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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Good Hang. We are continuing our clip package episodes, and this is the second of three. So we will be back with new episodes and guests in just two weeks. But this week, we are putting together an amazing episode of all of the people from Parks and Recreation who have come into the studio and sat and talked to us. And it is a great list.
It is Mike Schur, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Katherine Hahn, Paul Rudd, Aubrey Plaza, Adam Scott. And please know there are more coming. In fact, a little teaser. We do have Nick Offerman joining us in season two of this podcast. If there are seasons and podcasts, we are insisting there are. And so you're going to hear from all of these people today.
And the reason why we're doing these episodes. These clip shows is because I am finishing up shooting a new show for Peacock called Dig with my buddy Mike Schur, who, as we all know, created Parks and Rec. So let's kick off this episode by hearing from Mike Schur first. Music This episode of Good Hang is presented by Subaru. Some cars go the extra mile.
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Actual mileage and range may vary. In the very, very beginning, the idea for the spinoff of The Office, or was it even an idea for spinoff, was what? Well, so Ben Silverman... What became Parks and Rec. Ben Silverman was running NBC, and he asked Greg to do a spinoff. And so Greg's response, typically thoughtful and considered, was, I would love to do another show.
If the best idea that I have for a show is a spinoff, then I will do a spinoff. If the best idea I have is something else, I'll do something else. Greg is a real... One of the main things that he gave me in terms of how to do this job is... Best idea wins. Doesn't matter who it comes from.
If it's staff writer or a 25-year veteran co-EP or a person who works in costumes or whatever, best idea wins. That's it. And there is no corollary to that. In every situation that you're in creatively, best idea wins. And so that's what he said basically to Ben.
And he was like, it's very important to me that you understand that if the best idea I have is not a spinoff of The Office, then we're going to do something else. And Ben was like, totally hear you, buddy. And the next day in the variety, he was like, Office spinoff is coming. Ben just totally ignored him and just announced an Office spinoff. Sure. So Greg and I started meeting.
Greg asked me to do it with him. So we started meeting. We would go to Norm's Diner in the Valley like twice a week for breakfast. And we would just think of ideas. And we would talk about what interested us and what was going on. And we would inch down a little path and then hit a dead end and then inch back. And we would... We just met constantly over showing your work.
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Chapter 2: What inspired the creation of Parks and Recreation?
And there should be something better than man number two or man in crowd. And so I decided at that moment, this is early in season one, I think, of Parks and Rec, that every character who appeared on the show was going to have a first and last name. Amazing. So when you saw, if it says man in crowd, you're like, oh, well, it doesn't really count as an acting gig. But if you see...
Marv Vavavma which is a name I gave a character once you're like who the hell is Marv Vavavma what was Marv Vavavma up to so I and it has been that way it started with that intention and has become one of the great truly one of the great joys of my life is to give every because here's the other thing sorry you can cut all this out but the other thing is if you name a character Jack Smith yeah
you can get away with it because there are 10 trillion Jack Smiths. But if you name a character anything even mildly interesting, like Winona Cooper, there's going to be like four Winona Coopers in the state that you're setting the show in. And then the legal comes back and says you can't name a character that. A lot of people don't know that. You have to get names cleared.
You have to be cleared. And there have to be either none or so many that not any one of them could be could think that you're saying anything about them so I go for none none yeah I go for the weirdest names we had a character recently on the show on A Man on the Inside named Ophelia Papipapepe there's no Ophelia Papipapepe anywhere in the continental United States so you get to use that name
That has been my goal is to have none, have the Google search come up empty with every name of every character. Okay, with that in mind, will you please read some of these names that you have invented? Yeah. Like just a few here on the bottom of this page. Okay. Mona Lisa Saperstein. Yes. Jenny Slate's character. Yes. Do you remember all these? Yeah. Amazing. Trod Frankensteip. Okay.
Tell us about Trod. So Trod Frankensteip was a local reporter or he had a like almost like a little show like this in Pawnee where he would interview political people like Leslie Knope. Mm-hmm. A great way to come up with a name that doesn't exist is to take a normal name like Todd and then just stick another letter in there somewhere.
And then Frankenstipe is just Frankenstein with a P at the end. Tyrion Fonzarelli. Tyrion Fonzarelli, obviously a combination of two characters from TV history. Tyrion Lannister and Arthur Fonzarelli. This name goes to Matt Murray. Matt Murray did this. Ah, perfect. Panther. Yeah, Panther. Tyrion Fonzarelli was- A writer on Parks and Rec, among other things.
Was a guy in a jewelry store who was buying an engagement ring for his to be betrothed when Anne and Chris Traeger were shopping for rings. Great. Leslie Knope. Yep. Gretzky Susan Pellegrino. Okay. This- So- Gretzky Susan Pellegrino was like the fourth in a series of names that for some reason all involve the last name of the greatest hockey player who ever lived, Wayne Gretzky.
I don't offhand remember who Gretzky Susan Pellegrino is. Also, it should be noted, hyphens, huge part of my naming process. Yeah, so exciting. It's a way to get another name in there. Another name, and also there's no way that someone's going to have this name. No one's first name is Gretzky Susan. Gretzky hyphen Susan. What? Typhoon Montalban. Oh, I love Typhoon.
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Chapter 3: How did the casting process for Parks and Rec unfold?
Because how familiar are you with Genuine? We were married. No, I'm kidding. I mean, you know, I live in 90s R&B. That's where my heart is. It's not here. I mean, it is with you. But for the most part, it's not present. It's in 90s R&B. So he's a very important figure. Yeah. I feel like we have had some hard-ass laughs.
And I was trying to think the other day, like, places that we've laughed, deep laughs. And it really does add years to my life. I know that. And I wonder if you could tell the story about when we were on Parks and it was, because we talk about it. We've talked about it before. When we were on Parks and it was the first season, it was the hunting episode.
And just to kind of set up, we were shooting that whole week way far away somewhere in California. You know, I don't even remember where. And we had to do a scene with Nick Offerman. And that, I think about it sometimes, the way that laugh came, it was like. Giggles. It was giggle, giggle, orgasm city. But don't worry, we'll cut that. But what do you remember about it?
Well, I remember we were, he maybe ate something weird and we were trying to give him Ipecac. Isn't that what it was? So Nick Offerman playing Ron Swanson ate something weird. Yeah, I don't remember actually what happened in the show. Isn't that funny? I was like determined as a nurse. I was like, you have to throw up. Like you can't. Right. You're going to get sick. And he's like, I'm fine.
Right. And we were trying to get this like liquid in his mouth. And, you know, it's Hollywood. So things that happen like on camera don't actually happen in real life. So it was written that we like hold him down. And he's resisting us and we give him this thing. But, like, you don't know. You don't know how small you are.
Because I think both of us, like, I'm always like, I'm like a tall person, right? Like, I ask people if I feel tall. Yeah, I feel like a tall person. But I'm not. And I'm not. How tall are you? Five, three and a half. Yeah. Yeah. I'm five two. And Nick is solid. Yeah. Yeah. He's a solid dude. Yeah, he's like a Midwestern corn-fed dude. Yeah, dense and muscular. And he...
We were trying to hold him down, and he was whipping us around with such ease. Like, we couldn't, we actually, the both of us could not hold him down. And he was like, literally, he would just go, beep, and we would just fly off the bed in each direction. We could not stop laughing. One of us, we each had one arm. Yeah. And he would, it felt like just the flick of a wrist.
Because he was being gentle. He was being gentle. Yeah, he wasn't really, he wasn't fighting for his life. Yeah, no. No. No. And we could not get him to stay down. Could not. Could not. And I remember that feeling. Also, I think there's something fun about wrestling. There is. It's so good. It's so good. And being thrown around is so fun. Yes. And he was throwing us around.
And I feel like I just, like if I was to picture it in my mind, you were just like, whee! Like I could just see you going past me and your hair going, whee! And then your legs going, whee! And me... And I just remember, like, Regina! Like, I've never seen you flying by, which can't be true. I feel like we were tumbling all over the floor.
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Chapter 4: What memorable moments occurred during filming?
God, I'm sweating even thinking about that. They just hadn't decided things, and they were trying to build around you, I think is what happened, around that character. So I think they had just done that. And I think you wanted to tell me as soon as possible because we were so close, which was the right instinct. And Mike decided to get on a plane, which was his instinct. Yeah.
And he just flew for hours. He wasn't even going anywhere. He just got on a plane.
Chapter 5: How did the character names contribute to the show's uniqueness?
And that's what execs do. That's what a powerful person does, is they get on a plane. They just get on as many planes as possible. My phone was off. This message is brought to you by Apple card. It's a great time to apply for an Apple card. You'll love earning unlimited daily cash on every purchase. That includes 3% daily cash.
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My ZZ is just an old man now. I know. If you watch, whenever I see old parks things, I was like, I didn't know that me and Aubrey did a show when we were little kids. Like, it's really... How old were you when you started on the show? I was 13 in season one. And then when we finished, I just turned 18. I got my driver's license like in the middle of the run.
A lot of people don't know that you were 18 when you were playing Tom Haverford on Parks and Rec. Yeah. It is true, though. You look like a baby. You were a baby. I didn't know anything. Yeah. The first seasons, I didn't know how to act or anything. I should not have been on television. NBC should have been like, we got to get, is there any Indian guy that's done more acting?
A lot of people don't know you were the first person hired for Parks. Yeah, I met with them. Yeah, what was that meeting like? Do you remember it? It was so mysterious what they were up to. Yeah. I had a meeting with them. And I told them, I don't know what you're doing, but whatever it is, that would be a dream job.
And, you know, this was like when The Office was on and Mike and Greg were both involved in that. And that was, you know, my favorite show like that on the air. And so I told them, whatever you're up to, let me know. And then, of course, you know, when it all came together with you and Rashida and everything. Well, I'm kind of learning.
When I was talking to Plaza, when Plaza was here, she was talking about her meeting with them, too. Yeah, yeah. Very famous stories. Yeah, yeah. I know, and it's kind of funny. I kind of forgot the Avengers Assemble feeling of those guys going out and getting people and bringing them in and talking about, like, we're going to do something very cool.
I mean, it didn't even feel like there was a ton of auditioning. It was more just them picking people that they thought was funny. Yeah. Not only funny, and I feel like all of us, whenever we see each other, do interviews, kind of say this kind of stuff ad nauseum, but it's so true. But also just the best people I've ever met in my life. Yeah.
Like, really, I cannot believe it because we've all done other stuff. And, you know, not everybody's, you know, look, we've all done other stuff. I don't talk about everything the way I talk about parks. Yeah. You know, you do something and some people, it's just an energy, not necessarily mean or bad, but just something like we all just clicked and there was a vibe that worked with all of us.
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