Parks and Recollection - Pawnee Zoo (S2E1)

Episode Date: October 26, 2021

The Parks department is back—and so is the Recollection team! Today Rob Lowe and Alan Yang talk about the season 2 Parks and Recreation premiere. In “Pawnee Zoo,” Leslie promotes a local zoo by marrying two penguins. When both birds end up being male, it causes a bit of a stir. Today we get a look at what it takes to rap poorly, Tom being besties with Joan Callamezzo, and the intense work that went into every character’s name on the show. It’s another great day in Pawnee!Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone]

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 Hello everybody and welcome to Parks and Recollection Alright Where we visit our old friends in the great city of Pawnee One episode at a time.

I am, literally, Rob Lowe, and I'm here with my co-host, Alan Yang. What's up, Rolo? Today. First episode, season two. We're doing first episode of season... It's so shocking to me that the first season of Parks and Rec was so short. That's right. It changes fast.

People are like, wow, the show changed so much. But you know what? Season one was six episodes. And as we discussed last week with Pratt, you know, the six episodes season one was also kind of like season two. It was kind of changing already. So here's a quick synopsis of the episode called Pawnee Zoo. Episode two of season one.

It first aired September 17th, 2009. Written by Norm Hiscock. Directed by the great Paul Feig. So Leslie holds a wedding for two penguins as a stunt to help promote zoo attendance, but she accidentally weds two male penguins. The gesture is interpreted by the community as support for same-sex marriage. A local gay bar honors Leslie with a party, although she feels conflicted on accepting the praise. A conservative community leader, Marsha Langman, played by Darlene Hunt, demands Leslie annul the Penguin wedding or resign from the Parks Department.

Act one, brick. Meanwhile, Mark and Anne's relationship seems to develop, but Anne resists because of her loyalty to Leslie. Later, a suited-up Andy shows up at Anne's asking her to get back together, but Anne says no. The audience finds out Andy has matured and has been living inside the pit. Leslie goes on Pawnee Today, the local access talk show to defend her actions with Marsha and host Joan Calamanzo, played by Mo Collins.

Leslie and Marsha debate and take several collars, all agreeing that Leslie should resign. But Leslie refuses to admit wrong and won't budge. Later, Leslie visits Ann and insists that Ann go on a date with Mark. Leslie ends up taking the penguins to Iowa, where same-sex marriage is legal. So wow, a lot going on. A lot going on in the episode. A lot going on. And one of my favorite visuals in maybe all of Parks and Recreation, very last shot, camera swings from Leslie driving. There are penguins in, two penguins in car seats. That's right. I remember those penguins in two penguins in car seats that's right i mean if you don't remember those penguins i remember meeting them if you don't like two penguins in a car seat then i don't know

what more to give you i really don't i really don't know what more to do that is it's cute it's fun it actually is the perfect sort of park saying it's cute like legitimately cute not cute in a way like really like cute and funny and weird and and relatable yeah it's a little silly it's she's doing a nice thing it's warm and funny and a little bit sentimental a little bit wacky a little bit cute and uh and yeah it's this episode is just an encapsulation of the second season and where the show ended up going which is we're gonna be a little bit fun more fun a little bit more high energy a little bit more topical by the way like yeah this was so relatable because people people forget people were discussing gay marriage that was the other thing oh that blew me away like i looked it up i looked it up but you

know it was still a huge issue we were six years away from obergefell right from from the supreme court ruling so it wasn't legal in Indiana. And then, of course, later it became legal. But man, this was a tricky topic that people were discussing. So that was really relatable and I think juicy for the show. Yeah, I couldn't believe someone accuses Leslie of,

hang on, I have the actual quote. I wrote it down. Oh, it's Berndanowitz calls Leslie a social activist and she's horrified by that horrified yeah yeah can you imagine I wrote down it literally my notes the meaning of activism has changed a lot it's taken for granted now that every like everyone's supposed to be an activist now especially public servants but in this episode this is what over a decade ago like, oh, I can't be seen as an activist because I need to be seen as impartial.

And look, there's a difference between elected officials and sort of, you know, non-elected officials, which is what Leslie is. Not to get bogged down

in boring details. No, but that's a good point. That is actually a really good point. She's not elected. So, yeah. But everyone's supposed to be an activist now. So it is interesting

to go back and look at it through that lens, right? Of, you know, from 2021, it's totally different but uh yeah it was it was a real and by the way this was based on a real incident right the two penguins got married at or they were involved at the san francisco zoo they were sort of it became like a cute news story so i think one of the ideas behind the writing of this one was uh we were looking at new real life news stories and like oh what's the ponny version of that right what's the sort of silly version what's the sort of local government

version and so i think you know that was incorporated in this episode and it kept happening later down the line right so when you think about what is the ponny version of anything you're on your way to figuring out what the story is it makes it really clear you go oh i know how to how to vet stories now, if I think of it through that lens. Yeah, and it's so relatable, especially compared to some stuff. I mean, we took lessons from the last episode

of season one, rather, right? It's like, there was at a bar, there was music. You know what, in this one, they're at a bar and there's music and they get drunk again. It's like, yeah, why not? You do it again. And it's so fun.

And you get other people in in the mix right she has an interaction with with retta who plays donna and like donna is funny so you're just starting to build this world and world building world building turned out to be a bigger part of this show than i think anyone expected going in it was like wow we're not just in the office we're in this town and this show became about the town not just a little office. We're in this town. And this show became about the town, not just a little office. It became, let's build all these crazy characters all over the place. And this was the beginning of that.

I think the Bulge ends up playing in the show later on. All these places. I go to the Bulge. You're at the Bulge every Friday. Yeah, it's just like. Chris Traeger goes to the Bulge and it's one of my favorite things I did as chris and i think it was really really early on and it was one of the things that everybody went oh that character works where

chris was super down why not it's and it's and it's character building for for chris too right it's like yeah he doesn't care he's he's open-minded obviously you know egalitarian guy and and he's having a good time there he likes fun he likes having a good time so uh and and we we had ron go there too right it's like it it doesn't matter so um but yeah building these different venues these different characters ended up being things we could return to over and over and over again and i think that that happened very organically and so much of it is set up in this episode, even this one alone. This one for me, Pawnee Zoo, is, ladies and gentlemen, would you like to meet Leslie Knope?

Starting with her rapping at the beginning of the episode. I mean, this is Amy Poehler at her absolute finest. You guys were writing it. What did you write differently to make it so good, so different? I'll just never forget one of the moments, sort of a key moment for me was we were finishing writing season one, and I was in the parking lot. Me and Mike Schur, one of the co-creators,

parked near each other, and it was a tricky first season for sure. I mean, there were late nights, and we were just discussing the show. There's a lot of early on in the show. There's a lot of discussion about what a show is and what the tone is and what the episode is and all that stuff. And he pulled me aside and was just like, hey, man, I know it's a tricky first season, but we're going to look at this. And the same thing happened in the office where we just looked at the show. We kind of took stock. We got the benefit of this first season in and we're going to look at what, you know,

what could be improved and we're not going to worry. And he was really calm about it. And that's kind of exactly what happened because we had already started taking cues in the last episode of season one. And then in this one, as you can see, you know, in season one, Leslie gets, you know, Leslie gets shit on a lot. Leslie gets insulted and Leslie, like people make fun of her a lot. And in this one, she starts rapping and then people are literally applauding her at the end of the cold open, right? It's like a total, it's kind

of a total 180 in that sense. And she's just a lot more fun. And, you know, that was the beginning of it. But, you know, a lot of that is taking cues from amy right and and and what she responded to and what she performed best and how she was funniest and honestly how she was in person you know it's like a person that everyone she's one of the coolest people in the world so it was good to sort of imbue the character with a little bit of that at least guys i actually want to bring something up really quick yes do you have my full attention. Thank you. Something I love about this cold open is what happened when we actually wrote it in the room. Alan, I don't know if you remember this, but when we were looking for ideas, it's like a great way to, you know, we have to reintroduce the show to people who've watched it

and to people who are discovering it for the first time. So you have to go with the pure comedy cold open that also introduces your characters. And I remember everyone not figuring out what is this going to be? And then I can't remember who first pitched this idea for Leslie to rap, but once it came up, I'm pretty sure Mike is the one who thought it should be, uh, parents just don't understand because you could picture Ron saying, here's the situation.

And then once he had that idea, he sat down at the computer and he just typed the entire song from memory without having to Google the lyrics or anything. It was incredible. I don't know if he goes, I don't know if he goes up in my esteem or down in my esteem based on that story. I mean, it's a pretty cool nugget, I think, to have, right? It's a nice thing, a party trick to be able to, at any point, have your go-to karaoke song be Parents Just Don't Understand. You just knew Amy was going to crush it. Yeah, it was incredible.

And just to put a button on it, when we then did the table read and Amy had to deliver it. It was just a bunch of people just slack-jawed and then applauding at the end, feeling that great energy of like, okay, this is what the show is going to be now. By the way, I'm just going to say it. Brandanowicz uses the word literally again in a talking head. In this episode, it's starting to get on my nerves. Hey, man, what if we're sending you secret cuts

where he doesn't say in the original? I like that we're gaslighting you and he's not saying it, but we're sending you cuts where it's ADR'd in. It's just having him say it every episode just to make you angry. Just to make me angry. Like, what's he doing with my thing already? And also, I was really sort of shocked that the last uh episode um rock show ended with like this quasi-romantic uh you know thing with leslie and then in the next episode

he's asking out rashida they have it was just i was like wow okay the guy moves on yeah it's like we don't want we don't want her with him anymore i think that's what happened but yeah i don't know i mean it certainly is a quick pivot i think also like season one the character was supposed to be like a ladies man like you know sort of bouncing around from from person to person so i think that was sort of the rationale but you know i think again spoiler alert but then yeah, I think they do start going on a date. So I guess we'll see. For those of you who haven't seen the show before, I guess we'll see. But it seems like it's what it's leading towards.

Because I had not seen these episodes, it was a real surprise for me. But now it all makes sense that when I joined Many Moons Later, Rashida would always say, I think Anne has slept with everybody in Pawnee. And now I know why. Because she wasn't kidding. Turns out. She was just like, yeah. She also, I mean, there's some other crazy shit that happens later.

But she's just like, her character's just kind of like, I want to make these people happy. Like, I'll go on a date with you. It's like, yeah, I'm just going to go along with you. That's why she's a good pair with Leslie. Because Leslie just tells her what to do. It's like, yeah, okay. I just want to go along with you. That's why she's a good pair with Leslie, because Leslie just tells her what to do. It's like, yeah, okay. I just want to get along. I think this episode contains the first truly, like, aw, how great, Leslie and Hug, where they realize that they have each other's backs.

And I've heard, I'm sort of stealing Amy's talking point here. I'm sort of stealing Amy's talking point here, but on network TV, particularly in comedies, true women's friendships were very rarely portrayed. They were always like bitching each other out or sandbagging each other, or it was very superficial. But this was a real friendship, and I think this is one of the first moments where they

hug that you go yeah i love that these two love each other although it is hilarious that only four episodes ago they'd never met yeah now they're fast friends and yeah it's television it's television but yeah that was always a really sort of important thing to mike in the writer's room he always mentioned that that was kind of the core of the show, right? It's Leslie and Ann and their friendship and portraying it in a way that they were not toxic friends. They were not, you know, talking behind each other's back or stabbing each other back or any of that stuff. And, you know, I think that was really important to him. And I think also really early on, you know, this was years, unfortunately, before this conversation was being had as much, but, you know but he tried to make the writer's room as equitable as possible. I think he tried to hire 50% women. In comedy at the time,

that was very difficult. Think about all the jump cut sequences in this episode. There's the poker face one, the Lady Gaga one. There's the opening rap, obviously the Will Smith rap, and then the Tom stuff from Pawnee Today. Again, you're just getting more jokes per minute, more jokes per second, and that all helped with the pacing and the tone of the show. The jump cuts are so funny. There's something about the...

I would like to know what the math, what the actual art, what the actual reason. Cutting literally between two and three different frames of footage is the difference between a laugh and not a laugh. And oftentimes it's the unexpected. It's either when it's a little bit too early or a little bit too late, I think. And it just makes me laugh. I can laugh out loud at a cut in Parks and Rec and do all the time. Yeah, in later seasons, I got to hang out in the editing room a little more

and hang out with Dean Holland and all those guys in the editing room. It just, sometimes it would literally be shaving frames. It would be like, it's a little funnier now. It's a little bit better. And then sometimes you'd be shaving frames for time. It's got to be 2115 or something. Can we take a little air out? Can we take a few frames out?

But man, they do a lot of work in the editing room to make something funnier and better and move more quickly. And again, you could just see all the tools in the toolbox coming out in this one because it just moves. It really moves. With all kinds of pacing really and and it will be various levels of good or bad in comedy in in cutting there is one iteration that is the funniest and you got to find that in editing and if you don't you're done um ron finally has lost his suit this is the episode by the end of the show's run arguably ron swanson is as beloved and important as leslie nope and that character is not early on and nick is finding that super dry removed like ron is so involved in the first episodes.

He's just kind of a guy who's there and involved. Yeah. He's not even that libertarian. He hasn't talked about how much he loves meat yet. There's none of that glee of, like, he'd love to see it all blow up. None of that's there early on, but it starts in this episode. It's almost like a terrier and like a stone or something. He's just a slab of granite or like a bear, right?

Just like he won't respond. And that's the dynamic is someone yapping at his heels and him sort of not responding and then being really dry. Just like almost doing nothing, but not quite doing nothing, right? He's definitely doing something. doing nothing but not quite doing nothing right he's definitely doing something it's also the um appearance of the now famous nope obama leaflet yeah it says nope instead of hope remember that era very very different era but yeah it's kind of a cool like shepherd fairy uh take on on that poster right it's it's a red white and blue iconic iconic like i remember seeing that and going it's just brilliant it was

a sign that that that the little show was going to make it um i think we put all our money into designing that because we did not apparently put the money into the cgi of the penguins having sex with each other i don't know if you noticed that but it appeared to be a two-frame like a two-frame gif of the penguins having sex with each other. No offense to the people who did the CGI. I apologize. It made me laugh, though. It was very funny. I literally wrote down it made me laugh, so I guess it did its job.

It wasn't an MCU-level CGI there, but yeah. Let me ask you, because, again, I'm just a fan of these episodes. I'm not in them, so I don't remember what happened because I wasn't there. Were there real-life penguins? Did you have a penguin wrangler? Because that's always my favorite thing is the wranglers. And there are tarantula wranglers, literally. There are cockroach wranglers.

If there's an animal that you can think of, there's someone in Hollywood who's wrangling it. Were there penguin wranglers involved we did have a penguin wrangler i wasn't on set and alan might know better but when um we were in pre-production for the episode we did have penguins on set in the little pen did they audition did the penguins audition i don't know but they were all dressed up for the part, which was great. But I'm so sorry for that joke also. But the writing staff came down to set to visit the penguins and take pictures with the penguins. And it was so great and fun.

And Alan, I have this great one of you from the early season two with the penguins and Katie and Rachel Axler together with the penguins. And I think it was Rachel who at one point wanted to pet one of the penguins and the handler just immediately jumped in like a ninja move to say, no, no, no, you don't want to do that. So I don't know what's- That sounds like the kind of animal you should put in front of 200 people. But they're professionals. They are. And they go back to their little trailers and it's so cute. and that's another weird lesson is like you're there on the ground floor

and you guys all have this idea of what it should be and maybe it doesn't quite work out for budget or whatever like you're alluding to and i'm just an audience member like i don't know what you were thinking i didn't know what was coming. And I watch it and I just laugh. So sometimes, you know, the world works in mysterious ways because it may not have been what you guys wanted. But my God, that was funny. Those penguins having sex. I forgot about it. It worked. And also we put black bars up.

So that must have been a choice too. It's pretty great. We talked about this. Is this the first episode where Donna Meagle speaks? I think it might be. It's either the first or second time, and she kills it. She's like, yeah, you get who she is. She's very high status.

Yeah, she's like, oh, I get it. She's like, you're going to turn someone out. Yeah, you're going to turn someone out. That is hands down the best interaction I've had with Donna. And you get that Leslie really wants Donna to like her, so that dynamic's already in there. I've had with Donna. That's right. And you get that Leslie really wants Donna to like her. So it's all, you know, that dynamic's already in there.

When Leslie laughs at Donna, Leslie's, so we all know, anyone who knows Amy, the first thing you would, one of the first things you'd say about her is her laugh.

You'd talk about her laugh. And when Amy directs, one of the great joys is, you know, she'd be off in the other room at the monitor and maybe you're working on a set that's farther away and you hear that cackle.

And the cackle is in this episode. Amy cackles, does her, it's her actual Amy Poehler laugh when she laughs at something Donna says in this episode. And I just, I love someone with a good laugh. And for sure, Poehler is probably on the Mount Rushmore of good laughs. Yes, it's always rewarding too. Because it's like, oh man, I made her laugh. It's also very, very rewarding. But yeah, you just see the humanity come through, man.

You can see the humanity come through. And it's just a bunch of joy. Such a bunch of joy seeping into the show this episode. What I also like, like you said it in in the intro the act one break is so clean it's so perfect it's like it's real stakes it's the sort of perfect mix of believable but not mundane and boring like the problem i always have with like it's going to be a celebration of the boring it's like well congratulations it's you you got it you did it it's boring you know that's a very hard tar everybody wants to hit that target they all everything's are so fancy and they can so ironic that they

can hit that target and when they do it's genius it is doable but a lot of times it just ends up being dull and colorless. And this was the perfect storytelling break. Because when she says, you've got to resign or we're going to come against you, you go, yep, that works. I'm in. I'm engaged. What's going to happen next? Yeah. And we always look for those kind of clean, cleaner sort of act breaks, right? Yeah, and we always look for those kind of clean, cleaner sort of act breaks, right?

For those who don't know, generally, this has changed a lot, but generally there are three acts. At a certain point, they want us to do four acts, which is not traditional storytelling structure, but there's usually in network television, there's a first act break, or usually there's a cold open, right? Then, you know, maybe a two-minute comedy sketch. Then you do commercials or the main titles. Then you do the first act. Hopefully something interesting happens. We call it usually first sign of trouble, right? It's like, oh my God, this woman is going to maybe try to get me to resign, right? So that's the first act break.

Second act, generally things get worse and worse and worse for your main character. And then hopefully there's a twist of some kind and maybe they hoist themselves on their own petard. Anyway, some variance of that. And then the end of act two two it's generally like all is lost it's the lowest point in the character's story and then there's a commercial and then in act three they hopefully marshal all their resources and figure out how you know how they've changed over the course of the story and they use that to solve their problems and fix everything in the end or there's some connection made with the b story which happens in this episode. Yeah, I think, and then, yeah, then act three is, that's it. But then at a certain point, NBC was like,

what about four acts? We're like, oh no, that's very hard. It's like, what's the fourth act? But anyway, that's a business decision. Yeah, exactly. That's just them wanting more commercials. Yes. That's all that is.

I have a question for you. See, and it's great because you're from Harvard and you'll know the answer to this. My grandmother used to say, hoist yourself on your own petard. Is a petard a device on a sailing ship that if you're not careful, it catches you and you get hoisted? Man, that's a good question. Oh, I'm looking it up now. A small bell-shaped bomb used to breach a gate or wall. What? What is that? Meaning that one could be lifted, i.e. blown, upward by one's own bomb. That makes sense. You got hoisted. But then why hoisted?

I don't know. I think you can say that. And of course, you hope that somewhere later in the story, someone is blown up by their own bomb. Why can't we just say that? Let's, someone is blown up by their own bomb. Why can't we just say that? Let's start. Blown up by their own bomb. It doesn't have the same poetry. But the two of us, if we keep getting it going now, maybe if we keep talking about it on this podcast,

we'll get blown up by their own bomb into the cultural lexicon. It really has no ring to it. But hey, you're going to blow yourself up on your own bomb? What? But yeah, I mean, hoisted by your own petard just so fun to say yeah i'll always stick in my mind stick i didn't had no idea what a petard was but now i know yeah um i want to talk a little bit about the potty today stuff because that's the act three of this this episode and it's the first appearance uh by mo collins um as joan calamezzo and she gets a lot loonier she's already loony in this

one but she gets a lot well she's loony but she's not drunk yet when when that's true in the era when i came on the show she was a stone cold alcoholic on the air yeah she had gone she had gone pretty far into that character at that point but yeah it was this was fun man because this again was an idea that uh you know the writers had to to sort of what is the local access what what's their you know i guess 60 minutes or whatever and it's this really low rent sort of potty today there's like two cameras or one camera and uh one of the fun things i i forgot this entirely while watching the show uh the writers went to set to do to film film this bit. And we are the callers who call into the show. So the first sort of chunk is I'm the first caller. So whatever. And I was like, I literally

forgot this. I was like, oh, my own voice in the show. And then Rachel Axler is one of the callers. Second caller is Harris Whittles, the late great Harris Whittles, one of the funniest guys who ever lived. And then Rachel Axler plays a child. So she plays it. We just left it in. And then Mike Scully, you know, amazing, amazing writer who used to run the Simpsons is another one of the callers. And I think the plan was just do the calls. And I thought they were going to replace them later. And then I think they just didn't replace them. So it is very funny to listen to. I was like, oh, yeah, it took me back to going there and recording

the calls and and and sort of that's kind of a fun thing right because so the way it works is the writers don't always go to set you usually go to the set you know you usually go to set for your own episode if your name's on the episode and so norm was on this one so he probably was there the whole time but you know the stage was pretty close to the writer's room and so i think we we got to go down for this one and watch the taping well i mean what i'm struck with hearing that story is every name you mentioned is a certified comedy genius like killers killers i mean each one of those people probably well you as you have have gone on to run their own rooms and create their own shows but the notion that all those people were on the staff of parks and recreation at this early iteration just blows my mind.

Yeah, they did a good job hiring. They did a good job hiring. It was like, you know, great job casting and a good job hiring a writing staff. That's still, you know, one of my favorite experiences was writing with all those other people. I just felt like I learned a lot and, you know, talking about Scully, man. Scully joined season two and Harris and Aisha joined season two. And I always felt privileged, man. I felt privileged. I still remember the feeling I had this release. Because, you know, sometimes you're at the keyboard and you're typing into the script or whatever.

And sometimes later on in the show, Mike would let me sit at the computer and type jokes in the script. And at a certain point, people are pitching. You're pitching what gets in the show and stuff. And I look to my right, and Mike Scully, who again, ran The Simpsons, like the show I watched as a kid, like, and is just a genius level comedy writer, one of the best joke writers I've ever met, just pitching me jokes. And I'm like, nope, not good enough. Like, I'm typing into the script. I'm like, this shouldn't be, this shouldn't be happening. But he's, he's, he's one of the coolest, funniest guys there is. So, I mean, I, you know, I, I pretty much typed everything he said into the script, but,

but at the time I was like, wow, this is really crazy to me. This is, this is an, this is an amazing experience, but yeah, we were all there. And by the way, we were all doing our best. We're like, is this going to work? We're just trying. We're like, I don't know, man. We're just trying. We were having a good time, But I mean, look, those jokes are funny. And I think, you know, I think, you know, Joan, Mo does a great job as Joan. And obviously, Amy's very funny on the show as well. So and that's packed in that that's just in the last like five minutes of the show. Right. So and then you also have Pratt like, you know, just in his underwear at the end of the show. I mean, there's just a lot of there's a lot of comedy.

It's laugh out loud,, Pratt getting into the tent with his big old booty sticking up there in his underwear. By the way, I like that it's set up that Tom Haverford was a longtime often guest of Pawnee today. I never, that was news to me. And the way Aziz is slouching and like just shamelessly hitting on Joan Calamezo. Yeah. And it's this thing, again, his character was evolving and the idea that, you know,

basically he was schmoozing with everybody in town, right? How did you guys come up with Mo Collins? Was she somebody that was in the Amy Poehler comedy world? Or did she audition? I think she was kind of in the ether. And her name came up as someone who might be interesting for this role. And thank God, I think she ended up being a perfect fit. I believe she was on MADtv. And we just felt like this character needed to be kind of a comedy powerhouse.

And we didn't want to have someone who's just straight, like sort of be the interviewer, right? We wanted the, what's the, again, like we said, what's the Pawnee version of it and what's the sort of loopiest version possible. And I think you see glimpses of it in this episode. But what's funny is as the character develops later on, not only is she clearly an alcoholic of some kind, but she also is pretty mean. She's like very mean to Leslie. And she's, and she loves Tom. I mean, those dynamics, it's crazy. Like you have clear dynamics between her and the other characters and she's, you know, she's not even in the regular cast, but she loves Tom. She's very flirtatious. I think she's late, she's later, you know, flirtatious with Adam

Scott's character too. So I think it becomes kind of a rich personal narrative for, for Joan Calamezzo. I remember, I remember naming Joan a rich personal narrative for, for Joan Calamitzo. I remember, I remember naming Joan Calamitzo like this, like we were coming up with it. So later on in the show, you'll see that Mike sure loves insane names. And so this was pretty early on Joan Calamitzo,

not even that insane, but sorry. What I think is so funny is that when Mike started naming all the characters, he was obsessed with names sounding normal. So when he came up with Mark Brendanowicz, I remember I was his assistant at the time, and I said, well, that's a very silly name.

So that's what people's names are, and they are spelled weird and they look weird, but that's just what a human name is. And that was season one, Mike. And by season five six seven he has come up with people named gretzky susan pellegrino and and judy sapazapazapazapaz which is just zappos as a palindrome twice because it made everyone laugh so here's the guy who wanted people to sound normal and then pretty much

was just intentionally screwing with actors' IMDb profiles. Wait, dig me deeper on the IMDb profile. That makes me laugh. What was he doing? Well, Mike had this thing where it'd be so funny if, and I think it cracked everybody up. Here you are, you're auditioning for Parks and Recreation. You're on one episode before this part for this one ep, and you're in your IMDb profile because when you look at people's, like especially, you know, day players,

you see just like Harry, Cop No. 1, Susan, whatever. Oh, I see. I get you. And then to see that, and then Judy Sapazapazapazapaz. That's really funny. Macbeth at Royal Stratford Theatre, Judy Sapazapazapaz, Parks and Recreation. I remember working with Gary Marshall when he was the king of television, when he was, you know, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Mork and Mindy, I think Odd Couple. I mean, just the king of network television in the 70s.

And I did a pilot with him. It ended up being horrible. But he named my character. And I remember he goes, you're going to be a tailor. You're going to be a tailor, a teenage tailor. It's a jean shop and you'll wear the jeans. And it'll be looking hot. And the girls, Tucker Toomey will be your name, Tucker.

It's got that double T. It's funny. It's funny it's funny i was like all right tucker to me really really crazy i remember one day on the set talking about mike and he goes i gotta go i gotta write the names for all of the headshots of the past Pawnee mayors that are going to be on the wall on the set. First of all, you'd never see the faces, let alone the names, and he was so excited to come up with 20 names that you're never going to see.

Never going to see. I think the staff also pitched on those names. I think I got a few names in there. You'll never see them, but yeah, it's a lot of just, I think something he really enjoyed and it got him through making the show. So God bless, but yeah. I can't believe you as huge baseball fans that you are and that Mike Schur is as well, that you guys didn't get into that whole thing that I like to do to entertain myself of great forgotten baseball names. That was a big thing in the room. I mean, this is a true aside, but one thing we would do in

the room was we would play a game called Sporkle, which is a quiz game online where you would, it's like a trivia game, right? It would be like, yeah, who are the, you know, who are, who are the starting lineups for every team in the NBA in 1983? And then you would just go through. At a certain point, again, NBC probably shouldn't know about this, but we were probably playing that game eight hours a day. It's like a true waste of time. I'll keep talking about it.

There are many, many sporical stories, but at a certain point, people were betting on it. You would try. The whole room would guess. people were challenging each other this was much later after the show had been figured out a little more i think season two we were still working hard on the show but later on it was like oh my god it was just quiz games it was just trying to like you know figure out again it was a lot of baseballs a lot of movies there's a lot of music it's like what the billboard top 200 in 1996 here we go it's like

all right pearl jam it's like a lot of that but yeah that's this is how we procrastinate the writer's room it was it was it was a you gotta waste a lot of time to be productive man you can't you can't just be productive 24 7 no but it is true and that's that's the thing that i think that it is always so interesting about writer's rooms is particularly comedy and the ones that i've been able to observe with family guy i remember spending some time in their writer's room and i didn't see them do one second of work it was there was something on a youtube video they were watching and that but that's what you do to inspire yourselves i mean that is working that actually is working because it's it's it's unplugging you unplugging you and letting your sort of fun meter ramp up.

Yeah, and it's nice to build camaraderie too. I mean, that's the other thing is like we all like each other and that helps, you know, if you're staying late to break a story, you're staying for dinner, you know if we wasted too much time, then that's why we're here till midnight. But generally on parks, we were not there till midnight. So credit to Mike for that. That is a common thing on comedy writing staffs to be there to sleep in the office and people taking pride in like, I haven't showered in two weeks. I've been working. It's like, no, I don't like that. Let's work 10 to 6 or something. And let's be civilized and let's have a good time, but let's work while we're here.

And so people can go home and see their families and or have a single life if they are in that stage of their life. There's a lot of people that are like, you know what? I think I'd like to stay here until 2 o'clock in the morning. I think that's part of it, Rob. I think that's part of it. Yeah. Let's take a swing by the Pawnee Town Hall. The meeting is already in session, as it turns out, and the line is long. turns out, and the line is long. But at the front of the line, we have someone asking,

what's something that resonated with the fans more than expected? I think that's a lot on Parks and Recreation, actually. What would you think, though? What comes to mind for you, Alan? God, there's so many. I want to do one of the big ones, but I'll start with a really dumb one. It's one of the dumbest things I've ever seen in the show and it only resonated in the sense that i remember that is it was kind of like our people watching the show um there was a very small bit that it was in an episode i think my name was on the script and it was like these gadgets that tom had invented or was working on. And he had basically strapped an iPod on top of a Roomba, like a vacuum cleaner. Dude, DJ Roomba. So DJ Roomba was the thing that I put in the first draft of the script. And Mike was like, I don't understand this at all. I don't know what this is. This is total nonsense. And he was like,

I trust you. We're going to build it. So we had the props department build it. And then it made the DJ Roomba would, would go around the set and play music. And it was like, people love this thing. We're like, what is this? This is, and that was what it was like. The lunacy of the show had reached, had reached a certain point. Oh, dude, when I got to act with DJ Roomba, took a picture of it I have a picture I have a picture on my

phone to this day and I think I actually if you go back in my feed in my Instagram I think I said got to work with this guy today very exciting the man the myth the legend DJ Roomba it was I knew we had reached full lunacy when it was a recurring character. One year, a Halloween episode, DJ Roomba had a costume. It had a ghost costume. It's like the ghost of DJ Roomba is haunting Jerry. It's like, we've gone totally off the rails. At this point, I don't know what the show is,

but I love it. But that was a tiny thing that I couldn't believe even got in the show in the first place. I can't top DJ Roomba. I mean, I think you picked the absolute perfect, perfect epitomization of Parks and Rec. Because everybody knows the big ones. The big ones, of course, are Lil' Sebastian. Galentine's Day.

Galentine's Day. I mean, there's a lot. Treat yourself. Treat yourself. Man, I forgot about treat yourself. God. Come on How about you

Did you think people Would start saying Literally to you On the streets Like when you When you said the first time I don't think you thought that right No

I Look I've been in the I've been doing Acting for A lot a lot of years A lot of movies A lot of TV And I never had a catchphrase

And I was just very disappointed And it took me Being on Parks and Rec To get a catchphrase And I got two of them I got literally and i got and perkins that's true saying people's names it's also very versatile it's also like you people can use them in conversation you just point at someone and say their name or you say literally that applies anytime so hey congrats it's good good good looking out well gosh thank you all for tuning in.

And again, I say tuning in because all my references are dated. You know, I picture people like having like one of those, when they used to listen to FDR in a fireside chat listening to this. Do you think they're doing that with one of those big gnarly radios? And like they're by the fire. The kids always sat on the floor they never got to sit in any of the furniture in those pictures for whatever reason i picture them playing this on like a 18th century victrola yeah they just put on some mozart and then they put like a huge there's

a huge cone shaped thing they're listing that's what that's that's very that's very topical right yeah i think i'm nothing if not hip um thank you all so much uh we have a another really good episode episode two season two the stakeout good episode good next week is the stakeout that's the one with um emilio steves and and richard dreyfus right stakeout yep it's a it's a word for word remake of that movie yeah it's gonna be great hey don't forget to uh rate and review um our little show parks and recollection very important to the show if you like it we could really use it um on apple and don't forget my other podcast literally come on now thank you everyone for

listening thanks producer greg and producer schulte uh goodbye for funny thank you thank you Thank you. This episode of Parks and Recollection is produced by Greg Levine and me, Rob Schulte. Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm. The podcast is executive produced by Alan Yang for Alan Yang Productions, Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna Solitaroff at team coco and colin anderson at stitcher gina batista paula davis and brit khan are our talent bookers the theme song is by mouse rat aka mark rivers with additional tracks composed by john danik thanks for listening and

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