Parks and Recollection - The Bubble (S3E15)

Episode Date: July 19, 2022

The hilarity is popping in Pawnee, when Rob Lowe and Alan Yang discuss S3E15 of Parks and Recreation! In "The Bubble" Leslie's mom makes a pass at Ben, not knowing that he and Leslie are dating. On today's episode the team share how fun it is to have Chris interacting with all of the parks department, Greg gives insights on his first writing credit, and why it took so long to get Marlene back in an episode! All of this and some surprising data about opening credits. Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone]  The Parks Department welcomes Ann Perkins to her new office at Pawnee City Hall and fills it with balloons, much to the chagrin of her cranky officemate Stuart. Leslie and Ben are dating, but they are keeping their relationship a secret due to a no-dating policy at work. They are enjoying what Leslie calls "the bubble", or the beginning of a relationship when everything is simple and fun.  The Bubble is threatened when Ben has a meeting with Leslie's mother Marlene Griggs-Knope, a notoriously tough politician in the Pawnee school system, who wants Ben to approve the purchase of four new school buses despite a difficult budget season. Afraid of ruining the bubble, Leslie initially tells Ben she is not related to Marlene. Right before Ben's meeting, however, Leslie admits Marlene is her mother, making him nervous and causing him to capitulate to all of her demands during the meeting. Marlene considers Ben weak, so Leslie becomes determined to prove that he is a tough boss to impress Marlene.  Chris has enacted numerous changes to the Parks Department: he promotes Jerry to Public Relations Director, appoints April as everyone's assistant, places Tom Haverford on the nightmarish fourth floor with Andy as his temporary assistant, and makes Ron sit in the middle of a circular desk after the removal of his office, to force him to interact with people. Ron believes everything will eventually go back to normal as it has with past city managers that implemented changes. However, Donna is concerned that the overly-determined Chris will not do so and demands that Ron talk to him. On the fourth floor, Tom's attempts to charm some of the elderly women, including Ethel Beavers and Muriel into doing his work but fails miserably, as they ignore him and all adore Andy and April.  Leslie trains Ben for his next meeting with her mother. He impresses Marlene so much with his tough negotiation skills that she becomes flirtatious with him. An uncomfortable Ben tells Leslie they should tell her about their relationship, but Leslie does not want to lose the bubble. Fed up, Ben storms into Marlene's office and tells her that he is dating her daughter and asks her to keep it secret. Marlene laughs off the situation and tells Leslie that she approves of Ben.  Ron tells Chris the changes do not play to his staff's strengths and decides to compromise: if Chris returns everything to the way it was, he will remain at/in the desk for another week. Chris complies. Nevertheless, Tom is frustrated with the experience and begins to contemplate leaving his City Hall job to pursue his own entrepreneurial interests.

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 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 The podcast in which we talk about parks and recreation But you probably already know that because we're way deep into the season

and everybody's been here for this. It's me, Rob Lowe, and Alan Yang. Good one today. Another good one, right, Alan? What's up, Rolo? Yeah, when you were talking about the intro, it was like, it would be funny if someone knew nothing about this show

and just started with this episode. Like, I've never seen Parks and Recreation. I'm just going to listen. Like, just give it a shot. Hey, you might have a good time anyway. Who knows? We're open to everybody. I think, you know, it's accessible.

Anybody can come in at any time. It's like a warm pool. Jump in. We talk about a lot of random stuff, so it might actually be accessible as well. So the bubble. We've got the bubble today. Greg Levine. Hello, hello.

Big episode. Big episode. Very exciting. Yeah, i remember working on this one we'll get into it when we uh when we get into the meat of the talk but yeah uh this is uh this episode's called the bubble and it's kind of the late end the tail end of season three one of the great seasons uh episode 15 so there are only 16 episodes this year so this was the penultimate episode second to last uh it's called the bubble as as we mentioned, written by Greg Levine and Brian Rowe. So Greg and Brian were our writer's assistants at the time. So they got the credit for this episode. Directed by Matt Sohn and original air date, May 19th, 2011. Matt, I think, came to us from the office. I believe he was the DP over there

and started directing some episodes. Very sweet guy. Love Matt. And the blurb, Leslie's mom makes a pass at Ben, not knowing that he and Leslie are dating. Meanwhile, Chris makes radical changes in the office and nobody is happy with them. Including Chris, probably. Yes. It's a classic. Chris starting the episode. Let's get to the notes.

The episode was co-written by Greg Levine, producer Greg on this show, and Brian Rowe. So, yeah, how did that all sort of come about? We were talking about this earlier, Greg. Yeah, you know, Brian and I were our writer assistants. And this episode, I remember being very difficult to break. And then I think it went through one or two major rewrites. And we've talked about this before, but sometimes when you do a big rewrite, it becomes

just a very big writer thing, right? The entire room gets together, we call it a Frankenstein draft where everybody kind of goes off, writes a scene or two, they come together in this weird Frankenstein's monster of a script, and then it's all blended to make sense. And so because the script kept being room written, and rewritten, Mike allowed Brian and I to kind of pitch on it, to write some stuff in it. And because we had a hand in some of it, he in the room gave us the writing credit. And what was awesome about that as writer's assistants, it's something you dream about to get your name up on the screen. But to actually contribute to the script also was awesome. And then he and I took turns covering the room, one of us and the other one being on set for the

episode. And that was invaluable experience. So it was a really tremendous moment for both of us in our careers. It's really great. I mean, it's really hard to get a job even as a writer's assistant. It's not an easy job to get. You have to really kick in a lot of doors to even get that job. And then I think the best rooms I've been in, you know, you're trying to always mentor and sort of lift everyone else up, whether they're mid-level writers, lower level writers, writer's assistants, PAs, whoever, like what more is there than to sort of continuing to help the education of people who are learning to get into this job, right? And so I think that was really important to Mike and that was helpful in the show. And by the way, this was a difficult episode to write and I think it came out well,

but it was, keep in mind, we had essentially done 24 episodes and then 30 episodes and then this was the end of season three. It's just been a long run of episodes. This was the second to last episode of this season. And it just, you know, this doesn't happen in short order shows anymore. It happens in longer running shows. Like if you're doing 22, 24, 30 episodes, you have been in that room for so long that an episode like this, like sometimes you've just sometimes you're just kind of running on fumes. So it's nice to get a little jolt of energy from you guys. Rewatching it to prep for this episode,

I was remarked how much plot is stuffed into this. And I remember why it was so hard. I can't wait to go through it with you guys is that Ben and Leslie kiss in the previous episode, but then we're not at the finale yet. And so you have to kind of tread water in an interesting way that progresses them but you also have to set up potential cliffhangers or moments for every single character in the finale coming up after it so you'd stuff it with plot which is why this felt like a frankenstein script from the get-go so anyway it's filled with

stuff and i can't wait to get into it yes absolutely it's sort of you know that thing of the second last episode you're obviously honestly a lot of time you're setting up chess pieces for the finale and so that you know we we went through this when the show i'm working on right now it's like yeah the second last episode you're doing a lot of that business um all right the let's move on with some more notes notes the spaceship keyboard that donna is forced to use is an actual ergonomic keyboard manufactured by safe type uh this episode marks the first appearance of ethel beavers played by the incomparable helen slayton hughes helen's still acting still acting it's just uh she's one of our favorites uh kills with every line she's great

leslie tells ben that her mother loves mcsteamy from the tv show gray's anatomy pamela reed who plays marlene griggs nope once played a patient in an episode of Grey's Anatomy titled Valentine's Day Massacre. And I famously turned down the show Grey's Anatomy. Oh, shit. Did they offer you McDreamy? McDreamy, yes. It was before he was named McDreamy. I posit that had I done it, they wouldn't have nicknamed me and there would be no McDreamy. it they wouldn't have nicknamed me and there would be no mcdreamy well i i agree because uh you were more famous than patrick tempsey so i think it felt would be weird like yeah we know that guy like it was like you know what i mean it's like that kind of thing that's what i think that's

what i agree i and people you know a lot of people including my wife make fun of me because that is a cash cow that is still going on it's still airing but he hasn't been on the show forever right but he could have been if he wanted to like if you want if you if you wanted to and you're patrick dempsey he is likes racing and does other things so he'd had enough i get it but if you wanted to you'd still be on it just banking and banking and banking it's probably i've done the math sometimes i think it's probably a at this point of 50 million dollars swing yeah yeah and it's and it's it's it's uh it's like season 20 or something right but you know what though and people always you know beat me up about it sometimes um including

my wife um i had i done that i would not have been able to do parks and recreation parks and rec and all the other shit you've done it's like it you just these things i don't know i feel like when when stuff like that happens is like you kind of just move forward i have i have zero regrets like okay i was like uh also your life's pretty good zero zero regrets and by the way i'd rather be on parks and rec than than gray's anatomyomy. No offense to Grey's Anatomy. It's great. But Parks and Rec is – Do you think the parents of actors, their favorite role for their kids is when their kids get to be doctors?

That's funny. That's really funny. Right? Like I get to see the version of – Oh, I'd love their kid to be a doctor. You're a Jewish kid talking to an Asian kid. You probably – For us, it certainly would be nice. My dad's a doctor so yeah yeah amazing uh all right so let's get into the

synopsis the parks department welcome synopsis oh shit that's right so synopsis also this was uh submitted to us by a user at andy zito i believe said we should call it the synopsis so thank you andy zito um we'll call it the synopsis. So thank you, Andy Zito. We'll call it that from now on, as long as I don't forget like I just did one second ago. Let's get into the synopsis. The Parks Department welcomes Ann Perkins to her new office at Pawnee City Hall and fills it with balloons, much to the chagrin of her cranky office mate, Stuart. Leslie and Ben are dating, but they're keeping their relationship a secret

due to no dating policy at work. They're enjoying what Leslie calls the bubble, or the beginning of a relationship when everything is simple and fun. Yeah, I remember this cold open. I feel like I went down to set for this because I remember that office being full of balloons, just massively full of balloons. Kind of fun to shoot. Probably a nightmare for the props department set deck. shoot um probably a nightmare for the props department set deck um but uh yeah finally an ann cold open in city hall where she works finally it's season at the end of season three she finally works there uh it was kind of fun you were you on set for this greg you remember i stopped by for i

think brian was there but i remember uh thinking about how we had another great bit with balloons and ann like this is like in three episodes and has a lot of, has her balloon bit. I guess that's one of her strong characteristics is that she's always around balloons. The cold open, you know, so, you know, there's a question in the prompt here, like basically like where cold open is always a given in the show.

And before we even get into that, I want to just, for the folks out there, explain like what, what is the, first, like, what is the difference between a teaser and a cold open? And how do you think they got their names? I mean, teaser is sort of self-explanatory. It's teasing you to the story that's about to come up. But a cold open, because when I think of a cold open, I think of, that's an SNL term. Like, I think Chevy was breathtaking in the cold open

there you go and and uh i think so just for those of you who are uninitiated don't know what we're talking about just like i mentioned if you jumped into this episode first uh the cold open or teaser is a scene that starts the show usually before the opening credits and so i think maybe that's what it means by cold is there's no even indication or this is exactly that just starts you start cold and you're in the show you're doing it um it's usually in this show would be like a funny scene like one scene maybe at most and and and like sort of get it's a little sketch it's like a tiny sketch like snl and that sort of warms you up it's like in a moose boosh um and then the credits would happen we always say like then we go to the theme song i think we'd always say that um this i think the structure was kind of dictated for us i remember

uh distinctly it would usually be a cold open and then three acts each having an act break and then the tag essentially which is another and that's because that's where the the network is going to put the commercials that's why that's right that's what that's right and so when you're writing now for streamers and you're not doing commercials there's no such there's no reason to have a cold open so do you ever do that ever uh we actually do on our new show we do so so this is what happens i remember when we started doing master of none we would submit our scripts to netflix like we don't need act breaks like you know we were used to putting hey end of act one end of act two and it helps you story-wise sometimes you know you want to write a good act breaks like wow it's, wow, it's a cliffhanger. That's what our act breaks were in parks.

It would always be, hey, there's a twist or an escalation or a turn, a reversal, a surprise. I just listed a bunch of synonyms. But it basically, you know, that's what would get the audience to, you know, it's in the time of like soap operas, it's the same thing. Something crazy happens.

Oh my God, he killed my wife or whatever. And then you would come back from the break. Streaming, it's a movie. So you just write, write hey here's 30 pages and it's just 30 straight pages what we have done in this new show uh loot that that we're doing that stars my rudolph um we wrote scripts and then in the editing room we decided kind of where the cold open was and like sometimes it you know it's like we just kind of decided sometimes we didn't have one or whatever but this one is kind of like a throwbacky show show where there does feel like there's a cold open. And I still remember in the course of the run of Parks and Rec,

at a certain point, NBC was like, we need four acts. We're like, four? Like, four acts? Like, that's not, like, Aristotle wasn't like the classic four acts of storytelling. It was doing, like and it really like threw us for a loop because it's weird to do three cliffhangers in a show so uh that was strange and when you but when you're writing now do you have an opening title like how do you because there's a whole thing about that do you is it a a sequence is it how long is it all that stuff i'm

so interested in that it's it's kind of dealer's choice it's showrunner's choice because they they honestly access and some shows don't have it like you know like uh we went to the the premiere of hacks a great show on hbo max produced by mike sure um created by jen stasky and lucia and paul and who used to write for parks uh stasky did um they don't really have a title sequence as far as i know i think it just it just hacks just appears on the screen like atlanta's kind of same thing just as atlanta on master none we had like a kind of throwbacky like 70s just just like a black screen and then like a little logo and then kind of play all the people's names so and then on loot uh we we have a traditional kind of opening

sequence it's kind of cool just like we had a theme song commission a guy wrote a theme song for us it was great it's this dude uh um DJ Cheapshot from Styles of Beyond wrote a theme song. So you kind of do whatever and it's kind of great. It kind of depends on the show. And to me, it depends on the episode. We have episodes that we don't use a theme song in. So it's kind of cool. It's a little factoid. So I'm producing and starring in a new show for netflix and we're in pre-production we're writing the scripts and i am obsessed with this band foster the people and i got my friend mark foster to write he's going to write a theme song for us and the netflix people were like look

just so you know we're not going to pay for it and we have the data we can show you that people have 97 of the audience skips any main title sequence 100 of the time yes and it's a so you you can do it all you want it'll be great you'll love it in any even the people who love it just so you know we'll skip it 97 of everybody who's watching it we'll skip it 100 of the time do you still want to do it and i'm like oh well geez maybe not yes i've heard that same data and you know what when the game of thrones theme song came on i listened to it i like watching it i'm just saying i kind of liked it so i maybe in the three percent it depends on the thing gets you in the mood and by the way even if you hear it once, I think there's a Pavlovian

thing. I got to race to my remote to hit skip intro anyway. I'm going to hear the first five seconds. Dude, when I hear that succession theme song, it's great. You love the song. I think there's actually a Pavlovian thing where it's just like, I like

theme songs. I think they're kind of cool. It's not right for every show but i get the data and look make people skip intro if they want to but but i like the theme song and and uh i find it to be fun um all right let's get to the synopsis here synopsis apologies andy zito the bubble is threatened when ben has a meeting with leslie's mother marlene griggs nope a notoriously tough politician in the ponty school system who wants Wow! All of her demands during the meeting. Marlene considers Ben weak, so Leslie becomes determined to prove that he's a tough boss to impress Marlene. Wow. Marlene Griggs-Nope is back.

You never thought it would happen. God, remember that? That's crazy. Never. She's great, too. That's a great relationship. I think it always helps me understand understand why leslie is leslie yeah i'm trying to trying to win over her mother's love greg do you remember why we decided to do this was this

like was this planned a long time was it was like i don't remember like i'm trying to think back i don't think it was planned a long time but i think the idea of this this this bubble, this like, thing that exists at the beginning of a relationship, and when you're not sure where it's going, that energy, that excitement really interested us in the room. And so when we were trying to localize like the stakes of it, and who could kind of pierce that in a way that was interesting, I think the idea of bringing Marlene made sense, because it also tends to put Leslie on the back foot more than she usually is. She's usually, you know,

driving things with some confidence and an opinion. And Marlene has this way of disarming Leslie. You know, I was just realizing too, I have two episodes with credit to my name on the show. The other one I did right. Start to finish. And both of them were about one of Leslie or Ben meeting the other one's parents. start to finish and both of them were about one of leslie or ben

meeting the other one's parents especially it's especially meeting the parents um do you remember ro you ever meeting a member meeting uh uh cheryl's cheryl's parents you remember meeting oh god yes i mean yeah i mean everybody remembers meeting their significant other's parents for the first time it's always like fascinating and horrifying at the same time and i don't care who how much you love them don't love them hate them whatever it's fascinating and horrifying at the same time i i i remember meeting christine's parents and and uh she's very different she you know she's adopted and she has a birth mother as well like they're and her two moms are very different and She's adopted and she has a birth mother as well. And her two moms are very different.

And one of them loves to party. She lives in Taiwan and loves to party, like go out drinking. And then her other mom is like a more traditional Asian mom who's like kind of strict and stuff. But, man, it's always a nerve-wracking moment. They end up being great. Because I can, by the way, I can do both. I can party or I can be a good boy. So it was all good.

It was all good. But very, very funny. All right. Ben says at some point, this is funny in the episode, about eight minutes in, he says at one point in his meeting with Marlene, he for no reason took off his shoes and held them in his hands. This is an inside joke in the writer's room about how Ron held his shoes in his hands while at April's parents' house back in 94 meetings.

Yeah, I think it's a Dan Gore, I feel like. I think it'd be crazy if I couldn't just say, I'd be hard-pressed to think of anyone else who wouldn't have remembered this and have really just kept bringing it up as a weird choice. I think it maybe was specifically a Dan Gore dig at Harris, because Harris wrote 94 meetings and was on set and did not stop that from happening. So Dan and Harris had a friendly rivalry in the room. But why would you want to stop that from happening?

It's such a great actor's moment. It's like it's that special sauce, that magic that you hope an actor comes up with. You're like, what the fuck? What? And it's great. I love that rolo loves that moment it's one of my fun like the funniest memories from the room is is is watching mike's face as he saw that cut him coming back in the room and then showing it to us and be like why

did he do this because that's one of the hazards if you're a showrunner who can't be on set that's so so he i remember we talked about this when we did the episode, but I just love the notion that Mike Schur was just so horrified by that. Yes. It's just so great. He's like, what happened to my shirt?

He very rarely was like that, but he was like, he was just, he was flummoxed. He was like, he was completely flummoxed. I think he was shocked that there wasn't a take

without it, right? So at least we didn't have the option. I don't think so much it was like this actor choice. I think he respected the actor choice. I think that Harris didn't get a second option. I don't think so much of it was like this actor choice. I think he respected the actor choice. I think that Harris didn't get a second option.

Yes, 100%. That makes perfect, perfect, perfect sense. Shoot it multiple ways. I think he sometimes thought Harris was just high or something. He just smoked weed or something. Got to do it. Having his own time, having his own time.

Chris has enacted numerous changes to the Parks Department. He promotes Jerry to Public Relations Director, appoints April as everyone's assistant, places Tom Haverford on the Nightmare's fourth floor with Andy as his temporary assistant, and makes Ron sit in the middle of a circular desk after the removal of his office to force him to interact with people. Ron believes everything will eventually go back to normal as it has with past city managers that implemented changes.

However, Donna is concerned that the overly determined Chris will not do so and demands that Ron talk to him. On the fourth floor, Tom's attempts to charm some of the elderly women, including Ethel Beavers and Muriel, into doing his work, but fails miserably as they ignore him and all adore Andy and April.

A lot going on. I remember this circular desk really well. Me too. Remember this circular desk, Rob? Because you got to go in there and mess around. It was a nightmare. It was a nightmare to shoot.

I don't remember why it was a nightmare to shoot, but it was a nightmare, I think, because we had to get in and out. It was a nightmare to shoot. I don't remember why it was a nightmare to shoot, but it was a nightmare. I think because we had to get in and out. I just remember it was a debacle, that damn desk. We all hated it. Was it like a camera angle thing? Probably hard to get in.

It was a camera angle thing. And for him to turn, there was a whole thing about how it turned and he turned and then it was just not easy easy to shoot at all which is one of those things where sometimes you write something and and then you realize oh my god this is a nightmare to shoot and there's no way of knowing until you're doing it yes that that is that happens and you don't it's not predictable right it's like you write you write some gag in and you think oh you get you're happy you get the the desk built all this stuff then on the day you're like

oh this is really difficult um but we pulled it off i mean it's it's funny in the show it's funny when you're in it um and this was like was this a real thing like this swedish word he said was it yes we researched that or something right that seemed all real 100 real because i remember asking about it in the script i was like is this a thing and and they were yeah oh it's very much a thing yeah and and it's fun fun to see Chris like get into the Parks Department set because it's like you're not often in there. Sometimes you're just usually there to lay down the law or whatever. And you get to actually interact with the other Parks Department people. It's kind of fun.

Yeah. It was great to have scenes with everybody. I think I literally had scenes with everybody, which doesn't always happen in every episode. Yeah. And we get the rare uh ron donna scene oh yeah donna donna giving ron a pep talk like that that's like again like once you get deeper into a show's run you kind of see these oddball pairings and it's like wow we don't i mean that's the other crazy thing about you know jim o'hara and reddit in this show it's like they launched

their careers in some way and and you know red is red it's a star of our own show and all that stuff is like it's pretty crazy it's like it's kind of you know they again they were they were they were uh uh background they were they were background artists in the first uh first season and then they just graduated to huge parts of the show yep just tell tell the boss what to do yeah that scene that moment when she's talking to complaining about her keyboard to ron it's so incredible stuff uh fromta, right? She, that delivery of that word, that typo she keeps trying, like perfluptuous club or whatever it is.

It's, I found it unbelievable. I remember cracking up on set when that would happen. I feel like that whole B story just created so many moments of people just biting their tongues to not laugh. Yes. And I was also watching the episode with captions, I'll just say. And shout out to the captionist getting per flip to sclub spelled correctly yeah do they get their do they get the script do they see the script or no are they just guessing no i think they do now

i think what they do is they clean up the version because now everything with streaming you have to have it at the time it's launched in every caption with every language available overdubbed with every language and so i think all scripts are sent out to a company that does all that i like the bit where ron is in the chair and and he's kind of swiveling around i feel like we had a lot of fun with that and that bit about the sun t was i think uh pitched by brian rowe uh your fellow writer's assistant that's right um should we talk about oh also this so this is the thing that we tried to sort of incorporate into the set like you know we always wanted to remove the pillar in front of ron's office oh my god i remember this because it was horrible for shooting and so we wrote it into the show so that we could get rid of it

because it was impossible to shoot they kept blocking the camera angle so we just got rid of it and wrote it into the show right that's That's another thing that, that just the nitty gritty of doing, of making television that I always love is there's always something on the set that you build and you don't realize it's going to fuck you every episode. And, and, and finally you, you take care of it.

Usually happens in the off season. You come back and like, Hey, that wall's gone or that window that is gone. I, but on this show take care of it. It usually happens in the off-season. You come back and like, hey, that wall's gone or that window is gone. But on this show, I love it. They just took it out during the middle of the season with construction and it was super funny. Rode it into the show. The current thing on the show that we just wrapped, Lute, we have these table lamps and they're red and they're cool looking.

And then it's like, oh, every time we're shooting people, their desks, like these lamps are in the way. Like you just see the red lamp. It's just lamps, lamps, lamps. Look like UFOs. You're like, wait, why are there red UFOs in this shot? We got to raise or lower these. It just doesn't, it's like, it's a beautiful set.

You know, our production editor did a great job, but it's just like, ah, you just never know. It's like these lamps are now in the way of every shot somehow. And so who knows? Maybe we'll change it. We get another season um but yeah that that was uh that pillar was the bane of everyone's existence is this the first appearance of the fourth floor the second appearance greg do you remember this is like second appearance we originally go to the first floor i believe in episode 11 tom's divorce in season two but it's the first real time we're getting to know

the people there right and so yes that that's why i think it was so fun for us in the room to break a character like ethel beavers um because it just opened up and humanized this weird this weird floor and i think i don't know if you guys noticed but the set deck work in her office was incredible there is an open half empty bottle of Tums and then next to it, just a generic bottle of antacids. Extra, doubling up. Yeah, Ethel Beavers played by Helen Slayton Hughes, I believe her name is.

That's right. And she's still acting, as I said. She's still auditioning for movies, I think as he's just cast her in something. And she's really auditioning for movies i think as he's just cast her in something and and uh she's uh really really funny and i believe in the finale or near the finale of this show it's revealed she had an affair with uh the mayor mayor gunderson and uh yeah it's just like uh she keep we kept bringing her back because we knew she was funny um there's also another character who uh comes in looking for mort jansen And then smashes a coffee pot on the wall

And that is played by former Parks writer Dana Gould who was also A seminal alternative comedian Dana wrote for this show Season 2 maybe but it was cool To get to meet Dana because I Obviously see his stand up and yeah He was a friend of Greg Daniels' I believe too

Okay let's move on With the synopsis. Leslie trains Ben for his next meeting with her mother. He impresses Marlene so much with his tough negotiation skills that she becomes flirtatious with him. An uncomfortable Ben tells Leslie they should tell her about their relationship, but Leslie does not want to lose the bubble. Fed up, Ben storms into Marlene's office and tells her that he's dating her daughter

and asks her to keep it secret. Marlene laughs off the situation and tells leslie that she approves of ben uh this is uh yeah i guess he's kind of standing he was kind of forceful in this right he's kind of yelling at her a little bit it was kind of kind of interesting yeah i mean this is this began the really like it began the big Leslie Ben, big romance that will eventually culminate in all the Parks and Rec gentlemen in tuxedos. Yes. For the wedding. Getting married, all that stuff. My favorite photo that I have.

I have two favorite photos from Parks and Rec. is all the Parks and Rec men in Colts uniforms in the Colts arena, and the other is all of us in our tuxedos from the wedding that this begins the march to. Yes, I remember going to that Colts stadium. It was really fun. We got to mess around and throw footballs and catch passes and all that stuff, kick field goals.

The assistant who pops into Penn's office handing him a piece of paper is tammy the adio who was the line producer and ep morgan sackett's assistant at the time shout out to tammy very cool to see people now they stopped kind of letting us do that i feel like at while we were shooting parks we would like sometimes sneak staff members into the show and even give them lines sometimes but now i think the studio network doesn't want you to do that i think it's called like if you're not in sag already it's a huge rigmarole to do it it's you have to like taft hartley someone that's what it's called like get them into get them into the guild and i feel like they thought it was like some kind of like grift or something like they

they thought it was like but it's not it really was just like a a fun knot like an easter egg like to like hey this is this person worked on the show like let's give them you know a little part in it but i feel like they don't want you to do that wait a minute are you suggesting that the studios are killing the fun of making a show yeah i mean it's like they're i think they're hiding behind like a legal thing so yeah they want we all have to be wait a minute are you suggesting that the legal stuff is is making the shows less fun wait i've already complained about like clear, but this is also kind of – think about how fun it is that almost every writer on Parks is in the show. That's kind of – almost everybody who was on the show for a while as a writer

has some kind of cameo, usually with lines, which is kind of crazy. The Office was pretty famous for doing this, besides the fact that several of the writers were actors at the same time. But do you see almost every writer shows up at some point, like the finale has several of them just sitting at the bar. I think there's something also, I don't know, it's kind of nice. Like you write this thing or you make this thing, if you're an assistant to a line producer or you're the UPM,

whatever it is, to be like, hey, I'm going to show up and just live forever in this world. But they really do fight you at it now. It's tough. They really fight. And it's such a cool, yeah, you're right. It's kind of a cool reward. It's like I've been working on the show day and night,

slaving over it for three, four, five years, and then I'm in the show for like a blip. It's kind of fun, right? I don't know. It's not up to me, but it feels like, yeah, throw us a bone a little bit, right, if you work on the show. I'm all for it. Yeah, it's kind of fun. And it's like it's a fun thing on set. It feels like, yeah, throw us a bone a little bit, right? If you work on the show. I'm all for it. Yeah, it's kind of fun.

And it's like, it's a fun thing on set. It's like, oh, Tammy's here. And then we shoot out, you know, we shoot her. You know, she's handing someone a piece of paper. Like, she can do it. It's fun to see Pamela Reed and Amy Poehler again in this episode. There's a great shot of them when Ben says something, and they both turn their heads towards him in the same way.

It's really just sweet. It's really a sweet moment yeah if you're watching at home like uh go to i think it's minute 14 14 50 and you'll see this great moment of the two of them what a great choice they had yeah super sweet um this is sort of a throwback you know there's a note here in the in the notes here about uh how this was almost like more like not not super awkward but sort of more awkward than parks usually does like the turn of the end of act two when marlene is hitting on ben um you know greg you were talking about how this is kind of more like the office almost putting them in an uncomfortable situation uh but you know parks resolves it and it just resolves everything in a sweeter way. That's just like the tendency of this show.

So I feel like that's kind of what set it apart. Yeah, it's not cringe comedy. Parks was never cringe comedy ever, I don't think. And this might get into the weeds of writing a bit, but I think other shows like The Office, I think that relies on that uncomfortable factor to drive comedy, I think, in a great way. I mean, it's one of the best shows. It would have done a moment like this

much earlier on in the episode, right? So that it only has to heighten and get more uncomfortable from here. But I think it's the Parks version that saves the unpleasantness for as minimal time on screen as possible. And so this awkwardness of Marlene hitting on Ben happens at the act two break,

where there's only minutes left to resolve. You don't have to worry about Leslie having to maybe convince Ben to go on a fake date with her or anything else that another show would have done. Yeah, I really feel like the show kind of found its voice in that respect where I think and I think that's honestly Mike's voice. I mean, this was the first show he got to co create and and, you know, kind of took over as showrunner and i remember talking to greg about he's like yeah mike's instinct is just to be a little bit sweeter and just to have you know good people treating each other respectfully and and that's tough to ring comedy out of sometimes but you know the show i think is a is a admirable a job does an admirable job of trying to do that and so it just it just kind of went away from the kind of cringe

stuff the uncomfortable humor and and kind of reflected its time period a little more too yeah uh continuing on with the synopsis ron tells chris the changes do not play to his staff strengths and decides to compromise if chris returns everything to the way it was he will remain in the desk for another week chris complies nevertheless tom is frustrated with the experience and begins to contemplate leaving his city hall job to pursue his own entrepreneurial interests. This was a fun scene. It was, you know, seeing Chris and Ron go up against each other, I find always pretty satisfying. Because this is two, again, as we said, two different, very different male archetypes, but like two kind of like powerful dudes, right? Yeah.

And I always loved working with nick and we always had so much fun and just as i did with everybody on the show but everybody is their own sort of flavor right so you know and and nick and i always had great laughs together and um this was good because it's not you know last week's episode was banjo crazy chris which is one gear and this was um you know more um it's more story driven and you know i i have to play an authority figure which which is um a part of chris that makes it not not just a cartoon yeah exactly it's that kind of like 80 20 thing where it's like, you got to show a different side of him. And, you know, was there anything specifically like, you know, there was a lot of different kinds of actors in the show.

We've kind of talked about how, you know, there's people who come from stand-up, people who come from improv, people who come from theater, people, you know, you had been obviously in movies and tons of TV shows before this. Like, did you ever tailor like how you were treating your scene partners or like was there anything you noticed when you're acting because i certainly like feeling like when when when we would give you guys notes like every actor's different like was there anything feel wise i mean the thing i noticed the most over the course of the time there was the growth of aziz as an actor i mean it was marked and unmistakable um You know, when I, when I first arrived, you know,

it was like, you could see Aziz was just learning. I mean, he was a, he was a stand-up comic and became

and is now a really amazing actor, but he wasn't at first. And so you really saw Aziz grow and with, amy and rashida

particularly rashida that she was she has such a great realism but you always got the sense that she she wanted to be she was a great writer and that's what she had you know that that was something that she wanted to to do everybody had their thing, you know? And that's what makes the show so interesting. And coming into it, I absolutely could see that everybody had their lane as an actor. Yes, and I think the diversity of approaches from where everyone came is kind of interesting as well. It kind of all melded. I think what you're saying about Aziz is so accurate. He's told me, literally, in person, he's been's been like oh have you seen those early episode of parks it's like i

don't know what i'm doing like i just don't know what i'm doing like he's just he hadn't he hadn't really acted he had been in human giant which is a sketch show and then like he had done you know smaller parts here and there but he never been like a regular he was young he's 25 or whatever and and you know he got a lot better and it got it better enough that he could lead his own show and that was training man that's a hundred years a hundred hundred years hundred episodes of acting with with people like you and and people who are more experienced and um same thing with Rashida right you were saying like it's her intelligence I think her understanding of the story I think that's you know everyone has sort of their their their strengths

and and really what they go to but yeah I, I mean, it's pretty incredible to see. And so that all stemmed from you and Ron acting or you and Nick acting together, which is always fun to see. Tom wanting out of his government job. It's been kind of a slow crawl to this point, but it's exciting to see growth. You know, it was always very important to Mike that it was not a sitcom where everything is reset after every episode, because there's plenty of sitcoms like that, very episodic. And it's like, that's a totally

valid way to do a show. And there's been many, many great shows, but it was important to him that there is growth in these characters and it's paced out at the right sort of speed. And we would call these sort of, we would call them vectors, which is kind of like at the beginning of the season, we would talk about interpersonal vectors. Okay. There's Leslie and Ben, there's a romance vector there, right? There's, you know, Leslie and Ann, is there a friendship vector? What is that? And, and, and for Tom, it was like, okay, coming out of his shell and, and, and deciding that he wanted to, you know, pursue business. And so that always felt organic for the character. And, and we would, we, these are kinds of things we would discuss at our writer's retreat for the character and and uh um we would we these are kinds of things we would

discuss at our writers retreat before the season and try to accomplish over the course of the year and always keep that in the back of our mind in fact we would put up note cards along with all of the you know story ideas and and and all the pitches for episodes we would have cards that showed the interpersonal and sort of character arcs and vectors for the for the season so they would always be in our minds you know um since we're talking about tom uh looking for a new job you know as a writer of this episode or credited we got to do a little bit more work on some of the pieces in it and i had completely forgotten about this but as i'm watching the episode besides the fact that the site that tom

uses to browse for a new job is hoosiercareers.com it's very specific yeah job market for just people in indiana yes maybe owned by the same people who own hoosier mate i don't know i forgot this but the resume he uploads it's so fast it i wrote it because it is exactly the same format I use for my resume, that I just took it, and I just inserted Tom jokes instead of mine. But I'm like, that looks like Greg Levine. That is the same font. That's the same. I pulled it up. It looks exactly the same. And I looked it up, and I paused it to get some of the stuff. But some of the things that he has on his resume, first of all, he's an angel investor for the Snake Hole Lounge, Pond, Indiana. He drove additional traffic to the nightclub through ingenious marketing promotions. I love this. He made frequent attempts to contact A-list celebrities,

Joan Calabasso, Pert Hapley, and Diddy for personal hosting events. Successfully persuaded management to add one additional ladies night special event per month, and made my name say cocktail, the Haverford Boilermaker appear on the drink menu through aggressive leadership and charm. Hire him. Aggressive leadership. Aggressive leadership and also made frequent attempts. It's always like, always putting, always put your attempts on a resume, whether or not they're successful. You got to try. Yes, exactly. There's a lot of plot in that episode because it leads up to the next one's the season finale.

Am I correct? That's right. Little Sebastian is the next episode. So, yeah, you got to set up a bunch of stuff. Leslie and Ben are dating. They're advancing their relationship. And we're marching our way towards the finale episode 16 of season three um any final thoughts on this app boys i'm just glad that that desk is gone um super glad i

didn't didn't like i i think it's a weird looking wood too am i wrong uh that's my memory of it it was a it's like ceramic or something yeah it was it was really weird. Whatever was made out of it was very depressing as well. That desk was your revenant. It was the revenant of the show. Yes. Yeah, that's our new thing. We haven't gone back to our Ray Donovan moments on this podcast, and now we need to do our revenant moments where it's like a certain physical thing of shooting it that gives you the heebie-jeebies when you when you watch it every movie is either a revenant or ray donovan or a boiler room those are the only

three kinds of those are the only three kinds of films according to the show so every tv show yeah every tv show is a kind of movie it's all right another great congrats greg and and yeah ryan yes that's a big deal. The first time you get your. Thank you. I mean, really, seriously, that's that it's super, super hard to to to to get that that accomplishment. And that's. Yes. Really nice.

It's a good testament to writers, assistants getting opportunities from showrunners. That's why people are there. That's why you're an assistant is to get that opportunity to do the next thing. So it's a really great thing. Showrunners do is give their assistants that break yep yes absolutely and very quickly uh before we wrap a gifts parties job update the cold open is kind of a gift and a party dan perkins for her new job and at the end uh tom is considering leaving for a different job so there's a little bit of that in there. Let's go to the oops moment.

Yeah, shall we do it? Yeah, what do we got here? There's poster continuity problems. Oh, boy. In the scene with Tom and Chris in the hallway up on the fourth floor, the poster on the wall behind them keeps changing based on who the camera is framed on. When it's over Chris's shoulder, it has a yellow box on it.

And more information, when it's over Tom's shoulder, it doesn't. And I have here in the notes this scene is not the poster child for continuity uh i don't i i i didn't notice this but uh i i guess take a look at that right you know that famous line it's that famous line it's been attributed to every you know i i've heard it was oliver stone and whatever the continuity is for sissies that That's what they say. I've also heard if they're looking at the wallpaper, they're heading for the exits.

That's a good one. It's like when you're talking to the production designer. They're like, you know, because you have to make these decisions about every little detail that happens on the set. But, you know, that's also been said. All right. Let's do the episode MVP. Most valuable Pawnee in which character moment is episode 6 out of the most and why? I'm going to give the episode mvp most valuable pawn in which character moment is up with the

success of the most and why i wouldn't give the episode mvp to greg for getting his first reddit 100 percent great thank you and brian rowe and brian rowe and brian greg and brian shout out to you guys shout out to you guys uh second mvp will be uh marlene because she hadn't been in the show in years and then she came back to be in the show. Yes. Agreed. Yeah. I want to just also give, because I shouldn't take it for myself, but I loved it.

I cracked up watching it. Donna, Migo, Reda delivering Perflictus Club was so funny. So good. I loved it. And the Space Keyboard listeners, let us know who your MVP is by tweeting at Team Cocoa Podcasts or by using the hashtag Parks and Recollection.

Let's move to the town hall. Do you want to go to the town hall? I think you do. Should we do this in the fourth floor? Should we do this in the fourth floor? Absolutely. Wait, should we do this in the circle desk? What's your take, guys?

Ooh, let's all crowd into the circle desk. Let's crowd into the circle desk. Maybe the circle desk is temporarily moved to the fourth floor. We can do it there. Next to Ethel Beavers, this town hall comes to us from Katie. Katie says she's a huge fan of the show. I've seen the series numerous times, but my all-time favorite scene is the tea lady scene. So that's in this episode. There's a sign at Ramsey Park that says, do not drink the sprinkler

water. So I made sun tea with it and now I have an infection. I want to know everything about it. Who wrote it? How many takes? How did Nick ever keep a straight face while escaping her? It is simply the best. Thanks so much for any intel and thanks for putting in this podcast. Thank you, Katie, so much. We talked about this briefly in this episode. Certainly Brian Rowe contributed to this episode. And now, am I wrong? Is this the same actor, Greg, who appears in some public forums as well?

Or am I wrong about that? No, she's the same one. I think she shows up once in Ron's office maybe during something like a 94 meetings, but we see her again and we've seen her once before i think um is is this the uh cupcakes and lasagna woman or what is that joke like they're like all i've been eating is cupcake and lasagna for the past year and i feel terrible is it that lady

i don't know i don't want i don't want't want. Now we got to go back and research. But the answer is Brian Rowe definitely contributed to it. And I love the scene where he's spinning around in the circle desk. So you know what? For all the trouble that desk caused us, it also provided with Katie's favorite scene. So it was all worth it. That's all worth it. It makes it all worthwhile.

All right. That's about it for me. You guys got anything else? Otherwise, we're good. Nope. You guys get ready for next week's season finale. They don't come around all the time. Buckle up.

All right. Yeah. Thanks for listening. Subscribe to We Get Podcasts, five-star review on Apple. Thanks to Shulte and Craig. Congrats to Craig on this episode, and goodbye from Pawnee. We will see you next week. Parks and Recollection is produced by Greg Levine and me, Rob Schulte. Our coordinating producer is Lisa Berm.

The podcast is executive produced by Alan Yang for Alan Yang Productions, Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Jeff Ross, Adam Sachs, and Joanna Solitaroff at Team Coco, and Colin Anderson at Stitcher. Gina Batista, Paula Davis, and Britt Kahn are

our talent bookers. The theme song is by Mouse Rat, a.k.a. Mark Rivers, with additional tracks composed by John Danek. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time on Parks and Recollection. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher.