But when is this group of people ever going to be all together again?
Thats all I want.
All of these people, in the same place, at the same time.
Credit: NBC
(Technically, they were in the same Gryzzl, but we couldnt pass up the rhyme.)
for, well, let’s call itone more ride.
(As of Friday afternoon, the special has already raised $2.8 million.)
D Dipasupil/FilmMagic
Congressman Ben was homeschooling their triplets and formulating an idea for aCones of Dunshireclaymation movie.
Ill call you tomorrow," responded Leslie.
“I’m sure you will,” returned Ron.
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Spread your wings and fly into the Q&A below.
MIKE SCHUR: That was our first thought.
We said, Obviously, if theres a global pandemic, we’ll get back together.
But other than that, forget it.
I really honestly didn’t ever think it was going to happen.
I don’t see why.
But when this thing happened, it was kind of a different story.
If we could pull it off, it would be worth it.
[Laughs] So it came together very quickly.
Oh, god, yes!
I think I would have more butterflies if we were doing it for no reason.
The objective of a TV show normally is one thing, and the objective of this is very different.
But even given that, I really want people to enjoy it.
I don’t want it to simply be a novelty or anything like that.
[Laughs] If they werent fans of it, they wont suddenly start liking it now.
Was it fairly easy to get back into the groove of writing these characters for this special?
Because I knew very clearly that this was not something I could do myself.
Much like the show always was, it needed to be a giant collaborative team effort.
We didn’t have a lot of time at all to do it.
We conceived of and wrote the script very quickly as a group over about three-and-a-half days.
If I had been doing it alone, I would’ve had a panic attack.
and then that night she emailed a giant chunk of dialogue.
She was like, I was just thinking about it and I wrote this.
And I was like, Oh, this is amazing!
It’s already happening!
People are writing things!
She would have 30 binders prepared just for the pandemic.
This show’s characters seem primed to tackle this topic.
And then there were all these weird things, like Ann was a nurse.
Well, that’s pretty relevant!
While we were writing it, you’d see an article, Should the national parks reopen?
And I was like, Well, thats what Leslie would be fighting for, right?
So it all lined up in some weird way.
Then there were a couple little aspects of the timeline that we just kind of fudged a little bit.
We wanted this to be considered canon in the world of the show to whatever extent that matters.
What was the biggest creative challenge in bringing this story to life?
Explaining why the couples werent together in quarantine would seem to be one.
On the other hand, real life created an advantage for you when it came to Nick and Megan.
That was the fun part.
We were like, Well, what do we have?
That’s basically what we did.
We were like, Well, what are our liabilities?
None of these people can be in the same place at the same time.
They have to all shoot from home.
We can’t be with them when they’re shooting.
They have to do their own hair and makeup and lighting and directing and camera-operating and everything else.
Those are some pretty goddamn significant liabilities when it comes to making it an episode of television.
And then we were like, Well, what are our assets?
And there arent many, but one of them was, Well, Nick and Megan live together!
[Laughs] So we can use that.
It’s people in their own houses sitting at their own desks, looking directly into a computer.
And it was like, Oh, that’s perfect!
Because that’s how we get Jon Glaser!
And that’s how we get Ben Schwartz.
And that’s how we get Jason Mantzoukas.
So we just kept thinking, “What are our assets, if any?”
And we made use of as many of them as we could.
What was the biggest hurdle on the production side?
Yeah, it was intense.
He was on that part of it from the beginning.
He was like, There’s only one way to do this.
We make these little rigs.
Aziz is in England, so we FedExed him one.
Paul Rudd was a very late addition to the show.
Originally we shot Amy and Nick doing that intro where they explained that this is a fundraiser.
Hi, I’m Nick Offerman.
[Laughs]
We texted him and said like, Hey, would you be up for this?
And he said, Sure!
But he’s on the East Coast, he’s not here.
And he’s like, I have an iPhone!
I have a little microphone.
Let me just do it and see if it’s okay.
He had just done it.
And it was incredible.
How did you go about deciding who could fit into the special?
And did any scheduling issues prevent you from getting someone you wanted?
A lot of it was like, Look, we’re doing a COVID-19 episode.
It was absolutely that.
Everyone take this drug!
And people are going, No, no, no!
Everyone eat this drug!
That’s what that was in reference to.
But it’s obviously a much more direct analog to inject bleach into your lungs.
So that was wild.
We knew we wanted Mantzoukas.
We really wanted Mo Collins and Jay Jackson because we had that whole media thing.
I wish we’d had an idea for Billy Eichner [a.k.a.
I am curious about all the pitches for that joke.
Did you have a great run of alts to choose from?
No, honestly, there were none.
And then Jerry/Garry/Larry would say, Not so great.
Um, as you may remember, people in Pawnee don’t have the best hygiene habits.
So that’s how we wrote it originally.
But then it was like, We’ve seen that already.
That’s not an interesting or surprising, so we ought to write a new joke.
And someone immediately pitched the Pawnee Popsicle Lick-N-Pass, and it was like, Yep, that’s it!
Lets not question it.
You got files from each actor singing the song.
Who sang it best?
Some of them had earpieces and were listening to the track to give them a sense of timing.
Rashida and Retta have the best voices in the cast, I would say.
At various times theyve both been professional singers, so it stands to reason.
Amy’s voice is great.
She doesn’t think of herself as a singer, but I think her voice is lovely.
Pratts incredibly good at faking a rockstar voice, you know?
He embodies a rock star.
Thats really him singing and he sounded really good.
He sounds gravelly and smoky and cool.
They’re all good.
They’re all super talented.
I’d like to see that.
That was exactly it.
We also thought, there’s not a huge story in the episode.
And everything’s herky-jerky and you’re constantly getting pulled away.
The thing that John Krasinski did on hisSome Good News Showwithhaving the whole cast ofHamiltonsing that songto that girl.
What’s the one joke that pained you to cut from the special?
And then right after that comes Jean-Ralphios ad and he says that he got hit by a Porsche.
[Laughs] Just a complete coincidence.
When we watched it, it seemed like, Is this misleading or is this confusing somehow?
Do you think that Jamm hit him?
It didn’t quite work, because it was a nonsense joke.
It’s not like the political landscape wasnt ugly from 2008 to 2015.
It was more traditionally ugly than it is now.
Now it’s a whole new kind of ugly.
You get it from people who work within the government and want to destroy it.
So I don’t know what it would have been like.
I don’t think it would have been very fun, honestly.
Because it is a very different time.
It’s still ugly its just ugly in a very different way than it used to be.
Again, I really didn’t think it was ever going to happen.
But also suddenly it became a fun and neat thing to do.
I have no idea.
[Schur matched all donations up to $50,000.]
Mangy is up there.
Patchy, awful, misery-creating.
I find it hard to sleep because it itches so much.
Unattractive, unappealing, ummm, marriage-threatening.
[Laughs] Matted would be one.
Wow, that was amazing.
By the way, how’s theGood Placereunion special coming along?
It’s almost done.
[Laughs]
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