Parks and Recollection - The Stakeout (S2E2)

Episode Date: November 2, 2021

It’s another bright and shiny day in Pawnee! Alan Yang and Rob Lowe have all the supplies necessary to review the second Parks and Recreation episode of season two. In “The Stakeout” Leslie's curiosity gets the best of her, when a stakeout she planned with Tom, to find a local criminal, actually has her spying on Ann and Mark. In today's episode find out why the character of Tom became more fashion forward, what happened when Alan gave a Rent-a-Swag jacket to his mom,  and which aspects of this episode share DNA with a classic Emilio Esteves and Richard Dreyfuss film. All of this and a cautionary tale about "special brownies" on today's fantastic episode.  Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone]

We're getting together to talk about all the things we used to do The laughs, the passions, the little Sebastians, the pets we fell into And we're putting it on in a podcast, then we'll send it up into the sky We're calling it Parks and Recollection Come on little podcast, spread your wings and fly Hello everybody, I'm Rollo. This is Parks and Recollection. Recollection. That's my new way of pronouncing it. What a start, kicking it off loud. I know, I know That's my new way of pronouncing it. What a start. Kicking it off loud.

I know. I know. I have one of those days today. I always feel great when we get into the episodes and have fun, but I couldn't wake up today. It's actually super hot out. Maybe I'm dehydrated. I don't know. I mean, you play hurt, though.

That's what you do. I mean, the suffering that you do, the sacrifices you make for the listener, the loyal audience. That's right. But I find, again, I don't know about you, but I find that doing the podcast is fun and it gives me a little energy. Totally. I don't feel like it's a drain on energy. So hopefully the podcast will psych you up a little bit.

Oh, I'm psyched. I'm very psyched about this one i'm very psyched today we're doing the stakeout not to be confused with the great emilio estevez movie stakeout what what is the plot of that emilio movie it's a stakeout oh okay well simply put that's the log line right that's on the poster i mean god i remember going to the premiere of it. There's a lot of binoculars, I remember. It was kind of like a gritty buddy comedy with those guys. But this is not what we're doing today though, right? Instead of Amelia and Richard Dreyfuss, it's Tom Haverford, Aziz Ansari, and Leslie Knope, Amy Poehler. So there you go. There you go. That's right. We did want to mention, by the way, Louis C.K. appears in this episode, and we want to address

the fact that he took actions that hurt a lot of people. And we are not going to just kind of put that aside. We're just, for the purposes of this podcast, we do need to talk about his character, Dave, who's a police officer who's in this episode and in a couple coming up. So we will be mentioning his character in these podcasts just because he's a part of the show and he has not been excised from these episodes. So we'll discuss him and that is in no way sort of condoning anything he did in his personal life, but we will be discussing him. Shall we get to the synopsis just so people know what the hell we're talking about? Yes, yes, yes. Let's do that. This episode of The Stakeout, episode two of season two, first aired September 24th, 2009, written by the great Rachel Axler and directed

by Seth Gordon. And here's a synopsis. Leslie sets up a stakeout with Tom to find out who's growing marijuana in the community garden she put together in the pit meanwhile Ann gets ready for her first date with Mark and asks Leslie if she's okay with it since Leslie used to have feelings for him Leslie insists she's fine but eventually spots Ann and Mark leaving for their date and starts spying on them during her stakeout that's the title of the episode later Leslie and and tom find out andy has been living in the pit back in the parks department ron swanson's hernia causes him excruciating pain which leaves him completely immobile and stuck in his office one of my favorite stories b stories of the show

eventually april returns to check on him and wheels ron out by his office chair and takes him to the hospital back at the pit leslie and andy walk to get fast food, and Tom gets locked out of the van. Ann and Mark return from their date and call the police after they see Tom, assuming him to be a prowler trying to break into the van. Officer Dave arrives and arrests Tom. Leslie, Ann, and Mark go to the police to explain and get Tom out. Dave releases Tom, who thanks Leslie for sticking up for him. The next day, Leslie and Dave go to the garden.

Dave assumes Leslie made the whole thing up to spy on Ann and Mark. The episode ends with Dave sharing that he is attracted to Leslie. So, a lot of ups and downs in this episode. A circuitous plot. A circuitous plot, for sure. And a lot of whipped cream. A lot of whipped cream. I love that opening

where she's, you make the best coffee. You make the best coffee, Ann. I had no idea how much whipped cream leslie nope consumed really until watching this episode she consumes and it made me think of my indiana whipped cream you want to hear my indiana whipped cream story please is now i now when you say indiana whipped cream it sounds like that's a euphemism for something that's horrendous but i'm going to assume it's not. No, I am literally talking about whipped cream. In Indiana. In Indiana.

Thank you for clearing that up. Thank you for clearing that up. So in Lake Wawasee, Indiana, back in my ne'er-do-well days of my late teens, I would go and water ski with my family. We'd be bored, and it would be raining sometimes. And so one summer, Charlie Sheen came with us to Lake Wawasee, and we went to the local Piggly Wiggly and bought every single whipped cream can

that we could get our hands on and promptly inhaled all the nitrous. So I was watching this to see if Leslie would ever huff the nitrous, but no, she just has the whipped cream. Little Whippets. By the way, on your Parks and Recollection podcast bingo card, if you had Lake Wawasee, Charlie Sheen, and Whippets, you just got a bingo because that was a row.

I mean, that is – That's right. You're kicking off the pod really hot with the machine. The machine is in the story. Yeah. Boy, you guys must have been kids. So he was a kid too, right? Yeah, he was a kid.

He wanted to be a baseball player, I think, at the time. And we were just young kids, bored in those hot Indiana summer nights, like right out of a John Cougar Mellencamp song. And the closest thing he would be is in Major League as well. That's why that's

why he did it in one way he did in one way that's right um so many things to talk about in this episode i kind of want to start with the b story because i just really i thought that one was it was a great physical manifestation of this character and who he was philosophically so i believe i don't want to misspeak but i believe it was originally pitched by dan gore one of the writers who was like look ron's thing is he's an immovable object so what if he were literally an immovable object like what like you know he's like what if he couldn't move and boy nick nick's i just said boy as if i were from lake wawasee and boy howdy isn't his performance amazing but that maybe your story is rubbing off on me but yeah ron's hernia story is so funny he's so good in that role he's absolutely it's a comedic tour de force

run in this whole episode but it's it's amazing because even in the first scene where you don't know what's going on with him you know it's it's very very. He has the talking head. He goes, I have a hernia. Yeah. He's just spectacular in this episode. Yeah, and it does so many things, right? First of all, obviously, it's so in character. And you're, you know, look, this is the second episode of the second season. It's really just the eighth episode of the series.

So you're figuring out who these people are. By the way, he's still wearing a suit in this one. Remember we talked about, like, you know, he stops wearing suits at a certain point. He's still wearing a suit. That's how early it is. The scene where he stops wearing suits at a certain point he's still wearing a suit that's how early it is the scene where he throws the burger at his face to try to eat it's really funny and it also develops the relationship between ron and april which is a really sweet relationship that blossoms over the course of the show and it's because they have so much in common you know they don't want to deal with other people they like they don't want to do other people. They really hate dealing with other people. So that's kind of a commonality they have. And I wanted to shout out this joke that I believe

was written by Rachel Axler, who wrote the episode, where Ron says, she's quizzing him about what he has, what's wrong with him, his malady. And he's like, I have a hernia. And she's like, do you have syphilis? He's like, I said, I have a hernia. She says, I know and he's like i have a hernia and she's like do you have syphilis he's like i said i have a hernia he's she says i know it's possible to have two things you know it's like that that joke that joke killed me the ron storyline also make there's little subtle things in it that made me laugh like when he's still incapacitated in the parks department at night yes and you can't even see his face and you just hear crickets in the background yes is it that little cricket like post you know in post like and you just hear crickets in the background. Yes. Is it that little cricket like post, you know, in post, like what if we put crickets in the

background? They're mixing it a little louder, a little softer than the guy coming in, buffing the floor and sees him. That's really funny. I always, I, so something that was really funny about people coming in after hours, like sort of BG people. We talked about that. Some of that stuff was inspired by in the writer's room and we'd stay late, which we did a lot more of seasons one and two of people

coming in and like, you know, custodians helping clean our offices and they'd come in while we're working. And they're like, God, what are they thinking about our lives? Cause we're just talking about the dumbest shit. Like we're pitching story, you know, we're pitching sitcom stories and people are like doing real work around us. But yeah, we always, that always came up, right? Yeah. There's so many great little nuggets in this one. I mean, this whole shovel guitar.

Yes, absolutely. I mean, shovel guitar. Who doesn't love shovel guitar? Shovel guitar. I was watching this episode last night and thinking about how you know aziz says basically she's been playing shovel guitar for for an hour right she's like she's patient and it's like that indefatigable energy that amy has and then today i i 10 minutes before we recorded i got a text from polar which i invited her to to a party uh a birthday party i was having and she was like oh my god i can't wait to come to this party like oh like i can't i haven't seen you so

long like let's catch i was like this is the energy this is the energy of the show man that's shovel guitar right there but i was very excited yeah she's very she's um her energy is always high so remind me one of my favorite things about this is the shovel guitar reference what is it alan i think i could take this one i'm pretty sure that shovel guitar was uh improvised by amy on set when amy and aziz were just riffing together getting a bunch of great content of hanging out all night in that van this is a very high energy um episode across the board i think yes yes i you know so i i wanted to talk a little bit about i i don't know if you know you were remembering this slash reading about it but as it was happening as tom gets arrested at the end of this episode

it reminded me of this henry lewis gates event that happened in 2009. And I realized we basically use that as kind of inspiration for this episode. So for those who are uninitiated, there's a professor at Harvard named Henry Louis Gates, and he had gone on a trip to China. And then he returned home. By the way, I love this fact. He was on a trip to China to research the ancestry of Yo-Yo Ma for a TV show called Faces of America. Great detail in this story. I don't know how that's such an intense detail. He comes home to his residence on the Harvard campus. He finds the front door of his home jammed shut. And then with the help of his driver is like, well, I got to get home. He tries to force open

the front door to his own house, and for anyone out there who's forgotten their key, we've all been in this situation. It's like, goddamn, how do I break into my own house, right? It's like, I got to jump the fence. Maybe the back door is unlocked. Is there a key in a rock? Whatever. A witness sees this and reports the activity to police, the police comes and Professor Henry Louis Gates is arrested by a Cambridge police officer and charged with disorderly conduct. Later, the charges were dropped, but it was this whole hullabaloo. If you remember, President Obama had them sit down for what he called the Beer Summit, and they just kind of hashed it all out. So I remember that being the impetus for this episode. And if you remember

Pawnee Zoo, which we talked about last week, was kind of a gay marriage episode. So, man, we were kind of really leaning into these issues and bringing them into the Pawnee world. So that's what I thought of when I saw this episode. I remembered that. I was like, oh, yeah, that's why we kind of started writing this episode. Of course, it became very different by the time it got shot. But that was it. There's no beer.

it got shot but there's no there's no beer um i remember that great shot of obama in that little weird courtyard off of the uh the oval office and i think they were like drinking like rolling rocks the most obscure beer i know well think about think about the discussion about which beer they drink right it's like well is it gonna be an anhyzer bush beer is it gonna be miller coors is it gonna be a micro brew like well micro brew might not test well in the heartland like maybe but lake wawa see people they're not gonna like the micro brew they're gonna want an ipa there so maybe we just do yeah it's like um but but that was i remember that it seemed like a simpler time in retrospect but but man i don't know about you certainly watching this episode post 2020, you know,

I was like, man, it deals with, again, not to get too heavy, but police dealing with citizens and, you know, racial profiling. And of course, this is a much lighter touch on all that stuff, but it does touch on it. And by the way, yeah, it totally does. Because it's like, he's about to arrest Aziz. And he's like, what, a brown guy can't get in his own van own van you know it's like that kind of stuff was like man he's like oh there's no stereotypes about brown guys in vans um i'll tell you what was really jarring yeah is when you cut to uh what's clearly cop dash cam footage oh yeah you're like i don't want to see

this no no i don't see this i don't see it see this. I don't want to see it. It's not going to be funny. So I know one thing. It's not going to be funny. Yes. In 2021, police dash cam footage has different connotations than it did 12 years ago, right? We've all sort of had our, not all, some of us have had our eyes open. Some of us already had eyes open. But man, that is, and by the way, I also wanted to mention, you know, the episode touches on that, but we still, early on the episode, have Leslie's casual racism come up again. She's like, you're from Libya, right? I'm like, again? Like, how many times are we going to do this joke? And then he's

like, I'm from South Carolina, and my parents are from India, and she doesn't, Leslie is such a good person in so many ways. That joke is so jarring, because to because to me it's like you would never do that today obviously i'm surprised we did it then i'm just surprised it's like multiple times and and and leslie just doubles down on it she it's not she doesn't say anything i'm so sorry she doesn't apologize no she goes oh yeah libya shmibia whatever one of those countries is they share an office it's like one of her best friends she looks out on him every day it's an indian man anyway i that that is you know as an asian american that is a very very funny thing in retrospect i don't i i you know look i'm not making excuses for it it was a different time

but there's also you know and there's also tom's explanation kind of deep in his character about why he chose the name tom haverford he says He says in a talking head, my real name is Darwish Sabir Ismail Ghani. And by the way, which is Aziz's cousin's name. So it was very funny for me because we did this talking head. And later I met Darwish. So it's like Cousin Darwish is just a guy. And he has a cousin named Harris. And he's Cousin Harris in his stand up.

And so it was really funny to meet all these guys who I'd only heard their names. And they're nice guys. They were in their 20s when we were in our 30s. And we later cast Cousin Harris in Master of None. Anyway, this is all kind of a digression. It touches on racial issues. And I kind of had forgotten forgotten that the show was addressing wedge issues in that way the way it did you know and also his monogram

on his shirt is the beginning of the great fashion tom haverford that will eventually get us to uh get rent a swag rent a swag yes I was trying to put my finger on it because I was like, well, he did Entertainment 720, he did Tom's B-Show, and he also did rent-a-swag. One of my favorite things I have is I have this

like super, super, super lightweight down jackets, form-fitting zip-down jackets that says very subtly rent-a-swag. That was one of our Christmas gifts one year. form-fitting zip-down jackets that says very subtly, rent a swag. That was one of our Christmas gifts one year.

And when people see that, they lose their shit. Like when serious hardcore fans see a real rent-a-swag jacket, they lose it. It's weird. And I'll one-up you on that because I gave my rent-a rent a swag jacket to my mother who is a high school teacher in Reno Valley, California. So she teaches at a big, massive, like public high school. So she would wear that. She's a very petite, uh, older Asian American lady, you know, and then she would go to her giant public school, you know, which is really diverse. And she would wear this

rent a swag jacket and they'd be like, Ms. Pian, where'd you get that jacket, man? Where'd you get that jacket? You're an older lady wearing a jacket that says Rent-A-Swag. Anyway, it was a big hit with her students. Yeah, you can't go wrong. It's like a get-out-of-jail-free card with a certain demo, for sure. That was really funny, man. It was really funny.

Yeah, but this is the beginning of tom of tom being um and also tom name checking a lot of people i think there's some yes he name checks some some peeps in this for sure it opens with him pretending to know the names of vegetables and calling them different rappers like soldier boy talum and ludicrouses and you know bundles and harmoniums whatever and what i always what i always found funny about i mean like tom's character and then aziz in general is he started out as a kind of diminutive asian american indian american comedian from south carolina just going on stage talking about what he liked right and he likes hip-hop he liked food he liked clothes

whatever he liked all this stuff and over time as he became more successful he started becoming those things because he became friends with these guys like he he went from starting out doing open mics as an NYU student about Jay-Z and Kanye to being in a Jay-Z and Kanye music video like if that's not the American dream that's pretty wild right it's like he went to Madison Square he played Madison Square and i i once he went he once did a stand-up show and like lebron james and duane wade went it's like that is really wild man that is really wild i remember the day he was in the video i remember the day that that video came out and everybody's like stood around like a he i guess had an early cut of it on his phone that was a big deal it's the video for otis off watch the throne and yeah

it's like jay-z and kanye and they're like dancing around cars and then every so often you'll see aziz in the background just dancing also like this is just really funny man this is this seems so incongruous and and you know the the little sort of you know i i was privy to some of this because you know i'm good friends with aziz so like when we would spend time with those guys, it was, we always had to pinch ourselves and be like, what is happening? Because we do not belong here. But it was fun, you know,

it was a fun period in our lives for sure. Pot brownies. Yes. I mean, there's a pot brownies yes i mean there's a pot brownies reference i mean i feel like that's so old school there's so many ways to get your pot now i don't think anybody has to build a brownie around it i mean there's right edibles are not my favorite no because there's no controlling the dosage and you always feel like who's oh who's baking these pot brownies right it's like back in the day like when you get them it's like i don't trust them i don't trust the baker of these like this person making this was not using science right i don't know how much to how much to eat or whatever like just feels like not the best way to do it well and and and

this is a clearly a theme but um my experience with pot brownies, the only time I ever really had them, they were baked by, wait for it, Steakout star Emilio Estevez. Great. I love it. This is all coming together, man. It's all coming together. I was either going to be Sheen or Estevez. Yeah, exactly. He was good at it.

He knew what he was doing. I was never a pot guy. Never was. I got super, super paranoid and didn't enjoy it one bit but it didn't stop me from trying it going this time it'll be different yes i i it's it's really not for me and and and i yeah i tried you know when i was younger i tried definitely one time uh i also ate some kind of pot brownie again. It's that thing where I'm not feeling anything. Maybe I'll have four more. Right. And then you take four more, you eat four more. I just remember

we started, this is like very of its time, but me and my girlfriend at the time were watching the movie clerks on like DVD. We put it on, we put it on. It was like, all right, let's watch clerks. And then I was like kind of laughing and I looked at her and we were kind of laughing and I looked back and the movie was over. And it was oh man we're like we're now traveling through space and time i always feel like i always feel like weed now is like way too strong too like i was at a party like not a few years ago but seth rogan was there and and you may be surprised to know seth rogan uh likes weed yeah he likes he likes weed would never have thought of it. Yeah, so like, you know,

he was like, yeah, try some of this weed. And I was like, okay. And then, of course, it's way too strong. And he's like, yeah, that's Snoop Dogg's weed. I was like, this is too, I'm not in this league of guys. Like, I don't want to do this. Like, this is too crazy, man.

This is too crazy. Producer Greg has an interesting story about your jaunt. Hit us with this one, Greg. It's too good. I brought an edible with me to a concert at the Greek Theater in L.A. It was a Crosby, Stills, and Nash concert. And then I was planning to eat it slowly over the course of the concert,

but then they saw it in my bag. They're like, you can't bring food in. So I just downed the whole thing which was a major mistake um it's my first and only edibles experience because after the first half of the concert which was the best concert i had ever been to in my entire life at this point um i got very very very high and had a major panic attack thought that um i stopped breathing because i felt an artery in my neck to see how fast my heartbeat was but i just felt a random part of my neck instead and i thought i

i was no longer um had a pulse and i was taken to the medic and um oh my god um i thought i died um and then uh i woke up in the emergency room oh my god and so i was i was that guy taken away in an ambulance at uh at a concert because of a bad edibles experience i once was offered a a hit of a joint by willie nelson on his tour bus and and i was like i i don't i know i don't like this and i know it makes me paranoid and and i know this is gonna end badly but it was like, I know I don't like this. And I know it makes me paranoid. And I know this is going to end badly. But it was like a circle of famous people in the bus. And I was like, I can't be totally not cool.

So I fake-toked it and still got so fucking high that I couldn't leave the bus for five hours. fucking high that I couldn't leave the bus for five hours. That, I mean, now look, almost, it feels like everyone has a bad edible story and no one has a great edible story. No one's like, you know what? I had a little bite of the brownie. It was a perfect dosage. I was super, super fun. Had a great time with friends, went home and had a great night's sleep and woke up refreshed the next day. Like no one has that story. It's just like, oh my God, it was horrible.

I woke up in the ER. Like that's, we should know better, man. We should know better. But by the way, it was very quaint in this episode. It's like, wow, weed. It was like weed, like 13 years ago, weed. Like this is, or 12 years ago, whatever. Like it's like, it almost felt like we're in the 50s

or something we're watching reaper madness right it's like oh my god we gotta find the they called him the kingpin she was calling him the kingpin whoever whoever plant like that's a that's a that's a daredevil villain that's a spider-man villain that's not a guy who plants weed now it's like your aunt ellen plants weed right it's like yeah kingpin and but and the other thing is it was all like leaf it wasn't like they're these just gnarly buds that people are holding up i'm not even sure it was smokable that was like a trip back into a different time for sure it was fun to see uh pratt do one of his i mean he's done so many great stunts in the show but this his when he's running from the police and jumps into the

pit that is mental that that's got to be him too like this this for sure so so we we've talked a little bit about pratt doing his own stunts he he almost always did his own stunts not only did his own stunts in the show they he also added stunts that weren't there. Right. So, so like, like he would be like, what if I just, what if I also like fall off a 10 story building here? Again, I am not a stunt coordinator, Rob, you can probably chime in here too. You've probably, you know, done some stunts and or had people do stunts for you with you, but something like that, they put a crash pad down, right? They'll put like a mattress down and that'll break your fall. And that, and I think that does a lot of the work, but you have to fall the right way right can you can you can you illuminate us on illuminate that a

little bit well the thing i was which makes it so funny and so insane is how hard he sells out i mean he's first of all running at full speed and he gets a ton of air And then he's gyrating as he's arcing in the air and falling into the pit. So he's falling with no, you know, he has no regard at all for falling correctly. Zero. Yes. He's just selling out. And that's what makes it so funny. It's clearly him.

And this is a large man. Pratt is like 6'5". He's probably pushing 300 in this period of the show, and that's a lot of momentum. That's a lot of momentum. That is a cannonball of comedy willingness there. So kudos to him. He also does a lot of physical stuff in the episode

that I wrote down that made me laugh. It cuts to Pratt, and he's eating a carrot like a rabbit. it's almost like a cartoon like that's one of the first times you see him and it's like this is unbelievably broad but also really funny and then later he gets into the van and then he starts eating this candy necklace like he's in like he's a dog or something he's just like i guess his secret is just like impersonating anybody eats a candy necklace whole and leslie's like there's a string in there. He's like, no, there wasn't one in this one. It's like, oh, my God.

This is one of the, this is so funny. The candy necklaces, God, I remember. Do they even make those anymore? I love those things. Those things are awesome. The problem was, though, the minute you started eating them, then it was all slimy and sticky and whatnot. But, God, they were great. You're wearing, it seems, there's something

unsanitary about it to me. It's almost like wearing, like what else, what other food are we eating that we're also wearing? I feel like I have an issue with that. It's like, I don't want to, it's touching your skin. I don't know, man. How long do you want to wear something before you eat it? Not very long for me. I love those

old school candy shops where you get the wax lips yeah you know or the little coke bottles that have like just clearly sugar liquid in them that you bite the tops off i mean all that's i mean i'm way older than you alan so you probably didn't trick-or-treat and get this good stuff you were probably getting you know what they were just they would just send me apps on my phone no trick-or- treat. Here's an app. Here's a candy app. Candy crush.

No, there's Ring Pops, I guess, other food that you wear. But yeah, no one's eating like a burger hat or something. I don't know what another kind of food you would wear would be. But I mean, let's talk about Leslie's dating a little bit just because this is kind of her transition further away from Brandanowicz. It's hard for me to say Brandanowicz. It's a tongue twister. But I think part of it was trying to make her character a little bit more confident, a little bit more socially aware. you know, aware. And, and I think this was all part of that process. So part of that was pairing her up with new people. So, um, officer Dave was one and then Justin, the lawyer was another, uh, down the road. And, um, you know, I think it ends up being good for her character. You know, it's kind of a bridge back from Brenda Anowitz and, and, and what was kind of,

kind of a bummer, I think in some ways for her character to be hung up on this guy who didn't care about her. Yeah, definitely gives her some some agency and and and all that and i think it was a good uh it was a good arc it was definitely a a really good arc i mean you always want to see your your your heroes romantic lives yes and i think there's also something to be said for a certain kind of character it it's it's nice i know this this sounds so obvious but it's nice when other characters like your main character, you know what I mean? As opposed to a lead who keeps striking out or is a loser or whatever. I don't know. I don't want to say loser, but look, it changes the dynamics

completely when instead of a character constantly rejecting that character, you have an outside character being in love with her. And that happens over and over again. And so that was kind of one of the fundamental changes in the show is other characters' attitudes towards Leslie. It's not even as if she changes that much. A lot of it is other characters are respecting what she's doing. So I think that was all part and parcel with that sort of adjustment in the show.

Because this is season two, episode two, but we keep forgetting season one was only six episodes. Yes. So this is what- Episode eight. Yeah. Think about episode eight of a show, two months into a show, if it's running weekly, you're not're not like hey is the show completely figured out it's like probably not you know you look at episode eight of seinfeld you're like they're still figuring it out elaine's hair is still pretty wild right they're still they're like getting different they're gonna wear different clothes

pretty soon like they figure all that shit out later on you know yep this is this definitely has the feel of some stuff just starting to work. Yes. And let's also not forget the legendary line. I was born ready. I'm Ron fucking Swanson. You know, that's,

that's a seminal line in that character or like that, that kind of confidence, right? That, and that's early that, that, that you, you know,

you guys knew that Ron was that kind of a, of a legendary Teddy Roosevelt ish like that vibe I mean I was surprised that that line I knew that it existed I was surprised it came so early in the life of the show yeah it yeah you're you're right you're right about that I mean he just feels so much more fully formed here again you know the the sort of season break helped right because keep in mind although it is episode eight of the show we took three months off and then we took two months to write the show to start to write the season and we talked about each and every character and how they would

change or not change from the first season so i think it was very clear this one was like oh shit you know like ron is kind of a superhero and leslie makes note of it. She's like, when she's at the police station, she's like, I can have Ron Swanson in here kicking down your door. It's like, oh, is he a superhero now? He's like, yeah, he kind of is. Just because of how he acts in the show. So again, Offerman really sells that whole story. He doesn't move an inch, but it's a powerhouse performance.

Truly, truly. I mean, it's a comedy goal. If you look at many sitcoms and i think this is a comedy that falls in that category they will become increasingly frantic as the seasons progress and for a variety of reasons right so season one is like a little slower there's room there's air there's characters are breathing this season yeah there's an a story b story there's kind of a c story too but there still doesn't feel as frantic now if you watch season six of this show it's so it's so fast it's so fast and there's sometimes even like a d story the writers would

joke about an h story or like a z story about oh man we, we got to, we got to, and by the end, you know, you know, Jerry and Donna sometimes had their own story. So sometimes there were so many stories going on. If you think about it and you have 21 minutes and you're, and you have three or more stories, sometimes you're talking about a story that is three minutes long or something. It's like, how much are you going to get across in three minutes? Unless, you know, you're pulling out a ton of air and you're moving at breakneck speed. And so I tend to like when there's a little bit of room to breathe. And I find it to be sometimes an assault on your senses when something is stretched too thin. It's just too tight and too fast. Then again, a lot of comedy directors will say, obviously, faster, funnier, but also there's a certain pace that's good for comedy. So you want to hit the sweet spot i think and i think like seasons two and three of the show were kind of in that zone to me why was there a move to do more storylines uh that's a good question i think in general because you have a certain look at a certain point it's it's it comes down to simple math

it comes down to let's say you have six to eight main characters i think in this show there were six series regulars i'm not oh no there's more than that i mean that we went also once we added you and and adam scott there were even more so at a certain point in this show i think there were something like eight series regulars and and then jerry and donna as well who became series regulars so then you're talking 10 characters or something and you can't i defy anyone to write an elegant 20-minute story that incorporates 10 characters well, right? Like, are you really going to – like, that is one intricate plot, and you better make that – you're essentially writing Ocean's Eleven at that point, and it's going to be very difficult to do. So what you do is you split them up, and you split them up.

Oh, this is a great – this is – the core of this A story is Leslie and Ron. Okay, so Leslie and Ron are in the A story. Okay, well, then the B story. Wow, you know what? oh this is a great this is the core of this a story is leslie and ron okay so leslie and ron are in the a story okay well then the b story wow you know what this is a great chris ben tom story or something and then sometimes i'm not even joking sometimes it's like who's left so it's like oh who's left oh we got uh uh it looks like we got april and jerry and you know whatever whatever it is whoever's left it's it's like, okay, what are they doing? Right. Sometimes you're thinking about that. You're like, what? And, you know, and, and, and, and, and, right. Greg says always, it's not always Ann, but you know, but cause Ann

didn't work in the parks department often was like, okay, well, how can we fit her into the story? What's the most organic way to get her in? I know, she comes over and has lunch. There's a lot of, okay. She's holding the paper. She's reading the paper in the courtyard. It's like, man, she's always reading the paper. But it's a pragmatic issue. And then also, I will say, working on a show right now, a half-hour comedy, it's fun to bounce back and forth between stories. There's something about cross-cutting.

I've thought about this a lot, even in dramatic movies. This is a weird example. But if you watch Star Wars, they're cross-cutting and cross-cutting between stories sometimes gives you a pulse of energy and it allows you to time cut between stories. It allows you to work with the propulsiveness of the stories in concert. And I know that sounds really pretentious in some ways and it probably is but but it really you know there is a way to make it work in your favor and and and really have it have the stories play off each other and i think at the really highest level what if they dovetail or what if they mirror each other thematically that's always great you know that's like wow and that's happening in some of these Parks episodes. And I give credit to Mike about the elegance of, wow, something I

learned in the B story has resonance in the A story or vice versa. That's high level. And I really like that stuff. Yeah, absolutely. That's the hallmark of good writing, 100%. Yes. Should we do a town howl? When it's getting to Halloweeneen time they should be called the town howl town howl and yeah and maybe it's a town howl i believe today rob well we'll decide where did do you have an idea of where we want to do this town howl oh the town howl i well i i was i was gonna say go ahead if you have idea If it's the town howl It should be for sure What's the animal themed area

The animal control floor Oh sure The fourth floor Or you wanted to do it at animal control Let's do it at animal control Town howl Let's do this town howl At the animal control offices this is so

hard to say but i'll keep saying it town howl and by the way it's also a town howl because i believe our current town howl is a voicemail it is not just an email or a letter or physical snail mail letter it is a voicemail um can we play that down producer schulte hi this is conrad my partner and i are both really big fans of parks and rec and we're wondering at what age you think we can appropriately introduce our kids to the show they're currently eight months and three years old thank you i love thank you for the question conrad great twist the guy wrote his own joke in his voicemail and the real answer is that it's already too late you should have started at one month no um no it's a great

question um great name by the way that's my nephew's name conrad um so very sweet i'm running with him um i don't know what do you think rob we were just talking about how there's a swearing and police brutality and weed in this one but i will say it's usually a pretty family-friendly show. I think it's so family-friendly, and I know I'm stopped all the time by super young kids who are happy to see Chris Traeger, and I'm always blown away at how young some of them are. always blown away at how young some of them are and and i think because the the inherent energy of the show and the sort of sunny optimism and an overt happiness in it makes it makes it a a good fit for kids younger than you might suspect and then and then my other thing is as a parent i my here's the where i always fell on this subject of when it's appropriate for people. I'd much rather have my kids see great things that are inappropriate for them age-wise than appropriate things for them age-wise that are fucking awful. And that's 90% of what kids are watching. And that's 90% of what kids are watching.

Right. So instead of watching like a poorly made kid show, you're like, here's the shining. Exactly. No, I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding in the least. Yes. No, I agree. I agree. I think you can show this to pretty young kids.

I just don't think that there's that much bad stuff in it. It aired on broadcast television. Early, 8 o' with you rob it's appealing to kids i think because it's very high energy and it's sort of like you got all these characters and they're learning to get all i know how this is cheesy but they're learning to get along and it's a very optimistic show so um he said his kids were, eight months and three or something like that. I mean, fire it up in like a couple of years, I would say, I would say get them on the train early. Uh, you know, as soon as they are sentient human beings who understand language, uh, I think it's, I think it's fair game and it's, it's a, it's an upbeat show, man. It's,

it's, it's good for you. It's, it's nutritious television, I think. I don't think it's bad. You go big comfy couch right into Parks and Rec. That's what you do. And I think of that era of NBC comedies, I think it's the most kid-friendly. I think it goes like Parks, and then when they're a little older, they can watch maybe The Office, and then Community, and then 30 Rock. I don't know. Something in that order. It's a whole Thursday night block of comedy.

Yes, it's the Thursday night ladder of getting older. And Greg wants to know when they can watch Outsourced. I think that's important. Greg, you're axed to grind against Outsourced. Please, man. No, I'm kidding. Outsourced, they can watch whenever. Outsourced, whatever.

God bless. God bless. All right. Well, thank you for the question from Conrad. Hey, that's a town. When you start a town, Hal, you don't know where it's going to end. But it was a fun one. And send in your voicemails because we always like playing the voicemails and getting the emails as well.

So thank you for the questions. I think that's about all we got for this episode. What do you think, Rob? I got nothing more to give. I think that was more than enough. But thank you all for listening.

And we will be back next week. How fun was that? Hopefully you had as much fun as I did. And if you did, please rate and review the show. That can be your homework

if you're so inclined on Apple. Very, very important to the success and ongoing franchise of the show. And please don't forget to join me on Literally, where I talk to, I think you'll find very interesting people. Pull that one up and look at that list of guests. And if you can't find somebody that you're interested in, just listen to Alan's episode.

He's every bit as interesting as Chris Pratt or gwyneth paltrow or oprah come on that's right thanks producer schulte and greg uh goodbye from punny see you later this episode of parks and recollection is produced by 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.