Parks and Recollection - Soulmates (S3E10)

Episode Date: June 14, 2022

Grab your food rakes because today Rob Lowe and Alan Yang are swiping right on S3E10! In "Soulmates" Leslie is matched up with Tom on an Internet dating website, while Chris and Ron compete in a hamburger cook-off. On today's episode find out why clarity in comedy helps the audience laugh, how copyright trouble helped make better comedy, and why RoLo loves this episode! All of this and why Danny Glover's love for prop food is rivaled only by Chris Pratt's. Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone]  Chris enacts a government-wide health initiative in Pawnee, starting by banning red meat from the city hall commissary, much to the displeasure of Ron. He challenges Chris to a burger cook-off to prove red meat is superior to Chris' preferred lean meat, with red meat staying on the menu if Ron wins. Meanwhile, Leslie invites Ben out to dinner, but he turns her down, leaving Leslie confused because she was sure Ben was attracted to her. Ann, who is now dating multiple men after taking Donna's advice to be more adventurous, tells Leslie to join an online dating website called HoosierMate.com and helps set up her profile.  Leslie finds a match that is 98 percent compatible with her – a "soulmate" rating – but is horrified to discover that it is Tom. Additionally, the crude sewage department employee Joe makes a romantic advance toward Leslie, prompting her to launch a "douche-vestigation" to find out why she attracts the wrong type of man. Meanwhile, Chris takes Andy, April, and Ron to a health food market called Grain 'n Simple, where he gathers numerous ingredients for the perfect turkey burger, but Ron is unfazed, simply buying a pound of red meat from his favorite food market, Food and Stuff.  In her investigation, Leslie quickly learns Joe merely hits on any woman as long as she is not elderly. She takes Tom out to lunch to learn more about him. He responds to all of Leslie's questions with his usual chauvinistic answers, annoying her to the point that she admits she took him out because they matched on HoosierMate. A delighted Tom teases Leslie the rest of the day by pretending they are a couple, but she finally silences him by kissing him. Chris notices the kiss and warns Leslie that he has a strict policy against workplace dating.  At the cook-off, Chris prepares his meticulous turkey burgers for the judges: Tom, Donna, Jerry, and Kyle. They all love it, but give much higher praise to Ron's simple hamburger on a bun. Initially surprised, even Chris comes to admit the burger is superior after trying it, so he agrees to reinstate red meat on the commissary menu. Chris later tells Leslie his dating policy has affected others, explaining that he earlier warned Ben not to ask out a co-worker. Leslie realizes that is why Ben rejected her and is glad when Ben asks her to eat in front of her favorite city hall mural. Leslie deletes her profile on HoosierMate, and is relieved to learn that Tom has 26 different profiles on the site to match himself with any type of woman, although the one Leslie matched with was his "nerd" profile. 

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 Well, everybody, you found us.

Parks and Recollection. It's happening. It's on. It's me, Rolo. Otherwise known as Roblo. Otherwise known as Chris Traeger. And the great Alan Young. What's up, Rolo? How known as Roblo, otherwise known as Chris Traeger, and the great Alan Yeun. What's up, Rolo? How you doing, buddy?

I'm good. I'm good. We're in a good vibe with these episodes now. They're just one after another, all super fun. Today's is another really, really good one. Yeah, we're in the heart of a good stretch for the show. Some would say in the peak, the mid-peak of the show. And yeah, I was excited to re-watch some of these and kind of remember where we're coming off of the Harvest Festival arc and all that stuff. So yeah, this is a good one. And you wrote this one. You wrote today's episode. I have a writing credit on it. Yeah, just to clarify, if people don't

know this, just because your name's on it, it means that you probably wrote a first draft of the script and then everyone kind of works on it. So everyone works on it together to break the story and you go off and you write a draft, you come back into the room and some of your stuff stays in and some of it gets rewritten. I pulled out my original writer's draft of it and found a few things here and there that stayed in. And we can talk about that down the road. But let's get into it. Let's do the details. Let's do it. Episode title, Soulmates Season 3, Episode 10, written by Miao Nian, directed by Ken Whittingham. Lovely man. Big fan of Ken's.

Original air date, April 21st, 2011. The blurb, Leslie is matched up with Tom on an internet dating website while Chris and Ron compete in a hamburger cook-off. Legendary B-story. Legendary B-story. Let's rifle through some notes.

Notes very quickly. After the episode aired, we launched a fake website called HoosierMate.com. That is the fake dating site that is introduced. Another notes note, Tom suggests that Point Break be remade. The film was remade four years later, Point Break 2015. So that's kind of prescient onvoss in the social network before his face was replaced in post with Armie Hammers. And don't forget, Rashida was also in social network.

I heard they're also going back and now replacing Armie Hammers face with Josh Pence's face. That's exactly right. And lists Hawaii, Paris, and the Grand Canyon as places that could be Leslie's favorite other than the bench across from the Wildflower Mural. All of these locations are settings for later episodes. So this whole episode is full of future casting. I mean, it's really whatever we were kind of doing at the time. Maybe that writer's draft had some stuff in it that was prescient later on.

All right, let's get into the synopsis. Chris enacts a government-wide health initiative in Pawnee. Thank you very much, Chris. Starting by banning red meat from the city hall commissary, much to the displeasure of Ron. He challenges Chris to a burger cook-off to prove red meat is superior to Chris's preferred lean meat, with red meat staying on the menu if Ron wins. Meanwhile, Leslie invites Ben out to dinner, but he turns her down, leaving Leslie confused because she

was sure Ben was attracted to her. Anne, who's now dating multiple men after taking Donna advice to be more adventurous, tells Leslie to join an online dating website called whosyourmate.com and help set up her profile. That's a lot. It's a lot, but it's super simple.

Yeah, it is very simple. It's the first, like, two minutes of the show, also. That's, like, literally the first. And it is very simple. It's the first like two minutes of the show also. That's like literally like the first. And it is very simple. It's Ron and Chris cook burgers. Leslie gets on a dating site. It's like that's pretty simple, you know. What is the great, I think it's Chuck Lorre has a thing about comedy.

Any comedy scene, if it's about one thing, it's good. If it's about more than one thing it's bad something like that is it truism it's act there's something about that one thing that mike would always talk about in the writer's room was simply clarity just literally knowing what's going on and what all the characters intentions are and motivations are helps you laugh and helps you unlike really like puts you in a state of mind where i'm not confused i know everyone's attitude and i know why these people are making these jokes it's it's when and and sometimes look sometimes you have to you in a state of mind where I'm not confused. I know everyone's attitude, and I know why these people are making these jokes. And sometimes, look, sometimes you have to. You do a big conference room scene,

and you have to set up two stories. Then it's like, oh, yeah, also remember this. It just gets clunky. We've all had to do it before. It's happened before. A little fun fact about this episode. This episode is kind of an exercise in legal clearance because I saw my first draft of this script and

the title of the script is not soulmates it is match.com because it was it was just called match.com so in the script this is one of several legal clearance issues that i realized while skimming through the writer's draft it was like we just called it match.com we didn't have a funny title for it or anything it's just called match.com. And this was, by the way, pre... It was before app dating. It was before Tinder and Raya and Bumble and whatever. It was Match.com. I think that was it. Maybe

OkCupid or something. But yeah, look, all this dating stuff, I think, post-dates you, Rob. You've been happily married since all this happened. Since the Stone Age. Yeah, I like to think that if online dating and swiping and dming people was a thing when i was single i i would have been so exhausted i would have died an early death it does and by the way celebrities are on

there celebrities are on there say yeah you can just find them i had friends who match with like matthew perry and some i don't i don't even. I'm making that name up. But it's, you know, there are tons of celebrities on there. So I don't know. I don't know if you like dating celebrities, I guess get on some of these apps. Yeah, I mean, why not? Leslie's original description of herself on the dating site, yellow haired female likes waffles in news. Very simple. I mean, I feel like this episode and the next one we're about to do,

they just, and I think you probably like these episodes, they just go for the comedy, you know, just like joke, joke, joke,

joke, joke. It's, they're very lively, they're very fast, and like you said, there's a simplicity to the stories.

But yeah, I mean, that bio would get you going in the current dating state. I mean, yellow hair, because it is true, she's, the current dating state. Yellow hair. Because it is true. Leslie has yellow hair.

She does. She just like, I actually just missed her. I went to the Russian Doll premiere party and I just missed Amy. But I was texting her after and like, I think she just likes making stuff behind the camera, which is like pretty awesome. She's directed a bunch of movies and she just made a documentary and she's producing a bunch of shows. It's like, I don't know. She always had that in her. She started directing, I think, which is pretty awesome. She's directed a bunch of movies, and she just made a documentary, and she's producing a bunch of shows. I don't know if she always had that in her. She started directing, I think, on Parks and Rec, so kind of cool.

And she's good at it. Yeah, she's very good at it. Also, let's not forget Sewage Joe, a recurring character. Kirk Fox, you know Kirk Fox. I don't think this is his first appearance, but it's kind of a larger appearance for him. He kind of sets up a story that maybe, shall we say, less desirable people start to be interested in Leslie while she's trying to navigate her love life. It's one of my favorite lines ever.

He says, if you're looking for a good time, why don't you come on down to the toilet party? That's what we call the sewage department. Yeah, he uses toilet party as a brag he's like it's like a it's like a fun it's a fun thing to do it's a fun thing to do so gross sewage joe's always he's one of my i i've always neglect to put him on my list of favorite pawneans he's definitely one of my favorites let's let's not forget to use toilet party as a location for a town hall someday that's what that's what we call the sewage department. Another piece of trivia, we mentioned Josh Pence, who is an actor who plays one of the guys. So in this episode, the idea was at the beginning of every scene and enter, she just kisses a different

guy. It's just a tiny, like mini joke in the background. So Josh Pence was one of Rashida's friends who came in and he's an established actor. The first guy who kisses Rashida when she walks in is not an established actor in fact it was my roommate James Harvey who was just a guy I went to college with and I was like he's like kind of a handsome guy he played football in college and we were like yeah James just come in he actually lived in a house with

me and Ayesha Muhar who was another writer so we're like James just come in like just like just it's easy just show up and you know you have one line I think he has to say it. He says like, bye, babe, or something like that. The dude, he's a very handsome guy, but he's very shy around women. And so he got on set and he's like, I don't know if I could kiss her. He had a girlfriend. He's like, I'm like, you just have to kiss her on the cheek. It's Rashida Jones. She's an

attractive person. And he got through it, but I was just laughing on set because he's like this jacked, handsome guy. And he just was so nervous to kiss Rashida, say bye, babe, or whatever he says, something like that, and then walk away. But you'll notice he's in the first scene. He weirdly has a ponytail. I don't know why we did that to him. But he kissed it. That's my roommate, James. He's now happily married with kids, lives in Pittsburgh, I believe.

But yeah, that's him. That was his one. That was his shining moment in show business. Yes, believe. But yeah, that's him. That was his one, that was his shining moment in show business. Yes, exactly. He didn't have to audition. Just had to walk in, kiss Rashida, and leave. I found that very funny to see. Let's get into the rest of the

synopsis here. Leslie finds a match that is 98% compatible with her. A soulmate level rating, hence the title, but is horrified to discover that it is Tom. Additionally, the crude sewage department employee Joe makes a romantic advance toward Leslie, prompting her to launch a douche investigation to find out why she attracts the wrong type of man. Meanwhile, Chris takes Andy, April, and Ron to a health food market called Grain and Simple,

where he gathers numerous ingredients for the perfect turkey burger. But Ron is unfazed, simply buying a pound of red meat from his favorite food market, food and stuff. So this starts to get really fun. I don't know if you remember shooting this stuff, but we went to, I believe we went to a Sprouts. Greg, do you remember this? I think it was a Sprouts in the Valley. And another fun fact about legal clearance in the original script, in the original script uh in the original script he's just going to whole foods he's like we're going to whole foods like it's just about literally about i'm like literally looking at the the script it just mentions whole foods over and over again and it's kind of like satire because it's ranting like i've heard

of whole foods but uh i've never been there and maybe i maybe i want to see like what's going on there so there is that uh that talking head that that I actually think came out very funny, which is like, do I ever go to Green and Simple? No, but I come here for the same reason I go to the zoo, to see who's here. And then he points to a white guy with dreadlocks. And he says, look at that thing. And it's like the casting on this guy is really funny. It's just really good BG casting on this guy. So kudos to the casting department on that.

That's the things that people, when you wonder what makes a show a great show, the difference between a bad show, a good show, and a great show is sort of the attention to detail like that. If that guy in the background isn't exactly right, that joke doesn't work yeah and it's it's a little thing he's a background artist he's got he's literally in three seconds yes of the show and he looks real he looks funny but he looks real it's not over the top sometimes

they'll dress him up in crazy wardrobe it's like no he looks like a guy who maybe lives there and is plausible but i remember this being a lot of fun shooting remember shooting this with pratt and like pushing him around the card and like him opening that so he opened at one point he opens a coffee bean dispenser i think that was made up on the day i think we were just talking to ken whittingham the director like yeah let's just open this up and you know i think we just had some improvs all around you know some of it was written and some of it was just you know you guys messing around yeah my memory of it was a that market wherever the hell we shot it was just you guys messing around. Yeah, my memory of it was, A, that market, wherever the hell we shot it, was in the middle of nowhere. Yes, for sure.

And we were there before the sun was up. Yes. It was so early. But it's one of the most fun days I had because my stuff was mostly with Pratt. And we literally just ran amok in that store store and the cameras followed us and we kind I mean we did the scene certainly but we also did a lot of what we call b-roll which is just us doing stuff that you can cut away to and that's where Chris is I'm he's in the cart I'm pushing him

the coffee thing um I remember it was just an idea that that that Pratt did and it made it into the cut and we were just goofing around like oh that looks like fun let's go over there and we literally I remember it was just an idea that Pratt did and it made it into the cut. We were just goofing around like, oh, that looks like fun. Let's go over there. And we literally just ran around to areas and had fun and the cameras followed us. Yeah, I just remember. I remember distinctly because it's a good group of people. It's four actors from the show, you know, along with me and Ken and just kind of making stuff up.

And, you know, the name, by the way, the name G grain and simple was made up by harris whittles i remember that and the name food and stuff was made up by me because i remember writing that's in the original script it's like you know the talking head it's like i love food and stuff it's where i get all my food and most of my stuff and like this this the scene where i also like in the cut i was i've enjoyed the scene where you know ron and april have this sort of father daughter thing going right and there's the guy giving out samples he's like would you like to sample our vegan bacon 100 meatless and ron says yes please he throws it in the trash another please throws in the trash and says sir is there a problem and then he's like i'm making sure no one else ever

has to eat this and then i don't think i can give you any more than april asked for another she throws away just this little bonding moment between the two of them. And I love I love how it's almost like you guys are two dads for April and Andy. Like there's the healthy dad and the unhealthy dad. And it's just such a sweet sort of bonding scenes between the two of you. So shout out to Harris for great and simple. And I believe the Skittle sandwich as well. Kind of adding on to the script.

But yeah, just just uh a lot of fun a lot of food in this episode um really quickly the uh the tom talking head about apps inserts became like a kind of like an internet again sort of a meme thing like like shortening the the you know basically shortening words and coming up with alt names like like i remember writing that talking head i remember like Like, I remember writing that talking head. I remember like sitting in my backyard, writing that talking head. It was kind of like based on stuff

that Aziz and I would do. And then it's kind of an interesting look into the process of making the show where we brought that in the script. You know, we rewrote it a bunch and then everyone in the writer's room pitched in more names. And then Mike wrote a bunch of names

and we got to set with the talking head and then Aziz added more things. So it's kind of like, you know, Aziz is adding Chicky Chicky Parm Parm and whatever. And then like, you know, that's all. It's a kind of a collaboration between the initial writer, the writer's room, and then the actor on set. What's your favorite? Mine is for sure Chicky Chicky Parm Parm. Chicky Chicky Parm Parm.

Chicky Catch for Chicky Catchatoria. I like food rakes for forks. I like long ass rice for noodles by the way like long ass like like long rice and then later i traveled to hawaii and they have a dish called long rice and it's noodles it's just like vermin gently it's like in hawaii you can get long rice they call it long rice adorable name it's like that's cute it's long rice but it's noodles um but yeah those are uh i remember also being in the writer's room and having a lot of fun just like there's 10 people sitting around pitching idiotic names for food by the way you know you know it's funny that that is what's great about being a comedy writer

is that you get paid to sit around pitching what would be a funny way to say hot dog in my opinion you guys all went to harvard for fuck's sake i mean it's a waste of a lot of brain power and a lot of time and a lot of the studio's money because you're just sitting in there you're literally talking about you're saying should we call root beer super water it's like this is the dumbest shit i've ever heard it's like eggs are pre-birds or future birds like this is this is dumb this is just legitimately dumb and then not only that, think about how many are in the cut. Like there's like 10 in the cut. That means there are 100 on the page.

That means that got culled down. You know, in the writer's first draft, it's like, I call sandwiches like, you know, Sammy Sandoodles or Adam Sandler's. That's in the writer's draft. Then you add 50 more of those, right? It's like, so, but yeah, I agree. And, you know, now having done, and you can totally understand, like, we've both done a little bit of drama, a little i agree and then you know now having done and you can totally understand like we've both done a little bit of drama a little bit of comedy a little you

know everything it's like there's something great about comedy and like coming back to a comedy writer's room and just sitting around like you're wasting 80 of your time and and then the rest of time you're getting to write silly stuff like that so it's not all fun and games but a lot of it is to be honest. Yeah, for sure. All right. In her investigation, Leslie quickly learns Joe merely hits on any woman as long as she's not elderly. She takes Tom out to lunch to learn more about him. He responds to all of Leslie's questions with his usual chauvinistic answers annoying her to the point that she admits she took him out because they matched on who's your mate formerly match.com a delighted tom teases leslie the rest of the day by pretending they're a couple but she finally silences him by kissing him chris notices the

kiss and warns leslie that he has a strict policy against workplace dating um that that shot is very funny where it's like it's like the classic like sitcom act two break she can't for first of all like there's a big buy that to silence him she kisses him which is pretty funny but it's also like you just got to get there and they had a really kiss right they had really and they you pan over and you see you looking your most authoritative you're like leslie like it's very i mean it's the boss is watching you i was do you like you like playing the boss and it's kind of fun you come in and get to be the boss right that's kind of fun it is i have i have to in all honesty playing the boss as chris was was maybe my least favorite thing about i know when i had

to do it and it all is still vestigial of the original concept of chris coming in with adam and being the guys cracking the whip and and maybe almost not they were never going to be villains obviously but but a little bit of adding a little bit of conflict to the show so absolutely so there's still a little bit of that that we so quickly moved away from that when i was asked to do some of it like in this it was it was a little jarring but and the other part of it was again all honesty um i always felt like this and we'll talk about it more where the the no dating policy came from because it does apparently come from, you know, Mike Schur.

But I also felt like it was a little bit of a straw man to set up. So you got to make sure that there has to be a reason that Ben and Leslie can't be together. I was like, put an obstacle up. Put an obstacle up. I was like, really? That's kind of weird. Listen, I'm just saying I always thought it was a little bit of weak cheese. But that's just me and I'm not a writer

And what do I know Gotta have obstacles Rob Guys I don't know if you felt this but watching that scene Of Amy kissing Aziz There's a comedy version where she could have Just kissed quickly right And just like shocked him But it was like a nice kiss

I think she really kissed him She followed the assignment which is to I think to somewhat make the kiss. It kind of impresses Tom. It's like that's the story. And so she does like a real version. It's not like a comedy kiss, which I think ultimately was the correct story choice. It wasn't like over the top or anything.

But did you guys, do you remember if you did alts on the kiss? Did you do the comedy kiss and then went with that version? I can't say I have an exact memory of how many takes they did, but my guess is, and Ken's a good director, is you got to get levels. I think you would at least get two to three levels of that kiss depending on how comfortable the actors are. It's like, hey, are you guys cool doing another one?

Like, I certainly, if I were directing that scene, would be like, look, we got to make sure in the edit, we have the option because that's the other thing people don't realize. Like you have your strong, clear vision, ideally what you want on the day when you're shooting it. But sometimes you want to really make sure you have the option to not bone yourself in the edit room and be like, you know what, we need one that's a little less romantic. We need one that's a little funnier. So in this case, since it's such a vital plot point, I would guess we have a little bit of a quote-unquote funnier one or more comedy take.

But I noticed that as well, Greg. It was like, that's a serious kiss, man. She's not like messing around there. It's very kind of intimate. And speaking of inappropriate suits, Joe says that Leslie has a killer dumpster. I probably wouldn't have done that today, but yeah, that's in there. And yeah, we don't often get stories in this show where Tom has the upper hand over Leslie. And so she's kind of on her back foot. It's kind of,

again, we've talked about it on previous episodes. You can't always have Leslie be absolutely right. You can have her be an underdog, have her struggling and figuring stuff out and be awkward, and that's what happens in this episode. It's important storytelling. At the cook-off, Chris prepares his usual meticulous turkey burgers

for the judges, who happen to be Tom, Donna, Jerry, and Kyle. A crazy scene where Jerry and Kyle are in a scene together. Anyway, they all love it, but give higher praise to Ron's simple hamburger on a bun. Initially surprised, even Chris comes to admit the burger is superior after trying it, so he agrees to reinstate red meat on the commissary menu. Chris later tells Leslie his dating policy has affected others, explaining that he earlier warned Ben not to ask out a co-worker. Leslie realizes that that is why

ben rejected her and is glad when ben asks her to eat in front of her favorite city hall mural leslie deletes her profile on hoosier mate and is relieved to learn that tom has 26 different profiles on the site to match himself with any type of woman although the one leslie matched with was his nerd profile that's just a great close of the of the tom leslie story he has 26 profiles yeah exactly kind of like that uh tag at the end right and i actually scrolled i scrubbed the the the draft i had that was like oh how much of that and it was i guess it was already broken in the original outline and um i do i did also enjoy the tom. Haverford stands for nerd. And then his details were Tom N. Haverford collects globes.

His favorite movie is books. Those are two crazy jokes that got into the script. So I was like, oh, those are some pretty fucking crazy jokes. I also enjoyed that. So there's a character named Kyle, for those of you who are not fanatics, and you have to be a pretty big fanatic to notice this. But Kyle is the guy who frequently gets shoe shines from Andy at the shoe shine stand. And Andy, even though he's a nice character, often makes fun of Kyle. Kyle is almost the Jerry of the shoe shine stand world. world so in i don't know why we did this but in this episode they're both on the panel together and we see that kyle is outranked even by jerry so jerry makes fun of kyle so we now see that the pecking order is that jerry is almost a j kyle is almost a jerry to jerry so um that's just true true parks and rec minutiae um i also the other the other thing I wanted to point out was your,

and again, I think you call them Alan Yang nightmare phrases sometimes, but this is what you had to say. I humbly place before you my patented East Meets West Traeger Turkey Burger. It's an Asian fusion burger with Willow Farms Organic Turkey, a toasted Taleggio cheese crisp, I can't even say it, papaya chutney, black truffle

aioli with microgreens on a gluten-free brioche bun. See, I wanted to murder you for writing me that. And it feels like Aaron Sorkin used to do the same thing on West Wing. He used to just take great pleasure

in giving me tongue twisters. I mean, everybody had them on that show, but Sam Seaborn really had them. And so I take the challenge. I accept the challenge. I like the challenge. And the thing about those types of lines, if they don't come out fully formed and you don't and and they do that kind of stutter with it they don't literally stutter but they might like take a breath where they don't need to but you can just or kind of hesitate and you know they can't say the line in one yeah fell swoop looking around it's like meaningfully you know pausing yeah but we're by the way we're ruining movies and tv shows because you will see this again and again

and again I see it in the edit room like I try to not have those takes you know you try to cut around it but like it happens all the time

you know and this I think this was a fun episode that people remember this cook off you know they kind of you know there's a lot

of food in Parks and Rec in fact I want to shout out a YouTube channel Binging with Babish I don't know if you're familiar with this guy Rolo but he's a very popular YouTuber and he makes videos where he

cooks the recipes from TV shows and movies. And this guy, I think, is a big Parks and Rec fan because he's made... Look, I'm looking at his channel right now. He did this one, Binging with Babish, Parks and Rec Burger Cook-Off. He did the Swanson for Parks and Recreation. He did the Turf and Turf from Parks and Recreation. He did Ben Wyatt's Calzones for Parks and Rec. Oh, no way!

He did a Ponch Burger. He did the Four Horse Meals of the Egg Porkalypse. And he did the Meat Tornado. And by the way, these videos have millions, like 10 million views. So this dude is legit.

Shout out to Babish. If you want to go look at him, cook this Chris Traeger burger, you can go to Binging with Babish, B-A-B-I-S-H on YouTube and you'll find it. But yeah, he has a ton of other content. Like, you know, he'll cook stuff

from all these other shows. By the way, my burger was damn tasty. Oh, good. By the way, this is a weird behind the scenes thing. The props department generally has to make these. Like they make the burgers or sometimes they sort of outsource it.

Like if you're at a restaurant, they'll have the restaurant cook it. But sometimes they just legit have to make them themselves. Well, the other thing is, so there's, it's called prop food. Like a phone is, anything you have in your hand or you use on camera is called a prop. And the food is a prop. And there's this whole thing of like, is it edible or not not edible so in like sometimes it's been sitting out for eight hours you know because you're shooting for eight hours you're doing a hamburger scene it's going to take eight hours that hamburger's yes and so there's a whole thing of like can you eat it should i eat it whatever

and i always love actors who just scarf prop food down, no matter what. I worked with Danny Glover on Brothers and Sisters. My man, Danny, would eat anything that wasn't nailed to the floor. And he's skinny as a rail. Yeah. And I'm like, Danny, yo, this is prop food. It's been sitting out for, you know, we did a, what is it, paella? Yeah, seafood paella?

Yeah, seafood paella, some of the Spanish food, classic Spanish rice dish, a little socarrada at the bottom. Imagine seafood paella that has been out under the hot lights of a soundstage. Yes. For 12 hours. Yeah, setting it up, you know, like all the lighting, you know, it takes a while to shoot. And Danny's eating it. Getting that room temp calamari in the paella, just housing some squid. Just like getting in

there. Are those mussels in here? Good. Great. How much shellfish in here? The more the better. Room temp, man. And by the way, on this show, you know, Pratt was that guy, right? Pratt would eat 10 burgers for 10 takes. And I don't want to lift the way, on this show, Pratt was that guy, right? Pratt would eat 10 burgers for 10 takes. I don't want to lift the veil, but even Ron Swanson, even Nick Offerman would not eat all 10 burgers.

He would use the spit cup. You chew it up in the scene and you spit it out. And it's like, that's the normal thing to do. They give you a spit cup. Yeah, they give you a spit cup. It's underneath the table or whatever. Yeah, it's like when you ever see like, remember those, I always thought they were disgusting. Those Carl's, was it Carl's Jr. where a girl would eat a really messy burger and it would

drip all over her bikini. I thought it was, I never got it. I thought it was so gross. Yes. I think Paris Hilton did it. Paris Hilton. Yeah, absolutely. That was an era.

Why was that like, I guess we're talking about it a decade later, but I never found that advertising to be particularly effective. It's like, you know, you want those things separate maybe, I don't know. But you see the actor eating them and they're in slow motion

and then what you don't realize is they're cut and they're like, and they spit it out in a bucket. Yes. I will say there's some, sometimes you're on camera long enough that you have to swallow some of it. So my girlfriend years ago did a Taco Bell commercial,

and she had to eat a naked chicken chalupa. I believe it was a Super Bowl ad. No, she ate like 36 bites of a naked chicken chalupa, and I was like, oh, this is never again. Never again. Well, I'm pretty sure that Pratt eats an entire hamburger on screen in this scene i watched it for for for research and as the scene continues and you're debating he's eating about the hamburger he's eating it on screen and you see him just stuff the whole thing i think swallow it so people should watch again to see if I'm wrong but I'm quite confident oh man that is wonderful uh it's wonderful um one final note on this one I uh you know there's

some nice acting uh between Amy and Adam uh in front of the wildflower mural that's one of the things that you know I was kind of uh happy to see was was there's a little bit from the from the original draft like I i think um i was like oh it's kind of nice if that's her favorite place in the world is a is a place in this building that she loves and it's this kind of nice mural so um yeah we had them paint this kind of nicer mural that was very different from all the horrible racist sexist ones and there's you know it's just it kind of speaks to who she is as a person right she loves work she loves helping other people and um you know there's kind of a underplayed scene between the two of them so i love that mural light i have a picture of me bill murray and aubrey oh yeah sitting on that mural i

believe we ended up using it as a background for like publicity shoots and stuff because you certainly can't use any of the other murals so i feel like i feel like yeah like because it got written into this script um it actually got made and then it was actually useful as a kind of nice pretty part of the set so uh yeah it's kind of a cool thing and uh setting up a love story for uh for the ages for for for seasons to come i just wanted to jump in and say that you know we've talked about before that you can have great actors together in a scene, but you can't fake chemistry between them, right? And sometimes, like, the chemistry between Aubrey and Chris Pratt was palpable, and it spawned a love story. And there's this undeniable chemistry as actors, I think, as people just like each other's company with Amy and Adam. just like each other's company with Amy and Adam.

I thought we could just explore talking about the fact that that was just a magical combination of two people. Yeah, that's actually something that I've thought about before because certainly on the shows I've worked on since this, it's like I've often gotten the request from actors, like, hey, let's try to cast people that maybe we know already or that we have some chemistry with. And do you find, Rob, that it helps if you know the person or is it just inscrutable you just have no idea is it totally you could and that's the thing sometimes you love each other offset and then onset there's no chemistry like

what have you found you it's it's um if we could quantify it and and figure it out everything we would ever do would be a hit yeah that's a good point that's actually actually a good point. You don't know, right? You don't know until, it's literally like, you might not even know on set. You might have to wait until you see the dailies, right? You might have to wait until you see the cut in some instances. Yes, there is a thing where you may

or may not feel it and then it explodes on camera. It's a weird thing. Most of the time you know it when you're in the room with somebody and the first time you act with them. the first time, and you know what I mean, it isn't something that develops. That's what's interesting. It's like, it's there, it's there, but it ain't gonna grow if it ain't there. That's for sure. I believe that. And it's something, it's also about, yeah, it's ineffable, right? It's how you're talking to each other. It's how, it's, by the way, sometimes how you, even the people look next to each other on screen.

Like it doesn't matter. You know, whatever. Like there's just something about, and it has nothing to do with whether it, it, listen, it often,

often has a lot to do with your personal relationship with that actor, but not necessarily. Yeah. Because I've also done, I've done scenes with actors who we did not speak. Yeah. And, but on camera, it was the shit. Yeah.

And there's, I mean, there's legendary stories of actors who hated each other and then they just worked on screen. I mean, that's, I mean, you don't want that. I don't want that as a director or showrunner, certainly, but that's rare. I do think it's super, super rare. I mean, most, mostly if you have chemistry with someone you're gonna like that person yeah yeah and it makes and and circling back to uh amy and adam they like each other you know like they're buddies and and adam you know yeah i mean

both of them are just such sweethearts they get along with everybody and i think there was a mutual respect there where it was like you know we're two actors who are super funny and can do the jokes but also can dial it down and be naturalistic and and and have fun playing together in scenes and and uh it just just is such a sweet pairing also two uh kind of uh smaller statured people kind of cool yeah they kind of like like two littler people it's kind of like i like that you know i can say that as someone who's not like a giant himself but yeah it's uh but yeah very very adorable very adorable um so yeah good start to that story um let's move to the oops moment a couple of them here a couple of them here um anne isn't wearing gloves when she draws leslie's blood so i think so it's very unprofessional i

mean i know they're friends but come on yeah it seems like she should probably wear gloves and also she's like giving her what is she giving her like a cholesterol test or something i don't know it's like what's going on here seems like a real uh just a cheat to to get her in the scene for some reason if i remember correctly when she comes into the scene she says i'm here for the cholesterol thing in city Hall. Oh, they don't even give, we didn't even give a fuck. It's so slight. I'm here for a cholesterol thing. I am going to draw your blood in your office.

Yes, that's, there's a typo, second oops moment. There's a typo on the magazine, see which Joe is reading. It says organic home veggie garden, but veggie is spelled with one G. That I didn't notice. That's really good eagle-eyed moves moment there. So it's a veggie is spelled with one g that i didn't notice that's really good eagle-eyed uh moves moment there it's a veggie garden i mean i like to think that it's a fake a fake magazine cover that he probably stapled to pornography yes that's my guess that he that he made up himself that's probably the sewage joe way yep um episode mvp most valuable pawn in what character moment

in this episode sticks out to you and why? Well, you know, we've been talking about him. I mean, Sewage Joe. Again, this is hard because Sewage Joe's great. You know, Aziz has one of his maybe his most amazing talking head in the show

with talking about foods. Absinthe Zerts. Absinthe Zerts iss, it's hard to top. Everybody has great moments in this. It's hard to pick an MVP. Can I abstain in the vote? You can abstain. You can abstain.

Well, let the record reflect. People make the Wikipedia page for the most valuable pawn, Ian. He gets an abstain, which that's going to be interesting to see on the Wikipedia page for this. I'll go with our boy, Zs. It's a good talking head for him

and he gets to be in the A story with Leslie and drive the plot a little bit. Working on his acting chops, waiting to star his own show. Later, later, later. That's right. Listeners, let us know your MVP by tweeting at Team Cocoa Podcast

or by using hashtag Parks and Recollection. Time for a town hall. Yes. Do you want a thought of the town hall? I think you do. Should we do this at the toilet party? We should. The sewage department?

Yes. All right. Hi, Alan and Rob. First, thanks for making the best podcast about the best show ever. Thank you very much. I've given you a five-star review and told everyone I know to do so as well. My town hall question comes from listening and re-watching all those early episodes again. Are there any jokes or characters, i.e. Greg Kytus, Venezuelan Sister City, Fairway Frank, Carl Lorthner, etc., from the first couple seasons

that you wish you had brought back or done a callback to in the later seasons? Ooh, good question. Thanks again for being amazing. Great question. You are all legends. Sincerely, Kevin Wheeler. Thank you, Kevin. Very sweet email, Kevin.

Thank you very much. I love that. And very good question because there's innumerable, right? I would have loved to have done more with Venezuelan Sister City and Fairway Frank. Those two. I mean, Fairway Frank is, again, one of the great Pawneans. Are animals Pawneans? I do.

There's so many animals in the show. Like, yeah, I mean, I think he qualifies. I mean, could there have been an all animal episode? Yes, there could. We have Lil Sebastian. We got the gay penguins. all of lies i mean could there have been an all animal episode yes we have little sebastian we got the the gay penguins we got i mean there's a lot of you know one of the tricks in the show was that we would take current events political topics things that were sort of controversial and then we just graph them onto animals so we like gay penguins are like death penalty with

a possum so yeah fairway frank i also we love armisen like armisen could have come back we could have had forte back we could have had his character come back um yeah greg wakaitis i feel like we talked about maybe greg wakaitis coming back and then you realize the actor's like 17 or something so it's like he like ages out of it greg can you remember any other ones we definitely talked about like we didn't have like this i mean that was kind of the halloween trend right we had two you know greg wocatis episodes, right? Yeah, I think Greg shows up again. Yeah, he shows up one more time.

I remember the actor's name for some reason. I believe his name was Cody Klopp. I don't know why I remember that. Wait a minute. So for the first time in history, the actor's name was funnier than the name of the character on the show? That's maybe why I remember him. We're like, his name is Cody Klopp? That's, it's like, it's almost, yeah, exactly.

It's almost like a Parks and Rec name himself, a Parks and Rec character. But yeah, it's, it's a really good question. I'm trying to think if there's any other deep cuts we like. I will say this, which is,

yes, it's interesting which characters I think have lived on in a greater sense than when they, when we were writing it. Like, I feel like now watching it every time Oren pops up, he has this like amazing mythic status i just wish he were in more episodes because he's so funny every time like characters

like that and also for what it's worth like um detlef shrimp really cracked me up when he was on the show right and i know that we got him back uh for entertainment 720 but um characters like that i like to see pop up who just have this weird infamy on by the way there's an all animal episode we should have done and there's an all nba player episode we could have done with detlef schrempf with roy hibbert and with chris bosh who by the way does not play himself in the show plays a an eagleton basketball player so it could have been a whole a whole episode of nearly seven foot or so and don't forget Oh, and don't forget Reggie Wayne and Andrew Locke. Yes, an all-athlete. Yeah, just have them

in there. And Costanzo, I think, was in there too. A lot of athletes on the show. That's it, man. We ran the gamut. We ran the gamut. So thank you very much, Kevin, for that question. I hope we answered it in a satisfactory way. And thank you for telling all your friends. And thank you, everybody, for listening.

Subscribe where you get podcasts like Kevin did. Five-star review on Apple. And thanks to Schulte and greg goodbye for punny we'll see you next week parks and recollection is produced by greg levine and, Rob Schulte. Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm. The podcast is executive produced by Alan Yang for Alan Yang Productions, Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna Solitaroff

at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher. Gina Batista, Paula Davis, and Britt Kahn are our talent bookers. The theme song is by Mouse Rat, a.k.a. Mark Rivers, with additional tracks composed by John Danek. Thanks for listening,

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