Parks and Recreation 10th Anniversary Reunion at PaleyFest LA 2019: Full Conversation

you good evening I'm coming to you tonight from the place where I'm standing which is here and I did not forget my microphone the story of tonight's event is that it is happening and what is happening is this the cast of a television show is reuniting and that television show whose cast is reuniting is night writer just kidding just kidding that was a joke I made and not a serious answer the serious answer is Parks and Recreation I'm holding for your applause and you seem to be done and so I will continue speaking now the entire cast is here which is appropriate because they were the people who appeared on the show so true and now ladies and gentlemen without further ado let's bring out a different person a person who will be your host for the evening and that person is named Patton Oswald [Music] Thank You perd hapley ladies and gentlemen oh my goodness thank you guys for coming Interior Millennium Falcon Wolverine is fighting with HR Pufnstuf oh I lost the other 17 pages folks thank you guys so much this is the second time that I've hosted the parks and recreations panel Bailey let's bring them out shall we as April Ludgate please welcome Aubrey Plaza [Applause] Wow [Applause] she did that for luck as Andy Dwyer chris pratt's [Applause] someone's getting their Fitbit points tonight as Tom Haverford Aziz Ansari [Applause] as Ann Perkins Rashidah Joan as leslie knope amy poehler as Ron Swanson Nick Offerman as Ben Wyatt Adam Scott [Applause] as Donna mEagle Retta as Chris Traeger Rob Lowe the co-creator showrunner and executive producer Michael Shure and as Jerry gergich Jim o'heir [Applause] you guys already know what a fan I am of this show how much I loved getting to see basically and I've said this before this show is like getting to see a free 22 minute like perfect Tom McCarthy film every single week on network TV it was so it was such a richly drawn world did you I mean clearly Michael when you started out did you know that you were gonna be expanding and creating the kind of universe that you did you have what was this your goal obviously when you started the show or were you gonna keep it contained and then it just kept growing well first of all this is awesome thank you all for coming no obviously we didn't know we certainly didn't know we were gonna get to expand it to the to the level that it expanded to we thought we were getting cancelled like all the time the goal when Greg Greg Daniels couldn't be here tonight he has a little note we'll read later he couldn't be here he's a Pisces in Vancouver shooting but when he and I set out to create the show the idea was he had adapted the office and the office was a fictional business and so we decided to do there was private sector so we decided to do fictional public sector and then immediately it became like oh if this if this lasts for a while it can be a whole world it can be if we're gonna invent a fake town and we'll have a fake government and we'll have fake we'll have people who come to these meetings and we'll have newscasters will get perd hapley types and and so that it was the dream the dream was to just build it out and to keep seeing the same people kind of cycle through we never imagined that it would be on for seven years and that we would actually get to do that and by the time we were done we had all these like just hundreds and hundreds of people it was like it became like The Simpsons where there were these minor characters yes at any moment you can just go this is perfect for joan callamezzo or whoever to come in so the fact that we actually got to the show stayed on the air long enough for us to get to that point it's just a crazy fever dream I can't believe it happened yeah it is almost in some ways even more than the Simpsons you you have the geography of this town in your head and in any given time you would flash on to Oh Kirk Fox's sewage trash man character must be dealing with the aftermath of this scene that I'm like who who is gonna have to deal with soap I want to start with Amy on this and then kind of go to everyone how much input did you have in your characters once they were written and once you began performing them you guys clearly kept bringing different things to these to these characters they're all so alive and real so how much input did you have along those lines I I think we all got a lot of freedom to really play around and expand and dig into who we were playing I mean but I do think that also we we brought a lot of ourselves I think to a lot of these characters because we really had to play things quite real being it like a documentary style so we I think there is a real combination of characters already on the page thought of and written and then whoever was kind of wearing the suit filled it out you know but I'm just I'm totally overwhelmed [Laughter] we thought there'd be like 40 people here like Katt Williams coming later I mean if I remember reading an interview with you Nick where you said that you met someone that you based Ron Swanson on it was some of the either either saw interviewed or you interacted with who basically was was Ron Swanson and you kind of brought a lot of that it was a guy that kind of didn't like government or job or something or no Mike Mike and Greg when they were creating the show met with a government official in Burbank and that's all I'm allowed to say who her name is Julie Julie s yes that's know that you're gonna find her her name her name is Jay Stephenson they they found a city official who was a libertarian and who hated the government and and that was the impetus and it was a woman interestingly and that's that was the impetus for Ron Swanson's stance well we said we said we did a lot of research and we said to this woman let us ask you a question like we have this design of a character who is in the government but is a libertarian and literally wants to like bring the government like down to the ground like literally the level of like at one point run how's it talking head where he says he wants to get rid of stoplights so we said who we were like is is that insane is that too crazy and she was like no I'm a libertarian and and we said really and she went yeah I'm aware of the irony well I didn't exist and that's all we needed but to your question though I would say especially for both of those those two there in the middle like that they their characters their Venn diagram of who they are as people and this is true for everybody of who they are as people and who their characters are it's not it's not a one circle but it overlaps a lot and you know Ron Ron Swanson became Ron Swanson because the writers took a trip to Nick's real-life woodshop where he was making things with his with his he just like making things they yeah and and and like he was like well here's the canoe I just built in the early and we all felt very weak we felt very weak and frail and you know this gentleman here when I met with him to talk about him coming on the show he he had just been part of a group of people who had bought into the Miramax libraries and I said how does that how does it happen like how do you how do you become a person who is the kind of person who can buy Miramax and he what he said he said I'll tell you the story I was literally on a yacht in Cyprus [Applause] at the time Chris before that sentence Chris Traeger didn't exist and then he said I was literally on a yacht in Cyprus or whatever he said I went my mind went blank and then after that that was what Chris Traeger was when I when I wrapped the show Mike gave me it such a great gift and I have it framed in my office and it's your notes that Mike wrote after that first meeting with me and I always wondered how much of Chris was me and how much of Chris was Mike and in your your notes it's it's it's my see Alma said it [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] it says he says literally well then there's a question for you Robin and Bradham Scott you came onto the show later on to a very established universe and a lot of established relationships so what was that like again this is one of the most deeply realized group of characters and then for you guys to fit into that world the way that you did they had had it what was that process like it was crazy because I remember very clearly waiting outside the doors to the hallway parts department up Rob and I waiting outside the doors to be queued to come in for when we come in and and start kind of pointing our first scene was our first scene Amy and Nick and stuff and I remember waiting out there for the PA to point to us to walk in and just being like holy [ __ ] okay all right Rob Lowe is standing right there like on this show that I like I watched the show so now I was inside the show I just had to get out of my head and stop thinking about Rob Lowe and being inside of a TV show [Laughter] [Applause] was very scary now Chris and Aubrey April and Andy so real and organic and and also you know Rashida early on again I'm talking about it as if these were people that I knew like oh my gosh you squat with him but then [ __ ] but did you how organic was that process of you guys realizing that the oh no those characters gonna go in the direction that they're going almost it almost felt like those characters broke out of the script and and lived their own lives it was a really interesting to watch that overall in the show and do you remember what that was like her are you talking to me yeah well I do remember that there was an episode where everyone was hunting yes and that was and I didn't get to go and and we had to stay back and there wasn't it was really the B story that they were cutting back to as this as you know everyone was off with this hunting lodge and I think some get shot and it's super hilarious but they were they kept cutting back to us just Manning the parks department and it and really it was like we had it was like a it was like a chemistry reading in during the making of the show and so I don't think I think we just really got along and and it was like these this cat in a dog title relationship and and you know it was my idea that's true now and I know that you just like your character this is like watching a tape from the show [Laughter] what from what I remember and I really don't remember like anything there was an episode before I think it was the finale of the first season where we were in a group huddle or some cake eating a cake yeah maybe sure and there was something about you were trying to scribe the kind of music and the whole time I was just going like I'm into this whatever he's saying I'm into this I understand exactly what he's saying and every other character was like I don't get it yeah I think the idea well it came from like maybe the instinct was you know Andy's music was so terrible nobody should like and in the spirit of irony that sort of dominates her persona I think she chose to be like no I really like that that's the last thing in the world you would expect from me is to like this guy or this guy's music and then it and then I was like that's cool she likes my music ya know wasn't wasn't hard for April oh yeah and now two things about the show that must have felt very surreal while you're doing it were the things that were some of which were almost done is throwaway jokes that have kind of entered the vernacular and have entered reality treat yourself yeah and galentine's day I even think there's there's certain people that I see on Instagram that are these weird fitness gurus and it's all it's just Chris Traeger it's they watch this curtain go I'm gonna and they're building multi-million dollar empires how did that feel when a thing that and the the Swanson pyramid of excellence people like like how does it feel when that kind of gets away from you and becomes where reality people are living in so I've been I've been been doing this a long time and I it took me being on the show that finally get a catchphrase so I was so excited it's like it's my version of what you talkin about Willis yeah yeah it's it's I think someone told me that they again I almost said it they literally they changed you know this that they had to change the definition yeah oh yeah this is true Webster's dictionary changed the definition of the word literally no to mean either literally or figuratively [Laughter] those are the two definitions of the word letter which make sure that's that I've known you for a very long time since college and your pet peeve is when people use 'literally I don't know how you feel Poehler but I it we all I think take a great deal of pride in the idea that like galentine's day is a thing that ya know about but this for some reason this year it kind of bummed me out because like I would go on Twitter and it would be like hey ladies this galentine's day why not share a mountain Dew Code Red with your I was like what does that have to do with galentine's day like it's it was like appropriated by every brand now a little bit bummed me out because it was like I feel like maybe trying to walking into Target and all you see get yourself you don't get you two should literally get like 31 cents every time yeah it's it's obnoxious a mug like with an owl and it was like and then the other thing beyond stuff from the show kind of leaving the show and and existing in the world now is and I'm sure you've been interviewed about this all the time because I've seen articles about all the time how horrifyingly predictive this show was to our current situation it's a is that a pleasant sensation or is it oh god maybe you know it how does that if you you basically you called the 2016 election for God thank you the Cubs was the bright spot only you know if only we had Bobby Newport at that yeah I mean someone asked me in that press line about Leslie Knope you know do we need her now and I do kind of feel like not she's kind of like the spider-man of public service it is a little bit it does feel a little bit like you're looking up into the sky like Leslie we're like an actual person who you know fights for the underdog and believes that people can work together and treats people with respect all that stuff like that is that is her motto and her Creed and it is I kind of do wish she was around but she would not be able to go have any access to the White House I don't know I think it was a and remember we started the show post Obama it was very you know a very hopeful optimistic time for a lot of us believing that change could happen in that you know the face of our president was so different in our world was gonna be different and so we were starting that show in such a different time it would be really interesting to be starting it now I don't know or we're great or the same I'm not sure but hmm and then of course the other big thing that I'm sure a lot of us thought about watching the to fire fest documentaries was Tom Haverford and jean-ralphio it is Santana and pardon me it is literally you guys's company but real weird that that there there's so many things like when I'm like oh like that seems like something Mike and the riders would have come up with like Tom and John Ralphie oh we're definitely buddies with Billy magnificent I was I did like the other day I was reading bit like that that College Admission scandals like that's some Eagleton [ __ ] [Applause] Oh [Music] [Laughter] one of the fire fest documentaries just used clips oh yeah it was just you two ding-dongs in a big white room like playing basketball with Detlef Schrempf and sorry got to say this it's literally entertainment 70s I remember when we went into film in the entertainment 720 offices there was like a video of a yacht I was like what's this this is like I just footage of a yacht that's what those guys did yeah they did it was like it's like they watched the episode it went oh yeah we could do like in their mind yeah it was a blueprint here's the plan oh my gosh yeah if Tom and John Tyrrell feel like they could have gotten ja Rule yes they could have found their way to ja Rule we're golden we got this now Jim maybe the most Zen character on television literally literally absorbing and levitating through abuse it was just I did love there's an episode where we're such a nerd for the show I'm so sorry but there's a the episode where Ron Swanson and Chris Traeger have the cook-off of the two hamburgers and they revealed that Jerry has a Jer you have a guy that you abused Kyle yeah yeah and you're like will you shut up any later oh he has one person imagine Kyle's life yo horrifying yeah it was great he's married to Cindy Crawford yeah there were times one time in particular with Chris I remember you were like I don't know if I wanted to do this because it was such a Jerry slam and let's face it people love them you were like feeling bad because the man has like this huge heart which you really should get looked at because I'm sure there's something do you remember that you're like no it's fine just paychecks the same it's all good now you guys would always do a thing called the fun take you would do the scene a few time bun run was that from the get-go you would do the fun runs yeah yeah right from the beginning the idea was always you know you block out a certain amount of time to shoot any scene and we shot the show in such a simple way with two cameras you know what's called cross coverage which means you're shooting everybody everybody's on camera all the time instead of only shooting in one direction so someone's got their back to the camera it isn't really in the scene and the idea was always the last five minutes is like you you tried to finish the take with the scene with five minutes left and then you would say do whatever and it led like usually it was a good it was a mess a lot of blooper reel stuff came from it but yeah that was always the goal was to reserve five minutes for the actors to just do whatever they want and sometimes like things happen that we would go oh wait let's see that and we would do another full take of the scene with a new line or a new joke or something I tried to bring that technique to the next series I did I did a CBS procedural called 731 just didn't translate somehow he's not for every show yes that for every show as it turns out but how many iconic memorable moments came from the fun runs though that where you were actually surprised at oh this is now part of the show or stop pooping was fun run I would say I feel like I owe any time we all get together I feel like I need to tell the story it wasn't actually in the fund run the other thing we did was we would save the actors like there are certain jokes where it's like this is what we're writing but like do something different every time and like with Aziz it would be like we'd write a reference to some some rapper or something and it was just a signal to him of like this you got this man change this every time but in one of those moments Chris Pratt improvised the greatest joke that we ever told I have to tell the story even though it deeply bums me up because I'm a writer and I should be able to write things that are as good as this but I have never got comest that but it was when it was when Leslie had the flu and Adam was leading her out of the office and norm his [ __ ] who was on the set at the time said to Chris just you know as we're walking by you say whatever you want in the story line was that he was free and he was filling in his Ron's assistant and Ron liked that because and he was so deeply incompetent that nothing was getting done and so they they passed by him and Leslie as the fluid she's miserable and she's bundled up and as she's walking by Chris says hey Leslie I typed your symptoms into the computer here and it says you have you might have network connectivity they really and then he got Jurassic world and those two things now oh wait before we do that though we tell the story of the thing that you shot when you were backstage when we did these like videos where you were backstage at the show and you made a joke it's the great this is the crazy story to come out of this show okay so this is Wow I'm gonna really date myself in the show it was kind of before iPhones they had this thing called a flip video right and remember it was like a look was like the camera function from your iPhone but in a separate handheld device kids they someone came up to me and they said Chris will you do some behind the scenes for parks and recs website which is which is to say everyone here said no to this day and so it got to me and I was like great this was good I was making a video in my trailer I'm covered in dirt and I was just kind of improv in this bit and I and I as I was making the phone I got a real text from whomever at the time and it beeped and you could hear at the video and I said oh just getting texted by and this is five or four maybe four years before I got Jurassic world maybe even six years or something and I said uh just and you can watch this video online if you watch it online it's gonna be a lot cooler than this story but I'm like I will continue I said I basically said it's Steven Spielberg here we go that was [ __ ] insane that or give me a job and I said I'll have to get but I'm in the process of doing Parks and Rec and I'm doing this behind-the-scenes video and I'll get back to you about Jurassic Park for hit Send and then like five years later this show did predict things now then you know all the fun run stuff all the great you know comedic moments but then there were really really amazing heartfelt moment not just heartful moments but serious oh I should maybe rethink my life moments the one that was the most surreal for me I remember watching this was it's the episode where John Larroquette guest-starred and gallons a gallon yeah and it's Leslie is was dating Justin throws character and there's that whole thing where he's going to reunite Leslie's mom with this boy that in that that's the John Larroquette character and it's a huge disaster and Justin saying oh my god it was so hilarious how awful that was and what a great story and and Leslie and starts to realize this guy is kind of shitty but he's not that good and out of nowhere Leslie and Ron Swanson have one of the deepest conversations at that where he goes he's a tourist he's just here for the stories he doesn't care what he wrecks and it was such an it like do you know when you're writing a scene like that like how do you fit that because then you get you go back into the comedy and also comedy is leading up to that moment is it a struggle to because it felt so natural and really did not feel like oh worth grinding the gears to get to this moment it totally followed where the characters are going and it was it was pretty stunning to watch well that was part of the design of the show honestly and this came from from Greg Daniels at the office is like he was like look it's not easy to do this because it like sincerity and honesty and gooeyness is like the opposite of coolness you know and and and greg was always like we're gonna carve we're gonna take a chunk of time in every episode of the office and we're gonna just carve it out and say like there aren't gonna be a jokes here there's gonna be some kind of like sincere emotional thing going on between the characters and it's hard to do because it feels like gooey it feels like are people gonna think I'm not cool if we write this stuff but it was so obviously for that show he was like that's what that's why people still watch that show like people still watching that people still watch friends for Ross and Rachel and they still watch the office for Jim and Pam and so from the beginning that was just the design of it we did a lot of it with with Leslie and and a lot of the Hult the show yeah like the show was like Greg and I pitched this show as a show of the about female friendship about Leslie and and that was the core of the show that's why the pilot is about them meeting and I think the saddest I ever got on the set was the episode where where Chris and Ann were leaving and moving away in part because it was the end of an era and also because Rashida and Amy were very good friends in real life and Rashida was going off to would take this crazy excellent job writing Toy Story 4 which was really cool and every it was all like yeah it was all like it was all happy and great but like this scene when you look at that if you look at that take that's in the episode it's just two really good friends saying goodbye to each other even and they're happy and they're crying and it's just like let's not overwrite this let's not like let's not try to put a spin on this let's just have these two women like have this nice scene together and it's devastating I mean I like that was the saddest I ever got it saying goodbye to you she's a you I didn't care about some well that was gonna be my next question for Amy and Rasheeda that was one of the best depictions of a real friendship Emmitt they are not completely in sync and agreement and everything but they love each other so much that the stuff that they're never going to agree on actually enhances the friendship were you guys careful to you know make sure that that it wasn't just this perfectly connected to puzzle pieces it was actual people that are going to disagree on stuff and have real fights and then real makeups and stuff well and yes as Mike said there is a there's a Venn diagram of real person and character and because Amy and I are very close and been friends for a while I think it really helped to inform and shape that relationship but also like you know things like Leslie thinking and as the best most smartest most beautiful yet whatever you know naive rule-breaking moths that is there's something that's so tender and sweet about that to me because in some regards like it was just like she's she's alright and she and she she just she just bolsters her as a human being so much and to me like that is the core like all of my girlfriend's and we talk about this all time that's how we interact with each other like that's how we actually interact instead of you know these you know these two kind of caddy you know diametrically opposed women most girls have friends that are like that's awesome you're great like how can I help you how can I support your life and make you a better person or what can we talk about to you know to make you feel better about your own life so I was so that to me like that's dead that was something that I was so happy to play because there's really not that much opportunity to do that there's not that much like this team and I you know I just want to say if I ever hear you talk about an like that [Applause] she's perfect and perfect I'm sorry I think I'll say this I think potential pop possibly the I think the best episode we ever did may have been the one that Amy wrote in season 3 called the fight first of all the B story of that episode is snake juice and the top all the talking head tower of everybody which was almost all improv including Adam Scott just saying Baba [Applause] that the pitch for that episode was Leslie to have their first fight that was it that was a whole story and and Amy and Rasheeda went into the bathroom of the terrible club we were out in Hollywood very close to where we are right now and they just like lived in a fight between those two characters and we just chopped up chunks of it they were almost entirely improvising right I think Poehler I don't remember yeah I don't remember I remember just loving doing that scene in that day that was fun just ripping each other and then when we it was just we just stitched together like chunks of like it was so it was like like the realest moments I think that we ever shot on the show because he was just the two of you being like this is what would happen if we fought it wasn't calculatedly writing down and trying to like move the plot forward it was just like these two women who love each other and care about each other are just really drunk Perry each other and then you're talking and it's so funny because you're like [Laughter] was coming back the next morning and Anna's [ __ ] so hard I was like Rasheeda is my [ __ ] comedy queen it was my favorite thing yeah in the show you're wearing a sweater and it also should be noted that that episode had Ron Swanson dancing in a tiny hat which by the way the gift of that is my most received gift when one of my friends is happy about something just dancing like oh there's a new oh there's a Deadwood movie like then I that's the dancing and happy like I got that gift twice today family I there's no accounting for taste Amy also directed that episode and the whole and and she cleverly brilliantly set up this contest because the best thing working on the show was if you have a me at the monitor is to make a me laugh right yes you set up a contest where everyone got to turn to try and crack up Amy and that's where all of those came from Oh check this out Aubrey give me your hat Janet snake-hole [Music] that's right the C story of that episode is bert macklin Janet snake-hole was a winner now the speaking of heartfelt and amazing the the relationship between Adam Scott and Amy Poehler's characters it's too political wonky nerds who have found each other and they are so unabashed in how much they love each other and that the proposal seen was I remember reading the the onion ad Club did they did it you know they would do the recaps of the show and then they did a whole other article just about the scene where he proposes and how you went oh but yes like it's so real and emotionally how how many takes was that how many I mean it felt like it felt real I was sweating I was so nervous you were too we were nervous it was a big deal yeah and we were like not really it was a big deal because I remember the hiatus before that season Amy and I talking over the the summer about Ben and Leslie like their people and talking about like how we wanted them to get married we've cared about them so much and then I remember hearing that that Mike you told me Mike was writing a proposal scene and it was just the happiest Mike called me and said oh I just wrote Ben and Leslie's proposal scene and then I said [Laughter] you think your nerds for the show you know what's so cool is even now like all you young people who have just finding the show long after his mine I just had a woman today I was working with the same I remember I remember I was with I was in college and me and my boyfriend were watching this show and been proposed to Leslie and it was hurricane sandy during Hurricane sandy in it which and we were it would like we were inside the weather was really bad and we watched that proposal and I'm like oh what happened to you - she's like oh we're we're not together I wonder what the experience is gonna be for people who especially as you said this this younger generation coming up a lot of whom have experienced a huge chunk of this show in gifts on Twitter or from like out of context but and and by the way all of which are very very illustrative and do the job in nailing emotional moments but then if they go back and actually sit and watch the show and see how they all I wonder what that experience would be like for someone that young to see that and because it is there's a it's so oh god I'm not making any sense it's so universal how oh I remember when Ben Wyatt it I really related to everyone loved little Sebastian except Ben Wyatt I've been there where everyone's freaking out and I have to go I'd better not tell I don't know what is going on and it's such a real and especially now I think that is a very very real experience I think a lot of people have to deal with so real it was funny but it was very real [Laughter] don't people don't people still memorialize little svet there's a day on me that they on Twitter suddenly I'll see little Sebastian is trending yeah that little Sebastian lasted lived on past the show yeah one of the things I should also show I want to shout out directed Dean Holland who directed like 30 episodes Dean Dean became I was thinking about it just because you were talking about the proposal and the show had this weird thing where like that we had these really strict rules it's supposed to be a documentary and the cameras are supposed to use your the actors are playing real people who are aware of the cameras and then from time to time we would just go now it needs to look good so change all the rules and like that scene that proposal scene Dean just did this really beautiful job of like just moving the camera sort of in the sweeping way he hung back for the proposal then he would suite the cameras and when they kissed we gave Dean all of our all of the big important episodes that we needed like something really special he was a very big part of the show I'm talking about like he's dead he's not dead he's probably here is Dean here no I just got a text he is dead Jim who texted you what I know a lot of people Mike a lot of people I by the way Jim I remember I flew from New York to LA and you sat behind me the whole time and I didn't realize you were there until we landed and it was such a damn it Jerry moment perfect I think I posted a picture of us on Twitter everyone desert like damn it Jerry Lee I hear damn it Jerry all day I hear thanks for ruining the Harvest Festival you know it was really fun once we started there was this moment when the show where we were like oh we might not get cancelled and also you know we got nominated first stuff so we got to go to the Emmys it was like really fun to hang out and her two Emmys party and they had like a photo booth and we took a picture something and Jim had the the photo in his um you know like you know that kind of hold her and he was like you guys he walks up to us he's like I just got the best picture of us and he goes he goes oh damn it it had fallen out of [Laughter] [Applause] [Laughter] giving us the greatest make them in life it's so have any of you ever visited Indiana visited you you been there you been to the town up there I got us I mean right I got us into the Colts yes we actually shot in two times yeah yes we shot we went to Indianapolis at least twice right yeah I went to Indiana University and they have murals yeah it was so cool but they have Neuros that are terrifyingly similar to the mirrors like this is allowed this is not okay what is this there is some stuff on those mural I got it did not get shown right very specific reason there with them I mean the the thing of the the the slaughter being covered up there's some way darker I remember how amazing that stuff was where are those murals and they just get tossed I don't really order they were enormous they were like 10 feet tall and like 20 feet long and so there was no place to put them I mean the day after the show ended literally the day after the show ended I was editing and Morgan Sackett our longtime producer and he was like hey they're bulldozing the set do you want to go down and watch oh that was like Oh [Music] no I definitely don't that's horrifying most of that I mean I'll most of the set was just they that's what they do they just they move on it's a heartless business but this bears mentioning Nick Offerman without ant telling anyone salvaged all of the doors in the set we had these big oak doors he took all the wood from all the doors and he made us canoe paddles oh my that have the seal of Pawnee on them so they're beautiful [Applause] that's beautiful it was yeah I was one day like a year later I just got a canoe this is from a door on the side okay okay thanks Oh perfectly good [Applause] [Music] of I have never again just today they HBO announced the deadwood movie is gonna be on May 31st if ever a show was rich enough to support an actual narrative film be made of it it's this world like it's this but it's very very weird because in your final episode you flashed forward and showed where everyone kind of ends up but you flashed like forward into into the further future you know a couple of years down the road especially these very I'd love that you got comedy out of characters being positive and trying to be helpful to one another so those characters be having to live in these times would be very very interesting and I think funny I don't know but if you guys made a Parks and Rec movie my god I think it would be amazing i I think that you know in the world that we live in now nothing is ever gone everything comes back and a cycled through again and you know I would only say that I think we would just all everyone on this stage and like six other people would have to feel like there was a story that needed to be told like like there was and and part of what I felt personally I won't speak for anybody else but what I felt was the show sort of the show had an argument to make and the argument was about teamwork and friendship and in positivity and being an optimist and not getting cynical and and believing that the people that can do good and believing in the power of public service and believing that if you work hard and you put your head down and you have good people around you who are part of your team that that good things are possible and you'll achieve the things that you want to achieve and I don't feel like we left anything on the table really like I you know I feel like the show sort of made its argument and and we also and maybe this was like a preventive measure or something we we did jump like into the Year like 20 74 yeah it was like we see like Jerry's funeral he died at the age of a hundred peacefully in his sleep with holding the hand of his wife Christie Brinkley who looked exactly the same oh look at that gave me little wrinkles I'm looking like a cork so I mean that I you know there was nothing I loved more than working on the show it's it feels like you know it felt like the most important thing we you know that I would ever do and and so I would never ever ever say never I I don't I mean the chance to do it again should it arise would be incredible but I think we would only do it if we all felt like there was something compelling us to do it I don't want to do it just to like it's tempting as it is I don't want to just like make more episodes of the show or something I wanted if we all literally I would do it like everyone on this stage has a veto why is everyone staring at me I would say I would say that we would do it in a literally everybody has a veto like if if one single person says no then we would then whatever it is we wouldn't do it I'm feeling so weird right now because we could ask this quite a bit because reboots have become quite fast yet right right and my new answer is because of what Mike just said that's why the show was so good and yeah yeah I want to I want to go down the line story with Rob is era is there a aspect of your character's personality that since the show you have kind of carried into your life and and you can use in your life yeah I think I'm gonna live to 100 you're a computer chip the microchip yes yeah Retta um I mean the obvious one is treat yourself yeah I'm an online shopper and I will spend money any moment but I do I mean friendships like friendships are very very important to me and I feel like that's exactly what the show is about so but I mean I feel like they were important to me before but if anything mirrors my parks life that would be it I yeah honestly I didn't went when the first time been why I had talked about Game of Thrones I actually hadn't seen it seriously go back go back and watch those episodes you can't tell that I haven't seen I don't want to brag but it's not a big deal but but then after mentioning a couple times on the show I started watching it and could not be more into game kind of conversely I after the show I cleaned up my diet there was some habits I had to get rid of and the interest of longevity but there was one inexorable force in the whole world of the show that I resisted as best I could and finally realized that I had to simply give in to the powers of Tammy to [Applause] Amy you know the other day a couple years ago there were teachers were striking here in LA and I guess I'm a the daughter of two public school teachers and I drove past this the teachers striking and I and I honks horn in support as they were asking us to do with science and a woman was holding a Leslie Knope sign and I honked at her and she was like and it was just a great example of how that character has gone on to represent so many things that are I think far and above what we would have ever imagined it to be and so I you know I had leslie was really really good for my mental health for my physical and mental health she really playing her getting to come in and tell everybody how great they were and also get to boss everybody around the combination of those two things was like it really really did extend my life I think it really did I really think it did well obviously and Leslie forever always that's outlive the show completely but I think also and Perkins is kind of went in the direction of positivity I mean picking Chris Traeger as a partner and she always kind of tries her best to make things okay even if they're not okay and a lot of times they weren't okay I mean she basically dated her way through the town just to make things okay and I feel like not particularly in that way but in in other ways I would like to think that I it's a person have embodied some of Ann's you know adaptability in the world and an ability to continue to be positive even in the face of some gnarly [ __ ] but also animals you know when Mike described just kind of the mission of the show and the ideas of teamwork and and working hard and staying positive and just kind of in the face of negativity just kind of putting your head down and doing the work it just made me realize like how much I internalize those ideas in my life after Parks and you know you work on a lot of different sets and we've all moved on and done different things and and you know me and and Alan one of the writers from parks and then we went onto our show and we really tried to capture but you know I we really tried to capture what we took from from parks experience and it's it's and its really true if you if you you follow those things you can make great work with great people and and have a wonderful time in your life and make something you're proud of and so I think Mike for that and I thank all these people for influencing me in that way I think that this show there's three things one rollerblading I was just thinking of the day I was like I need to roll away together like I saw these roll these guys rollerblading on down on down in Santa Monica so jealous I was like oh I'm gonna blaze out but that's probably the that's not the biggest thing but that's one thing a second thing is my relationship with the FBI in real life is legit I think it's maybe I don't know maybe even especially now I think they're just really happy to have someone in the zeitgeist who's like I love the FBI I wanna be in the FBI like I'll go to a city I'll go to a city and I'll go in a hotel room and the FBI will have put together a care package and leave me a care package in my hotel man I don't know how they got in there the FBI I think it's the FBI but they have FBI has stuff hats and cups and stuff FBI stuff like not like to stuff that they use but it has their logo and stuff on it they might use it but that's number two and then the third the third thing the third thing is there's a like a technical thing actually like doing a show that's a multi-camera show that is constantly rolling and it's digital you learn the value of freshness you learn the value of making every take slightly different so as an actor moving forward I've really learned that I feel like it was something that I was it was a really good format for me when I was first starting out on the show like I didn't I had some experience but not that much experience and and it it really catered to my strengths I think as an actor and I take that with me now and every job like you know I feel completely comfortable colloquia lysing and making the dialogue my own and and I really learned that in home that in this very specific format cuz you can't do that anywhere else and and it's can be a bummer for people like editors and stuff they hate it because they're like I can't cut this together you said nine different things [Music] none of its on story if I could wasted everyone's time but I'm like um too big to fire so [Applause] and also to say it was pretty cool for a moment we got to see what it'd be like to see Andy Dwyer use the word colloquial well I've never felt like April and me had too many similarities but I feel like I have done some things that she would she would be proud of recently I I did a satanic ritual on live television for the Independent Spirit Awards I think she would have liked that I also convinced Jim to do a video on that show where he had to say that he had to even question it literally was in the writers room going like I gotta find someone to do this video and I texted him and said like I'm gonna need you to do this video and I'm gonna send you the monologue and you have to memorize it in two days we're shooting it and he just went anything for you ah Bri and then he did it on live television and it was just so nice well you made out with me on national television so so I don't know the dark arts I carry with me and I think just April's general philosophy in life which is that nothing matters and we're all going to die [Applause] [Music] in my case you know life and art kind of combined the episode where the doctor said I had the largest penis than he had ever seen [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you know I have no pride come on no I seriously Jerry is like you know such a sweet guy and I there is a little bit of you know in my life where I will think you know WWJD what would Jerry do and I mean that because I can be Jim o'heir can be a bit of a little bit of a hothead here and there and I try to I do try to think about that I don't you know different you go to colleges and they do q and A's and stuff and a lot of times we go oh you weren't as nice as I thought you'd be well number one [ __ ] you but I think Jerry you know if boy if a lot of the world were a lot of Jerry's it would be a sweeter place and a much worse [ __ ] falling all over place to [Applause] Mike okay you really you made such an amazing show I cannot be a bigger stand for this show in this universe and these people I don't know I mean and there's all these I don't want to just sit here and fire all the nerd questions at you guys and like I want to talk about the cones of in the t-shirts of people did someone developed didn't someone reverse-engineer the game just from watching the episode or something and then it they never actually ended up getting it all the professional board game makers did make a version of cones of dunshire just for us yeah yeah I always feel like I have to tell this story to Dave King one of the writers was the guy who wrote that episode and he's a board game enthusiast and and a woman named Julian Robinson was directing it and I got so excited about the cones of dunshire which was just like our cold open and deadly factored into the read it was about how Ben was losing his mind and he was like and and as a joke but also kind of seriously when we sat down to talk about the episode I said Julianne I don't know you very well this is the single most important thing we've ever done it that's right and I was kidding but I don't think she totally knew I was kidding and so I got into work one day and they were shooting that scene and I got a note that said Amy wants you to come to set and I I went to the set and I was like hey what's going on and she was like we've been shooting this [ __ ] scene for like four hours I don't know what's going on but we can't and Julianne was like nervously like I need to make sure I get this right because and I was like oh no I'm sorry this is nonsense these cones so when you move to the right and I was like what I have to know things I was a hundred percent on me but it turned out really good yeah oh my god that's like that's like the philosophy of the show in a nutshell right there that said you know what that is a perfect place to end ladies and gentlemen the cast of Parks and Recreation thank you guys so much [Applause]

Channel: undefined

Views: 550,224

Rating: 4.9358568 out of 5

Keywords: PaleyFest, Paley Center, NBC, Comedy, Reunions, Indiana, Mockumentaries, 2016 Presidential Election, Politics, Chicago Cubs, Barack Obama, Fyre Fest, Fyre Festival, Fyre Fraud, Billy McFarland, Eagleton, Ja Rule, Patton Oswalt, Amy Poehler, Leslie Knope, Adam Scott, Ben Wyatt, Aziz Ansari, Michael Schur, Jim O'Heir, Ben Schwartz, Rashida Jones, Ann Perkins, Tom Haverford, Greg Daniels, Chris Pratt, Andy Dwyer, April Ludgate, Aubrey Plaza, Nick Offerman, Ron Swanson

Id: NbGwFACf4mQ

Length: 72min 10sec (4330 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 27 2020