:26:45 character that's gonna you know probably stick around for a while you want someone who has the ability to keep coming back and back and delivering and so you know mo is another great example of nailing it on the head from the get-go and knowing that's just the beginning of something great yeah yeah that and that's always a catnip for a showrunner too it's like if they come in and kill they're recurring i guess a little tip for actors out there from the writer's point of view you know you do a good job in one episode you never know you might come back for 15 more and and that's that's kind of you know the case in shows that used to be on for so many seasons it's like man you can really sort of carve out your little niche in this ecosystem um yeah as we mentioned earlier the callers on ponny today are katie dippled aisha muhar and emily spivey who were all uh writers on the show and also

Starting point is 00:27:30 played uh small parts in the rest of the rest of the series so uh they played uh here are the characters i obviously i was the bassist and mouse rat dr van dyne was who emily spivey played kirp sluice was who aisha played and mindyy Marfan was who Katie Dippold played in the show. I believe Dippold might have been in the show twice or something. Yeah, I did a scene with Dippold. I did a scene with Dippold. Coming up in a future episode. All normal Mike Shore names.

Starting point is 00:27:57 I mean, we buried the lead with Curp Sluice. Again, just a very friendly, normal person in Aisha, playing a very, I don't know. I guess I kind of remember she worked as a clerk in a store and her name just happened to be Kerpsloose. Is that an actual, is it some kind of a name or is it just letters put together? It's complete gibberish. It's spelled K-E-R-P, last name S-L-U-S-S-E. It's total nonsense. There's no parody there or semblance of anything. That was, I think, a later season by which point we were just making up

Starting point is 00:28:27 sounds. And there was never a point where the network was like, you know, we looked at the episode in our notes and we're kind of bumped with this name Curpsloose. They just let you guys do whatever you wanted, clearly. At a certain point, it felt like maybe there was no one at the helm of the ship there.

Starting point is 00:28:44 It was all right they were just like you know this thing's running itself it seems to be fine no one's uh going into the credits and uh looking at those names uh yeah it's certainly like you can go for my name chang or sometimes yang and then dr van dyne and then immediately into mindy marfan and kerps loose you that's the that's the basic uh the genesis and the evolution of the show it kind of gets crazier and crazier um all right meanwhile chris tells ann that after indianapolis he will be sent to a different city the two agree they need to talk about the future of their relationship andy's difficult day of running errands for april culminates with him getting arrested after april's sister natalie

Starting point is 00:29:18 claims he's kidnapping her when he's merely picking her up from school ron approaches april and tells her that she should either forgive Andy or cut him loose, believing that she's only stringing Andy along and going to Indianapolis to spite him. When Andy returns, April finally forgives him and the two kiss. Wow. Okay, a lot going on. A lot going on. Don't want to spoil it if you haven't seen the show,

Starting point is 00:29:39 but something's brewing between the two of them. I also love this little bit that when andy picks up april's sister natalie it's filmed in front of the walter reed middle school where that's where you went greg right that's your regs junior high school pretty cool absolutely i loved it it was a great school it also uh made an appearance uh rob you probably could talk about this too you made an appearance at the 2008 republican national convention do you remember this is my favorite thing ever this is this nugget is amazing research this is amazing it almost feels like it can't be true but john mccain accepted his party's nomination to be their candidate and they projected walter reed middle

Starting point is 00:30:22 school behind him but they were supposed to and thought that it was going to be Walter Reed Medical Center. Like, that is a screw-up. So this feels like a precursor to the Four Seasons fucking landscaping thing, right? That's amazing. Give me that. Tell that story, Alan, because that Four Seasons thing is beyond belief. I mean, this was the Trump administration. They were supposed to book the Four Seasons Hotel, and instead they booked the Four Seasons Landscaping. So Rudy Giuliani ended up doing a press conference in front of a landscaping building.

Starting point is 00:30:56 That was real. That was real. I mean, for anyone who didn't hear about this, I guess get on the Internet more. But I'm, by the way, looking at photos right now of John McCain in front of Walter Reed Middle School. And, you know, it's pretty fantastic. It looks like just like a regular ass middle school. And the caption is, was it meant to be Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which takes care of injured veterans? So it was made. Yeah, I think it was a giant giant fuck up i think it was a mistake

Starting point is 00:31:28 the tide that turned the election well that's for that that just goes to show like the internet was in such a different state 14 years ago it's like we don't we only barely remember this and this would have been huge like it would have been a news cycle right it would have been maybe not quite as big as four seasons landscaping because they physically went there and pretended they didn't mess up. He went there and was just doing the press conference from there. And so this is less bad than this, but he's standing in front of a green screen with a middle school behind him, which makes zero sense. So look it up. It's real. It's a real thing. Great, great research on that one. That is hilarious. And look, it's a Parks and Rec tie-in. It's where Andy gets arrested. And he'll show up on the show. That's

Starting point is 00:32:08 right. And John McCain does later show up on the show. That's insane. Everything is connected, right? Everything is everything. That's really funny. So, you know, and also a reoccurring appearance of April's sister, Natalie, again, named after Aubrey's real life sister. And, you know, again, if you haven't watched the show turn off your earphones or airpods or whatever right now um they kiss in this one four episodes later they'll be married so it's it's a pretty uh pretty radical love story and uh yeah i was i was very happy with how that accelerated i'd say god that went fast hey man they're they're kids in love and I like to think that they're still together.

Starting point is 00:32:45 So, you know, sometimes that works out. All right. Final thoughts on the episode, Rob? Again, this is an Adam Scott tour de force. It just warms my heart to go back and look at it and just see him crushing like this. And again, it's just the notion of a press tour in pawnee is is so delicious for me um local media like when i when i'm traveling the country i love watching local news and you know local car commercials all that stuff is always just so fun and i loved this episode

Starting point is 00:33:22 because it is the pawnee version of all that yeah and and i got a shout out adam uh in the tag also very funny uh more like turd crappley legendary line i think that's a that's a gif as well um a little bit of wordplay but yeah this was a great kind of springfield meets emotional backstory for adam's character episode and um you know it it's just again building out the world it's something that we were consciously doing you know, it's just, again, building out the world. It's something that we were consciously doing. You know, we did talk about how it behooved us as a staff to build out these tertiary characters and make them into interesting personalities you come back to again and again. And it really bears fruit and it bears fruit down the road. And again, this feels

Starting point is 00:34:01 like kind of still the beginning of that aspect of the show. So yeah, really fun one. And by the way, part of, you know, arguably the strongest arc in this entire show, which is the Harvest Festival arc, which culminates, I believe, in two more episodes. And I like also how it's all tied in, right? This is still, you know, raising awareness for the Harvest Festival. It's serialized, but but only lightly so it also kind of fits into uh its own little its own little episodic form uh oops moment of the episode we see none here so perfect episode arguably yeah you know i gotta tell you i was doing a lot of research trying to find something i couldn't find it maybe if anyone watching at home has found something they could let us know in the comments we could correct our mistake on air but i couldn't

Starting point is 00:34:45 see anything that's right and to be clear fact check the episode not this episode of the podcast because we probably said 50 things wrong so the episode itself it's like john mccain never ran for president he didn't it's like things that you thought you thought didn't happen um episode mvp most valuable panini in which character moment in this episode Sticks out the most To you and why What do you say, Rollo? Oh, Adam Scott Ben Wyatt Come on Yes

Starting point is 00:35:08 Gotta be Gotta be Yes Who hasn't had gay thoughts Legendary moments And my backup MVP I have a couple Crazy Iron the Douche

Starting point is 00:35:16 Of course The fart sound effects China Joe And shout out to the guy Who said there's no time He can fly About his missing pet bird You'll always have a place

Starting point is 00:35:24 In your heart. I hope you hear this episode and you write into us. Very good job. Listeners, let us know who your MVP, most valuable Pawnean, is by tweeting at Team Coco Podcast, or just use the hashtag, hashtag Parks and Recollection. Shall we go to the town hall? I think you do

Starting point is 00:35:55 Plenty of good locations Plenty of good locations Where do you want to do this, Rollo? I think we need to do it at the studio of Crazy Ira and the Douche We need to do it in studio In studio appearance It's one of those early morning press junket things That Rob loves so much

Starting point is 00:36:12 Rob's promoting his latest project It's a film And we're in there doing the town howl at the same time It's Crazy Ira and the Douche's studio The town howl Because it's a town howl this time Comes to us from jonna it says hi my name is jonna and my question

Starting point is 00:36:28 for both or either of you is could you tell us maybe your top three favorite episodes i don't know if this question has been answered before but my favorite episode personally is the telephone one i think i called just to tell you that

Starting point is 00:36:44 that's my favorite episode but if you have any you want to share, I would love to hear what they are. Have a great day. Wow. That's a hard one. Big question. I mean, we can brainstorm. We don't have to have three immediate off the top of my head because I know a few popped into my mind. A few popped into my mind and I don't want to put words in your mouth. Definitely one of them is one we just did recently flu season is up there so i don't know if that's on your list rob but that's up there for me if i had to pick one it would be flu season um i i it is the one that we uh the uh the academy the tv academy the emmys people have a thing that they invite certain shows that they like.

Starting point is 00:37:28 And you get to show one show. And when they invited Parks and Rec, that was the show that we showed. So for me, I think that's probably the one. But there's so many other ones, too. There's so many. So I will list a couple that stick out for me um and some of them are coming up actually there's one that kind of i have an emotional connection to which is um april and andy's fancy party which is the one where they get married sorry spoiler alert

Starting point is 00:37:58 um one of the reasons i have really fond memories of this one is because i got to be on set a lot i was it's a mouse right episode because mouse right is playing the wedding. And I have a lot of photos of that episode with me and Harris Whittles, who's also in the episode at the wedding. And it just makes me have good memories of Harris. He was an animal control officer who also happened to the wedding, I believe hits on April, despite the fact that she's getting married. But yeah, we have all these photos together of me and Pratt and Aubrey and Aziz and Harris and Colton Dunn and everyone in that episode. So that's another one that for me

Starting point is 00:38:30 has a lot of emotional resonance. Also is an amazing episode. It's a very surprising episode. We got Pratt in his Reggie Wayne jersey. And I remember like the whole crew was there, right? Cause it's a wedding episode. So I'm looking at a photo right now of you're in it and Nick's in it and Burley and everyone.

Starting point is 00:38:46 You know, it's just an emotional one for me. So that's up there for me. But, yeah, the list goes on and on. I think another one that really I remember is Pawnee Rangers, which is the Treat Yourself episode. So we're getting there on that one. And I was lucky enough to have a writing credit on that one. So I was on set. And I remember it's kind of like a Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts type thing.

Starting point is 00:39:08 And that was really fun. Were there any that you remember loving shooting too? Because that's another aspect of this. Yeah. What's funny, you're talking about the April and Andy's wedding. That's the first time we see Chris Traeger dance. And that was one of my, oh, and it's funny that we talk about it in this episode of of actors delivering lines and being doing something crazy and doing something big

Starting point is 00:39:31 me doing that jump around house of pain dance is the equivalent of me going every you just went for it you just went for it you know you went for it and and and it sometimes you do that and it'll get in the cut so um that's up there you know i just want to call out one or two other ones i think just to tease some future episodes i'm about to talk about harvest festival it's an amazing episode yes certain ones that can stand alone without seeing them um but there's this great run that we'll get to in season four that the debate is amazing without goes into win lose or draw the finale of season four i mean some of amy's best stuff i think happened uh with that uh that storyline which we don't want to talk too much about but

Starting point is 00:40:15 great episodes coming up still yes it's so hard for me to divorce the experience of making the show with with with watching it and and you know which i don't know which episodes i like the most because it's like no i remember being on set with dean holland on that one i remember you know i i love the unity concert episode because i got to you know be on stage and play music with like genuine and and wilco and just play with letters to cleo like that's really crazy and I'll remember all our friends being there. Ben Schwartz was there and all these guest people were there.

Starting point is 00:40:48 But yeah, there's so many and we're glad, Jonna, you wrote in and were able to tell us your favorite episode. And again, feel free to write in and tell us your favorites and maybe we'll do a segment on it in the future. Hashtag Parks and Recollection at Team Coco Podcast.

Starting point is 00:41:02 Well, thank you all um for listening another fun get together for all of us don't forget to subscribe wherever you are getting your podcasts that would be very important to us and to you we hope um five star um reviews on apple keeps the train running down the track and um that's really it greg Schulte, as always, we are deeply indebted to you, as I am to you, Mr. Yang, and I think that's it. Goodbye for now from Pawnee,

Starting point is 00:41:32 but we'll see you next week. Goodbye from Pawnee. Parks and Recollection is produced by Greg Levine and me, Rob Schulte. Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm. The podcast is executive produced by Alan Yang for Alan Yang Productions, Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher.

Starting point is 00:42:01 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.

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