Susan Yeagley: 94 Meetings (S2E21)
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And we're putting it on in a podcast. Then we'll send it up into the sky. Parks and recollection. Come on, little podcast. Spread your wings and fly. Fly.

Well, hello. Hello. I'm so excited. I'm sorry. This is exciting. It's very exciting. A really good episode today. Ninety four meetings. Parks and Recollection with me and Alan Yang. This is a good episode, don't you think? Absolutely. Rollo, how are you doing today? Great episode. Really enjoyed watching. You know what this episode reminded me of? It reminds me of an episode we used to do every year on the West Wing called Big Block of Cheese Week.

Yeah, absolutely. That was a show we talked about in the writer's room a lot, kind of the comedy version of the West Wing. And Mike was a big fan of Aaron Sorkin. And we talked about that all the time in the writer's room. Should we get into the info of the episode? We got a lovely guest with us today. Oh, I know. It's just so exciting. I mean, so many surprises. Everybody's going to love this. Here we go. Let's do it.

All right, so quick episode details. As Rollo said, this episode is called 94 Meetings, written by Harris Whittles, directed by Tristram Shapiro. Original air date...

April 29th, 2010, episode 21, season 2. And we're very excited. We have an amazing guest today, Susan Yagley from Reno 911, corporate enthusiasm, of course, Jessica Wicks. How are you, Susan? I'm great. I'm great. How are you guys? We are so excited to have you. And with no Southern, I don't think I've ever heard you without your...

southern accent that you use for your character. Well, yeah, that's my acting ranges. 40-year-old woman with a southern accent to 50-year-old woman with a southern accent. Yeah, that's good. That's my sweet jam right there. A true chameleon. It's like Jared Leto. It's like transformational. I'm Meryl Streep, you guys. I am. Susan, you want to read this quick blurb for us? A summary of the episode? Just a couple sentences? Here we go. Leslie goes all out.

Lovely, lovely. See, I'm never going to match that. When I have to read them in the future, I'm never going to match that. That's wonderful. And also keep in mind, she said 93 meetings. We'll get to why it's called 94 meetings in a second. So great to have you, Susan. Thank you so much for being here.

You know, how are you doing? Everything good? Yeah, everything is great. Yes. I'm the parent of a 15-year-old who does Ron Swanson impersonations. So he's so into this show. And Ron has to be his favorite. I feel like 15-year-old boy is the perfect demo for Ronald Swanson. Yes, because they can get their eyebrow jacked up just like him. So, yeah. I love that you guys are doing a rewatch of the show. So we're going to talk to Susan a lot more. We're going to actually start with this really quick segment called Nope's Notes. Nope's Notes.

I like to spell it notes, K-N-O-T-E-S. And this is just a couple of fast facts about the episode. Roel, are you excited about this? I'm super excited. We open up one of Leslie's colorful Trapper Keepers, hit you with some quick fun facts. So some episodes recorded out of order, but just to let you know, we hear you fans. We want to bring some info to you.

as soon as possible and as soon as possible in the show. So just really quickly, this is the second episode where Andy pretends to be FBI agent Burt Macklin. Yay, Burt Macklin! Second appearance. Yeah, first episode, obviously, Greg McIdis. This is Susan, our guest. Second appearance on Parks. Do you know what the first appearance was, Rollo?

Let me think. Let me think. I'm going to guess it was, well, beauty pageant. Beauty pageant. That's right. Because it's mentioned. She actually mentions it. I haven't seen you, Leslie, since the beauty pageant where Leslie was a stick in the mud judge, I believe. That's right. That's right.

And the last Nopes note here, this is the first appearance of April's parents, Larry and Rita Ludgate, and her sister, Natalie Ludgate. So that's some quick facts to hit you with. Nopes notes. Now, Alan, is it also the only appearance of April?

April Woodgates. I don't remember a ton of April's family and I wish there had been more because they're so funny in this episode. They're really funny. It was a funny idea and I think, I believe we see your sister again. Is that right, Greg? Yeah, we see your sister and I'm pretty sure we see her parents again at the wedding.

Spoiler alert, they're going to get married. Ah, the good, good spoiler alert for people. We won't say who she gets married to. She gets married to Ron. No. So that was Noop's Notes. Let's talk to Susan a little bit and tell us a little bit, you know, what led up to you joining Parks and, you know, general chat. Yeah, great question. So I was just called in for one episode, the Beauty Pageant episode.

And I thought, this sounds great. Had a blast, got called back for another one and then another one, another one. So it sort of snowballed. When you come into a show like Parks and it's an ensemble that's been together for a while and working on it, do you find that it's that's the good news or that's the bad news? In other words, it's the good news because they know what they're doing and it's kind of set and everybody's in their rhythm and you can figure out where you fit in. Or is it like, holy shit,

This is really, these people are so dialed in and I got to, you know, do you know what I'm saying? I know exactly what you're saying because I felt that way on Friends going in when Friends was, you know, season four or five and they're in their sweet jam and they're on every cover of every magazine. And so that was where I was so nervous. I wrote my lines on sweet and low packets.

At the coffee house and on equal packets and just kept looking at the sugar bowl because I was really nervous. But because that was a sitcom situation, but with single cam, there's something about parks. I was felt very relaxed there.

always being a journeyman actor. I'm just grateful to be working. I was really happy to have the job and everybody was so kind. I love that it had the improv, um, openness too. So, um, yeah, it was, it was definitely more chill than most shows I've ever done as a guest star. Everybody was just relaxed and it had a folksiness to it. Um,

It really has only been the past couple years where it took off, this fever, where all the kids my son's age are watching it and quoting it. It's quite...

quite extraordinary to watch. That's awesome. And I like to think that it was just a good vibe set, you know, it's just like a good, good vibe set. And I think that goes a long way. I really try to do that at all on all the shows that I work on. It is just like, let's not, no yelling and screaming. Comedy doesn't live best when people are just really, really nervous or tense. So, so yeah. And,

did you get your start in comedy and improv or how did you go about getting into acting? Yeah, I got my start, graduated from college and went to see a show with the Groundlings and fell head over heels in love with the Groundlings and joined that company and took classes there and performed there. And then from that, got an agent and started working. So that's really my, I cut my teeth in improv and sketch comedy.

We can tell. Do you have a very funny household? I mean, it's two very funny people. Is your son funny? Our son is the funniest one. Oh, there you go. Really? It could have gone either way. Wow. You rebel against your parents. You've got two comedian parents. Like, I'm going to be serious. I'm going to have an emo band. Yeah, exactly. I'm going to be an accountant. Or I'm going to make a band or something. Yeah, that's the thing. We thought, okay.

well, of course we're going to love whatever we have, but I really hope he's not real serious because we just, that would be really hard to be with someone who doesn't laugh. Um,

But luckily he's a nut ball, just a nut ball. So it's good. Did they, did you have any relationship with any, anybody involved in the show? Did they know you from anywhere else or it was just a, the usual Hollywood phone call thing? Yeah, I had been called in two or three times for the office. So I don't know if it was a Greg connection or if it was a casting director, director connection, but somehow the beauty pageant thing landed in my lap gratefully. And I have to say, I loved a Naomi Wolf reference. Yeah.

Yes. I loved the beauty myth was in there. That made me really happy because I read that book in school. So I was really excited that that was in that script. Yeah. Sitting in that auditorium and watching the girl not twirl the baton, but just hold it. So great. And I love that you guys allowed me to improvise. They asked what my special skill was back

Back in 1993 when I won Miss Pawnee. And I just blurted out, I packed a suitcase. That's actually an awesome joke. I remember that joke. It's a great joke. Because in the 1950s, it was a real special talent. That someone actually came out on stage in the 1950s at a beauty pageant. Because I asked someone about this who used to be in pageants. And the lady threw a suitcase out and started packing it. Her panties and triangles and her blouses and her socks. And showed how to pack an economical suitcase for travel.

And that was her talent. So I thought, well, that's got to be Jessica Wicks, too. Yeah, it's just so evocative. And it's also so perfectly encapsulates Pawnee. And that's amazing because it's the first time you're on the show. But it's just, it's like a perfect answer and really funny, too. And why Leslie would hate her. Leslie would hate that that is what a woman's choice was for talent competition, right? Yeah, it's absolutely antithetical to who Leslie Knope is. That's great. Yeah.

I have a question. Would you rather play a comedic villain or a comedic hero? I mean, because it's so interesting because Leslie Knope is one of the, I mean, and Amy is so amazing in it, but she's the heroic, lovable, but she manages to be funnier than any person on the planet. And yet I always kind of feel that comic villains...

Can almost get more laughs. Do you have a sense of what you prefer? Villain all day long. It's 100 to 0. Slam dunk. Villain. When I did The Wizard of Oz, when I was in, what, seventh grade, I was the Wicked Witch of the West because I said, Dorothy doesn't have an edge. She doesn't. She just has those shoes. But I want to be mean. I want to have an edge. And that's what you guys so beautifully wrote with Jessica. I mean, she's a nightmare. Yeah.

It's just so much more fun, right? It's like, would you rather play the Joker or Batman? It's like Joker wins the Oscars every year, man. It's like every year. By the way, where are we as a society when like if you play the Joker, you'll win an Oscar? Like what are we doing as a society? Everyone who plays the Joker wins an Oscar? That's insane. That's our modern mythology? It's like...

It's our Hamlet. Yes, it's our Hamlet. I love that in any show, but particularly in Parks, everybody always did such a good job of finding people. It's in theory for one part, but they kill it and they figure out ways to bring them back as often as they can to build out that world. I love that. And I think that Mike and Greg always did such a great job.

of that. I wish we'd done more like town stuff, like where you literally see, I mean, there are definitely episodes and Freddy's Spaghetti's coming up. That's a big one where you see everybody, but I love when you see everybody in the town. Yeah. Building out that world, you know, we talk a lot about the world being kind of like Springfield, you know, Pawnee kind of being this town like Springfield and the Simpsons where you see all these characters and, and Jessica Wicks is a huge part of that. And just a little behind the scenes info of how Susan's character kind of got bigger and bigger over the, over time. You know, we had this family called the Newport family and,

And they were kind of the, I don't know, like kind of the rich family in town, like the Canadees of Pawnee. They're very corrupt. So they're kind of the rich families. And we wanted to build it out. And so we're like, why? We love Susan on the show. We thought she did a great job. And, you know, it was kind of like, well, let's make her part of that family so she can keep coming back over and over again. And, you know, they're very influential in the town. So it was very easy to sort of write her into stories. And so that's why you see her recur over and over again. Because when you find an actor you like...

you keep putting them in the show. So that's how the sausage gets made in that respect. Well, I can't thank you enough. And you had me at that she ran a school called Walk, Wave, and Smile. That was the name of her school that she ran in Pawnee. Miss Pawnee 1993, that's all I needed to know. It's hard. I knew who that is. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm from Tennessee, so I know that world. Did you have a hand in casting your own leading man, the old man,

Or did they... You didn't have any say in that, probably. I had zero say in that. I had no say in that. Alan, can you speak to that? We're going to go deep on him in a bit, for sure. I have a lot of thoughts. Yeah, me too. Me too. So we're going to do this thing where we kind of go through, you know, scene by scene the episode, and we just talk about the story, and we'll kind of do a chat about each section as we go along. So...

You know, this first part of the episode, in an effort to keep citizens from meeting with Ron, April has scheduled all meetings for a date she didn't think existed, March 31st.

Ron is now faced with 93 meetings in a single day. He enlists the aid of April, Andy, Leslie, and Ann to help handle them while telling Jerry that he's free to go home early for the day. So as you were saying, Rob, you know, as we started the episode with the concept of 94 meetings, it was kind of inspired by the West Wing in some ways for sure. Yeah, big block of cheese day. West Wing is a fan favorite and it is inspired by, Jesus, what president? I want to say it was, is it Teddy Roosevelt?

But he would put a big block of cheese in the West Wing and invite the citizens to come and sample the cheese and air any grievances that they have. So it was basically an open house town hall in the actual West Wing. So it was meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting. And we did an iteration of that where it was every cast member, like this episode of Parks, having to sort of suffer through that.

you know, people's grievances. We're getting a note now from, from producer Shaldy, Andrew Jackson was the president. I was going to say Trump, but it's Jackson. Good to know. Yeah. A different Hickory. Yeah. Old Hickory as they called him. And, and, you know, I think when you watch the episode, you'll see why I think we were so attracted to the idea as writers, because, you know,

you just get this joke bag, right? You get the townspeople, like Rob said, and you get to see all these characters handle them in their own ways, right? So you see Ron handle them, you see April handle them, you see Andy handle them, and then you see Rashida obviously treating all the people's medical conditions. But it's kind of like, you know, you like these episodes where you get to see each character kind of bring out their own specific characteristics. And so that was a good joke bag idea, I think, for this episode to set up.

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This is a very exciting moment in the history of this podcast because I'm going to take a crack at a synopsis. Please do. Please do. Okay, so this is, I mean, the pressure's huge. Later, Leslie learns a historic town monument, the Turnbull Mansion, is to be altered by its renter. Hello, the former Miss Pawnee beauty pageant winner, Jessica Wicks.

Leslie and Tom meet her at the mansion where Jessica is planning a birthday party for her extremely old husband, the wealthy Nick Newport Sr., played by Christopher Murray, previously seen in the episode Sweetums. Leslie's shocked that Jessica has already altered the mansion, like putting in nude portraits of herself and her husband and painting the original hardwood floors black. Not the hardwood floors! No!

But her outrage skyrockets when Jessica reveals her plan to demolish the old gazebo. And it's important to note that the gazebo held an important historical meeting where a Pawnee white woman and a Native American man were married. Of course, when the townspeople found out, there was a bloodbath. This has my single favorite sight gag in the history of the show.

with Leslie chaining herself to the gate to prevent the bulldozer from coming in. It's absolutely so dumb and absolutely genius. We got to talk about this other side gig too, which is the nude portraits of you. Did you know about this? Well, they called me in and said, the art department would like to meet with you. And I said, great. And I think I went in maybe an

hour or two before call time. You know, I had on jeans and a flannel shirt when they did that. So there was no, they were just, they were guessing. I said, just make it flattering. And I just turned kind of halfway sideways like that. So, and they drew me and they put it up and I love that they did my husband in a wheelchair. I've never seen a nude picture of a man in a wheelchair before. So kudos to the art department. Did you ask for your own portrait? I would have said, can I please have it when it's done?

Guys, Christmas is coming early for you today. Okay.

Oh my God. No way. No way. Oh my. There it is. For those of you not watching the feed, she has the portrait of her own nude portrait behind her and she just tilted the camera to reveal that it's in your house. That has gone to three homes. It has been through storage. It has been in the garage. It's been bubble wrapped, but it is here. I got it.

out of the garage for today. I'm so happy. How does your 15 year old son feel? I'm sure he's a big fan of it. Yeah. That's the thing that's bubble wrapped and hidden in the garage next to the ping pong table because I don't, you know, I don't want him or his friends to see it. Um, and, and Kev said to me, my husband said, do you want to just take a photo of it before we move? And that way we don't have to move it because it's, it's six feet. Um,

I said, well, it is six feet. And he said, you can take a photo and we can enjoy things. That's our new cleaning out clutter thing. Let's take a photo of the baby crib. We don't need to take the crib. I said, you know what? For some reason, when I'm 95 and living in New York, I would love this in my bathroom. So I need to keep it. So it made the cut and here it is. And yeah. And when Parks wrapped, the art department called me and said, look, we have this naked picture of you laying around.

And what would you like? Would you like it? I said, okay, sure. I'll take it. Did you take the picture of your naked 85-year-old husband in a wheelchair as well? Not at all. Not at all. Very considerate of the props department. Also, like Gay Parilla, who we had on as guests, she's always thinking about that stuff. So that's awesome that you have it. Also, for those of you who don't know, Susan is married to the very talented comedic actor Kevin Nealon. And it's very funny to imagine him discussing this portrait with you over and over again with every group of us.

Every move. Over and over again. But I'm so glad you have. I mean, it's...

I mean, that to me smacks of this whole joke run. I mean, it reminds me of stuff that Dan Gore used to pitch. He always was obsessed with pitching, you know, like older people jokes, for lack of a better word. And so it makes me feel like he pitched this stuff. But, you know, who knows? But it really feels like he's one of the writers on the show. Yeah, I think this, you know, we'll always take Kevin's Hans and Fran stuff with us no matter where we go. And we're going to take this Jessica with us. So that's just how it is, guys.

That's good. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm seeing now these portraits did come back in season five. So the props department held onto them for three more seasons and they, they appear in the correspondence lunch in Ben Wyatt's new office at the Sweetums Foundation charity office. So it was amazing, you know, for, for folks who don't, who haven't ever been on a movie set or a TV set to think about every single thing you see is a prop. Um, every glass, every paperclip, every picture, every, any, everything. And it has to be saved.

Because I mean it's kind of like a hoarders you'd have to have like a little bit of hoarder in you to be a great prop person Yeah, you go they have a truck with like everything in you could ever think of on it Like it's like I need this, you know, I need fishing pole. Yes, and I need a deck of uno cards It's like I got it. It's like what this is. Yeah, I need a turquoise wedding ring at 3 o'clock. Yeah Yeah, yeah, it's in your truck. It's so it's so fascinating. Oh

So did you get to know, I mean, you were on Parks several times. Did you start to get to know the cast better? Yeah. Did you enjoy yourself, I hope? I loved it. I was so impressed with Amy, most of my scenes. I didn't have any scenes with Rob, unfortunately. Yeah. But, yeah.

With Amy, I mean, she's a Jedi. She was incredible. She was pregnant and talking to the director and then going upstairs and helping to write the next season's episode. And then they'd give her two pages of dialogue. She had to learn in 20 minutes. I mean, I was watching her. She was an astronaut. It was just, she was incredible.

That's a great way of referring to her. And you know, the number one on the call sheet is what we call it when you're kind of the lead of the show and everyone takes their cues from the number one. So Polar was such a great fearless leader and in such a great attitude, she brought such good energy to the set. And on top of that, yeah, you mentioned she's pregnant in this episode. Yeah, she's pregnant. Get chained to that gate. She's pregnant and just shooting the show. So kudos to Amy, man. She really rocked it on this one.

Yeah, she was fantastic. I learned so much from her. What did you learn from Christopher Murray, your 85-year-old man in a wheelchair?

What lessons did you impart? Did you know that was age? That was, they aged him, right? He was young. Oh, I know. So that's why we wanted to get it. We, we saved it till now. But if you, I mean, look, if you watch this episode, we got high def now. We got like, like the dude is like, the dude is like 50. He's like, well, I don't know why we did that. Why did we do that? Why didn't we just cast someone who's actually 80? I don't know. So I,

I did think at the time I looked at him, I thought, oh my gosh, he's maybe two years younger than I am. But he was in the aging makeup. I wasn't quite clear if that was part of the joke was to do that. Right. There was eyeliner in their cheeks and his cheeks. I could see black eyeliner and gray eyeliner just to make him look hollowed out. Oh, man. Oh. My favorite was that I thought at the end, the very last time you see him,

I thought, oh, he's dead. I thought there was going to be a joke where he died at his own party because a lot of times he didn't even move. He made me laugh. He was really funny. Really funny. Yes, I'm sure it was discussed. Certainly, yes, Biscuit. I believe a lot of the episode was built around the joke Biscuit when he says that.

All right, let's move on with a little bit of the synopsis. Meanwhile, Ron and the rest of the Parks Department trudge on with the meetings. April acts as uninterested as possible. Andy makes promises to people against Ron's wishes. And Anne provides several medical consults. Can you imagine? It's probably so true.

That everybody who's a nurse has to deal with every single person's like, well, you look at this blackhead. I think it's infected. It's got to be so gross. And it's so genius. Like the very first person is that guy pulling his shirt up to show some boy. It's like, and she has that great look to the camera. She said every time. Super funny. Yeah. And we really like watching this made me remember just being in the writer's room and just like,

You know, it's basically a joke bag. You're pitching jokes for all these characters and how they'll handle the situation. And so, you know, it's it's I don't know. It's just it's just really fun. It just reminded me of all the different writers pitching for all their favorite characters. I don't know. Greg, you remember you remember this stuff? I remember us talking about the fact that very quickly this idea activates everybody.

And that's the other thing that it's, yes, it's a great setup. But with one line from Ron saying, you're going to help me do meetings, we didn't have to over explain anything. And everybody got to be the best version of their comedy character. And it dealt with the Anne of it all that we had sometimes, right? Which was like, well, why is Anne here? And it was actually, she's becoming more of a family member to these people than just a person in the town. And so she's like, gets to be there, gets to help out, but can't,

Can't escape the nurse part of it all, which I think is so smart. Yeah, it's funny how in the life of a TV series, you know, really, really smart people will create a world and then realize that they've boxed themselves into a really problematic issue. The fact that Ann Perkins is a nurse. And the truth is, nobody really.

gives a shit. They don't want to go to the hospital with Ann Perkins. They don't. No, no. And we built, and yet, you've got to, we budgeted and had to build a nurse's, a whole hospital set for Ann Perkins because she's a nurse. And it's like, you're like, you wish you had that do-over when you were figuring stuff out. And I think that

You're lucky if you're on a show where you only have one of those issues where you go, why did we make that person in the space station? We didn't need to do that or whatever. But because it's so funny how quickly we really pivot away from Anne Hathaway.

Like doing an episode of ER in the middle of Parks and Recreation. Let's not talk about her job. Let's just have her sitting in the Parks Department reading a newspaper, always. Just visiting. Just hanging out with senior friends. And at the end of the day, everybody goes to such pains. It's like, well, why does she do it? It's like, no one cares. No one cares. Just put Ann there. No one's going to go, I thought she was a nurse. She should be a doctor. Nobody cares. It's like, they love Ann Perkins. They want her to be funny and they want her to be on the show. And the show takes place in the Parks Department. And that's why she's there. End of subject.

Yeah. Susan, in your rewatches with your son, he's never like, but what is Ann's job? He's like, no, he's just laughing. Not at all. But he said, hey, what should I do about that freckle on my forehead? You know, I have a question. Who did you think had the most fun meetings with the townies? I kind of liked Andy wanting to say yes to everybody. He told don't say yes to anything.

And of course he says, they got to fix the swing set. Seems like an easy fix. I can do that. And he's got, he's like hinting and winking. I love when he boops the lady on the nose. Always remember that scene where he boops the lady on the nose, physical comedy. Boop. Do you,

Do you think that was in the script? The boop, do you remember? I think it was. I could be wrong, but I don't know if he improvised that or not. You're asking me to remember if that was in the script. I was like, let's say it was. Let's give ourselves credit. That's right. I'll protect the actors and I'll say, no, it was an ad-lib. That was all Chris Pratt. Pulling up the draft here, guys, and we have to give credit where credit's due. In the script from the original draft, Andy makes a circling motion with his hand and touches her nose, saying...

Boop. Oh, my God. By the way, how was my first crack at this synopsis? It's great. You want to handle this next chunk? There's a next chunk. It's your favorite part of the episode. Go ahead and read that, Rob. In an effort to thwart the demolition, Leslie chains herself to the front gate.

Oh, my God. It's just, it's just, I mean, it's, well, we'll talk about it. I just, it's amazing. But she messes up. The gate doesn't open from the middle. It swings from the side. Demo crew opens the gate, rolls past her, and demolishes the gazebo. Mono silence for the gazebo. Anna Mark arrived to free her because you need tools and a pickup truck. You call Mark Brindanowitz. And in a moment of honesty with Tom, Leslie reveals the nature of her anxiety. Mark's intentions to marry Ann.

Yes, she wants her friend to be happy, but she used to have feelings for Mark and worries about being single and losing her two friends. Tom tells her not to worry, thus empowering Leslie to crash and ruin Jessica's party, which she probably does. The gate thing. It's the lowest stakes thing you've ever seen in your life.

And it just, it like, I think Aziz's character literally says it never gets old. It never gets old. And he hits it over and over again. Yeah. And, and I, this is one of those moments where I actually feel like I remember us talking about, you know, we built a lot of the episode around this stunt, you know, cause it was like a physical, you know, set piece that you really build the episode around. And, and I,

And I want to say it was some combination of Mike and Dan Gore who really came up with this stuff and were like, oh, wouldn't it be funny? We talked a lot about historical preservation and how Leslie would be so obsessed with that. And wouldn't it be funny if she strapped herself to something but it didn't work? And then this whole idea where the gate swings sideways came about. Yeah.

Amy was game to do it, man. She was game to do it over and over again. Susan, were you there at all? Did you see any of this? Well, I was there, but not for that scene. So I was there. That was in Pasadena where we shot the mansion scene. I was going to ask you where that mansion was. That mansion is such a weird looking... It's like a Tudor. It's so bizarre. It was a dark Tudor Pasadena fortress. Yes, actual fortress. The

This is also a big appearance of the murals. And I don't think you can put those murals on TV today. And a shout out to Alison Becker, who's also in this episode. She plays Shauna Mulway-Tweep. We had a lot of fun as writers imagining that Leslie would always talk to reporters in headline form.

So there's that joke where she says Gazebo more like a zoinks bow. She may be a former beauty queen, but today she's the king of destroying history. It's like we wrote so many of those. It's like someone talking like a 1920s like paper boy, basically like like it. And I think, you know, I remember Rachel Axler, one of the writers and Ayesha Muhar loved writing these. And, you know, we wrote probably way too many. And I think she kept doing that over time. So this is kind of one of the first appearances of this.

I'm going to show my age here, but none of you are old enough to remember when Variety... In show business, there's sort of like... The New York Times of show business, the paper is called Variety, and its headlines used to be literally like that. It'd be like...

Alan Yang, ankles, staff of Parks and Rec to whatever it was. The word ankles was always in there. Ankles is in everything. Rob, you know there's a publication called The Ankler now. It's like a newsletter or something. I've been approached to subscribe to it at some point. I love those terminologies. Variety would also use like Tyro, whatever that means. You know, all these antiquated terms. But yeah, ankles project means you leave it, right? Is that what it is? They used to have a...

a column literally devoted only to people's travel plans. Yeah.

It would be like, you know, I don't know, Ted Sarandos winging in from Gotham. Winging in from... That's pretty good. That's pretty good. I think we should really actively bring back... Bring back ankles, for God's sake. Bring back ankles and old school, old school like Bowery Boys type lingo for headlines. Yeah, your story's like Dale Fish, I just won't buy it. Yeah, exactly. Feels like we should do this. The three of us should start this publication. I think we should. Yeah.

I think we should. Okay, so this is another really fun part of the episode. We gotta get to this part. It's near the end. Back in the Parks Department, the meetings have concluded and Ron berates April for causing this mess in the first place. So April arranges her own meeting. This is the titular 94th meeting.

and announces she's quitting. Andy finds out and convinces Ron to keep April, thus revealing a little more of his admiration for her. Ron heads to April's house to bring her back and discovers her incredibly welcoming and nice parents and that her nickname is Zuzu. Despite April's embarrassment over her normal family, Ron convinces April to stay and April reveals that she knows Ron as Duke Silver. The two exchange a look and it's clear they agree to keep each other's secrets. That's a great moment.

It's really a great moment. It's really sweet, and you really buy the kinship between these two characters. They're soulmates in some ways. And we all know where the reference from Zuzu is, right? We all know what that is an homage to. Please enlighten the audience. It is from It's a Wonderful Life. It is Zuzu's petals. Am I pretty sure? Somebody tell me. That is correct, Rob. That is correct. Correct! Yay! Yay!

That's good. I love the casting of April's sister being even more downtrodden and dark than April. A traditional sitcom would never go in that lane. They would have someone perky be the sister, right? This was such a funny way to go to have her so dark. I loved it. And a little fun fact, behind-the-scenes fact, Aubrey herself, Aubrey Plaza, who plays April,

is the eldest of three daughters and one of her younger sisters is named Natalie. So we named it after her actual younger sister. So that was kind of cool. And, and the good casting too. She looks like, she looks like Aubrey and it's great. Now, can we talk about real quick, um, about one of the weirdest moments in the show, which is that when Ron Swanson shows up at the Ludgate's house, they tell him it's, it's a non shoes household. You shouldn't wear shoes inside. Um,

he promptly takes his shoes off and then is holding his shoes in his hands throughout the rest of the scenes there. And it's one of the weirdest things that we just... This is one of the... So basically...

That was not in the script. And this is one of those moments where Mike Shore, the showrunner, cannot be in three places at once. He cannot edit the show, write the show, and also be on set. So, you know, obviously we have the director of the episode and the writer of the episode is generally there. So this is one of the moments when he got this back in the edit. And he's like, why is Ron holding his shoes the whole time? And he was just so confused. And so Harris Whittle, the late, great, wonderful, wonderful writer, was like, I didn't know.

Like, he just chose to do that. And so, like, Harris, it's so weird. And Harris was like, well, I don't know, man. And Harris, God bless him, you know, probably had smoked some weed or something and, like, was very, very, very, on set was sometimes not the most attentive writer. So he may have not, for all we know, he didn't even see the scene. But, yeah, it's one of the, every time I see it, I laugh.

Well, my favorite thing is that's the hill that Mike Schur wants to die on in terms of what's weird in the show. Yeah, that's true. He was appalled. He was like, why is he holding his shoes? That's funny.

That's true. There's a million weirder things in every scene. I'm just tickled that Ron shows up at her house because what boss in 2022 is going to show up at your house? It breaks so many ethical H&R stuff. I mean, it's just hilarious he shows up. A really caring, caring boss. Yeah. Well, next in the synopsis on this episode, her first day back, April scares off a citizen wanting to meet with Ron by scheduling truly absurd meeting dates and times such

such as June 50th on the 11th of March-Tember. Ron gives her an approving smile while nodding from watching from his office, and all is well in Pawnee again. It's a sweet episode.

It's a super sweet, fully formed episode, I think. That's what I was going to say, too. And the Ron and April stuff is really sweet. We talked a lot about, you know, after we started getting them together, you know, as her, as his assistant, like it's kind of like a father-daughter thing, you know. And that's a lot of the relationships in a workplace show like this end up being, if they're not romantic relationships, a lot of them end up being either paternal or maternal. And like we talk about the co-workers like they're families.

right and so it makes a lot of sense that ron would be kind of a good dad figure to april and they have a lot of things in common so yeah it's very touching in the end i really enjoyed that moment all right we're gonna wrap with a couple uh tiny little segments here we got an oops moment our oops moment for this one kona gallagher of tv squad criticized the fact that a historic building could so easily be damaged and demolished which he called unrealistic well you know what kona the

It's not a documentary. That's right. We got to have something happen. An additional one is the historic Turnbill Mansion is supposed to date from the early days of 1816. However, the house was built in the Tudor Revival architectural style that was not popular in the United States until the beginning of the 20th century. The home used in the show is in Pasadena, like we said, and built in 1916.

We just whiffed that. Clearly, that whole thing is a whiff. I mean, you know what? Burn the episode. Get it off of Peacock. Burn the episode. It can't air. It's totally historically inaccurate. Don't let your son watch this one. So, and Alan, what is this episode's

MVP, most valuable Pawnean? Well, you're going to know my answer, which is the moment where Ron Swanson is holding his shoes because it makes me remember the writer's room. It just makes me think of Harrison and I miss that guy. So I love that moment.

I mean, MVP, it might be the biscuit. It might be the biscuit that's fed Nick Sr. Biscuit. Yes, I think the biscuit has its own blood supply. I agree. The biscuit is amazing. Don't they say his blood isn't working? That's right. She says that. Yeah, Susan has that joke. So Jessica Wicks, I met my husband at the hospital when I was doing a ribbon cutting, and he was there because his blood don't work.

His blood don't work. His blood don't work. First runner up MVP for me is you. Jessica Wicks. Great job on the episode. Thank you. Thank you so much. And of course the painting. I can't believe you had the painting. I love that, man. I love that.

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This podcast is supported by FX's English Teacher, a new comedy from executive producers of What We Do in the Shadows and Baskets. English Teacher follows Evan, a teacher in Austin, Texas, who learns if it's really possible to be your full self at your job, while often finding himself at the intersection of the personal, professional, and political aspects of working at a high school. FX's English Teacher premieres September 2nd on FX. Stream on Hulu.

Do you want to go to the town hall? I'll be here.

Rob, should we get into the town hall? Close this thing out? I think it's time. Town hall. What do we got? Who's on deck here? All right. First of all, where are we going to do the town hall? You know, we like to have different locations. Yeah. We should do it at the historic Turnbull Mansion. We got to do it at the mansion. We got to do it. Leslie's chained to the gate, but we're opening it anyway. We're going to go do it in front of the gazebo in the mansion. The RIP the gazebo. Yeah.

All right. This town hall question comes to us from Heather V. Hi, Robin Allen. Love the podcast. I'm a big fan of Parks and Rec. I really loved when Robin Adam Scott joined the show because of the amazing chemistry between the two of them and with the other cast members. If you could do another project with Adam Scott or any other cast member for the show, who would it be and what would it be? P.S. Listening to the podcast episode about season two, episode 12, The Christmas Scandal, you talked about Rolo doing the movies Christmas Shoes and The Christmas Blessing.

Just want to say both movies were very good. Both tearjerkers. There you go, Rob. They are tearjerkers. They will desiccate your body of all fluids from your eye holes. I would say... I love everybody on the show I would work with a billion times over. Adam Scott is just a particular level of deliciousness, though. I mean, no one...

What is the thing that I always tell Adam that I love so much about? Oh, Adam's good Lord. Yes. Is the single greatest. Why is it? It's so amazing. Like I can't, I can never get tired of Adam when good Lord. It's such a great read on it. It's such a great read. And the other thing about Adam's that he can do drama or comedy, you know, he's in this new Ben Stiller show, which is like extremely dramatic. And then,

I don't want to, like, so many actors are great in the show. It's funny you should say that, Heather, because I actually did a show with Aziz, who's in the show, called Master of None, and then I'm actually doing a show right now, and Adam's in that one. So I am working with Adam again, and I've just been editing him, and he's wonderful in it. Susan, who would you pick from the show? Who would you pick? Oh, I'd have to do a love affair with Amy Poehler to a lesbian couple in Paris. Ooh! Mm-hmm.

Get on it. I'd hate for you guys. Yeah, right? On the Seine with those boats with all the lights on them that go by all the time. And I think we solve crimes, you guys. I do. Oh, my God. That sounds great. That's a very imaginative answer. I think the title is Crime Solving Lesbians on the Seine. There you go. There you go. It kind of says what it is. Are you a writer? Because you should just write that show.

I know. I would go see that. I would go see that show. Yeah. Hell yeah. Well, thank you for coming and visiting us here on our little Parks and Rec election, Bill. And please give Kevin, who I adore so deeply, a big smooch-a-roon for me. I will. He adores you and sends his love. He's the absolute funniest human and nicest man.

And tallest. He's always shockingly tall. He continues to get taller, I think. See, he said he's 6'4", but I measured him when he was sleeping, and he's 6'5". There you go. He's growing by the day. He's growing. I'm sorry. Yes. He doesn't know me at all, but you can kiss him for me, too. I will. One kiss for Rob, one kiss for me. You're always so busy. Like you said, I mean, there's nothing... I love, like, actors who just are actors, and they're always doing something. You're like...

on the sort of Mount Rushmore of that. I'm sure you've got 17 things you're doing now. Tell me what you're up to. Well, thank you for asking. The thing that I'm so excited about, I feel absolutely giddy about is this passion project I'm doing with two of my friends. It is going to be

a podcast about money because growing up as a little girl, I never learned about money and I've always been fascinated about it. I'd be on the set and be like, what is that stock doing? What's Lululemon doing? What's Tesla doing? What about real estate? So Jill Lederman, who was the EP of the Jimmy Kimmel show for 14 years and also worked with David Letterman and Jon Stewart,

She and I and Galia Gishan, who is a Wall Street whiz, have joined forces. And here's our little flyer. Oh, my gosh. Look at you. We are called the Fiscal Firecrackers. And this is going to be a podcast. And by the time your podcast airs, this one will be out. Fiscal Firecrackers. You can go to it, download it. And we also have a website. So if anybody has any money questions, I just wanted to create a world where people could go and ask questions.

Ask any kind of question and be silly, be ridiculous. So I'm the lay person and Gali is the expert. She's the MBA in finance and people can ask questions and we just have a really good time. And Gali is the kind of lady that when she was 19, she was putting tons of money in her Roth IRA. When I was 19, I was buying nipple tape, you know? So-

This is what we're creating for people. And I'm just, I'm really so excited about it. I'm sort of like tingly all over because it's just about to come out. And, um, it's a big week for us. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Well, I'll be downloading ASAP. Fiscal firecrackers. Fiscal firecrackers. It's a great idea. They should teach that stuff in school. They should. It's crazy. It's crazy. They teach calculus. God bless all the calculus teachers out there, but we should really know how to balance your checkbook. Yeah, we're breaking it down and we're making it funny. We're laughing. So I'm just so excited about that.

I love it. Well, thank you so much for joining us. It was so fun. Thank you. Thank you to Susan and thank you to everyone out there for listening. Please subscribe where you get podcasts. Give us a five-star review on Apple. Thank you to Susan, Shulte, and Greg, and Joanna, and goodbye for Pawnee. See you next week.

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

with additional tracks composed by John Danek. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time on Parks and Recollection. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Stitcher. Want the same expert advice you get from the pros in the store while shopping online at DiscountTire.com? Meet Treadwell, your personal online tire guide that matches you with the perfect tire for your vehicle. Get your best match in one minute or less with Treadwell by Discount Tire. Let's get you taken care of.

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