Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey, listeners, it's Rob. And I'm popping in to tell you about a new show on Team Coco. It's called Perks and Recollection and is literally...
the definitive Parks and Recreation recap podcast. I host it with writer Alan Yang, and each week Alan and I revisit Pawnee. It's more than a recap, an episode. We uncover what it takes to make such a truly timeless sitcom that's so beloved to this day. And I wanted to give you a little sample of what you're going to hear. If you like it, head over to Parks and Recollection to hear the entire episode. We're getting together, that's all we used to do.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome to Parks and Recollection. What's up? What's up? That's my pal right there. That's Alan Yang, ladies and germs. Happy to be here. Happy to talk about the show. Happy to talk to you, Rob. For those of you who don't know the great Alan Yang, Alan Yang wrote...
on Parks and Recreation from day one, and later, we'll get into this, was a kind of the inspiration for Chris Traeger. That's a fair assessment of your contribution, wouldn't you say? It's somewhat fair. I would say I was a writer on the show for all 125 episodes, and there are definitely elements of Chris in my personality because we're both very high-energy people and relentlessly positive, hopefully not annoyingly so, but yeah. The listeners will be the judge of that.
Yeah, we'll see. As everybody comes into this little club we've started, I'm excited to have you guys listening. This is, fasten your seatbelts, going to be the ultimate parks and recreation experience. And we're just going to spend some time on a show that Alan and I worked on and loved. Yeah, it's also nice to go back and look at a show like...
You know, there's no monoculture anymore, man. Not everyone's watching the same shows, but like back when this show was airing and The Office was airing and 30 Rock, people would watch shows on one night. Like Thursday night, people would watch television. Community was on that night too. It was like, can you remember a time? I think the last show like that was Game of Thrones. It just doesn't exist anymore. Wait, are you asking me if I can remember a time when TV was good? Is that what you're asking?
Sounds like what you're asking me.
We really were like a family. And if you ever watched the show and you felt the tone of the show and the warmth and the sort of, you know, the camaraderie, that was all because the writer's room and the cast were all kind of like that in real life. I hate to disappoint anyone looking for horrible gossip because we just loved each other too much. And I think it came across in the show. So it's going to be really fun to watch these episodes.
I haven't seen a lot of them in a long time. So we're starting from scratch, man. We're starting from the pilot and it's cool to see them again and see how the show changed over time. Alan, how would you describe my performance in the pilot just getting started? It is...
powerful, I would say, I think award-worthy. I believe you were nominated for seven Emmys for your performance in the pilot. No, Chris Traeger is not in the pilot. Rob's not in the pilot. He's watching these as a fan. So we're going to talk about the show. I think it's going to be really interesting because Rob is going to, you know, he shows up in season two. Season one is really short. It's six episodes and we're going to burn through them. Just watch these episodes and talk about how the show changed. And we're going to talk about the show.
And Rob is going to be able to offer his opinion because when he joined the show, the characters had changed a little bit and the show had kind of found a groove. And so it's going to be fun to sort of watch them. Me as someone who's worked on them and Rob as someone who is kind of watching them, if not for the first time, then sort of, well, sometimes for the first time. What about that, Rob? I mean, well, listen, I and we'll get into more of this as we progress. But I watched the pilot last night. I'd never seen it before.
And I have so many thoughts for you, sir. Let's describe the show this way. Parks and Rec is a dead body, and we are Quincy. Yeah. We are doing an autopsy on each episode of Parks and Recreation. Yeah, we're really excited to do this podcast, and we're going to give you a rundown of what each episode is going to feel like. We're going to kick off each episode of Parks and Rec Collection with a recap of the episode. We're going to discuss just a little summary.
Then we're going to tell you about all the juicy details about what happens behind the scenes, the writing process, the casting, the props, all that stuff. Members of our cast and crew will be stopping by along the way. And then we'll close out each episode with what we like to call the Pawnee Town Hall, where we answer your fan questions. So send them in. And now that you know what the deal is, I think we're ready to kick this off and get going.
So that's just a taste of Parks and Recollection. If you loved it, even if you half liked it, even if you're ambivalent about it, which I don't think anybody would be, I still want you to go and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and then tell two friends. And then there's a mathematical formulation that somehow you tell two friends and they tell it anyway. We get a lot of people listening and that's what we want. Thanks again, friends. As always, this is Rob Lowe, and I'll be back with another episode of Literally This Thursday.