Parks and Recollection - The Banquet (S1E5)

Episode Date: October 12, 2021

Put on your fanciest new duds and join Rob and Alan as they discuss the fifth episode of Parks and Recreation. In “The Banquet”, Leslie once again finds herself in a crisis of conscience when she has to make a tough decision involving the new park at a banquet honoring her mother. In today’s episode find out how the Parks team bridged the gap between season 1 and 2, the difficult task of naming characters, and which scene gave Rob stress flashbacks. It’s almost the end of season 1 of Parks and Recreation, but just the beginning of Parks and Recollection, let’s go!Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone]

We're getting together to talk about all the things we used to do The laughs, the passions, the little Sebastians, the pets we fell into And we're putting it on in a podcast, then we'll send it up into the sky Then we'll send it up into the sky We're calling it Parks and Recollection Come on little podcast, spread your wings and fly Welcome everybody to Parks and Recollection, a show about parks and recreation. Here we have Mr. Alan Yang. He's my butch to my sundance, sundance to my butch. How are you, Rolo?

Good to see you today. I'm good, and let's keep the Rolo thing alive. I think I'm in my other world. I can be raw, but here is Amy Poehler named me Rolo. I love it. It makes me feel like I'm in the world of pawnee when people call me rollo and i like that it's good to be back man it's good to just watch these episodes and then you know we're having some fun guests come on well do you ever have that great thing where like right before you

fall asleep you're in bed your eyes have been shut you think you're asleep actually and all of a sudden you remember something and you laugh out loud in your bed. I had one of those moments around this episode, which I will get to when it comes up. But it just reminds me of how flippin' funny this show was. Yeah, we were going wild

in this one, man. Some aggressive jokes. Also some, like, jokes that we probably wouldn't have done later seasons. But yeah, this one's buck wild, man. So lead us into this.

You're so good at that. I have to say over these episodes, one of the things I've been loving about this podcast, because it's newish still, our podcast, we're getting our footing, man. Butch and Sundance weren't always, you know, Butch and Sundance. Is you really have a knack for the intro, outro, lead in. You could have been in radio. Natural storyteller. Natural storyteller. Natural storyteller, Rob.

Never done a podcast before. Just like a seal going to water. Just a seal going. I literally, this is the dumbest tangent ever, but I watched a YouTube video of a Japanese man at an aquarium dropping a baby seal into a tank of water. And the seal for like 45 seconds is like, what are you doing?

He's so great. He's so mad. And then as for like 45 seconds is like, what are you doing? He's so great. He's so mad. And then as soon as he's in completely in the water, he's like a submarine. He just like immediately said, yeah, that's a seal, man. That's anyway, look up the video. If you look up baby seal being introduced to water for the first time, highly recommend this video. It's a bald Japanese man dropping it into a, like a small swimming pool of water it's adorable anyway let's get to the episode episode five of season one it first aired may 7th 2009 it's called the banquet it's about a banquet it's written by tucker collie directed by beth mccarthy miller uh we're going to talk about leslie's political tactics we're going to talk about how aziz influenced tom's development

we're going to talk about how food is important to the show. Here's a quick synopsis of the episode. Leslie's mom comes back again. Leslie's mom, Marlene, is being honored at an upcoming banquet for public service and is excited to go to the event after spending all her time taking care of Andy and is told by Leslie to dress very formally. To prepare for the banquet, Leslie herself visits an old-fashioned barbershop and gets a very short, mannish hairstyle. When getting to the banquet, Leslie and Anne, who's overdressed in an expensive pink dress and a suit,

are mistaken for a lesbian couple. At the banquet, Leslie sees Janine Restrepo, remember that name, an influential zoning board member who could help with the park's project. When Leslie tries to approach her and makes loose future plans to meet, Marlene says this means Janine is blowing them off. Marlene tells Leslie to blackmail Janine with information about her husband's recent DUI. Dark turn in the story. Leslie shares the advice with Ann, who says it sounds like a slimy move, but Leslie accuses Ann of pampering Andy. Meanwhile, Tom goes bar hopping with Mark and he wears a goofy

orange hat at the bar, which he calls peacocking. Love it. The two talk to women at the bar. Very 2009. Very 2009. But Mark finds them boring, and he leaves. Leslie confronts Janine about her husband's DUI, but it all blows up in Leslie's face. She abandons the plan and leaves. Leslie

then visits Anne and apologizes, and Anne admits Leslie was right about her relationship with Andy. So the two stories intersect writing. How about that? That's pro writing right there. You guys. Yeah, a lot going on. A lot going on in this episode.

Her mom is so mean, man. That's what I wrote down. Her mom is so mean. What's going on with her mom? By the way, that character of Leslie's mom, super unlikable from the drop. There's just no, I don't think there's an outright villain like that in the show until like season whatever with Jeremy Jam, the councilman who's just like a straight villain. But this villain is her mom.

It's really wild to see because you forget about that. Season one, you got some dark jokes, man. You got some dark jokes. And Jeremy Jam, by the way, maybe one of my favorite characters ever in parks and recreation coming up in many many seasons we've lot of podcasts we get to him but yeah he's funny john glazer you just got jammed yeah i'm only speculating here because i'm doing my best to sort of remember sort of what the origin of this story was and it's kind of like is it heroic for leslie when her mom is so conniving and sort of what the origin of this story was. And it's kind of like, is it heroic for Leslie when her mom is so conniving

and sort of ambitious to make the choice to not be like her mom? And the sort of idea that a mom, this mom figure isn't giving her love and it's giving, it's a Darth Vader story. It's like, it's almost like a, you know, it's like,

can you sort of get away from your mom's path, the person you idolize? But, you know, obviously the show got away from that very, very quickly. But yeah, this is one of the last ones where her mom is super, super prominent. I think the show kind of went away from that. This is Amy Poehler at her most Spongebob-y square pants. I'm going to rate episodes on how much Leslie Knope is Spongebob-y square pants. Leslie Bob Knope pants, right? of rate episodes on on how much leslie nope is spongebobby squarepants uh leslie bob no pants right i mean you know what it is it's it's the big googly eyes the like uber uber enthusiastic like can do attitude on steroids the the the the nervous laugh and she's blonde and sort of yellowish so it's like it really is

there's a lot of i mean i i can't believe that i never picked up on that when i was on the show it took watching it to find out that they're really similar characters to me and this one in particular because she's so relentlessly positive and driven in the face of adversity. In every facet, right? With Anne, with Mark, with Tom, with her mom, with this lady. I think that's such an interesting observation because she's so relentless as a character. And in this one, she's still indefatigable and she makes the right choice at the end. But yeah, I wrote down know there's just so many more dark jokes like the opening is very very very dark and it just ends it's like yeah they like it's like very like i don't even repeat the jokes but yeah it's it's like oh my god this is the beginning of the episode

yeah cold open leslie to the audience like welcome to our show basically i was not there for the writing of that i'm just gonna say that right now I will also say, look how far we've come. I mean, you can't make it up. One of the things I love about the show I've always loved are the sets. Because I'm from the Midwest. I'm from Ohio. I grew up, spent a lot of time in Indiana. And water skied in places like Lake Wawaseawa sea that's like a name that you guys would

have put in the show um and every once in a while you get the sets so on the nose right and the barbershop in this episode makes me feel like i was going with my grandpa to sit on a baby chair and get my hair buzzed and get, you know, a lollipop. That really took me right back. In one of the weirdest inciting incidents in the history of Parks and Rec, part of the beginning of this episode is Leslie going to a barbershop, which is kind of like, you know, the local, she thinks it's the sort of local seat of power, right? She goes to this barbershop and there's kind of a tradition of

political people getting their haircut here by Salvatore Manfrilotti. I guess this is also one of the first weird Parks and Rec names. And she doesn't know that Salvatore only gives men's haircuts. So that was kind of one of the conceits of the episode is she goes there and then gets this haircut that is essentially a haircut for a man not that haircuts are gendered guys not that haircuts are gendered it could be for a man or woman but it happens to be very short and then that kind of is one of the one of the comedy engines as she goes to the banquet and then people assume that she and ann are a couple because they're also overdressed so you know just a little bit of a little bit of farce a

little bit of farce in the fifth episode of parts were there um multiple like options for the haircut i i bet they were given a a row of photos because knowing knowing having to run a show and directing an episode or whatever you're probably given 10 10 options and you have to select almost like you're actually at a barbershop. Yes, I'm always interested in the one that they didn't use. I wonder what the haircut that was like, that's too much or that's not enough. Was there a George Clooney Caesar cut

or was there something really short? Maybe Amy was like, that's not possible. Because I think, look, we're using her real hair right so i don't actually don't know was it a wig greg do you know if this was a wig or was it like just her own hair styled and we tucked it under i think it was her own hair because if i remember correctly at the end of that episode she undoes her hair as she's talking to the camera and so it all kind of comes out total power move yes power move power move and greg you had some thoughts about you know there's sort of interesting choices made in the directing and and and you know parks is not generally known as a super super visual storytelling

show it's it's more about the jokes and more about you know the staging and stuff but there there's a there's kind of a way that they they they block uh leslie and and mark in in the banquet room yeah i think our director for this episode beth mccarthy miller i thought made some really interesting choices in directing first there's that scene where uh leslie and and mark are playing around and pinching each other's noses and And Leslie is to his right and Anne is to his left. And then later in the episode, Mark is at the bar with Tom flirting with women. And there are two women they're flirting with.

One blonde to his right, like Leslie was, and one brown hair to his left, like Rashida was, to mirror the idea that the earlier scene with Leslie and Anne is a possible flirting scene with Mark that we maybe didn't think about to begin with. So that's one of the really interesting choices she made. And the other one, which is very lucky for us, is that when Leslie has water thrown in her face by Janine Restrepo, I think that Polar and Beth were worried that it was going to start to lose the spontaneity in acting and then shooting it. So they agreed to only do it about, I think, two times. And so then in editing the episode, they realized that the cameras were off accidentally for one of them.

And so we only had one take. And that was the only one that made it. That's the only one that's in the episode. And that's the one. You start to flinch was what happens as an actor. I mean, no matter how good an actor you are, if you're getting slapped in the face a bunch or water thrown in your face or whatever, and you can't help but start to flinch after one or two times. So that's super smart to just, you know, only do it.

No, you're only going to do it one or two times we're lucky they got it once though and also can i say it's also a director's nightmare when greg casually mentions the camera was off for one of them the camera was off like that's like or god forbid you're in the edit room you know what we didn't get that one the camera was off that's way you know so so at the end of you know at the end of a day you say check the gate or at the end of the scene or whatever you say check the gate and that really just means it used to be a physical gate in the film camera to see if there's like hair in the gate but now there's no gate it's a it's a digital camera generally and and checking the gate just means like did it work like did we get it right did we do the thing we're here to do yes did we press

record i love it and they only got one take because they weren't the camera wasn't on so you know even the professionals screw up sometimes the other thing is you only need one take and that's the other thing that makes me laugh is like when directors go oh my god that was perfect just amazing god so good okay let's try let's do one more i'm like i'm sorry what are we trying for one that's not amazing is that what we're going for now i all that's why rob i always temper my words if i'm asking for one more oh always never say that was perfect and then ask for another because you're contradicting yourself i agree you know yeah it's like that's that's uh not what the uh actors love to hear no it's like

oh well okay we'll be here a bit longer, do you want me to do anything different? No? Okay, just do it again. I mean, that sight gag shot cut to Anne's face when she sees Leslie with the haircut, she's, I think she does say something, oh, no. Like, nobody does the oh, no or the oh, my or the look of, like, frightened disdain better than Rashida. Rashida, straight woman, straight woman. It takes a lot to be a straight woman. People take it for granted, right? People like the silly guy.

People like the silly lady, silly guy. But to be the straight person, you're not doing nothing. You're not doing nothing. Adam ended up doing a good job of it later in the show too. But yeah, reactions, reactions are important. This is a big episode for Ron Swanson is a big episode for ron for this is a big episode for ron swanson and a big episode for tom haverford yeah i felt like ron really came into his own in this episode oh you know what it is i was trying to think about it's not just that

you guys and i don't mean blindly because maybe it wasn't blindly maybe somebody said in the writer's room ron should like meat but maybe it it was blindly. It was, it was a gag about whatever bacon wrapped in bacon, wrapped in shrimp, whatever, right. At the, as an hors d'oeuvre. It's my number one food wrapped in my number three food. You know, like it's, it's just, you know, I think this is one where we're really tapped into it. And, and, and I think behind the think behind the scenes, we spent time with the

actors, right? We spent time with the actors. We got to know them. They would come to the writer's room. And at a certain point, we visited Nick Offerman at his woodshop. So for those who don't know, Nick Offerman has a woodshop called Offerman Woodshop. And we were working on the character and we saw him, you know, take us around the shop. Here's my, you know, here's my saws. Here's my bandsaw. Here's my lathe. Exactly. Right. So this is, this is a guy and, and, you know, we talked to him about what he liked and he seemed like a manly guy. But yeah, so I think that started to bleed its way into the character. And I think very organically it was like, well, he probably would like meat and he would like bacon. And that started playing more and more. And so I think that between that moment, the bacon wrapped shrimp moment, which is sort of very seminal for the character.

about Marlene, I think those just started locking into the character. And it was kind of deriving some of Nick's personality and injecting it into the character. I think that happened with a lot of the actors, but Nick in particular. I think for me, what it is, is that and that it's the dichotomy in the performance of abject glee when he's talking about meat. there's a glimmer like he's got that devilish like that offering like high pitched like he's got abject glee and then when he's delivering what should be an amazing moment of a speech 100 percent dispassion. He is an amazing facial actor. He really does. The character's about stillness, right?

The character's about sort of being this stone, this immovable object. But he's doing a lot with the little. He's not doing nothing. He's doing something with his face. There's that classic meme where it's like the many moods of Ron Swanson. And it's like happy, perturbed, angry, sad, depressed, thrilled. And it's like you know happy perturbed angry sad depressed you know thrilled and it's all the same you know it's all the same you know expression and and and that's to some extent true but in real life in the show he's giving these tiny differences but yeah it is that

and by the way no one does a better you know happy giggle than him like later on like we found out he's into puzzles that's a hilarious episode he loves, and it's just like, yeah, it's like a little kid. There's a little kid trapped in that body, too. There's a little kid. In the Hall of Fame of laughs and giggles, I mean, Polar's cackle, and it's truly a cackle, and Nick's giggle are some of the like it's like seeing a dolphin in the wild just like it releases like pheromones in your body two fun laughs in the show two fun laughs for sure tom haverford let's talk about his hair in this episode uh it's very paul mccartney

circa in 1960 he's got the swept bank. Yeah, he's got the bank. Is that in the time to be Bieber? It's like human giant era Aziz. Like if you've ever seen photos of human giant, that's his sketch show he did before Parks. It's like, man, he looks so different. It's because his hair is like this.

It's like NYU business school era Aziz. It's like what he was. See, but I had kids, young kids then, and they were all i was like what is the deal with the ted koppel vibe going on with his hair is like like spatula across their forehead what's going on and then i realized oh they're trying to be justin bieber so i wonder if that's not really what's going on with aziz i mean i don't know that he was a fan of justin bieber i think he was listening to like modest mouse and stuff but maybe i don't know i think he was into like interpol and like the strokes it's like

probably early 2000s new york because that's where he went to college yet he didn't have their hair tom this episode is another good example of you know kind of a behind the scenes look of aziz kind of getting into the character and pitching stuff and you know there's not so much food stuff in this one there is later for him but you know him reading the game i think it was like something that he pitched to greg daniels at a certain point like there's that really lame book going around hey i don't want to say lame but you know it didn't age well right whatever book that was it's called the game and it was about doing you know weird shit at bars to attract people's attention and you know so you're able to hit on them so i think he he pitched some of that and it's like

yeah it's kind of like this guy's a loser in love and um we don't even reveal in this one that he's not that it's a green card marriage right that's what's coming up later so that sort of pathos would come later but certainly i think aziz put a lot of his personality into the Tom character, because later on, you see that he's into like a lifestyle aficionado, and he likes the finer things in life. And he likes fashion, and he likes hip hop, and he likes good food. And I think that's all kind of aspects of Aziz's life. He's a man of impeccable taste. Impeccable taste. I think I've said it before on the show. I would come to the set and often wanted to steal an item of Aziz's clothes.

you know if you're kind of a a real parks and rec old school fan and you've thought about the show a lot and maybe you've talked about it on message boards or reddit or whatever i think there's a kind of a consensus that the last episode of season one the episode called rock show which we'll talk about next week, is kind of like stylistically starts feeling like season two. Like it starts feeling a little faster, a little, maybe a little bit funnier, a little jokier. It's moving. You get to see more of Pratt. You know, everything's kind of changing and the chess pieces are moving into play. So, you know, that's kind of felt like the consensus behind the scenes with us as well. But if that's the case, then that means that this episode's kind of the transition between season one and season two, if that makes sense.

You know, it's kind of a hybrid of the season one style and season two style. And one of the ways I think that's kind of interesting that works with the story is we also see Leslie become a little bit more of a moral person. And in this episode, her mom is kind of a bad influence who tells her to kind of essentially blackmail Janine Restrepo. And at the end of the episode, Leslie decides not to do that. And so, you know, not only does this episode have, you know, some physical comedy, it's got, you know, the haircut bit, the visual gags, you know, she gets water thrown in her face, all that stuff. It moves a little bit faster. And we start to see Leslie as a person who has a moral compass and

frankly does the right thing. And we'll see as Parks progresses, not only does she do the right thing, usually she becomes the person who tells other people to do the right thing. And she becomes an incredibly, incredibly principled person. and that's the leslie nope i think people come to know and love and so i i just thought that was interesting rob did you did you get that sense watching that episode this episode well i did it's that thing we've talked about before that you know this you always remember we have to remember this started out as the office spinoff and you know yes this show could could not be anything farther away than anything off a spinoff e but if you away than anything Office Spinoff-y. But if you were doing the Office Spinoff, you would have a sort of a Michael character who would not be described as anybody's conscience.

That's for sure. Hilarious, but not anybody's conscience. we're talking about today is the first episode where where leslie that character is is is being imbued with characteristics that aren't at all connected to a sort of michael scott type series lead yeah i think that's a great point and and there's i think we even as a as a writer's room we're kind of feeling out like there are ways to be funny and be a good person. I know that sounds kind of trivial to say, but it really is like, that's the soul of parks by the end of the series, right? It's like, these are all good people trying their best to do the right thing. And it's still funny and it's goofy and it's fast and it's, there's, there's

wacky jokes and, and, but they all love each other. And, you know, you find conflict in other ways. You find external conflict, you find the, you know, Leslie versus. And, you know, you find conflict in other ways. You find external conflict. You find that, you know, Leslie versus the town, you know, Leslie and the team, you know, trying to reform things.

And those are all story engines that, you know, we didn't necessarily have completely in place season one. So it's, it's fascinating to see. And we'll talk about rock show next week in terms of how that one feels like another step forward and, and feels like,

wow, there's jump cuts and it's, it's moving and it's moving and it's just really comedy dense. It's just such a dense comedy material, which, you know, actually shows don't do that much anymore. You know, if you watch shows now, there's not that many comedies that are like that. I had post-traumatic stress disorder watching this episode because anytime we were in that banquet room meant we were there forever and the air conditioning never worked ever and and that what you love is it looks like a sort of vaguely run down you know mid-level thing and the way you get that i think mostly from the carpeting and that carding was disgusting yeah i remember was that in was that in the sportsman's lodge greg do you remember was this

no it's not the valley no because sportsman's Lodge, Greg? Do you remember? No, it's not. No, because the Sportsman's Lodge is a little nicer, right? No, because I remember also driving to this place. It was nowhere easy, like the Sportsman's Lodge. Right. RIP Sportsman's Lodge, by the way. I know. They tore it down, right?

RIP. They used to be like parties. I poured one out in the Sportsman's Lodge. Sportsman's Lodge. We shot a lot of... So there's this building, again, in the valley that we shot a lot of parks at, and I think, you know, is used for production sometimes, called the Sportsman's Lodge, and it's kind of versatile. There's like event spaces and stuff like that. I mean, I don't want to say it was old, but it was in the middle of San Fernando Valley,

and it was a lodge where sportsmen went. Yeah, right. It's like, this is when the land was covered in deer, and we could go hunt uh producer greg said he had his high school graduation breakfast at the sportsman's lodge that's amazing that's actually like you're that's og man that's like paul thomas anderson shit it's like yeah i grew up in the valley it's like wow that's pretty crazy man you really know the area um yeah i so that you know that room the thing about when you shoot when you when you break a story like this you're like okay yeah it's gonna be all like it like at an event and it'll be at this thing then you realize you're shooting the whole week at that space so you're just there every day you're

just there all the time and it's hopefully it's like relatively comfortable in this case at least it's a big space sometimes you're in a tiny apartment you're like oh we're shooting the whole thing in this tiny apartment it's not good there is a talking head where leslie lists the previous uh uh people who won the big award and it's nothing but names i bet we spent 80 of our time on this episode just writing those names like they get just just a thing that an obsession of mike shore's a brilliant writer and uh has a weakness for names so there's a literal run there. And then later, later, her mom does it again and says all the bad shit that they did. So she also lists the name, lists the names again. And it's like, oh my God, we're getting to hear them again.

And by the way, the main character is named Janine Restrepo, which also is like a nonsense name. And the awards are called the Tony Talentson Awards. They're all, you know, Mike's point, Mike's point is always like, you know what? You know what? People say I come up with silly names, but look at people's names in real life. They are weird and they are things that you don't think of. So it's not that I'm making,

but I'm like, you're pushing it far, man. You're pushing it really far. You know, the other thing that people wouldn't necessarily know is to use a name on television, any name, has to be cleared by a battery of lawyers at the network. And it's really, really, really, really difficult. That's why Chris Traeger became Chris Traeger and not Chris Yeager. obsessed with this whole name clearance thing. So do you mean to tell me that somewhere there was a Chris Yeager that the network legal staff was like, absolutely, he will sue. This Chris Yeager who lives in Des Moines is going to, we know he's there and he's going to sue, but there's no Chris Traeger ever anywhere in the world. I don't understand how that happens. It's so annoying.

I want to call on producer Greg because he had to deal with this a lot. And it is annoying. Greg, what is the legality of all this? Yeah, it's very strange. When you do clearances, they look at the specifically where the show takes place. And so they look in, let's say it takes place in Los Angeles to look at how many people have that name. That more than three people have that name.

They think it's a common enough name. They're not worried about a specific person suing them, thinking it's about them. If zero people have that name, it's also great. But that zero to three is a danger zone. But because this took place in a fictional town, Pawnee, Indiana, they took the entire state of Indiana and said, if zero to three people have that name, we couldn't use it. And so anything that was close, if it sounded the same, it wouldn't work. So we have a lot

of difficulty getting these names. And I remember I was responsible for the clearances. It took a long time to get this list that Mike was happy about. Just a thankless job. By the way, everybody, that's producer Greg. Greg was an integral part of the show. He was a writer and he also at some varying points was writer's assistant script coordinator. He was in the room for all seven seasons and has more institutional memory of the show than any human being who's probably ever lived. So it's good to have him on board of this podcast and we will check in with him periodically when we have questions like that, because he remembers way better than I do. I don't remember what

happened last week. So we're going to call on him. But yeah, it is extraordinarily annoying. And God bless all the people in legal, but it's always like, yeah, we want to call this character Leslie Knope. And they're like, what about Leslie Nopenfossensis or something? It's like, oh, no one has that name. It has to be something no one has. Is that why there's a silent K? I think that was Mike Shore. I think that was just Mike.

I think that was just like he wanted something weird. So maybe it works. Maybe it works in that respect. But yeah, it's a pain in the ass clearing names for sure. works in that respect. But yeah, it's a pain in the ass clearing names for sure. Who is the actor who plays basically the master of ceremonies of the banquet? Oh yeah, Martin Housley, right? Martin Housley, that's the character's name. And sorry, he ends up being the MC of so many events. That's the thing, man. It's a good gig to get in early on this show because you might come back like 20 times the the actor's name

is jim meskimen and uh yeah he did a good job and and so if you're sort of established early on in the parks universe you might come back a bunch of times right you might be able to pay some of your some of your rent with that with that money because it's good man people talk about okay i want to take a minute to do a little deep dive on this. So people always want to know, what's the difference between comedy and drama? You know, why can't dramatic actors be funny sometimes? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Jim, his work in this episode is beyond belief funny. Because what he does is he plays it totally 100% straight doing the following introduction.

And now a powerful message from Anthony Tellison himself, recorded earlier this year from his hospital bed before he lost the power of speech. And I realize it's the performance, but also it's the construction of the language. There is not one sort of wink-wink at the camera. I'm not a literal wink, but actors have a way of letting you know sometimes that they're in on the joke. And all of that is comedy killing. All of it. this guy is putting on a clinic of straight man acting because he's delivering it as if it's deadly real. And of course, what he's saying is so outrageous. That's the stuff that had me laughing out loud. I'm so glad to hear you say that because it's almost verbatim what we try to communicate and what we try to tell actors because, you know, people can see the strings when you're trying, right? It's, we use the word sweaty, right? It's like, oh, it's sweaty. Like you can see them trying, you're trying to get the lap. And certainly for my taste, I prefer when things are played straight and it's like, yeah, just say, you know, just say it like

your real person, like trust the lines and trust the situation and trust your other actors. But you're right.'s hard and i understand where actors are coming for it from you know i've had day players come in and you know i remember one time i will not name whoever this is but but they came in and it was like they would deliver the line and like do something with their eyebrows right do a funny thing with your eyebrows like yeah it's great just don't do the eyebrow thing they just get a lot and they just do yeah they're just doing and they did it every time it's like well we can't use those takes like it doesn't it's no one would do that you know it's like it's just you're once you're doing it super and everything has its own tone right if you're

doing something really wild if you're doing anchorman or something that's super jokey then sure maybe you can put a lot of spin on stuff but even in that case it's like i find that stuff you know look at like paul rudd or someone it's like he plays shit straight and it's so funny you you know there's people who are able to just play it straight and and you know you trust the material and and I think you know it it's it's difficult to teach and not everyone can do it you know I think it's you can't just plug and play necessarily um but yeah afterwards he says something like thank you for those inspiring I have a little borderline, but please, I'll read it. It's literally a guy in a hospital bed, clearly dead. And you laugh at that, and then it cuts back to him and he says,

thank you, Tony, for those inspiring twitches and blinks. I'm sorry, I'm going down with a chip. It makes me laugh. It made me laugh out loud in my bed. down with that ship it makes me laugh it made me laugh out loud in my bed those inspiring twitches and blinks made me laugh in my bed five hours after i watched this episode feels like something dan gorod right because he has an obsession with like physical infirmity and sort of getting sick and i think his he i think he was almost like he was pre-med basically and his parents wrote diet books and like you know he's just obsessed with the human body and his production

company you know he went on to co-create brooklyn 99 his production company is called not a doctor productions because i think his parents wanted him to be a doctor so i think his way of making up for it as he puts he tries to put medical jokes into Parks and Rec or Brooklyn. Time for a town hall. One of my favorite parts of every episode. Rob, do you want to pick where we do this town hall from? As Chris Traeger said, I want it to be a restaurant. I would like them to have food.

And I would like it to be hot. There's one from season four that is a sleeper that I'd like to pitch to you. Who, please? It's a Greek place called Achilles' Meal. Oh, my God. Yes! So I believe, I don't want to take credit for a joke I didn't write, but I believe I did pitch that joke, if you even want to call it a joke. But, yes.

Achilles Meal Greek restaurant. Let's do it. Let's get some hummus and let's get down to it. Let's have some souvlaki and some grilled fish. All right, so this question comes to us from Ryan R. Ryan writes, Hi, Alan and Rob. How do you think Chris and Ben would have been received had they entered Pawnee in season one

instead of the end of season two? I've always been curious how the show would have changed if they were introduced earlier. Thanks. He adds a special personal note. Also, Parks and Rec has greatly impacted my life. In 2015, I started an ice cream company called Be ice cream or be nothing inspired by ron swanson and in 2017 i applied for and was appointed by our mayor to my city's parks and recreation commission i served two terms helped

approve new parks and served on a subcommittee to replace our 30 year old parks and recreation master plan it was a blast when people ask me, this is insane. When people ask me what motivated me to get involved with local government, I always give credit to Leslie Knope and the Parks and Rec crew. Smiley face, loving the podcast. Oh, that's amazing. It's very sweet, Ryan. And also, by the way, a challenge to anyone who considers themselves a Parks and Rec fan.

Have you walked the walk like Ryan? Have you actually worked in a Parks and Rec department and started a company inspired by Ron Swanson? Because if not, you've got a long way to go to catch up to Ryan. He's a real fan. He's a real fan. He's getting parks made. He's literally getting parks made. It's insane.

Even we didn't do that. I mean, we made TV parks. He's making real parks. I know. I feel like I'm not a big enough fan now. I should do some more public service. So the question is, what would Chris and Ben have done and how would they have been received if they came in season one?

It's actually really fascinating to think about. You know? It's really fascinating. I just think that there are... about you know it's really fascinating i just think that there are i've always thought that that ensemble shows dramas or comedies are teams actual teams playing actual seasons like shooting a season and you know playing a season of sports teams and there you get somebody at the trading deadline and the next thing you know you're in the world series or you know do you know i'm saying and and i think we came in at the trading deadline and and and we we moved the the the team to you

know a a different level and i'm not sure that would have happened had we been on the team in the first place it's it's to me it's the kind of thing where and and look ryan i want to answer your hypothetical but i will first say i i i there's no regrets in terms of how it all played out because it played out so great you know and i feel like that sort of end of season two beginning of season three is maybe the best run of the show especially going into that sort of harvest festival arc and you know we have flu season and and all those great episodes in the start of season three. So I wouldn't change it if I could. But I will say, you know, I think it would have changed a lot of stuff. And I would be curious to see you guys in the tone because you're right, like the tone of the show was changing and

shifting. So, I mean, it would have been different. I mean, I think the Mark mark and anne storyline would have been different obviously and um who knows what would have happened like would we have played like to me it's almost like would there have been a leslie and ben romantic arc if if they came in that early because everything's just different like it's all like you said it's very much like a team it's very much like jenga pieces and you have different pieces it just plays out differently. You know, it just, it just changes. What if, by the way, do Andy and April end up together? Like that, like you'd never know.

You're like, everything gets rejiggered and, and you maybe, maybe there's a bunch of stories with Chris and Andy or, or Ben and April. You just don't know. I mean, I guess eventually Ben moved in with Andy and April. So that was something. Yes, that did happen, didn't it? Yeah, but maybe, maybe that all gets accelerated, right? But what would worry me is you just don't know if you're going to end up in the same place.

Because a lot of that stuff, when you're writing the show, I feel like it comes organically from what came before. And the other thing is you know what the needs of the team are. Again, not to belabor this this analogy but if you realize gosh we're not hitting left-handers very well yeah you go out and get somebody who can hit left-handers yeah and we wanted people to come in and do whatever it is that thing that that that um we did when when chris and ben did when they came they came in yeah and i kind of feel like as a simple answer to ryan's question it kind of as far as the Leslie-Ben relationship, I feel like with earlier Leslie and with season one and season two Leslie, I think it would have taken her longer to warm up to Ben. I think it would

have been more sort of adversarial for longer. You know, we ended up playing that out for what, two or three episodes, and then they kind of liked each other i feel like earlier leslie maybe it would have been more more sort of there would have been kind of more conflict between them maybe i think that would have played out longer because leslie was a bit of a different character and and same thing with chris too where like maybe she would have been butting heads with those two a little bit longer and it would have played out there there would have maybe there would have been maybe maybe chris wouldn't have been quite so positive to start out because it was a different type of show. Yeah.

Chris, as we know him, if he'd have showed up in those first three episodes, would have been like a Martian. Yeah, it wasn't that kind of show. Remember those first three episodes are almost like an indie, almost like a 90s indie comedy. Yeah, it's like a 90s A24. We're watching like Zola or something. It's just shot differently, right? It's shot differently and

you know, there's a different tone. But yeah. That was a good, gosh, we could navel gaze on this one for a while. That was a really cool question. That's like a very contemplative, philosophical question. So thank you very much, Ryan R. You've set the benchmark for Parks and Rec fandom, and you sent in a great question.

You can send in questions, parksandrecollectiontownhall at gmail.com. Wonderful. Let's take our leave from McKinley's meal. We had our fill of souvlaki, and let's get out of here. Thanks to Producer Greg and Producer Schulte. Goodbye from Pawnee. producer Greg and producer Schulte. Goodbye from Pawnee.

This episode of Parks and Recollection is produced by Greg Levine and me, Rob Schulte. Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm. The podcast is executive produced by Alan Yang for Alan Yang Productions, Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher. Gina Batista, Paula Davis, and Britt Kahn are our talent bookers. The theme song is by Mouse Rat, a.k.a. Mark Rivers,

with additional tracks composed by John Danek. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time on Parks and Recollection. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.