Parks and Recollection - The Possum (S2E18)

Episode Date: February 22, 2022

Call animal control! Today Rob and Alan are talking about the 18th episode of season two. In "The Possum" Leslie puts together a task force to catch a famous town-possum. In this episode you will hear all the similarities between animal control and classic clowning, who Harris Wittels was originally cast as, and the Parks seed that grew into Oscar nominee Paul Raci's incredible career! All of this, and some pretty darn interesting facts about our animal friends the possum. Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone] After the infamous possum "Fairway Frank" bites Mayor Gunderson's dog at a golf course, mayoral representative Evelyn (Judith Moreland) asks Leslie to form a task force to capture it. Leslie, Tom, Andy and two incompetent animal control workers, Harris (Harris Wittels) and Brett go to the golf course and quickly find the animal. The animal control workers are useless and Tom immediately runs away, but Andy dives toward the animal and captures it. Evelyn is impressed with Leslie and promises her a special favor from the mayor's office. However, Leslie sees a second opossum and fears they have captured the wrong animal. She later finds out that the mayor doesn't care about catching Fairway Frank, but rather about securing a trophy animal for his bathroom.Back at the department office, reporter Shauna Malwae-Tweep (Alison Becker) interviews Andy for a newspaper article. After he brags about the capture, the reporter suggests his heroics might win him back the affections of Ann, his ex-girlfriend, much to Andy's excitement. April , who has romantic feelings for Andy, overhears this and leaves. Evelyn demands delivery of Fairway Frank. Leslie responds that there is uncertainty about the identity of Fairway Frank. She refuses to hand over the captured opossum and creates a ketchup-blood diversion so that April can escape with the caged animal.Leslie and April take the opossum to Ann's home, where April has been paid $50 to housesit. April lets the opossum out of its cage, and it causes havoc and minor damage. While hiding from the animal, April reveals her feelings about Andy to Leslie for the first time. When Leslie refuses to hand over the opossum, Evelyn angrily takes back her promise of a favor from the mayor's office. Andy, still oblivious to the reasons behind April's jealousy, delivers coffee to April, as well as the day's newspaper, containing a story which credits April for providing moral support to Andy. It is later revealed that Leslie has donated the opossum to the Pawnee zoo.Meanwhile, Ron plans a woodshop expansion in his home and seeks the approval of city planner Mark. Mark informs Ron that an inspection is needed to ensure that the facility meets all current zoning code standards, and an obviously lying Ron claims it does, clearly underscoring his vexation with governmental regulations. During the inspection, Mark finds numerous code violations, including oily rags placed above a wood-burning fireplace and a long-outdated fire extinguisher. Later, Mark takes a half-day off so that he can help his friend's woodshop meet city code. Ron thanks Mark by building a wooden canoe and leaving it in his office.

We're getting together to talk about all the things we used to do The laughs, the passions, the little Sebastian's, the pits 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. Alan Yang is here. I am here.

That means we're going to do this. It's going to happen. And we have a particularly good, funny episode. They're all funny. They're all good. I don't want to make it sound like, well, listen, I'll be very clear about the ones that I think are like super deep. But they're all good. That's why we're doing this show in the first place, wouldn't you say?

It's a pleasure to watch. It's a pleasure to watch. We got the personnel here today, Rob. We're going to do the show. This is a fun one. What do we got in the barrel today? The episode is called The Possum. Episode 18 of Season 2 first aired March 11, 2010.

Written by the legend Mike Scully, former Simpsons showrunner, one of the funniest human beings on Earth. Directed by Tristram Shapiro, the elegantly named Tristram Shapiro. Tristram. Tristram shapiro the elegantly named tristram shapiro tristram tristram shapiro is a british man um he's a british director and to me the uh the writer and director of this episode their names uh sort of embody an american name and a british name right the american dude's name is mike scully the british dude's name tristram Shapiro. And by the way, he might as well be named Benedict Cumberbatch. He has the most British name I've ever heard. His last name is spelled, by the way, S-H-A-P-E-E-R-O, not I-R-O.

So it is a, I'm basking in Tristram's name. Every time I see it, it makes me laugh a little bit. It's a great name. It's a good name. Shall we get into the synopsis, Rob? Yeah, because I love... Here's the thing. Is it opossum, opossum, or possum?

Because in the show, when you're dealing with the possum, because you're about to read the title. That's why I'm just checking here. Yes. And I don't want you to be wrong. Yes. What the fuck? What the possum, opossum? Can somebody just tell...

What's going on with that? So I have your answer Okay I have your answer Both possum and opossum Correctly refer to the Virginia opossum Frequently seen in North America In common use

Possum is the usual term In technical or scientific context Opossum is preferred Opossum can be usual term. In technical or scientific context, opossum is preferred. Opossum can be pronounced with its first syllable either voiced or silent. That's very complicated. Wait, so you could actually say, that is, you know what, Merriam-Webster, that is so complicated. Read it again. It's really good.

What is it? Opossum can be pronounced with its first syllable that's the o i guess either voiced or silent now that makes no sense how can you pronounce it silently now it feels like marion webster is playing a joke on us because that doesn't that doesn't make any sense so wait i have a different take here by the way possums the opossum i'm just laughing because this is totally different the opossum is a mammal belonging to the family of marsupials located in north america possums on the other hand are marsupials of australian origin what so this is a different take the possums were given that name because of their close resemblance to the opossums of North America. You know, I feel like, now I feel like one of those people who's researching, like,

a controversial topic on the internet and just getting bombarded by misinformation. Yes. Now, I'm being gaslit. Yes. So, I'm looking actually at photos. If you look up at opossum, that's what you think about. A possum, there's an Australian animal called the possum, and it looks totally different. But I do agree with Merriam-Webster in the sense that if you say possum people think you're talking

about opossums it's so i i've now gotten so lost in the logic i feel like we've both uh in the process of this conversation gotten dumber like i feel like we now know less than we did before and that is kind of what happens when you read too much internet so i i feel i feel very confused and uh so there we go by the way i was a biology major i still don't know what the hell just happened but yeah tell me what happens in the episode let's go to the synopsis all right buckle up my synopsisters and brothers here we go after the infamous possum fairway frank bites mayor gunderson's dog rufus at a golf course you you gotta love that intro to an episode meryl representative at evelyn played by judith moreland asked leslie to form a task force to capture the animal task force task force a task task force

she's very excited about that leslie tom and andy and two incompetent animal control workers harrison brett yes played by harris whittles and col Dunn, go to the golf course and quickly find the animal. The animal control workers are useless, and Tom immediately runs away, but Andy dives toward the animal and captures it. Evelyn is impressed with Leslie and promises her a special favor from the mayor's office. However, Leslie sees a second opossum and fears they have captured the wrong animal. However, Leslie sees a second opossum and fears they have captured the wrong animal. She later finds out that the mayor doesn't care about catching Fairway Frank, but rather about securing a trophy animal for his bathroom.

Meanwhile, back at the department office, reporter Shauna Malway-Tweeb, Alison Becker, interviews Andy for the newspaper article. After he brags about the capture, the reporter suggests his heroics might win him back the affections of Anne. April overhears this and leaves upset. Evelyn demands delivery of Fairway Frank and Leslie refuses. She creates a ketchup blood diversion, that old thing, so that April can escape with the caged animal. Leslie and April take the opossum to Anne's home where April has been paid $50 to house it. April lets the opossum out of its cage, and it causes havoc. While hiding from the animal,

April reveals her feelings about Andy to Leslie for the first time. Andy, still oblivious, delivers coffee to April, as well as the day's newspaper containing a story which credits April for providing moral support to Andy. It is later revealed that Leslie has donated the opossum to the Pawnee Zoo. Meanwhile, we're not quite done.

The B story. Ron plans a woodshop expansion in his home and seeks the approval of city planner Mark. Mark informs Ron that his inspection is needed. During the inspection, Mark finds numerous code violations and helps bring the woodshop up to city code. Ron thanks Mark at the end of the episode by building a wooden canoe and leaving it in his office. Wow. That is packed. That is packed. One of the longer synopses I've ever read. And that's a, hopefully the listeners are still with us. No, that's not an indictment of your reading of it. It's just a very long synopsis on a half an hour show. It's a long sys. I call them sysises now. It's a long, shortening synopsis

so that we have time for the rest of the episode after that long sis. It was a long sis. The name Fairway Frank made me laugh. I don't know why. Yeah.

were there a lot of pitches for Fairway, I imagine those the kind of things where you guys pitch five billion different names. Yes, yes. I mean,

the alliteration is pleasant and it just makes you think of like a, it almost makes me think of a hot dog because of Fairway Frank. You know, right? It's like, it's not a hot dog, but it sounds like one. It's like a ballpark Frank.

Yeah, but that's the kind of thing. It's also fits the Venn diagram of a little bit funny and a little bit cute. It's a little bit adorable. It's kind of, that's the Parks and Rec target, right? It's like a little bit funny, a little bit cute. Yeah, a little bit adorable it's kind of that's the parks and rec target right it's like a little bit funny a little bit cute yeah a little bit a little bit adorable all those

things i also it also sounds like something if it has a name like that that i'm not so sure yeah i know a bit the neighbor the the mayor's dog but like fairway frank is kind of a community legend at that golf course it feels like i know it's it's almost like they're hunting little sebastian oh no don't even say it don't even say it i mean that's brutal but yeah this fairway frank sounds like a mascot it's like have them around but but it's it's also like kind of in the tone of the show that there is this possum that has a name and they just like it's known it's like that possum is a celebrity oh yeah fairway frank it's like they know it that's very bizarre i can't imagine that's the case in very many real towns but yeah it works for this show um the uh there's so many funny things in in this episode

i mean you know aziz and his golf outfits it's pretty dope the classic the fact that aziz has no idea clearly no idea how to play golf or putt there's a scene where he's putting and he's like his body's contorted into putting positions that no human has ever seen before. He really, truly doesn't know how to play. I don't think he's played golf in his life. So, um, he's, he's just in it for the outfits. He's just in it for the outfits. By the way, that's as good a reason as any. I mean, there's also some, some great guest appearances in this one. Uh, obviously Harrison Brett from animal control. Also their boss, uh, played by paul rachi i believe his name is nominated for an oscar for sound of metal so there's an oscar nominee in

this episode it's one of my favorite things of all time he which is what you know not to get too highfalutin or model or whatever but like what's great we as you know i i have a complicated relationship with with the business if you've listened to my podcast or read my books or spent any time, you know, like I love to knock the shit out of it because there's a lot that deserves it. But on the other side of it, you've got this kind of amazing story. And here's an actor who's been around forever. He's got two lines in a Parks and Rec episode. And within a few years, he's going to be nominated for an Academy Award. And that's the kind of stuff that really is great about our business.

Truly. It gives you goosebumps. Because think about how long he's been acting. He's just been kicking around, going to auditions. It's a grind. It is a grind to be that kind of actor who was like you maybe you're not the leads of shows or movies maybe you're not even a series regular on a show and you're just going to these auditions every day of your life every day of your life and then you get and then

you know later on in your life that's like you said you're nominated for an oscar and you know roles are probably starting to come your way and it can happen at any time at any time it's it's really wild it's like life is long life is long in that sense i always say don't don't don't become an actor unless you can help yourself like of the screen actors guild 97 of the members cannot support themselves as an actor 97 of the the members. And those are just counting members, like you said, 97%. It's thousands of people. And honestly, just to chime in, I don't think I really fully appreciated it till I started dating my girlfriend, who's a working actor. Because look, from my side of it as a writer, yes, you experience a lot of rejection, right? Especially early on in your career.

For an actor, it's a whole other level because they're rejecting you. You are driving around town. Honestly, you are driving around town. It's your face. It's your voice. It's your body. It's everything.

And they experience that rejection constantly, like constantly until you're literally like a movie star and you're getting straight offers to to bring it back to paul rocci yeah he has two two lines in this episode you know it's like you just never know you just it's in and but but by the way roles like this sustain you and residual sustain you yes right every time this episode airs paul rocci gets a little bit of money you know he'd pay a little rent and if you haven't seen him in um the sound of metal it it's by far my favorite performance of the year like not even close not even phenomenal he's for not his scenes with riz and i know riz a little bit uh riz Ahmed who's also nominated for an oscar in that movie the scenes with him and riz are unbelievable

they're so good um so kudos to paul congratulations and and and uh glad to have you as part of our parks and rec family very proud very proud to claim him you know this was a somewhat difficult one to break in the room it's it's it's it's kind of tangentially about the death penalty right that's like weirdly like it's a very strange like you know it's not a very serious show in general parks and rec you know it's not it's we don't take on super super weighty issues generally but but i think the origin of this one was kind of like she's not sure whether she should you know send this animal to its death basically which is kind of you know it's a it's a dark topic but you know we we kind of just made it a wacky a wacky episode instead so you know it was one of the ideas early on in the show was can we take these kind of you

know more serious political issues and do our sort of silly version of it and i think this is one of the episodes that resulted from those conversations and of course the animal control i mean you you know there's you know dj roomba animal. We're talking about my favorite things on the show. Those two, why are they, and they don't say a ton in this episode. And they don't do a ton. But why are they so funny together? What is that? It's that thing of, you know, it's hard to top just, in terms of comedy, it's always hard to top.

These two guys are clowns. They're just silly.s they're just they're just silly and they're just you know they're they're they're idiots they're i mean harris saying stop hanging yourself is so funny and it's like this is and and by the way i think we lucked out a little bit because i believe we at some point cast harris earlier in the show as a pizza delivery boy um and he he he literally had a hat that said pizza on it. And then his scene got cut. So he didn't appear in that episode. And so he was able to be this character, which obviously became a recurring character. And so that was kind of a blessing

in disguise. And these characters would keep coming back. And again, Harris, one of the most important writers on the show and, you know, sadly passed away a few years ago. But, you know, it just, so every time I see him, you know, in the show, it makes me smile. And of course, he's so funny. And Colton Dunn, who was one of the, I, after my time on this, I was developing a show, an mb a comedy for mbc and i immediately stole him and he was in it with me and and then he went from that to uh to superstore superstore many many many seasons on superstore and colton dunn is yeah he's he's he's made it he's one of those people you keep grinding you know he's over at ucb grinding working in comedy and then uh now

now he's here he's regular on shows. So, Harrison Brett, Animal Control. Andy with the opossum. Yes, the North American Virginia opossum. Yeah, crawling. I wrote the same thing. It's crawling all over him. It's insane. He's not squeamish about it. I mean, look, we chose the right actor to do that.

Like there's some other actors in the show who would have been game to touch it, but it is crawling all over him. All over him. And you know that it's on my neck. That's just him saying, you know, that's him doing what's happening. Yes. I mean, I don't think i'd want that crawling on me it's it's a it's it's you ever had ever had an opossum like in your garage or anything oh yeah like scare it away yeah oh when i they're weird looking they're weird looking they got those like white faces it's like uh they they have those like ghostly white faces yeah particularly you see them at night because you just see that white face yes your car headlights or something

illuminate illuminate their faces and it's like it's like a they're kind of cute in some ways but also kind of repulsive it's kind of both right so the duality of possums right um yeah but but yeah you gotta get a broom get them out of your garage yeah and and just the cutting to him anytime you cut to a silly animal in parks it has always been when she goes there he is and you can't it makes me laugh yeah we do that we do that with raccoons earlier right it's like i mean it's always it always makes me laugh to have animals in shows, and it's, you know, they're very unpredictable, right? It's like the, I mean, we had possums on, we obviously had dogs on at some point,

and then we had raccoons on, and because it's something funny to me about the animal wrangler who comes with the animal, and it's like they, sometimes it seems like they're they're not they're not trained in any way if you're dealt with animal wranglers you're just like hey can the animal do this thing and like yeah he can do it and then you just he can't do it at all like you're like are you just lying because he clearly can't do it that always made me laugh and i i did a movie

called behind the candelabra and matt damon's character was wanted to get into hollywood and so he was an animal trainer at the beginning of it. And Matt Damon is the animal trainer in the beginning of of behind the candelabra is it tells you everything you need to know about animal training. It's so good, man. How was how was that was a Soderbergh film, right? I just want to add this, that Joanna brilliantly has given me a piece of information on the opossum that I definitely need to share. Because it might be the grossest thing that I've heard in a long time. Newborn opossums are about the size of a grain of rice. That's got to be the grossest thing ever. Can you imagine them like mealing around, like 10 of them?

It's troubling. Oh my God. It also says they gestate more quickly than any other animal. The possum gives birth to 16 to 20 babies, only 12 to 13 days after mating. Oh, the whole thing. Now, it feels like the opossum is part marsupial, part insect.

Yes. The way it's being spoken about here. It's like 12 days after mating. A grain of rice. You're giving birth. Now, I kind of wish I hadn't learned that information, Joanna. I told you. That is very troubling.

Normally not squeamish, but that is bad. That is bad. It is what it is. It's very funny that we use Nick's real woodshop in this one. So that is the woodshop. Nick Offerman has a woodshop. Yes, that is his woodshop. And we visited that workshop early on in the run of the show,

and we decided to uh you know mike decided to to make him into woodworking the character so we ended up shooting shooting here for uh this episode and and that's kind of cool i remember i i in later episodes um chris trager shows up at the at the woodshop and i was blown away that this was Nick's real place. It's like, well, now it's a total business. He has whatever Offerman Woodworking and he has employees and it's a little factory. It's a real, real deal thing. Yeah, he is the real deal too. He can do, and I don't know if you ever got into this, but at a certain point, he was making little things for people in the cast and they would request you know like a table from

him and then he got so backed up he's like it's gonna be he's like i'm sorry it's gonna take several years he just so many things in the pipeline he's like i'd love to make you a table but it's gonna take so yeah he made he made a couple tables or little little stools and stuff for for friends and and cast members when chris's time on the show was over nick made me this gorgeous wooden box big box that housed all of the other rap gifts that i was given and it's got a has a plaque on it with everybody's names characters names and then uh i think right at the end was at the time we realized that Jerry's name was Gary and not Jerry. In fact, I think the box might be in the show.

I think it is in the show. When we get to it, we'll find out if that's the box that I ended up getting to keep. But Nick made it, and it's gorgeous. There's something so satisfying about being able to make something with your hands. He's like, I made this. And it's like, if that's your hobby, it's just like, oh, wow, you made this thing and you can give a physical object to people. If your talent is something more ethereal, it's like, I wrote this script for you. It's like, this is nothing. Somehow not as satisfying. It's like, it's an FDX file. It's

a final draft file. You can open it up on your computer. I remember one of my reoccurring nightmares is I remember woodshop as a kid in Malibu Park Junior High, Mr. Poole's Woodshop. And I can't make anything with my hands. I mean nothing. And, but I'm imaginative and I'm a creator. So I had in my mind what I wanted to make vividly, but no way to do it. And I remember how frustrating it was. And it was like depressing and aggravating. And I had to figure out a way to maneuver my way through that class. Knowing full well, I was never going to be able to deliver a final project.

It wasn't even an initiative. That's very frustrating. Are you handy around the house? Do you fix things around the house? Hell no. I love that answer, man. I love that answer. I find a small pride.

I wouldn't say I'm handy necessarily. Yard work. Watering the lawn, mowing the lawn, doing some gardening. That I do enjoy, and I feel like that pride of work doing it. But I'm not changing light bulbs even. My house is really dark because all the light bulbs have not been changed. It's like, hope this one lasts a long time because I ain't changing it. That's right.

No, I find certainly during pandemic during pandemic times also like i was buying some stuff and it just kind of enjoyed putting them together and there wasn't huge projects like i bought i bought a weight i bought a weight bench and i put together a weight bench and then i and then i bought some like heaters for outside and i just like kind of like assembling the fucking bolts and like the a thing goes into the b oh my god i kind of like it i kind of like it my girlfriend came home i was like you know she was like you just like building this thing i was like kind of i mean i don't do it all the time but it's kind of fun i i have um you know i'm a big believer in therapy i've i've been in therapy forever and and i along with my therapist we've i think coined a phrase i have

what is called an ikea complex okay and that is it's it's a fear of not knowing how to do something like because for me i keep when i pass and i like that's a living hell for me an ikea like you know having to put together like my son's bookshelves at his dorm at college like that's honestly for me that is just an abject impossibility and something that gives me just even talking about it gives me agita that that's so i i think i have something of an ikea complex too i was talking to my therapist rob and and and and you know i think we have something in common which is that i know this sounds kind of obvious, but I really like things I'm good at. I think growing up, it was like I was good at, right? I was a good student.

I was pretty good at sports. And, you know, like I played music and I was like, oh, I excelled at stuff. And that's, you know, not to get too therapeutic with our speak, but like with our talk. But, you know, you got love from that, right? It's like you achieve And you get some love And then later in life You know You don't ever want

To be afraid To try things That you're not Necessarily good at You know I think that's something That maybe both of us Can work on

You know And you know You double down On the things You are good at Because nobody is good At everything Exactly

Yes Exactly Yeah Well that was I feel like we just Went through a little bit of therapy. I feel so much better. That said, I'm still not going to Ikea and buying a bunch of shit I got to assemble. That's not happening.

Yeah. You can get a task rabbit to do it. You get a task rabbit or a task possum. That's right. What is the character's name that works for the mayor? Evelyn. Really believable. Super believable.

Judith Moreland. But yeah. And it was like obviously we didn't want to see the mayor for a long time so she's just kind of playing his emissary um but yeah i thought i thought judith did a great job yeah she was great i totally believe it and then who is it that screams at the end i'm gonna you're gonna fry one of the possums in the is it it her? It's her! Yeah, I think so. It's her! Oh, man.

Did you notice also that Anne is not really in this one until like the last two seconds? I don't think she's in the episode until the very end. I know. That was interesting, too. She's probably doing... Listen, everybody on the cast had side hustles going 24-7. cast had side hustles going 24-7 and uh you know wouldn't be surprised me if she she was in the cutting room on jesse and celeste what was the name that amazing movie yeah i remember she has her celeste and jesse forever that was her and uh andy sandberg our old pal andy sandberg brilliant

that movie is so good yeah so good yeah it was great. And I think she wrote that movie, didn't she? She wrote it and started it. With Will? Yeah, yeah. She's a very talented writer. In addition to being a talented actress and she can sing, what can't she do? You know? What can't she do?

Everybody on the show is like that, though. Really, truly. I know. Well, that's what you're saying. The side hustle thing. Well, again, I don't know if we've talked about it on the show before, but if you look at the cast of this show, everybody went on to do pretty amazing things it's like you look back it's like oh my god all these people went on to star and stuff good guy two lines won the academy award

what more do we need to say yeah yeah yeah i guess it was it's a charmed cast and same with the writing staff a lot of the writers went on to create shows and write movies and stuff. So, you know, you go back in time and you couldn't, you know, you couldn't assemble

this cast today. It would be too expensive. It would be too expensive. Not only would it be too expensive, everybody is so busy that you just literally could not do it. I mean,

it's, it's amazing that we were able to put people back together for the, for the little retrospective thing we did for yeah that reunion thing was really fun that and and and uh remember the thing at the the thing we did at the the paley center thing oh yeah you were at that right that was

really fun too it was kind of reunion like 10 years or i don't know five six years after the show ended but we did a little uh a panel thing at a paley festival it was at the kodak theater i think and it was crazy it was like sold out like thousands of people and then we had a party afterwards that was really fun just for one second i think we should talk about mike scully we've talked we've referred to him a bunch in the past but anybody who's um who's watched the simpsons sees his name on every single episode and i've actually worked with scully on other shows as well he's he's such a comedic genius that he has a career where he will just come in you know on one day a week on a show and just pitch jokes and they are always so killer i think

he's got it don't you think he's probably the single best like joke guy around? I don't disagree with that. He is one of the funniest people who has ever lived. Like he's so, he's so fun. And, and, and also one of my favorite people, just like the nicest guy. And I loved having him in the room. He just has this warm energy he's you know and he always always like in terms of like career wise such an idol because you know comedy writing is is is is tough it's even tougher as you kind of get older right because it's like as you get older you're like um it's a it's in some ways a young person's profession like i look at my writing staff now and it's it's kids in their

twenties and thirties, right? That is that, that is like, that's generally the, the, the, uh, the demographic and, and Scully has been around and, and he was, you know, an older guy in the room, but no one faster, no one funnier. He would come in the morning, pop open a diet Red Bull and just start pitching jokes. And it's like this guy, you know, he, he, he, I don't know, I can't say enough good things about him. I really felt like I made it. I made it in the world when I was helping to run the room and I would be typing at the computer. And Mike Scully was pitching jokes to me. And I was like, oh, man, like, I have so much respect for this guy. And this is like, I just, I just couldn't, I couldn't say enough good things about him. It's funny, you touched on something that I, why is it that comedy is, and it's true, it's a young man's game, and there's some, like, what is that about?

I mean, and then why is it that there are guys, unlike Mike Scully, and it's another thing that makes him so special, That guy has not lost one mile per hour off of his fastball. Not one. I think some people are unicorns, and I think it's like Tom Brady playing football at 44, LeBron playing at 37. It's like, if you're really, really, really good to start with, then you can sort of get through. But I think, for me, comedy is tricky because it very much has to do with the climate of the country in some ways. And sort of like being in touch with what society is like. I know those sound like really grand proclamations. No, it doesn't.

This is making perfect sense because we get more out of touch the older we get. We just do. We have to fight to remain in touch. You do. And stay clued in. And you think about, you know, we've talked before about how, you know, comedy, it's tough for it to age. You know, it's like a comedy from the 90s, the 80s, the 70s, the 60s. It's kind of more of its era.

You can watch a drama from a long time ago and those themes are often the same. Comedy is a little bit more specific to a time and a place and a society. And so I think when all of those things are factored in, it's tough to keep your fastball, like you were saying. But Scully is the rare exception. And he was so good in the room that we had jokes

that we termed Scully jokes, where it was like the most efficient the most sort of um concise the most like very quick turns very sort of surprising ending of a sentence like like he was able that's just the way his brain works and he's also an example of you know one more thing about him you know he didn't have family connections or you know he didn't know anyone in the business he he was he told us the story he was a custodian at like a community college i believe in in in the boston area and he just moved out to la started doing stand-up and and writing jokes for yakov smirnoff and became a writer and became like one of the most important writers of the simpsons one of which is arguably the greatest comedy or show of of the last 50 years right and so you can come that's

another by the way another showbiz story we're talking about we're talking about paul rachi think about mike scully you know you move out to hollywood you have nothing you're writing jokes on the back of a napkin and then you know 20 years later you're running the simpsons so that's pretty cool it's pretty cool i mean there's nothing more to add after that. I think on that note, we go to the town hall. Do you want to go to the town hall? I think you do. I think you do All right, it's time for a Parks and Rec town hall, but this is very exciting.

We're actually going to hear one. This isn't just going to be reading an email, I'm told, by our crack staff. So we're going to actually hear from a listener. So let's do it. A very special town hall. And since it's an audio town hall, maybe we'll do it from the radio studio where Crazy Iron the Douche occupy their radio show.

So we're doing it from their studio. And let's hear the clip. Hey, Rob, Alan, and the Parks and Rec family. This is Rachel from California, and I am literally your biggest fan. I've always wanted to know who in the cast was the most prepared and who would mess up their lines the most thank you what a great question because I actually I I can tell you I got I got your answers um Amy Poehler was raising two kids, producing the show, you know, very much involved in the writing, sometimes directing, and sometimes she actually was writing. And she's basically in every scene and had been doing years and years of the show.

So a lot of times Amy would literally be on set and kind of looking at it for the first time. Amy would literally be on set and kind of looking at it for the first time. So you'd often get, you'd often get, um, two or three takes where it's clear Amy is working her way into being comfortable. Right. Um, Aziz, uh, now everybody stares at their phones. Right. But if you look at, if you look at Parks and Rec phones, they're dated. There's like literally the ones with the pearls pearl ball that rolls around.

So this is pre it's hard to imagine everybody having an iPhone and staring at it every five seconds, which now everybody does. But in those days, Aziz was the trailblazer and he was always on his phone. He'd be on his phone during takes when he wasn't talking. It's in character. And, and there were times when I would, I would come, particularly when I first arrived and didn't really know Aziz's deal.

I was like, is he, does he know we're shooting? Does he, he knows we're doing a take, right? He, he was so,

he was so addicted to his phone that he knew it was a problem so he was trying to quit using the phone so much at one point i believe he went to a hypnotist to try to get him to stop using his phone and then at some point he's so this is really wild he bought a cookie jar it's a special kind of cookie jar that you uh can lock and put a timer on so that you don't eat cookies. But instead of cookies, he put his phone in it so that he couldn't use it for a certain length of time. Now, he has essentially a burner phone. So, he doesn't carry around a smartphone a lot of the time. He uses a brick phone that doesn't connect to the internet. And it has like, you can just

make calls or something and you can't browse the internet. And he doesn't have email anymore. So he's really like trying to quit all that stuff, which is really, I mean, he realizes it was a problem. He realized it was a problem for sure. That's so funny. I had no idea. But yeah, it was. And then you had actors who were as prepared as they were ever going to be and by choice didn't want to be that prepared and that would be pratt yes that sounds very accurate right and and then um

i would say i fall under the prepared category along with nick um super duper prepared maybe it's because we're both midwestern pleasures to have in class boys he actually is from indiana dutiful dutiful teacher's pets but no i i was definitely yeah nick nick always you know comes from theater just really had his lines down to the word you know yeah and then and then i think the rest of the cast falls somewhere somewhere in in the middle but no one ever had quote unquote trouble with their lines. Cause to me, what that means is somebody who literally can't or won't get the lines right. And they're out there. Those people are for sure out there and not, but not on this show. Our cast was pretty good about that. And it's, you know,

it's, it's not an easy show necessarily. There's, you know, but, but it certainly, it felt easy when everyone was prepared, which they generally were you know it was always like you know it was just a smooth shoot almost almost always and and that was uh that was a joy yeah i've been on shows where ensembles where you you go it's it's a little bit like hot potato sometimes where you know particularly if the pace is like on a parkson rec it's funny it's comedy it's got to be faster west wing it's aaron sorkin the faster the better and you're you throw the potato the potato the potato and then you know it's about to get to somebody and you know they're gonna drop it you just know it and then even when they don't drop it the fact

that you're thinking they are gonna drop it fucks you up it's just a nightmare when you have one person who can't uh toss the hot potato it is agony i i've been on sets where it's 10 12 takes and they did just they just can't get it right and you're like oh man this is and i feel bad for all the other actors i feel bad for the crew um and the other corollary to that which didn't happen that much in our show is people who can't stop breaking so they're just laughing and it's just like they're just busting takes left and right. Like, oh, my God, it's we're 12 takes and you have you have got to stop laughing. You have got to stop laughing. Really good question. Thank you so much. I love the voicemail idea. Let's let's do more of them. Send in your voicemails.

Yeah, let's bring it. Thank you all for listening this was a particularly good one i had a great time as always and a lot of that is because of my partner alan yang thank you alan you're genius as always thank you rollo pleasure to do the pod with you and thank you producer schulte thank you joanna and uh bye from punny 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.