Parks and Recollection - The Fight (S3E13)

Episode Date: July 5, 2022

Pawnee is full of clearances and apologies when Rob Lowe and Alan Yang tackle S3E13. In The Fight Tom invites everyone to the Snakehole as he debuts a new drink, and Leslie encourages Ann to apply for a job with the city. On today's episode find out how front loading the B-story helped the slow burn of the A-story, why Janet Snakehole has a Mid-Atlantic accent, and which actors improvised their drunk talking heads. All of this and some interesting talk about agents! Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone]  Chris Traeger has fired Dennis Cooper, the former health department public relations director, who hung posters around city hall to publicly condemn his adulterous wife. Leslie suggests Ann replace him, but her ulterior motive is to spend more time with her friend. Although reluctant, Ann agrees to attend the job interview—and Leslie provides her with an overwhelming amount of reading material to prepare for it.  Tom encourages the parks department to attend the Snakehole Lounge, for the unveiling of his new alcoholic beverage, Snake Juice—He also requests that they use guerrilla marketing techniques via word of mouth promotion. April shows little interest in attending, until Andy suggests they make a game of it by role-playing as different people at the bar. April pretends to be Janet Snakehole, an aristocratic widow with a dark secret, while Andy poses as his frequent alter-ego, FBI agent Burt Macklin.  That night, at the Snakehole Lounge, Leslie is surprised and annoyed to find Ann partying on the dance floor instead of preparing for the job interview. Ann introduces Leslie to her latest boyfriend, local radio host "The Douche" (Nick Kroll). As Leslie and Ann become increasingly drunk from Snake Juice, Leslie insults Ann's current dating lifestyle. This prompts Ann to insult Leslie for moving too slow with Ben. The fight escalates throughout the night, and Leslie ultimately claims she always has to keep Ann motivated or Ann would not go anywhere. Both declare it best that Ann not work with Leslie after all and they storm off.  The Snake Juice proves delicious and popular with the rest of the parks department employees, all of whom become extremely drunk, with the exception of Donna who is on a juice cleanse. Chris arrives to warn Tom that using government employees to promote his own personal ventures is a breach of ethics. He tells a disappointed Tom that he must sell his shares of the Snakehole Lounge if he wants to keep his job.  The next morning, everyone who drank Snake Juice is extremely hungover except for Ron—and Tom sells his shares the next morning to Jean-Ralphio, but not before Ron tries to convince Chris to let Tom off the government “teat.” Leslie deeply regrets how she treated Ann. Ben visits Ann at her home and asks her to forgive Leslie. Ann, who also regrets the fight, is touched by Ben's gesture and reveals that Leslie likes him. Ann decides to attend the job interview, during which she and Leslie apologize to each other. After a second interview with Chris, Ann is given the job on a part-time basis so she can continue her work as a nurse. April tries to reprise her role of Janet Snakehole and have Andy reprise Burt Macklin, but a hungover Andy claims Burt is dead, but creates Kip Hackman, Burt Macklin's brother. He then vomits onto Kyle's shoes.

We're getting together to talk about all the things we used to do The laughs, the passions, the little Sebastian's, the pets we fell into And we're putting it on in a podcast, then we'll send it up into the sky We're calling it Parks and Recollection Come on little podcast, spread your wings and fly Welcome everybody to Parks and Recollection. It's me, Robbie Lowski with Alan Yanksky. What up, Rollo? How you doing, buddy? I'm psyched. I love this episode. Very funny episode,

as they kind of all are. And it's always good to be with you and everybody out there listening away. This one's a legend, man. This was one where I think there might be the most popular GIFs of any Parks and Rec episode in history. We'll get to that part.

But yeah, it's... I don't know. I remember this episode pretty well. And I think a lot of fans do too. I think it's a lot of... A lot of fans top 5, top 10 list. So let's jump right into it. Absolutely. Take it away. Alright. Episode details.

The title is The Fight. Written by Amy Poehler. I've heard of her. She plays Leslie Knope in the show. Look her up. Directed by Randall Einhorn Randall is a great director He did a bunch of The Office And he did a bunch of our show as well Original air date May 12th, 2011

The blurb Anne's lack of enthusiasm At an offer for a city hall job Causes an argument with Leslie While Tom invites everyone to the snake hole To help him promote his new alcoholic beverage Mmm, yummy Which is called snake juice Wow, so today Tom invites everyone to the snake hole to help him promote his new alcoholic beverage. Yummy.

Which is called snake juice. Wow. So today, Greg points out today is May 12th. We're recording this on May 12th. So it's 11 years to the day after it aired. That's, I don't know. It's something. That's something, right? It means something somewhere.

It's something somewhere. Notes, notes. This is the second episode written by Amy Poehler. Her first was telethon of course uh so how this would usually work is the story was broken in the room which means the writers would talk about it and figure out what happens in the episode and maybe have a little a little document no cards etc that explain what happens amy came in pitch ended well as well walking through the beats in the story with everyone else then she went off to write the draft

her script came in i think we remember this uh was very good. And so we didn't change that much. Oftentimes, when a writer's draft comes in, you have to rewrite, etc, etc, etc. This came in pretty strong. And so it goes to the table read. We did the table read, you make a few more changes, and then we go shoot it. But her scripts are always very strong, which was kind of a testament to her writing ability and also the perspective she brought from set. Because the writers are not on set 24-7. They're not on every day. You kind of go for your episode.

And so Amy's there almost every day because she's number one on the call sheet. And she just has an experience with all the other actors and is seeing what is working and what isn't working as well with the other characters. And so she brings that knowledge of the characters and the set to the writing world, which is very helpful. This episode aired back to back with the next episode Road Trip, but they were meant to be standalone separate episodes, not meant to air that way. Season three wound up premiering as a mid-season replacement. And the last four episodes aired in two weeks, two episodes a week, so that the season would wrap with the rest of the normal network TV season in May. This is the episode Anne officially joins the rest of the cast as a

co-worker in City Hall. We finally did it. So people are not, she's not in the office reading a newspaper and unexplained why she's there. The cold open, you see, if you watch it on Peacock, is part of the producer's cut so after the episode originally aired on nbc the producer's cut with four minutes of additional material was made available online i don't know where you even get the original cut because i read i realized watching this one i think it's like 25 minutes or something i don't know that you can see the 21 minute version so who knows maybe on a dvd so go buy a DVD player and a DVD of this season. Each actor improvised their snake juice inhibited talking heads.

This is we got to get to this point. In addition to the improv, the snake juicers spent about two days on their own filming their snake hole lounge scenes, which included the shots used in a montage sequence that showed how drunk each character had become by the end of the night. Amy, Amy Poehler, described the filming as the most fun i've ever had which i really believe if you watch this episode you'll get to that part and it's amazing and it's a really fun time for the cast to cut loose during the opening argument in ron's talking head he mockingly refers to a pig's head on a stick a reference to the novel lord of the flies that's a lot yeah that's a lot that's a lot there that's a lot. A lot of stuff going on there. That's a lot of stuff. All right, let's get into the show.

Chris Traeger has fired Dennis Cooper. Oh, we had an input from a reader. When we say synopsis, we should say synopsis because the main character of the show is named Leslie Knope. I like synopsis. So what is the synopsis? We got Knope's notes, and then we go to the synopsis. I mean, why not, right? Yeah, sure.

We've got to do it. Yeah. I mean, it's honestly an oversight that we weren't doing that already, so apologies. All right, let's get into the synopsis. Chris Traeger has fired Dennis Cooper, the former... By the way, this show usually has crazy names. This guy's name is just Dennis Cooper? Yeah.

What are we doing? What happened? What happened? Did Mike suddenly stop running the show for like two seconds while someone named this character? How did that name get through? I don't understand what happened. That is insane.

Rob says the Pawnee video of people. It's like when we named the store Pawnee Video. It's like, okay, Dennis Cooper, the former health department public relations director is fired by Chris because he hung posters around city hall to publicly condemn his adulterous wife a funny talking head we'll get to leslie said leslie suggests and replace him but her ulterior motive is to spend more time with her friend although reluctant and agrees to attend the job interview and leslie provides her with an overwhelming amount of reading material to prepare for it um, I think we can all point to a friend

who wants something more for you than you want for yourself. Do actors face this with their agents every meeting? I like that. I love that confrontational thing. That's like, it's kind of a funny thing that Sheltie put in the notes. Rob, honest digression here that I am curious about.

What is your relationship with your agents? Well, see, I've been, honest digression here that I am curious about. What is your relationship with your agents? Well, see, I've had a relationship with agents literally since I was 13 years old. Yes. You've been working in the biz for a while. Check out this guy's resume. It's long. So I always am fascinated when I meet other actors and observe their relationships with their agents and stuff, because my worry is that my relationship was forged when I was 13, and I'm still doing it like a 13-year-old would. You could look at it the other way, that I've been doing it so long that it's super evolved. And the bottom line is, I don't know, because I have a very specific way of dealing with my agents and managers. And I don't know if it's like anybody else's or not, but I'm very up in their grill. I'm very, I know certain actors don't ever talk to their agents or they wait for the agents to call them or they have no relationship I'm always always like what's happening what are we doing what's

the latest thing what's what's next here's what I heard all of that I'm super proactive I think in some ways that makes sense you know I watch my I watch my girlfriend deal with her her representatives as well and she's an actor like you. And I think it's a little bit different because for me as a writer, director, producer on that side, in some ways as a writer, I'm kind of generating my own content, right? It's almost like, hey, if I want to work on something, I'll come up with it and write it or get some friends and work on it together, whatever. As an actor, you kind of have to get sent scripts. You have to get sent projects unless you become a a producer which of course you are as well but at a certain point like you're getting sent stuff so you need someone to send that stuff to you so i think it makes sense to be to be proactive and to be like well what's next and and i do think the squeaky wheel gets

the grease because it's like they may know rob's gonna call like i think it helps i think it helps i for me personally you know again it's a slightly different relationship because i i'm not an actor i'm on the other side but i i i sometimes feel like should i should i have switched agents more something i've had the same agents since i was 21 years old like just the same agent and yeah like cory wellens at wb jeff gore is my movie. And it's like, you know, it's been working fine. So, you know. My theory on that is, and I've been at every agency over the long career, and it usually is about a 10-year plus run. I've heard shorter, too.

A 10-year is really generous, actually. Yeah, no, I'm very loyal and give people the benefit of the doubt. And I also know that at the end, maybe on the edges, and I'm talking about the tiny, tiny edges, there's a difference. But for the most part, they're all the same. And I don't mean that. I who did everything from Discover Lorne Michaels and Jim Henson and represented all the Saturday Night Live players. He's written a great book. He's a legend. He used to believe that if you changed agencies, that was good for one new good job, just doing that. I don't believe that anymore, by the way. But for a while, I think it was true. Yeah. I think the idea is if you switch, you get a little juice because they're hungrier. They want to impress you when you first get there. But I wouldn't know.

You're doing it fine. If it ain't broken, don't. That's what I was saying. At a certain point, I'm like, I've had the same agent, lawyer for this forever. I don't have a manager. It seems I'm incredibly busy. I don't have enough time to work on everything I have going on. Sorry, before we move on, something you said about why do we name Dennis Cooper, Dennis Cooper stuck in my head. Yes. Please. I wanted to remind what happened and I found our clearance reports and we've talked about this in previous episodes. It's amazing. We have to clear everything said so that we don't potentially get sued.

And so we have the rights to say anything. And the original name of the script was Dennis Harper, who cleared. It was allowed. There were five or more in Indiana, which made it okay. There was one Jan Harper in Indiana. And because there's one Jan Harper in Indiana, we couldn't make reference to it. So if you are, I was thinking about this, if you are Jan Harper in Indiana, listening to this right now, congratulations, you avoided any potential reference to you

and your personal life. But then we decided to pick a very generic last name that we thought would just blanket and get everybody. That's why we landed on pick a very generic last name that we thought would just blanket and get everybody and that's why we landed on such a generic name that is one of the banes of the writer's existence is is clearance like name clearance because you pick a name it doesn't clear it's like the two paths as as greg's talking about you pick something either very generic that there's tons of people so they can't see you because if there's one, they can see you. Or you pick something that's so crazy that zero people have it.

And Parks usually would choose the latter. But boy, like I remember so many calls like clearance and like you can't do it or whatever. And then the name is weird. I don't know. Particularly when you're going to say Jan Cooper will give you chlamydia. I mean, let's face it. That actually is libelous, right? That actually is slander. So I really like this talking. I don't remember shooting this, Rob. It's these signs. It's you holding a bunch of signs. I don't know

if there are more than this, but yeah, Jan Cooper will give you chlamydia. Chlamydia affects nearly 100% of Jan Cooper's. The Department of Health congratulates Jan Cooper, Miss Chlamydia 2001. Jan, I love i love you please come back i realize i'm not blameless here please so i i were there more or was this all of them i i forget oh this was this was all of them and i believe i i believe i had to say them as well as show them and um i do i remember laughing they're all they all make me laugh It's a turn. There's a story in the talking head. He apologizes and clearly did not work. So then he just went back to a different one.

His old tactic of yelling at her. And then we meet him later in the episode. Anyway, Dennis Cooper appears later in the episode. Well, here's a perfect thing about what I loved about playing Chris is, you know know it's just a comedy engine you know there's like it just that's just out and out going for it comedy there's there's but you guys you you wonderful writers figured out a way to make it actually drive story too because that is the impetus for getting ann perkins into um out of her set, out of her really expensive underused hospital set.

Tear down the hospital. Tear down the hospital. Morgan Sackett doing backflips because he could tear down that standing set which we're never shooting on. But yeah,

so Morgan was the line producer on the show and is a wonderful line producer. I actually saw him a couple nights ago. I had a chat with him and it was lovely to see him again.

He is, there's no better line producer. He is a wonderful line ago. I had a chat with him, and it was lovely to see him again. He's the best. There's no better line producer. He's a wonderful line producer. I always try to hire him, and he's always busy. He's always busy. Okay. Tom encourages the Parks Department to attend the Snake Hole Lounge for the unveiling of his new alcoholic beverage, Snake Juice. He also requests that they use guerrilla marketing techniques via word-of-mouth promotion.

He also requests that they use guerrilla marketing techniques via word-of-mouth promotion. April shows little interest in attending until Andy suggests they make a game of it by role-playing as different people at the bar. April pretends to be Janet Snakehole, an aristocratic widow with a dark secret, while Andy's what you always say, which is like, let's have fun. Let's be fun. Let's do comedy. Let's let's. And it's just an excuse to get everyone in a big room together and get them drunk and have the whole cast in one kind of one story. I mean, there's different stories, but like, they're just all in the same room, which doesn't actually happen that much. We have this many characters. It's actually hard to execute. So it's just a bunch of people in a room getting drunk. Is this the first appearance of Janet Snakehole and Burt Macklin? I believe she calls herself Janet Snakehole briefly in a previous episode, but this is the one where she's actually wearing the costume, doing the sort of mid-Atlantic accent

voice or whatever that is. I think whatever that is. Yeah. Whatever that is. I think whatever that is. Yeah. Whatever that is. I don't know. Whatever that is. Whatever that is. It's kind of what it is.

So let's start from this meeting where Tom kind of tells everyone. It's kind of like a sales pitch meeting. He's prepared a script for everyone to ideally memorize, but they can't. Their talking points are high-end, VIP, and lifestyle. This is kind of like when scripts are delivered on shows the same day as filming. So it didn't happen very much on Parks, but I think you may have gone through that experience, Rob. Oh, yes. Very familiar.

It's like, make some shit up. We're about to roll. We got to shoot. I love just the high-end VIP and lifestyle lifestyle It sounds like it's the buzzwords Of the E channel which makes me laugh Yes it's very It's very in character At this point in the series you know we just Kind of had a beat on most of the characters It's just like you know exactly what's going to happen

I also like this talking head that When Ron talks about the only Items he'll endorse U.S. Army issue mustache trimmers Morton Salt about the only items he'll endorse u.s army issue mustache trimmers morton salt and the cr lawrence fane two inch axe style scraper oscillating knife blade so good this talking head was written by by mike and and apparently uh the version of the episode was nick's first take so he just kind of did that's that's writer and actor kind of in sync there but very good talking head you know i was thinking as I was watching this episode and prep was that,

you know, the fight, which we'll get to doesn't really happen and it's a slow burn. And so it happens later on in the episode. Right. And so the first act had to set the stage for Leslie and Ann, but that's why there's this big set piece of a B story to like lead the way with Tom in the,

in the conference room with everybody that you kind of front load the B story at the beginning. And because the A story of Leslie and Ann is a slow burn. I thought it was really interesting and it distracts you for a while. Yeah. And I love, I love the, this Janet Snakehold,

Burt Macklin stuff. I think that this episode is really memorable for that stuff. I just also like, what is, what does he say about stealing the president's rubies? He said, it's like that, that like,

and like that, and that also was very inspirational in future episodes when we would write Burt Macklin stuff. Cause I think there's one where he goes to a Christmas bachelor party and he has like a long sort of long, like one of the longest talking heads ever in the history of the show of, of, of like what you

what he would do yeah yeah of of yeah and two parties where he's like working at working on the cave and he's going to take revenge on you and all this so yeah so so this is stealing president rumors i think it's like the proto like tadpole version of that talking head yeah that we will get to that talking head but when we do that, that is, I think, one of the seminal moments of Pratt's time on the show. Yeah, and Pratt comedy machine, right? Oh, so here's the talking head. Burt Macklin, FBI. I was the best damn agent they had until I was framed for a crime I didn't commit, stealing the president's rubies.

I mean, yeah. That's so stupid. Yeah, it's so stupid. It's like, it's perfect. It's perfect it's perfect so i you know because i mean if we know anything it's like you know the president's rubies are world-renowned all right uh moving on the synopsis that night at the snakeholeounge, Leslie's surprised and annoyed to find Ann partying on the dance floor instead of preparing for the job interview. Ann introduces Leslie to her latest boyfriend, local radio host The Douche, Nick Kroll.

As Leslie and Ann become increasingly drunk from snake juice, Leslie insults Ann's current dating lifestyle. This prompts Ann to insult Leslie for moving too slow with Ben. dating lifestyle this prompts and to insult leslie for moving too slow with ben the fight escalates throughout the night and leslie ultimately claims she always has to keep and motivated or and would not go anywhere both declare it best that and not work with leslie after all and they storm off um we talked about this episode a lot in the register because they had basically never fought in their lives right it's like leslie is like such so worshipful of anne and just kind of i don't know just it's it's it's a real uh it's required it's not unrequited love but it's just such a you know a sort of peaceful relationship up until this point and so i think it took a while

to break this one right i feel like it sat up this was one of those note cards that kind of sat on the wall for a while and i think you know it's helpful to have amy write it as well because it's like why would they fight what would it be over and you know what would be realistic when also they're also really actual friends amy and rashida so yes you know they can in as a writer amy has all the access you could possibly want as a writer to write something like that yeah they're good friends. I mean, I feel like that's the other thing. It's like, I think, Rollo, you've mentioned this on the show before, but there's like

a Parks text thread, like all this stuff. Like I saw ZZ the other day and, you know, he was still on the Parks. Like they're still texting each other. It's like, it's really crazy. I mean, it's still going. So, I mean, that was one of the things we wanted to keep in mind as this fight got designed was, okay, what would be the level of it? What would be the scope of it? What, how would it be resolved and how would it be realistic? And I think one of the things we always, it's kind of like a, it's kind of like the nuclear bomb is,

is when you have people get drunk. It's like, you don't want to do it every episode, like, because it can motivate certain things. Cause just like in life, when people get drunk, sometimes things that are out of control happen. And so in this episode, it was like, well, we're going to use that nuclear bomb and have everyone get drunk and sort of, it'll help grease the wheels. But of course, you have to motivate the fight and not just have it like, hey, they got drunk and fought, like, you want to have it motivated in a great way. in a great way. You know, if memory serves me correctly, I remember the idea of them fighting being a card for a long time, but every time we try to break an episode about it,

it was like, they are, you know, there's the Pawnee goddesses, which wind up being a storyline. I think at one point it was supposed to be about Leslie and Ann. They're each taking rival troops or something. And the idea was always so plot heavy. And I can't remember who it was who pitched it,

but like, yes, the fight should just be about friendship, right? The fight should be, we need to instigate it beyond just them drinking, but about bringing her into the city hall. But I think I can't remember who it was who pitched it, honestly. But I think that is what helped crack it, that it wasn't plot heavy, that it was the fact that we've been waiting for a moment like this between two friends, which happens time to time yeah and it was i think it was smart to make it personal you know it's obviously a little bit about the you know the the job and all that stuff but but yeah it's it's

kind of a personal thing between them and it also made me laugh to see uh nick kroll pop up as the douche i forgot that that was the plot point that she's like flirting with the douche like that was unexpected and it's funny to see kroll because it's like you know he's also come a long way like i saw crowley as well and it was like he's married got a baby got a beautiful wife lily and he's like a very mature guy now he's just playing the douche in this episode like oh this is kind of cool i always love the douche great character nick nick is and it's uh unless i'm wrong it's one of the few times we see him outside of his studio. That's right.

And we learn his real name, Howard Tuttleman. That's so good. Which is great. There's a room for some mayonnaise in this lady sandwich is one of his lines. We'd be remiss also if we didn't shout out Ben Schwartz as Jean-Ralphio, one of our favorite guests. And there's a kind of a classic joke here where he begins his run of rhyme songs that don't rhyme like so great say k to the end of the ope she's the dopest little shorty in all pawnee indiana so that that it's a it's a running bit it's a running bit in this episode isn't this

also where he's he's summoned to the dance floor and he pops out. Right? That's so amazing. Yes. And this began the conceit of John Ralphio popping up. Yes. Literally popping up like a jack-in-the-box. His weird movements too. So Leslie says, John Ralphio, dance up on me. Like when she's kind of drunk in the fight with

Anne. And then he does his weird Schwartz movements over to her. We need to get it back on here Another another several more There'll be more John Raffio episodes We need us some more Schwartz on the show I also I thought I thought it was funny When they do that scene with with Schwartz and

Aziz and they're trying to get Offerman to drink the Juice and it's like to drink the Snake juice and like him Enjoying the snake juice is a tremendous buy because there's no way he would like this drink but they served the story so he drinks it he's like yeah i like it and then he's going around like promoting it but it's like this is crazy he would never like this drink i don't know why we decided to do that do we know what

is in the snake juice yeah i think he says it's like i think he has a talking head where he's like uh we i mix a bunch of alcohol together And then I put some coffee in there and some caffeine Or, you know, some coffee flavored stuff and caffeine And it's 140 proof Which means it's 70% alcohol And it tastes kind of like Kahlua So it's like, that's basically, it seems like a lot of

Runoff and then some coffee flavoring So, doesn't sound good To me. No, I think It also, as Donna Meagle says later in the episode, snake juice Is basically rat poison. Alright So Doesn't sound good To me No I think it And it also As Donna Meagle says Later in the episode Snake juice is basically Rat poison

Alright The snake juice provides Delicious and popular With the rest of the Parks department employees All of whom become Extremely drunk With the exception of Donna

Who's on a juice cleanse Chris arrives To warn Tom That using government employees To promote his personal Ventures Is a breach of ethics He tells a disappointed Tom That he must sell his shares of the snake hole lounge if he wants to keep his job

okay this is this is maybe your least favorite thing to do is chris trager which is be the boss and just come in and and and be angry at tom i know and it's it's it's kind of going back to what chris was originally brought in do, which was kind of kick ass and deliver bad news. And I'll never forget Mike's thing was Chris is the kind of guy that can tell you you're fired and you don't realize it until the meeting is over and you've gone down an elevator, gotten in your car and driven three or four miles. Wait a minute. Did he just fire me? Like that was always, that was one of Mike's pitches about who Chris is. And this is a moment where we kind of go back

to that for a second. Yes. And it's like, you're friendly to Tom, but you're still the authority figure. So it's kind of going back to that version of Chris. And it's interesting, not a lot of like Chris Tom scenes before this episode. I know.

It'll come later. Like, believe me, in a show with this many characters, in this many episodes, you're going to cross paths. But yeah, it's one of the first intense scenes between the two of you where you're warning him he'll be fired or whatever. He has to divest his interest. Who's your favorite alter ego on the show? Boy, I feel like Andy has the most alter egos. We talked about this once,

but it's like, he has Burt Macklin, but he also has, like, so many other ones. It's crazy. Yeah, it's hard to top Burt Macklin. I mean, and also, it's A, great. He's really funny as Burt Macklin, but I think it's the most iconic. Like, I think if you,

I always go by judging Halloweenlloween costumes like how many times do you see a character as out in the real world as a halloween costume and if there are actually a lot of burt macklin's i've seen it before and i've also seen the couples costume burt macklin and janet snakehole which is kind of fun yeah and by the way not too taxing to get because it's like sunglasses and an fbi jacket anding to get Because it's like Sunglasses and an FBI jacket And then Janet Snakehole's Like that hat And then like

Kind of like a dress Or whatever Yep Good couples costume Also good Also like kind of A cool one to do now Because it's like

It's not like the show's airing It's not like Ah we're doing a You know A Euphoria one or whatever It's like Or it's I don't know what that costume

Would be I'm dressed as somebody From Euphoria Don't you know Ted Euphoria Ted Lasso Ted also not a taxi Can I get a sweater? Can I find a sweater and a fake mustache? But yeah it's kind of nice to do one that's not

By the way did we just realize that Ted Lasso Is basically a rip off of Nick Offerman's Ron Swanson He's like a nice version It's a sweater and a bad mustache It's a sweater and a mustache. I'm just saying. Hot take.

Sweater and a mustache. I'm just saying. It's like he went to London. There actually is an episode where he goes to London. This talking head with Tom's investment ideas was very fun to write. This is kind of a situation where, as the writers, you just get together and write 50 of them. Make a baby tuxedo line. make a baby tuxedo clothing line a department store with a guest list white

for earmuffs for men a new brand of bottled water called h2o contact lenses that display text messages invent a phone that smells good own a nightclub called eclipse that's only open for one hour two times a year and with a cover charge of five thousand dollars so again it's kind of like i i think we got into this trend of like let's list 50, it's kind of like, I think we got into this trend of like, let's list 50 things. It kind of started with like, Andy's band names in season one, Rock Show episode six. Yeah. But always fun. It's funny when

Donna and Chris, it's always funny to, again, not a lot of Donna and Chris scenes, but they have some common ground here. They're like, they're both, Donna's on a cleanse and Chris has been on a million cleanses. So, they talk cleanses with each other. It's like, oh, pre-broth is an amazing stage. I love that line of dialogue. That's very, I mean, that is vintage Traeger right there. Pre-broth is an amazing stage.

It's almost all of his characteristics in like five words. Yeah, it is really. That is a lot of real estate in five words. It says everything you need to know about Chris. Have you done cleanses in the past? I hadn't when I played Chris. I hadn't done them yet because I was afraid I would pass out. And I have since done them, and you get used to them. And they're kind of – when you do them, you're not supposed to do them a lot, obviously,

of them and they're kind of they're when you do them you're not supposed to do a lot obviously but when you when you get the hang of them they're kind of cool because you kind of get a little buzzed and pre-broth is an amazing stage as it turns out what what i've never done a cleanse what are your favorite kinds like what are the what are the kinds that you've done it's like juice juice cleanse okay simple easy and ironically you're like you think you're going to be hungry and you're like do i have to keep god i'm so full i feel like i'm doing is drinking juice really there's a lot of peeing i'm just gonna say yeah a lot of peeing how long do they generally last i've never done one more than a day uh 24 hours um but but will do, you know, I know people will do 48 and, you know, I'm no doctor. I don't know what to recommend.

But I have a trainer that I work with who does at least once every two weeks. Makes sense. Makes sense. We also got a shout out. This is the episode where Jeanan ralphio is in the car with everybody and he says i'm so alone at the end of that scene which is great everyone's so drunk and then uh that kind of i believe ends the act and we got to talk about okay so this is kind of the hallmark of this episode is the series of drunk talking heads the tower of talking heads

of people drunk at the snake hole lounge um. And everyone has a great joke and the performances are amazing. And I think what ended up happening, like I said earlier, you get everyone in the same room and they're just kind of improv-ing and getting to hang out. It's kind of the promise of the show in some ways. And you see what's in the final cut if you've watched the episode. But in this case, the scripted version was not exactly what it was. So here's, this is interesting.

So Greg has just provided me with the original script. Leslie, I'll just read them because it's kind of interesting how they change. Starts with Leslie, Leslie talking ahead. Note, everyone's super drunk as they talk to camera. Leslie crying. Wah, I don't even, she doesn't even know. Okay, so that's just that. And talking head, nauseous, bent over and spitting on the floor a little. So those are nothing. Those are just sounds in the script. So I think there's a lot of actor's freedom, actor's discovery, as they say. Tom talking head, Tom cocky. Chris can just sounds in the script. So I think there's a lot of actor's freedom, actor's discovery, as they say. Tom Talking Head, Tom Calky, Chris can't stand in

my way. Nobody can stand in my way. Nothing is possible. I'm the greatest. So that ended up being, it's like I'm an elephant, right? When I'm in the room, everyone's like, whoa, he's in here. Ben Talking Head, finding himself hilarious. Baba Booey. Baba Booey. So that stayed the same. That stayed the same. And the same and then andy talking head concentrating hard listening this listen to this song fart and poop and love and stuff and ooh la la and macaroni salad so that was his original talking head so who knows if that exists somewhere but he ends up singing just kind of nonsense right what does he end up singing he does he does sing the first line he says fart and fart and poop and love and stuff. Okay, cuts out.

And then I think the most gift Talking Head in this entire episode is just Ron wearing the Janet Snakehole hat, the little pillbox hat or whatever that is, and then just dancing and playing that song. And I believe if you search this on youtube or whatever on twitter you can find like a loop of it that's endless it's just him dancing it's it's wonderful it's one of the i would say indelible lasting images of this show so look it up it's it's great it's just it's just him it's it's so full of joy it's that delightful nick offerman face um and and

one of the legacies of this episode the the fight. And that's kind of the lesson of like, kind of let people go and just roll that camera and just see what happens. And that's kind of what happened in that Talking Head Tower. So, very fun. Very fun. Damn. Alright, the next morning everyone who drank snake juice is extremely

hungover except for Ron. And Tom sells his shares the next morning to John Ralphio. But not before Ron tries to convince Chris to let tom off the government team leslie deeply regrets how she treated ann ben visits ann at her home and asks her to forgive leslie and who also regrets the fight is touched by ben's gesture and reveals that leslie likes him and decides to attend the job interview during which she and leslie apologize to each other after a second interview with chris and is given the job on a part-time basis so she continued her work as a nurse april tries to reprise her role of janet snakehole and have andy reprise burt macklin but a hungover andy claims burt is dead but creates

kip hackman burt macklin's brother then he vomits onto kyle's shoes uh wow a lot going on here kind of the wrapping up of this story i do love the the line where where he says i'm burt macklin's brother kip hackman and uh kyle says why don't they have the same last name he said shut up kyle uh i it's it's uh this is a resolution episode i mean it's it's been a ben and anne scene it's very funny in the episode where ben is like i don't really know you it's like it's kind of like a peek behind the curtain it's like oh man all these characters are in the show but like ben and ann don't have scenes together of course they will down the road but but he's newish still so there's a ben and ann scene where he like gives her advice and stuff and that's kind of funny um but yeah

there's i also found it funny that uh that uh jean ralphio and and tom have a scene where they talk about vin diesel and like yeah this is like a step for it's like you know there's like vin doing I also found it funny that Jean-Ralphio and Tom have a scene where they talk about Vin Diesel. They're like, yeah, this is like a step forward. It's like, you know, this is like Vin doing Boiler Room, which led to Triple X, which led to Furious. And they're like, who would have guessed 10 years later they would have made eight more Fast and Furious movies and are about to shoot another one. So many Fast and Furious movies. It's amazing. The Vin Diesel run killed me.

It just makes me laugh it's so great and because you really it just not only is it funny but you just go yeah of course that is exactly who loves those movies yes those two guys boiler room is a great deep cut it's like boiler room just it's really oh my god i mean that is like shuldy points out it's kind of a bizarro version of ray donovan it's a ray donovan for a different demographic it's like a little bit it's a different type of boiler room is a perfect like oh like who is talking about that i mean it's not a bad movie but uh yeah shout out to justin lynn who uh who directed i think the best Fast and Furious movie

Fast Five We're working on something together Taiwanese American, one of the few other Taiwanese Americans working in this industry Also just quick note, GIFs Parties and Jobs check In this episode there's the Snake Juice Release party and Anne gets a new job

So it's two out of the three And she Finally has an excuse to be In the government building, which is uh, uh, release party and, and gets a new job. So it's two out of the three. And, uh, she, uh, she finally has an excuse to be in the government building, which is, uh, you know,

it took, it only took three seasons. It only took three seasons. That's right. Um, any final thoughts on this episode, Rob? Super fun episode.

I mean, what could be more fun than all your favorite people drunk as skunks? Um, you know, you kind of have, I mean, this is, it, it, know you kind of have i mean this is it it's kind of got a lot of everything you love i think yeah and i think that tells me why you know it appears in a lot of you know top 10 lists for the show it's just you know again the promise of

the premise it's all of these people in a room together interacting bouncing off each other in ways you haven't seen before and this i think we're in such a peak period of the show because you and Adam brought new life to the show. So we're seeing new sort of combinations that we haven't seen. Like we mentioned, Chris and Tom, Chris and Donna, Ben and Anne. It's like, okay, now you get these fresh new interactions and it's kind of this injection of life in the show. So kind of fun. All right, oops moment, none that we found. Let us know in the comments if you spot anything with your Eagleton eyes. There is a previous episode, Oops, upon further research and 500 emails and a bunch of tweets. We'd like to point out that Nick Offerman was in the big block of cheese episode of the West Wing that we mentioned and we talked about on the show.

Yes. He was not on a scene with me, I don't believe. But he was, we were ships passing in the night yes and your your paths would cross again in the future and is this true like he he played he was in another episode of the west wing he was in two different episodes is that possible i believe that's true um i believe he was doing something having to do with the migration of mooses or something. Or wolves or something. Or wolves. Something like that.

Yes, wolves. Wolves. Because in the chat, Greg Levine has posted, Nick Offerman played a character named Jerry in the West Wing episode, The Crackpots and These Women, season one, episode five. So it's, I guess he was in two multiple episodes. So the dude was working. Dude was working. If my West Wing memory serves me, he's talking about the migratory wolves. So it's, I guess he was in two multiple episodes. So the dude was working. Dude was working.

If my West Wing memory serves me, he's talking about the migratory wolves, one named Pluie. Pluie. I remember Pluie. Pluie was a big deal. It was a wolves only highway. That's right. It was a wolves only highway. Wow.

And I think he's pitching it to CJ. He definitely is pitching it to CJ because I can hear her in my mind's eye. That's a thing. I don't hear with your eye whatever um but i can hear um the the great alice and janny just having a meal out of the name plooey plooey plooey all right episode mvp most valuable upon e and which character moment in this episode sticks out to you the most and why this is hard this is really hard this is really hard i have I have a lot of candidates. The first one that

pops in my mind is just that literally him dancing with the hat. So Offerman just dancing with a hat. I also would like to shout out Burt Macklin and Janet Stackel. As you said, Halloween costume material. Halloween costume material. Yeah, I concur. You and I are in sync together. I love those

and of course we cannot forget Amy, who wrote the episode and kind of designed the whole thing. She's the MVP of almost every episode, to be honest. So shout out to her as well. Listeners, let us know who your MVP is by tweeting at Team Cocoa Podcast

or by using the hashtag Parks and Recollection. Time for the town hall. Time for the Town Hall. Time for the Town Hall. What we got going on? We should do it probably the Snake Hole Lounge. What do you think? It makes sense. It makes total sense.

Thematic sense. This one comes to us from Michaela in Lancashire, England. Okay. Wow. Okay. That's a very, very English name for city. So yeah, pour yourself a glass of snake juice over there, Michaela. We are addressing your question.

Hi, Rob, Alan, Greg, and the whole gang. I'm so happy I found this podcast. I've absolutely hammered through every episode over the last couple of weeks listening on my drives to and from work, and I'm now caught up, so we'll have to wait for the new app each week. That's awesome. My question is, if the whole Parks gang were local bureaucrats by day and superheroes by night, what powers do you think everyone would have? Thanks for keeping me company every day lots of love for michaela i want to fly i want to fly you want to fly let's start with you i was gonna say chris trager like that like what would what would chris want to do i want to fly take dibs on flying nobody else gets that but me um that that's the beauty of

hosting the podcast is i i get to take flying before anybody else. I like flying for you. I like super speed, too. I mean, let's give you that, too. Why not? It's kind of like... The flash? Yeah, just like super energy,

just like unlimited, like, you know, classic super... I mean, look, Chris has classic superhero looks as well. You could imagine him... Have you ever played a superhero role? I did a very obscure movie um called the specials um oh yeah with uh with um our guy who does um jesus christ he does um guardians of the galaxy

james gunn james gunn yes james gunn james gunn and And it's a funny movie, but the writer went on to write and create Chernobyl. Not funny at all, but one of my favorite pieces of TV in the last 10 years, for sure. Yes. I know Craig. Yeah, Craig Mazin. Yeah, I know Craig. Craig Mazin and James Gunn. That's crazy.

If you haven't seen it, see it. It's super funny. And I play the Weevil. That's so funny. It's also crazy because James Gunn wrote it specials. That's crazy. If you haven't seen it, see it. It's super funny. And I play the Weevil. That's so funny. It's also crazy because James Gunn wrote it and Craig directed it. And they're actually, they usually are flipped in those roles. I mean, James writes a lot of stuff. I know. But like, but Craig is mainly known as a showrunner

and writer. He started in comedy, right? Yep. You know, and he wrote like Scary Movie 3 or some movies like that. And he did a lot of comedy. And they needed Chernobyl and won a million Emmys. But yeah, you know, Craig hosts a podcast of his own. with uh yeah yeah yeah um with john august another friend of mine um and that's that's interesting okay so let's go through the other cast uh members because we have you know i i think actually so you know what maybe we should

i think i think leslie's super leslie's superpower is uh she just doesn't sleep maybe that's really her that's her superpower in real life i think she she's like is there a superhero who just uh is like a caffeine person or something who just doesn't sleep and has the energy of uh of 4 000 people and just like you know i feel like that would be pretty good she'd be called the insomniac, but yeah, it's insomniac is pretty good. Greg is pitching caffeinator, the caffeinator,

uh, insomniac is good. It's like, you know, she's always doing, you know, a bunch of work. Um,

how about, uh, how about, uh, Andy Dwyer? Ooh, I think he's gotta be like sort of Hulk super strength. I like that.

I like that where he's, he's breaking through walls. He's like, uh, the Kool-Aid man. I also like, uh, like uh maybe his other superpowers uh you could give him any topic and he can write a mediocre song about it that's a really good one not a great song not a great song but but he can write a mediocre song about it probably using gc and d as the as the basis for the chords um uh i think uh uh donna meagle i think uh probably has the ability to uh drink as I think Donna Meagle

I think probably Has the ability to Drink as much as possible And never get drunk I don't know if that's a superpower or not But I feel like she could party And be impervious to hangovers I think that might be good

I like that too For her Ann Perkins I think it's the ability to be in City Hall For no reason I think Ann Perkins? I think it's the ability to be in City Hall for no reason. I think Ann Perkins would be like, what is it,

like the mantis? Is that on? Who has like, that character, isn't that on one of Chris Pratt's superhero movies? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's a Pom's character, Pom Clemente's character. Yeah, where she's like, she basically has ESP, so we used to see in the old days. Intuitive. I feel like

if anybody had ESP on the show it would be Ann Perkins she's an empath an empath uh I think Ben could be a a a supercomputer so he could be like uh almost like Professor X but without maybe without the telepathy just like really smart and he could do calculations maybe he's like uh I don't know I'd be kurt he'd be um he'd be kurt russell in the computer war tennis shoes oh wow i love that ref wow come on now oh wait by the way this is a this is a tangent but i also but yeah but i also like that like all these guys like almost all the mcu guys like in addition to their power are also almost all geniuses it's like tony stark iron man you know he has a suit he's a genius it's

like hulk hulk like is hulk but he's also a genius like they're all they're also geniuses like they're like they're like if you're not a genius in the in the fc it's like what's wrong with you like you have to be a genius it's it's it's dr strange he's a genius they're all i know you're right i hadn't thought about that i was like he's a genius like well that's every character like which characters like that um and then jerry of course uh has no powers no i feel like ron would like fashion any tool or any weapon you need immediately oh that's great that's kind of that's great so that's there's a character named forge in the x-men who can kind of build anything out of any so maybe ron can build anything out of anything like that'd be kind of cool like hey

hey you have like uh you know a teacup and a dumbbell. Can you build a boat out of it? You can build a boat out of it. That's kind of cool. We got to do April. Maybe April can just be Catwoman. I think she is. Yes, yes.

Or the intern. The intern. Yeah, yeah. I love it. Okay. Thank you for the question, Michaela. Keep listening over there in England. Very flattering.

Thank you for burning through the whole Run of the show Anything else Rob? No Again That was a fun Fun Fun episode This is packed

Nothing more to add to that We're peaking We're peaking With these episodes Good job to everyone Who worked on the show And this show Thank you for listening

Everybody Subscribe where you get Your podcasts Five star review on Apple Please Thank you to Schulte and Greg And goodbye from Pawnee. 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.

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