Parks and Recollection - Prop Master Gay Perello: Galentine's Day (S2E16)

Episode Date: February 8, 2022

Happy Holidays from Pawnee! Today Gay Perello makes her second appearance on the pod, this time to celebrate with Rob and Alan. In "Galentine's Day" Leslie and Justin try to reunite Leslie's Mom with an old flame, only to discover he's a total loon. On today's episode find out how many ice cream sandwiches Chris Pratt can eat in one sitting, why there were 3 pages of gifts Gay was asked to make, and how the writers lost Yang for an entire week! Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone] Leslie throws her annual "Galentine's Day" party for her female friends, celebrated the day before Valentine's Day. She asks her mother, Marlene, to tell the story about how she fell in love with a lifeguard that saved her from drowning in 1968, but the two had to break it off over objections from Marlene's parents. Leslie later tells the story to Justin, who is amazed by the tale and wants to unite the two. He tracks down Marlene's old flame, Frank Beckerson (John Larroquette), and convinces Leslie to go with him to Illinois and reunite the two on Valentine's Day at the Senior Center Valentine's Dance, which the parks department oversees. Leslie and Justin meet Frank, a strange and depressed man who has constant panic attacks. Leslie begins to have doubts about bringing him to her mother and tries to call it off, but Justin insists that they should "let this unfold." At the dance, where Andy's band, Mouse Rat, is playing, Frank meets up with Marlene, who is repulsed by Frank's past current unemployment and overall failure at life. She turns down his offer for a second chance at love, prompting him to storm onto the stage and denounce her over the microphone. Leslie apologizes to her mother for bringing Frank. She is later upset with Justin, but has trouble pinpointing the reasons for her dissatisfaction. Ron explains that Justin is a "tourist," meaning that he takes "vacations in people's lives" and only cares about telling interesting stories to impress other people, which makes him selfish. Two older women then recognize Ron as jazz saxophonist Duke Silver, but he denies it. Leslie later breaks up with Justin, which Tom takes especially hard, reacting as if his parents were getting divorced. Before the senior dance, Tom invites his ex-wife Wendy to his office to finally disclose his romantic feelings for her, but she rejects him. Not satisfied with the outcome, he attempts to blackmail her into a date using an alimony lawsuit as leverage. Tom and Wendy are later shown hugging and presumably making amends, although their conversation remains inaudible. Meanwhile, April's boyfriend Derek and his boyfriend Ben mock the senior citizens, causing April to question why their interactions must constantly be "cloaked in like 15 layers of irony." They accuse her of "lameness," which they attribute to spending time with Andy, and provide her with several ultimatums. She breaks up with them in response. Ann and Mark, at the same time, celebrate their first Valentine's Day together. In an interview with the camera crew, Ann describes the relationship as "good," but her tone of voice and body language around Mark contradict her statements. She later becomes jealous when Andy dedicates a song to April, even going so far as to question April about the possibility of a budding relationship between April and Andy.

We're getting together to talk about all the things we used to do The laughs, the passions, the little Sebastian's, the pets we fell into And we're putting it on in a podcast, then we'll send it up into the sky We're calling it Parks and Recollection Come on little podcast Spread your wings and fly Here we are Parks and Recollection I'm so happy to have you here, Gay.

Wait till America meets you. Let's just hang on for a minute because that's going to be big. But we are here to go over one of the great classic Galentine's Day. And you were a big part of that. But I'm going to turn all of that over to my co-star, Alan Yang,

who's going to handle all of the proper introductions to this amazing episode. That's right. That's right. Thank you, Rolo. We're here talking about Galentine's Day, which is episode 16 of season two. First aired on February 11th, 2010. So near Valentine's Day. It was timely. We didn't just air it at a random time. It was during the month of February in the middle of the month. This episode was written by Michael Schur,

the show co-creator, and directed by the great Ken Kwapis. We do have a very special guest, Gabe Pirello, in this episode. But first, let me give you guys a synopsis of this episode so we know what the hell we're talking about. And you guys do too. So let's go with the synopsis.

Leslie throws her annual Galentine's Day party for her female friends, celebrated the day before Valentine's Day. She asked her mother to tell the story about how she fell in love with a lifeguard who saved her from drowning in 1968, but the two had to break it off over objections from Marlene's parents. Leslie shares a story to Justin, her boyfriend, who's amazed by the story. He tracks down Marlene's old flame, Frank Beckerson, played by John Larroquette, and convinces Leslie to go with him to Illinois to reunite the two on Valentine's Day at the Senior Center Valentine's Dance, which the Parks Department oversees. Frank is a strange and depressed man who has constant panic attacks. Leslie tries to call the plan, but Justin insists. At the dance, Marlene's

uncomfortable with Frank's overall failure at life. She turns down his offer for a second Leslie tries to call the plan, but Justin insists. At the dance, Marlene's uncomfortable with Frank's overall failure at life. She turns down his offer for a second chance at love, prompting him to storm the stage and denounce her over the microphone. Leslie's later upset with Justin, but has trouble pinpointing the reasons for her dissatisfaction. Ron explains that Justin is a tourist, vacationing in people's minds. Later, Leslie breaks up with Justin, which Tom takes especially hard. Tom invites his ex-wife, Wendy, to his office to disclose his romantic feelings for her,

but she rejects him. Tom then attempts to blackmail her into a date using alimony lawsuit as leverage. Tom and Wendy are later shown hugging and presumably making amends, although their conversation remains inaudible using filmmaking techniques. Meanwhile, April's boyfriend, Derek, and his boyfriend, Ben, mock the senior citizens.

April breaks up with them in response. Anne and Mark at the same time celebrate their first Valentine's Day together. Anne describes the relationship as quote-unquote good, but her behavior around Mark contradicts her statement. And he dedicates his song to April, which prompts a jealous Anne to question April about the possibility of their budding relationship. Is that enough stories for you guys? That is four stories in one episode. It's a packed, packed,

packed holiday special episode. And here's our guest, Gay Pirello, the prop master for Parks and Recreation. Now, for people who don't know what Gay does, it's one of the most important things on a show. I mean, any object, anything that the story calls for, this is Gay's job to go and find it, make it happen,

make it beautiful, make it accessible, make it cool. So whether it's the right coffee mug or a crazy car or... I mean, well, first of all, Gay, what's the craziest thing that showed up in a script that you had to go and find? Well, right now, I'm making a dildo pogo stick. That would do it. And this is for the show called Dildo Pogo Stick, right would do it. And this is for the show. This is for the show

called Dildo Pogo Stick, right? It's a very specific show. It's on Peacock Premium. You guys, I progressed after Parks and Rec and I went into porn. A dildo pogo stick. Well, that's...

I mean, it's funny. And my craziest prop story ever has a similar theme i was on californication a great showtime show david dacovny and playing one of my favorite characters eddie nero that i ever played and um there was a fight scene and in the script it said eddie is excited by the fight and i thought what if that was also? So I went into the bathroom and rolled up a paper towel and taped it and put it in my pants and stood up with it in my pants. And the prop person came to me and said,

would you just prefer a dildo? And then brought out a case of beautifully presented and just had them right there. So you have to be prepared for anything in your job. The prop truck has a lot of stuff on it, right? Yeah, I like to play a game. Whoever comes on my trailer and say,

I'll say, say anything and we'll see if it's on the truck. Yeah. I was always amazed. I was always amazed. It's like the old, the old Monty Hall, let's make a deal. Do you have an egg beater in your purse?

I do. I know no one else cares about that game except for me. But especially when my family comes, I'll say, come on, say something. And they say the most obvious things. I'm like, no, just give me something hard. And then it's ridiculous. And then I don't have it. How much stuff do you carry on a prop truck?

When do you go, you know what, this is crazy. This is like, there's a difference between being a hoarder and having a prop truck. Yeah. At 30 years in the business now, I have a 50-foot trailer. I have my entire garage, the side of my house, and a storage facility 20 by 20. Oh my God. And you hold on to stuff, right? Because it just makes sense. If you have the space, because it might come up again. There's certain things that do keep coming up, right? Is that true? Yeah. I don't want to kill yourself, but we never can find it. It's

not like... Certainly, I have it and I just can't find it and I give up and I go get it again. But also, I think you become like attached to some of this stuff. But inside my house, I actually don't have any props. I have to have a little separation. I know prop people who have, you know, this and that. I really don't. I try to keep that normal. But you open my garage and it's like,

you never know what you're going to see. So you would have made DJ Roomba? Yes, made DJ Roomba. Yeah, that was fun. She's DJ Roomba's mom in some ways. DJ Roomba's mom. So does that mean, do you then get to keep DJ Roomba in your storage facility? Well, he disassembled. He's just like an iPod player keep DJ Roomba in your storage facility? Well, he disassembled. He's just like an iPod player and a Roomba. Don't talk about him like that. And yes, and a human being is just a collection of cells and water. Some things we put together are things that we need for other scenes.

So wait a minute. So DJ Roomba exists. This is so sad. Disassembled in your storage facility right now. Parts of him definitely are. Yes. Oh, man. That's brutal.

Yeah. I'll put him back together for you. Don't worry. Yeah. It's like a third generation iPod. A piece of electronics that hasn't been made for 20 years or something. I remember when we asked the people who did the Roomba and they had a prototype because it wasn't on remote before. You can hit a program, but this is like Morgan's like, no, we want it to really go around.

And it barely hit its mark, but the first time the Roomba ever did was on our show inside Tommy's closet. Wow. Wow, that's amazing. That's actually good background. Breaking boundaries, technologically speaking. Morgan said it had to do it, so we had to do it.

I know. Talking about him like he's an actor. Yeah, DJ Roomba, his mark on the first take didn't quite get there the second take. So we have contributed to the advancement of technology on Parks and Recreation. I love that. I love that.

How did you, so Galentine's Day, the reason we wanted to have you on this, we should have you on all these shows. So good. Is obviously Galentine's Day opens with the gifts, gift giving that all the gals give each other. How did, what was your favorite gift? Walk us through that because it's a lot of gift giving.

I thought I was watching an episode of Sex and the City. It was, there was so much gift giving and it was, I felt like it was mainlining estrogen, like directly into my heart. That's nice to say, because I'm a big fan of Sex and City. The list of presents, I don't know if anybody remembers this,

but it was like three pages long in the script or in our meeting. And knowing that we wouldn't get to all of them, I wanted to have all of them there just in case, you know, while she's pulling them out. My favorite ended up being the mosaic that were of Marlene I thought was really funny. I think it really nailed Aubrey's mosaic was really funny. I don't think I had to redeem myself on Rashida's when we did Galentine's later when we made a pillow because

her mosaic did not look like her at all. Yeah, I don't know how much you remember about this, Greg. So these mosaics that Leslie made for all the other characters in the show, I'm looking at a photo of it right now on the internet because the internet has everything. I'm looking at one of Aubrey right now and it's very good in the script it says Leslie made them out of crushed bottles from your favorite diet soda which obviously is a joke but man I mean look at them I implore you as a listener to google

Galentine's Day mosaic parks because they're very good or watch the episode again the weird story about this was I couldn't find a real mosaic artist who could do it in the time for people. She did pets. Oh, boy. Yeah. She was great at pets. But she could do it in the timeframe and it was a challenge to her. And when I first saw when she completed Aubrey's, I'm like,

yes, that's amazing. She kind of got that whole look. And then as they were's, I'm like, yes! That's amazing. She kind of got that whole look. And then as they were going, I'm like, okay, maybe not so much the others. But Marlene's was pretty funny. Well, you know, that's like the great story in the great movie Team America, the puppet movie, where

they had to make all the puppets and then they got the Matt Damon puppet. And the Matt Damon puppet and the Matt Damon puppet looked demented. And that's why Matt Damon goes, Matt Damon! That's just because the puppet...

That's why Matt Damon seems like he's completely out of his mind in Team America. The prop people could not figure out how to make a good Matt Damon puppet. Sometimes it's very hard. I couldn't get Jerry on the pumpkin. We had to redo that too.

Man, we could do 10 episodes with Gay because I want to ask her about all of these props that the writers came up with and how it's like you come up, you can say words that imply an object, but then to actually make the object is so difficult that it's like you come up, you can say words that imply an object, but then to actually make the object is so difficult that it's like,

what a headache. Do you want to know the worst? It's a difficult job. Yeah, what was the worst one you ever had to do, Gay? What was the worst one? I'd love to know. The breakfast doll.

Okay. On paper, it sounds like it would work, like scrambled eggs for hair and, you know, bacon arms. Greg, can you consult the notes on this breakfast doll, please? Because we got to dig this up. Dig up that archive. The breakfast doll is, of course, a gift

that Anne attempts to make for Leslie for breakfast day, which is a different holiday altogether. Oh, my God. I was throwing stuff left and right on that one. So are you physically making that one? Or is there like... Because that's...

Who else am I going to get to make a breakfast doll? There's no... As I'm saying, you can get a dog mosaic artist to make the human mosaics, but there's no like, well, this person makes lunch dolls. Maybe you can make a breakfast doll.

Like you're making the breakfast doll. That is... Dinner doll. Yeah. Personal. Yeah. I feel like we owe you an apology for all these props. But yeah, that was... No, this guy...

I mean, and Galentine's Day became almost like a phenomenon of some sort. You know, it's... Well, I want to ask you, did Galentine's Day exist or was that something that Mike made up? I think it was made up in the room. Ayesha Muharra had a lot to do with it. Ayesha was a huge driving force in the show period and she wrote a lot of great Leslie

stuff and lines and talking heads and so I think it was her pitch originally and we love the idea as soon as it came up because it's like, yeah, you put so much stress on this holiday. We were supposed to find love and it's all about couples. And like, well, what about, you know,

being happy with yourself and being happy with your friends? So I think that was the original genesis of the idea. And I see here in the research, this non-official holiday is celebrated as a day for ladies celebrating ladies. Businesses such as Sprinkles, Cupcakes, Lyfts, Sherry's Berries, Target, et cetera,

selling, you know, promoted the holiday with Target even selling Galentine's Day themed products. I hope they gave Aisha some free Galentine's Day swag because thanks to her. No, it's a great concept and I love that it has become a real thing.

Very real, for sure. There's so much great stuff in this. I also just like any story that builds to a sort of showdown where all the characters show up and intercut their stories, but they all sort of support one another. And the old folks dance is so satisfying.

It's satisfying for a lot of reasons. Also, it's, you have a natural excuse to have music throughout it. Cause mouse rats playing. And by the way, a lot of, you see a lot of Yang in the background.

I remember shooting this one. I think they tried to later, you know, have just, so I wouldn't have to be on set as much. So I was in rock show, which is in season one. And then,

um, in this one, I just remember having to be on set almost all week because a lot of it takes place in the senior center. And if they ever wanted to shoot in that direction, we had to be on stage. So I think after this week, Mike was like, well, we just lost Yang for like a week

for no clear reason. He's just in the background of all these shots. So let's try to make sure that we don't have to write him into that much stuff. But it was really fun to play. We did actually learn the songs and we were playing along to all of them.

It's really fun. You're in these scenes with Pratt. Yeah. It's funny how Pratt, how Andy just hates the old classic songs. He just doesn't understand them. He's like, I don't get it.

It really made me laugh. Yeah, he played them. I didn't remember. I just rewatched the episode. I don't get it. It really made me laugh. Yet he played them. I didn't remember. I just rewatched the episode. I didn't remember. You guys played it pretty good. I mean, we learned all those songs. And again, we would actually go to a practice studio in North Hollywood,

like me, Pratt, Burley, and Rivers, and just practice the songs and then play them. And then we generally played them live on set. And then there was also a track that we could play along to. And then we'd play them at the rap party at the end of each season, whatever we learned that year. So that was really fun. And we were actually... We're not great.

I mean, Rivers is an actual musician. I think Burley is pretty good too. Me and Pratt are really just making shit up. It's really... We have rudimentary knowledge of the instruments, but yeah. I was going to say, you jump... Your, it's pretty dope. Well, as you guys know, I have a lot of energy. And the reason I was even cast in Mouse Rat to begin with was I used to be in a band, right?

So I used to play in a punk rock band, and I played bass, and I played a little bit of guitar too. But yeah, what we played, it was like a much more high tempo band than Mouse Rat. So I used to jump up and down all the time. And then I used to roll around on the ground. I used to go into the crowd. I used to just run around. And I sang sometimes in the band too. But yeah, it was a lot of like,

that band was a lot of me running around and jumping and wearing white vans. So that's a lot of me in Parks and Rec too. We just transferred it over. There was no imagination. I just wore my own clothes and I just went to set and then played. So yeah, that was that character.

It was not a transformation on my behalf. Really good. The other thing I noticed, I think for sure the world's biggest close-ups, at least in the Parks and Rec, are in this episode. When Tom is talking to his wife and she turns him down.

Go back and look at those close-ups. That was emotional. Yeah, I mean, what really emotional? I mean, we always be, this is some inside, this is some DP talk. What is that, like a 120 millimeter lens?

I mean, we are tight on them. That is like, we are really tight on them. It is wild. I was like, wow. I mean, usually there's a language of like on a show where like we don't we don't use anything higher than a 120 lens and we don't

do anything wider than a 35 or whatever yeah i felt like they broke the bank on that yeah i was like we go we doubled up man so we put a 120 on a 120 but But no, this was like... I found this scene very difficult to watch because I felt bad for him. He was so... I was like, no, Tom, no. She doesn't like you, man. It's like, she just doesn't like you. And she's like, I don't like you.

And then, of course, later in the episode, I'm like, I turned against Tom because it's like, no, he's being an idiot. Like, you can't do that shit. He's like blackmailing her with alimony. You can't do that. Anyway, they make up eventually. The other thing that made me

really, really, really laugh out loud is when Tom thinks Leslie's JFK imitation is the Terminator. He transitions right into it. Transitions right into it. Then she does the Terminator too. And then Ron gives her a high five for seamlessly

turning that around. That is so funny. I don't know why that made me laugh. That was particularly good. This is a good question for Gay, too. Did you notice, Gay, when re-watching it, that the car that Leslie and Justin in,

the windshield is really dirty? Because I think that... What happened? I kept going, somebody must have told us to do that. I mean, it was really dirty. It was distracting to me because... I know, someone must have told you to do that, but I

think the idea was they're driving it's winter in the Midwest and they're driving from Indiana to Illinois it should be dirty but I was like man this is this is troubling and also by the way later in those scenes with Larraket in the back of this back of the car it's a very

obvious green screen I was like oh man this is a really obvious green screen. I was like, oh man, this is a really obvious green screen. That's why I think that's why the dirt was on there. I really do. To kind of mask some of it. They were like, I don't know if we're going to get away with this green screen. I know, let's throw a bunch of dirt on the windows.

Well, it worked. We're talking about it. It looked like mud. I mean, I think when we first started, there was notes that all the cars should be dirty because of the rain and whatnot. And then, you know, we do that for a few episodes and then you don't do it anymore. You're like, yeah, let's not do it. We pulled it out in that one. We really pulled it. And so for those who don't know, Gay, you also are often in charge of cars, right? You have to get the cars for that. That counts as a prop. I think people don't

generally know that, but the cars generally count as a prop because the actors are touching them. Right. Well, we have picture car, um, which is under the purview of transportation. There's picture car people who actually get specific cars,

but once they get to us, um, we have to do like, if it's an ambulance, I've got to put the lights on them. If it's the cop car, I've got to put the skins on them. All the parks and rec vehicles get skins and license plates and all that.

But I don't actually have to get the actual vehicle. So you must have license plates from all 50 states in your garage right now. And Europe, baby. And Europe. Oh, my God. Yeah, that would be like Prop 101 for sure. Trip to Gay's garage would be very entertaining. They're all one.

Trip to Gay's Garage would be very entertaining. Another thing I noticed in the Leslie and Justin A story was at one point, Leslie does a talking head about how much she wants Jennifer Aniston to be happy. And it is bookended by scenes where she's acting with Justin Theroux, who would later become Jennifer Aniston's boyfriend. I was like, oh my God, the episode is just, this is life. This is real life. Oh my God. I forgot you're so right. It is wild watching it now

because it's 10 years away from happening or whatever. It's many years away from happening, but it's like, yeah, you're with the guy right now who's about to date her. That's freakish. And John Mayer is still, no, I'm kidding. And John Mayer is not in the, I'm kidding. And John Mayer is not in the picture anymore. Stay away from John Mayer. It's not in, yeah, stay away from John Mayer.

Gay, can you tell us a little bit, just because I'm curious and I think the listener might be as well, how you get into your profession because it is a very specific one and takes unique skills and experience. How did you start in this journey? So, no skills. Now, come on. Don't tell yourself. Starting with no skills. You know, rotate tires when I was 14. But I had a corporate job right out of college and my sister, Hope Porello, directed

The Howling Six. And she said, do you want to come out for the summer and be my assistant? And that was in 1989. And I said, yeah. And I got on set and you get the bug. And I literally fell in love with the prop guy. I wanted to stalk him. So I just followed him around for about a year. And then I took his job over. That is, that's fascinating. Also, were you romantic? I was going to say, wait, like were you romantically in love with this prop guy? Like you had a crush on him or something?

I was. Oh, that's kind of cool. I was. And I thought everything he did was cool. And the props were cool and there was never another choice for me. I liked it. Wow. That's so

interesting. But I hear nowadays, look, nepotism doesn't hurt you. If your friendships or connections reach out to people that you may know and then be a PA. I'm a big supporter of PAs figuring out what they want you may know, and then be a PA. I'm a big supporter of PAs figuring out what they want to do on sets and learning what to do and figure it out.

It's a very tough job. You don't just go home and not think about it. Props is one of those things. So you're always worried about it. Because we deal with food and firearms and shit like that. So you have to always be aware of what's going on in your world. Look, there's a lot of stressful jobs on set in terms of what... Look, it's always on your mind, right? Like you were saying, you go home with it. But props is up there because you're always on call and you need things like you said last minute, right? I got to get a mosaic made by Tuesday. Or like, I need a doll made out of breakfast foods by Wednesday morning. It's like, how can that happen?

I always wonder how that stuff happens. It's luck. Some good, some bad. And then you can't be afraid to cold call. We really rely upon the community to help us out and experts because we reach out to, like you said, all the different experts in other fields. And I'm happy to call them and say, hey, I need help. What do you, like, when you have to do like a, this is going to sound like the most dated reference, like a ray gun, like you're like outer space crap. You've got to like make up out of, do you just build it yourself?

No, no, I have, there's about three or four people I trust with doing a drawing. Just if there's something in my head, like on the good place, I had to do that a lot. If there's something in my head and I can't get it on paper, I will hire somebody. Like I said, I have three or four really good graphic artists who can kind of pick my brain. And then once it's on paper,

then I can kind of show the director or the writer, whoever is interested in this. And then it goes to one of the three main prop houses that build these things for us. Do you remember the day we had this would have been your purview. We had to have the damn spinning chair

from The Voice on the set. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Remember that? I think Ian may have taken that over. And I want to say our construction Andy and those guys built that with the help of special effects.

It was a big... You'd have thought we were building a rocket to Mars. It was a big deal. That was in that moment in time when NBC was just using us shamelessly to cross promote everything. And we had to do a thing with the spinning around chair. It was in Ron Swanson's office, I remember.

And then we had to do a musical because they were doing some show about a Broadway musical and all of us had to sing. It was just insane do you also remember that we had a series of basically Tom Clancy style

books that were written by you so we would have prop books that just needed to be around and we put your name on them it just said written by Gabriel it was like Air Force None or whatever. They had different, like,

I don't know, I forget what the names are. Do you remember? Oh, Enter the Den of the Lions. Yeah, what was the other? Enter the Lion's Den

or what were the other ones? Enter the Lion's Den and then I don't know what they were called. Enter the Lion's Den. Yeah, I don't even know what it was. Anytime there was a,

Mike would just look down at me. Oh, let's have a book fight. I'm like, no. And then he would come up with the title in two seconds. And yeah. It would always be down at me. Oh, let's have a book fight. I'm like, no. And then he would come up with the title in two seconds. And yeah.

It would always be some... Those are actually kind of fun to have now. Yes. Yes. I remember one of my first days on the set with my... Chris had to take a pill that was so big, it was a choking pill.

Oh, right. Do you remember that? And there was a whole discussion we had about how big is big and I just remember and this is what is so fun is

the prop master and the actors sit there and they have a bunch of pills laid out and you go, that's too big. I think it looks like a cartoon. That's funny.

That's not funny. And that's what we do is we figure out which pill worked the best. All of the pills for you. Oh, my God. Remember, we kept that going for a while. Yeah. Those pills were on the desk for a long time. Do you remember, I remember I told you I wanted to have, because I was inspired by Leslie's, the photos behind her desk. And I said, okay, if Leslie has Larry Bird and Janet Napolitano, whoever it is

behind her desk, who would Chris Traeger have? And I was like, Jack LaLanne. And I remember we found a Jack LaLanne. I forget who else there were, but I love building my characters. Your character, when you were anything with working out, what did we did in the doorframe for you to be doing pull-ups? The pull-ups. Oh,

we had a device. And then all of the nighttime running in your bumble vest. Was it a bumble? Oh, the bumble flex. People want to, people will ask me to this day is bumble flex a real thing and where can I buy it?

And we made a little bumblelex thing for Chance, the dog. Oh my God. So what did that end up being? So that was like high-tech gear, like running gear basically, right? It was some special gear that only Chris Traeger knew about because he was so obsessed with health. And it was, I believe, a super fan will know,

but I believe it was material for a shirt. It was made out of the wings of butterflies. Oh, here it is. It's an experimental fabric called Bumbleflex. It's made out of, yes, synthetic bee wings. I was right. I remember. Which makes no sense

because if it's synthetic, it's no longer a B-wing. But sure, yeah. It's a nonsense phrase, but sure. You know, we talked so much about gifts, jobs, and parties. And this episode is all gifts, gifts, gifts, right? So many gifts from Leslie. And Alan, we talked about this a little bit, but giving gifts is such a great device in our show. And maybe we can expand a bit, right? How it relates to Leslie and how it just

ripples into the rest of the cast. Yeah, it's a recurring theme in the show. And we don't say that lightly in service of gifts, parties, and jobs. And I think I still remember thinking back all those years ago as a very young writer, uh, talking to who I thought of as like, you know, people who knew how to run the show, like Greg and Mike. Right. And,

and you know, they weren't identical in their philosophies. And sometimes Greg would be like, man, Mike is such a sweet guy and he's such a like caring guy. And, and he infuses that into his, his storytelling sort of,

um, you know, his, his means of storytelling. He says, a lot of times, these stories, and this is totally organic, are ending up with someone thanking somebody or someone showing

appreciation or someone doing something kind for someone else and showing empathy. And look, it's a visual medium. Of course, you can have a character say, hey, thank you. That's pretty boring. Even though a lot of comedies are very dialogue based it's it's nice to see an embodiment of what that means whether it's leslie giving a gift to ron or to tom or to to to to april you know it it turned into such a i think very on theme you know trend in the show

because of mike's sort of natural inclination to have characters care about each other and feel empathy towards each other. So it's not just a fun thing to end the episode. It's very on brand for the show. And boy, some of the best episodes of the show end with giving gifts or with... I mean, look at Galentine's Day, right?

It's a whole sort of cottage industry holiday now. And gay you so what what shows have you worked on uh since parks you did good place and what did you do before parks um before parks i did um mad men and crossing jordan i've heard of them heard of them mad men that must have been so fun mad men all? All that period stuff. The stuff was fun. The show, because like any other show that suffers from financial problems,

you want it to be, you know, you want to have it all and then you, you know, it's hard to pull that off with not a lot of money. But yes, it was, I would never trade that experience for the world. Yeah, they did a lot. I mean, I know for a the world. Yeah, they did a lot. I mean, I know for a fact, I mean, they did a lot with The Little on that show

in terms of the production budget. I mean, it looks amazing. But you realize if you really think about it, you're on stage a lot, you're saving money by just being on the set and not doing so much location work. And it's all kind of in that office, right? It's just like, it's all kind of like...

And a little bit downtown, little pockets here and there downtown, you know, on the street. And before, and then after that, I did Veep and The Good Place and your show, Forever. Forever, that's right. And then I did Hacks,

this last season of Hacks. And then I'm on did Hacks. This last season of Hacks. And then I'm on a film called Babylon Here in Town. Damien Chazelle's new film. Okay. Your record is... If that were a director or writer's filmography, it would be the greatest writer who ever lived. Yes.

That's an extremely good resume of stuff. That's a lot of good shows and movies. So you're on Babylon right now. That's cool, man. Yeah, I've heard about that movie. Tell me a little bit about Babylon. I know I've heard the logline, but I'm a huge fan of his. Can you tell me what the logline of Babylon is?

Yeah, so it's 1920s Hollywood, the transition from silent film to talkies and how it affects the actors and the studios and that transition. So it's period, which is, I mean, that's kind of where my heart is. I love it. There's a lot of,

I just finished reading the Frank Capra book. I think it was published in 1970. But one of the most interesting things in the book is he lived through that era and was working in that era. And just the practicality of what sound, the advent of sound meant, did. It's such fertile ground. People have, I don't think, have a concept of how it ended entire careers. Overnight.

Absolutely. Yeah. Not a good time if you were a handsome guy with a horrible voice. That was kind of the... Not a good time for those guys, but yeah. And also not being able to kind of let that

romantic silent era go and it was a lot of that... You had to transition or you were out. Yeah. And if I recall correctly, I mean, I think I've read a couple things about this era. Some guys were like, no, people don't

want to hear sound. They want to watch silence. No, people want to read the cards. Yeah, exactly. Which is so funny in retrospect. But man, what an illustrious career. What an illustrious career. What an illustrious career. I've been fortunate.

I mean, well, look, you guys have hired me plenty. No, that's true. I try to hire you for every show I ever do. So I get it. It's like, you're either busy

on one of my shows or I try to poach you for my shows. That's basically it. I guess I have to fight with Damien Chazelle now. Have you ever had actors... We talked about this in another

one of the other episodes, famous actors who think because they touch a prop that it now belongs to them and they want to take it home. Yeah, baby. What was it? Like a gun or something?

Like a blonk. What's my watch company? Like a Patek Philippe or something? Yeah, he just took a lot of stuff. Oh, no. And I had it at the end of the movie, and he said, no, they gave it to me. I'm like, no, we didn't.

Because those are rentals, right? Well, promo. So find out in my name. Oh, Cartier. Cartier watch. Yeah. Now, Robert De Niro will donate it. That's part of the package.

Like when you get stuff, he does a big charity thing. He's the only one that is set up, built into the cake that goes, right? It's all for charity. I heard **** has a foundation that's set up that inherits the stuff from Robert De Niro. So he just collects the De Niro stuff. So it's very complicated, but it's a shell corporation that takes the De Niro donations.

It's like, oh, more watches from De Niro? Thanks, Bobby D. Yeah, you literally will see an Academy Award winner just with a cardboard box of coffee. There's the coffee maker from the set. Yeah. It's just unbelievable sometimes. It's like, this is a movie set, not a gifting suite, man.

You can't just walk off with that stuff. Wardrobes like that, too. I mean, wardrobes all the time. People are always trying to take over the wardrobe stuff. It's like, that's not all but yeah I can't imagine it's hard to say no right

if it's like you know movie star or whatever yeah he took it home it's like I'm gay what am I going to hunt him down and steal his shit back

yeah exactly yeah okay bye Bruce anyway hi producer yeah that's what you do that's what you do. That's what you do.

That's real stuff, too. That's nice. That's nice. Those are nice items. Yeah. That's not food. I've probably gotten in trouble once or twice before by giving stuff away. But it fits for them, especially like that mosaic or things that we've made, especially

the cards. It fits their character. They should have it. made, especially the cars. It's their character. They should have it. We talked about on the episode, Rob and I both had things from the set that were given to us. He had

a nameplate and I had a mouse wrap poster that was framed and given to me. I was like, yeah, that's sweet. That ain't a nice watch, though. That's like... That's not... That's so funny, man. Or a car.

How about a car? I've seen that too. Oh my God. Like I'm driving this car, you know, I'm like, you know, whatever. I mean, it happens. Peel it out of my hands. Peel it out of my hands. I dare you.

I dare you to do it. Do you know what's cute? You want to know something really cute? So when we ended Parks and Rec, I asked Mike Schur what he wanted. And he goes, well, what do you want? And I said, well, I am a little partial to the Unity quilt. And he goes, I like the Unity quilt too.

So we made a deal. Every two years, we switch out. He takes it or I take it every two years. Wow. Yeah. So I'm a month behind. He's got it sitting on his couch waiting for me to go get it. That's so sweet.

It's also in the spirit of unity. Yeah. It's so cute that we actually, I can't believe I'm like, at first, I was like, this will never happen. But it happens every two years. That's so sweet. I know. Like at first, I was like, oh, this will never happen. But it happens every two years. That's so sweet. I love that. My wall in my office

stayed there for two years and then I put it back up again. So, yeah. Beautiful story. That was a great episode. Beautiful story. Yeah, people who watch don't think of the kind of detail

of some actors in a scene and he's looking at paperwork on their desk. Somebody's made that. They've made it. They've, somebody had to write it. Yeah. Somebody had, so there's literally,

and the mark of working with people who are great at props is, and we used to see this on the West Wing all the time, and on Parks and Rec, is you could open a document and the document would either be super hilarious that somebody has spent the time to actually it's not all work and no play

makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy over and over and over again it's actual writing that a human being spent the time to do that no one's ever

going to see but the actor who's pretending to read the file okay so I feel like because you know after doing this

for so long you're never going to see what's on that page unless they do an insert. But I always, my whole point was, in fact, I've gotten to an argument with a graphics person once before and he did it in Greek, you know, and I was like, no, you can't do that. We have to, you know, and he's like, well, no, I'll never see it. I'm like, but you guys see it. And if I think of it helps, you know, get you in the scene or whatever, that's what I feel like our job is, you know,

or either make you laugh or at least have something there that you can set the tone for however you're going to do the scene, you know, whether it be realistic and it doesn't affect you at all, or maybe make you laugh. Well, I remember vividly coming on to Perks because I came in late, you know, whether it be realistic and it doesn't affect you at all or maybe make you laugh. Well, I remember vividly coming on to Perks because I came in late.

You know, I came in whenever season, into season two. And the first time I picked up a file and looked at it and it was like, Merrick Gutterson is a noted asshole or whatever it was. Somebody wrote it. I was like, somebody wrote this

and it's really funny. And somebody's props like, yeah, you, you know, we tried to give you guys copy. We're definitely going to see it. But you guys definitely wrote stuff that was like funny and like, yeah, you know, we tried to give you guys copies. We're definitely going to see it. But you guys definitely wrote stuff that was, like, funny and was in the show in some ways. But you're right. Like, doing in Greek, like, the actor is going to look at it, right?

The actor sees it. You know, it's like you want to kind of create this world. And it shows that extra love, man, that extra love in there, you know, helps the show. It kind of, yeah. And the occasional lines. Especially if it's a long monologue. You want to count them out. Yes. That was always the thing. Okay, they got to fill the time with

something. It's like, oh, you're not stranding the actor on an island where they just have to make up the lines. Is there a prop cliche that drives you insane? A baguette. a bouquet of flowers. We will always do that. And then there's this one newspaper that we use all the time.

Yeah. But it'll make me... You have to do it now for fun. You can't really do it. Who's walking around with the flower? A baguette. A baguette. Yeah.

How about... Here's mine. You know it's somebody's office when they have that little tick-tock-tick thing with the balls. Oh my God, yes. Which no one in real life ever has. No, but you have to have it on TV

if you have an office. You do, yeah. Everybody has one of those in their desks. Yeah, I love that kind of stuff. I love looking for, like, I actually think I've worked with that desk device. What is it called? Whether the pendulum balls that hit each other.

I feel like I've worked with, I've had that on multiple desks of my own on TV. Only on TV. It's a great question for any department, you know, who are interviewing what the cliches of their job are. Because I never would have thought of baguette and Bouquet of Flowers. That's so funny.

It's like your lead is a struggling photojournalist and she's walking in the street with a baguette and a bouquet for whatever her job is. She works in advertising, whatever it is. But she's like, yeah, she's put together a work,

but her personal life's a mess. Anyway. Well, listen, how do you know that the character's actually been to the grocery if you don't see the baguette? There could be anything in that bag. You got to see it sticking out. Yeah. Yeah, of course. The other thing is in food, you talked about food and weapons.

Have you ever worked with actors who ate all of the prop? I worked with Danny Glover. Danny Glover ate every piece of prop food ever. And I, and I was finally, I was like, I was like, Danny's been in a lot of,

he's been in a lot of movies. I mean, Danny Glover, like it wasn't his first job. I mean, the food sits out. I mean, you guys do your best to keep it fresh,

but I mean, you're shooting for 13 hours. Sometimes you don't want to eat that egg salad. Okay. Uh, Chris Pr shooting for 13 hours sometimes. You don't want to eat that egg salad. Okay. Chris Pratt ate 14 ice creams, I think. Yes, he did. Yes, he did. I remember I was there.

I was there. Oh my God. Chris would eat whatever we laid out. Chris would eat all the pizza. Oh, I don't know. I had one here. It was like, okay. Yeah, that was... Ice cream is one here. It was like, okay. Yeah.

That was usually... Ice cream is so good. That was the bachelor party episode when we all went to eat ice cream. And by the way, that ice cream was insane. It was insane. And we all fat. Full fat ice cream.

Full fat. Yeah. Because usually there's a spit bucket, right? So for those of you who don't know, you take a bite on camera, you chew it, and you spit it out. Yeah, I mean, because you're not supposed...

It's not good for you to eat that. So there's many takes from different coverage and all this stuff. But yeah, eating that much seems ill-advised. But you know, maybe you need the energy to get through the scene. I love Danny... Man, Danny Glover and Pratt in a movie together

are going to have to increase the food budget. I love that about Danny Glover. Never would have expected that. And he's, you know, he's skinny as the day is long, but the man eats like he's got a hollow leg. And he, and then, and then, like,

his assistant would come up to him and go, um, Danny, I just want you to know there are churros at Crafty. I love the churros. I love the churros. You guys get it? I was getting it. Well, are churros at Crafty. I'm on the trip. I love the churros. I love the churros. I was kidding.

I was kidding. Well, because Pratt would do that too. Because sometimes we would eat with Pratt at catering after he did a scene where he eats in the scene. And it was like, I remember one time we had barbecue and he was like, yeah, could I get a... He came up to the truck. He's like, can I get two or three?

It was ribs. He's like, can I get two or three? And the chef was like, two or three ribs? He's like, can I get two or three? There was ribs. He's like, can I get two or three? And the chef was like, two or three ribs? He's like, two or three racks. Two or three racks of ribs. That's a lot of ribs, bro. Like, that's a lot of ribs. I remember the meat tornado

burrito. Yes. I thought like, you know, oh, eight will be enough. No, we had to go back. No way. Yes. No way. Not kidding. He's a big boy. He's a large man. He consumes a lot of energy.

I love that area. Actors who will eat all the food. And then, you know, eating food, a lot of actors don't ever eat. That's my other favorite thing to watch is in eating scenes where do you ever actually see food enter an actor's mouth? And the answer is almost never.

Almost never. That's the other extreme, right? The eaters or the non-eaters, you know, and we never know what that's going to be until you get to know them really well. And that's hard for us to plan out dinner scenes because they're supposed to be eating. And I always do some soft food so they can chew and not mess the take up. But then in the last 10 years, there's a huge amount of diet restrictions for everyone. So it becomes a little more complicated. Like, okay, bread is soft.

They can't do bread. Or greens are crunchy, but they can't really eat that. So it's a little more difficult to do right now. But we're all on board trying to figure it out. completely, we're all on board trying to figure it out. In fact, in the last two years, it's been much easier because of all the beyond meat and

whatnot. Most people don't think about when making a show and it's fascinating stuff. You think Tony Soprano's just wolfing down on that sub without a lot of thought going behind it? There's thought going behind it.

Gay looking for vegan, non-GMO, gluten-free mush that isn't loud on camera. It's just the hardest journey. So Aubrey Pross is one of my favorite people on the planet. But when we were doing the grilled cheese episode and she finally says, Mommy, I don't want cheese. I'm like, no, you don't understand. You have to do it because it's really hard. Fake cheese doesn't melt, especially when, you know, nine years ago, fake cheese did not melt at all. And we had to do that whole grilled cheese. And I wanted to, well, I was like, no, do this for me.

Come on, come on, do it for me. Just take a bite and spit it out. Come on. Yeah. Can I get a grilled cheese sandwich it out. Spit it out. Come on. I think I will. Yeah. Can I get a grilled cheese sandwich? No cheese, no bread. Thank you. Just like, no, you can't, man.

And of course, Pratt was eating all the... Pratt, meanwhile, ate the first 50 sandwiches. Off camera. Yeah. Off camera. Off camera. Oh, my God.

Remember when we did the hamburger episode? The hamburger cook-offs? Oh, yeah. The burger off. Yeah. The burger off with me and with Chris Traeger and Off camera. Off camera. Oh my God. Remember when we did the hamburger episode? The hamburger cook-off? Oh yeah. The burger off. Yeah. The burger off with me and with Chris Traeger and Offerman. Those burgers were delish.

Those were really good. We had a food stylist come in for that. Those were really good. You had special people for that one, I remember. Jay, have you ever seen, there's a YouTube channel called Binging with Babish. And so it's a channel where this guy makes food from different television shows. What?

And he did Parks and Rec. He did the burger cook-off with Chris and Ron. And he made Chris's burger. I think he made both burgers, actually. And he has millions of subscribers. He's a very famous YouTube personality. So look up Babish Parks and Rec. Shout out to Babish. But yeah,

he made the burgers on his channel. Was yours turkey? Was it supposed to be turkey or was it a It was turkey. Yes, it was turkey. Yes, it was a turkey burger. And that was the bit. It was the bit, kind of. That he put so much effort into it, but then people preferred the beef burger. Spoiler

when we get to that one. Much later down the line. that he had put so much effort into it, but then people preferred the beef burger. Spoiler when we get to that one. Yes, sorry. Much later down the line. I think we need to do a town hall with Gay before she leaves us. Yes, let's do a town hall. And I believe this might be a town howl because it's a voicemail. Oh, you know, where did they do Galentine's Day in the beginning of this episode? JJ's, isn't it? Was it at JJ's?

Well, we really shot it at Hamburger Hamlet, and I forgot. What? Amazing. I like that you remember that. Oh, yeah. We did it twice there, I think. Well, let's do it at the Hamburger Hamlet in Bonny, then. Yeah, hell yeah. I have a question for Gay.

Yes. Was there a prop that you slaved over that didn't get in the show that you were then? How much time do we have? I want you to please get... Okay, I'll bring it to this particular Galentine's Day. We were supposed to do these heart-shaped... You know, the sweetheart candy that you get at Valentine's that have I love you and all of that stuff.

Well, we made oversized ones and they had to have, you know, the letters on it. And you guys had wrote husband and, and I love, you know, other ones. Oh my God, I couldn't get those fricking things to stay on. I'd end up spray painting hearts and you never see them in the whole thing. They never pull them out. They never do them. So anyway, I remember stressing

over those sweetheart candies. Now, we, I think I mentioned this in a previous episode. Do you remember the hydraulic egg

that we made to put Jerry inside of? Does that ring a bell to you? Oh my God, yeah. Early, early on,

was that the, was a Jurassic Fork episode Oh my God, yeah. Early, early on. Was that the... It was a Jurassic Fork episode, I believe. God, I love that episode. And we built this egg and we just never... It worked. It opened and closed. It was a dinosaur egg that opened and closed.

And it just sat on stage. It was one of my favorite things about the show. I would walk by that dinosaur egg seasons later, just the vain hope that it would get used again as if we would somehow go back to Jurassic Fork and use it. Why didn't we go back to Jurassic Fork? We actually did. And then we didn't use it again.

It was something similar. But man, thank you so much to our guest, Gabe Pirello. Great to have you on. Oh my God. This was such a pleasure. I was so nervous. You never would know it. You're a pro, darling.

You're a pro. You have a future in the business. Thank you. I'm probably going to get fired now, but you know, you're all good. You'll always have a job on my shows, Gay. You'll always have a job.

Same. Same, same. Well, listen, thank you for listening. This has been Parks and Recollection, as you know, and more fun next week. Don't forget to subscribe to the show. Give us a five-star review on the boards. It's very helpful. And we will see you next time.

Goodbye from Pawnee. Thank you, Producer Schulte. Thank you, Producer Greg. Bye, everyone. Bye, everyone. Mr. Greg. Bye everyone. 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 Sacks, and Joanna Solitaroff at team Coco and Colin Anderson at stitcher. for Alan Yang Productions, Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher.

Gina Batista, Paula Davis, and Britt Kahn are our talent bookers. The theme song is by Mouse Rat, a.k.a. Mark Rivers, with additional tracks composed by John Danek. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time on Parks and Recollection. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.