You don't have to be an aspiring writer to be curious about the writing process. The sheer amount of people interested in the writing process of screenwriters like Quentin Tarantino prove that. How artists put their work together is always fascinating, regardless of whether we fully understand it or not. We're also enthralled when something goes spectacularly wrong, such as the script for Batman & Robin which the writer actually apologized for, or why they miss a plothole that fans have picked up on. But sometimes a writer's process is a little more casual and fun. This seems to be the case with Greg Daniel's and Mike Schur's Parks and Recreation. The show was legendary for its talented writer's room and thanks to a superb article by UPROXX we've been given an inside look at what actually went on behind the scenes.
How An Actual Episode Was Written
According to the oral interview by UPROXX, Parks and Rec co-creators Greg Daniels and Mark Schur said that their writer's assistant (who eventually became a writer), Greg Levine, was "the show's historian". Anything about the characters or the world of the show had to be run through him... After all, he knew everything...
"The first step would take place in the story generation room, which was a circle of couches with bulletin boards and note cards and sharpies all thrown about, and this room is the generator," Greg Levine said. "So, any conversation actually led to story ideas. You’d have an idea for an episode and the room would pitch any different way to go and would write down on cards different thoughts. For example, let’s say you’re talking about the Harvest Festival, anything from Li’l Sebastian lost in a corn maze to Andy or April saying, 'I love you.' All these different cards get written, and you don’t worry about making it all work now. The thing that Mike Schur would always say is pitch contradictory beats. It was okay if what you were pitching was different from what someone else had pitched. Just get all the ideas out."
Eventually, a story would be developed through that process.
"Sometimes cards would wind up coming back in later episodes," Greg Levine continued. "Or later on in the episode maybe, the story that you thought was really good kind of wasn’t as strong as you thought it was. So, 'Oh, what about that other idea we had about Li’l Sebastian in the corn maze?' The story-generating room was exciting because that’s where the skeleton of the episode was formed and from there is Step 2, where the writer who was assigned that episode took the bulletin board that had 50-60 cards on it and wrote an outline. The outline then got notes from the writers, and then they’re sent off to write the script."
"That script became the new skeleton, the framework for which the re-write happened, which is step three. They took the story and script to a second room, which was like a boring-looking conference room with a long table, a computer, and a bunch of monitors connected to that one computer. And then the re-write happened, where new jokes came or stories that you thought worked in the outline phase didn’t work once they were written, and you’d have to fix them there. Sometimes the script got so fat from like a 33-normal page script to a 50-page script with tons of different jokes. Tons of different alternate versions of scenes, and then the re-write took place over a week, and you had a table draft and then the cast had the table read. It took about, weirdly, two months from story idea to shooting draft."
The Writers Loved To Do Anything But Write
One hears many stories about what actually goes on in a writer's room on a television show, and so often you hear that a lot of time is spent fooling around. Well, that's very true for the writers on Park and Recreation, according to UPROXX.
A network sitcom usually is supplied with endless food. This was a favorite aspect amongst the writers... until someone left a Coke can out over a hiatus and caused the office to be infested with ants. Then there were all the pranks such as the use of fake blood capsules that really freaked out Mike Shur.
Perhaps the best aspect of the Parks and Rec writer's room was the fact that all of the writers were given a theme song. Greg Levine was the man who did this. Over time, he found a song that suited each of the writers and he would play it whenever someone said something smart or got their way or said a funny joke.
"So, the whole work day became a sort of entertaining circus of people making jokes and then him playing sounds," writer Alan Yang said. "Then you would hear your theme song. Some of the theme songs involved people getting up and dancing."
Writers like Aisha Muharrar had a song called "Doggy Fun" from Project Runway, Mike Scully had "Born to Run", Chelsea Peretti had "Boyfriend" by a South Korean pop group, and Norm Hiscock had a very mellow Cat Stevens song.
For example, Joe Mande’s was the NBA on NBC theme, Aisha Muharrar’s was a song called “Doggy Fun,” which was used in an early season of Project Runway, and Mike Scully’s was Bruce Springsteen’s “Born To Run.” Though I’m probably most proud of the one I gave Chelsea Peretti which was a song called “Boyfriend” by South Korean pop group Girls’ Generation.
"It kind of annoyed me because I get it, but I also like alt music, so it was like this thing of you could have picked something else that was contemporary and cooler," Norm Hiscock said. "The song for Chelsea was always great. It was like real dance music. And Chelsea Peretti would always get up and dance to the song."
All of this added to a sense of unity and created a bond that ultimately led to a creative cohesion that really made Parks and Rec a special and downright funny show.