Parks and Recollection - Ron and Tammy 2 (S3E4)

Episode Date: May 3, 2022

Tammy is back! Today Rob and Alan talk about the very powerful fourth episode of season three. In "Ron and Tammy 2"  Ron breaks up with Tom's ex-wife, and decides to get back together with Tammy. In this episode find out what happens when you try and save the integrity of a script from a pile of wild jokes, what kind of dog Chris Traeger would be, how Ben's awkward nature is based off Mike Schur, and why it was ok to take liberties with the reality of the show when Tammy shows up. Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone]  Ron's ex-wife Tammy is back to her old ways, trying to draw Ron back into their chaotic relationship with a fabricated outstanding library fine. It appears Ron is able to resist her seduction, due to the fact that he is in a solid relationship with Tom's ex-wife Wendy, but his steadfast resolve becomes compromised when Wendy tells Ron her plans to move back to Canada and the two break up.Leslie finds Ron drowning his sorrows at the bar where she and the Parks Dept are throwing a party for the Pawnee police department. Once the Chief has had his fill of pizza and beer, Leslie hopes he’ll donate the force’s time for security at the upcoming Harvest Festival, but Ben awkwardly fails to win Chief Trumple's (Eric Pierpoint) favor. Meanwhile Tom, unaware of Ron and Wendy's breakup, arrives at the party with Tammy to get back at Ron for going out with Wendy. After bickering loudly, Ron and Tammy both decide to leave the party together to try and make amends. A night filled with drunken sex and mayhem ensues, ending with the two getting remarried and ending up in jail.After getting Ron released, the Parks Dept holds a Tammy intervention, playing a previously recorded tape of Ron warning himself to stay away from her, but Ron ignores the warnings and prepares to take Tammy to his cabin for a sex-filled honeymoon. Leslie blames Tom for the dilemma and, although he initially claims to be unfazed, Tom later arrives at Tammy’s library bridal shower to stop Ron from going on the honeymoon. He reveals the whole marriage is a ploy by Tammy to once again make Ron miserable. Tammy attacks Tom, prompting Ron to remember what a monster she truly is and leave her. He carries Tom away, and the two later make amends. Despite the bad impression he made the day before, Ben asks the chief for the Harvest Festival favor. The chief unconditionally agrees out of respect for Leslie, explaining that she always helps everyone, and because Leslie once dated his friend Dave. Ben seems relieved that Leslie and Dave are no longer together, and later asks Leslie out to eat.Meanwhile, April has been working as Chris' assistant until he goes back to Indianapolis. April's cynical personality clashes with Chris' relentless optimism and happiness. In an attempt to get fired, April purposely neglects to tell Ann that Chris cannot make a lunch date. When Ann arrives to confront Chris, she quickly realizes April's ploy. Ann reveals she is very happy dating Chris, and would even move with him to Indianapolis if asked. Andy, who is still trying to win back April's affections, gives Chris an obviously forged letter from the FBI claiming April must immediately return to the Parks Dept as Ron’s assistant. Chris sees through the ruse and tells April she can go back, but explains that remaining his assistant may provide her better career opportunities. He invites her to return with him to Indianapolis and she seems interested, leaving both Ann and Andy stunned and jealous. 

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 This is a famous episode I'm pumped

These are classics man Ron and Tammy episodes There's only so many of them. Let's treasure this moment. Yeah, this is a moment to savor. Pull up a chair and start the savory. Because Ron and Tammy 2 is our title. We got some stories.

Episode title, Ron and Tammy 2. Written by Emily Kapnick. Directed by Tucker Gates. Original air date, February 10th, 2011. This is episode four of season three. The blurb, after Ron breaks up with Tom's ex-wife, he decides to get back together with Tammy. Much to everyone's horror.

Ooh, there's so much good stuff in this episode. There's so much good stuff. So much. We gotta get into it. These notes, notes. Let's start quickly. This episode marks the first time. Huge moment.

Huge. First time Ben mentions calzones as his favorite food. We got some stories about that coming up. But it's. I mean, how did the calzone thing start? We got to get it. Should we get it? Should we just get into it now?

This is. Okay. So this episode was written by Emily Kapnick, who is a very talented writer. She created Suburgatory. She created Selfie. And she was on the show. I don't think she had been on for that long, but she had a writing credit on this episode. She had written the script.

And we, as you do with every script, you start going to the rewrite, right? You start punching jokes and, you know, we had a table or whatever. And it was a late night one night. We were just going through the script, trying to figure out what worked, what didn't work. And there was a lot of surgery being done in certain areas. It happens to everyone, right? It happens to everyone's script, whatever. It's not, you know, particularly unique to this episode.

I think it was really, really late one night. This shouldn't surprise anyone. We had already had dinner. You know, we didn't stay for dinner that many times. But, you know, we were under the gun. And we, for some reason, you know, first it started that Ben was nervous around cops. It was a very funny attitude, right? And we just, it started with one joke about calzones like it started with literally

like in the beginning like he you know he's talking about uh pizza and he pitches a bad idea but he's part of his arc of learning about ponny and so he pitches the calzone thing leslie shits on him it's funny whatever one joke but you know what happens in the writer's room at 10 11 12 1 a.m one joke that's weird and gets a laugh, it just snowballs. So every subsequent Ben scene, we're like, and then he mentions calzones, and it's just like, and no one's there saying no,

because Mike is delirious as well. Mike is running the room, he's at the computer, and he's just gleefully, he'll get into these moods, and he'll just gleefully start typing in these calzone jokes. So it's just spiraling it's snowballing and meanwhile i look over at emily kaepernick whose script with her name on it is just being loaded up with calzone jokes on literally every page like it's every like what you see in the episode you would not it's like one eighth of what was in there so there were

calzone jokes like every line we just couldn't stop writing jokes about calzones because it is it is funny but you can't you can't do that obviously but emily was mortified capnic was just like i don't she's like why are you guys doing this like literally fighting for the for the integrity of the script which is like it makes a lot of like it you know i i i totally felt her pain and so finally at like whatever time where i'm exaggerating but it's probably one or two in the morning we got we reread it again and michael's like okay this is insane there's too many calzone jokes so then we went back through and there's

never enough calzone we took out most of them but you watch the episode there's still a ton of them in there anyway turned out to be very funny and and uh we used it again later in the show obviously the low cal calzone zone um but but yeah, this is the genesis of it. And sometimes late nights where you're delirious, it comes out with good stuff. So I remember that very fondly. A couple more notes. Notes, the building used for the Pawnee Police Department

is the former Highland Park Police Station in Los Angeles. Spent many a night there in the 80s. You up so good in the Highland Park? You were there last week, right? Judd Nelson and I, we'd be in the drunk tank, you know, routinely. Oh my God.

Sure. After this episode, Dick Offerman, who plays Ron Swanson, had to wear a fake mustache for three more episodes. That's because he shaved part of it off, right?

Due to friction. And so I think what happened is it was, you know, obviously didn't grow back as fast as it would have in in the in the timeline of the show so he had to wear a fake mustache eric pierpoint who plays police chief hugh trumple has played several police officers throughout his career including an alien officer in the sci-fi series alien nation and police chief in the superhero drama series the cape um so those are your notes notes he has he has

there are certain actors that that make a like they have police face he has he's got police face as much as sam elliott got cowboy face that's right they they look they just look like it it's like you're not a cowboy but you look like one doctor face yeah senator face president face judge face president bill pullman got president face I mean yeah It's just like That's right That's a good gig That's a good gig There's certain faces

That serve you better In the Hollywood world Than others That's right Rob's face Served him pretty well Anyway That's right

Getting into the synopsis here Ron's ex-wife Tammy Is back to her old ways Trying to draw Ron back Into their chaotic relationship With a fabricated Outstanding library fine It appears Ron Is able to resist her seduction

due to the fact that he's in a solid relationship with Tom's ex-wife, Wendy, but his steadfast resolve becomes compromised when Wendy tells Ron her plans to move back to Canada, and the two of them break up. And of course, Tammy is played by Megan Mullally. Megan Mullally, comedy great, making another appearance on the show, and Nick

Offerman's real-life wife. Which explains why she was probably so committed to one of my favorite things, where she's beating herself in the face with a long slice of jerky. No reservations there. Just kind of just went for it.

No, and just, it's so overtly sexual. That is exactly my thought watching this episode. I was actually kind of shocked. I mean, I was surprised. You know, Mike generally creates these universes that are so kind and gentle and generally not extremely overtly sexual. But very early on in the show, it's it's very sexual and then there's a tom

haverford talking head where he's like all i can think of is captain mustache piling my wife and it's like it's surprising to hear the word plowing in a mic just like how did they get through how did mike allow that to happen but i guess it was a different time i mean it really is true because like we all have wouldn't allow that we all have our gears gears, right? We all have a certain, like, I'm not a big scatological joke guy. But, like, other people love it, whatever. And, like, Mike doesn't do sex jokes traditionally. And this one, he just went for it. I think there's some, like, Dan Gore in here or something.

Yes. But, yeah, it's, I don't know, that was surprising. And there's going to be more moments throughout the show that are surprisingly sexual. I also want to shout out the Chris and April dynamic in this episode. I really enjoyed it. It just, you know, knowing you and Aubrey personally, it also is doubly funny for me because it's like, yeah, it's just like, yeah, it's kind of like a happy dog and a cat, you know. It's like, you know, they say that about Andy and April, but I think it's kind of true about Chris and April, too.

I think Chris is a different kind of dog. If Andy's like a golden retriever, Chris is like a, I don't know, what kind of dog do you think you'd be? Like something sleek to me, you know? What would I be? Something like a racing dog or something. Would I be a Jack Russell Terrier? Oh, I like that.

I mean, yeah, I was going to say like a Greyhound or something, but something like, something fit and just energetic. But it is a funny dynamic. I just like when you have a, when you say, when you have that scene where you're like, I have a post-it note for you. And it just says, great job on it. I mean, this is so cute. That's one of my favorite. I remember, that's one of my, and that's a, I see that a lot as a,

as a meme. Yeah. Now where it's just me holding up a thing that says, great job. Yeah. Like I'll get that

randomly sent to me from people. One of my favorite things about the internet is just that there are a few Parks and Rec memes floating out there, which is,

it's kind of cute. It's like kids are still watching the show. You know, that's kind of cute. This is also an episode where there's, um,

we, and we talk about it a lot. The Tom Cruise part of my character that we moved away from, but there's, there's a real vintage. In fact, this is the iteration of the story I told in the original meeting with Mike, with you about how Tom would order water.

And I ordered,ris orders a beer absolutely as tom cruise i'd like a what does he say i'd like a local beer i'd like it to be in a bottle and i'd like the bottle to be cold like super specific yeah yeah and then there's that bit where ann is kind of doing the same thing i found that kind of funny knowing the genesis of the character and all that stuff. That was kind of great. I like when Anne tries to imitate Chris's cadence

and enthusiasms. She's done that a couple of times. I mean, she never fully commits to it so it never really works but it's really funny. She's doing the best

she can. She's doing the best she can. This episode is also the last appearance of Wendy Haverford played by Jamie Williamson and she was kind of a friend of the show. I think she had known Mike before the airing of this episode and certainly before

casting. And there's a question here in the notes, what came first, Ron and Tammy 2 or breaking up Wendy and Ron? And I think, I honestly think they were kind of concurrent because it was like, well, we want to do Ron and Tammy again. And we kind of had to solve for this puzzle piece kind of concurrent because it was like well we want to do ron and tammy again and we kind of had to solve for this puzzle piece kind of situation where he was already dating somebody so wow it was kind of a good uh a good uh i don't know what you want to call it but initiating action where you know she broke up with him and then uh he's susceptible vulnerable to tammy so kind of a concurrent situation there um shall we move on to the next part of the synopsis here yes all right so leslie finds ron drowning his sorrows at the bar where she and the parks department are throwing a party for the

ponty police department once the chief has had his fill of pizza and beer leslie hopes he'll donate the force's time for security at the upcoming harvest festival but ben awkwardly fails to win chief trumple's favor tom unaware of ron and wendy's breakup arrives at the upcoming harvest festival but ben awkwardly fails to win chief trumple's favor tom unaware of ron and wendy's breakup arrives at the party with tammy to get back at ron for going out with wendy after bickering loudly ron and tammy both decide to leave the party together and try and make amends a night filled with drunken sex and mayhem ensues ending with the two getting remarried and ending up in jail now doesn't doesn't um ben mention calzones to the chief that's right yes it comes up again again this is a moment this is the moment of

insanity i'm i'm telling you most of the calzone jokes were cut but if you watch this episode he mentions calzones i would say conservatively nine times or something and it's like yeah it and and that was kind of uh again tied into ben being awkward around the police and and and that's such a funny how did that come it's such a funny idea i'll tell you uh what i remember of that which is it was kind of based on mike being awkward around cops like he says like when they come around even if he's done nothing wrong he's just like very you know he's very nervous and he's just like when they come around, even if he's done nothing wrong, he's just like very, you know, he's very nervous. And he's just like stammering and acting like speaking very sort of. Stiltedly.

Exactly. Stiltedly. Like he's being like, it's like a high school bully or something. It's so funny. So, I mean, that again, that was part of it. And then the Calzone thing, like, oh, this is. And so I'm looking at the notes again. So talking about that night where we wrote these Calzone jokes i forgot the detail that mike actually left the room he went

to editing to edit a different episode and when he came back we had added like 10 calzone jokes and so again i think we expected him to cut them but he just kind of liked them and then we just kept going on it and so but it just again, it truly will live in infamy because God, I just remember sitting in the, I remember which corner like me and Kaepernick were sitting in, like we were at the opposite end. You know, it's a long conference table and Mike sitting at the head.

I think I was sitting near the other end with Kaepernick. You know, there's 10 people in there and she's just turning red. And like Mort, if I could see, not the boss of that show, right? She had been the boss of her own show, but like it was just a thing she had to swallow. All the stuff of them. You never see Ron get the cornrows, do you?

He just all of a sudden has them. Off camera, which I thought was kind of fun. Yeah, for sure. I think we made a big list of things and like, you know, it's cornrows. It's the kimono. It's the mustache being rubbed off due to friction you know we probably talked about a bunch of things like a samurai sword and like you know like just this just so much stuff i have a photo from this shoot i definitely was

on set for some of it because i have a photo where nick's in the kimono with the with the cornrows and i'm like man i remember seeing that photo like last year which is like make it like the 10-year anniversary or something but um yeah he was just he just walking around set in cornrows um very very very funny visual it's it's classic i mean nick offerman ron swanson and cornrows is just beyond i remember again because we've talked about sometimes you're as an actor on the show you're you're what you're playing your part in the script for the episode is siloed off away from the other story so i remember coming in and going and seeing nick in the cornrows and what the fuck is what's happening oh yeah yeah that's right that's right i you know because i'm not a you're not a part of that story

it's so funny yeah and just like it ships passing in the night and you just see him wearing it. That's kind of fun though. That's when a comedy is fun. You know, you do a drama and it's like, it's so, so serious. Then a comedy is like, you'll see weird shit like that. It's like, yeah, your day is a little bit brighter, right? Your day is a little bit brighter. I never felt, it's funny.

You know, I'm on 911 Lone Star right now. Big action drama procedural. And you know, when I come home from work, I fucking tired and i like and i'm like you know what i really accomplished something today i never felt that way at parks and recreation once i mean not that i didn't feel like i accomplished something but it was so fun and so light yeah and so easy and fresh and we're and you're with people you love and you're just riffing and having fun that like all right that's it that's a wrap me like but what i didn't do anything today yeah yeah and and and that in a good way right like that hadn't occurred to me until i did some more dramatic

shows and movies and and it's just totally different i you know my i was telling you rob that my girlfriend is acting in handmaid's Tale. And it's like, those scenes are sad. You watch Handmaid's Tale. And imagine them, they're shooting that in Toronto in the cold, like day after day after day. And that's the opposite of a soundstage in Studio City where you go around and mess around and Nick's wearing a kimono with cornrows. You know, it's just like different jobs.

And, you know, they're both very, you know, you want to work on good examples of both drama and comedy. You've been fortunate enough and I've been fortunate enough to work on some of them. And, you know, it's just different. And by the way, the variety is nice. It's nice to bounce back and forth like we've gotten to do. It's super nice because I remember at the end of Parks, I was ready for it to like just to like dig in. Yeah, let's get meat. Let's get like a meaty dramatic scene. And you were just to dig in. Yeah, let's get meat.

Let's get a meaty, dramatic scene, and you were able to do that. After getting Ron released, the Parks Department holds a Tammy intervention, playing a previously recorded tape of Ron warning himself to stay away from her. But Ron ignores the warning and prepares to take Tammy to his cabin for a sex-filled honeymoon. Leslie blames Tom for the dilemma, and although he initially claims to be unfazed, Tom later arrives at Tammy's library bridal shower to stop Ron from going on the honeymoon. He reveals the whole marriage is a ploy by tammy to once again make ron miserable tammy attacks tom prompting ron to remember what a monster she truly

is and leave her he carries tom away and the two later make amends so in the intervention scene which they keep it's really funny the way it's shot because they stay on the back of nick's head so all you see are the cornrows for a lot of it. And we just, it's such a great visual, but Amy has Amy who we all know is just such a comedy killer. She's so great. I mean,

I mean, but obviously she's Leslie Knope. She's genius, but she has a little throwaway thing here that makes me laugh out loud where, um, I think it is. I'm trying to think of who it is. Oh,

it's Andy. Andy is, I'm trying to think of who it is. Oh, it's Andy. Andy is trying to do his part in the intervention of being super honest and trying to get Nick to come to, to try to get Ron to come to his senses. And of course, as is Andy's want, he's very inarticulate and dumb. And it cuts to Leslie. She goes, very powerful stuff. Yeah, just under Leslie, and she goes, very powerful stuff. Yeah, just under her breath. Just very, very powerful stuff. The very powerful stuff, line reading, is comic gold. Just very thrown away and, like, under her breath. Like, yeah, and this is, like, even reading the

synopsis, you realize, like, at this point, we had kind of abandoned a super grounded tone. It's like, think about about look at the phrases in there there's an intervention where we play a tape of himself there's a there's a bridal shower in a library it's like this especially these episodes we kind of take a little liberty with the reality of the show i mean which is already like it has some broadness to it but this is just this is pretty crazy it's it's a little outside the bounds, but for the Ron and Tammy episodes, we kind of allowed that. Now, Ron carries Tom. Yeah. Ron carrying Tom like a baby. That was something that we were kind of trying to write towards in some way. Like, I think that was an image that we just liked. I also, to me, like I was watching the episode,

it's a little shocking to see Megan just beat up Aziz. Like, like, like we just filmed her beating him up. Like it's very rare that this show filmed fight scenes, but when we did, it was always fun. Like there's a couple with Amy,

I think in the Eagleton episodes. Um, but, but there's, there's only a couple over the history of the show. And, and this is one of them. Doesn't,

um, isn't this the episode where she says you're a little man and i could throw you around or something like this something basically yeah i mean there's a lot of the amount of aziz being small jokes is really to again as i watch the episodes they're like damn they really like didn't let him they really let him have it they call him a baby they call him a little girl they call it like this is really relentless bullies. Like forget bullying Jerry. Like they're bullying Aziz a lot on the show. It doesn't seem right. But you know, he gets his sweet moments too.

I mean, he ends up saving Ron in this one, which is kind of nice. But yeah, he takes his medicine, man. It's pretty crazy. I also love the intervention scene is gold. I mean, there's a lot of funny lines from different characters in this, but I like when Donna talks about her brother,

where she says, you know, Ron, I love you like a brother, but today I hate you like my actual brother, Lavandrius, who I hate. Like, it's just so funny. Like, it's just, it's so insane. Like, we used to call some of these jokes like roller coasters where it would just keep going up and down and keep misdirecting you. I mean, like, ultimately, there's a cliche, like, comedy's about surprise comedy's about surprise or about some unexpected twist but sometimes and rashida would complain about this all the time she's like you guys are writing four twists or five twists into a single line it's like so difficult to deliver but like that joke was one of them which is like it's so confusing but by the

end it's very rewarding so uh that that's really funny um there's also uh There's also just at the end of the intervention, just a little tidbit from the way it was filmed. In the script, it just said Tammy enters and kisses Ron. But in the actual show, Tammy enters and then Nick stands up and starts kicking his feet back like he's a bull about to charge. So was really funny i think he just did that on the day for no clear reason that is nick kicking his feet like a bull is just the best it's so funny and and yeah so and also like there's two set pieces back to back so you go from the intervention and then you cut to the the bridal shower and there's like a small reveal that jerry is at the shower already like he's just there unrelated like he's been he's been invited by tammy and he makes the decision to go and bring gifts so uh yeah i always enjoyed that as well yes uh continuing on the synopsis despite the bad impression he made the day before ben asked the police chief for the harvest festival favor

the chief unconditionally agrees out of respect for leslie explaining that she always helps everyone and because leslie once dated his friend dave ben seems relieved that leslie and dave are no longer together and later asked leslie out to eat sweet it's a sweet moment and so it began yes uh this question is in the notes was this always the episode where ben asked leslie out um how does this differ from his do you want to grab a beer request i think it's This question is in the notes. Was this always the episode where Ben asks Leslie out? How does this differ from his, do you want to grab a beer request? I think it's just the nature of their relationship has changed, right? It's just you can see it in how Adam is playing it. I really like the moment where he asks her out and then they go on a,

she goes on like a 60 second long calzone run. And then she says yes. But maybe I just like the performance. It's really good between the two of them it's like you know it you know you get lucky with the chemistry sometimes but she's so cute in that scene they had they've always they had great chemistry from the drop and it doesn't always happen i mean it just doesn't know it does not the number of times i mean you you must have seen this a million times in your career and and do you have any takes on like is there any rhyme or reason or is it just to it's just human beings it's like we don't know they could be two beautiful human beings they could be two they could both be funny they could both be and or whatever it is it it just it it that's very difficult to me. I don't know. I, I, I had, um, I recently had,

uh, there was going to be a character, you know, um, on my show was going to be a love interest. And at the first rehearsal of the first scene, I, I knew it wasn't going to happen and,

and it didn't. And we, we shifted the entire storyline because, and, and then there's, you know, you do know in the first rehearsal by the way it's not something you go i wonder like when you see it and the actors are doing their thing

it's either there or it's not there and there's nothing you can do about it one way or the other yeah it's almost like real life in that in some ways right it's like you just put two people in the room also sometimes it's like how they appear on camera together or like what, I don't know. It's just, it just sometimes kind of ineffable and you can write, you can do all the gymnastics you want writing. You can write charm beats between the two of them. You can write, you know, bonding scenes. They're singing a song together, whatever it is. They're doing a dance sequence. Like, damn, I just don't feel anything. That's, that's tricky, man. That's casting. That's the genius of casting. But fortunately, you know, I think in this case think in this case leslie and ben very cute love story and and um you know one of the things sort of in the design of that love story uh to me was it was kind of dual duty in the sense that

we were also showing ben falling in love with bonnie the city right and and and it was kind of a proxy thing where because it, you know, Leslie Knope, what did she love more than anything? She loved the city. And so, in order for them to fall in love with each other, Ben had to come around. And Ben, you know, initially came there to slash the budget. So, as writers, I think our challenge was to show both of those things happening. And in this episode, I think we see, you you know the police chief talk about you know leslie in a glowing way and then we'll see moments where you know ben realizes things about the city itself that he loves and and and by it's almost like a child i mean i hate to be too uh you know metaphorical about it but ponny's almost like leslie's kid and he like falls

in love with her kid as well and the other thing is you is that it was the setup was was chris and ben were passing through yes yeah so this is the beginning of the arc that that gets to the point where they decide to stay this is the this is the episode where those seeds begin to get planted they were passing through and attempting to ruin the city so it's almost a good it's a good writing tool too it's a writing instruction, which is like, okay, you want them to change, you want their attitudes to change, you want their arc to be clear. And, you know, that was part of it. So, you know, we look, we see it in flu season, where where he's impressed by her, you know, we see it in this episode. And so that's kind of a

little trick, too, is, you know, if you have this long termterm goal how do you pace it out how do you make it realistic how do you plant moments that feel real and earned and build them enough so that when it does happen uh it feels justified and it feels like you've gone on a journey with them so that's all kind of the planning that that mike did that that uh that paid off in the end yep uh and let's continue on with the episode april has been working as Chris's assistant until he goes back to Indianapolis. April's cynical personality clashes with Chris's relentless optimism and happiness. In an attempt to get fired, April purposely neglects to tell Anne that Chris cannot make a lunch date. When Anne arrives to confront Chris, she quickly realizes April's ploy.

Anne reveals she's very happy dating Chris and would even move with him to Indianapolis if asked. Andy, who's still trying to win back April's affections gives chris an obviously forged letter from the fbi claiming april must immediately return the parks department as ron's assistant chris sees through the ruse and tells april she can go back but explains that remaining his assistant may provide her better career opportunities he invites her return with him to indianapolis and she seems interested leaving both ann and andy stunned and jealous so i remember yeah this scene vividly it was one of the i don't know what maybe it's because it was still early in my run on the show but i remember it being super difficult to do because if you look at it, and I looked at it again today before we came on, it's super earnest and there's no comedy in it, none. And one of the things I loved about playing

Chris was he was a joke machine and usually that's what the character actors get to do. he was a joke machine and usually that's what the character actors get to do i i remember this being out really out of character a little bit and i remember being like i just remember like i like being like weird for me and i don't know i couldn't put my finger on why other than it's it so earnest and so unadulterated and like fatherly to her and yet and mentally and knowledge it's weird i found it i find that scene to be a weird scene i could be wrong i could be wrong that's so interesting because i it didn't bother me it bought me when i did it but i understand where you're coming from playing that character because you get to have jokes in every scene and that's always the thing in the writer's room where we in almost every scene and and this is a particular example of where there needs to be a lot of story dispense right like we said we you know information and and all that stuff it's um

it's always a balance and we talk about hey does there need to be a joke to cut the emotion of the scene or does there it doesn't need to beened? And usually that's a discussion back and forth where it's like, how, you know, how joke dense will the scene be? And does it need, yeah, again, does it need a button at the end or some levity? And I don't know, for whatever reason, I think of this scene, they're like, no, you know, it works how it is. And the other thing is, we are fortunate on this show to be, we are fortunate to be blessed with actors who can pull off, who can be interesting not doing a joke every line. You know, I think that was kind of the gold, which is like, you know, I would trust pretty much every actor on the show to be able to deliver a scene like that. Of course, yourself included, you have a history of dramatic acting, but, you know, even the primarily comedic actors were able to do that.

So, I don't know. I think you've put your finger on it in a way that I couldn't. Yeah. It felt at least in that scene, like a scene from another show for me, because that, that scene could have been in the West wing. It could have been,

it literally could have been, been Sam Seaborn talking to a new assistant saying, I believe in you. I think you're smart. And I think literally, I mean, and then it just adds, and then it just adds.

Well, I have, I have a question for you. In both this scene and throughout your career, do you have any tricks in order to convey emotion and convey sort of genuine sincerity without crossing the line into treacle, crossing the line into being overly sentimental?

I think it's just a matter of being honest it's like it's if you have a point of view and in this case in these types of scene it's sort of emotion-based and and and and based in um you know sincerity you just have to be super honest and just just you your whole job is to tell that person how you feel period and and be as honest as you possibly can and no acting involved like you know don't don't ever get caught acting ever but but but in these in these situations it's super critical that you just tell them how you feel i i really like that and you know that's always my taste is is underplaying and letting you know letting the story do the work letting the character hopefully have has done the heavy lifting you know like you know i think about this is a very very different movie but i i watched that movie drive my car the hamaguchi movie and

it's like it's just it's it's beautiful and And it's, you couldn't ever pitch that and be like, this is going to be emotionally powerful and moving and entertaining and all these things. And it's super underplayed. It's super just, you know, a matter of fact, like you said, you can't see the seams, you can't see people acting, you can see um the the hand the hand of the creative team the hand of the director the hand of the writer the hand of the actor like you don't want to see that stuff sometimes and um you know that's its own unique genre but but uh that's certainly my preference yeah because on the other side of it in on lone star you know i'll tell the young actors that they're struggling when we do for example rescues

like the world is going to shit the plane is crashing we're losing pressure that is you cannot play the stakes interesting if you play like like if the plane is crashing you better not be playing the plane is crashing as as as a first responder they've seen it a thousand times their job is to be is to calm you not to ramp you up so the mistake i see actors come in as they go oh this is a scene where the plane's crashing so i gotta be like and it's exactly the opposite yeah i i feel you man i feel it that's good advice it's good advice you know this is a fun aspect of this show i like that there's an actor and there's a there's a writer right behind the scenes person that's right you're getting kind of like you starts

with you and it ends with me yeah it's it's good that's good any final thoughts on this episode rob this is this is a great one it's a great one it's another good one i mean it's a classic uh i mean ron and tammy too you know it's it it just doesn't you know get any more classic than than that anytime a tammy was even mentioned in Parks and Rec, it was a big deal. Yeah, and I think it's shout out to Megan too, who was able to come in and just kill. And we like these opportunities.

I think we relish them as a cast and crew to be, as I mentioned, a little bit broader, a little bit push our boundaries and deliver. Look, when you're doing this many episodes of a show you can't make them all the same i actually think obviously you want to maintain an overall tone and consistency and hey this is the world this is the vibe you'll get when you watch parks and rec however i think these episodes provided something very fun which is you get to see your characters act a little out of character once in a while. And just like, you know, in everyday life, you and I act out of character very occasionally.

That was what these opportunities, this is what these episodes did, which is you got to see Ron Swanson be the opposite of Ron Swanson. And again, just watching Nick and Megan, it's just such a cool thing where that couple is so talented and they get to sort of play around and have fun and and and really improvise on the show as well like you know a lot of those things they get to go for it if if if tammy were played by an actor that that that that nick didn't know the show would be worse because they wouldn't be doing the bad shit things they do in these episodes so so shout out to those guys yeah whenever whenever whenever uh the offermans and i get together meg and i like to fuck with nick we talked a lot about about last night just to wind him up i mean it's pretty it's

pretty crazy there's it's rare that you start a new job and the coat your co-worker your new co-worker has kissed your wife yes exactly it's a strange moment yeah um so that's ron and tammy too uh we love the episode uh a couple oops moments moments here. The kimono Ron is wearing is meant specifically for married women. I would say that's maybe more of an Easter egg. Maybe that was intentional. That's not a mistake. That's definitely not. He gets married, man.

He gets married. They definitely did that for real. Oh, this, I really remember. I truly remember this because of the angst it caused in the writer's room and to Mike specifically. This episode has a major behind the scenes oops moment uh we should talk to greg levine producer greg on this who uh was the writer assistant on the show at the time um greg can you walk us through because because i remember this but but walk us through exactly what happened uh around the time of this episode being released yeah guys, guys. So, you know, every episode of Parks and Rec had special content that was made for NBC.com, and it was written by myself and the other writer's assistant.

And one of the features was a wedding registry for Ron and Tammy based on the sequence of them at what I think is Bed Bath & Beyond adding a bunch of items for their impromptu wedding. Bed Bath & Beyond adding a bunch of items for their impromptu wedding. Now, a few episodes from now, spoiler, Andy and April are going to get married in a major surprise storyline. And when NBC.com ran a commercial for the feature, they called it April and Andy's Wedding Registry, which caused speculation about a future spoiler that wasn't supposed to go out. Damage control, I know, was done emphasizing that the commercial accidentally used the wrong names, that it was actually for Ron and Tammy's registry. After Andy and April eventually marry a couple of episodes later, I know that Mike admitted that the commercial was intended to run with april

and andy's wedding but due to an error internally with nbc it ran with ron and tammy instead i actually pulled up something he said and he said in an effort to undo the spoiler we publicly stated in a number of interviews that nbc had just accidentally gotten the character names wrong and there was no upcoming Andy and April wedding. We sincerely hope that fans of the show are cool with us gently lying to them in an effort to maintain the surprise nuptials as much as we could. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go shoot

the season finale surprise Jerry-Donna wedding scene. Yeah, so that I think is quite an oops. And back to youps uh first of all these hey do you guys mind writing some dudes just let's get do some extra content you know it's like for nbc.com you know like you guys should just break off and write it and it's not like you're writing an actual fucking television show right now and you know maybe the actors can kind of be in it like i don't know maybe like, maybe like on there. Get out of here. Get out. Get out with all that shit. Oh, man.

Can you film a BTS thing? Can you film like there is another like we had a show for Amazon at some point. They're like, do something for X-Ray, which is like extra stuff. That's like you click on it and then the actors would do stuff. And it's just like it's it's tough. I mean, I understand that that's their job and they have to ask you to do that. But man, it is it is a lot of that. And I remember when this happened because you're right.

They would ask you for extra content, extra content, extra content while we were shooting and writing the show. By the way, they're not paying for any of it. Oh, no, no, no. Why would you do that? It's all for free. And so when that came out and it was like this episode aired and then right after it was like, go nbc.com for april nandy's wedding registry we're like what that's spoiled you spoiled the fucking show like that is so crazy because it was a random surprise wedding like they had just started dating and they you know they get married a couple episodes later it proves my number one life ethos no good deed goes

unpunished yeah it's like ask for this stuff and, and, and we'll, we'll spoil the show, but God, and then, and then of course you have to force Mike to lie. Mike, that's the lie.

Yeah. He literally just wrote a book about a moral behavior. And then, so he had to lie to cover his tracks. But yeah, I mean, this is, it was not a good,

not a good situation that day. It was, we couldn't believe it when that aired because we were like you just spoiled maybe the biggest surprise in the entire series of like a seven year long show while we're on the subject of network asks at some point we have to have to do a deep dive on the when we shut down for a day and shot a dance sequence for the network oh my god i think i remember this day we can do about 10 minutes on this i so so i remember this you know you know why we were talking about this recently rob i was texting this to a bunch of different friends

it was a super bowl commercial and it was to the tune of this song, Brotherhood of Man. Yes. From, I believe, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. That's right. And they marshaled every,

every, I implore you, search for NBC Super Bowl commercial Brotherhood of Man. Is there really a brotherhood? Yes, there's a brotherhood. Of man. You are a brother. Of benevolence. So yes, we did a day on Parks and Rec. We got the entire cast.

We shot this long musical steadicam, like, you know, way, way more equipment than the show ever used itself. It was the cast of 30 Rock, the cast of Parks and Rec, the cast of Community, the cast of Law & Order, the cast of SNL,

the cast of, you know, everyone from the Today Show, the Tonight Show, Jimmy Fall snl the cast of you know everyone from the today show the tonight show jimmy fallon everybody and you watch this thing just just watch it because there's a couple surprises if you don't want to know the surprises push pause now but if you watch it you will see i believe in that you'll see the cast of god i think whitney so you'll see that you'll see and then at the end trump is also in it because of the apprentice so it's all in this ad and the other crazy thing about this is that day on set i remember the director of it it was a guy from new zealand and and uh that that guy turned out to be

taika waititi he directed that thing and and he directed it was just a super bowl ad that he was directing at the time and there was an article going around about this ad. And we were just sending it to our friends. Like, remember being on set that day. And, you know, they were promoting this show, Smash, which, you know, I believe had your friend David Foster's wife, I believe, in it. Yes. Here's when I, I'm trying to name my new Netflix show right now. Yes.

Yes. Here's when I, I'm trying to name my new Netflix show right now. Yes. Yes. And when we're talking about names, I always think about the horrible review. Yes. And I would never name a show smash ever because the review, the bad review is, the headline would be smash and the first sentence was, it isn't. Yes, exactly.

Headline, smash, smash isn't. Catherine McPhee starred in smash. And look, I love everybody and everybody's great katherine mcphee is great nbc's great everybody's great fact of the matter is the fact of the matter is let me just tell you something i don't know what was more demoralizing doing this stupid thing or doing it for a show like smash i i will also say this this is now now a lot of shows getting collateral damage in this but i this was let's not forget that uh we had already gotten pushed parks and rec got pushed for months and months and months um because they were very excited about the show outsourced of course we got pushed for outsourced for, you know, seven months or something. And we aired a half season that year.

And but but again, I'll save those thoughts for my outsourced rewatch pod. But it's not easy. Yeah, no, it's you know, look, TV is hard. TV is hard. I'm glad we did that. I question, though, I beg you to watch this video. It's it's crazy. It's really crazy to see and by the way people were getting hurt doing it because if you see it we all had to fight to be in the cameras

like with the perks cast is what seven people however many people it's a lot of people yeah it's one frame and so like somebody would sing a line and then you have to pop your head out of here and somebody would enter and it was like just insane you're see i think you're singing in it a little bit too right like we're all singing in it yeah you're saying like i remember z the offerman's and they're all in it and it's like yeah it's it's it's really wild because you'll see all these stars too you go to a community and it's it's donald glover and ken jong and john mckay like everyone's in it like every every every every tv personality is in it and it always it always begins with the same thing and by the way when somebody hits you with the tone of voice,

you should know the answer is no. And that tone of voice is, so we're just, no, no, no. So it's like, so on Wednesday, so just right after we wrap, we're just going to do this little eight-hour shoot for Smashed. Yuck, yuck. just gonna do this little eight hour shoot for smashed yuck yeah and and and it's i believe there's a there's a piece in god i want to say either new york mag or vanity fair or something about this commercial and no way yes so i'll i'll send it to you but it's like you sent it to me it's it's it here it is it's i believe it's van okay here it is. Oh, yes. February 11th. That's why it's very visceral.

The headline is, NBC's Brotherhood of Man Super Bowl commercial will haunt us forever. Few bits of pop culture ephemera are as captivating or as retrospectively icky as this star-studded 10-year-old musical promo. So you can read that. It's not my commentary.

That's Vanity Fair. But it's... Okay, so I'm not crazy no it's it's bad shocking again let's not cut this for time we have appearances from tina fey alec baldwin john krasinski mindy kaling amy poehler rob low rashida jones donald glover angelica houston mariska hargitay ice tea christina aguilera adam levine maya rudolph will arnett christina abilgate kristin wigg keenan thompson andy satemberg bill hater seth myers and kathy bates squint you'll see chris pratt trying to hide in the parks and recreation sequence uh and it keeps going and by the way you see donald trump and matt lauer in it you see you see brian williams and you see joe rogan oh wait no joe is not in it it says

joe rogan's not in it because he was hosting revival of fear factor so he was not able anyway you'll see it's just really crazy to watch it's really crazy to watch jesus so my ptsd is well earned but uh god i'm glad we did the that are 20 i don't know if any of this will be in the episode uh we'll see it's so good we'll see if it gets in but but it's it this this is one of my like yeah this is it's one of the most legendary weird bits that you'll ever see well then and then we have to at some point we also have to talk about the day that i came to the set and the uh spinning chairs from the voice were in the middle of the bullpen let's save that for another episode because i think we got too long in this one but but i want to talk about the spinning chairs from The Voice were in the middle of the bullpen. Let's save that for another episode because we've gone too long in this one.

But I want to talk about The Voice chairs. Voice chairs? Yes. At least that's like a kid's dream. It's like, I want to be in one of those voice chairs. I have photos of me in The Voice chair. Were you in the one when Usher came? Yes!

With Usher! Jesus. I just remember him riding up in a motorcycle wearing an all-red leather suit or something. Very funny. All right. That was a great tangent. Great digression. Great tangent.

By the way, that's why we come to this show. We can't just all be scripted, for God's sakes. No, this is why you do that. This is why you do the pod. And you never know when you're going to get it. I don't want to say in the little scroll where everybody scrolls down and sees what episode it is it's like no you got to listen to every episode because you don't know what you're gonna get on any episode you'll get some weird shit for sure all right episode mvp most valuable pawn in the

end which character which character moment sticks out oh it's tammy it's tammy it's tammy there you go come on there you go roll low it low It's Tammy And I also will say this If you wear a kimono And put on cornrows And shave your mustache You at least get a co-MVP So shout out to you Nick That's right

Pretty amazing Alright let's take a trip To the town hall Do you want to go to the town hall i think you do where should we do the town hall why don't we why don't we do it in the prison cell oh that's great the prison cell that ron and tammy are trapped in after they get married and then subsequently arrested. God, by the way, quick mention of the scene where he punches out that glass. That's pretty cool

when he punches the glass and breaks the window. Great, great moment. It's a town howl today. Oh, yes. From the jail cell for Miley from Oceanside. Here's the town howl. Why don't we play that down, Sheltie? Hi, this is Miley calling from Oceanside, California. My question for you guys would be if you could have

any character from Parks and Rec be in any of the shows created by Mike Schur or Greg Daniels, like Space Force, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Upload, The Good Place, etc. If you could have any character from one of those shows come to Parks and Rec, who would it be? Or which character from Parks and Rec would you like to see in one of those shows?

Oh, I can tell you, I definitely want to see John Ralphio in charge of a spacecraft. And by the way, Schwartz is also in that show show so he could be playing two characters uh the clump style eddie murphy and the clumps not even professor two style so well get ready ben to do a double duty in space force um that's a great question thank you for the question by the way oceanside uh also a fake city that that we used in the show forever that we did for Amazon with my Rudolph. So thank you for,

for calling in. There's a, I would say one thing that I would like to see, I recently, you know, have, have sort of become friends with Manny Jacinto who plays Jason Mendoza on the good place.

Would love to see him cross over in the parks universe and have scenes with him and, and Andy Dwyer, because it would be a dumb off and to see who would be dumber would be very entertaining and i think they would be really good friends so thank you for the question by the way shout out to those guys for creating uh that many great shows there's a lot of options we didn't even mention the office we didn't mention brooklyn 99 we didn't mention you know upload we didn't mention all these other shows so uh shout out to create your own fanfic these two guys between their cinematic universes

there's there's innumerable answers great episode Rob you got anything to add we good to wrap it up oh I mean you kidding me I got my smash stuff off my chest I know that

was better than therapy for me I love it I love it well thank you everybody for listening subscribe where you get your podcast five star view an apple please it really matters to us

thanks to Schulte and Greg and goodbye from Pawnee Adios Parks and Recollection is produced by Greg Levine and me Rob Schulte our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm the podcast is executive

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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.