Knope Knows

From GQ:

What do you think contributed to Parks & Rec’s creative resurgence?
It’s like if you went into AAA baseball and randomly picked 20 guys to be your team. They’re gonna have some skills, but you’ve got to get together and see who does what. Then you go, okay, here’s my starting rotation, here’s my relief pitchers. So we got this gang together, and basically we warmed up to what is now being considered on fire. Mike Schur answered this question the other night at a panel. They considered the first six episodes [from season one] to be the pilot, to feel our way around Pawnee.

Ron Swanson’s gotten a lot more to do this season, too.
Mike Schur seems to be leader of the fetid fermentation of Swanson. When he came to me and said, “You’re going to have an alter ego who plays jazz saxophone”—I go, “How do you see inside me?” As long as the show is on, I will preach about the writers. I couldn’t believe these guys could create a role that celebrates exactly the weirdness that had always kept me from getting network jobs.

You just did an episode playing opposite your wife. How did she get involved?
Early on, it was established that I had an ex-wife named Tammy who I always talk about what a bitch she was. Mike came up with the story about Tammy, approached me and said, “Would it be cool with you and Megan if she was this woman who’s so horrible?” And I said, “Yeah, that would be amazing.” If they had just cast another funny actress, there’s a politeness where we wouldn’t have gone as far. But since we have literally already been inside each other, well, we know the depths to which we can safely go.

To read the full Q&A, follow the link below!

Link: Q+A with Nick Offerman: Former Altar Boy, Current Carpenter, Ron “F-ing” Swanson

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