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Posts tagged as parks and recreation

Quotes

The Annotated Wisdom of Amy Poehler

by | May 16th, 2013

Amy Poehler has a pretty solid resume as both a comedian and a person. After spending time studying at Second City and iO in Chicago, Poehler moved to New York with friends Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, and Ian Roberts to found the Upright Citizens Brigade, which has since grown into the massive community of learners and performers of long-form improv and sketch that it is today. In more recent years, on her off time from her TV work on SNL and Parks and Recreation, Poehler and friends Meredith Walker and Amy Miles started Smart Girls at the Party, an online network to encourage and educate young women about [...]

Books n Stuff

Megan Amram Gets a Book Deal

by | May 6th, 2013

Megan Amram is writing a book about science. Publisher's Weekly reports that Amram, a comedy writer who amassed hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers before landing a job on Parks and Recreation's writing staff, sold a book to Scribner Publishing. Called Science…for Her, the publisher describes it as a "faux-expert compendium of scientific knowledge" that plays with the “satirical conceit that ‘science is hard for most people, let alone women.'" Here's hoping she gets to keep her intentionally gross Twitter picture, which she describes as "Jabba the Hut on his Quinceañera," for her author bio.

Trailers

Watch the Trailer for the 'Parks and Rec' Porn Parody

by | May 1st, 2013

Here's the trailer for a Parks and Recreation porn parody, which is surprisingly a show that the porn parody people are just getting around to now. They went with the title "Porks and Recreation," ignoring comedian Scott Aukerman's suggestion of "Farts and Procreation." Watch the trailer if you want to see Dick Chibbles do a pretty okay Ron Swanson impression.

Books n Stuff

Last Night's 'Parks and Rec' Was Full of References to 'Infinite Jest'

by | April 5th, 2013

Parks and Recreation co-creator / showrunner Mike Schur is a noted fan of David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest, and prior to last night's new episode, he tweeted that it would contain several references to the novel. As Schur discussed with The New York Times a couple years ago, he's completely obsessed with the novel, so much that he wrote his undergraduate thesis on Infinite Jest at Harvard and met Wallace after inviting him to campus to receive an award from The Harvard Lampoon. Schur even owns the film rights to the book, although he doesn't have plans to turn it into a movie anytime soon. He [...]

Lost Roles

The Lost Roles of 'Parks and Recreation'

by | March 22nd, 2013

Parks and Recreation has one of the strongest and most eclectic comedy ensembles ever assembled, but as with most shows, the network and the producers looked at a lot of different actresses and actors before deciding on the group they wanted. When the show originally began gearing up for production in 2008, pretty much every other comedic performer in Los Angeles tried out for the show. Here's a collection of known actors who auditioned for Parks and Rec but didn't get the roles they tried out for, including one actress who went on to win an Oscar, three different guys who almost played Ron Swanson, the romantic lead [...]

spin-offs

6 Lost Spin-Offs of 'The Office' Revealed

by | May 14th, 2013

When The Office producers Greg Daniels and Mike Schur were putting together Parks and Recreation in 2007, it was originally supposed to be a spin-off of The Office. They instead opted to abandon that plan and make the show its own thing, but the duo revealed some of the options they considered for an Office spin-off to TV Guide this week, and some of them are pretty crazy. Here are six ideas they thought about and then discarded:

  • A comedy inspired by the 1970s PBS documentary An American Family, which followed the upper-middle class Loud family of California. Daniels recalls, "We were going to do a [...]
TV

'Parks and Rec' Showrunner Mike Schur Says a Season 6 Is Likely

by | May 3rd, 2013

While Parks and Recreation is pretty much NBC's only comedy that's guaranteed to come back this fall, the network has yet to officially announce its renewal. Part of the reason the show's considered to have a good shot at renewal is that it's the highest-rated NBC comedy this year besides The Office, which is ending its run. Parks and Rec co-creator/showrunner Mike Schur is confident about the series' chances too. He tells EW, "I've been cautiously optimistic for five straight years, that's not going to change. I fully believe that we will be back next year, but until they actually make that phone call, I never like to say [...]

Star Wars

There's a Poster for Patton Oswalt's 'Star Wars' Sequel Rant

by | April 19th, 2013

Earlier this week, NBC posted a video on YouTube of Patton Oswalt going on an eight-minute rant about his dream Star Wars sequel on Parks and Recreation, and now somebody at Entertainment Weekly designed a poster for Oswalt's movie. Boasting the title Star Wars Episode VII: The Gauntlet of Infinity, the poster features everyone from Oswalt's rant: Boba Fett. Han Solo, all the Marvel superheroes, the guy from Clash of the Titans, etc.

Check out the full-sized poster below:

Collaborators

Paul Feig and 'Parks and Rec' Writer Katie Dippold Are Making Another Movie Together

by | April 4th, 2013

Paul Feig, the creator of Freaks and Geeks and director of Bridesmaids, has a new movie called The Heat out this summer that was written by Parks and Rec writer Katie Dippold, and Deadline reports that the duo is already working on another movie together. The plot of the new project is being kept secret, but it's described as a "mother/daughter action-comedy." Feig and Dippold's first collaboration, The Heat, a buddy cop movie starring Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock, tested so well that Fox moved it to July 4th weekend, expecting it to be a big summer hit. The Heat is Dippold's first movie after spending three [...]

reddit

Nick Offerman Made a Crazy Video with Famous People and Did a Reddit AMA

by | March 13th, 2013

To promote a new indie comedy he's starring in called Somebody Up There Likes Me, Nick Offerman made this ridiculous video with Adam Scott, Megan Mullally, Amy Poehler, Alison Brie, and Friday Night Lights' Stephanie Hunt. He also did a question-and-answer sesson on Reddit, the highlights of which are contained below:

Renewals

'Parks and Recreation' Renewed for Season 6

by | May 9th, 2013

With Parks and Recreation being one of NBC's only comedies doing okay in the ratings these days, it's been considered a shoo-in for a sixth season renewal all year long. And lo and behold, NBC officially confirmed today that the show has been picked up for a new season set to debut this fall. The timeslot and number of episodes for Season 6 have not been revealed at this time, but NBC will be announcing its fall schedule on Sunday. Parks and Rec's fifth season finale aired last week, with co-creator/showrunner Mike Schur telling Hitfix that he wrote the episode to set up a lot of plot threads in [...]

Reviews

Looking Back at the Fifth Season of Ever-Changing Sitcom 'Parks and Recreation'

by | May 3rd, 2013

Sitcoms aren't supposed to make us think about change. They're supposed to establish stasis, to remind of us of normalcy- the same bar, the same group of friends, the same stakes. Maybe two of the characters date, then they break up. They lose jobs, they get new ones, the dynamic stays pretty level.

Parks and Recreation, which wrapped up its stellar fifth season last night, somehow manages to feel familiar every year, while consistently expanding the inner and outer lives of its characters, changing the group dynamics but strengthening them at the same time. It's basically the Mad Men of sitcoms. The characters stay largely consistent (or change in [...]

Star Wars

Watch Patton Oswalt Improvise an 8-Minute 'Star Wars' Filibuster for 'Parks and Rec'

by | April 17th, 2013

NBC released this video today of an outtake from comedian Patton Oswalt's upcoming guest appearance on Parks and Recreation. Oswalt is playing a guy trying to filibuster a city council vote, and the Parks producers asked him to improvise a speech, rambling about whatever he wants. So, here he is talking nonstop about his ideal Star Wars sequel for 8 minutes in one continuous take.

Late Night

Watch Nick Offerman Break Dance Right Now

by | March 29th, 2013

Here's Nick Offerman on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, showing off his breakdancing skills. It's what the internet has been building up to this whole time. Hit the jump to watch him in a chicken suit with Fallon clucking The Lumineers' "Ho Hey" and the rest of his appearance on the show:

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