Are there any details that you can reveal about the wedding?
Schur: There are a lot of details about the wedding. It’s kind of an interesting; it’s kind of a big episode. But I’ll say that everybody has a job to fill of the main cast. Part of the fun of the episode is that the wedding was originally planned for May, and at this black tie gala that happened in last week’s episode they decide to do it that night.So they basically have two hours to throw it together. So everybody kind of has a role to play and Tom Haverford becomes the officiant and has to get like ordained online in like an hour and Donna plays a role and that we’re for the first time are going to feature beautiful and professionally trained singing voice on the show a couple times…
Poehler: Oh yes, that’s a good one.
Schur: Yes which it’s very beautiful. We let her pick which aria she wanted to perform, so that was fun. And it just what’s really nice about it is basically in the opening moments of the episode in order to pull this thing off in sort of claustrophobic “Parks and Rec” fashion everyone has to sort of chip in. So there’s a part for everybody to play.
TV has a lot of examples of “will they or won’t they” couples who then took the plunge in one way or another and often that made it very challenging for the shows going forward in some way some of the magic was lost. In the case of Leslie and Ben, could you all talk a little bit about what challenges are still ahead for them? How do you sort of maintain the comic tension once they become husband and wife?
Poehler: That’s a great question. Just speaking quickly to the fact what I love about “Parks” is that if you care about this couple, you’ve got to see over the past couple years so much change happen with them and it’s really satisfying the show hasn’t killed us with low expectation and will they/won’t they, which I love.
And I love that “Parks” continues to like let characters change and like actually have things happen, like life goes on in the world, like the world, like what happens in the real world. So that part is satisfying because I know that Mike and the writers always kind of write and then just try to figure what’s going to happen later. And so then I would pass that over to Mike as to what’s next.
Schur: I would say that part of the joy of the two characters and their relationship is that they have three-dimensional lives and they’re both very committed not only to each other but their careers and to their friends and to the just living a sort of full life. And it’s I think that maybe if there’s a trap that you can fall into it’s that you have to just tell the story repeatedly just about the relationship and that can get kind of boring. But we don’t have that problem.
In fact, in the second episode [the one that airs after the wedding episode] … is Leslie and Ben coming back from their honeymoon and just sort of talking about how much fun they had on their honeymoon. But the episode is just a regular episode of “Parks and Rec,” and Leslie and Ben aren’t in the same story. Ben is starting a new job and it’s his first day at work and it’s like he’s sort of thrown into this new challenge of his new job. And Leslie has an event that she’s planning for, which is sort of like a correspondents’ dinner type of event where the media and politicians roast each other and stuff.
And so I think you’ll see right away that there’s a sort of blueprint going forward where yes, they’re married now, but they also have other aspects of their lives that are very important to them. And so I hope and very much feel like that will be the thing that keeps it from seeming like the “magic is gone” because it’s not their lives have never been about each other. That’s a huge part of their lives and they love each other and they have a wonderful relationship and hopefully a great marriage going forward. But there’s a lot of other stuff going on and I think you’ll see that.
Scott: I’ll just say that I recently went back and watched the “The Master Plan,” which is the first episode Rob Lowe and I were on, kind of looking at Leslie and Ben at our first couple of scenes together it really speaks to the quality of writing of this show that there’s a lot of kind of foreshadowing of their relationship in the sense that these are two kind of three-dimensional characters that really sort of fit together and they see things in each other that no one else really sees and kind of hit these buttons with each other right off the bat.
And so I think that there’s just more to it. From the very start there was more to it than a simple will they or won’t they or kind of a device like that. And so I think that them being married now just sort of fits in naturally with that. It’s not like there’s anything to be lost by them joining together permanently.
Adam, you were brought on as the love interest for Leslie. But how much did you know in advance how far this might progress?
Scott: I didn’t know. You know, we thought it might be Leslie and Ben might be a couple at some point. But I think it was sort of a wait and see sort of thing. Because we got together and didn’t quite click as a relationship. I guess this is more a question for Mike.
But I sort of got the sense they were going to try that out and just see if it works. And if it didn’t, maybe find something else for me to do. I’m not really sure. But I don’t know. Mike, I guess that’s more a question for you because I don’t really totally know.
Schur: Certainly, the plan was always that this was a love interest and a long-term love interest. And our initial idea for Leslie was that she was going to have a series of relationships with different kinds of men over the course of the show and that she would sort of learn something different from each of them.
And that’s why there was a sort of she learned a little something from Mark Brendanawicz. She learned something from Louis C.K.’s character. She learned something from Justin Theroux. And we were sort of like, “Oh, Adam Scott. That’s good. She’ll date him for a while and she’ll learn something about herself from him.”
And it was certainly the plan to have him be a love interest and what happened very quickly was I mean there’s a in the second episode – well the first episode, in that “Master Plan” episode they have a conversation in a bar. And I wrote this thing into where Ben says to her very casually, “Like you want to run for office some day, right?” And she says, “Yes, how did you know?”
And he just sort of blows past it and the idea was like he’s just kind of got her number, like he just kind of gets her, he understands her and who she is and what her goals are. And in the second episode — which was the finale that year— called “Freddy Spaghetti” there’s they have a conversation and Leslie smiled at him and walks off and there’s a shot of Adam looking after Leslie with a smile on his face.
I have added new pics of Adam and Naomi at the opening of Tommy Hilfiger LA Flagship store on Wednesday.
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Gallery Link:
February 13 2013: Tommy Hilfiger LA Flagship OpeningTweet
I have added pics of Adam at the news conference for Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
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Gallery Link:
February 6 2013: Mayors Against Illegal Guns and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence News ConferenceTweet
Check out the promo of Adam in the next episode of Parks and Recreation.
I have added pics of Adam at the Party Down reunion at SF Sketchfest last week.
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Gallery Link:
February 9 2013: Party Down Reunion at SF SketchfestTweet
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