“Aristotle was the philosopher who had a certain practice-makes-perfect thing.
The way you get better at being ethical is by doing good things over and over.
That’s the way you know it’s a good rule.'”
Schur pays third-place props to 18th-century Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant “because Chidi was a Kantian.
“Parfitt died fairly recently and this book was his masterpiece,” says Schur.
“It’s in two volumes.
And volume 2 is twice the length of volume 1, which infuriates me [laughs].
I wasn’t remotely close to reading all of it.
It’s trying to propose a grand unified theory of all ethical theories.
The biggest ethical quandary that you faced
Oh, there was a whopper, indeed.
“We were lying to them every day,” he laments.
“Kant would say, ‘Bad job, guys!
It felt bad all the time.
It was an enormous relief when we finally got to tell them.”
‘The end of season 2 was, ‘Oh, Michael has an idea.
“But now I need a way to get them all together.
“There’s a passing reference Tahani says, ‘How did you find me?’
We were like, ‘Oh s, how does she get there?’
And Schur wanted to show one of these alt-heavens through a certain/only Medium Place resident.
“We brought Derek back more times than we would have if any other actor had played him.
It became really enjoyable to know that there’s this insane, free-floating bizarro quasi-Janet in her universe.
And it’s like, ‘Well, there is Derek.
Maybe Derek can handle it.'”
(“Yo, you should listen to me.
But as the writersbrainstormed the depths of Jason’s dopiness, was there one punchline that felttoopunchdrunk?
“When we were going through the script, I was like, ‘Obviously we have to change this.
This is insane.’
And the [writers] were like, “No!
What are you doing?
That’s hilarious!”
It drove me socrazy.”
But we finally did it in the second-to-last episode.
The joke is they hear a chime and she says, ‘That chime is so soothing.
It’s the most incredible chime I’ve ever heard.
And that’s coming from someone whose godfather is the most famous clock in the world.’
At which point Chidi says, ‘Is Big Ben somehow yourgodfather?’
And then we just move on.
First up:Timothy Olyphant.
She’s bingeingJustifiedand she’s just watchedDeadwood.
And then a little later we lay in a thing where she’s watchingJustified.
And he was like, ‘Absolutely.'”
“He’s even watched all of the episodes ofFriends.
And he keeps makingFriendsreferences and asking, ‘How do they afford that apartment?’
So I was like, ‘You know who would be perfect to be on the show?
And we just never found the right thing for her to do.”
“So we put in a bunch of otherFriendsreferences over the course of the season.”
(Oh, hello, Lil’ Sebastian!)
Despite all of theParkswinks, no Pawnee character was ever spotted in the afterlife.
Which prompts the question: Who would have been best suited for a cross-over moment?
“He was the most philosophical, even though he would’ve never wanted to admit that.
Although an argument can be made for Eagleton Ron, played by Sam Elliott.
It might’ve been fun to see how Ron would navigate the afterlife.
But the two of them would have been very good friends.
Like, they would havetotallyhit it off.”
What was a big small laugh that viewers didn’t seem to find?
He’s very small, but you hear his voice going, ‘Whoaaa!’
like he’s been flying backwards for 10,000 Bearimies.
What the hell, man?
Why does all this bad stuff keep happening to me?’
And he says, ‘Well, this is moral dessert.
You’re saying that if you do good things, you should get a reward.
That’s not the way the world works.
You don’t do good things because you’re going to get a reward.
You do good things because that’s better than doing bad things.’
You shouldn’t get a cookie or a little prize for just being a nice person.
That can’t be the way this works.
Ethics and morality don’t work that way.
That can’t be the reason that we are good because that’s a twisted incentive system, right?
It’s a corrupt motivation.
“This stuff is hard.
It’s hard to read.
It’s hard for it to penetrate your brain.
Then why should I keep doing it?’
And I’m with her.
[Laughs] I feel that argument.
(Aside from Mantzoukas, that is.
“We were just like, ‘Go nuts, man.’
It was written as a long beat and he just throws a temper tantrum.
He yells at Eleanor and says, ‘You’re the worst.
Goddammit, you ruin everything.’
We did it eight or nine times that way, and it was always great and funny.
And he said, ‘Can I just try something totally different?’
And I said, ‘Sure.’
And then the camera pushed in, he did that giggle, and it was a billion times better.
So I was like, ‘All right, everything we just did is unusable.
We have to do this eight times.’
[Laughs] So we did.
But the take we used was the very first one he did.
It was the original and best.”
The smallest most important joke that made it into the show
If you yelled “Bortles!”
as you heaved a football or molotov cocktail, you’re correct.
Schur creditsGood Placewriter-producer Joe Mande with bringing that gag to life and keeping it alive.
“It’s basically a voiceover because he’s saying it as the thing is flying through the air.
I cut it, and Mande was like, ‘you’re free to’t cut that.
That’s so funny that he is saying ‘Bortles!’
the way people say ‘Kobe!’
when they take crazy basketball shots on the playground.’
And he was like, ‘Look, it sounds like a nonsense word.
So people hear it and if they know who Blake Bortles is, they’ll love it.
And if they don’t, they’ll just think he’s yelling something incomprehensible.
It’ll fly right by.’
And I was like, ‘Joe Mande is a great writer.
If he really wants this, I’m going to let him have it.’
‘when he went through a portal.”
Schurpunts this question toGood Placewriter-producer Megan Amram, who was considered the show’s premiere punmaster.
Did Amram feel pressure to one-up her word game as the seasons and puns piled up?
“I don’t know why this summarizes him perfectly, but it does,” says Schur.
It happens sometimes when there’s late-night shoots too.
It’s a little treat to say thank you to the crew for working so hard all week.
And I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’
[Laughs] And he’s like, ‘Ah, it’s a fun thing.
I have a mariachi band come and they play music while the crew eats lunch.’
And this mariachi band came and it was utterly delightful.
It was just sofun.
And everyone was like, ‘That was so cool!
What in the world inspired you to get a mariachi band?’
He’s like, ‘I don’t know.
“As a result, we used 30,000 bottles of water.
It was heartbreaking to see that number.
And Oceana’s main thing is, ‘We’ve got to get rid of plastic in the ocean.
We can’t use plastic anymore.’
So we completely revamped our craft services and the way that we served water.
Ted didn’t ask for that.
“There are several extremely emotional scenes in the finale,” says Schur.
And I said, ‘Are you sure?
So her kids came in.
And I was like, ‘Man, I don’t understand how she can do this.
And I was like, ‘Well, she knows what she’s doing.’
Then she did the scene, and she was incredible, as she always is.
“There’s a theme of this show of hopefulness,” he says.
And that ultimately became the thing we were arguing for.
We were arguing for trying.
But this show is arguing that that doesn’t mean you don’t attempt to do the right thing.
In fact, that means you try harder.
And that really melted my brain.
I had never considered that.
I totally think it’s a possibility in the world where there are points systems.
He laughs, then adds: “I hope that’s not the case.
