"Philly Justice"

Philadelphia has never been more in need of justice. In a special episode of 'Good Hang,' Amy hangs with 'Parks and Rec' creator Mike Schur, producer Morgan Sackett, and stars Adam Scott and Rashida Jones for the world premiere of the "Philly Justice" trailer. Host: Amy PoehlerGuests: Mike Schur, Morgan Sackett, Adam Scott, and Rashida JonesExecutive Producers: Bill Simmons, Amy Poehler, and Jenna Weiss-BermanFor Paper Kite Productions: Executive producer Jenna Weiss-Berman, coordinator Sam Green, and supervising producer Joel LovellFor The Ringer: Supervising producers Juliet Litman, Sean Fennessey, and Mallory Rubin; video producers Jack Wilson, Chris Wholers, and Aleya Zenieris; audio producer Kaya McMullen; video editor Drew van Steenbergen; and booker Kat SpillaneOriginal Music: Amy Miles This episode is brought to you by Degree Deodorant. Grab the original Cool Rush at Walmart or Target today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Amy Poehler?

  Welcome everyone to a very special episode of Good Hang. This is kind of an episode for our listeners, for fans of Parks and Rec, for fans of Good Hang. We have been kind of teasing this thing called Philly Justice, which is a fake idea of a TV show that was created on the set of Parks and Rec that we made a one and a half minute trailer for. And we've been talking about the existence of it for a while and we've been listening to you. Your comments have been saying things like, "Amy, you cannot be gatekeeping comedy at this, at a time like this." Or, "The entire world is in shambles, Amy. Please give us Philly Justice so we have a reason to live."

• 0:42Amy Poehler?

  Or, "In the name of Lil Sebastian, please." So, people are asking to see this dumb thing that we did. And we thought, why not premiere it only on Good Hang? The only place you can see it slash hear it is on this podcast. And who better to talk about the creation of this particular little inside joke that was on Parks and Rec than the creator of Parks and Recreation, the wonderful, amazing Mike Schur. Mike Schur is a producer of all the shows that you love. Mike helped work on the American version of The Office.

• 1:23Amy Poehler?

  He went on to create Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place. He's in his second season of A Man on the Inside at Netflix. He is just an incredible writer, friend, person in the world. And I love him dearly and owe a lot to him. Nothing pleases Mike more than this kind of dumb joke and idea. So, Mike is my guest today. We're going to talk about Philly Justice, the creation of it, and we're going to all watch it together. We're also going to talk about other things. We're going to talk about the beginning of Parks and Recreation. We're going to talk about meeting at SNL. We're going to talk about systems and how important they are to both of us, that work is a place of joy. We're going to talk about all the crazy names he likes to come up with for his characters.

• 2:08Amy Poehler?

  And we're going to be Visited by some very special actors, Rashida Jones, Adam Scott. We're going to hear from a bunch of people who were in Parks and Recreation and in Philly Justice who are telling us about how we made it, including the great Morgan Sackett, who is a producer on a lot of the shows Mike and I work on. He's an incredible producer and he's going to let us, he's going to remind us how we got away with making this dumb trailer. So, there's a lot of things going on, but basically, interview with Mike Schur. We're going to talk to the cast of Philly Justice.

• 2:49Amy Poehler?

  We're going to watch this minute and a half trailer for the, hopefully the first and only time here on Good Hang. And this one is for, this one's for the fans. This one is for the fans. We heard you loud and clear. We're giving it to you. We don't like to tease around here. We, we like to please. And we like to squeeze. And we like to do it with ease. Is this sounding any less gross? Okay. All right, let's get started. Welcome to Good Hang. This episode is brought to you by eBay Live. Here's how it goes. First, you're watching the eBay livestream telling yourself, I'm just looking.

• 3:32Amy Poehler?

  And then boom, you see a vintage Rolex go for an absolute steal. Suddenly, a rare beanie baby pops up. Adrenaline hits and you're bidding. You might lose that first one, but you bid again and win. And that winning rush? Incredible, because you beat everyone to it. Meanwhile, on eBay Live, you don't just watch the action, you're in it. Download the eBay app to stream and shop live. eBay Live, things people love. This episode is brought to you by CarMax. Okay, hear me out. When CarMax says that you can buy your way, they really mean it. Shop for cars from your sofa, the subway, the hair salon, wherever. And the price you see is the price you pay. No negotiating, no last minute surprises.

• 4:14Amy Poehler?

  Plus, every car is CarMax certified and backed by a 10-day money-back guarantee, so you can shop and buy with confidence. It's all about what works for you. Want to drive? CarMax. Shop now at carmax.com.

• 4:39Amy Poehler?

  I'm sure. I'm with probably the most accomplished podcaster I've interviewed yet is you.

• 4:47Speaker 01

  That just means you haven't interviewed.

• 4:49Amy Poehler?

  No, I have not talked to a lot of podcasters. Because I realized on the way over here, I'm like, you've had a podcast, The Poscast.

• 4:58Speaker 01

  Correct.

• 4:59Amy Poehler?

  For many years.

• 5:00Speaker 01

  Yeah, for like an absurd number of years.

• 5:02Amy Poehler?

  I mean, you were ahead of the game.

• 5:03Speaker 01

  I don't know if it, if the first seven years even count because it was, we like, we're barely recording it. We were just screaming into our computers. We didn't have microphones.

• 5:12Amy Poehler?

  Who's the we that you speak of?

• 5:13Speaker 01

  Joe Poznanski and myself, sports writer, award-winning sports writer Joe Poznanski and me. And we started it a million years ago, but we haven't really, it hasn't been like anything approaching it, an actual extant, like enterprise for more than like five years, I would say.

• 5:32Amy Poehler?

  The word extant really lets us know that we're with Mike Schur, Harvard-educated writer and creator.

• 5:39Speaker 01

  Pish posh.

• 5:42Amy Poehler?

  I'm so thrilled to have you here and we're going to talk about something very exciting today. But I do have you in this studio, so I do want to talk about us a little bit and our work together before.

• 5:52Speaker 01

  I love us.

• 5:53Amy Poehler?

  I do love us. Oh, this is us.

• 5:57Amy Poehler?

  One of another great show from NBC. But before I do that, I, when I plug this thing into my laptop, it goes weird.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  Nothing happens.

• 6:06Amy Poehler?

  Well, like, so, you know, I don't know if you know, Bill Simmons told me in the very beginning, we love Bill.

• 6:12Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 6:12Amy Poehler?

  Boston, one of Boston's greatest.

• 6:15Speaker 01

  One of Boston's most.

• 6:17Amy Poehler?

  One of Boston's most.

• 6:17Speaker 01

  One of the most Boston people there is.

• 6:19Amy Poehler?

  That's very true. I mean, and, and I think of you as a Boston person, you're not. You're a Connecticut person.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I, I identify full Boston.

• 6:28Amy Poehler?

  You do identify.

• 6:29Speaker 01

  I'm literally wearing a Celtics sweatshirt right now because it's, the Celtics are playing a playoff game right now. I can't watch it because I'm here with you. And so I wore this as like a shield to protect myself against evil and the city of Boston for that matter.

• 6:41Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, you and you're a huge Red Sox fan.

• 6:43Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 6:43Amy Poehler?

  And I do want to talk about sports because this is a podcast.

• 6:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:47Amy Poehler?

  But before I do, so Bill told me not.

• 6:50Speaker 01

  On Bill Simmons's network.

• 6:51Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 6:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:52Amy Poehler?

  And you really should.

• 6:53Speaker 01

  I assume it's a law?

• 6:54Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, you have to. You do have to. You 10% of sports, sports talk or you get.

• 6:59Speaker 01

  If you don't mention Jim Rice once, you're canceled.

• 7:04Amy Poehler?

  But Bill said, maybe not, don't use the laptop. And I kind of have fought to keep it. And what's happening now is it's going cuckoo when I plug this thing in.

• 7:13Speaker 01

  Do you use a laptop for what? For like notes?

• 7:15Amy Poehler?

  Just for like.

• 7:16Speaker 01

  Referencing.

• 7:17Amy Poehler?

  He was like, why do you need the laptop? And I was like, hey, you know, what's it to you? You know? And he was like, I'm just giving you a suggestion.

• 7:25Speaker 01

  By the way, this is a very Boston exchange. Just someone offering advice and the person coming back at them hard with like, what? Like, let's fight.

• 7:33Amy Poehler?

  I gotta get Bill on the podcast because you're right. It is like.

• 7:39Speaker 01

  You once described to me, do you remember this? You once described to me the, at the, that the, you said to me that the city motto of Boston should be must be nice. Do you remember this?

• 7:48Amy Poehler?

  Must be nice.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  Yeah. And you described a situation in which when we were at SNL, you would go home and see your friends or people that you grew up with, and you would go out for drinks. And if you paid, the attitude would be like, oh, must be nice. Got a big Hollywood show, whatever. And if you didn't pay, it was like, oh, must be nice. Make all that money in Hollywood and still get your friends to pick up your drinks. Like, you can't win.

• 8:08Amy Poehler?

  You can't win.

• 8:08Speaker 01

  You can't win.

• 8:10Amy Poehler?

  You know what they say about Boston? You don't even have to put a net over the traps when you catch the lobsters. Because with Boston lobsters, if one tries to crawl out, the other one will just pull them back down.

• 8:21Speaker 01

  I've been pulling back down.

• 8:24Amy Poehler?

  But I love my city.

• 8:27Amy Poehler?

  I do love my city.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  Can I tell you one quick thing?

• 8:29Amy Poehler?

  Please.

• 8:29Speaker 01

  That is going to be of vital importance for this podcast.

• 8:32Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 8:33Speaker 01

  I found out a piece of shocking information today.

• 8:36Amy Poehler?

  Oh, exciting. Is this breaking news?

• 8:38Speaker 01

  Breaking news.

• 8:39Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 8:40Speaker 01

  Your dad.

• 8:41Amy Poehler?

  Oh, no.

• 8:42Speaker 01

  And my mom go to the same barber.

• 8:46Amy Poehler?

  What?

• 8:47Speaker 01

  Yes. My mom lives in Bedford Mass, went to her barber today, got her haircut. Barber said, you know who comes in here?

• 8:55Amy Poehler?

  Oh, boy.

• 8:56Speaker 01

  Do you know Amy Poehler? Amy Poehler's dad comes in here. And I guessed your dad recently switched barbers for reasons I don't want to get into that are very, very private.

• 9:06Amy Poehler?

  You can tell me off the air.

• 9:07Speaker 01

  I'll tell you off the air. But my mom said, you're not going to believe this to her barber. My son and Amy Poehler are friends and used to work together. And you can imagine the fireworks that happened in that barber shop.

• 9:21Amy Poehler?

  That is so cute.

• 9:22Speaker 01

  Isn't that adorable?

• 9:23Amy Poehler?

  That's really, that's a really nice story.

• 9:25Speaker 01

  It's literally breaking news as of like 2:00 PM Pacific time today.

• 9:29Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, my father, Bill Poehler, he'll want me to say his first and last name. And you should say your mother's first and last name.

• 9:34Speaker 01

  Ann Herbert.

• 9:35Amy Poehler?

  Yep, so Ann, Bill and Ann, thank you for keeping your hair tidy, number one.

• 9:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, first of all.

• 9:41Amy Poehler?

  And two, for raising us.

• 9:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:44Amy Poehler?

  We appreciate that. But my dad likes to start most conversations in the Boston area with going up to random people and saying, do you like TV and movies?

• 9:59Amy Poehler?

  And they go, yeah? And he goes, oh, well, my daughter is Amy Poehler.

• 10:03Speaker 01

  What a coincidence.

• 10:04Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, my daughter. And they go, oh, because they're like, okay.

• 10:08Speaker 01

  What percentage of people say no to that question? No.

• 10:12Amy Poehler?

  My dad used to rent apartments as like a side hustle. You know, he was like, he was in real estate renting because he was a public school teacher. Both my parents were, and they would have summer jobs. And he used to ask me for a stack of headshots so he could hand them out when he was renting apartments. And after many years of therapy, I realized that was a boundary that maybe I should set. So.

• 10:36Speaker 01

  So you gave them to him?

• 10:38Amy Poehler?

  I did at first, yeah, because it's Boston, you know, like, must be nice. Like, oh, you don't think, you think you're so great, you can't.

• 10:43Speaker 01

  Oh, you want to have people in Boston looking at your headshot?

• 10:47Amy Poehler?

  Your father's proud of you. Oh, boo hoo. Mike Schur is here, and.

• 10:54Speaker 01

  All this will be cut, right?

• 10:56Amy Poehler?

  Oh, this, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, literally, the, I mean, all it will be is just very slow typing on this laptop. That's all this.

• 11:05Speaker 01

  Well, I just sip water and wait for you to find whatever you're looking for.

• 11:11Amy Poehler?

  Oh, can I ask you, though, um, uh, uh, cause you like organizing, you like systems.

• 11:15Speaker 01

  I do.

• 11:17Amy Poehler?

  You love a good system.

• 11:18Speaker 01

  Love rules, love systems.

• 11:19Amy Poehler?

  And I would say overall, being in your simulation, and I know I can speak for many people, is kind of the best feeling in the world. You have great systems.

• 11:29Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 11:30Amy Poehler?

  You take pride in them. People that are in your systems are very well taken care of, very well considered, and in my case, like, it changed my life to be in your system. And I love a good system, too. And what I love about your systems is you think long and hard about what would be the best way or approach to do things. Like, you're not, you're not a, um, you are not a strict person who doesn't take feedback about your system.

• 11:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:56Amy Poehler?

  But you like your systems.

• 11:57Speaker 01

  Love them, and I believe that people do their best work when there's like a strong system that also allows for freedom within the system. That is why I love working with you and people like Andy Samberg, people who are like from the SNL world specifically because their role with the punches people.

• 12:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 12:16Speaker 01

  But, and all you have to do is like set up the boundaries. You put out the gate, you put, lay out the fence, and you're like, anywhere in here is fine. And then, and this is actually very appropriate for what we're gonna be talking about today, once you've, I believe, set up a sort of like boundary and like a mechanism and like, you're gonna be in the yard from two to four, you carry your toys, you can do anything you want from two to four, and then you're back inside, that, and then you get the funniest people you can, who are the most comfortable and happy, and you say like, don't worry, everything's taken care of, rules are in place, fence is in place, go crazy, and you let people like do their best, most fun, most joyous work. I really believe, and this isn't like revelatory,

• 12:57Speaker 01

  but I really believe that is the best way to work creatively within a group. And the reason this is relevant, and I don't wanna jump the gun here, but the thing we're gonna be talking about today very much came out of a world where because we had this really great system in place, and then went out and just found the funniest people we could find to come make this thing with us. Crazy things happen, like wonderful things happen that are just the result of just creative juices flowing and people feeling happy and free. Someone said to me once, and I believe this is true, that in creative enterprises, everyone is either in survival mode or creative mode.

• 13:32Amy Poehler?

  Hmm.

• 13:33Speaker 01

  And if you're in survival mode, like you're worried about your job, you don't feel safe in your place of work, there's a threat somewhere, you feel like you're not being listened to, whatever, no one can be creative. And your job as like a manager of any kind, at any level, is to like flip that switch and get people back into creative mode where they feel like comfortable and warm and happy and safe, and that's when people do good work. And I think the, maybe the defining, like, principle of Parks and Rec was that everyone was in creative mode all the time. Like, we were in survival mode with outside forces, like, are we gonna get canceled? Is this it? Are we done? But that, that's over there, like, that we can control that. Within the fence that we put out for the show, we worked at all times to make sure

• 14:18Speaker 01

  everybody was in creative mode, and that's why crazy things like this happened.

• 14:22Amy Poehler?

  God, so well said. Thank you for setting that up. I often and always speak about you and our experience on Parks and Rec as the perfect example of what it's like to be creative and not chaotic.

• 14:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:36Amy Poehler?

  And I think you and I both have worked in all kinds of different areas where chaos was kind of part of the deal, and, you know, there is certainly an energy that comes from that, but one does not have to have a chaotic or dysfunctional experience to have a creative experience.

• 14:51Speaker 01

  That is correct. And for a very long time, in Hollywood, I think, especially, but it's not, this is not located only in Hollywood, this is everywhere. I think there's a belief sometimes that, like, if something good results from a chaotic atmosphere, then there's like a weird response where it's like, well, this is the only way that something good can happen. Like, we got this good thing, and the process was chaos, so we better not try to fix the chaos.

• 15:19Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 15:20Speaker 01

  When like a rational person would think, let's fix the chaos, and then there will be more opportunities for more creative things that will also cause less pain and suffering. That's what I just can't stand about the, about Hollywood specifically. I think it's weirdly gotten better. I don't know if this has been your experience.

• 15:35Amy Poehler?

  I think so. I think it's just like, there's a little bit more, like, diverse gatekeepers and a little bit more...

• 15:46Amy Poehler?

  You know, push from frankly, generations behind us.

• 15:49Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 15:49Amy Poehler?

  Who have just like reminded us that we don't need to put up with behavior that we were used to putting up with.

• 15:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:56Amy Poehler?

  And just a little bit more quality of life stuff. Where people are just a little bit less um okay with having their lives ruined at work.

• 16:07Speaker 01

  I mean, like when you and I were coming up, it was like whatever the system was, you were just like, okay.

• 16:12Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah.

• 16:12Speaker 01

  You just like grit your teeth and you like put your head down and you try to survive.

• 16:16Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 16:16Speaker 01

  And the generation behind us, and especially the one behind that generation.

• 16:20Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 16:21Speaker 01

  Looks at chaos and goes like, oh, then no, thank you. Like, then no.

• 16:24Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 16:25Speaker 01

  Like, I don't, I don't wanna, they just, they have a, they don't have the, I think, the sort of like, like a structural fear that we had of just like, if this is what's going on, then I will just suffer and tolerate it.

• 16:38Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 16:38Speaker 01

  And I think younger folks are just like, oh, then I won't be a part of it.

• 16:41Amy Poehler?

  Well, my bad stand up about it is boomers are all about money. Gen X is like, is it all about money? Millennials are like, where is the money? And Gen Z is like, what is money?

• 16:53Amy Poehler?

  That's my bad stand up about it.

• 16:54Speaker 01

  Not bad, it's good.

• 16:55Amy Poehler?

  Thanks. I have been doing that on stage. Uh, okay. So we could talk forever. I mean, we could do two, three, four podcasts. Maybe someday we will. And I'd love to have you back as a guest to talk, to dig in even deeper with like Parks super fans and all the other projects that you do. But those to me are like other wives that you have, and I'd rather not discuss them.

• 17:16Speaker 01

  I understand.

• 17:17Amy Poehler?

  I am very.

• 17:18Speaker 01

  It's painful for you.

• 17:19Amy Poehler?

  Congratulations on the success of Hacks and the success of Good Place. And congratulations on second season of A Man Inside.

• 17:25Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 17:25Amy Poehler?

  But right now you're with your family and I need you.

• 17:28Speaker 01

  And this is Thanksgiving and we are gonna put on nice sweaters and god damn it, we are gonna sit down and have a nice meal.

• 17:34Amy Poehler?

  That's right.

• 17:34Speaker 01

  And at 6:00 PM.

• 17:35Amy Poehler?

  That's right.

• 17:36Speaker 01

  The, your new girlfriend will come and pick you all up and drive you away from me.

• 17:40Amy Poehler?

  And I'm fine with her and I'm very happy for you. But um, so we're gonna talk about Parks, but to do that, let's talk about, so you went to Harvard.

• 17:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:50Amy Poehler?

  Which, by the way, a great, great month for Harvard. You know, I've talked some shit about Harvard on here already, but I'm, I'm a big flip flopper. Now I love Harvard.

• 17:56Speaker 01

  I'm gonna say first truly good month for Harvard since its founding in 1636.

• 18:06Speaker 01

  I was like, how far back do I have to go? Oh, maybe all the way.

• 18:09Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. Yeah, good job Harvard.

• 18:11Speaker 01

  We took it on the chin. We have our share of Jared Kushner's and Ted Cruz's.

• 18:15Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 18:16Speaker 01

  And also, everyone in the Supreme Court and all that sort of stuff. And it's been, and Zuckerberg, don't, can't leave, forget about Zuck.

• 18:23Amy Poehler?

  I never do.

• 18:26Speaker 01

  But.

• 18:26Amy Poehler?

  Facebook.

• 18:27Speaker 01

  Finally, Harvard is like, hey, we have all the money.

• 18:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 18:32Speaker 01

  And so we'll say no to the bully. And people were like, oh, my God, you can do that.

• 18:37Amy Poehler?

  It's exciting. But you came from Harvard and we met. Do you remember when we first met?

• 18:42Speaker 01

  Uh, no. I remember when I saw you for the first time, which was at a UCB sketch thing that happened at Fez.

• 18:53Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah.

• 18:53Speaker 01

  Um, I've told this story before. I don't know if you want to, I don't know how in-depth you want to go here.

• 18:57Amy Poehler?

  I'd love to go in-depth because we don't get, we're, we're going to talk Philly justice, but we have some time.

• 19:02Speaker 01

  Um, great. So I, I moved to New York right before I graduated in 97 and 98. I was working for Jon Stewart. Oh, no, late 97, I was working for Jon Stewart. He was writing a book and I was pitching my ideas for the book and he used none of them and gave me $3,000 and it was, it was amazing. It was my first professional job. Um, thank you, Jon Stewart. So we.

• 19:22Amy Poehler?

  He gave you that money to go away.

• 19:24Speaker 01

  That's right. He looked at my ideas and was like, oh, no.

• 19:27Amy Poehler?

  Yeah. He was like, you're, you're making me nervous. Please go away.

• 19:30Speaker 01

  He was like, does three grand get you out of my office? So I went to, I heard about all these comedy shows that happened and I was very excited to see comedy. Went to Fez to see Jon do stand-up. And, and so you came on a stage. I did not know who you were. And you said, hey, everyone, I know you're excited to hear the stand-up, the Jon Stewart and all these other comedians. Uh, my name is Carol Johnson. I'm from HBO and I'm casting a pilot. And so before, if you don't mind with your indulgence, I'd love to just do some. And I was like, oh, there's a nice woman from HBO here who is casting a pilot. This is so interesting. This is how show business works. I a hundred percent bought it hook, line and sinker. I did not understand that I was at a comedy show and that this was probably a piece of comedy.

• 20:15Speaker 01

  And then you announced that you were doing this pilot and you asked if anyone, you said that someone needed, I don't remember exactly, but it was something like someone needed to be able to do a Bill Cosby impression. This shows you how long ago this is.

• 20:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, sure.

• 20:30Speaker 01

  And Matt Besser, another person I did not know, was like volunteered and you're like, oh, yes, sir. Please come right on up here. And then he proceeded to do like the worst Bill Cosby impression of all time. And you, in the role of straight person, were just like, ah, boy, I'm not sure if that really fits the bill. And he kept doing it and kept doing it. And then I think Matt Walsh was like, I can do one. And he got up and did it. And he was even worse. And you were like, yeah, this isn't really what we're looking for. And I, I remembered this so clearly. I was like, this poor woman from HBO is just trying to cast her pilot. And these guys are terrible. These guys are, and when I was having that thought, I was like, this is a sketch, I'm pretty sure.

• 21:12Speaker 01

  And, but there's a reason I tell this story, which is your performance was so real and grounded. I legitimately was blown away. I was like, I was brought three minutes into this incredibly stupid premise before it occurred to me that you were not really Carol Johnson from HBO.

• 21:31Amy Poehler?

  No.

• 21:31Speaker 01

  And I, and then I remember going, I remember talking to someone after the show and being like, who was that? And they were like, uh, this group called UCB. And I was like, that woman was incredible. And they were like, the straight woman? And I was like, yes, she was incredible. Who is that?

• 21:49Amy Poehler?

  How does she have time to be in a sketch group when she works at HBO?

• 21:53Speaker 01

  She's a multi-talented person. But I, I remember then repeating that like this, they were so funny and everything. And then someone was like, that's Amy Poehler. Like everyone in New York already knew you. And I was just like, that, that, you just like, you just like burrowed into my brain. And then when you joined the show, I started working at SNL a few months later.

• 22:13Amy Poehler?

  Yep. That year was, what year did you start?

• 22:15Speaker 01

  I started January 98.

• 22:17Amy Poehler?

  Yes, 98.

• 22:18Speaker 01

  Yeah. So you came, whatever.

• 22:19Amy Poehler?

  2001.

• 22:20Speaker 01

  2001. So it's September 2001.

• 22:22Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  And I, I don't remember where.

• 22:26Speaker 01

  We interacted between those dates, but I remember that when you auditioned, you came to my office and we smoked cigarettes in my office as I was running update.

• 22:32Amy Poehler?

  Oh, remember cigarettes? Let's just take a minute. I mean, I know they're bad for you.

• 22:36Speaker 01

  They're so bad for you.

• 22:37Amy Poehler?

  There's, and like, you know, they're, they truly are bad for you. They shorten your life. They make your skin terrible, but they're, oh, remember them?

• 22:43Speaker 01

  They're really, really terrible.

• 22:46Amy Poehler?

  They're terrible, so terrible. And I, I looked so cool doing that terrible thing. And we would smoke cigarettes and we would, we, you know, at, at 30 Rock, you could just kind of open your window and look at the Empire State Building.

• 22:56Speaker 01

  Yeah. SNL was like grandfathered into all rules everywhere. And you could just like, no one except us was on the 17th floor. And you'd open your window and smoked out the window and it was terrible.

• 23:08Amy Poehler?

  And it was terrible. And then you were eventually, when did you start running update? Weekend update?

• 23:13Speaker 01

  Your first show was my first update show.

• 23:16Amy Poehler?

  That's right. So, gosh, I forget that. That was your first.

• 23:20Speaker 01

  My, I took it, so Robert Karlock was running it and he left. And I remember talking to Mike Shoemaker, beloved producer at the time, now runs Seth Meyers' show. And I was like, boy, I'm not sure I can do this job. Like, I don't really know what I'm doing. And he was like, it's super easy. Like, you just choose the best jokes and you're whatever. And I was like, okay, like, it sounds fun. And then 9/11 happened. And so my first show running the like funny fake news.

• 23:43Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  Was 9/11. And it was your first show on the show.

• 23:46Amy Poehler?

  That's right. And, and so, right, so I was this new cast member and you were running Weekend Update.

• 23:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:52Amy Poehler?

  At a time when comedy was declared over.

• 23:55Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 23:55Amy Poehler?

  And when we'll never laugh again.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  That's right. And our, and the first thing that happened on the show for your first show and my first show running update was like Rudy Giuliani.

• 24:05Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 24:05Speaker 01

  Pre-insanity Rudy Giuliani and like cops and firefighters and MTA workers standing at home base and talking about like resilience and, and the power of humanity. And then Paul Simon singing The Boxer.

• 24:18Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 24:19Speaker 01

  And then it was like, okay, and you're Britney Spears, go. Remember? That was your sketch. You had a snake wrangler.

• 24:25Amy Poehler?

  It didn't make it. It got cut.

• 24:26Speaker 01

  Oh, did it really? I thought you made it.

• 24:28Amy Poehler?

  It, it's good that it did. And by the way, I was not Britney Spears.

• 24:32Speaker 01

  You were the snake wrangler.

• 24:33Amy Poehler?

  I was the very sapphic snake wrangler.

• 24:36Speaker 01

  Who was Britney Spears? Was it Reese Witherspoon?

• 24:39Amy Poehler?

  Oh, Reese Witherspoon. She was the host, yeah.

• 24:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:41Amy Poehler?

  That makes sense.

• 24:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 24:42Amy Poehler?

  So then Mike says to us, I'm gonna go work on a show. I'm really excited. I'm gonna leave SNL. I'm gonna move. And, you know, everyone always wants to kind of like launch away from SNL, hopefully with some kind of project or something. And you told us the idea and we were like, oh, this is a bad idea.

• 25:01Speaker 01

  It's a bad idea, yeah. It was the American adaptation of The British Office.

• 25:05Amy Poehler?

  And we had watched, we had all watched The British Office together, including the very special Christmas episodes that we watched in your office.

• 25:14Speaker 01

  Which Seth got early from his friend in England. And we watched them in my office and we all like laughed and cried. And when Don came back and kissed him.

• 25:26Amy Poehler?

  Spoiler alert.

• 25:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, spoiler for a 20-year-old British show. We all like jumped up in the air and like, like we were celebrated like we won the Super Bowl.

• 25:34Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 25:34Speaker 01

  And then a couple of months later, I was like, I'm gonna go turn that into, well, help turn that into an American show.

• 25:42Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, and I remember us thinking like, oh, no. This is never gonna work.

• 25:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:48Amy Poehler?

  We were really like, oh, this is, this is terrible.

• 25:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:51Amy Poehler?

  Perfect show. How can you redo it? And then, of course, we heard a couple of things. We heard Steve Carell, who was a Second City guy that we knew in Chicago, we were like, that's a good idea. That's a, that's a good pick. And we were like, we knew that you were working on it and others who are genius writers. And so, and Greg Daniels, we thought, well, look, you got a good team. You're gonna go down in flames, but it's gonna be fun.

• 26:14Speaker 01

  It'll be like a cult classic thing or whatever. Yeah. I mean, I signed on for two reasons. Number one, it was the only job offer I got. But more importantly, because I met with Greg and my wife, JJ Philbin, had worked on Coupling, which was another British show that had been adapted and had not worked out. And Greg was like so scientific about it. He was like, what do you think went wrong? And where did, what did they do? And what did they not do? And we ended up talking in his office for like three hours. And I was like, this isn't gonna work. It's a bad idea. Everybody thinks it's a bad idea. But this guy is so smart and has thought about this so carefully that this will at least be an incredible, like, he's gonna teach me things about writing.

• 26:57Speaker 01

  And so I was not expecting it to work. I don't think anyone was, except maybe Greg. But it was like, this is gonna be an education for me in going from sketch writing to real or a half hour writing, you know?

• 27:09Amy Poehler?

  And then on that show, you are on for how many years?

• 27:12Speaker 01

  Four, the first four, first four plus.

• 27:14Amy Poehler?

  And then decide with Greg to create a new show. And it might be fun to talk about just the, like, the, all the kind of, I think it's always a good reminder. I think you and I are very much like this. Like, I think it's kind of important to show your work. Like, I think people think that ideas are these, like, fully formed things that are just realized instantly. And in my opinion, people that are less secure tend to pretend that they are, but secure people, I think, tend to kind of talk about all the ways that they approached something and how they had to reapproach, I guess. But in the very, very beginning, the idea for the spinoff of The Office, or was it even an idea for spinoff, was what?

• 27:57Speaker 01

  Well, so Ben Silverman, Ben Silverman was running NBC and they asked, he asked Greg to like, do a spinoff. And so Greg's response, typically thoughtful and considered, was, I would love to do another show. If the best idea that I have for a show is a spinoff, then I will do a spinoff. If the best idea I have is something else, I'll do something else. Greg is a real, one of the, the main things that he gave me in terms of like, how to do this job is, best idea wins. Doesn't matter who it comes from, if it's staff writer or a 25-year veteran co-EP or- A person who works in costumes or whatever, best idea wins. That's it. And there is no corollary to that. Hmm.

• 28:40Speaker 01

  In every situation that you're in creatively, best idea wins. And so that's what he said basically to Ben. And he was like, it's very important to me that you understand that if the best idea I have is not a spinoff of The Office, then we're going to do something else. And Ben was like, totally hear you, buddy. And the next day in the variety, he was like, Office spinoff is coming. Ben just totally ignored him and just announced an Office spinoff. Sure. So, uh, so Greg and I started meeting, Greg asked me to do it with him. So we started meeting, we would go to Norm's Diner in the valley, like twice a week for breakfast. And we would just think of ideas and we would talk about what interested us and what was going on. And we would inch down a little path and then hit a dead end and then inch back.

• 29:23Speaker 01

  And we would, um, we just met constantly over showing your work. We met all the time forever. And eventually came up with the idea of like, you know, and, and by the way, just to say it, some of the ideas we talked about were Office spinoffs. There were like Craig Robinson and Rainn Wilson and all these people on the show who could clearly be in their own show. So we talked about family shows with them or whatever. Greg was, I think, wary of taking assets away from a show that was very successful, in part because of its large, rich cast. We stumbled upon this idea of like, okay, Dunder Mifflin on The Office is a fake company and it's a way to satirize the private sector. What if we create a whole fake town and satirize the public sector?

• 30:07Speaker 01

  And as we're having that idea, the world economy goes kablooey. And they're talking about like massive government bailouts. And we start to realize that like the government, obviously federal really, but also state and local, was like, going to be very present in people's lives. Like people were going to be like, looking to the government for help. So we started getting excited about that. I had this idea for an abandoned lot that would be turned into a park over the course of the entire run of the show. Very Wire-y idea. I was obsessed with The Wire, as were you.

• 30:40Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, we share that.

• 30:42Speaker 01

  Yep. And I thought like the way that The Wire portrayed like calcified systems and how slow gears grind and stuff was fascinating to me. And I thought it would be really funny where in the pilot, if you did a show that ideally lasts for a long time and in the pilot, it's like, we're gonna do this. And then it literally doesn't get done until the very end of like nine years later. So that was the idea that I really liked. Greg then was like, what if it's not a lot? What if there's like a giant hole in the ground? What if it's a pit? And I was like, that's so much better. And so that idea of all the 73 ideas we had started to like fizzy, fizzy up. And it obviously is not a spinoff of The Office. And Greg, true to his word, was like, this is what we want to do.

• 31:23Speaker 01

  At some point, we called you because we heard you were leaving and you were like, I'm theoretically interested in this, let me know. The show was given a guaranteed 13-episode order, which now is very commonplace. At the time was like insane. And The Office was gonna be on after the Super Bowl that year. And this show was gonna launch after The Office. Then you called us back and said, actually, sorry, preggo. That's exactly what you said.

• 31:52Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, I said preggo.

• 31:53Speaker 01

  You said preggo.

• 31:53Amy Poehler?

  Preggo. I sent you a telegraph.

• 31:55Speaker 01

  Just a...

• 31:56Amy Poehler?

  I said preggo, stop. Show's off, stop.

• 32:02Speaker 01

  And it was like, well, you're gonna give birth like the week we have to shoot this, so no go. And then like, I remember very clearly, two weeks later, I went into Greg's office and I was like, you know, there's no, like, we had, we were working on the show at that point pretty strenuously. And I was just like, I just don't think there's anyone but Polar who can do this. And he was like, I had the same thought last night. And very quickly, we made a phone call to NBC and said, if we can get Amy for this, we will give up seven of the 13 guaranteed episodes because we'd only be able to make six.

• 32:32Amy Poehler?

  Dang.

• 32:32Speaker 01

  And give up the Super Bowl slot.

• 32:34Amy Poehler?

  Well, you guys were, I'm so appreciative you did that.

• 32:37Speaker 01

  I mean, the thing was, it was actually a very simple decision because we were like, you know, getting Amy Poehler on your show is a long-term decision. Like, that's a decision you make for like this, what you hope will be a very long chunk of time. Like, the Super Bowl slot is a short-term decision. It's like, yeah, you'll get this like frisson of, of energy, but like, it doesn't last. Like, no one ever, like, very rarely does that determine the fate of a TV show. And so, we then called you back and said, what if you could start shooting three months after you give birth? And then, we made the show.

• 33:11Amy Poehler?

  And it proved to be the most satisfying creative experience I've ever had. And I,

• 33:18Speaker 01

  More than this podcast?

• 33:19Amy Poehler?

  No, this is my number one.

• 33:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, okay. Number two, so it's number 10?

• 33:22Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, this is, I mean, besides this.

• 33:28Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by All Free Clear detergent. Are you trying to be a bit more mindful of the things you buy for you and your family? You know, reading the labels, checking the ingredients, trying to understand what all those letters, numbers, and long words mean? I get it. Sometimes, we don't really know what's in the things we buy, and we want to feel good about our choices. So, when it comes to laundry detergent, choose All Free Clear. 100% free from dyes and perfumes, All Free Clear detergent uses only essential ingredients that tackle tough stains and odors. And it's gentle on skin. It's a powerful clean you can feel good about. So, go on, pick up a bottle of All Free Clear for your next laundry day.

• 34:09Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by K-18. You know, hair isn't just hair. It's confidence, identity. So, if you're noticing more hair in the shower drain, or those first grays, you need K-18 Future IQ Biomeetic Hair Longevity Serum. It delivers up to 19,000 more hairs, helps prevent premature grays, and improves the scalp barrier. To start reversing hair age in three months. K18 is hair science that sees you. Shop Future IQ at Sephora or get 10% off your first purchase at k18hair.com with code Amy. This episode is brought to you by CarMax. Thinking of selling your car but still a little unsure if or how?

• 34:52Amy Poehler?

  Start by getting an online offer from CarMax. It's a real offer worth real money, but there's no pressure to take it. CarMax gives you up to seven days to compare offers and think it over. And when you're ready to sell, they'll pick the car up directly from your home. Get a real offer today at carmax.com. At-home pickup not available in all locations. Distance restrictions and fees may apply. This episode is brought to you by American Airlines. You'd think sitting on a plane with just a couple of hours between you and your vacation would be reward enough, but American Airlines said, what if we gave them even more? With the American Airlines Advantage Program, you earn miles not only when you fly, but with thousands of your favorite brands.

• 35:35Amy Poehler?

  And then redeem those miles for flights, upgrades, and experiences worldwide. That, and Advantage members also enjoy earlier boarding and free high-speed Wi-Fi in-flight. Join for free and start earning towards your next adventure at aa.com/amy.

• 35:57Amy Poehler?

  Now, one of the ways, like very concrete ways, that is, I feel like, an example of what I'm talking about, which is like the joy in the details, is the way you like to name characters.

• 36:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:09Amy Poehler?

  And I think you gave me, I think you allowed me to use this in my book, actually, but you gave me like a list of possible names instead of Leslie Knope, the character I played on Parks and Rec. Like you gave me like a bunch of different alternative names. But you also love to name characters left and right. What is it, what is fun about names for you and naming?

• 36:30Speaker 01

  Okay, so it's two things. The first is, growing up, first major comedic influence, Monty Python. Monty Python, experts at silly, stupid names, like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them. You can go look them up and their sketches. But the actual, the actual thing that's going on here is different. So I would go to actors IMDB pages to see what they had been in when we were casting them in the early days of the show. And you would see like woman number two, or like man in crowd, or a guy with a sandwich. And it really bummed me out because I love actors. I love them so much. I think that their job, people will scoff when I say this, I think they have the hardest

• 37:14Speaker 01

  job of any job when it comes to like making a show. It is so hard. Anyone who doesn't believe this should try it, by the way, try acting.

• 37:22Amy Poehler?

  Our buddy Ted Danson gave me the best line, which is acting is embarrassing.

• 37:26Speaker 01

  It's embarrassing. It's hard. You have to summon something, comedic timing, or dramatic performance, or tears, or anger, or whatever, like instantly with cameras on you and lights on you, wearing makeup and clothes that aren't yours, and 100 people staring at you, and a big dude holding a microphone four inches from your face. And when it's, when people can do it well, I think it's like a, it's like a miracle worthy of beatification at the Vatican. And so I would see these people on IMDB and it would be like man in crowd, and it would be like, that person, like auditioned for this and booked this gig and drove all the

• 38:07Speaker 01

  way across town and like put on fake clothes and put on makeup and whatever and had to stand in a certain place, follow a million instructions, say a line or two, and then they yelled cut and then that person drove all the way home and they got paid like $600 for like a week's worth of work. And they should be, there should be something better than man number two or man in crowd. And so I decided at that moment, this is early in season one, I think, of Pirates of Rec, that every character who appeared on the show was going to have a first and last name. So when you saw, instead of, if it says man in crowd, you're like, oh, well, that doesn't really count as an acting gig. But if you see Marv Vavavma, which is a name I gave a character once, you're like, who the hell is Marv Vavavma?

• 38:52Speaker 01

  What was Marv Vavavma up to? So I, and it has been. That was, it started with that intention and has become one of the great, truly one of the great joys of my life is to give every, because here's the other thing, sorry, you can cut all this out, but the other thing is if you name a character, um, Jack Smith.

• 39:12Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 39:13Speaker 01

  You can get away with it because there are 10 trillion Jack Smiths, but if you name a character, anything even mildly interesting, like Winona Cooper, there's gonna be like four Winona Coopers in the state that you're setting the show in, and then legal comes back and he says, you can't name a character that.

• 39:27Amy Poehler?

  A lot of people don't know that. You have to get names cleared.

• 39:30Speaker 01

  Be cleared, and there have to be either none, or so many that not any one of them could be, could think that you're saying anything about them. So I go for none.

• 39:40Amy Poehler?

  None.

• 39:40Speaker 01

  Yeah. I go for the weirdest names. Uh, we had a character recently on the show, on A Man on the Inside, named Ophelia Papipapepi. There's no Ophelia Papipapepi's anywhere in the continental United States, so you get to use that name. That has been my goal, is to have none, have, have the Google search come up empty with every name of every character.

• 40:02Amy Poehler?

  Okay, with that in mind, will you please read some of these names that

• 40:06Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 40:06Amy Poehler?

  you have invented?

• 40:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:08Amy Poehler?

  Like, just a few here on the bottom of this page.

• 40:10Speaker 01

  Okay. Mona Lisa Saperstein.

• 40:13Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 40:13Speaker 01

  Jenny Slate's character.

• 40:14Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 40:18Amy Poehler?

  Do you remember all these?

• 40:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:20Amy Poehler?

  Amazing.

• 40:20Speaker 01

  Trod Frankenstipe.

• 40:22Amy Poehler?

  Okay, tell us about Trod.

• 40:23Speaker 01

  So Trod Frankenstipe was a local reporter, or he had a, like, almost like a little show like this in Pawnee, where he would interview political people like Leslie Knope. A, a great way to come up with a name that doesn't exist is to take a normal name like Todd, and then just stick another letter in there somewhere. Trod, and then Frankenstipe is just Frankenstein with a P at the end. Uh, Tyrion Fonzarelli. Tyrion Fonzarelli, obviously a combination of two characters from TV history, Tyrion Lannister and Arthur Fonzarelli. This name goes to Matt Murray. Matt Murray did this.

• 40:56Amy Poehler?

  Ah, Panther.

• 40:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, Panther. Matt, uh, Tyrion Fonzarelli was

• 41:00Amy Poehler?

  A writer on Parks and Rec, among other things.

• 41:02Speaker 01

  Was a guy in a jewelry store who was buying a, um, an engagement ring for his, to be betrothed when Anne and, and Chris Trager were shopping for rings.

• 41:13Amy Poehler?

  Great.

• 41:14Speaker 01

  Uh, Leslie Knope.

• 41:15Amy Poehler?

  Yep.

• 41:15Speaker 01

  Gretzky Susan Pellegrino. Okay. This, so.

• 41:22Speaker 01

  Gretzky Susan Pellegrino was like the fourth in a series of names that for some reason all involved the last name of the greatest hockey player who ever lived, Wayne Gretzky.

• 41:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 41:31Speaker 01

  I don't offhand remember who Gretzky Susan Pellegrino is. Also, it should be noted, hyphens, huge part of my naming process.

• 41:38Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, so exciting.

• 41:39Speaker 01

  It's a way to get another name in there.

• 41:41Amy Poehler?

  Another name, and also there's no way that someone's gonna have this name.

• 41:44Speaker 01

  No one's first name is Gretzky Susan. Gretzky hyphen Susan. Typhoon Montalban.

• 41:50Amy Poehler?

  Oh, I love Typhoon.

• 41:51Speaker 01

  Typhoon was Don's hairdresser.

• 41:53Amy Poehler?

  Yep.

• 41:55Speaker 01

  Typhoon, also Matt Murray, I believe gave Typhoon the first name Typhoon. We needed a last name. Where do you go for the last name? Ricardo Montalban. Typhoon Montalban. Cassandra Sassnorp. Okay. Cassandra Sassnorp was, I believe, I could have this wrong, was just Sandra, it was like Sandra Snorp.

• 42:14Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 42:14Speaker 01

  And then legal was like, didn't clear. We found a Sandra Snorp somewhere. So guess what you do? You add five more S's. Now you're good.

• 42:21Amy Poehler?

  Cassandra.

• 42:22Speaker 01

  Cassandra Sassnorp. Summer Ole Kraken Frog Frog. Okay. This is a Monty Python ripoff, straight up.

• 42:29Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 42:29Speaker 01

  Ole, O-L-E with an accent, and I guess just that part. In, there's a Monty Python sketch called, I think, Election Night Special, where they're just going through election results and local elections all over the country. And there's a silly party and a sensible party. So all the people in the sensible party have names like John Smith, and all the people in the silly party have very crazy names. And there's also a very silly party and a slightly silly party. If you want names, go watch that sketch. It'll sate you. Summer Ole Kraken Frog Frog. That's a good one. Frog Frog is a great last name.

• 43:11Amy Poehler?

  Great one. And then this one, do you have, are you involved with this one with hacks?

• 43:14Speaker 01

  No. C.C. Homo.

• 43:16Amy Poehler?

  I thought that wasn't sure.

• 43:17Speaker 01

  C.C. Homo.

• 43:17Amy Poehler?

  And you know what? I don't want to talk about hacks.

• 43:19Speaker 01

  That's fine. They'll be here at 6 to pick me up.

• 43:21Amy Poehler?

  Jenna made me do that.

• 43:22Speaker 01

  C.C. Homo, H-O-M-E-A-U-X, was all Jen Statsky and Lucia Nello and Paul Downs. I don't know which one of them came up with it, but...

• 43:29Amy Poehler?

  Yes, but spelled differently than it said.

• 43:32Speaker 01

  It's a very funny moment in the show, because she introduces herself as C.C. Homo, and Jean Smart goes, "Spell that."

• 43:41Amy Poehler?

  Okay. Oh, and you know, we're gonna, let's, let's get into Philly Justice because we have some special guests that are gonna be joining us to talk about Philly Justice.

• 43:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:48Amy Poehler?

  Um, for those listening, stand by because we have very, very exciting guests.

• 43:52Speaker 01

  Probably should have mentioned this so long ago.

• 43:55Amy Poehler?

  Oh, yeah.

• 43:55Speaker 01

  Can you do me a favor and go back and record that?

• 43:58Amy Poehler?

  Well, we do record, we often record the beginning after the interview. So I can talk about what we talked about.

• 44:04Speaker 01

  Please, don't make people sit through some Olay Kraken frog frog before they get to the famous people.

• 44:09Amy Poehler?

  And I, and a lot of people don't know though, we record the interview after the person leaves.

• 44:14Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 44:15Amy Poehler?

  So, so yeah, so this is just us talking.

• 44:17Speaker 01

  This is not being recorded?

• 44:18Amy Poehler?

  No.

• 44:21Speaker 01

  This is just to capture the AI modulation of my voice?

• 44:24Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 44:25Speaker 01

  And then you make me say whatever you want me to.

• 44:27Amy Poehler?

  Of course. I mean, it's just so hard.

• 44:28Speaker 01

  Honestly, it's a relief at this point.

• 44:30Amy Poehler?

  AI is a relief. I keep saying that.

• 44:32Speaker 01

  It really is.

• 44:33Amy Poehler?

  Um, um, and, um, we, we, we might also want to like do a little teaser too to say that you and I are thinking, when this comes out.

• 44:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:42Amy Poehler?

  We will have announced that we're working together again on something exciting.

• 44:46Speaker 01

  Very exciting.

• 44:47Amy Poehler?

  So we're back together again. We are renewing our vows, if you will.

• 44:51Speaker 01

  I, um, I had my fun.

• 44:54Amy Poehler?

  That's right.

• 44:54Speaker 01

  I ran around town.

• 44:55Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 44:56Speaker 01

  And I realized that what I really needed was under my nose the whole time.

• 45:00Amy Poehler?

  Yoko knew that John needed a break, okay? And she let him wander and he came back. So,

• 45:09Amy Poehler?

  you know, everyone needs a break sometimes, but you're back, back, we're back. And we're very, very excited to work together again.

• 45:15Speaker 01

  We'll have to, that's a whole separate podcast.

• 45:16Amy Poehler?

  I think it is. I think it is, but it's just a little teaser. Okay. So we will do another episode on Parks We Promise for those listening. But in the meantime, we need to get to, I think, a more important TV show.

• 45:28Speaker 01

  By far.

• 45:28Amy Poehler?

  And, and that is called Philly Justice.

• 45:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 45:31Amy Poehler?

  Now, to explain to people listening, what the heck is this? I don't know about a show called Philly Justice. Well, you shouldn't. It's not real. But on, I'll just set it up and then I need, I need you to tell us the history. So. Very briefly, Philly Justice is a fake TV show that we made up, a few cast members made up on the set of Parks and Rec one day because we looked at a picture of ourselves and we laughed and we said, oh, we look like we're in a TV show called Philly Justice. That small inside joke onset laugh grew into a beast that is still discussed today. So what do you remember about the beginnings of Philly Justice?

• 46:09Speaker 01

  So this is like season four of Parks and Rec, I think. You're running for, Leslie Oates running for office. And we have, in this season, incredible regular guest stars on the show. Catherine Hahn played a campaign manager, a high-powered campaign manager from DC, who was running the campaign of Bobby Newport, played by Paul Rudd.

• 46:29Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 46:30Speaker 01

  And Bobby Newport was the moron son of a wealthy businessman who didn't want the job at all, and, but was running against Leslie, and it's Leslie's greatest dream, and Bobby Newport does not care at all. And in fact, in the finale of the show, when he loses, there's a brief clip of him on TV being interviewed and he says, honestly, this is a huge relief, which is one of my favorite. It's an incredible Paul Rudd moment. So, in this episode we were shooting, you were all in like campaign mode, which meant you were maybe uncharacteristically wearing like a very smartly tailored suit.

• 47:06Amy Poehler?

  Yep.

• 47:07Speaker 01

  And Rashida was, Anne Perkins was also wearing something like that, and then Jen Barkley, Catherine's character, is always high-powered suit lady.

• 47:15Amy Poehler?

  Yep.

• 47:16Speaker 01

  And Paul Rudd is there, and Adam Scott is there, who usually wore ties and suits and stuff. And so, this is, what I remember is that someone came running up and said, look at this picture, and it was all five of you. And I think it was just a wardrobe picture. It was like, let's get a picture. They take pictures of characters all the time.

• 47:30Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 47:31Speaker 01

  Just to say like, okay, this is what they look like in case we have to recreate this. And that I think maybe Rashida had said, someone had said, we look like we're in a David E. Kelly show.

• 47:39Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 47:40Speaker 01

  Like a legal drama. And I think Rashida maybe just said Philly Justice.

• 47:43Amy Poehler?

  And we'll put the picture up here, but it, look, we're just kind of nailing it.

• 47:47Speaker 01

  You're just like, you're in the mode of that, of that kind of show.

• 47:50Amy Poehler?

  That's right.

• 47:50Speaker 01

  So then what I heard, and this stuff was like bleeding up to me in the red. Writers' room is that you guys had started kind of just, you were like, this is the thing we're doing now is we're coming up with like, characters and scenes and like, moments of dialogue for our characters from this fake show that you had invented called Philly Justice, which was a David E. Kelley show from like, 2005.

• 48:13Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 48:14Speaker 01

  That had shot the pilot and that had never aired. And you were all goofing around and improvising, right? Like improvising just like, who you were and what the show was about. So it just kept wafting up to the writers' room that like, everyone was really enjoying this bit. Great, fantastic. Then, I think we all collectively blacked out.

• 48:35Amy Poehler?

  Mm-hmm.

• 48:36Speaker 01

  And when we woke up, the writers had written scenes for Philly Justice.

• 48:41Amy Poehler?

  Yes, like a 20-page script.

• 48:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, like, writers, it should be noted, in comedy rooms, will take any excuse not to work.

• 48:48Amy Poehler?

  Of course, writing is the worst.

• 48:50Speaker 01

  It's the worst. And it's, and if there's like, a fun, a more fun thing.

• 48:53Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 48:54Speaker 01

  Great. And I, I do remember at one point, divvying up scenes for Philly Justice, the way that a good showrunner would be like, okay, why don't you guys take act one of the next episode, and you take act two, and whatever. And instead, I was like, okay, you guys write the scene where the, where Adam, Scott, and whoever are like, fighting, and you take the scene where Rashida's doing this. And we just started writing scenes, fake scenes for a fake show that didn't exist, for you in character.

• 49:21Amy Poehler?

  While we were making another show.

• 49:23Speaker 01

  Correct. Now, we have, in season four of the show, we have built the city council chambers, where Leslie was hoping to work someday. The city council chambers looked kinda like a courtroom, if you squinted.

• 49:36Amy Poehler?

  Yep.

• 49:37Speaker 01

  So it was like, okay. And then, at some point, I remember Morgan Sackett.

• 49:40Amy Poehler?

  Yep, who we're gonna talk to today.

• 49:42Speaker 01

  We're gonna talk to today, coming in and saying like, I think we can shoot all of this stuff in the, in the city council chamber. And I don't remember when we decided to shoot it. I like, that, again, we blacked out.

• 49:54Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 49:54Speaker 01

  But suddenly, we were just gonna do this. We were going to make, we were gonna use NBC resources.

• 50:02Speaker 01

  While we're supposed to be making the show they paid for.

• 50:04Amy Poehler?

  Which never suffered.

• 50:05Speaker 01

  Never suffered. And then we were gonna take some of those resources and divert them without anyone knowing.

• 50:11Amy Poehler?

  Sure.

• 50:11Speaker 01

  To a different part of the same set.

• 50:13Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 50:14Speaker 01

  And then shoot the scenes from Philly Justice. And, and by the way, this is very important for everyone to understand. To no end. There was not a point to this.

• 50:23Amy Poehler?

  No.

• 50:23Speaker 01

  It wasn't like, we're gonna put this on the DVD, or we're going to, this is like a backdoor pilot, or if this works, we could really do X, Y, and Z.

• 50:31Amy Poehler?

  And it wasn't like vi- it wasn't like we're gonna make a viral thing, or we're gonna be talking about it 15, 16 years later. No.

• 50:37Speaker 01

  It was because it was fun. And, and really, the thing that I think is the most important thing to get across is that this, that show was so fun to work on. Everyone was almost singularly devoted to the concept of having fun.

• 50:52Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 50:52Speaker 01

  And this just seemed fun. And we didn't question it. We didn't ask why we were doing it. Morgan, Morgan's job, basically, is to like, make the show that we're making. He was as gung ho about this as anyone. He was like, yeah, of course we, of course we have to do this. Like, we have to do this. And then next thing I know, well, then a bunch of stuff happens. And I don't want to go too far.

• 51:11Amy Poehler?

  Well, I think this might be a good time to jump onto our Zoom.

• 51:14Speaker 01

  Great.

• 51:15Amy Poehler?

  Perfect time, actually, because we're gonna be joined on our Zoom with some, the cast of Philly Justice, basically. And what we'll figure, what we'll discuss when we get everybody is, there was a casting change.

• 51:27Speaker 01

  I forgot about that.

• 51:28Amy Poehler?

  Okay. And also, what we'll talk about is, this small joke became hours of emails.

• 51:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 51:35Amy Poehler?

  Character descriptions, tons of, um, scripts, an actual shoot day, a trailer that we're gonna show at the end. And nobody has seen this particular trailer.

• 51:46Speaker 01

  It's very exciting.

• 51:47Amy Poehler?

  We, now, we did put on the, um, end of one of the blooper reels, like, a small, kind of like, fake trailer of Philly Justice.

• 51:55Speaker 01

  We did, yes.

• 51:56Amy Poehler?

  But we never showed the real deal. And not only are we gonna show it to our, um, on this podcast, but we're also, a lot of the people here today have never seen it. And we're gonna watch them watch it in real time.

• 52:08Speaker 01

  Very exciting.

• 52:08Amy Poehler?

  And just like those video games. And we're gonna play video games over. For them watching the video.

• 52:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, then I'm gonna Twitch. I'm gonna do a Twitch stream that has that in a small square while I play Castlevania.

• 52:19Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, and then me and Kai Sinat are gonna go out and give out Nintendo. We're gonna Philly Justice Nintendo.

• 52:25Speaker 01

  And then that whole thing will be on a video on a phone that Mr. Beast is holding at the NBA Slam Dunk Contest.

• 52:32Amy Poehler?

  When he jumps out of the elevator.

• 52:38Amy Poehler?

  Okay, so let's see, do we have anyone on yet? Oh my gosh, this is exciting.

• 52:44Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by Degree Cool Rush Deodorant. I'm a big fan of people owning their mistakes. Like how last year Degree changed their Cool Rush formula and men were mad. One guy even started a petition. So Degree listened, admitted they messed up, and they're now bringing the OG Cool Rush scent back. It's clean, crisp, and fresh. No wonder it's been the number one men's antiperspirant for the last decade. And it's in Walmart, Target, and other stores now for under $4. Just look for the light blue one. Degree Cool Rush is back, and it smells like victory for everyone.

• 53:22Amy Poehler?

  So joining us now, Rashida Jones, Morgan Sackett, and Adam Scott. Welcome, everybody.

• 53:29Speaker 02

  Thank you so much. Thanks for having us.

• 53:31Amy Poehler?

  And where is everyone Zooming from?

• 53:33Speaker 02

  I'm upstairs at a barbecue, a family barbecue.

• 53:38Amy Poehler?

  Great.

• 53:38Speaker 02

  In LA.

• 53:39Amy Poehler?

  Morgan? I'm at home in LA. Adam?

• 53:42Speaker 03

  I'm in New York, and I happen to be in Aziz's apartment right now.

• 53:48Amy Poehler?

  And is Aziz there?

• 53:49Speaker 03

  No, no, he's, I locked him out. He's downstairs. He can't get in.

• 53:54Speaker 01

  Banging on the door.

• 53:55Speaker 03

  That's right. He's furious.

• 53:57Speaker 01

  Wait, Rashida, upstairs at a barbecue?

• 54:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, not mine. I'm in a person's home. I asked them where their office was. This is where I am.

• 54:08Amy Poehler?

  Thank you.

• 54:08Speaker 03

  That's always the best place at a barbecue is just upstairs.

• 54:12Speaker 01

  Upstairs.

• 54:13Speaker 02

  In like a stranger's office. It's great.

• 54:16Speaker 01

  Just going through their stuff.

• 54:19Speaker 02

  Emmys up here, just telling you guys.

• 54:21Amy Poehler?

  Dang, who's barbecue is this? Can we guess who's barbecue it is?

• 54:25Speaker 01

  It's also Aziz's barbecue.

• 54:28Speaker 03

  And he's not allowed in.

• 54:30Speaker 01

  He's also not there. He's not in either place.

• 54:34Speaker 03

  By the way, guys, where's Aziz?

• 54:36Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 54:37Speaker 02

  Don't know. I haven't heard from him in years.

• 54:38Speaker 01

  If Aziz walks through the background of Morgan Zoom right now, it'll be the greatest moment in the history of podcasting.

• 54:46Amy Poehler?

  I guess we wanted to just start, um, Morgan, if we could, um, we were talking about how this picture on set then became a private joke that then became a show that then was written by the writers while we were actually doing a real show. So what do you remember about the first time you heard about it? And could you talk to us about the email that you sent?

• 55:12Speaker 01

  And also, how, how were you this irresponsible that you allowed this to happen on your watch?

• 55:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, really.

• 55:19Speaker 04

  It just sort of floated around for a while. Everybody, I don't know. I thought Colleen, who was our photographer forever, took it, but I talked to her this week. She didn't. I don't know who snapped that photo, but little did they know.

• 55:29Speaker 03

  It was just with one of our phones.

• 55:31Speaker 02

  It was on my phone and we got somebody to do it. I don't remember who did it, but.

• 55:35Speaker 01

  Okay. So you, you commissioned the photo yourself because you were enjoying how you all looked in your smartly tailored suits. Okay.

• 55:42Speaker 02

  We were enjoying ourselves. Yeah.

• 55:43Speaker 01

  Great.

• 55:44Speaker 03

  The photo was commissioned.

• 55:45Amy Poehler?

  Like, like actors do. We were like, look at how cool we look. Let's take another photo. We were like, we've been photographed all day, but yet it's still not enough.

• 55:54Speaker 03

  Right.

• 55:55Speaker 01

  Not enough cameras.

• 55:56Speaker 02

  I don't feel satisfied somehow.

• 55:58Speaker 04

  While people around us are doing work, like setting up the next shot, get carrying cameras and equipment and stuff, we're like, oh, look at us in front of this.

• 56:09Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, we were like, Rashida, somebody take a picture.

• 56:12Speaker 01

  Rashida's camera, how cool we look. And Rashida, do I have it right? I thought I remembered that you were the one who first said the words Philly Justice as if it were a fake show. Do I have that right? Do you remember?

• 56:25Speaker 02

  It's probably, I mean, I'm not going to take credit, but it's probably right because I'm, I mean, I spent two years on a David Kelly show and like a, you know, in Davy Kelly land. And I think I was like, this is a procedural. This is like a legal procedural. Maybe, I don't know. My memory's not great, but I'll take credit.

• 56:43Amy Poehler?

  Well, if you pay attention, everybody is facing one way except for Adam, and that really did end up informing his character.

• 56:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:52Amy Poehler?

  Everybody is, yeah. So Adam is the rebel.

• 56:57Speaker 01

  Nick something, right?

• 56:59Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, Nick. Yeah, we'll get it. We'll get to Nick. So Morgan, you are busy working on a show and you hear this stupid thing. And you're like, you just hear us talking about it. When did you realize that you wanted to be part of making it into a trailer?

• 57:19Speaker 04

  No, no, I think we, it just kept coming up. And it's like, and I, I feel like it was when we had that, the city council chambers, you know, that was like, and we're like, that courtroom. And then we knew the Barclay group was coming up, which was Han's character's like high-end DC lobbying firm. And it's like, that looks like a law office. So I said, I, we just talked about it forever and noodled around scripts. And you guys had a very active chat going on about it. And I sent out an email. We, I have that email.

• 57:49Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, can you read, Morgan, can you read us the email?

• 57:51Speaker 04

  Sure. Dear cast of Philly Justice, we're planning to shoot Wednesday, September 19th. The brief storyline is that there's an EPK for Philly Justice pilot shot in the spring of 2002. We're talking to Dylan McDermott and it looks like we'll work it out to have him join us. We also may get an interview with David E. Kelly, which we really thought we were going to get. We should decide what angle we want to take with him. He wrote it, he saw it, he hated it, he advised Dylan not to do it, etc. We're planning to convert the Barclay Group set into the offices of Philly Justice Team. We're also going to set up a courtroom set. The plan is to shoot a couple of short scenes for the pilot and then interviews with the cast. Most of these will play out in the interview segments. The plan is to dress and groom everyone as 2002 lawyers.

• 58:36Speaker 04

  That need from everybody is character names and backgrounds, any bits you want to try and a name for the law firm. Please respond. And at the end I said, thanks, Morgan Sackett, assistant to the associate producer of Philly Justice.

• 58:48Speaker 03

  I, okay.

• 58:49Speaker 02

  Morgan, why?

• 58:50Speaker 03

  Oh, that's great.

• 58:50Speaker 02

  I just want to know why, Morgan, why? Why did you, why did you let this?

• 58:55Speaker 04

  But I remember emailing David Kelly's people and he was in and then I got a call like two days before he was going to come and it's like, I'm sorry, from like some big CIA agent or something like, I'm sorry, what is this?

• 59:09Speaker 03

  Ah, of course, and they killed it.

• 59:11Speaker 04

  That went away very quickly.

• 59:13Speaker 03

  I remember getting that email and being so, because there were like rumblings like, we're actually, I think we might shoot something and the writers might be coming up with something. And then getting the email and knowing for sure Morgan was on board meant that we might actually be doing this. Yeah.

• 59:31Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 59:31Speaker 03

  If he puts his brain on it, time will be carved out. And it was, I remember just being so excited that we were going to get to do it. Yeah. Because we'd been talking about at that point, maybe for like six months or s- I, I, I don't know. Did you figure out how long from when we had taken the picture to when we shot this?

• 59:52Amy Poehler?

  No, we, we.

• 59:53Speaker 03

  I don't think it was that long.

• 59:54Speaker 04

  At least most of a season. It was like.

• 59:56Speaker 03

  Oh, was it really?

• 59:57Speaker 04

  Between.

• 59:58Speaker 03

  That's, yeah, I thought it was a while.

• 59:59Amy Poehler?

  Rashida, do you have any memory of that early part?

• 1:00:02Speaker 02

  I can't believe how long it was. I'm like in shock that we spent so. I do remember there was a lot of, we talked a lot about our. Our backstories, not just as characters, but as the people playing the characters and how we interacted with each other on the set of Philly Justice. So it was like meta, meta, meta, like many, many levels of inception had been, had been crafted to like really support the, the, the truth of this experience.

• 1:00:30Speaker 01

  I feel like you two and Han and, um, uh, whoever were on, was, and Amy who were on the chat had gotten, you had done so much work in just like, in texting and like doing the bit of the show that you would accidentally created this very elaborate backstory. And one of the pieces of the backstory was that Dylan McDermott had been in the pilot. He, of course, a veteran of The Practice and of other shows like that. And then at some point, and this is where we need Morgan, when did we reach out to Dylan McDermott to say, we're doing this insane thing for no reason. Do you want to be a part of it? And how did that go exactly? Do you remember?

• 1:01:11Speaker 04

  I think that we were, we wanted to do it and we're like, we have these sets and we can shoot it. And, and Rudd was doing a movie or something was not available.

• 1:01:20Amy Poehler?

  Right. That should be clear that Paul Rudd was not available. So instead of killing the fake show within the real show, we said, let's recast with Dylan McDermott, who very, very nicely said, yes, I'm in.

• 1:01:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:37Amy Poehler?

  What, he didn't even, he said, I don't even think he said, what is this? He just said, I'm game. I'm in.

• 1:01:41Speaker 01

  Well, also, so then the, but the lore in the meta, meta, meta world became that Paul Rudd had been that character and had been recast after the table read.

• 1:01:51Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:01:52Speaker 01

  And been replaced by Dylan McDermott, which is why he was going to be in it and not Paul.

• 1:01:56Amy Poehler?

  And during that time, we started talking about our characters. And if we have a second, because I know I don't have everybody for very long. If we could, um, read the character descriptions of our characters, um, if, if, Bones, now you're in a car. I see you're in a car.

• 1:02:13Speaker 01

  Fleeing the barbecue.

• 1:02:14Amy Poehler?

  Now you're driving.

• 1:02:15Speaker 02

  This is a real active Zoom here. I'm gonna, yes, I, yes, I'm here.

• 1:02:20Amy Poehler?

  Okay, I'm sending, I'm sending you the, um, character description. Are you actually driving or is someone driving?

• 1:02:28Speaker 02

  No, wouldn't that be terrible? No.

• 1:02:29Amy Poehler?

  Okay.

• 1:02:30Speaker 02

  I'm, I'm, no.

• 1:02:30Amy Poehler?

  Okay, so, um, if I may, um, uh, have our, our actors here and then we'll, we'll, we'll fill in with Hans and, um, and Rudd slash McDermott's character.

• 1:02:41Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:02:41Amy Poehler?

  Um, Rashida, would you mind telling us the character you came up with for Philly Justice? So when we watch the trailer, we know what, you know, what kind of stuff you were working with.

• 1:02:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, you got it. Okay, so I, I was, um, I was playing Joey Martinez, who was a first-year associate. She had a really rough background, like her, she came from a hard, hard family background. Um, she doesn't like to talk, but she's the one that gives it to you straight. Even when you don't ask for her opinion. And that's, that's the beauty of Joey is that even when you don't ask, she's gonna tell you what she thinks.

• 1:03:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's Joey.

• 1:03:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's Joey, that's Joey. And women don't like her in the firm, like especially Holly, but women in general don't like her in the firm because she's, you know.

• 1:03:29Amy Poehler?

  And Holly was my character and it was fun for us to play enemies.

• 1:03:33Speaker 01

  I'm sorry, I just got the text that Polar sent with these descriptions. They are so long. They're so long.

• 1:03:39Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:39Speaker 01

  There's hundreds of charac- there's more work put into this than there was into the actual characters from Parks and Rec.

• 1:03:45Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:46Speaker 02

  Well, that's what, that's when it makes sense that we spent six months checking. That's when it really, really makes sense.

• 1:03:51Amy Poehler?

  All right, Adam, you want to talk to us about your character?

• 1:03:54Speaker 03

  Sure, Nick Bellows. Uh, he's a district attorney. He rides his motorcycle to work, leather jacket with a tie. He was one of the fastest rising attorneys in Manhattan and was being groomed for partner at Powers, Cooper and Powers under the tutelage of his mentor slash father figure, Blaine Powers.

• 1:04:16Amy Poehler?

  Oh.

• 1:04:17Speaker 03

  But the morning of September 11th, 2001, Nick was late to work because he was in bed with a woman he'd been secretly seeing.

• 1:04:27Speaker 03

  Melina Powers, Blaine Powers' wife.

• 1:04:29Speaker 01

  Whoa. What?

• 1:04:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, the location of Powers, Cooper and Powers offices, World Trade Center, North Tower, 67th floor. Bellows is the only survivor from his firm.

• 1:04:44Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 1:04:44Speaker 01

  Unbelievable backstory.

• 1:04:46Amy Poehler?

  This is quite a backstory.

• 1:04:48Speaker 03

  It's crazy. I mean, think about the guilt.

• 1:04:50Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:51Speaker 02

  I can't imagine.

• 1:04:53Speaker 03

  Just below the surface, you know?

• 1:04:55Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:56Speaker 03

  So Bellows went off the grid. He was believed to have perished along with his colleagues, but in fact, he grabbed his suitcase, leather jacket and a .357 Magnum and found his way to Afghanistan, determined to fight for justice in the one place, the only place that truly needs it. Good Lord.

• 1:05:16Speaker 01

  That's also not true. There's a lot of places that need justice.

• 1:05:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, quite a few.

• 1:05:20Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:22Speaker 03

  Bellows has more demons than he can count. Now that he's back, he's on the right side of the law. He cares about only one thing. Uh, one thing and one thing only, justice.

• 1:05:34Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 1:05:34Speaker 01

  So, just to be clear, he's a district attorney who works at this law firm?

• 1:05:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, for some reason, he is at a private.

• 1:05:43Speaker 02

  He didn't know. He didn't know, you know?

• 1:05:48Speaker 01

  He went, wait, see, 9/11 made him get, grab a pistol and go to Afghanistan.

• 1:05:54Speaker 03

  Uh, his leather jacket and a gun and go to. I guess independent of the armed forces, he's just over there.

• 1:06:02Amy Poehler?

  Yeah, he just went over there on his own.

• 1:06:04Speaker 01

  Hey, guys, hey, guys, how can I help?

• 1:06:06Amy Poehler?

  So I'll, I'll blaze through the other fast ones. So then we had Catherine Han, who was Valerie McNeil, partner, criminal prosecutor, a machine. And no kids never married. She isn't here. She also is very tough. She cares about the case over everyone else. And in the trailer, there's a moment where you and Catherine kiss, Adam.

• 1:06:28Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:06:28Amy Poehler?

  I'm not sure why. But I always remembered it like, um, uh, um, what's, what's the, um, the Mandela Effect. I always remembered it as Rashida and Catherine kissing.

• 1:06:41Speaker 01

  Oh, wait, no, you're not wrong. There was a joke, and this is now coming back to me. I think there was a joke that we were gonna do a scene where like, Adam and Catherine kissed, and then Adam and Rashida kissed, and then Catherine and Rashida kissed. And it was, it was like, everyone is, is like making out with everyone.

• 1:06:56Amy Poehler?

  Okay, I remembered it as such, and I even said it on the pod, and a lot of people were excited to see that. And I just wanna let everybody know, that doesn't happen in the trailer. I'm so sorry.

• 1:07:04Speaker 03

  There is no footage of that.

• 1:07:06Speaker 01

  Alright, what's your character?

• 1:07:07Amy Poehler?

  And very quickly, mine is Holly.

• 1:07:11Speaker 01

  McIntyre.

• 1:07:11Amy Poehler?

  Holly McIntyre, junior partner, head prosecutor, stiff and quick to anger, doesn't make friends easily. Everybody doesn't make friends.

• 1:07:21Speaker 01

  Everyone's the same.

• 1:07:22Amy Poehler?

  Her dad is Cameron McIntyre, owner of the firm. Oh, she's the daddy's girl, yeah. And she's really worked her butt off to be taken seriously. She's a tough litigator. Her father, played by Corbin Bernsen, thinks that she cares too much. She does.

• 1:07:37Speaker 01

  Wait, I'm sorry, read the one right before that.

• 1:07:39Amy Poehler?

  Holly became a lawyer after a bunch of kids in her town died from lead poisoning.

• 1:07:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, sure.

• 1:07:48Amy Poehler?

  She's hard on Joey Martinez, but all, but only because she sees a lot of herself in her. Yeah, and she tends to go for married men who are older and a little mean. And then we also have, um, Shane Chains. Shane Chains.

• 1:08:03Speaker 01

  That's Dylan's character's name.

• 1:08:05Amy Poehler?

  Also, um, let's not forget Nick Offerman played the judge.

• 1:08:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:10Amy Poehler?

  Nick, he says he remembers nothing other than he was just hanging around and someone said, can you play the judge? Do you remember that, Morgan?

• 1:08:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, I, I remember, we were talking about it the next day we were doing it. It's like, you guys don't work tomorrow. And Nick's like, I'll come in tomorrow. What do you, what do I do? And I said, we need a judge.

• 1:08:27Amy Poehler?

  Alright, well, we are very excited. We're gonna have a world premiere.

• 1:08:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:31Amy Poehler?

  And you know, it's really exciting. I mean, there's not a lot of things that um we've just kept in a vault for all this time.

• 1:08:41Speaker 01

  No, we threw almost everything we did and then wrote new stuff for the gag reels that that we would release just to just to like have let people enjoy the goofiness of the show, but this has remained locked in a vault. So this would have been made in what Morgan? 2011? 2012. 2012?

• 1:09:00Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 1:09:01Speaker 01

  So it's 13 years old.

• 1:09:02Speaker 03

  13 years.

• 1:09:04Amy Poehler?

  That's pretty wild.

• 1:09:05Speaker 02

  I just want to say, a lot of people have asked me, like what the life, what the future life of Philly justice is.

• 1:09:12Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:14Speaker 02

  I mean, we got to, you know, it's, it's, it could be nothing, but I think that people are very interested and, you know.

• 1:09:20Speaker 01

  Or it could be rebooted.

• 1:09:23Speaker 04

  Amy called about doing this. I'm like, this is going to end with us shooting more Philly justice.

• 1:09:29Speaker 02

  This is what I'm saying is that that's what I hope happens, like rebooting a show that never happened. I mean, there's nothing better than that.

• 1:09:35Amy Poehler?

  Rashida, Philly has never needed more justice than now. I mean, justice is needed. So I think it's time to make it.

• 1:09:42Speaker 01

  I mean, if there's ever a time, it's now.

• 1:09:45Speaker 02

  Couldn't agree more.

• 1:09:46Amy Poehler?

  I will say that we, we, people that are listening to Good Hang, we hear you. You have been demanding to see this. It is release Philly justice now. That have been the comment, that has been many of the comments. The comments are like, the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards Philly justice. Show it to me, Amy. Parentheses, Rachel. Release the tape. Or accidentally group text it to all of us, which is another great one. Um, please, please, please, please. In the words of Leslie, no, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please. So we are listening, we're learning, we're sharing, we are gonna play and, and will they be able to see it on the Zoom? Okay, you guys ready to watch it?

• 1:10:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:10:31Amy Poehler?

  Okay, here we go.

• 1:10:34Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:10:35Speaker 01

  Really exciting.

• 1:10:39Amy Poehler?

  Amy, are you gonna play it from your Oh! I'm supposed to play it! I'm supposed to play it!

• 1:10:50Amy Poehler?

  Here we go!

• 1:10:52Speaker 03

  Oh my god!

• 1:10:53Amy Poehler?

  I'm in charge, oh no! Oh no!

• 1:10:57Speaker 03

  You have to keep that seventeen seconds of silence.

• 1:11:01Amy Poehler?

  Okay, so sorry about that, guys. Thank you for waiting. Here we go.

• 1:11:08Speaker 05

  For the first time ever on DVD.

• 1:11:13Speaker 05

  The legendary courtroom drama that no one has ever seen. Any more witnesses, Counselor?

• 1:11:20Speaker 02

  Just one, Your Honor. Joey Martinez, the defense attorney.

• 1:11:23Amy Poehler?

  What? This is preposterous! Your Honor, you can't possibly-

• 1:11:26Speaker 05

  Overruled!

• 1:11:27Speaker 02

  I hope you know what you're doing, McNeil. Just follow my lead.

• 1:11:30Speaker 05

  The show that broke all the rules.

• 1:11:33Speaker 03

  Your Honor, I only have one more witness. It's you.

• 1:11:38Speaker 05

  You can't do that! The courtroom drama that revolutionized television forever.

• 1:11:44Speaker 03

  What the hell are you doing here? What the hell are you doing here? I work here now. I work here now. So do I. So do I. We'll see about that. Well, we will see about that.

• 1:11:53Amy Poehler?

  Keep your history in your pants, boys.

• 1:11:56Speaker 05

  These lawyers play by their own rules.

• 1:11:58Speaker 03

  Permission to treat the witness as beautiful.

• 1:12:02Speaker 02

  Granted.

• 1:12:03Speaker 05

  And they play for keeps.

• 1:12:04Speaker 03

  Counselor, will you marry me?

• 1:12:07Amy Poehler?

  She can't. She's already married. To her job.

• 1:12:12Speaker 05

  Bring it home for the first time.

• 1:12:14Speaker 03

  Shit! You're a playboy and a social climber. And a rebel and an outlaw who plays by his own rules. Of course they're never gonna let me in their little club!

• 1:12:23Speaker 05

  And experience what no one else has ever had the chance to experience. Let there be justice in Philadelphia!

• 1:12:33Speaker 05

  Once again. Amy Poehler. Adam Scott. Rashida Jones. Catherine Hahn. And Dylan McDermott. I'm a judge now. And you're guilty. Your honor. Philly Justice. Coming this spring on DVD. Welcome to Philly, bitch.

• 1:12:59Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 1:13:01Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 1:13:02Amy Poehler?

  Yes.

• 1:13:04Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 1:13:06Amy Poehler?

  Wow.

• 1:13:06Speaker 04

  I feel like whoever wrote Perd Happily's intros wrote the text for that trailer.

• 1:13:11Speaker 01

  Wait, Morgan, I have an important question for you, and I don't want to get too inside baseball. Is that Steadicam? That is, right?

• 1:13:18Speaker 04

  Maybe.

• 1:13:18Speaker 01

  Did we hire a Steadicam operator? We never used Steadicam on the show once, probably. We hired a Steadicam operator to shoot that?

• 1:13:28Speaker 03

  It looked like Steadicam to me.

• 1:13:30Speaker 04

  Yeah, it probably was.

• 1:13:31Speaker 01

  Do you remember? Did we?

• 1:13:33Speaker 03

  I think it was.

• 1:13:33Speaker 01

  We built a rig?

• 1:13:35Speaker 04

  We were gonna do these walk and talks down the hallways, I think.

• 1:13:40Amy Poehler?

  You know, it really is shorter and less exciting than we really built it up to be.

• 1:13:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's, it's.

• 1:13:47Speaker 02

  We shot more. That was just, that was the trailer.

• 1:13:50Speaker 01

  That's the trailer.

• 1:13:51Speaker 02

  We shot more.

• 1:13:51Speaker 01

  Somewhere there, yeah.

• 1:13:53Speaker 03

  We were shooting like, uh, an episode.

• 1:13:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:57Speaker 03

  Essentially, right?

• 1:13:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:13:58Speaker 03

  But never finished it.

• 1:13:59Speaker 04

  And we were shooting an EPK to go around the pilot.

• 1:14:02Speaker 03

  Right.

• 1:14:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, there's, there's definitely, uh, my guess would be that we looked at all of the footage and were like, this is a trailer. The way to do this is a trailer, not like long scenes or something. I, my favorite part of it is when, Adam, when you say, "You're a social climber and a playboy. I'm a rebel who plays by his own rules." You're just like speaking the bios of the characters out loud.

• 1:14:28Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 1:14:29Speaker 01

  But in character.

• 1:14:30Amy Poehler?

  And you bring your motorcycle helmet to court.

• 1:14:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:14:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:14:34Amy Poehler?

  Also, I can't, I'm confused as to who is able to object.

• 1:14:40Amy Poehler?

  It's a lot of objecting.

• 1:14:42Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:14:43Amy Poehler?

  Well, I mean, I feel like it, as Mike said, it was an example of how much fun we were having and how much fun we were allowed to have. So, thank you, Mike and Morgan, for making Philly Justice a reality.

• 1:14:55Speaker 01

  I mean, our fun.

• 1:14:57Amy Poehler?

  And thank you Rashida for naming the show.

• 1:15:00Speaker 02

  Oh, my pleasure.

• 1:15:01Amy Poehler?

  And Adam, thank you for your work in Afghanistan, it seems like.

• 1:15:04Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:15:05Amy Poehler?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:05Speaker 03

  Thank, no, thank you. Thanks for creating space for me to go to Afghanistan.

• 1:15:11Speaker 01

  With your pistol.

• 1:15:12Speaker 03

  With a gun, yeah.

• 1:15:15Amy Poehler?

  And, um, I know, I'm sure Aziz is right off frame, out of frame there. So, tell Aziz, I'm sorry he wasn't in it.

• 1:15:22Speaker 03

  Aziz, everyone says, hey, uh, sorry you weren't in Philly Justice. Oh, he just walked out.

• 1:15:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh, he's in Rashida's car now.

• 1:15:31Speaker 02

  Oh, he's here. Rashida, everybody says, thank you.

• 1:15:34Amy Poehler?

  All right. Thank you, guys, so much for jumping on. It means a lot. And I think this will be a very special episode.

• 1:15:42Speaker 03

  Thanks for doing this. So fun.

• 1:15:45Speaker 01

  Bye, y'all.

• 1:15:45Amy Poehler?

  Love you, guys. Love all of you.

• 1:15:47Speaker 03

  Bye, guys. Love you.

• 1:15:48Amy Poehler?

  Love you. Morgan, let's get Philly Justice back together. Let's get a call sheet, Morgies. All right. Thanks all. And thank you, Mike, for joining and talking about this. It was the best.

• 1:16:00Speaker 01

  It was so fun.

• 1:16:01Amy Poehler?

  So fun. Love you.

• 1:16:03Speaker 01

  Love you, too.

• 1:16:03Amy Poehler?

  Bye, all.

• 1:16:07Amy Poehler?

  That was amazing. Um, we got to see the trailer of Philly Justice, which really was the only thing we ended up making. And, um, and we got to talk to the great Mike Schur, who, uh, we need to have back to talk more about Parks and Rec, because there's just so much to talk to him about. And, um, if you want, if you're listening to this podcast and you, uh, want to watch it, you can go to Spotify or YouTube and see it there. It's only there, uh, on our podcast. But, um, you know, also, it might just be fun hearing it, uh, described and never watch it. But either way, thank you to everybody who joined us. And I think there's one person that's just joining our Zoom right now, um, that

• 1:16:49Amy Poehler?

  we were trying to get. Uh, let's see if we can, there she is.

• 1:16:57Amy Poehler?

  Catherine Hahn.

• 1:17:02Amy Poehler?

  Catherine, you missed it.

• 1:17:08Amy Poehler?

  Catherine, I'm sorry. We did talk about your character, though. And we're...

• 1:17:15Amy Poehler?

  Catherine, I'm zooming in. Zooming in. I love you so much.

• 1:17:20Speaker 02

  Zooming in. You did. Okay.

• 1:17:25Amy Poehler?

  Thank you so much, man. I love my friends. Okay. Better late than never. I'll take her any way I can get her. Okay. Thanks, everybody. See you soon.

• 1:17:34Speaker 06

  You've been listening to Good Hang. The executive producers for this show are Bill Simmons, Jenna Weiss-Berman, and me, Amy Poehler. The show is produced by The Ringer and Paperkite. For The Ringer, production by Jack Wilson, Kat Spillane, Kaia McMullin, and Aleia Zaneras. For Paperkite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss-Berman. Original music by Amy Miles.

• 1:17:59Amy Poehler?

  This episode is brought to you by Sephora. Holiday gifting can be a tough gig. You're frantically searching, second guessing everything, and accidentally buying your dad eye cream he's never gonna use. Thankfully, Sephora is here to save us from ourselves. Whether you're shopping for a total beauty guru, or someone whose whole routine is hand soap, Sephora has the perfect gift for everyone on your list. And if you're still lost, don't panic. Their beauty advisors can guide you to safety. This holiday season, we all Sephora. Shop gifts at Sephora and give something beautiful. This episode is brought to you by Caesar. Dog parents, what do you have on the menu tonight? If you're looking to serve your favorite four-legged friend high-quality wet

• 1:18:39Amy Poehler?

  dog food they'll be genuinely excited about, we say, just eat Caesar. Whether it's a protein-rich beef recipe on Monday, or a savory chicken and vegetable dinner on Wednesday, Caesar offers a variety of delicious meals made with freshly crafted, slow-cooked ingredients, all designed to support your dog's everyday nutrition without compromise. That's real variety, real ingredients, and real excitement at mealtime. So if you're looking to serve a meal your dog actually looks forward to every single day, they should totally just eat Caesar. Learn more at Caesar.com. Your dog will thank you.