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Welcome everybody to Parks and Recollection.
This is a famous episode. I'm pumped. These are classics, man. Ron and Tammy episodes. There's only so many of them. Let's treasure this moment. Yeah, this is a moment to savor. Pull up a chair and start the savory because Ron and Tammy 2 is our title.
We got some stories. Episode title, Ron and Tammy 2. Written by Emily Kapnick. Directed by Tucker Gates. Original air date, February 10th, 2011. This is episode four of season three. The blurb, after Ron breaks up with Tom's ex-wife, he decides to get back together with Tammy. Much to everyone's horror.
Ooh, there's so much good stuff in this episode. There's so much good stuff. So much. We gotta get into it. These notes, let's start quickly. This episode marks the first time, huge moment, first time Ben mentions calzones as his favorite food. We got some stories about that coming up, but it's... I mean, how did...
the calzone thing start i we we gotta get it should we get it should we just get into it now this is okay so this episode was written by emily kapnick who is a very talented writer she created suburgatory she created selfie um and she was on the show i don't think she had been on for that long but she had a writing credit on this episode she had written the script and she
we, as you do with every script, you start going to the rewrite, right? You start punching jokes and, you know, we had a table or whatever. And it was a late night one night. We were just going through the script, trying to figure out what worked, what didn't work. And there was a lot of surgery being done in certain areas. It happens to everyone, right? It happens to everyone's script, whatever. It's not, you know, particularly unique to this episode.
I think it was really, really late one night. This shouldn't surprise anyone. We had already had dinner. You know, we didn't stay for dinner that many times, but, you know, we were under the gun and we, for some reason, you know, first it started that Ben was nervous around cops. It was a very funny attitude, right? And we just, it started with one joke about Calzones. Like it started with literally like in the beginning, like, you know, he's talking about
and he pitches a bad idea. He's part of his arc of learning about Pawnee. And so he pitches the Calzone thing. Leslie shits on him. It's funny. Whatever. One joke. But you know what happens in the writer's room at 10, 11, 12, 1 a.m.?
one joke that's weird and gets a laugh, it just snowballs. So every subsequent Ben scene, we're like, and then he mentions calzones, and it's just like, and no one's there saying no, because Mike is delirious as well. Mike is running the room, he's at the computer, and he's just gleefully, he'll get into these moods, and he'll just gleefully start typing in these calzone jokes. So it's just spiraling, it's snowballing, and meanwhile, I look over at Emily Kaepernick, who's
with her name on it is just being loaded up with calzone jokes on literally every page. Like, it's every, like, what you see in the episode, you would not, it's like one-eighth of what was in there. So there were calzone jokes, like every line. We just couldn't stop writing jokes about calzones because it is, it is funny, but you can't, you can't do that, obviously. But Emily was mortified. Kaepernick was just like, I don't, she's like, why are you guys doing this?
this like literally fighting for the for the integrity of the script which is like it makes a lot of like you know I I totally felt her pain and so finally I like whatever time where I'm exaggerating but it's probably one or two in the morning we got we read it again and Michael's like okay this is insane there's too many calzone jokes so then we went back through and there's never enough calzone we took out most of them but
you watch the episode, there's still a ton of them in there. Anyway, turned out to be very funny. And, and, uh, we used it again later in the show, obviously the low Cal Cal zone zone. Um, but, but yeah, this is the, the Genesis of it. And it just, you know, sometimes late nights where you're delirious, um, it, it comes out with good stuff. So I remember that very fondly.
A couple more notes. The building used for the Pawnee Police Department is the former Highland Park Police Station in Los Angeles. Spent many a night there in the 80s. You up so good in Highland Park? You were there last week, right? Judd Nelson and I, we'd be in the drunk tank routinely. Oh my God. Sure. After this episode, Nick Offerman, who plays Ron Swanson, had to wear a fake mustache for three more episodes. That's because...
He shaved part of it off, right, due to friction. And so I think what happened is it was, you know, obviously didn't grow back as fast as it would have in the timeline of the show. So he had to wear a fake mustache. Eric Pierpoint, who plays Police Chief Hugh Trumple, has played several police officers throughout his career, including an alien officer in the sci-fi series Alienation and police chief in the superhero drama series The Cape.
So those are your notes for this episode. There are certain actors that have police face. He's got police face as much as Sam Elliott got cowboy face. That's right. They just look like it. It's like, you're not a cowboy, but you look like one. Doctor face, senator face. President face, judge face. Bill Pullman got president face. I mean, yeah, it's just like...
That's right. That's a good gig. That's a good gig. There's certain faces that serve you better in the Hollywood world than others. That's right. Rob's face served him pretty well. Anyway. That's right. Getting into the synopsis here, Ron's ex-wife Tammy is back to her old ways, trying to draw Ron back into their chaotic relationship with a fabricated, outstanding library fine. It appears Ron is able to resist her seduction due to the fact that he's in a solid relationship with Tom's ex-wife Wendy.
but his steadfast resolve becomes compromised when Wendy tells Ron her plans to move back to Canada, and the two of them break up. And of course, Tammy is played by Megan Mullally. Megan Mullally, comedy great, making another appearance on the show, and Nick Offerman's real-life wife. Which explains why she was probably so committed to one of my favorite things, where she's beating herself in the face with a long slice of...
No, no reservations there. Just kind of just went for it. No. And just, and, and just, it's so overtly sexual. Yeah.
That is exactly my thought watching this episode. I was actually kind of shocked. I mean, I was surprised. You know, Mike generally creates these universes that are so kind and gentle and generally not extremely overtly sexual. But very early on in the show, it's like it's very sexual. And then there's a Tom Haverford talking head where he's like, all I can think of is Captain Mustache plowing my wife. It's like it's surprising to hear the word plowing.
You know, Mike's just like, how did they get through? How did Mike allow that to happen? But I guess it was a different time. I mean, I don't know. It really is true because, like, we all have our... Mike wouldn't allow that. We all have our gears, right? We all have a certain, like, I'm not a big scatological joke guy. And, but, like...
Other people love it, whatever. And Mike doesn't do sex jokes traditionally. And this one, he just went for it. I think there's some Dan Gore in here or something. Yes. But yeah, it's... I don't know. That was surprising. And there's going to be more moments throughout the show that are surprisingly sexual. I also want to shout out the Chris and April dynamic in this episode. I really enjoyed it. It just...
you know, knowing you and Aubrey personally, it also is doubly funny for me because it's like, yeah, it's just like,
Yeah, it's kind of like a happy dog and a cat. They say that about Andy in April, but I think it's kind of true about Chris in April, too. I think Chris is a different kind of dog. If Andy's like a golden retriever, Chris is like a... I don't know. What kind of dog do you think you'd be? Something sleek to me. Something like a racing dog or something. Would I be a Jack Russell Terrier? Oh, I like that. I mean, yeah, I was going to say like a greyhound or something, but something like...
fit and just energetic. But it is a funny dynamic. I just like when you have that scene where you're like, I have a post-it note for you and it just says great job on it. I mean, this is so cute. That's one of my favorite. That's one of my... I see that a lot as a meme. Yeah.
now where it's just me holding up a thing that says great job. Like I'll get that randomly sent to me from people. One of my favorite things about the internet is just that there are a few Parks and Rec memes floating out there which is kind of cute. It's like kids are still watching the show. You know, that's kind of cute. This is also an episode where there's, and we talk about it a lot, the Tom Cruise part of my character that we moved away from but there's a real vintage. In fact, this is the
iteration of the story I told in the original meeting with Mike, with you, about how Tom would order water. And Chris orders a beer from
Absolutely as Tom Cruise. I'd like a, what did she say? I'd like a local beer. I'd like it to be in a bottle and I'd like the bottle to be cold. Like super specific and intense. Yeah, yeah. And then there's that bit where Anne is kind of doing the same thing. I found that kind of funny knowing the genesis of the character and all that stuff. That was kind of great. I like when Anne tries to imitate
Chris's cadence and enthusiasms that she's done that a couple of times. I mean, it never really, she never fully commits to it. So it never really works, but it's really funny. He's doing the best she can. She can. This episode is also the last appearance of Wendy Haverford, um, played by Jamie Williamson. Uh,
And she was kind of a friend of the show. I think she had known Mike before the airing of this episode and certainly before casting. And there's a question here in the notes. What came first, Ron and Tammy 2 or breaking up Wendy and Ron? And I think, I honestly think they were kind of concurrent because it was like, well, we want to do Ron and Tammy again. And we kind of had to solve for this puzzle piece kind of situation where he was already dating somebody. So, wow, it was kind of a good, a good opportunity
I don't know what you want to call it, but initiating action where, you know, she broke up with him and then he's susceptible, vulnerable to Tammy. So kind of a concurrent situation there.
Shall we move on to the next part of the synopsis here? Yes. All right. So Leslie finds Ron drowning his sorrows at the bar where she and the Parks Department are throwing a party for the Pawnee Police Department. Once the chief has had his fill of pizza and beer, Leslie hopes he'll donate the force's time for security at the upcoming Harvest Festival. But Ben awkwardly fails to win Chief Trumple's favor.
Tom, unaware of Ron and Wendy's breakup, arrives at the party with Tammy to get back at Ron for going out with Wendy. After bickering loudly, Ron and Tammy both decide to leave the party together and try and make amends. A night filled with drunken sex and mayhem ensues, ending with the two getting remarried and ending up in jail. Now, doesn't Ben mention calzones to the chief?
That's right. Yes, it comes up again. Again, this is a moment. This is the moment of insanity. I'm telling you, most of the Calzone jokes were cut. But if you watch this episode, he mentions Calzones, I would say conservatively nine times or something.
And it's like, yeah. And that was kind of, again, tied into Ben being awkward around the police. That's such a funny, how did that come, that's such a funny idea. I'll tell you what I remember of that, which is it was kind of based on Mike being awkward around cops. Like he says, like when they come around, even if he's done nothing wrong, he's just like very, you know, he's very nervous. And he's just like stammering and acting like speaking very sort of,
Stiltedly. Exactly. Stiltedly. Like he's being like, it's like a guy high school bully or something. And so funny. So, I mean that again, that was part of it. And then the calzone thing, like, Oh, this is, and so I'm looking at the notes again, this, so talking about that night where we wrote all these calzone jokes, um,
I forgot the detail that Mike actually left the room. He went to editing to edit a different episode. And when he came back, we had added like 10 calzone jokes. And so again, I think we expected him to cut them, but he just kind of liked them. And then we just kept going on it. And so, but I, it just, yeah, again, it truly will live in infamy because, um,
um god i just remember sitting in the i remember which corner like me and capnick were sitting in like we were at the opposite end you know it's a long conference table and mike sitting at the head i think i was sitting near the other end with capnick you know there's 10 people in there and she's just turning red and like mort if i could see not the boss of that show right she had been the boss of her own show but like it was just a thing she had to swallow the um all the stuff of them
You never see Ron get the cornrows, do you? He just all of a sudden has them. Off camera, which I thought was kind of fun. Yeah, for sure. I think we made a big list of things and like, you know, it's cornrows, it's the kimono, it's the mustache being rubbed off due to friction. You know, we probably talked about a bunch of things like a samurai sword and like, you know, like just so much stuff. I have a photo from this shoot. I definitely was on set for some of it because...
I have a photo where Nick's in the kimono with the cornrows. And I'm like, man, I remember seeing that photo like last year, which is like make it like the 10-year anniversary or something. But yeah, he was just walking around set in cornrows. Very, very, very funny visual. It's classic. I mean, Nick Offerman, Ron Swanson in cornrows is just beyond... I remember...
Again, because we've talked about sometimes you're, as an actor on the show, you're playing, your part in the script for the episode is siloed off, away from the other story.
So I remember coming in and going and seeing Nick in the cornrows and what the fuck is what's happening? Oh yeah, that's right. That's right. I, you know, cause I'm not a, you're not a part of that story. It's so funny. Yeah. And, and just like it ships passing in the night and you just see him wearing, that's kind of fun though. That's, that's when a comedy is fun. You know, you do a drama and it's like, it's so, so serious. Then a comedy is like, you'll see weird shit like that. It's like, yeah, your day is a little bit brighter, right? Your day is a little bit brighter. I never felt, it's funny. I, I,
You know, I'm on 911 Lone Star right now, big action drama procedural. And, you know, when I come home from work, I am fucking tired. And I like and I'm like, you know what? I really accomplished something today. I never felt that way at Parks and Recreation once. I mean, not that I didn't feel like I accomplished something, but it was so fun.
And so light. Yeah. And so easy and fresh. And you're with people you love and you're just riffing and having fun that like, all right, that's it. That's a wrap. You're like, well, I didn't do anything today. Yeah. Yeah. And in a good way, right? Like that hadn't occurred to me until I did some more dramatic shows and movies. And it's just totally different. I, you know, my, I was telling you, Rob, that my girlfriend is acting in Handmaid's Tale and it's like,
it's those scenes are sad and imagine them they're shooting that in toronto in the cold and like day after day after day and that's you know that's the opposite of a sound stage in studio city where you go around and mess around and and and nick's wearing a kimono with cornrows you know that's it's just they're just you know it's just like different jobs and you know they're both they're both very you know you you want to work on good examples of both drama and comedy you've been fortunate enough and i've been fortunate to work on some of them and
you know, it's just different. And, and, and by the way, the variety is nice. It's, it's nice to bounce back and forth. Like, like we've gotten to do. It's super nice. Cause I remember at the end of parks, I was, I was ready for, for, for, for like, just to like dig in. Yeah. Let's get meat. Let's get like a meaty dramatic scene. And, and you were able to do that.
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Post your job for free at linkedin.com slash parks. That's linkedin.com slash parks to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. After getting Ron released, the Parks Department holds a TAMI intervention, playing a previously recorded tape of Ron warning himself to stay away from her.
but Ron ignores the warning and prepares to take Tammy to his cabin for a sex-filled honeymoon. Leslie blames Tom for the dilemma, and although he initially claims to be unfazed, Tom later arrives at Tammy's library bridal shower to stop Ron from going on the honeymoon. He reveals the whole marriage is a ploy by Tammy to once again make Ron miserable. Tammy attacks Tom, prompting Ron to remember what a monster she truly is and leave her. He carries Tom away, and the two later make amends. So in the intervention scene, which...
They keep, it's really funny the way it's shot because they stay on the back of Nick's head. So all you see are the cornrows for a lot of it. And we just, it's such a great visual. But Amy has, Amy, who we all know is just such a comedy killer. She's so great. I mean, I mean, but obviously she's Leslie Knope. She's genius. But she has a little throwaway thing here that makes me laugh out loud where, um, I think it is, I'm trying to think of who it is. Oh, it's Andy.
Andy is trying to do his part in the intervention of being super honest and trying to get Nick to come to it, to try to get Ron to come to his senses. And of course, as is Andy's want, he's very inarticulate and dumb. And it cuts to Leslie. She goes, very powerful stuff. Yeah, just under her breath. Just very, very powerful stuff. The very powerful stuff, line reading, is...
comic gold. Just very thrown away and like under her breath. Like, yeah. And this is like, even reading the synopsis, you realize like at this point we had kind of abandoned a super grounded tone. It's like, think about, look at the phrases in there. There's an intervention where we play a tape of himself. There's a, there's a bridal shower in a library. It's like this, this,
especially these episodes, we kind of take a little liberty with the reality of the show. I mean, which is already like, it has some broadness to it, but this is just, this is pretty crazy. It's, it's a little outside the bounds, but for the Ron and Tammy episodes, we kind of allowed that. Uh, now,
Ron carries Tom. Yeah, Ron carrying Tom like a baby. That was something that we were kind of trying to write towards in some way. Like, I think that was an image that we just liked. I also, to me, like, I was watching the episode. It's a little shocking to see Megan just...
beat up Aziz. Like, we just filmed her beating him up. Like, it's very rare that this show filmed fight scenes, but when we did, it was always fun. Like, there's a couple with Amy, I think, in the Eagleton episodes, but there's only a couple over the history of the show, and this is one of them. Doesn't, isn't this the episode where
She says, you're a little man and I could throw you around or something like that. Basically, yeah. I mean, there's a lot of the amount of Aziz being small jokes is really, again, as I watch the episodes, they're like, damn, they really like didn't let him. They really let him have it. They call him a baby. They call him a little girl. They call it like this is really relentless bull. Like forget bullying Jerry. Like they're bullying Aziz a lot on the show.
It doesn't seem right, but he gets his sweet moments too. I mean, he ends up saving Ron in this one, which is kind of nice. But yeah, he takes his medicine, man. It's pretty crazy. I also love the intervention scene is gold. I mean, there's a lot of funny lines from different characters in this, but I like when Donna talks about her brother where she says, you know, Ron, I love you like a brother, but today I hate you like my actual brother, Lavandrius, who I hate.
Like, it's just so funny. Like, it's just, it's so insane. Like, we used to call some of these jokes, like, roller coasters, where it would just keep going up and down and keep misdirecting you. I mean, like, ultimately, there's a cliche, like, comedy's about surprise or it's about some unexpected twist.
But sometimes, and Rashida would complain about this all the time. She's like, you guys are writing four twists or five twists into a single line. It's like so difficult to deliver. But like that joke was one of them, which is like, it's so confusing, but by the end it's very rewarding. So, uh, that, that's really funny. Um,
There's also just, at the end of the intervention, just a little tidbit from the way it was filmed. In the script, it just said, Tammy enters and kisses Ron. But in the actual show, Tammy enters, and then Nick stands up and starts kicking his feet back like he's a bull about to charge. So that was really funny. I think he just did that on the day for no clear reason. That is...
Nick kicking his feet like a bull is just the best. It's so funny. And also, there's two set pieces back to back. So you go from the intervention, and then you cut to the bridal shower. And there's a small reveal that Jerry is at the shower already. He's just there unrelated. He's been invited by Tammy, and he makes the decision to go and bring gifts. So yeah, I always enjoyed that as well. Yes. Yes.
continuing on the synopsis despite the bad impression he made the day before Ben asked the police chief for the harvest festival favor the chief unconditionally agrees out of respect for Leslie explaining that she always helps everyone and because Leslie once dated his friend Dave Ben seems relieved that Leslie and Dave are no longer together and later asked Leslie out to eat sweet it's a sweet moment
And so it began. Yes. This question is in the notes. Was this always the episode where Ben asked Leslie out? How does this differ from his, do you want to grab a beer request? I think it's just that the nature of their relationship has changed, right? It's just, you can see it in how Adam is playing it. I really like the moment where
He asks her out, and then she goes on like a 60-second long calzone run, and then she says yes. But I just like the performance. It's really good between the two of them. It's like, you know, you get lucky with the chemistry sometimes. But she's so cute in that scene. They had great chemistry from the drop, and it doesn't always happen. It just doesn't always happen.
The number of times, I mean, you must have seen this a million times in your career. And do you have any takes on like, is there any rhyme or reason or is it just two, it's just human beings. It's like, we don't know. They could be two beautiful human beings. They could be two, they could both be funny. They could both be, or whatever it is. It just, that's very difficult to me. You don't know. I had, I recently had, there was going to be a character,
you know, um, on my show was going to be a love interest. And at the first rehearsal of the first scene, I knew it wasn't going to happen and it didn't. And we shifted the entire storyline because, and then there's, you know, you do know in the first rehearsal, by the way, it's not something you go, I wonder like when you see it and the actors are doing their thing, it's either there or it's not there and there's nothing you can do about it.
one way or the other. Yeah. It's almost like real life in that, in some ways, right? It's like, you just put two people in the room. Also, sometimes it's like how they appear on camera together or like what, I don't know. It's just, it just sometimes kind of ineffable and, and you can write, you can do all the gymnastics you want writing. You can write charm beats between the two of them. You can write, you know, bonding scenes. They're singing a song together, whatever it is. They're doing a dance sequence. Like, damn, I just don't feel anything. That's, that's tricky, man. That's casting. That's the genius of casting. Uh,
But fortunately, you know, I think in this case, Leslie and Ben, very cute love story. And, you know, one of the things sort of in the design of that love story to me was it was kind of dual duty in the sense that we were also showing Ben falling in love with Bonnie, the city. Right. And it was kind of a proxy thing where because, you know, Leslie Knope, what did she love more than anything? She loved the city. And so, yeah.
uh for in order for them to fall in love with each other ben had to come around and ben you know initially came there to slash the budget so as as as writers i think our challenge was to show both of those things happening and in this episode i think we see you know the police chief talk about you know leslie in a glowing way and then we'll see moments where you know ben
realizes things about the city itself that he loves. And by... It's almost like a child. I mean, I hate to be too metaphorical about it, but Pawnee's almost like Leslie's kid, and he falls in love with her kid as well. And the other thing is that the setup was Chris and Ben were passing through. Yes. So this is the beginning of...
arc that gets to the point where they decide to stay. This is the episode where those seeds begin to get planted. They were passing through and attempting to ruin the city. So it's almost a good, it's a good writing tool too. It's a writing instruction, which is like, okay, you want them to change. You want their attitudes to change. You want their arc to be clear. And, you know, that was part of it. So,
You know, we look, we see it in flu season where where he's impressed by her. You know, we see it in this episode. And so that's kind of a little trick, too, is, you know, if you have this long term goal, how do you pace it out? How do you make it realistic? How do you plant moments that feel real and earned and build them enough so that when it does happen, it feels justified and it feels like you've gone on a journey with them. So that's all kind of the planning that that Mike did that that that paid off in the end. Yep.
And let's continue on with the episode. April has been working as Chris's assistant until he goes back to Indianapolis. April's cynical personality clashes with Chris's relentless optimism and happiness. In an attempt to get fired, April purposely neglects to tell Anne that Chris cannot make a lunch date. When Anne arrives to confront Chris, she quickly realizes April's ploy. Anne reveals she's very happy dating Chris and would even move with him to Indianapolis if asked.
Andy, who's still trying to win back April's affections, gives Chris an obviously forged letter from the FBI claiming April must immediately return the Parks Department as Ron's assistant. Chris sees through the ruse and tells April she can go back, but explains that remaining his assistant may provide her better career opportunities. He invites her to return with him to Indianapolis, and she seems interested, leaving both Ann and Andy stunned and jealous. So I remember this scene. Yeah.
It was one of the... I don't know, maybe it's because it was still early in my run on the show, but I remember it being super difficult to do because if you look at it, and I looked at it again today before we came on, it's super earnest. And there's no comedy in it. None. And one of the things I loved about playing Chris was he was a joke machine and usually...
That's what the character actors get to do. I, I remember this being out really out of character a little bit. And I remember being like, I just remember like, I like being like weird for me and I don't know, I couldn't put my finger on why other than it's, it was so earnest and so unadulterated and like fatherly to her and yet, and mentally and like,
It's weird. I find that scene to be a weird scene. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. That's so interesting because it didn't bother me. It bummed me when I did it, but I understand where you're coming from playing that character because you get to have jokes in every scene. And that's always the thing in the writer's room where...
we, in almost every scene, and this is a particular example of where there needs to be a lot of story dispense, right? Like we said, you know, information and all that stuff. It's always a balance. And we talk about, hey, does there need to be a joke to cut the emotion of the scene? Or does it need to be lightened? And usually that's a discussion back and forth where it's like,
How, you know, how joke dense will the scene be? And does it need, yeah, again, does it need a button at the end or some levity? And I don't know, for whatever reason, I think of this scene, they're like, no, you know, it works how it is. And the other thing is we are fortunate on this show to be, we were fortunate to be blessed with actors who can pull off
who can be interesting not doing a joke every line you know i think that was kind of the gold which is like you know i would trust pretty much every actor on the show to be able to deliver a scene like that of course yourself included you have a history of dramatic acting but you know even the primarily comedic actors were able to do that so and that's what it was i think you put you've put your finger on it in a way that i couldn't yeah it felt at least in that scene like a scene from another show for me if because that that scene could have been in the west wing
It could have been... It literally could have been Sam Seaborn talking to a new assistant saying, I believe in you. I think you're smart. And I think... Literally. And then it just ends. And then it just ends. Well, I have a question for you. In both this scene and throughout your career, do you have any tricks in order to convey emotion and convey sort of genuine sincerity without crossing the line into treacle? Crossing the line into being overly sentimental? I think...
It's just a matter of being honest. If you have a point of view, and in this case, in these types of scene, it's sort of emotion-based and based in sincerity, you just have to be super honest. Your whole job is to tell that person how you feel, period, and be as honest as you possibly can.
And no acting involved. Like, you know, don't ever get caught acting ever. But in these situations, it's super critical that you just tell them how you feel.
I really like that. And, you know, that's always my taste is is underplaying and letting, you know, letting the story do the work, letting the character hopefully has done the heavy lifting, you know, like, you know, I think about this is a very, very different movie. But I, I watched that movie, Drive My Car, the Hamaguchi movie. And it's like, it's just, it's beautiful. And it's,
You couldn't ever pitch that and be like, this is going to be emotionally powerful and moving and entertaining and all these things. And it's super underplayed. It's super just a matter of fact. Like you said, you can't see the seams. You can't see people acting. You can't see...
The hand, the hand of the creative team, the hand of the director, the hand of the writer, the hand of the actor, like you don't want to see that stuff sometimes. And, you know, that's its own unique genre. But but that's certainly my preference. Because on the other side of it in on Lone Star, you know, I'll tell the young actors that they're struggling when we do, for example, rescues.
Like the world is going to shit. The plane is crashing. We're losing pressure. That was, you cannot play the stakes. Interesting. If you play like, like if the plane is crashing, you better not be playing. The plane is crashing as, as, as a first responder. They've seen it a thousand times. Their job is to be, is to calm you, not to ramp you up. So the mistake I see actors come in as they go, Oh, this is a scene where the plane's crashing. So I gotta be like, and it's exactly the opposite. Yeah.
Yeah, I feel you, man. I feel you. That's good advice. It's good advice. You know, this is a fun aspect of the show. I like that there's an actor and there's a writer, a behind-the-scenes person. That's right. It starts with you and it ends with me. Yeah, it's good. It's good. Any final thoughts on this episode, Rob? This is a great one. It's a great one. It's another good one. I mean, it's a classic. I mean, Ron and Tammy, too. You know, it just doesn't...
you know, get any more classic than, than that. Anytime a Tammy was even mentioned in Parks and Rec, it was a big deal. Yeah. And I think it's shout out to Megan too, who was able to come in and just kill. And, and we like these opportunities. I think we relish them as a, as a cast and crew to be, as I mentioned, a little bit broader, a little bit, push our boundaries and deliver, you know, look, when you're doing this many episodes of a show, um,
you can't make them all the same. I actually think, obviously, you want to maintain an overall tone and consistency and, hey, this is the world, this is the vibe you'll get when you watch Parks and Rec. However...
I think these episodes provided something very fun, which is you get to see your characters act a little out of character once in a while. And just like, you know, in everyday life, you and I act out of character very occasionally. That was what these opportunities... This is what these episodes did, which is you got to see Ron Swanson be the opposite of Ron Swanson. And again, just...
Watching Nick and Megan, it's just such a cool thing where that couple is so talented and they get to sort of play around and have fun and really improvise on the show as well. Like, you know, a lot of those things, they get to go for it. If Tammy were played by an actor that Nick didn't know, the show would be worse because they wouldn't be doing the batshit things they do in these episodes. So shout out to those guys. Yeah, whenever the Offermans and I get together,
Megan and I like to fuck with Nick. We talked a lot about, about last night just to wind him up. I mean, it's pretty, it's pretty crazy. It's rare that you start a new job and your co-worker, your new co-worker has kissed your wife. Yes, exactly. It's a strange moment. So that's Ron and Tammy 2. We love the episode. A couple of oops moments here.
The kimono Ron is wearing is meant specifically for married women. I would say that's maybe more of an Easter egg. Maybe that was intentional. That's not a mistake. That's definitely not. He gets married, man. They definitely did that for real. I truly remember this because of the angst it caused in the writer's room and to Mike specifically. This episode has a major behind-the-scenes oops moment.
We should talk to Greg Levine, producer Greg on this, who was the writer assistant on the show at the time. Greg, can you walk us through, because I remember this, but walk us through exactly what happened around the time of this episode being released. Yeah, guys. So, you know, every episode of Parks and Rec had special content that was made for NBC.com. And it was written by myself and the other writer's assistant.
And one of the features was a wedding registry for Ron and Tammy based on the sequence of them at what I think is Bed Bath and Beyond adding a
a bunch of items for their impromptu wedding. Now, a few episodes from now, spoiler, Andy and April are going to get married in a major surprise storyline. And when NBC.com ran a commercial for the feature, they called it April and Andy's Wedding Registry, which caused speculation about a future spoiler that wasn't supposed to go out.
Um, damage control, uh, I know was done emphasizing that the commercial, uh, accidentally used the wrong names, that it was actually for Ron and Tammy's registry. Um, after Andy and April eventually marry a couple of episodes later, I know that Mike admitted that the commercial was intended to run with April and Andy's wedding, but due to an error internally with NBC, uh, it ran with Ron and Tammy instead. Um, I actually pulled up, uh, something he said and he said, uh,
In an effort to undo the spoiler, we publicly stated in a number of interviews that NBC had just accidentally gotten the character names wrong and there was no upcoming Andy and April wedding. We sincerely hope that fans of the show are cool with us gently lying to them in an effort to maintain the surprise nuptials as much as we could. Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go shoot the season finale surprise Jerry Donna wedding scene.
Jesus. Yeah, so that I think is quite an oops. And back to youps. First of all, these, hey, do you guys mind writing some, just get you some extra content? You know, it's like for NBC.com, you know, like you guys should just break off and write it. And it's not like you're writing an actual fucking television show right now. And, you know, maybe the actors can kind of be in it. Like, I don't know, maybe like on there. Get out of here. Get out. Get out with all that shit.
Oh, man. Can you film a BTS thing? Can you film like a... There was another... We had a show for Amazon at some point. They're like, do something for X-Ray, which is like extra stuff that's like you click on it and then the actors would do stuff. It's tough. I mean, I understand that that's their job and they have to ask you to do that, but man, it is a lot of that. And I remember when this happened because...
you're right that you know they would ask you for extra content extra content extra content while we were shooting and writing the show by the way not paying for any of it oh no no no yeah why would you do that it's all for free and so when that came out and it was like this episode aired and then right after it's like go to nbc.com for april nandy's wedding registry we're like what that spoil you spoiled the fucking show like that is so crazy because it was a
random surprise wedding. Like they had just started dating and they, you know, they get married a couple episodes later. It proves my number one life ethos. No good deed goes unpunished. Yeah. It's like ask for this stuff and we'll spoil the show. That's right. And then, of course, you have to force Mike to lie. Mike, that's the lie. He hates it. Yeah. He literally just wrote a book about moral behavior. And then so he had to lie to cover his tracks.
But yeah, I mean, this is it was not a good not a good situation that day. It was we couldn't believe it when that aired because we were like, you just spoiled maybe the biggest surprise in the entire series of like a seven year long show. While we're on the subject of network asks, at some point we have to have to do a deep dive on the when we shut down for a day and shot the
a dance sequence for the network. Oh my God. I think I remember this day. We can do about 10 minutes on this. So I remember this. You know why we were talking about this recently, Rob? I was texting this to a bunch of different friends. It was a Super Bowl commercial.
And it was to the tune of this song, Brotherhood of Man. Yes. From, I believe, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. That's right. And they marshaled every, every, I implore you, search for NBC Super Bowl commercial Brotherhood of Man. Yes, Brotherhood.
So yes, we did a day on Parks and Rec. We got the entire cast. We shot this long musical steadicam, like, you know, way, way more equipment than the show ever used itself. It was the cast of 30 Rock, the cast of Parks and Rec, the cast of Community, the cast of Law and Order, the cast of SNL, the cast of, you know, everyone from the Today Show, the Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon, everybody. And you watch this thing. Just watch it. There's a couple surprises. If you don't want to know the surprises, push pause now.
But if you watch it, you will see, I believe in that you'll see the cast of God, I think Whitney. So you'll see that. Yeah. And you'll see. And then at the end, Trump is also in it because of the apprentice. So it's all in this ad. And the other crazy thing about this is that day on set, I remember the director of it. It was a guy from New Zealand and, and, uh, that director,
that guy turned out to be Taika Waititi. He directed that thing. And he directed, it was just a Super Bowl ad that he was directing at the time. And there was an article going around about this ad. And we were just sending it to our friends. Like, remember being on set that day. And, you know, they were promoting this show, Smash, which, you know, I believe had your friend, David Foster's wife, I believe in it. Yes.
Here's when I, I'm trying to name my new Netflix show right now. Yes. Yes. And when we're talking about names, I always think about the horrible review. Yes. And I would never name a show smash ever.
Because the review, the bad review is, literally first sentence is, the headline would be smash and the first sentence was, it isn't. Yes, exactly. Headline, smash, smash isn't. Catherine McPhee starred in smash. And look, I love everybody and everybody's great. Catherine McPhee is great. NBC is great. Everybody's great. The fact of the matter is, the fact of the matter is, let me just tell you something. I don't know what was more demoralizing, doing this stupid thing or doing it for a show like smash.
I will also say this. Now a lot of shows are getting collateral damage in this. But let's not forget that we had already gotten pushed. Parks and Rec got pushed for months and months and months because they were very excited about the show Outsourced. Of course. And so we got pushed for Outsourced for seven months or something. And we aired a half season that year. And we...
But again, I'll save those thoughts for my outsourced rewatch pod. It's not easy. Yeah, no, it's, you know, look, TV is hard. TV is hard. I'm glad we did that digression though. I beg you to watch this video. It's crazy. It's really crazy to see it, especially now. And by the way, people were getting hurt doing it because if you see it,
We all had to fight to be in the cameras. Like, with the Perks cast, it's, what, seven people? How many people? It's a lot of people. Yeah. But it's one frame. And so, like, somebody would sing a line, and then you have to pop your head out of here, and somebody would enter, and it was, like, just insane. I think you're singing in it a little bit, too, right? We're all singing in it. Yeah. Like, I remember Z, Offerman's in it. They're all in it. And it's like, yeah, it's...
It's really wild. Because you'll see all these stars, too. Because you go to a community and it's Donald Glover and Ken Jeong and John McKay. Like, everyone's in it. Like, every...
every TV personality is in it. And it always begins with the same thing. And by the way, when somebody hits you with the tone of voice, you should know the answer is no. And that tone of voice is, so we're just, eh, no. Oh, no. No. So it's like, so on Wednesday, so just, you know, right after we wrap, we're just going to do this little eight-hour shoot for Smashed. Yuck, yuck. Yeah, and it's, I believe there's a piece in,
God, I want to say either New York mag or Vanity Fair or something about this commercial. No way. Yes. So I'll send it to you, but it's like... You sent it to me. Here it is. I believe it's Vanity... Okay, here it is. 2022, February 11th. That's why it's very visceral. The headline is NBC's Brotherhood of Man Super Bowl commercial will haunt us forever.
Few bits of pop culture ephemera are as captivating or as retrospectively icky as this star-studded 10-year-old musical promo. So you can read that. It's not my commentary. That's Vanity Fair. But it's... Okay, so I'm not crazy. No, it's shocking. Again, let's not cut this for time. We have appearances from...
Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, John Krasinski, Mindy Kaling, Amy Poehler, Rob Lowe, Rashida Jones, Donald Glover, Angelica Houston, Mariska Hargitay, Ice-T, Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Maya Rudolph, Will Arnett, Christina Abilgate, Kristen Wiig, Kenan Thompson, Andy Sabenberg, Bill Hader, Seth Meyers, and Kathy Bates. Squint, and you'll see Chris Pratt trying to hide in the Parks and Recreation sequence. And it keeps going. And by the way, you see Donald Trump and Matt Lauer in it. You see Brian Williams in it. You see Joe Rogan. Yeah.
Oh, wait. No, Joe Rogan's not in it. It says Joe Rogan's not in it because he was hosting a revival of Fear Factor. So he was not... Anyway, you'll see. It's just really crazy to watch. It's really crazy to watch. Jesus. So my PTSD is well-earned. But...
I'm glad we did that, our 20. I don't know if any of this will be in the episode. We'll see. It's so good. Oh, are you kidding me? We'll see if it gets in, but this is one of my, yeah, it's one of the most legendary weird bits that you'll ever see. Well, and then we have to, at some point, we also have to talk about the day that I came to the set and the spinning chairs from The Voice were in the middle of the bullpen. Oh, let's save that for another episode because we've gone too long in this one. But I want to talk about The Voice chairs. The Voice chairs? Yeah.
Yes. At least that's like a kid's dream. It's like, I want to be in one of those voice chairs. I have photos of me in the voice chair. Were you in the one when Usher came? Yes! With Usher! Jesus. I just remember him riding up in a motorcycle wearing an all-red leather suit or something. Very funny. All right. That was a great tangent. Great digression. Great tangent. By the way, that's why we come to this show. Listen.
The kids just don't want to be scripted, for God's sakes. No, this is why you do the pod. And you never know when you're going to get it. I don't want to say in the little scroll where everybody scrolls down and sees what episode it is. It's like, no, you've got to listen to every episode because you don't know what you're going to get on any given episode. You'll get some weird shit for sure. All right, episode MVP. Most valuable pod on the end. Which character moment sticks out? Oh, it's Tammy. It's Tammy. It's Tammy. There you go. Come on. There you go. Roll low. It's Tammy. And I also will say this.
If you wear a kimono and put on cornrows and shave your mustache, you at least get a co-MVP. So shout out to you, Nick. That's right. Pretty amazing. All right, let's take a trip to the town hall. Reese's peanut butter cups are the greatest, but let me play devil's advocate here. Let's see. So, no, that's a good thing. That's definitely not a problem. Reese's, you did it. You stumped this charming devil.
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Where should we do the town hall? Why don't we, why don't we do it in the prison cell? Oh, that's great. The prison cell that Ron and Tammy are trapped in after they get married and then subsequently arrested. God, by the way, quick mention of the scene where he punches out that glass. That's pretty cool. When he punches the glass and breaks the window. Um, great, great moment. Um,
It's a town howl today. Oh, yes. From the jail cell for Miley from Oceanside. Here's the town howl. Why don't we play that down, Shelty? Hi, this is Miley calling from Oceanside, California. My question for you guys would be if...
You could have any character from Parks and Rec be in any of the shows created by Mike Schur or Greg Daniels, like Space Force, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Upload, The Good Place, etc. You could have any character from one of those shows come to Parks and Rec. Who would it be? Or which character from Parks and Rec would you like to see in one of those shows? Oh, I can tell you, I definitely want to see...
John Ralphio in charge of a spacecraft. And by the way, Schwartz is also in that show, so he could be playing two characters, the Klump style, Eddie Murphy and the Klumps, not even Professor Two style. So get ready, Ben, to do a double duty in Space Force.
That's a great question. Thank you for the question, Miley. By the way, Oceanside, also a fake city that we used in the show forever that we did for Amazon with my Rudolph. So thank you for calling in. There's a... I would say...
one thing that I would like to see, I recently, you know, have sort of become friends with Manny Jacinto who plays Jason Mendoza on The Good Place. Would love to see him cross over in the Parks universe and have scenes with him and Andy Dwyer because it would be a dumb off and to see who would be dumber would be very entertaining and I think they would be really good friends. So...
Thank you for the question. By the way, shout out to those guys for creating that many great shows. There's a lot of options. We didn't even mention The Office. We didn't mention Brooklyn Nine-Nine. We didn't mention Upload. We didn't mention all these other shows. So shout out to all. Create your own fanfic. These two guys, between their cinematic universes, there's innumerable answers.
Great episode, Rob. You got anything to add? We good to wrap it up? Oh, are you kidding me? I got my smash stuff off my chest. That was better than therapy for me. I love it. I love it. Well, thank you, everybody, for listening. Subscribe where you get your podcasts. Five-star review on Apple, please. It really matters to us. Thanks to Schulte and Greg. And goodbye from Pawnee. Adios.
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 Danik. 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. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are the greatest, but let me play devil's advocate here. Let's see, so... No, that's a good thing. That's definitely not a problem. Reese's, you did it! You stumped this charming devil!
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