Splitsider

Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Parks and Rec
4

Parks & Rec Showrunner Michael Schur on Jerry, Donna and Needing That Second Season

by | March 24th, 2011

I'm not going to lie; I was one of those people who saw the first episode of Parks & Rec and thought, "Eh, we're doing this again? With the cameras?" Now I sleep in a sleeping bag I sewed to look like Jerry, so the joke's on me. Veteran of SNL and an original writer on the American version of The Office, Parks & Rec showrunner Michael Schur talks with the A.V. Club about how to create a successful show, and why docu-comedies might need a second season to truly win over an audience: "There’s another big thing — and I think it’s more applicable to The Office and Parks than to Community and 30 Rock — which is that those shows are essentially character comedies. Until you know who the characters are, you just won’t find them that funny. Very often, people say to me, 'I went back and watched those first six episodes, and they’re a lot funnier than I remember.' Well, now you know who Tom Haverford is, and you can laugh at what he does."

While Parks is clearly hitting its stride now, Schur explains two major charges that had to be worked out after their initial six episodes: "Leslie was reading to people — completely unintentionally — as ditzy. That was never our intention. We always thought she was really smart and good at her job. We realized we had screwed it up a little," Shur explains. "And another big thing was that we’d originally designed the character of Andy to be there for six episodes, then be gone. Ann was going to wise up and realize he was a loser and get rid of him. But Pratt auditioned, and we were like, 'This guy’s too funny to not use.'" Schur also admits that the writers didn't exactly have the characters of Jerry or Donna prepared. "We just liked those actors and figured we’d work it out later," he explains. "So we threw them in desks — this is something Greg had a lot of success with on The Office: Just populate the world with other people, and let those characters naturally develop." And I'm getting the best sleep of my life.

Tags:

michael schur, parks and rec

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Emma-Blake-Handler/1699717284 Emma Blake Handler

    OMIGOD ok i LOVE this site, seriously, but there are way to many typos. work on it please i am BEGGING you

    • pearl

      Wait, you're being funny, right?

  • JoshUng

    That makes a lot of sense, it definitely did feel that Leslie has become a lot more competent since the beginning of the show. Perhaps it was because it was thought of as an Office spinoff, so people assumed she was a female Michael Scott, or as Schur said, they weren't doing the best job at getting it accorss that she was good at her job (I think the fact her mother was a lot more successful than she was helped give the impression that she wasn't the best at her job).

    Personally, I took it as the writers were trying to play Leslie as "surprisingly good" at her job. Like on the Office, sometimes Michael pulls something that works, and you think, "this idiot really knows what he's doing sometimes." My view of Leslie was like Adam Scott's characters in the episode where Leslie is doped up because of the flu, but still knocks the Public Meeting out of the park, sort of surprised, but not really.

  • http://twitter.com/bradfordevans Bradford Evans

    One think I'd take into consideration as to why The Office and Parks and Rec took a season to get going while Community and 30 Rock didn't is that Community and 30 Rock each got a full 20+ episode first season, while The Office and Parks only had six episodes that first year. Given a full season, I think they each could have developed into what the great shows they each became in season 2.

-->