The cast and creators of Parks and Rec have given us the greatest gift we could’ve asked
for during this challenging time… new hilarious content.
And they managed to pull together their reunion special in just a few weeks… so how did
it come to be?
We’ve got all the info.
What’s up?
It’s Emile Ennis Jr. here with Clevver News and I know these days can feel long and tough,
but Thursday was a good day for one big reason in particular…
The Parks and Recreation reunion special!
It made us laugh, it made us cry, and it was truly everything we didn’t know we needed.
The cast and crew gave us the first new episode of Parks And Recreation since 2015 and it
was definitely a big silver lining during this weird, challenging time.
We got to see our old friends Leslie Knope (pronounced like the word nope), Ron Swanson,
April and all the other Parks and Rec employees from Pawnee, Indiana get the crew back together
on Zoom, just like many of us are doing with our family and friends.
And on top of it all, the episode was also a fundraiser for Feeding America.
So how did this reunion come together so quickly?
The show’s creator Mike Schur spilled all the tea.
We’ll get into everything he said, plus we’ll talk about the best moments from the
episode, but first, don’t forget to subscribe to Clevver News if you haven’t already and
click the bell so you never miss out on any breaking news stories.
Alright so let’s start with how on earth they pulled this off.
The show’s creator Mike Schur, who also created shows like Brooklyn 99, The Office,
The Good Place, and more, spoke to E! News about how the reunion came to be.
He said that the president of Universal Television came to him about reuniting the cast for a
virtual table read of an old episode.
Seemed like a nice idea, but when Mike looked back at old scripts, he realized it wasn’t
right saying quote, “I was terrified of seeming like we were trying to make light
of what is the most serious situation in a hundred years.
And also, because I quickly felt like if we were getting the cast together, that doing
a table read of any old episode was kind of like a waste."
So he reached out to all the cast members, Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Rashida Jones,
Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, Adam Scott, Rob Lowe, Aziz Ansari, Retta, and Jim O'Heir,
about doing something together.
And Mike got responses from all of them within 45 minutes and it was yesses across the board.
And getting such quick, positive responses made Mike as emotional as we all were when
we first saw the news about the new episode.
He said quote, “It sort of made me want to cry a little bit…I sort of said to NBC
I'll look into this.
And I sent out this email and the responses are so quick and so instant and so instantly
positive.
It just made me so happy.
… It was kind of astonishing — I mean, forget about how famous they are, getting
any group of 10 people to respond to you over an email in 45 minutes feels like an accomplishment.”
And once he had the cast on board Mike reached out to the writers.
He said quote, “I reached out to some of the old writers because I didn't think I could
write it myself.
It seems like too big of job.
So, I reached out to six of the old writers from the show, who all instantly, just like
the cast said, yes, they would love to do it…We wrote the script, we conceived of
and wrote the script in about two and a half days which was insane.
Maybe three days total.”
And the crew sent the cast members tripods, iPhones, lights, and mics so they could be
their own camera people.
Kinda like what we’re doing here at Clevver!
Ok so how quickly did they pull this entire thing off from concept to the episode airing?
Mike said quote, “I don't know, three weeks total, I think?
Something like that.
Again, I've lost all track of time as most people have, but it just happened really,
really quickly and that's a testament to the massive number of people who very kindly and
generously sort of donated their time and put everything — put a lot of their stuff
on hold…in order to make it happen.”
And we are SO glad that they did, the episode was awesome.
Fans were flooding Twitter last night with reactions to the reunion special, but before
we get to what everyone else thought, I want to know what you guys thought of it.
Can you believe how quickly the Parks crew got this episode together and what was your
favorite part of the reunion?
Let me know down in the comments below and get the conversation started.
Fans could hardly contain their excitement last night.
This person wrote … “Maybe it’s the stress of social distancing and whatnot—
but this rendition of “Bye Bye Lil Sebastian” has me in tears.
#ParksAndRec”
Another fan chimed in and said quote…
“This #ParksAndRec episode is *literally* the best thing to happen in quarantine.”
And this person added that quote… “ron teared up at the song, ben was annoyed by
it, april waved a lighter around... everything was so on character.
this was the most perfect thing i have ever seen.
i can’t thank the cast and crew enough for this.
adam scott was right, i did love the episode.
#ParksAndRec”
And my personal favorite tweet of the night was this one from Colin Hanks that said quote,
“You bet your ass I tried dialing Jean Ralphios phone number.
#ParksAndRec”
Hate to say it, but you’re so right, I did!
And even outside the episode I would say it was a success because they raised a ton of
money for Feeding America which is a huge win.
And I don’t know about you guys, but I would love to see other shows hop on board and do
a similar sort of reunion.
Let me know what other show you’d like to see reunite for an episode over Zoom.
I feel like the cast and crew of The Office and Friends could also both make hilarious
Zoom reunions!
And in case you missed it, Ariana Grande and her former castmates from Victorious also
had a mini Zoom reunion, click over here for all the details.
I’m Emile Ennis Jr. here with Clevver News, bye guys!