Parks and Recreation writer Alan Yang graciously agreed to a Q&A about the show’s “Sweetums” episode, which he wrote. Below are his answers.
Thanks, Alan! And thank you readers for your questions.
How did the idea for DJ Roomba come about? That was one of the more brilliant ideas I’ve seen any show do this season. | Tim
Thanks Tim! I don’t think we have to limit it to just the last season of television. I’m pretty sure DJ Roomba ranks up there with the top TV moments of all time. I would say it goes something like:
1. The Beatles appear on Ed Sullivan
2. “Who Shot J.R.?” episode of Dallas
3. First appearance of DJ Roomba
4. Neil Armstrong walks on moon
That’s just off the top of my head, though — numbers two and three might be switched.
When we had the idea that we would finally see Tom’s house, we knew that he would have to have a million suits and tons of ridiculous, terrible gadgets. I kind of figured he was the kind of guy who buys all his technology from the Sharper Image, Brookstone and SkyMall.
As for the origin of DJ Roomba specifically, one time Aziz and I were hanging out with our friend James, who’s a great DJ. James put his iPod on shuffle and called it “DJ iPod,” which I thought was funny. I think I made the leap to DJ Roomba from there. I love the idea of giving personalities to inanimate objects.
Is Deep Blue Sea a favorite of anyone on staff? | Tammy
We talk about Deep Blue Sea a fair amount. I especially enjoy one of the songs from the soundtrack, “My Hat is Like a Shark’s Fin” by LL Cool J. That’s not what the song is really called, but that’s the best part of the lyrics. I like it because a hat is in no way like a shark’s fin.
The movie we talk about the most is “The Contender” starring Joan Allen. I would say we talk about “The Contender” about three times a day.
What were your influences for the character Nick Newport, Jr.? | Roomba
Hi Roomba! Glad you watched the episode you were in! Nick Newport, Jr. was loosely based on Pete Coors. Some of you might remember a series of Coors ads where Pete Coors, the CEO of Coors, walked through snowy mountains and told you about how crisp and cool and mountain-y Coors was. I think he might have worn a vest. If he didn’t, I feel like he should have, and that was an oversight on their part. It always seemed like a lie that Pete Coors ever walked around in the forest talking about Coors like that. He’s a billionaire. He should be doing billionaire things, like sitting in front of a wall of one hundred TVs all playing different shows or building a machine that can blow up the moon or collecting jars of his own hair and fingernails.
I want to add that my favorite shot of the NutriYums ad is when Nick Newport splashes water on his face. That is the single dumbest thing I’ve ever seen shot for any TV show, ever.
Did Tom wear any other outfits during his “fashion show” at the office that didn’t make the final cut?
He sure did. That was a really fun scene to write and shoot. Aziz and I looked up a bunch of outfits Diddy, Kanye West, Usher, R. Kelly and Justin Timberlake wore to awards shows and vodka parties and events like that. We had also seen one of those shirts that lights up when you talk when we were at Universal CityWalk one night. I thought Tom would be super into a shirt like that. Our wardrobe ace, Kirston, found the belt that plays messages on it, which was amazing.
One outfit I remember was a long trenchcoat made out of pink snakeskin or something. Tom came out and immediately said, “Too much, I know.”
Also: in my first draft, I wrote that Tom came out and wore two ties like future Marty McFly does in Back to the Future 2. Remember that? I always thought that that was a pretty lazy choice on the part of the wardrobe people. “What do you think people will wear in the future?” “I don’t know. Two ties instead of one? That seems easy. Let’s just do that.” Here’s a picture of future Marty McFly wearing the two ties (also, this takes place in the year 2015, so get ready to double up on your tie collection in five years):
This is the amazing part. Kirston found THE ACTUAL TIE THAT FUTURE MARTY MCFLY WEARS IN BACK TO THE FUTURE 2. Here’s a picture I took on my phone of Aziz holding up the tie.
Who was the voice of Tom’s landlord? Was it an actor or a member of the Parks and Recreation crew? | megan
That was none other than Mike Schur, who runs the show. We auditioned several hundred actors, including Ian McKellen, Forest Whitaker, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tilda Swinton, Ken Watanabe, Helen Mirren, Djimon Hounsou, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Caine, Michael Rapaport, most of the people from the “Twilight” movies, Timbaland, Young Jeezy, and Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, but in the end, Mike just thought that he himself “flat-out gave the best read.”
Were there any moments of improv? | Josh7
Many many moments. Amy came up with “I feel like I’m in a spa” after Ron plays his harp. Aubrey pitched “I like their candy fingernails” for Donna to say. I think Blake (who plays Derek, April’s gay boyfriend) and Aubrey tweaked the line “For a gay couple, you guys are being really gay.” And the whole scene where Tom is ordering food and shoes and various things over the phone while everyone else moved his stuff was kind of conceived and performed on the spot.
Are you trying to show that Donna likes Tom or is it unintentional? In a previous episode, Donna called Tom her “little prince.” This week she said she liked his white leather suit. | AK
I think Donna thinks Tom is adorable. On the other hand, there’s also the fact that **FAKE SPOILER** Donna and Tom get married in the season finale. **END FAKE SPOILER**
Ron making a harp is probably the funniest thing he could have made. I can’t think of anything funnier. How did this idea come about? Also, did Amy improvise the line “punk ass book jockey”? | ifyoucantbeatem
Nick Offerman is an astoundingly talented woodworker in real life. Check out http://www.offermanwoodshop.com/. The entire writing staff actually took a trip down to his wood shop once and he showed us a canoe he was building. Hanging around Offerman makes you feel like the least manly man in the world.
Anyway, someone came up with the brilliant idea that Ron would craft a musical instrument to prove to Leslie how sober he was — I think it might have been Mike Scully. It definitely wasn’t me. At first we thought Ron would make a bunch of wooden recorders because that actually seems plausible. Then someone pitched that he built an entire harp and that seemed even funnier. We shot it both with the recorders and the harp, actually, and the harp ended up winning.
“Punk ass book jockey” wasn’t in the script, so I think either Amy improvised it or someone suggested it to her on set. Also, Amy is some kind of superhero or something, because she ran full-speed out of the library, pushing a cart of books over in the process, all in high heels, like fifty times, and she didn’t fall once.
What building did you film the library scene in?
The Studio City Library. If you go there and tell them I sent you, they’ll let you borrow up to ten books at a time FOR FREE.
There’s also an original copy of the Declaration of Independence hidden in the Young Adult section. Look for it!
Did Chris already know how to roller blade or did he have to be taught how? | little prince
Chris is an amazing roller-blader. He told us how much he liked roller-blading at a table read once and I remembered that and thought it would be funny if he were shoe-shining while wearing roller-blades. Because: why would he do that?
Right before we shot that scene, Chris was goofing around and doing awesome things like skating backwards and jumping and stuff. He ended up accidentally breaking a small suggestion box that was nailed to the wall next to the shoeshine stand. He seemed genuinely apologetic, but we fired him off the show anyway. This is the official announcement. Starting next week, Andy Dwyer will be played by a rotation of the three Kardashian sisters.
Thank you everyone for sending in questions, and thanks to Eric for devoting what I can only assume is 100% of his life running the site. Keep watching the show! One lucky viewer will win a new car every week until the end of the season (not true)!!!!!
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