Parks and Recollection - Road Trip (S3E14)

Episode Date: July 12, 2022

Grab your banjo and put on your seatbelts because today Rob Lowe and Alan Yang are watching S3E14 of Parks and Recreation! In "Road Trip" Chris sends Leslie and Ben on a trip to the capital while Tom's new game creates tension between April and Andy. In this episode you'll hear why the rare bonding moment between Ann and April was important, Mike Schur's love of Neutral Milk Hotel and hate for hot fruit, how RoLo's Banjo improv came to be, and why creating a mix CD is a true artform. All of this and a subtle lesson in mainland Mandarin! Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall or do you eat Cheez-its with raisins? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone] Leslie still harbors strong romantic feelings for Ben, but cannot date him due to Chris Traeger’s strict policy against workplace dating. Just as Ann suggests to Leslie that she should avoid being alone with Ben, Chris asks Leslie and Ben to drive to Indianapolis to pitch Pawnee as the next host of the Indiana Little League Baseball tournament. Leslie and Ann devise numerous boring conversation topics for the trip to prevent it from becoming romantic. After an awkward drive to Indianapolis, Leslie and Ben speak before the Little League Commission, which seems reluctant to choose Pawnee for the tournament. Ben delivers a heartfelt speech about the town, but also appears to be secretly speaking about his feelings for Leslie. Meanwhile, Tom asks Andy, April, Jerry and Donna to participate in a new game show called Know Ya Boo, that he is hoping to pitch to networks; he admits that it is a rip-off of The Newlywed Game. It quickly becomes clear that Jerry and Donna know much more about each other than the recently married Andy and April. When April reveals her favorite band is Neutral Milk Hotel and not Andy's band Mouse Rat, Andy angrily leaves the game. April and Andy have a big fight which causes him to quit his music. April seeks advice from Ann because, although she dislikes her, Ann previously dated Andy for several years. Ann tells April she has to be supportive of Andy no matter how she feels. The next day, April brings the other members of Mouse Rat to city hall and surprises Andy by singing one of his songs. A thrilled Andy reconciles with April. In a separate C Story, a young girl named Lauren (Alyssa Shafer) asks to interview Ron for her school's field trip assignment to city hall. Ron initially resists, but soon espouses his libertarian beliefs to her. He illustrates the concept of taxes by eating 40 percent of Lauren's lunch, to compare his actions to those of the government. She eagerly accepts his anti-government views. The next day, Lauren's furious mother reveals her daughter's assignment was "Why Government Matters", and that Lauren simply wrote "It doesn't". Ron apologizes, and later tells Lauren she should keep her views on government to herself until she gets older. Ben’s speech clearly impresses both the judges and Leslie, and Pawnee is ultimately selected for the tournament. Leslie reluctantly accepts Ben's invitation to a celebratory dinner that night, where Ben brings up his feelings for her. She slips away to call Ann for advice, and Ann urges Leslie to act on her feelings. Just as Leslie decides to do so, she is surprised to find Chris has arrived at the dinner to congratulate the two personally. He insists they sleep at his home in Indianapolis, ruining their night. The next day, Leslie and Ben run into each other alone and Ben reveals Chris is out for the day. Ben then immediately kisses her, to which Leslie reciprocates, leaving her simultaneously delighted and nervous about their future.

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 Welcome, everybody, to Parks and Recollection.

It's me, Rob Lowe, Mr. Alan Yang, writer, producer, bassist extraordinaire. How you doing, Rolo? What's going on? I'm good. I'm super excited. We're doing Road Trip today, correct? Road Trip.

There's some big Traeger moments in this one. Classic, classic, classic. This is a good one for Traeger fans. Very, very good one for Traeger fans. And it's one of the ones I remember. Some of you remember more than others some you go I have I don't was I even there for that I feel that way yeah some of the time but then this one I think there's just some moments that you you know we got to get into to some of

these weird weird weird moments for you and this is a great one written written by our boy Harris Whittles I mean you gotta love that late great Harris Late great Harris Riddles, creator of Humblebrag, one of the best. He literally, I mean, think about it. The man created Humblebrag. That was not a thing. If you have ever heard the word Humblebrag or the term whatever, I would remember being in his office when he created the Twitter account Humblebrag. And I won't mention who he went after first, but he retweeted a few people.

He retweeted. It was all based on his seething resentment of some people in the comedy scene who were humbly bragging constantly. So that's what it started as. And by the way, some of them were his friends. He would honestly retweet some of his friends. So that account was pseudonymous for a while. No one knew it was him. And then obviously he revealed it was him.

And then he wrote the book. And now it's in the dictionary. It was on Jeopardy. So that was all the brainchild of Mr. Harris Whittles. He created... I just love the thought about it. It's just great. It's just great to have that in your head and go,

that's a humble brag. I mean... Created a word. Created a word. It's still happening to this day in your head and go oh that's a humble brag i mean created a word created word it's still happening to this day i wish the account were still going because it's still it's definitely a oh bless blessed to be on set picture of your trailer all that stuff i can't believe this is my life all that's you know you you know what we're talking about oh i watch myself too man try it i know it's hard. It's very hard to avoid the honey trap pot of humble braggery. It's so tempting.

It's so tempting. Because you don't want to, he was like, I'd rather you just do a straight brag. Just be like, I'm rich and famous. Just say that. Like, just say that. Like, I'm on a private jet and I'm rich. Don't be like, man, can't believe this is my life. I can't believe I'm here.

It's like, no, you can believe it. You're whoever. You're super famous. Yeah no you can believe it you're whoever you're super famous yeah you can you can you can believe it you you actively sought out to get it yeah that's right and you got it be proud believe it be proud you did it you got yeah god bless hair so this episode is called road trip uh for those of you who don't know it's uh episode 14 of season 3 directed by Troy Miller legendary Mr. Show fame original air date May 12, 2011 and the blurb, the romantic tension between Leslie and Ben reaches dangerous levels

when they take a work-related road trip to Indianapolis. Here we go, nope, nope Stop, I gotta stop you there because that's my favorite blurb that's ever been written The romantic tension between Leslie and Ben reaches dangerous levels.

Yeah, I mean, listen, the exploding sexual chemistry of Adam Scott and Amy Poehler is known throughout the industry. It's right up there with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange and The Postman Always Rings Twice or The Core is Exposed.

It's basically an Adrian line, romantic, erotic thriller. Oh yeah. It's Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke have nothing on these nine and a half. It's unfaithful. It's a nine and a half weeks. It's a, they don't make a lot of erotic thrillers anymore.

They, he just did make another one with Ben Affleck and now on an arm. I don't know if you watched that, but have you seen that movie yet? I didn't see, what is it called? Deep water. I think it's called deep water.

I did not see it, but 17, right? I didn't see it. What is it called? Deep Water? I think it's called Deep Water. I did not see it. NC-17, right? I don't know. Or X. And it was on like Amazon or something. Now it sounds like an ad for this movie. Well, listen. This episode is dangerous levels.

Dangerous levels. Of sexual chemistry. Work-related road trip. And you will see what happens. All right. On to the notes. This episode immediately followed last week's episode, The Fight. levels of sexual work related road trip and i well you will see what happens yeah all right on to the notes notes this episode immediately followed last week's episode the fight classic on the same night a rare occurrence of back-to-back parks when leslie and bettor drive me to indianapolis you can see that they both have put seat belts on their briefcases i did notice that little cute

detail jim o'hare aka jerry gergich has another newlywed game moment on tv in an episode of brooklyn 99 that he guest starred on he plays a local sheriff who has another newlywed game moment on tv in an episode of brooklyn 99 that he guest starred on he plays a local sheriff who uses the newlywed game to interrogate suspects wow nice deep cut notes note this episode features leslie and ben's first kiss very good parks and rec episodes often have fun cultural references but this episode is loaded with them april's favorite band is neutral milk hotel and she has a thing for band member Jeff Mangum. We'll talk about that later. Anne has an outfit Julie Roberts wore in Pretty Woman.

Looks like the same one. We probably got the exact dress. Tom points out that the 2003 movie Love Don't Cost a Thing is based on the 1987 flick Can't Buy Me Love, then falsely claims original lineage to Kramer vs. Kramer and Shakespeare. Leslie talks dormitories at Johns Hopkins University, and Al Green's Let's Stay Together

pops up on the mix CD they they burn remember burning mix cds for people my age it was like maybe high school or something i remember that i remember those big cd wallets greg let me you might you might remember this like you have a big cd wallet like writing like uh you know do that kind of thing mix cds i feel like mix cds were like an art form. It was like, I'm going on a road trip. I need to have the, and I only have about an hour and 20 minutes to make the perfect mix CD to convey a thought. It was a lot of pressure.

They were also the throw down for when you just were first starting to date someone. Oh yeah. You'd give them a mix you made for them. And it was just like, you were so in if you could thread that needle yes i and like you know so romantic it is it is what are you sending now listen to this spotify playlist i designed you clicked on this link that i texted you but i i think that's

what's happening now but but or like i made a tiktok for you it is funny we uh we talked about the ipod and and and uh the rio mp3 player a couple episodes ago now we're talking about mix cds we're just going backwards in time we're going to be talking about cassette tapes and then eight tracks and vinyl and then phonographs and wax cylinders that play music just wait for it just wait for it it's going to be really exciting just wait yeah this is an amazing uh amazing uh teaser for season four of the show all right synopsis time for the synopsis shout out to the listeners we had to find out the name of the listener who suggested synopsis because we had to give him credit so wait for that leslie

still harbors strong romantic feelings for ben but cannot date him due to chris trager's strict policy against workplace dating just as anne suggests suggests to Leslie that she should avoid being alone with Ben, Chris asks Leslie and Ben to drive to Indianapolis to pitch Pawnee as the next host of the Indiana Little League Baseball Tournament. Leslie and Ann devise numerous boring conversation topics for the trip to prevent it from becoming romantic. After an awkward drive to Indianapolis, Leslie and Ben speak before the Little League Commission, which seems reluctant to choose Pawnee for the tournament. Ben delivers a heartfelt speech about the town, but also appears to be secretly speaking about his feelings for Leslie. Subtext. So this is the scene where we actually do see the Julia Roberts dress, which is very, almost looks like a bikini. And we see that

Chris Traeger's influencing Anne because she says you guys could literally get a room. I do love, I remember loving Rashida sort of trying to imitate me. Impressions. It was very sweet. Very, very fun. Impressions, impressions. So, you know, we have kind of a, in the script that Harris worked on and the whole room worked on, we have up the flirtation between Leslie and Ben a couple of notches from where it was in the last episode. You know, we opened the episode with this kind of flirty scene,

and I kind of remember writing this. Do you remember this scene, Greg? I think it got written kind of partially in the room, but it was like Benjamin and Leslie-men and all this stuff like that. It was like, oh, man. When I first started watching this episode, even though I had just watched the fight the other day, I was like, wait, had they started dating already?

But they hadn't. That's how hot the chemistry was. Exploding. Yes. Let's talk about Road Trip Staples for a second. This is a road trip episode. What is your perfect road trip, Rollo? What is it like?

Is it the journey? Is it the destination? What have you enjoyed in the past? It's the stuff that happens when you're bored is to me always the stuff you remember like you and you know road trips were a staple when i was a kid and it was just the what you did to occupy your mind was super super fun um license plate like counting the license plates of different states oh you know we haven't found one from rhode island yet oh i did you know all that stupid old school stuff i love but i love a good road trip um today my road trip is like my boys and i like drive up to mammoth so it's like

one full day of driving which is about all i can take today yeah that's a good one i mammoth's great like i've gone snowboarding there. Yosemite is another good one. That's a great one. My parents growing up used to take me to some national parks. We would drive to Yosemite or Yellowstone. Then recently, as I've been an adult, we used to take trips to Yosemite. It's just so nice because it's drivable from LA. You can get there five, six hours. I feel like road trips have changed now because now you could theoretically if you're not driving just be on your phone for five hours instead of like you used to like as a kid like when we were kids there was no internet so i was like man you just gotta maybe you could play a game boy or like a game boy advance or something

but or a sega game gear but like otherwise you just gotta look out the window right i mean it's a different world it's a different world. It's just a different world. And I'm not sure it's a better one. I mean, the value of bored, like honestly, like there's a, there's a book about it. It's like the value of boredom, the value of just letting your mind wander and being away from, I feel like I have a problem, like just too much input. I love reading. So it's just like, like, like I can always be reading or listening to a podcast or watching

something 24 seven. That's a little, It's a little rough. Make some time for yourselves, guys. Go take a road trip to Yosemite. Look at El Capitan and turn your phone off. Anyway, not a novel sentiment, but I'll say it anyway. I'll second it. I was going to say during the pandemic of year one, if you can believe that's a sentence,

in 2020, my wife and I rented an RV and went from Los Angeles to Maine, where she's from. And it's one of the great, great joys. We realize we're pretty much driving a studio apartment across the country, but it's one of the great joys, I think, taking and just stopping somewhere and saying, I'm going to sleep here for the night and see what I can explore and see what I can find. And I thought it was a nice way to spend a weird time

when you had to be locked away with someone. Yeah, that's so cool. I feel like I think I've only driven across the country once and I didn't have to drive. I was dating someone in a rock band and her band was on a bus. So I got to ride the tour bus from New York to LA. And we would stop in cities and they would play shows. And I mean, that's an incredible way to see the country. and they would play shows.

And I mean, that's an incredible way to see the country. By the way, how great are those like coffin-like sleep beds on the sides of there? Yes. The best sleeps I've ever had. And you'd think those sleeps would be horrible because all you're like... It's comfortable. But it's so good.

It used to make me laugh because she was in a band called Adonis, which is like a punk rock band. It was all women. And so her bus, the bus that we were sleeping on, was super like nice and clean. It was like four women and like me and like maybe one roadie. And they were touring with a band called the Hives, which is like a Swedish punk rock band. And their bus was like 30 Swedish guys who were like never showering. They're like wearing, like they would wear suits and stuff. It was a great band, but their bus was so, so much crazier

than the bus that we were on. All right, let's get into the episode leslie's dual idea list includes the new yorker article the history of the ladder that comes back later oh yes it does the different dorms at johns hopkins university i don't know why we chose that and she she could read from leslie's sonicare toothbrush booklet um the boring mixtape there's i mean this keeps going on on jimmy carter's crisis of confidence speech learning to speak mandarin 16 minutes of old-timey car horn banjo boogie bonanza we'll got to get into that i did notice little a note for mandarin speakers um watching this episode the guy's like where are you going trinar so he's using a mainland chinese accent so i i've been trying to learn a little mandarin you know my parents are from taiwan and so in Taiwan, you would say chi nali instead of chi nar.

So it's a different kind of thing. I was like, wow, I actually have some input here. I was like, wow, it's a different thing. It's kind of cool. It's no small feat learning that kind of stuff. I had to learn it for Wayne's World. Yes, that's right. So what did you speak in Wayne's World?

It's Mandarin. Okay. That's hard, right? Like, I don't know, man. I'm always impressed when I see a white guy speaking any sort of Asian language. I'm like, wow. It's really hard. Have you seen those videos of John Cena speaking Mandarin?

It's like he's learning Mandarin. Both my sons studied Mandarin in school. I mean, that shows how the world has changed. When I was in school, it was like you could choose between french and spanish that was it yes and and um and now it's you know mandarin is one of the courses and they both took mandarin for all four years it makes a lot of sense when i was growing up in my high school shout out riverside poly second shout out riverside poly uh we only had french and spanish and then they got rid of some of the french so like i had taken french and they got rid so i don't think you can take french

now yeah it's like no one wants that anymore it's like french people are about to take over the And then they got rid of some of the French. So like I had taken French and they got rid. I don't think you can take French now. Yeah. It's like no one wants that anymore. It's like French people are about to take over the world. So it's like this is. But no, my mom actually started. She was a math teacher, high school math teacher. And then she started teaching Mandarin as well.

So she taught Mandarin in high school and taught a bunch of kids Mandarin. It's kind of cool. Oh, man, we got to talk about this Pert Happley 80s footage. uh 80s footage this is like we're getting like a little high on our own supply where he has the huge uh almost kid in play style uh haircut it's the best thing ever i mean you know i feel about it's well established how i feel about purd he might be one of my favorite characters ever and him in the kid in play look is just so dope. I would watch a whole Pert Happily spinoff. We'll get that in the works.

Maybe our friends over at Netflix will make that show with us. Let's go. I'm in. There's a funny thing that we've done with Pert. I'm just realizing, looking at the screen grab we have, only his hair has changed, but he looks exactly the same age. And we did the same thing with ron throughout the series right anytime you see ron at another time he's pretty much just the same it's just maybe his hair has changed a little bit but he's ageless yes no attempt no attempt to age him down

at all that makes sense i like to think that ron is like wolverine he secretly is like 150 years old he like fought in world war one or whatever that's right uh all right uh meanwhile tom asked andy april jerry and donna to participate in a new game show called no you boo that he's hoping to pitch to networks he admits that it's a ripoff of the newlywed game it quickly becomes clear that jerry and donna know much more about each other than the recently married andy and april when april reveals her favorite band is neutral milk hotel and not andy's band mouse rat andy angrily leaves the game apr Andy and April. When April reveals her favorite band is Neutral Milk Hotel and not Andy's band, Mouserat, Andy angrily leaves the game. April and Andy have a big fight,

which causes him to quit his music. April seeks advice from Anne because although she dislikes her, Anne previously dated Andy for several years. Anne tells April she has to be supportive of Andy no matter how she feels. The next day, April brings the other members of Mouserat to City Hall

and surprises Andy by singing one of his songs. A thrilled Andy reconciles with April. Wow, we just did the whole B story. We did the whole B story. That was a big B story. It actually, yeah, I mean, it's very MouseRat heavy. But I did want to point out that the networks that Tom wants to pitch to his game show, Spike, G4, GSM, Fuse, WoW, Boom, Zip, Kablam, Slurp, Slurp Latin, and Slurp HD.

But that reminded me of what we have going on with streaming now. Did you see that? There's like Amazon Freebie now. There's like a new one. Quibi's gone. CNN Plus is gone. But there's still more networks popping up. And my favorite one ever with the

name is 2b makes me laugh 2b there's you could pitch to 2 you could pitch to roku you could pitch to spectrum originals you could pitch to like it it's there's gonna be it feels like we're we're on the precipice of some of those going away unfortunately but yeah i mean like i remember when we pitched master none we pitched to netflix and hbo and showtime and all these places and we also pitched to microsoft xbox 360 to like have a show on on the xbox somehow fortunately we chose netflix which still exists i mean how crazy is that who no one knew what was no one knew what was gonna happen you know what he knew who knew no no one knows no one knows anything you know i know it's still happening now um but uh it really really makes me think about streamers all because i remember i

think that was kind of like spike had turned into something i mean like there was fuse there's all these yeah there's all these random ass cable networks and that's what kind of that joke was about um there's actually kind of an interesting neutral milk hotel Hotel was not a super popular band, but they were kind of a seminal indie rock band. It was big. I think it was kind of big amongst the writing staff, so I think that's why we made it April's favorite band. They have, I don't know, they had a lot of influence.

How did Harris Whittles sign off on any band not being fish? That's when it turns out that mike schurr is his boss and mike loves because uh you may have your name on the episode but the show belongs to mike so uh but yeah i remember a couple nutra mccall stories i tell stories i definitely i went to see them at the hollywood bowl with the z's at one point and then uh at one point uh they reunited they kind of broke up famously and then reunited. And I went to, this is crazy. I remember I went to Phoenix, Arizona with Mike Shore, Dave King, and Matt Murray, who were all writers for Parks as well.

And we went and saw a New Trimelk Hotel show at a tiny venue there. And we also saw like a Diamondbacks game or something. And I just really was like, that was, I mean, that was, it was an info trip. A road trip. Yeah, it was a plane trip, but it was that and and uh it just bled into the show so i mean sometimes that's that's what happens right when characters have favorite bands it's sometimes just uh the writer's favorite band i think pike told me once that he loved neutral milk hotel so much that he bought like 20 cds of the 20 20 copies of in the airplane over the sea.

Right. Uh, and, and he just, uh, kept them in his apartment. And anytime someone would come over and be like, I've never heard this.

This seems like bizarre, but this, this is a great show. And tell me, this is like when I showed the offerman thing the other day, this is the record. This is the cover. So I'm showing,

uh, the sleeve, the vinyl, it's a vinyl record. See if that's a, it's a, that's in the airplane over the cover. So I'm showing the sleeve, the vinyl. It's a vinyl record sleeve. That's in the aeroplane over the sea. So it is April's Fear Band. And also shout out to the, they show Mouse right later,

shout out to the weird shiny blue jacket I'm wearing in that scene. It's at the end of the episode. I was like it's like they got married too soon in some way so let's see the ramifications of that i thought that was a candy writing move. Yeah, for sure. And just seeing those two, particularly Andy. I mean, it's not hard to imagine April fighting,

but Andy is such a sweet adult that him fighting was a cool move, I thought. Yeah, it's kind of maybe like an 80-20 rule of like, you should have a character behave exactly like you think they're going to behave like 80-85 maybe even 90% of the time but then you always got to humanize them and show the opposite right so you'd see him be cheerful most of the time and then in this one it's like no he has emotions he has a little bit of vulnerability and his feelings are hurt and that i think turns them from kind of caricatures and just pure comedy characters to you know human beings that you want to look for. And so I thought that was a good choice. Um, how do you, is there any way that when you're sort of preparing for a fight scene with like a romantic, uh, partner in a,

in a show or anything, is there anything you, is there any way you specifically prepare for a fight scene or is it kind of character by character depending on it? It's so funny. When I was a young actor, the, the, the emotion that I had the toughest time accessing and playing was anger. And maybe just because I was young and I wasn't angry at the world enough yet. Although there are a lot of young angry people out there. Yeah. I mean, particularly in this, in today's world, I think there are a lot more angry people than there were growing up. I feel like, but who knows. But then, um, as I got older, it became one of the easiest things to access. Yeah. That's actually interesting. Like, do you, are you, are you an actor who, who accesses actual memories? Does that help you? Cause I know sometimes I talk to my girlfriend about that. Like that does help, but, but how do you approach that? Do you access a memory?

I have that in my tool bag, certainly, and I have used it a lot. I've gone through phases where I've done nothing but use that, and then I've gone through phases where I don't. For me, if the writing is good enough, it is enough to fire the stuff inside me that needs to get fired if the writing is good enough. I have to pull out the tool bag more and more if the writing is not as good. Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. All right, let's move to the C story.

This is a wild one. In the separate C story, a young girl named Lauren, played by Alyssa Schaefer, asked to interview Ron for her school's field trip assignment to City Hall. Ron initially resists, but soon espouses his libertarian beliefs to her. He illustrates the concept of taxes by eating 40% of Lauren's lunch to compare his actions to those of the government. She eagerly accepts his anti-government views. The next day, Lauren's furious mother reveals her daughter's assignment was why government matters,

and that Lauren simply wrote, it doesn't. Ron apologizes and later tells Lauren she should keep her views on government to herself until she gets older. This is like catnip. This would be like libertarian subreddit catnip. This feels like this is like Ron Swanson like ron swanson in full bloom uh super super on character i remember talking about this c story in the writer's room and um we were always happy with it because it put on put him on this little island with like uh with a small child and seeing because that's kind of like again the secret sauce of nick is he can play super masculine

super brusque super you, stereotypically manly, but we know he's such a good actor. He's has this warmth. And so when he interacts with a kid, it's like, it just works. It just works. Yeah, totally. And, and kids and animals. Yes. Kids and animals is tough, but he makes it work, man. He makes it work. Yeah. There's something about seeing about seeing that dichotomy of the sort of supposedly grumpy old bear with a sweet little kid. It's always magic. There's nothing better than a grump with a heart of gold, right? Grump with a heart of gold.

And it also, you know, this is kind of almost a foreshadowing of his future romantic storyline because, you know, ends up uh dating a xena warrior princess lucy lawless and she has kids and he's kind of you know the kids soften him and seeing him with the kids is kind of a humanizing moment for him it's kind of his overall arc for the series in some ways and so this this this this uh this c story was like a little kind of a little jewel that inspired all that stuff and and shows it but uh's also, I found it strange that Ron is eating a pretzel in the show. That seems like off character. That seems like not what he would choose to eat, but it's kind of funny. Pretzels are a whole thing.

I don't get them. Are you a hard pretzel or a soft pretzel, man? I mean, I guess, like, given the right circumstances, the big soft pretzel with mustard on it, that's what I would say. If I'm in Bavaria, if I'm traversing Bavaria and it's like, hey, you want to – the other thing I will say is, like, I don't fuck with, like, just a hard pretzel. What is that? Like, just give me – that feels like you're in prison or something. I'm eating, like, a hard tube of starch. Like, just give me, like, that feels like you're in prison or something. I'm eating, like, a hard tube of starch.

Like, no. Like, if I'm going to eat carbs, it better be something really tasty. Like, it'll load up. I love carbs. Like, I love noodles and pasta and rice and all that, you know. Like, I'm not just going to eat a stale pretzel, man. That's insane. But I will say, you're in the mall.

You pass a Wetzel's pretzels. That shit is, like, covered in butter. Like, it sounds kind of good. It's just bread. But a pretzel is just bread, butter like it sounds kind of good it's just bread but pretzels just bread right i mean like it's just dip it in cheese maybe maybe like at the theme park or like at a ball game pretzel with like cheese but you're mainly doing for the cheese you know it's like anyway i think pretzels are one of the great deliveries of salt that we have yes yeah yeah and do you remember alan uh katie dippold had a a deep love of salt yes i think she would famously say that she thinks she has a salt deficiency yes maybe she actually found out she does she would eat a bag of pretzels unlike anyone i've ever seen she'd eat every pretzel and then spend almost as much time as she did eating the pretzels just getting every morsel

of salt that had fallen off the pretzels at the corner of the bag just like just like lapping it up like she hadn't eaten in days it was a sight to see yes it was really funny because like when we met katie like you know katie's a very funny character and you know she's been on the show before but she's like kind of a soft-spoken like sweet woman and like she just how's salt she's coming through just like just be like you just pour salt on her plate and like dip stuff in it i'm like this is insane this is you're eating so i mean there's a lot of we can get into kind of the snack issue the the the one that really uh really hurt everyone's heart was that aisha muhar one of the other writers enjoyed eating cheez-its with raisins oh just just so troubling like just i mean of a truly uh i don't know i would say

revolting repugnant repugnant instinct there but i'm remembering am i missing this that but the writers room on parks and rec for sure had 100 had the best sort of kitchen snack area of anywhere i'd 100 of any writers room i've ever witnessed but was there a whole red vine thing or am i am i is that a different show yes that's it's in this show there's a twizzlers red vine in fact i believe it stars mike ermantrout from breaking bad and it's like it's my episode okay, there you go. It's my episode. We'll get to it, hopefully. But yeah, it's Red Vines versus Twizzlers and it like tears the family apart.

But I mean, this is the kind of stuff that you would talk about in the room over and over again. Aisha, you know, talking about Cheez-Its and Raisins, she's like, no, it's a classic combo. It's like, you know, think about a charcuterie board. You know, it's like cheese and like figs and grapes. It's like, this is cheese and dried grapes. It's like not even there it's gross it's yeah it's not good man it's

not i'm i i don't want fruit anywhere other than where fruit should be like don't put little dried cherries in my salads i'm with it in my ice cream put it maybe on my waffle with something i will accept this i i get so grossed out when fruit appears places where i don't think it should be well here's here's the great debate in the writer's room i won't say where everybody lands rob how do you feel about fruit in your pie oh i'm i'm really down with fruit in my pie so you like warm fruit so so hot fruit hot fruit was a huge debate in the writer's room we would talk about hot fruit once every two weeks just like so so mike mike sure thinks hot fruit is disgusting and will not eat any kind of hot fruit i'm like look it's an apple pie i'll eat it i'll eat an

apple pie who cares oh yeah it's great apple pie. I'll eat an apple pie. Who cares? Oh, yeah. It's great. Whatever. I mean, I don't know. I'm not eating it all the time, but if it's in the right context.

But yeah, he's like, hot fruit is disgusting. That has been brought up many, many times and many hours were wasted on whether fruit could be consumed at a temperature. I think the listeners need to vote on our town howls and haul about hot fruit. Yeah or nay?

All this conversation I'm very interested in. By the way, if anyone in the world is eating Cheez-Its with raisins, write it. I've never heard of that, and I've never heard of it before, and I've never heard of it since. Can I just think about this? So just the balancing? Cheez-Its are so small. How do you balance the raisins on them? Or I mean,

you have to like put your finger on it and like eating them in tandem. I don't know. Double fisting. Yeah. I don't know if it's a sandwich situation. No, I think it's a, it's think about it.

I mean, it's a, it's a truly evocative image and taste. Uh, but yeah, I, Ron eating the little girl sandwich, uh,

classic kind of reminded me of that SNL sketch where, uh it's, God, who's playing Bill Clinton in that sketch? But he's talking about warlords and he's at a McDonald's and he's eating a bunch of the burger. Phil Hartman. Yes. God damn, that was Phil Hartman. I was like, was it Daryl Hammond? It's like before that was Phil Hartman. It's an amazing sketch.

God. Anyway, classic sketch. Let's go back to the A story. Ben's speech clearly impresses both the judges and Leslie, and Pawnee is ultimately selected for the tournament. Leslie reluctantly accepts Ben's invitation to a celebratory dinner that night where Ben brings up his feelings for her. She slips away to call Anne for advice,

and Anne urges Leslie to act on her feelings. Just as Leslie decides to do so, she's surprised to find Chris has arrived at the dinner to congratulate the two personally. He insists they sleep at his home in Indianapolis, wild move, ruining their night. The next day,

Leslie and Ben run into each other alone and Ben reveals Chris is out for the day. Ben then immediately kisses her to which Leslie reciprocates, leaving her simultaneously delighted and nervous about their future. I love the act break here is you show up at the dinner and then you're like i want to keep the night going let's play mini golf i kind of wanted to see by the way later we do a mini golf episode i directed an episode much later where where they play mini golf so we don't see that in this episode but you suggest it um it is a it is a

funny it is a funny uh act break are you actually a mini golf guy or is that a triggered thing? No, I love mini golf. Oh, there we go. I think it's great. I love real golf. I'm dressed in a golf outfit right now because after we're done recording this, I'm going to go golf. But I will tell you that this episode, I remember, was Chris in his most enthusiastic, most obtuse, most highest level of nerddom ever. And it was so fun. Yeah. And it's like, it's just, come back to my condo. Forcing them to go to your condo.

And Leslie sleeps in the guest room and Ben sleeps in the, you have to sleep on my couch. And then we see your weird apartment again. That weird apartment. And that apartment, again, we've talked about this, the location where we shot that. Hollywood, right? It was so bleak and depressing. It just couldn't have been more depressing. And it was also hot as Hades when we made this episode.

Just miserably hot. And it's like I never forget really terrible working conditions. When it's like super, super, super cold. That's all I can think about when I see a movie or TV thing I've done where you're just shivering or if you're baking your ass off. This was hot. done where you were just shivering or if you're baking your ass off this was hot it it it never ceases to blow my mind because you know it's tough to be a crew member also in those situations obviously they're all day but sometimes the actors don't get to wear what is appropriate for the temperature so so uh christine my girlfriend has just been shooting handmaid's tale up in toronto

and it's freezing it's they're in the woods it's freezing they're freezing they're outside they're shooting months out there it's like i just don't i can't imagine how difficult some of those shoots are it's like when i it's when you know too much about movie making is like when i watch the revenant oh that's all i can think of just about to say that yeah i'm just like i hope leo had a wetsuit on yeah and and think about how far crafty is or like any sort of warming. Like I was like, when they do like a, when they do it, I can't now that once you work on sets,

once you see like a beautiful panning panoramic camera shot of the entire, wherever they are, the Rocky mountains or whatever, it's like, well, where's, where are the tents? Like where's village?

I was like, where's village? I always think about like, like those, again, those scenes where Leo's like throwing himself around in the water and the rivers and shit is like they pan and they pan and they pan and the camera stops and i'm thinking i hope right on the edge of frame is the blow up kids um pool yes filled with warm water yes that you jump into immediately just so you don't die of hypothermia yes it's like that that like like i mean it's it's

crazy so this this wasn't quite the uh canadian rockies or whatever but it was a warm apartment in california exactly but you know that's look i also felt like the revenant to me yeah i'm just saying but one of the but one of the beauty to me one of the beauties of working on a show like this which i have come to appreciate more and more is is you get to have a good time with your friends, ideally in pretty good conditions, and just be funny. There's a joy to life in making something fun with your friends, especially on a long-running show. It becomes your day job, right? You're just doing it for months out of the year. You're doing it for – and shooting hours are long.

So if you can find a show like this to fall into, it's a wonderful thing. And we got a shout out of this joke, similar to kind of Ben's freak out. This is Leslie. Yeah, this is Leslie. So it also calls back to Wiz Palace, but it's similar to the Ben freak out.

She goes, I'm going to see a man about some porcelain. You know what I mean? I'm not buying cocaine. I'm going to the bathroom. The Wiz Palace, as I like to call it. I'm not calling Anne. Like, this is a callback to season one. I think she says Wiz Palace in, like, I don't know. I think she says it in practice state.

Oh, okay. Yeah, so practice state. So early season two. Yeah, you're right. You're right. So, you know, this episode also shows us similarities between Ben and Leslie. So that's kind of like they're prone to freak outs. They're a little bit manic at times. And they're both huge nerds. They're both huge nerds.

We got to talk about Chris urinating 12 times a night. He just very openly says, I have a tiny bladder. The key to a healthy urethra, radishes. What's going on with that? Like I'm saying, this is one of my favorite Chris episodes. It really truly is because it's Chris at his most unhinged. Like that is a truly unhinged Chris Traeger. The key to a healthy bread, radishes.

Radishes. I don't know if it even makes any sense. I love it. And I don't care. No, it's funny. It's a funny, like you're expecting to say like cranberry juice or something, but it's like, no, Radish's is funnier. It's very strange. He's insisting.

Like, it's also like, I don't know. It serves a good story purpose too because you kind of believe this guy. He's just kind of a little wacky, but it's really funny, man. It's really funny. Well, think about the line, I have a tiny bladder. Just that line. It's like there's a world in which you're not happy about that. Chris is excited about it. It's a fact. He's excited about everything there there's a world in which you're not happy about that yes chris is excited about it it's a fact about everything it's fact he's not embarrassed i love that about him too he's not embarrassed he's just saying it's just a fact about me chris trigger and

it's it's it's my body and uh i've accepted it and i urinate a minimum 12 times a night like that's 12 more than once an hour uh that's also really great about this i'm just realizing this now is it combines rob one of your maybe least favorite parts of chris which is the enforcer of this weird rule of uh you know of interovitz romance at the same time you're like come stay at my place come sleep at my my place. Come be in my clothes. I'm going to tell you about my bladder. Wear my clothes. I'm going to overshare in a personal way. Yeah, which is good.

I mean, it's kind of the other side of the coin, which is like a happy guy. He's like an overshare. We got to talk. We got to close out by talking about the banjo scene, which is also, we talk about gifts in the show. Definitely a huge gift of Chris in the backseat playing banjo. Was this scripted? This is scripted, right?

It was, I think the phrase was, Chris goes banjo crazy. I'd like to look at it if we could pull it up. Yeah, let's see if we can find it. Maybe we can dig it up. But it was, but I mean what is it okay that's fine what does it actually mean right like so i could have done i could i could still be doing this scene if they let me i loved doing this banjo bit more than life itself and it was one of those things

where like the bigger i did it the more insane i did it, the more that those two in the front seat were trying to keep a straight face. And they were dying. Absolutely dying. I mean, I'm looking at a screenshot of it now in the notes. And if you look at Adam's face, Adam's face is incredible. And it's like you could tell. It's like, yeah. So we see here's the script pages.

Ben turns on the banjo music. There's a beat of silence then chris starts seat dancing to the music but what is this it's amazing so i think i think like that's a lot of actors discovery there because that's like you know to build it up to that level is is is really something and also in like all the crazy like, and we didn't have the banjo music, just technical thing. It wasn't, I don't think we had it yet. You lay that in later. So I kind of had to make it up.

And then the fact that it didn't really match just only made it. Yes. Did they play it for you for reference? Because sometimes they'll do that. They'll play it first. I think that, yeah, I think that they did. They'll play it first. I think that they did.

I do a one-man show from time to time, and this is the number one perks clip that I play, is this banjo moment. Stop Pooping is an iconic Chris Traeger moment. For me, this is my favorite Chris Traeger moment we have. This and Take Me Out to the Ballgame. At a live show, this is going to kill. It's definitely very active. this isn't a real car right this is not like an led led screen on the stage

oh another well i'm not likely to forget again like the revenant uh wait we keep talking about the revenant the revenant was cold what's a murder that's notoriously hot i mean what about like dune or something like what like where are they shooting the desert or like on an island or like this guy? Mad Max. Mad Max. Yes. The new one to Fury Road. I've heard stories about Fury Road.

Yeah, I think it's I think it's this was so we're being towed around the Sepulveda Basin. Oh, man. And it was so hot. Yes. Just a little peek behind the curtain. If you ever see a car scene in a show, just know that it was a nightmare to shoot. There's no car scene. Like, anytime we're writing a scene that's like interior car, it's like, what if they're walking?

What if it's not in a car scene? Because the sort of rigmarole you have to go through, you just got to rig up the car. There's many ways to do it. There's process trailer, poor man's process trailer. go through you just got to rig up the car there's many ways to do it there's process trailer poor men's process trailers there's you know but i will say technology has advanced somewhat so that if you don't need to see the outside of the car you can now shoot it on stage and they use led screens and it looks pretty good i was skeptical but the technology's gotten there so but at this in this era with the technology we were using there was none of that it was an actual car and

you're being and you're dragging it's take after take after take after take, and you're stuck in the car, which is great. Yes, but it's hot. With a cast like this, it's like three of us. You've got to turn the air off. You've got to turn the air off for sound. Yeah, that's the thing. The windows have to be up.

The air has to be off, and it's 106 degrees in the valley, and I'm doing the banjo, and you are never going to forget it. More energy, Troy Miller. More, more. The other thing I remember about this and I'm doing the banjo and you are never going to forget it. More energy. Troy Miller says more, more. The other thing I remember about this and I really like is funny as the banjo thing is, is Adam, Adam's deadpan reaction where I suggest, where I begin to talk about the ladder where I go, oh, I go, um, oh Ben, you're going to love this. And he goes, yeah.

Like he is that, that really subtle thrown away. Yes. Yes or yeah that he says makes me laugh out loud every time. Yeah, he's wonderful in this. This is a great three shot. I'm looking at the three shot right now. It's classic, classic front of the car towards the back. And again, what we, one more time, what we said about comedy, like the three shot is what makes it funny.

Yes. Like you don't want a close up of Chris Traeger and you don't want a close up of them either. Or cutting, cutting, cutting. You start feeling the hand of the director and the editor, right? That's the frustrating thing is you get in the edit room and you just don't like – it's an alchemy. It's certainly an alchemy. It's like that distracted boyfriend meme, you know what talking about yes yes oh yeah you see three beings right you see three people and it tells a story in one image yes and what i'm looking at right now is a still image of ben

leslie and chris playing the banjo and it tells the story so that's visual storytelling all right any final thoughts on the episode or liz is a big one one of your favorite moments And it tells the story. So that's visual storytelling. All right. Any final thoughts on the episode? This is a big one. One of your favorite moments in the show ever. I mean, it is my favorite Chris Traeger moment. You know, I'm so happy that that meme exists. I cannot tell you.

I love it. I love it. A great episode. God bless.ris whittles troy miller great job uh oops moment uh the claymore landmine ron gives lauren is not in fact a landmine but an m1 m18a1 claymore mine it functions similar to a landmine but it is not buried and rather placed above the ground and either remotely or tripwire triggered. Fun. Thank you to our military experts. Common knowledge for anyone who's played 007 Goldeneye

on the Nintendo 64 classic game. Don't play as Oddjob. That's cheating. You're too small if you play as Oddjob. That's right. All right. Episode MVP, most valuable Pawnee, and which character moment in this episode

sticks out to you the most and why? We got a shot at the banjo moment for sure. Big banjo moment. I mean, look look i i think anytime one of our cast gets a a seminal moment you know it's it's it's they they need to be recognized but i but i think it's it would be so but it would be a humble brag it would be a humble brag to say that i think that the runner up today is harris whittittles for inventing a word. That's right. For inventing an English word.

That is crazy. We got to also remember Leslie and Ben's first kiss. So, you know, it's kind of like a hockey game where you get the three stars. You get multiples. Listeners, let us know who your MVP is by tweeting at Team Cocoa Podcast or by using the hashtag Parks and Recollections. Time for a town hall. Do you want to go to the town hall?

I think you do. Also, today is a town howl. So yeah, the howl is appropriate. Where should we do this town howl? Should we do it in your weird apartment? We should, because I have, because I've been tipped off as to what the town howl actually is

and hot, miserable places are the theme. This, I mean, Kenya is one of my favorite places in the world, but it's hot. And our howl is from Kenya today. That's amazing. Let's keep the theme going. Evan from Kenya. We're traversing continents. That's unbelievable. People listening in Kenya. So let's keep it in a hot place. Let's put it in the backseat of that god-awful car being towed through the Sepulveda Basin. I love it. I love it. We'll do the town howl from there. All right, Evan from Kenya. Take it away, Shulte. Hi, my name is Evan and I live in Nairobi,

Kenya. Thank you all so much for putting together this podcast. Parks and Rec is one of my favorite shows. I know that Alan doesn't like to attribute jokes, but I was a sophomore at Johns Hopkins when this episode first aired and loved the shout out about unsexy bed lofting at my alma mater. What's the origin of this joke? P.S. As someone who studied abroad in school in Tajikistan, my vote for a spinoff is one where the Saperstein twins opened the worst casino in the world in Doshanbe.

Oh, man. I mean, that is, I challenge anyone to beat that town, Hal. This dude is in Nairobi and he's talking about Tajikistan. He's giving his pitches from Tajikistan. Evan, incredible, incredible voicemail. Incredible. I just know Rob listening to that, Sheltie listening to that voicemail, this is gold.

I mean, that's wonderful. By the way, international listeners, you're going to have a leg up, I think, submitting questions because I think we get a kick out of someone in a different a different country a different continent nairobi listening to the show that's awesome that's that that is one of the cool things about the modern era right it's that you can do that um i think we so we we touched on this a little bit my guess is and i don't have a full photographic recollection of the origin of this joke but my guess is i have i have a couple ideas greg and and if you if you know jump in whenever but i will say there was something very annoying in the writer's room which is that people writers who went to

harvard would sometimes mention the dorms they lived in. So like, it would be like, I lived in a house, like whatever, I lived in Lowell house or whatever, Adam's house or whatever. And it was like, then I believe it became a parody thing where like Harris and some other writers would be like, oh yeah, I lived in Wigglesworth A12 or whatever. Like they would make fun of the Harvard writers for ever talking about Harvard stuff within their full rights to do so. So that might have seeped into the writing in some way. And then they didn't want to make it Harvard dorms probably. So they said Johns Hopkins dorms. That is one theory. That is one of my theories. Greg, what do you think about that theory? You know, I think there's some of that is the truth. Well, definitely the truth of the Harvard writers talking about Harvard things.

Yes. So much to say that, you know, we kept a running log of what we called writers room awards and they were big topics and what people thought. And I just pulled it up just to trigger this. And, you know, one was best conversational topic that no one cares about. And Harvard is one of them. And we'll get to some other ones. But baseball.

I mean, honestly. Oh my God. of them and we'll get to some yes but baseball i mean honestly it's pretty much oh my god pretty much the only the people who care about it are the people in the conversation but they take over the entire rooms yes discussion by talking about their thing dan gore and i would talk about radio lab shut the entire conversation down because keep in mind the strange ecosystem of 10 to 15 people sitting in a room so if two people are having a loud conversation it's you just yeah you can take over the entire you can take over the room that every time i see if you if you if you follow mike schur on twitter he's at kent tremendous he will very occasionally or something you know maybe more than very occasionally

post just a screenshot of an image of a strike zone and like this was called us a ball but it's a strike and it's like like he will tweet that maybe once every three weeks and it's like okay well that reminds that gives me flashbacks to the parks and rec riders because that would come up like like he would watch the game not the video just like a game cast like an image of like balls and strikes coming in. And that would happen all the time. So, you know, eventually you're kind of holding the room hostage. We're talking about that stuff. So, you know, to come back to Evan's town,

how what I believe happened is I have opened the notes from this episode. And one of the pitches for what the music goes in the car is, you know, one was the Rocketeer soundtrack was pitched, frantic banjo music, which makes it, Freakonomics book on tape didn't make it. Then one was topics of conversation and names of dorms at Johns Hopkins comes up. So much so that whoever was in the room pitching it i

wanted to find out we're going to come back to this even pitched out grand grand zerson hall mcallister someone in the room said these things out loud so we have to find this out and then in the writer's first draft that remains but in the final version it turned into what it turned into so the kernel of it was there in the writer's verse, and it became what it becomes. I don't remember any writer having gone to Johns Hopkins, so it feels like someone looked it up or something. So I feel like I would remember that if someone had gone there.

So I hope that's a satisfactory answer. That is the most satisfactory answer that anyone could have hoped for. Yeah, keep listening over in Nairobi. Wonderful. All right, that's all I got. Rolo, you got anything else? No, man. This was not only a good episode, but a good episode about the episode.

I agree. I mean, I think we gave a lot of stuff out there, folks. A rich tapestry. I hope you're happy. A rich tapestry. This podcast episode was the opposite. This podcast episode was the opposite of Cheez-Its and Raisins. A wonderful, wonderful episode.

All right. Thank you all for listening. Subscribe where you get podcasts. Five-star review on Apple. I just realized I praised our own episode, but whatever. I did it. It's humble brag. It's humble brag.

No, straight up brag, man. That's what Harris would prefer. Just own it. Just brag. Just straight up brag. There's no humility there. humble brag. Straight up brag, man. That's what Harris would prefer. Just own it. Just brag. Just straight up brag. There's no humility there. Just brag. Thank you, everyone, for listening, and goodbye from Pawnee.

Bye-bye. See you next week. 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 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.