Parks and Recollection - Ron and Tammy (S2E8)

Episode Date: December 14, 2021

Love is in the air around Pawnee. Rob and Alan dive into another classic episode of Parks and Rec. In "Ron and Tammy" Leslie learns the library department, run by Ron's ex-wife, wants to take over the lot. On today's episode find out why Nick and Megan were perfect together as antagonists, which books are approved for the Pawnee Library, and the secrets behind Ron's breakfast photo. Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone]  The episode opens with Andy taking over disgruntled Old Gus’ shoe shine business in City Hall. Later, Mark breaks the bad news to Leslie that the Pawnee library has placed a planning claim for Lot 48. Leslie and the rest of the Parks Dept. express their disdain for the library, much to the confusion of Ann, while Ron is particularly angry to learn that his ex-wife Tammy, who he insists is evil incarnate, is the new library director.Leslie decides to look evil in the eye and confront Tammy directly about the library’s planning claim, but to her surprise, Leslie finds Tammy to be warm and friendly. Tammy instantly agrees to rescind her planning claim on Lot 48 as a professional courtesy between Government Gals and Leslie, now convinced that Tammy is not as bad as Ron claims, brings Tammy to the Parks Dept. so that she and Ron can work out their differences. Tammy and an agitated Ron go to a local diner to have lunch. The two sit down amicably, but soon erupt into a loud argument over who set the bed on fire, which jump cuts to them sitting back to back in separate booths eating, then cuts to the two making out between the two booths, then on the table (which Ron pulls out from the wall), then running out to their car and driving to a local motel, where they strip off their clothes as they run into the hotel room.Meanwhile Mark enlists Tom’s help in dealing with Andy, who is working hard to try and win back Ann. Taking Tom’s advice to take the high road, Mark confronts Andy at the show shine stand, only to find Andy has covered the wall above his stand with pictures of Ann. Finding ads posted with “Andy & Ann Shoe Shine” Ann tells Andy to back off and take down the Ann shrine he’s erected.Later a cheery Ron waltzes into the Parks Dept. providing way too many details about his sexual exploits with Tammy. An uncomfortable Leslie listens and realizes that Tammy is using sex to manipulate Ron into giving the library control of Lot 48. Leslie confronts Tammy, who smirks and tells Leslie that she’d rather be a Cleopatra than an Eleanor Roosevelt. Leslie tries to get Ron to break up with Tammy, but he insists he is powerless to her wiles and convinces Leslie to go with him to do the deed. The two go to the library and Ron immediately caves when Tammy flirts with him. Leslie gives up, telling Ron he should do whatever will make him happy. Impressed that a woman would put his needs before her own, Ron decides to break up with Tammy and give the lot back to Leslie. After breaking the news to Tammy off-camera, Ron flees the library with half of his  moustache missing and a push-pin stuck in his forehead. The two share a drink back at the Parks Dept. and agree that Tammy and the library really are the two worst things in the world. 

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 Hello everybody, welcome to Parks and Recollection Where we go to Pawnee and see everybody And do our thing and examine them Like aliens who abduct people

One episode at a time is that what we do i think it is it's close enough we get the gist it's close enough that's a paraphrase it's a paraphrase it's not to be word perfect no this is a good episode though we have i mean they're all good but this is this is one people talk about this is the classic season two classic do you think this is the first classic that's a good question i i i'm biased so this is episode eight of season two i'd have to look at the rundown but i think there's there's classics and then there's what uh what we would sometimes say in the minor in the writer's room maybe damning with faint praise minor classics minor classics this one's a straight up classic

this one's a straight up straight up class this is this is definitely this is ron and tammy that's that's what we're doing today um and for sure i think this would be on every perks and rec fans it's got to be in their top 10 for sure so much to talk about right because it's it's it's sort of a you know an iconic character but this is one of those episodes where you step outside what you know about that character and of course we're talking about ron swanson should we get into uh the details of this episode remind the folks what happens i will so this is episode eight of season two it first aired november 5th 2009 so almost exactly 12 years ago written by the man the legend mike scully used to be the showrunner of the simpsons and directed by Troy Miller.

Fantastic episode. Shall we do the synopsis, Rob? Yeah, I will let you take it away because nobody brings it home quite like you do. All right, here we go. A lot to get through in this one because it's such a legendary episode. So the episode opens with Andy taking over disgruntled old Gus's shoeshine business in the city hall. It's the cold open. Later, Mark breaks the bad news to Leslie that the Pawnee Library has placed a planning claim for Lot 48. Leslie and the rest of the Parks

Department express their disdain for the library, much to the confusion of Ann. While Ron is particularly angry to learn that his ex-wife Tammy, who he insists is evil incarnate, is the new library director. Leslie decides to look evil in the eye and confront Tammy directly about the library's planning claim. But to her surprise, Leslie finds Tammy to be warm and friendly. Tammy instantly agrees to rescind her planning claim on Lot 48 as a professional courtesy between government gals, her and Leslie. Leslie, now convinced that Tammy is not as bad as Ron claims, brings Tammy to the parks department so that she and Ron can work out their differences. Tammy and an agitated Ron go to a local diner to have lunch. Legendary scene. The two sit down amicably, but soon erupt into a loud argument over who set the bed on fire, which jump cuts to them sitting back to back in separate booths

eating, then cuts to the two making out between the two booths, then on the table, which Ron pulls out from the wall, then running out to their car and driving to a local motel, where they strip off their clothes and they run into the hotel room. Meanwhile, Mark enlists Tom's help in dealing with Andy, who's working hard to try to win back Ann. Taking Tom's advice to take the high road, Mark confronts Andy at the shoeshine stand, only to find Andy has covered the wall above his stand with pictures of Anne. Finding ads posted with Andy and Anne's shoeshine, Anne tells Andy to back off and take down the Anne shrine he's erected. Later, a cheery Ron waltzes into the Parks Department providing way too many details about his sexual exploits with

Tammy. An uncomfortable Leslie listens and realizes that Tammy is using sex to manipulate Ron into giving the library control of Lot 48. Leslie confronts Tammy, who smirks and tells Leslie that she'd rather be a Cleopatra than an Eleanor Roosevelt. Really seminal talking head describing Leslie's character. Leslie tries to get Ron to break up with Tammy, but he insists he's powerless to her wiles and convinces Leslie to go with him to do the deed. The two go to the library and Ron immediately caves when Tammy flirts with him. Leslie gives up, telling Ron he should do whatever will make him happy. Impressed that a woman put his needs before her own, Ron decides to break up with Tammy and give the lot back to Leslie. After breaking the news to Tammy off camera, Ron flees the library with

half his mustache missing and a pushpin stuck in his forehead. The two share a drink back at the parks department and agree that Tammy and the library really are the two worst things in the world. And that's the story of Ron and Tammy. So this is the first time we see Ron kind of go batshit crazy. Like, like this is all escalated in later seasons, but I think it was fun to kind of see,

um, you know, Nick Offerman and his real life wife, Megan Mull wife, Megan Mullally, together in this episode. Was there ever any thought that Ron Swanson's ex-wife would not be Nick Offerman's actual wife? Or was it designed for Megan? I think it was designed for Megan. Greg, correct me if I'm wrong. But, yeah, I think...

So, Nick and Megan love acting together. They're always in stuff together. They're one of the most loving couples I've ever seen, and they're both fucking phenomenal comedic actors. And so, they often come as a package deal. So, I think Nick has appeared on Megan's stuff, and Megan has appeared in Nick's stuff, and they're in movies together. But yeah, I think Nick has appeared on Megan's stuff and Megan has appeared in Nick's stuff and they're in movies together. But yeah, I think very early on, you know, again, like I said, this is one of those episodes where you take an iconic character like Ron Swanson and you know everything you think you know about him, right? You have all these facts you know about him. And then every so often, an episode like this enhances the character because it shows him step outside who he usually is and so yeah i mean it's so interesting i think one of the reasons nick got cast in the show is because he had these smaller parts in in in previous uh in previous things that megan had

acted in and and mike had remembered those parts you know they are amazing together and you know megan of course brings her 75 emmy wins for will and grace i think she won 70 it's 75 emmys she won yeah that's the amount that might be an undercount that might be an undercount yeah i think it is it's a little and i rounded it up or down as it were um there's a lot in this episode that makes me laugh i mean it just starts off great with old Gus. It's just such great casting. The notion of old Gus, and he's actually old and belligerent and kind of nasty is super, super funny.

And Andy, I love Andy laughing at the nasty old man tirade. He goes on while he's being a warrior. It's always, I think that was a play on, I think of the writers when we were talking about, yeah, you always do these speeches and you know, these, these beloved figures, you're, of the writers when we were talking about, yeah, you always do these speeches and, you know, these beloved figures.

You're so reverential. And then what if in that ceremony the guy was just a huge dickhead and just tore everyone a new one? And then, yeah, cutting to Andy laughing. Like, that's a very funny cold open. I also love that the worst thing in the world are libraries. Yes. It's just a funny, really, really funny concept, especially for Leslie Knope, who's so like learned and loves book.

You just know she was a pleasure to have in class. Yeah. So the notion that she hates libraries is too funny to me. It was absolutely, you know, and I think one of the inspirations behind that, and it's such a strange sort of choice, but so I think, know mike sure one of his favorite shows is cheers and cheers had uh you know this this sort of running joke um on that show

of who their rival was and they had a rival bar called gary's old town tavern and so at one point mike was like well the parks department should have a rival department. And so it kind of manifested twice. It manifested first in the rivalry between the Parks Department and the library. And then later on, we did an even bigger version, which was between Pawnee and Eagleton. It was like, okay, there's so many. Look, you're doing 125 episodes. You're going to do a lot of rivalries. So that was kind of a secondary thing.

And we brought the library back again and again and and it was kind of fun so this is one of i think the earliest maybe the first library episode because you see like you see and being like what the fuck is going on um between uh between parks and libraries there's so many great ron and tammy moments but my my favorite in this and it it happens in ron and tammy too which we'll get to when we get to that which is i love that episode as well but that ron can sense when she's nearby yeah like he's an animal she's here he's like that offerman voice she's here like that which is unbelievable also like you when actors do that kind of stuff you can build off like their reads like that that was something he kind of did and performed that way and so in later episodes we would do that again and again.

And it's just like, oh, this is just a really funny thing. It made us laugh so much in the edit. And one of the great things about Megan is she's just, you know, Mike approached her to do this role. And it's obviously a crazily villainous character. And she was like, yeah, I'll do it. Sounds great. Yeah, do you want me to play someone completely terrible and awful and, you know, essentially a villain? Do you want me to play someone completely terrible and awful and, you know, essentially a villain? And she was she was she was really excited about the script and especially all the dialogue of Ron talking about Tammy.

And it was like, yeah, I love all that stuff. I mean, how fun is it to see your husband, you know, describe you in this way? And so some of this stuff was improvised. A lot of that onscreen fight thing. So that diner scene is kind of this epic scene. And one of the craziest parts was as they're fighting and kissing, Offerman pulls the table out of the wall and that wasn't scripted. So that was just like, it just happened. I mean, that's the upside, by the way, of casting your real life wife is that it's probably not cool to do that with a random stranger you just met. So I think they could go a little farther and that their improvs could go a little farther than it's probably not cool to do that with a random stranger you just met. So I think they could go a little farther, and their improvs could go a little farther,

and then it's like, yeah, I just met this woman. Her name is Jessica, and I'm going to do this crazy shit with her. In this case, yeah, you can probably push it a little bit farther, and they did. I mean, those scenes are amazing. And Nick is a strong man. He's a bear. He's a fire hydrant, man.

That guy's a thick dude. He's a bear. He's an actual bear. I've punched him in the chest before. He's a solid he's a bear he's a fire agent man that guy's a thick dude he's a bear he's an actual i've punched him in the chest before he's a he's a solid he's made of oak that guy he truly is um the thing about um about megan and and the thing about nick is they're fearless as performers yeah they don't give excuse me a fuck they just go for it you know and that's it's it's i always say when people ask what the key to comedy is and i i always say that the great ones have no you know governor on themselves in terms of how they're perceived and they just are willing to go for it i mean you look back to

like lucille ball who was a gorgeous you know ingenue but her special sauce was she did not care that she looked like a fool. Yeah. And that's what made her beloved. Yeah. And it's that thing that- All the great comedians and comedians have that. It's that thing I've heard you say before too, where it's like, you know, you can't have vanity, right? It's like, you can't have vanity. I think you talked about

with Pratt when he was on, you know, it's like, yeah, you gotta be open to looking silly. It doesn't matter if you're a good looking guy, you know, an attractive woman, like, you know, you just throw vanity out the window and just go crazy. And, you know, that was, by the way, besides the table getting pulled out of the wall, there's a scene later when they run into the motel room where Megan rips off her shirt, essentially. And that was improvised because we would never tell her to do that you know that wasn't in the script this is a this is a you know a tv pg show on a nbc network television and she said i you know i there's this quote that we we dug up that she said later she she pulled off her top and she said yeah i didn't care six in the morning who cares i didn't know what i went on the crew like i just

i'm just ripping my shirt and that's the thing you got to think about when we're filming these scenes like you look at the scene and it's Nick and Megan going crazy. It's Ron and Tammy like making out and all this stuff. It may very well be Monday morning at 6.23 a.m. Like that's when we're shooting a lot of this stuff to make use of daylight. Like you're literally shooting at 7 in the morning or whatever. There are certain moments where you go, yep, I'm really in show business. That would be one of them.

Yeah, yeah. When you're like, you know, holding holding the boom on the crew recording the sound and it's six in the morning and megan malali is taking your shirt off yeah and it's not in the script and you're like that's comedy that's yeah exactly you're just trying to keep the boom out of frame you're probably laughing by the way because we've we've been doing this you know i'm shooting a comedy right now it's like yeah i've seen people laughing and trying to do their jobs because someone's improvising or doing something unexpected. And you're supposed to hold the camera still or hold the microphone still. But I see them struggling.

There's nothing better. Yeah. So, that's the fun thing about comedy, right? That's the fun thing about comedy. Yeah. There's nothing better than seeing, you know, people who literally like take their eyes off of the viewfinder on the camera because they're laughing or whatever it's like you're like yep this is why we do it yeah yeah uh what was it was it always um gonna be a thing to make that relationship hyper sexualized because you know it's funny parks and rec is probably the least sexual show ever yes

that ran as long as it did i mean it is an extremely i would argue prude yes it's sweet and gentle it's sweet and gentle and family oriented but yeah it's it's like you know if you look at like the leslie and ben relationship like yeah they're holding hands it's like it's not and but i think that's why this works right we were watching this episode uh the other night and my girlfriend was watching she's like this episode is weird i think she was not expecting to see this kind of stuff but i think that's partly why it works and that's partly it all adds to the lower of Ron Swanson. It's that thing where the exception proves the rule.

And so, yeah, for 99, or I would say 122 out of the 125 Parks episodes, you know, people don't even really kiss. And then in these three, it's extremely dirty in some ways, which is like, you know, I think one of the reasons the episode stands out. Is this the first time that we realized that Ron wears Tiger Woods

red and black Sunday championship look when he's had sex? there's a lot of great work by megan but my favorite thing she does in this episode for sure is and i love the little things with actors i always it any you know one would hope any good actor can land a joke so i'm not it's to me those those should be the givens i'm looking for the stuff that's like the freebies that are unexpected and so for me there's a shot of when we've discovered that she's trading sex for the library that's the big reveal there's a shot of her kind of smugly walking down the hallway and the look that she gives the camera just as she turns the corner is my favorite thing she does it's this way and it's like when you realize you're kind of in the hands of a master

right it's like when they're doing things that are not necessarily scripted but they feel real they feel justified by the character and they're just building on it and then moving forward you know you can build that character more and more i mean that's when you i mean obviously look like you said she has 75 enemies so there's a reason she is who she is. But yeah, I mean, she just brought so much to the role. And again, the fact that she was so game was a huge part of it. There's also little trivia nuggets. When we go into her office, you see in the background, there are books that are listed as approved for the library. And these include books called Sperm Suicide, Woman War III, quote, take his balls and go home and quote, controlling the male mind.

And that's like, I remember seeing those in the cut. And it was like, sometimes with the props department, just the sort of behind the scenes stuff, there's so much shit going on when a show is shooting, like there's so much stuff that has to get approved. And so some of that stuff, when you see props or signs or whatever, I would say like half is written by the writers or someone like the script coordinator or the writer's assistant.

And half, like the props department might just come up with a bunch of stuff. And sometimes you'll just approve it. So in this case, I believe, I could be wrong, but I believe a lot of that stuff was actually written by the props department and then was just selected. Guys, I just wanted to pop in and talk about this for a sec. Before I became a writer on the show, we talked about I was the writer's assistant and I was the script coordinator.

And so in that job, I would hear from the art department or props or set deck, you know, what we needed made for the episode. So usually they'd reach out to me when it was a piece of art called out specifically in script. Let's say, for example, we say there's going to be an article about the pit and they needed the copy written for it. Or we have a diagram of how to make a park like the one on the whiteboard in Kaboom. You know, I'd speak with the writer of the episode and sometimes she or he would come up with it but oftentimes uh it was me or one of the other writers assistants uh and so in this case i'm quite confident to say that this was props well i have a bone to pick with the props department in this episode in the shrine to ann i was like who is that?

Those are old photos of Rashida. Those are old photos of Rashida. That's another thing that is really funny. Like when you do a show, it's always cute in movies or shows when they ask for those old photos and the actor like sends them in. I'm sure you've done in the past, right? I have a file.

I literally have a file. That's interesting. Because every single show I do, movie, whatever, inevitably, particularly if it's a family thing, they'll probably, hey, do you have any old photos? My favorite is they always ask you as if they've invented the idea. Yeah. That's my favorite. Do you have like high school photos you've used?

Like what have you used in movies? I'm just curious. Like do you remember? In the Outsiders on the piano, there's a baby picture of me that they made into a plate. Wow. Wow. That's a good answer. I mean, that's like very specific.

That's the first one I remember. But then you get into the thing of, wait a minute, that's the same baby picture from the Outsiders. So it really shouldn't be in St. Elmo's Fire. And it definitely shouldn't be in 911 Lone Star. You only have so many baby photos. Yeah, of course. And we were talking about this, like, you know, there's kids now have way more photos taken of them because people have phones with them. But, you know, when we were growing up, not to age us, but we were growing up, people didn't have iPhones. So there's no iPhone photos

of me as a six-year-old. You know, there's like a few grainy film photos and that's it that's all we got no i it's it always makes me laugh and then and then a lot of times they don't make it into the movie or the tv show but it is fun to look back and and and try to find them so people listening to this just next time you're watching a family show yeah see if you see how many like you'll see oh there's paul rudd and he's he's got his uh he's skateboarding yeah and it's like it's like him growing up and wherever kansas city or whatever uh but yeah you if you pause it you'll see these photos of ann and it's you know rashida had to like dig up and send in old photos of herself you're just lucky that it isn't like her with like eddie murphy or like someone super famous from the 80s because that's that was her that was her childhood right

you have to crop lionel richie out and pretend he's somebody else. The other thing people would do is superimpose your head onto existing photos to make it for a prop, and there are some really bad ones in the background of the West Wing of, like, Martin Sheen's head

superimposed on Bill Clinton's body. And, like, Bill Clinton has those giant hands, and then Martin's head head doesn't it's really because there's you only have so much you could do with the lighting right so it's like bad bad photoshops right it's it's so funny um yeah it so you know getting back to the story that there's also so many iconic lines in this from ron to to tammy and and and and just i think the writers had fun with getting again to have a guy be out of character right and and to get a little bit dirty like to get a bit dirtier than usual on the show

like i there's the line what is it like to stare in the eye of satan's butthole i mean that's not generally in the show that's not generally in the in the tone of the show and and you know the way he even says tammy for the time, it's just unbelievable. It's just like he's acting toward a force. I like when he says, we have something twisted and beautiful. We have something twisted and beautiful. And then he's like, when we spend time together, it's like doing peyote and sneezing slowly for five hours. And then, by the way, he concludes just by saying, that woman really knows her way around a penis.

By the way, I love all our Offman impersonations. I know. I think we just need to keep doing Nick impersonation because he's so fun to do. The other thing is you never see Ron weak. Yes. Right? Yes. And so he literally says, she has all the power.

I am nothing. Yeah. And he's, I'm so little. I'm so little. I'm so little. I'm so little made me laugh little I'm so little I'm so little Made me laugh Out loud

He's crying I mean like You just It's It's Whimpering He's whimpering Yes he's whimpering

It's like watching your dad cry Right It's like watching your dad cry He's everyone's dad Right He's everyone's dad And again And it's

Again it's compounded By the fact that It's real life wife And you know And you know While we were breaking This episode It was tricky Again, it's compounded by the fact that it's this real-life wife. While we were breaking this episode, it was tricky because with guest star episodes, and you can probably talk about it. You've been a guest star. You've had guest stars on your shows. There's always a tricky balance of you want to feature them.

You want to make sure they're showcased. You have this great comedic talent. Megan's coming in. And you also want to service your main characters. It was a real struggle. I remember breaking this episode, breaking the story. You want it to be about Ron and Tammy, they're in the title, but you also need Leslie to be involved. And so that was kind of the balance and how do you make that happen? I think, you know, the writers ended up doing a pretty good job, which is, you know, having the first scene be between Leslielie and and tammy

and then ultimately the culmination the the sort of climax the episode is leslie mediating between the two of them right we we just uh you know she goes in there and she kind of defers to ron and gives him the strength to do it and it ultimately ends up being a friendship story between leslie and ron which for my money those are the best episodes of the show yeah um i didn't know that pawnee had such a seedy side of town when they go to what is that motel that motel is really seedy it's great it's like it's like all of a sudden is this breaking bad no i know right it's like this and the name of it is great it's the grand capri hotel and that's when you know you're shooting in the valley in the san fernando valley yes that's that's like a part of punny that like are we in like a vim

vendors movie it's like this paris texas like what's going on here it was very there that it's funny that that location was like bumped both of us because it was like super real yeah it suddenly got because like so much of the show is like you know it's cartoony and fun and like upbeat and like wholesome, as you said. It's like a Frank Capra movie. Yeah, it's like Pawnee's or Frank Capra. And then all of a sudden it's like, I didn't know Pawnee had such a bad, a big meth problem. It's got it. Well, then you think about all the other locations.

I mean, I don't know. Yeah, the Glitter Factory. We got the Bulge part of town. We got, yeah. Pawnee ends up being a massive city. They have a lot of districts we got yeah potty potty ends up being a massive city they have a lot of districts but yeah so um nick takes down at the end uh well you know he refers to the the photo on his walls is i'm a simple man i like dark-haired women and breakfast food one of the great iconic uh ron

swanson lines of all time yes right yes of all time and that's one of the i actually wanted to talk about that great like that stock photo is one of the funniest things in the show it's a stock photo of a woman with breakfast like just a brown-haired woman with like sunny side up eggs which is in the show for years does somebody so someone somebody act google they probably did dark-haired woman with breakfast that's right that's right and and and the reason the genesis of all this rob the genesis of all this i'm not joking i believe was a like just a legal clearance issue and it's because in the pilot of the of the entire series he has a bobby knight photo there and it's a photo you know indiana basketball coach bobby knight legendary you know

wore the red sweater etc and i think like for some reason, that didn't get cleared properly. So I think the legal department was like, you can't use that photo anymore. So we had to replace it. And it became, like you said, this sort of character defining talking head from Ron, where he talks about two things he loves and became things that we kept going back to. Think about all the times he talks about bacon or he loves and became things that we kept going back to think about all the times he talks about bacon or meat in the show it's like it's kind of because the bobby night photo wouldn't clear and so we had to replace it with a stock photo and it still makes me laugh every time i see it and it also proves my thing about the young filmmakers you know out there

is that when you're stymied doing something or something you think you want to have, it doesn't happen. A lot of times it's, it's the universe giving you a gift. Yeah. So you, you really want Bobby Knight. You're super bummed when you have to pull it out, but it leads to Nick Offerman's obsession with bacon.

Yes. It's, it's him. Where would you be without that? It's him saying, you know, give me all the bacon and eggs you have. It's him eating,

you know, a breakfast buffet at a strip club. It's him, you know, it's, it's's everything it's all of these moments that that are that are amazing from him in rocky and one of my favorite movies you know the in the original script rocky and and and um uh adrian go on their first date finally and they go ice skating and they were meant to go in the script to rockefeller center and rockefeller center the big you know all the christmas tree and the big statue all beautiful beautiful and then they can't afford it they can't get the location and all they can get is a literal closed down not even open to the public closed

down hockey rink that's what's in the movie and it's an iconic iconic sad lonely lovely scene but only because they couldn't get what they thought they wanted. Right. Which would have been a cheesier, sort of like more traditional rom-com-y moment. I mean, look, limitations can provide moments of creativity for you, you know, limitations. And there's another classic Swanson talking head in this where he says, on my deathbed, my final wish is to have my ex-wives rushed to my side so I can use my dying breath to tell them both to go to hell one last time. And then we cut and he says, when I get married again, oh, absolutely. If you don't believe in love, what's the point of living? Like, it was just really like, and that's a, that's like, that's perfect Mike Scully that that's his, his sort of, we used to call them Scully-isms or

Scully jokes where it's like, it's such an economy, it's such a reversal, it's such a surprise. And so sometimes we would aspire to write you know jokes as succinctly and concisely as mike scully who's one of the best joke writers i've ever i've ever met so i think uniformly accepted as as probably the killer joke writer just a machine yeah between scully and and harris it was like that those guys were just joke machines what's the deal with andy's reality series bit in the show oh yeah we gotta talk about that fish we gotta so i remember shooting this like i remember this this this coming up so yeah he i mean again a classic misdirect it's almost like a like a 40s

screwball comedy or something it's like yeah andy's been uh working on applying to reality shows like uh survivor and deal or no deal and you cut to him and he's shirtless like wearing a shirt around his head and he's ripping the guts out of a fish and he's like i'd be a perfect contestant for deal or no deal and that that's the joke right it's like it's like it's a it's a mixed it's a reversal um but yeah i wanted to talk about this andy b story a little bit too because um a couple things uh one of which which i keep talking about in the show is is the secret formula of the show is jobs parties and gifts and and in this one he gets a new job so he becomes uh uh the shoeshine guy at

at the at the city hall and one of the reasons for that was like we just wanted to get him into the world you know we really loved pratt and and and we wanted him around more and it was like well if his job is in the fucking building like that's gonna help a lot so we just put him in the building but i also wanted to just go through because sometimes it makes me laugh how many how many jobs each of these characters has over the course of the show. So just a really quick rundown. So this is, look, we know, so just let's go through some of the jobs Andy Dwyer had over the course of the show.

We have, of course, vocalist and guitarist of Mouse Rat, slash Scarecrow Boat, slash Nothing Rhymes with Orange, Nothing Rhymes with Orange, et cetera. Shoeshine stand guy, shoeshine stand guy, that's the job he gets in this one. Assistant to Leslie Knope. So he later becomes leslie's assistant right that's then assistant to leslie nope during her city council campaign slash security guard so he's also a security person then also weekend security guard at ponty city hall that he gets that job at some point

then also assistant to the swedish foundation's charity work when he becomes an assistant to ben at the at the charity uh at the charity foundation for swedish he's also the lead actor in a tv show johnny karate's super awesome musical explosion show so he also has that job so it's like he gets a new job every like three episodes like there's there's so many jobs and i think i'm forgetting some as well i think i think at one point he might be ron's assistant i mean like it just it it's but that was one of the story moves we did which is like you don't really even deal with it in the show it's like in this case like he's by the shoeshine stand you had some you had some interactions with him at the shoeshine stand remember and like when you came into the show and um so that was kind of fun right it allowed him to

interact with other characters i just read a um just this weekend i read um tv line or one of those things did a poll of fake tv shows that we wish were real tv shows and johnny karate's super explosion or whatever it is was i think number three yeah like people really want that show what would that show just give me your writer your professional just give me just can you quickly beat out the pilot we did an episode of of that show, essentially like over the course of Parks. I think, by the way, speaking of his jobs, he would appear on his own show in character as other people. So I think in the Jotty Karate pilot, he should also appear as Burt Macklin, which I didn't

mention. He should also appear as Andy Radical, the possum tamer. So he also should appear as that. He should also appear as himself. He should also appear as himself and he should also appear as Mouse Rat. So he should appear, it would essentially be a clump situation, a Nutty Professor, Eddie Murphy and the Clumps situation

where Andy has to appear seven times and just do wardrobe changes off screen and come back in. So I think it's that kind of episode for him. I want that badly. It's this big Brandanowicz b story we got some big brandanowicz going on by the way in in look i know look you got stipulated you guys are genius writers you're the best writers who were ever on ever whoever created comedy it's you

guys i gotta tell you there's never been more of a straw man story in the history of television than who should and choose he don't stand a chance he don't stand a chance and there's also he goes to tom he goes to tom like the like he goes to tom for advice a guy who's essentially never got on a date but then tom actually gives him good advice he's like he's he tells him to take the high road and like be a nice guy and then Tom actually gives him good advice. He's like, he tells him to take the high road and like be a nice guy. And then of course, there's a talking head where Tom was like, oh yeah, I always told people to take the high road because I want more room on the low road. He mimes driving a truck on the low road or whatever. But yeah, it is funny too,

because I think this was about the point in time where we realized, I mean, it was after we realized this, but like everyone just loved Brad so much on the show that there's literally a scene where like andy is leaving and donna's character donna's like hmm i like andy like he she likes andy now so it's starting that run we're like donna is into andy where she says hmm andy like that that's really like i don't know it just made me laugh when i saw because i forgot about that element of the show where like she's kind of into Andy, which is like very funny. There's also a little nod to something which crosses the A and B stories over in the end of the A story where, you know, they say, you know, this is why you never get back together with your ex. And obviously it's referring to Ron and Tammy in the A story.

the A story, but the astute viewer will also realize maybe there's some connection to the B story where Anne is trying to decide, you know, between, in some ways, between Bernanowicz and Pratt. And, you know, I think sometimes with these shows, when you have A stories, A stories, B stories, C stories, you like to do something called dovetailing, which, you know, we didn't do heavily, heavily, heavily in Parks and Rec, but you'll see it in a show like Seinfeld where every plot crosses over with every other plot. Like think about that Seinfeld episode where the Marine biologist, where, uh, you know, Costanza goes up and jumps into the, onto the top of the whale and pulls out a golf ball from the whale's blow hole, which Kramer had been hitting earlier. That's my example of dovetailing,

but you know, it's kind of a satisfying thing where, you know, the stories cross over. And so, you know, this was kind of more of a thematic dovetailing, and we would sometimes talk about that happening in the show. But on Parks, it was usually pretty light. You know, sometimes it would happen, but we weren't trying to do it every episode like they definitely do on, like, Curb or Seinfeld or shows like that. Well said. but we weren't trying to do it every episode like they definitely do on like curb or or seinfelder shows like that well said i think we should do a town howl don't you think let's do a town howl, don't you think? Let's do a town howl, or as we call them when they're voicemails, a town howl.

Oh, hit it. Yes, this is John in Kentucky, and I just wondered if you could expand on the Lurpis family. I heard some rumors about Herman Lurpis being a failed chemist and wondered if you had some backstory on that. Thanks for bringing all this to us, man. We love it. It's like being there again. Peace. Now, hold on a second. Now, wait a minute. So, John from Kentucky, thank you for the town hall, first of all. Thank you for the town hall, first of all. Are we sure that he didn't act in the show as Herman Lurpus? Because are we sure that John from Kentucky is not the actor who played Herman Lurpus?

Because that is kind of what Herman Lurpus sounded like. I mean, a great question. Also, what... I think that was Herman Lurpus. I don't think there's anybody in Kentucky with that name. It does sound like it, but wonderful voicemail. Really gave me maybe the biggest laugh of my day. Loved it. Also, he asked if there was a rumor Herman Lerpist was a chemist in the past.

I think he's a chemist. I don't know where he's getting that information. I love that. I don't know if that's on the Parks and Rec Reddit or what. So basically, we, oh man. So the Ler man so the lerpis family this is again it all comes back it all comes back to legal name clearance rob like we again we go back to the lawyers so say you come up with the name ron swanson you then have to submit it to legal and they run it through a phalanx of lawyers and and and they try to clear it and make sure that you can use it in the show.

But it's a mathematical formula the lawyers have come up with. Exactly. So Mike, very early on, he came up with the last, I believe he came up with the last name Lerpiss, which is spelled L-E-R-P-I-S-S. And the good thing about the name Lerpiss is I think it's a made up name that no one has. So at that point, you can do anything. And so it became so tempting to just keep using this last name because you know it's going to clear. And on top of that, it's a silly name. So I will very quickly go through all the people named Lurpus on the show. There's a Herman Lurpus. There's a Bjorn Lurpus played by Mike Mitchell from Doughboys. There's Dennis Lurpus played by Jason Schwartzman. There's dennis lerpis played by jason schwartzman there's kurt lerpis played by dave king one of the writers there's lalissa lerpis there's karen lerpis gretzky hyphenated there's jaquiz upon gretzky lerpis all hyphenated and there's rachel lerpis so we there so it

basically became this family of people named lerpis in the town so when you watch these episodes keep like keep an eye out uh in the credits credits of who is in the Lurpis family, because in our minds, our backstory, our headcanon was there is just a family of people named Lurpis in Pawnee, and that's why there's so many of them in the show. And they're clearly Irish Catholic. That's the backstory. That's the backstory. This is our time in Pawnee is up, but there's more next week. Am I wrong about that or am I right? There's more. Can't wait to come back next week and talk about another episode. And of course, thanks to producer Schulte and producer Greg.

And don't forget to subscribe, like, rate, and review. It really means a lot to us. Me and Rob Persson do it for us. Thank you. Bye, honey. Bye-bye. This episode of Parks and Recollection is produced by Greg Levine and me, Rob Schulte. Our coordinating producer is Lisa Byrne. 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. This has been a Team Coco production. you next time on Parks and Recollection. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.