Parks and Recollection - Tom's Divorce (S2E11)

Episode Date: January 4, 2022

Come along for another life changing journey to Pawnee! Today Rob and Alan stick together while watching the 11th episode of season 2. In “Tom’s Divorce” Leslie finds out Tom and Wendy are splitting up, and tries to lift his spirits. On this episode find out the unique connection Jerry has with dinosaurs, the origin of the Ron Swanson breakfast meme, and which Taco Bell actor possibly marries Wendy!Got a question for the Pawnee Town Hall? Send us an email: [e-mail] Or leave a 30-Second voicemail at: [phone] The episode opens with Ron sending Leslie to run an errand at the DMV on City Hall's fourth floor, a dark and unsettling place that includes probation offices and divorce filings. A reluctant and frightened Leslie navigates past reprobates and blood stains on the floor and spots Tom and Wendy leaving the Divorce Office. Unaware that their relationship was a green card marriage to prevent Wendy from being deported back to Canada, Leslie later tries to comfort Tom, who insists he is fine. Nevertheless, Leslie persists in her efforts to cheer him up, in part by ordering a singing horse telegram to cheer him up and taking the whole dept out to a dinosaur-themed restaurant, Jurassic Fork. The parks employees eat several dinosaur-themed entrees, "Tyranna-Ceasar Salads" and "Surf and Turfasaurus". Tom seems so cheery that Leslie begins to suspect he is faking being sad. Ron pulls Tom aside and asks whether he could ask Wendy on a date once the divorce is finalized. Tom consents, but is visibly disappointed. Determined to cheer him up, Leslie agrees to compromise her morals and take Tom to his favorite strip club, the Glitter Factory. Leslie is horrified by the club and tries to encourage the strippers to change their lives. Ron is also uninterested in the strippers, but happily consumes the free breakfast buffet.Tom remains depressed even after Leslie hires a stripper to "grind the sorrow out of him". A drunken Tom tells Leslie that Ron plans to ask out Wendy, prompting an angry reaction from her. Meanwhile, Andy continues his efforts to break up the relationship between Ann and Mark.  Andy challenges Mark to a game of pool with the hopes of hustling him, but Mark turns out to be an excellent player and wins multiple games for double or nothing. Mark and Andy make one final wager: if Andy wins, he gets Ann, but if Mark wins he has to leave them alone. Mark dominates the game but loses when he scratches on the 8 ball. Initially delighted, Andy becomes confused when Ann leaves with Mark anyway. Meanwhile, Tom passes out at the bar, and Ron and Leslie take him to Wendy's house. Leslie is shocked to find Wendy is on a date with another man. She storms out after expressing her disgust with Wendy and Ron. The next morning at work, Tom confesses to Leslie that it was a green card marriage, and that he only recently realized he has feelings for Wendy and Andy tells Mark and Ann he will no longer be bothering them. Andy says a final goodbye to Ann and the episode concludes with a Horse singing telegram Leslie has sent to apologize to Ron.

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 Hello everybody, welcome to Parks and Recollection I am one of your hosts, Rob Lowe I'm joined by Alan Yang How are you today, Alan?

What's up, Rolo? What's up, everybody? Good to be here. I'm very good. I'm rolling. Rolo is rolling. I loved this episode we got on deck today, Tom's Divorce. Super, super, super funny. It's episode 11 of season two and written by the great you know who eris whittles and directed by troy miller kind of a murderer's row right there don't you think yeah it's it's you hit this sort of key area of season two and it's a lot of favorite directors and a lot of favorite writers so so yeah it's a really good one and then this this this episode is a little emotional it's it's really funny and it has a lot of world building there's a lot of like new parts of Pawnee and we'll get into some of those later I think that's one of the one of the things I realized about this episode that we're seeing a lot of locations that will come back in

later episodes and that's kind of the fun of building a show and it's super funny a lot of puns people like puns out there you're gonna like this episode well here's the thing I hate puns and I like when people are basically shitting on puns which basically what this was this was that that's what was great about it it was like you know the lame restaurant has lame puns because puns are wait for it lame i don't disagree but i do love making fun of puns which is as you as you said, very specific. And by the way, bleeds into actually liking puns at a certain point. Once you are pitching a lot of puns and you kind of revel in it. So in later seasons, we had a writer named Megan Amram join us.

And Megan Amram's brain is absolutely broken in a way that I will never be able to describe because she cannot stop coming up with puns. She also wrote on The Good Place, and there's so many puns in that show. And you can just say, hey, come up with 100 puns for this restaurant menu, and she'll come back and have 100, and you could never have thought of them. She would have been a killer on this one, but she wasn't on the staff yet. So she wasn't writing this episode. Shall we get into a synopsis? Oh, you know I love this part of the show. Got my popcorn, and I'm ready for the dulcet tones of

Alan Yang. All right, synopsis heads, here we go. This episode, Tom's Divorce, opens with Ron sending Leslie to run an errand at the DMV on the dreaded fourth floor of City Hall, where she discovers Tom and Wendy are getting a divorce. Stunning news. Leslie tries to lift Tom's spirits by taking him and the rest of the Parks Department out to a dinosaur-themed restaurant called Jurassic Fork. Not even really a pun. Does not rhyme, but we went with it anyway. And after that doesn't work, to Tom's favorite strip club, The Glitter Factory, where she encourages the strippers to better their lives. Yeah.

We'll get into that later, but yeah, Leslie nope. Take someone to a strip club and it's, it's, it's kind of, it's kind of glossed over, but we'll talk about that.

Meanwhile, Andy challenges Mark to a game of pool in hopes of hustling him, but soon realizes Mark is an excellent pool player. After multiple rounds of double or nothing, the two settle on a final wager. If Andy wins, he gets Anne. But if Mark wins, Andy has to leave Mark and Anne alone to pursue their relationship. Mark dominates the game, but in the end loses by scratching the eight ball. Andy's thrilled that he won Anne and also confused when she leaves with Mark and everything is the same

as it was before. So yeah, an emotional episode, you know, giving Aziz some acting to do too. Um, so yeah, an emotional episode, you know, giving Aziz some acting to do too. Little subtle nuance thing that made me laugh, um, so hard is when the, he's a Jurassic fork. It's a horrible rainforest dinosaur theme with every once in a while in the back of your ear. I mean, it's like the worst of the worst touristy nightmares. And he calls for the way and goes, Garcon. Like, it made me laugh. Out of nowhere.

Yeah, Garcon. Out of nowhere. He thinks maybe calling the waiter by a French version of a waiter, a Jurassic Fork would be cool. It made me laugh. It's the first thing. And yeah, just commenting off that right off the bat, you know, obviously, you know, I'm good friends with Aziz and we work together on subsequent shows. And he jokes about it sometimes because at a certain point he started like winning awards and getting nominated for acting and he won like a Golden Globe or something. And he was like, man, I look back on Parks, like the early, early stuff. He's

like, it's so bad. He's like, I had no idea what I was doing. I was a standup comedian. He started being a standup at like 19, right? Or whatever it was in college. And suddenly you're on TV, you're an actor now, you're in a show. And, you know, episodes like this started helping him do things other than just say one-liners and being, you know, there's a huge difference, you know, this between being a standup and an actor that you have to react, right? You have to react. So, so I think this is the beginning of him sort of, you know, there's a huge difference, you know, this between being a stand up and an actor that you have to react. Right. You have to react. So so I think this is the beginning of him sort of, you know, increasing his range, as you said. And, yeah, he's starting to to get better and show some actual emotion on screen, which, you know, he did a good job with. I was wondering if you showed up on set on the day they were at Jurassic Fork and said, you know, to like Chris Pratt. at Jurassic Fork and said, you know, to like Chris Pratt,

so this Jurassic stuff. Take notes. Do you like any of it? Are you there? Whatever. Rob, I'm curious. Have you seen this clip of Pratt doing a behind-the-scenes video for Parks and Rec where he talks about, he's making a joke. He's like literally filming himself on his phone

and he fakes a he fakes a call i just got a text message from steven spielberg god it's so annoying sorry steven i was asked by parks and recreation slash nbc to do behind the scenes, which is to say everyone else was asked and said no. But I have no shame, as you know by the endless gift baskets i'll have to get back to you later about jurassic park four boom he manifested it he manifested he manifests it's the first example the secret working but yeah that's so that's so crazy i i by the way i want to know i'm a i'm a fan boy where did you shoot jurassic fork that set is amazing i was just gonna ask greg this what do you remember greg i feel like i was because i it's gotta be the rainforest cafe and you guys just put dinosaurs in it was it in san gabriel valley somewhere i want to say that like i i'm trying to shockingly i could tell you that jur Fork was filmed at Clifton's Cafeteria in downtown Los Angeles.

Wow. No way. Yeah. Okay. I can see the multi-levels. Yeah. Now it makes sense. But they must have done.

They. We must have done a lot of adding of foliage and stuff because it doesn't look like that at all i man that's i gotta i almost gotta re-watch the episode now that is that is wild um clifton's cafeteria that yeah that reopened again i think so i don't know if it's still open but yeah it closed down the reopen and might close down again but yeah that is that is weird you know it's got to be this big open space and we brought in i think we brought in a lot of the dinosaur props we brought in but and and by the way like that's a dream for me i i jurassic park's one of my favorite movies and i loved dinosaurs as a kid so i was like obsessed with dinosaurs all this stuff so it's fun to do all the the dinosaur puns and stuff one of the things about this set

and and this will always never fails to make me laugh. So you look at the, you know, some of the wide shots of this, you'll see like, you know, dinosaurs and props and stuff. And one of the props for this episode was a giant hydraulic dinosaur egg. And it was an egg that opened and shut that you could theoretically fit inside. opened and shut that you could theoretically fit inside. And so, originally, there was a sea story for this episode wherein the character of Jerry, played by Jim O'Hare, got inside this hydraulic egg and it opens and closes, let me remind you. And the egg closes around him and he gets trapped inside the egg, right? So, that was the storyline pitched by the writers. We go on to build this egg.

So there's a huge hullabaloo we got. I mean, that's an enormous build. It's a robotic egg. We got the VFX guys in there. This is a huge undertaking. This is one of the biggest props the show's ever built. We build this giant egg. I don't know how much it costs exactly my what i heard this may be wrong it was something in the

vicinity of fifteen thousand dollars to build this giant dinosaur egg and of course we shot it all and uh the story was cut for time so the egg is not in the episode at all it's not in any sort of producer's cut there's no inkling that the egg ever existed. But I will say this. For years afterwards, that egg just sat on the stage in the corner as a reminder of the writer's folly and just saying, you do not make us build props like that. You do not make us build props like that in the future. And every time I saw it, I would laugh. Season six, seven of the show was still there. that's that egg from the from the jurassic fork episode and we trapped

jerry inside and it just like i don't know if we just cut for time or whatever but yeah uh but just one of my favorite props from from the show i will say jurassic fork was uh a better uh a better pitch for a restaurant than one of the other pitches sch Schindler's Lunch. Does that come in? I think that comes in later in the show. I don't know. Yeah, so very inappropriate joke. So only Steven Spielberg themed? Yeah, that's right, right?

He's the only guy that gets restaurants? Yeah, instead of E-T-E-A-T, right? I don't know. These are off the top of my head, so I don't know, but yeah. But that was an option. I don't know. Schindler's lunch. I love like the weird things in the episode sometimes. And the waiter gets really upset about how Leslie is ordering her steak because she's ordering. I love that. I love that moment. That little bit. What does Leslie say she wants at medium roar? She she wants it medium roar and he says medium rare

she goes no no medium roar she's like seven he's like uh for legal reasons we're not allowed to make puns about the temperature of the meat that's an example of deconstructing the puns as opposed to just living in them so shout out to the writers on that one makes you wonder like what happened yeah it's a great because that's one of those jokes is not only is it funny but it makes you think like oh i'd like to see the story of what happened at the restaurant yeah when somebody ordered medium roar and had third degree burns on their tongue it's rich man it's a rich world i also love in that so in jurassic fork there's also a little bit of a hint of the upcoming donna and tom friendship so there's a thing everyone says something nice

about tom and tom and donna says tom's my little prince i just want to put him a little cape and the upcoming Donna and Tom friendship. So there's a thing, everyone says something nice about Tom and Donna says, Tom's my little prince. I just want to put him a little cape and flat and fly him around. And it's like, it's so cute. I think, I think Harris Whittles wrote that line. I could be wrong, but later on again, it's kind of like we talked about in previous episodes where you put this little tiny fact in or something and it works and then you kind of expand on it and so later you know they were just good friends and they did the treat yourself episodes together and and and it just seemed right that they like the finer things in life and they they're they're those characters are on the same page but we would never have known that episode one season one you know it's it's it's

just the chemistry they had um this is also the first episode that makes reference to the dreaded fourth floor yes that it is wildly shot by the way i mean like like that cold open is is so strange you go up there like we put up like green lights and obviously that's shot on a step you know a part of our set that's the first floor they redecorated it but it's very broad but but it comes back in later episodes and and it's kind of like you know the way people talk about Pawnee is sort of a live action Springfield. It's like, yeah, we've got the fourth floor. And then we've got Jurassic Fork. And then later we've got the Glitter Factory.

And all of these ideas kind of, you know, sit in the world of the show. They sit in the milieu. And world building is kind of like it's one of the joys of putting a show or movie together, right? You get to imagine what this city is like and and and and in some cases like this is a little pushed like it's a little bit broad but it's like yeah the fourth floor is like the worst part of of of the of the city hall right of city hall it's just um all of the worst shit is collected there and yeah we keep going back there you know i think it's there for an episode called the bubble i think it's in but yeah it's uh it's a it's a funny idea it makes me it's really disturbing i mean it's very fincher

esque it's almost like you're in parks and recreation getting the elevator and you come out and all of a sudden you're in and you know seven what's in the box he came in for a day and shot that scene then that day turned into Three months We have to talk about Leslie Knope bringing Everybody to a strip club I mean that is definitely not a log line

You're expecting to hear or read or see I would would love to show this episode to Mike. Mike Schur now is like, you know, he's a very progressive man and very forward thinking, but it's like, man, how did this get in the show? I just like, you wouldn't have thought it, you know, it's like, maybe it's in character that Tom would like going to strip clubs. the fact that leslie took him there is is it's so jarring to see like naked women on stage like blurred out like that that aired like we aired that this is like a this is like a very family-friendly show what happened man i felt like i was at the sopranos they're always going to that strip club in the sopranos it was a different time she's watching as he gets a lap dance it's like what is this this

is out of character and leslie nope is like makes no attempt to hide her dismissiveness of the strippers like she literally calls a stripper sea biscuit when her name is actually sierra that's right it's not very sex worker positive so you know what leslie leslie had a lot to learn too so even leslie nope yeah it has some growing up to do as it turns out. Yeah. But man, I don't remember. I honestly think I blocked that section of this episode out of my mind because I just didn't remember them going there. And I guess we shot that at a strip club. I mean, to see that on a Parks and Rec Call sheet in 2009 Or whatever, again, I guess

At the time, it was just like I'll do you one better, showing up on the set As an actor, at 5 in the morning The sun isn't up You just want some breakfast And it smells like a strip club Looks like a strip club Is a strip club, and you're there at 5 in the morning

You're like yeah and then you start filling it up with extras and it's like now it's 7 a.m and you just had like a breakfast burrito or something you walk in there like oh my god this is but but it's also you shoot at a nightclub it's the same thing you go in there it's like yay no one's meant to be in a nightclub at 8 a.m it's so weird shooting at nightclubs or places that you usually see when it's dark, right? You usually see when it's dark

and you had a drink or two, right? Well, the worst thing are casinos. And if any actors out there, if you ever shot in casinos, you know what that's like because the only time they will give you

to shoot, get this, you show up, your morning, your morning begins at 2.30 in the morning. Oh, my God. And you begins at 2.30 in the morning. Oh, my God. And you shoot till 2.30 in the afternoon.

It's the worst possible hours you could ever imagine. I've never had the extreme displeasure of shooting in a casino. Have you done Vegas casinos, Rob? Yep. And that's the only time you get. So whenever you're watching those oceans 11 jake oh they think they're fancy don't they and their oceans 11 meanwhile they're there rolling in at 2 30 in the morning having their coffee that is the that is kind of the dirty secret about filming in

general so look sometimes you have a great time right you go to a great location you're i was talking to a director earlier today and she had been shooting a show in Paris. Right. And, and she's like, I was like, how was it? Sounds so fun. She's like, well, we were really behind and we needed to get the, you know, we were meeting some actors dates. So we shot six days a week, like 16 hours a day or something. And it's like, in that case, you're not seeing Paris. You're seeing your location. You're going home and sleeping for four hours, coming back and shooting. And your french crew is cranky because they usually have eight hour days and they're shooting 15 hour days and and then you're you know that that's that again i'm not complaining

but but that is that is the reality of shooting a lot of times it's not it's not always just having a good time in italy which is what we did for master done but whatever i always i always forget that that people you know and there's no reason they shouldn't know people don't realize the the working hours like most people work nine to five those are the hours that's we have the phrase there's a move nine to five that's what when people work a minimum of 12 hours a day. And then, and there's, I always love that when you're doing a big series, when you finish an episode, people don't gather around and go, yay, we did it. That's great. Here's a champion. Let's take a light. No, you just literally, you'll finish a scene and start another scene from another episode.

And really all you do when you make a series is you make a never-ending conveyor belt of scenes that somebody cuts up into episodes and and that's it there's never a delineation ever other than maybe a new director shows up but it doesn't feel any different at all you might and you might even mix them up you might be shooting scenes from three episodes in one day like that happens sometimes and yep and again i i also don't want to sound like we're complaining because rob and i are lucky enough to be in positions where you know we we generally get taken care of you know not always but but you know we're and think about the production assistants and the crew members the transport people who are there three hours before. Before we are.

Yeah, so they're there at three in the morning. Yeah. And then they're wrapping out and cleaning up and striking the set. So their day is even longer. So all this is to say we're about to unionize. No, no. But truly, I do feel like, honestly, I do feel like, you know, the only reason we're working those hours is to save money for the people financing it. And I think the day should be 10 hours.

Like, the day should be 10 hours and, you know, it'll just take a few more days to shoot. But I don't think people should be working 17 hours and transpo guys driving like falling asleep at night. I think that's something to look at. Anyway. You for sure get diminishing returns there's yeah absolutely the last two hours of work are always almost barely usable yeah and and by the way what if you're doing a comedy what if you're doing a party scene at the end of the day you know what and it's like you know you just you're having your birthday party it's like really it's three in the morning we've been shooting for 17 hours but that but by the way like i i was shooting a movie in taiwan and and i was apologizing to my

crew there it was largely made up of taiwanese locals and and i said hey i'm sorry we were going to hour 13 or 14 shooting at the sugar factory which you know difficult shoot and some of them said oh no no uh don't worry about it The longest day I've had is 43 hours. So it's like, yeah, but you're lucky to be in a country with unions, by the way. You know, it's like they're like, oh, yeah, people are just falling asleep all over and the director's just yelling. And, yeah, you just keep going. It's like, oh, my God, this is so. So, yeah, be thankful that there are unions and where we are.

We do have some protections. But, yeah, I think we could we could be a little bit more civilized with our hours. And we definitely try. I definitely try. It's not always feasible, but certainly we try not to work people like that. I mean, that seems inhumane. A little glimpse into the glamorous life of showbiz professionals. Yes.

Also, on this episode, I am a sucker for mascots. Divorce horse, I'm sorry. I love it. I love it. I love mascots. I love I just I just do. They make me laugh. They're just great. I can't get enough of them. Fireworks, dolphins, mascots. For me, that's the Holy Trinity. For me, that's the holy trinity. They make me laugh, they make me happy, and you can't talk me out of them. Mr. Ed's singing horse was genius. Yeah, it's, I mean, I gotta say, one of the most cartoony ideas that's ever been in the show,

that such a man would exist, the guy called the divorce horse. And then he comes in again at the end and sings the whole song. But, you know, look, that's the idea of the show being silly, right? It's like, that's the show having fun, us writing the lyrics for the Divorce Horse song or pitching on, like, by the way, that might've been a 3 a.m. writing session. It's like, then a horse comes in. He's called the Divorce Horse. It's like, yeah, we made that happen. Someone had to buy that costume.

Somewhere there exist wardrobe photos of this man in his Divorce Horse costume. And then those photos get emailed to you and you have to approve them. It's like, is this the right color horse for the divorce horse? Like that gets me, that call gets made. So, um, no, it, it, it's really funny. And it all becomes, you know, Rob, you say you don't like puns, but you love the divorce horse. And I got to tell you, his name is based on a pun. So maybe I, maybe I, maybe I am not willing to face that part of myself. There you go, man. Add it to the list.

Mascots, fireworks, and puns. Puns. But I like at the very end, it's in the tag of the show, you hear the clopping down the hall before he even shows up. And that was the best. You're like, yes, here comes the divorce rights. I bet it's going to be him. Yay. So fulfilling.

So the pool table challenge right what i like about this area of the run of the show is i i have i have no uh dog in the fight i'm not in the show yet i'm just a guy watching a show making a podcast about a show so i can it i just so i i'm going well so when brendanowitz loses with the scratch did he did he mean to lose was there going to be another beat where he like it was like there was a a reverse on the plot that i didn't know about like i don't know what he what was going on with him my recollection of it using the title of the show uh my recollection of it is that he did it he didn't do it on purpose that he he just messed up but really the whole story was kind of an excuse to play with and subvert the trope that you could like win a woman

through a game of pool or like on a bet right i think that's like a famous trope sure well it's like an old it's like an old thing where like you know i'm fighting for my woman's honor like we'll see who you know it's like that kind of thing we'll have a duel i i think that was the idea and then the comedy i think theoretically it's always good when you're explaining the comedy why something's funny but the comedy was that pratt would be happy that he won right and then and then Andy would think that everything was okay. But like, yeah, obviously, it's all made up. This is bullshit. And no one actually wins anybody in a game of pool. And you shouldn't do that. You shouldn't bet your

girlfriend on a game of pool, etc. But yeah, I can't tell you that. I don't think Brandonowitz was losing that game on purpose, but I don't remember his reaction in the moment. So that's certainly something you picked up on. Something I love is that when Andy and Mark play pool for the first time, they start out with a $25 bet. Andy loses and they rematch for double or nothing. And the next time we're with them, we reveal that Andy owes Mark $6,400,

meaning in that time mark won nine consecutive games in a row brilliant and the other thing of course was ron loving the free breakfast at the strip club it was on my list too it's in my notes too it's it's an all-timer ron eating a buffet at a strip club it's so it's not only really By the way, that's like a classic GIF. Like the one of him like smiling, like getting eggs from the strip club buffet. Like I don't think people know necessarily that it's in a strip club. But it's not only really funny, it's so on character. Because he doesn't care about strip clubs.

He doesn't want to be in a strip club. He's not about that. He just wants to eat the breakfast food there. And like, yeah, just housing bacon and eggs there it's like that housing there's something really funny about that it's also vaguely gross but he's doing i don't know it's so funny he there's not nick offerman's his gleefulness whenever nick is gleeful it's so beautiful it's so great and and you use it sparingly right it's like this little tool you have it's like a power-up in video game or like something you gotta use it you can't use your

magic all the time you don't use up all the magic you have a very serious stern character and you you you yeah you use you use these missiles carefully so yeah he's but he's so funny by the way backing up a second about about ron in this episode what's going on why is he so horny why is he like i gotta ask out his wife immediately that's insane like don't do that like i don't like like give him a day give him a day like what are you doing man like immediately asking your employee's wife out even if it's a green card marriage is kind of psycho man you don't want to do that but he like sits him down he. He's like, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to ask your wife out. It's like, what? Anyway, I guess it was designed for the story, but that did make me laugh. Like going back and

seeing things that are like vaguely out of character is funny. It's like, damn, Rob, what are you doing, man? Yeah. I mean, you know, in the life of a long running show, there's always going to be those moments when you look back and go wait what was going on what but you know what rob in some in some ways the joy of life is when your friends act out of character right people do act out of character so so that's maybe it's fine maybe it's all fine now i just was like writing is meaningless anyone can do anything in any show forget if it's in character well but it is true that is a very interesting thing and i actually in all seriousness think about it as an actor when i'm designing a character where i'm playing something is what well my character would never do that but like you say the most amazing things

in life when people do something that is out of their character and he's giggling like you love that because it's like that's that's it there's some joy in that right my yeah and we'll talk about it when we get to the episode but only because you brought it up you know i came in onto the show for six episodes to see if i liked it see if they liked me it was kind of a like a trial marriage and i remember doing a scene with nick where we went to his favorite steakhouse and it was closed and he started crying and he turned to me and he goes what do you think happened to the steaks and i thought this is might be the most brilliant thing i've ever been a part of it's so it's it's so cute dude there's something about this show that's very cute like and i don't

mean that in demeaning way because i like cute things like i like cute shit so it's like i'm happy i wrote for the show i bet i pitched a lot of cute shit but like that is cute like he's a really manly guy but like that kind of thing is like it is adorable it's just a very like it's a cute joke like it's very funny but he said it like it was like it was just it was unbelievable like they were like like puppies that's yeah yes in there yes what do you think happened to the stakes yeah what do you think happened to the stakes and and the way everyone of the show like loves each other the fact that he would ask you that it's like yeah this is all this is yeah this this works man this works it's it's a it's a fun it's a fun tone you got a note from producer greg which is like ron is eager to date wendy but he also carries tom home and takes

care of his friend right so it's like there is a balance. I think maybe in the back of his head he knows he's screwed up. So maybe he knows he shouldn't have immediately asked his divorced friend's wife out, which is very funny. There's also a very funny construction of just a very straight line that the date has. He goes, which one is the husband? Yes, that's right. It's something like that that's really byzantinely structured it's funny which one's your husband he's the one being he's the one

being carried by his boss i think something like something like that before we move on from talking about ron something cool that i think is worth pointing out in several shots we see the back of ron's head and he's missing patches of his hair and referring back to the previous ep from hunting trip where he shot in the back of the head while hunting now this won't be the last time we use hair and makeup to track things that happen to ron's hair and i guess that's just a tease of an episode to come next season but it was just a really smart choice um and i i something i really love yeah no one will care about this but something about the casting of the guy wendy was on a date with

just made me laugh because he was like the most like normal looking like he just like has a little bit of stubble or so he's just like a white guy from like a taco bell commercial or something like he's he's a guy who just like looks like a normal guy and you've been watching your characters for so long and you see this random guy who's on a date with like a tertiary character and he's like what world is this he's stumbled onto a crazy treasure chest of a world and he's just like who's who and that's like us right that's us watching right it definitely felt you're so right it felt like he was from another world yes and he's the most normal looking guy possible so not him right he's the normal one that's that's that's what's great about it and

like you've just seen these these these wild hijinks and it's like yeah that's normal guys like what's going on here and he's by the way like he's dating tom's wife who's like a beautiful woman so like he he doesn't she's on the periphery of this world as well but i something about that actor made me laugh last night while i was watching it i was like yeah same same strange and now i realize he looks like a white guy from a taco bell commercial you could not i'm gonna steal that phrase it's so perfectly descriptive we all know what that is it's it's an even more specific guy now because there's fewer and fewer white guys in those commercials so so they're getting out of work you know my my girlfriend just did a talk my girlfriend just did a taco bell commercial and she's like she's you know she's asian and like it was her and a black guy that's like the main guys it's like yeah i mean the white guys are on

the roof of that commercial they're not eating anymore but yeah no it's like hey y'all doing okay y'all doing okay it's it's gonna be. We'll be fine. It's going to be okay. Well, yeah, the other Ron thing, the final Ron thing I noted was Steffi Graf callback. The patron saint of this podcast, one of our loyal listeners, Steffi Graf, yeah, he gives a talking head and it says he wants to, he's like, he doesn't care about strip clubs because he likes to date, you know,

confident, self-possessed women like Steffi Graf or Cheryl Swoops, who is a WNBA star. Which made me laugh so hard. First of all, I learned something because I never knew if it was Cheryl Swoops or Cheryl Swoops. I feel like it couldn't be. I was like, it couldn't possibly actually be Swoops. Swoops, graded hoops. I just I just can't imagine a world in which that's her actual name but turns out it is yeah it's it's like lonzo ball right it's like yeah the

ball brothers they're gonna basketball they're gonna they're gonna ball that can't be right that can't be right but yeah it's it's uh uh but yeah again talking about stephy grap is always funny so so i enjoyed that talking head how did we not ever get her in the show? I bet she would have done it. There's a long history. I think we quickly moved on to, like, Indiana athletes and NBA players. So we got Detlef Schrempf, who's in Indiana. We got Roy Hibbert, who's on Indiana.

Man, there's – and then, obviously, all the Colts. So we had a lot of athletes on the show, actually, which was fun for me. We had Chris Bosh. Like, I'm a huge NBA fan, so it was really funny to see all those – so we had a lot of athletes on the show actually which was fun for me we had chris bosh like it was like i'm a huge nba fan so so it was really funny to see all those those uh those nba players and i actually became kind of friendly with roy hibbert who was the center for the pacers he came and guested on the show he's a he's a huge comedy comedy fan so yeah we hung out a few times a nice guy yeah i did scenes with roy he was great yeah very nice guy um and, very nice guy. I just love your role on set.

You're like, hey, Rob, today you're doing a scene with Roy Hibbert. It's like, okay. And Detlef Schrempf. I'm like, great, amazing. Get ready for my eyeline to be higher than normal. Exactly. But yeah, those guys are good sportsmen. And I think it's also like, it makes it feel local, right? It's like Indiana stars, Indiana, you know, athletes.

And we kind of leaned into that. By the way, just circling back, for what it's worth, the actor, the date actor, who looks like the white guy in a Taco Bell commercial, is James Ball. No relation to the Ball brothers. I mean, weirdly tying, is this a moment where we discover like the whole universe is connected? The matrixes. This is a slumdog millionaire situation. It's all connected.

Yeah, Greg also notes that we faked an autograph with Larry Bird in Leslie's office. I remember that. It was like, keep shooting or something, or keep shooting for the stars. Okay, so the details of this. And you're right, Alan. From what I remember, in the deleted scene that was in the pilot, Tom tells us that the autograph of Larry Bird on Leslie's desk was faked by him, and it's part of a long-running

prank Tom played on Leslie, telling her that he has lunch with Larry Bird once a month. And I looked it up. The inscription on the photo reads, To Leslie, spelled L-E-S-L-Y. Sink that shot, Larry B. Well, it's time for the town hall. You know what? We haven't done one. We haven't done one in Ramset Park.

And I think it's a beautiful sort of afternoon. The weather's good. I think we get a blanket, you and I, some brioche cheese and red wine, and we just snuggle up in Ramset Park and just open the town hall. I love it, man. Let's get the best Pinot Noir we have in Pawnee. I wonder what we can find. Just the light red.

We'll get some nice Michigan wine. I think there's a joke later in the show about the wine they get there, but you know, maybe there's a wine scene there. So, alright, here's the town hall question. We're all cuddled up in Ramset Park. It comes from Sheila M. Who in the cast would

be the most realistic choice for an actual park ranger and by the way the note here is sheila m works at a famous bold and italicized famous park in nyc now that leads me to believe that she's talking about central park yeah like i feel like that you might as well have just said works at central park because you're not you're not really well yeah what's the famous park? What's a famous statue that celebrates liberty? Like, oh, okay, well, you know. Who in the cast would be the most realistic choice for an actual park ranger?

Oh, there's not even a doubt in my mind. What do you think, Rolo? Chris Pratt, 100%. Oh, I love that. I love that. So Pratt is an outdoorsman. He has a farm, right? So you tell me about Pratt's like his farm. Pratt has a farm, his own farm. He has his own, sells his own meat to restaurants. And it's doing really super well. It's, you know, he can go talk you chapter and verse. I can tell you the sausage he brought me The last time he was up was Insanely amazing

You know he's great with a bow A gun knows the animals He knows you know how to Make sure the pond has the right salinity And oxygen in it for the fish And you know That could be his second career he would love that Yeah and he's 6'5 and jacked

What animals does he have there I know he has sheep What else does he have there do you know yeah he's got pigs he's got sheep um i think that's that's the the farming element of the bulk of it yeah i remember being at a party with him uh not that long ago and and we were talking to my friend david chang who's a chef and they just started talking about how to how to make the pigs into tasty stuff basically it was like what maybe that was his race for some of the sausage but he's like oh man like you got pigs like you got to do that this is how because like you know chang like loves cooking pork so i think they they went off into a corner just started talking about pig recipes. But I think Pratt is a good answer.

The funny thing is, in the finale of the show, Ron Swanson's character becomes a park ranger. I think one of the elements about Nick that people don't know is he is a lot like Ron in a lot of ways, but he's also an actor. He's an actor. He's like a theater guy. He's like a Steppenwolf-trained guy. He does work with wood, and he's he's an actor he's like a theater guy like you know he's like a steppenwolf trained guy like he's not he he does he does work with wood and he's very handy but i don't think he like like wants to live in the woods and pratt does before pratt did all the big movies he was

like my goal is to make enough money to buy a house by the lake and i'm out of here yeah and nick offerman it's like to to what you were saying is he's a theater geek yeah a true i didn't want to say it but he is he is he wants to quote lord byron and stuff like he he's like a very he he's not he's not ron swans and he is in some ways but he's not in others that you know the other another good question would be who would be the worst park ranger and there's a lot of candidates there's a lot of candidates because uh i don't think you want to like go camping with like aziz like i don't think he's gonna be looking for those high thread count sheets like he doesn't want to be living outside uh like i don't like i don't think adam scott wants to do that i think there's city boys right there's city mice like me so yeah for sure those those two what's like that

great that great uh thing when we were shooting in uh in uh the stadium the football stadium the colts football stadium and i wanted to go and get a hamburger with with pratt we were gonna go get it and they and adam um morgan sack at the upm goes you guys can't leave right now i go why you're shooting all this stuff because no you're the only two guys here who can throw a football not probably not untrue right it's like i was it was it was throwing the we did we threw the football around i was like yeah not everybody here throws the ball it was really fun kicking those field goals too i remember kicking those and and pratt was kicking too it's not some too that was really fun 40 yards yeah 40 yard he kicked a 40 yarder um all right that was the

town hall thank you sheila m who works at a famous park in nyc i wonder what it is leave on this i really wonder what it is. That was the Town Hall. So let's fold up our picnic blanket and let's call it quits on another episode. Another fun one. Another fun one. Thanks for listening, everybody. Don't forget to tell your peeps about us.

Oh, and don't forget to give us a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It's a big deal, helps the show, and more importantly, we read all the comments. Go do your part. We've done ours. You just heard us do our thing. It's time for you to do your thing. Thank you. See you next week. Thanks to producers Rob and Greg. Bye from Pawnee.

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

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