"Philly Justice"

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.

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 Hangs?

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 Scher?

Mike Scher is a producer of all the shows that you love.

Mike helped work on the American version of The Office.

He went on to create Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn 9-9,

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.

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 are 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 Scher.

We're going to talk to the cast of Philly Justice.

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'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 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.

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I'm sure I realize I'm with

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

It just means you haven't interviewed.

No, I have not talked to a lot of podcasters.

Because I realize on the way over here, I'm like, you've had a podcast,

the podcast, correct, for many years.

Yeah, for like an absurd number of years.

I mean, you were ahead of the game.

I don't know if it, if the first seven years even count because it was, we like were barely barely recording it.

We were just screaming into our computers.

We didn't have microphones.

Who's the we that you speak of?

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 an actual extant

like enterprise for more than like five years, I would say.

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

Pish Posh.

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.

I love us.

I do love us.

Oh, this is us.

One of another great show from NBC.

But before I do that, I, when I plug this thing into my laptop, it goes weird.

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

Sure.

Boston, one of Boston's greatest.

One of Boston's most.

One of Boston's most.

One of the most Boston people there is.

That's very true.

I mean, and

I think of you as a Boston person.

You're not.

You're a Connecticut person.

Yeah, but I identify full Boston.

You do identify.

I'm literally wearing a Celtic sweatshirt right now because 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.

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

Yes.

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

Yeah.

But

before I do, so Bill told me not to on Bill Simmons's network.

Yeah.

And you know what?

It's a law.

I assume it's a law.

Yeah, you have to.

You do.

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

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

But Bill said, maybe not, don't use the laptop.

And I kind of have have fought to keep it.

And what's happening now is it's going cuckoo when I plug this thing in.

You're going to use the laptop for what?

For like notes?

Just for like reference.

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.

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.

I got to get Bill on the podcast because you're right.

It is like.

you once described to me.

Do you remember this?

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

Do you remember this?

Must be nice.

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, it must be nice.

Make all that money in Hollywood and still get your friends to pick up your drinks.

Like you can't win.

You can't win.

You can't win.

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.

I've been pulling back down.

But I love my city.

I do love my city.

Can I tell you one quick thing that is going to be of vital importance for this podcast?

Yeah.

I found out a piece of shocking information today.

Oh, exciting.

Is this breaking news?

Breaking news.

Okay.

Your dad

and my mom

go to the same barber.

What?

Yes.

My mom lives in bed for mess, went to her barber today, got her hair cut.

Barber said, you know who comes in here?

Oh boy.

Do you know Amy Poehler?

Amy Poehler's dad comes in here.

And I guess your dad recently switched barbers for reasons I don't want to get into that are very, very private.

You can tell me off the air.

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 barbershop.

That is so cute.

Isn't that adorable?

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

I'm very happy.

I was literally breaking news as of like 2 p.m.

Pacific time today.

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.

Ann Herbert.

Yep.

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

Yeah, first of all.

And two,

for raising us.

Yeah.

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?

And they go, yeah.

And he goes, oh, well, my daughter is Amy Pohl.

What a coincidence.

Yeah.

My daughter.

And they go, oh, because they're like, okay.

what percentage of people say no to that question?

No.

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

you gave them to him.

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.

Oh, you get you.

You want to have people in Boston looking at your headshot?

Your father's proud of you.

Oh, boo-hoo.

Mike Scher is here.

And

all this will be cut, right?

I won't just be cutting it.

Yeah, great.

I mean, literally, I mean, all it will be is just very slow typing on this laptop.

That's all this, that's all it's focused.

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

Oh, can I ask you though,

because you like organizing, you like systems.

I do.

You love a good system.

Love rules, love systems.

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.

Thank you.

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.

Yeah.

But you like your systems.

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 they're roll with the punches people.

Yeah.

But and all you have to do is like set up the boundaries.

You put out the gate and you put layout the fence and you're like, anywhere in here is fine.

And then, and this is actually very appropriate for what we're going to be talking about today.

Once you've, I believe, set up a sort of like boundary and like a mechanism and like you're going to 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, but I really believe that is the best way to work creatively in a group.

And the reason this is relevant, and I don't want to jump the gun here, but the thing we're going to 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.

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

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 going to get canceled?

Like, 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 everybody was in creative mode.

And that's why crazy things like this happened.

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.

Yeah.

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.

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 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 though, about Hollywood specifically.

I think it's weirdly gotten better.

I don't know if this has been your experience.

I think so.

I think it's just like there's a little bit more

like

diverse gatekeepers and a little bit more,

you know, push from frankly generations behind us

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

And just a little bit more quality of life stuff where people are just a little bit less

okay with having their lives ruined at work.

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

Oh, yeah.

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

Yeah.

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

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

Like then, no.

Like, I don't, I, I don't want to, 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.

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

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?

That's my bad stand-up about it.

Not bad.

It's good.

Thanks.

I have been doing that on stage.

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 Park 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 all together.

I am very

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

Thank you.

But right now, you are with your family, and I need you.

And this is Thanksgiving, and we are going to put on nice sweaters.

And god damn it, we are going to sit down and have a nice meal.

That's right.

And at 6 p.m., that's right.

Your new girlfriend will come and pick you you all up and drive you away from it.

I'm fine with her.

And I'm very happy for you.

But so we're going to talk about parks.

But to do that, let's talk about.

So you went to Harvard.

Yeah.

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 a big flip-flopper.

Now I love Harvard.

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

I was like, how far back do I have to go?

Oh, maybe all the way.

Yeah.

Good job, Harvard.

Listen, we took it on the chin.

We have our share of Jared Kushner's and Ted Cruz's.

And also, I'm everyone in the Supreme Court and all that sort of stuff.

And it's been, and Zuckerberg, don't you can't forget about Zuck.

I never do.

But Facebook.

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

Yeah.

And so we'll say no to the bully.

And people were like, oh my God, you can do that.

It's exciting.

But you came from Harvard and we met.

Do you remember when we first met?

No.

I remember when I saw you for the first time, which was at a UCB

sketch thing that happened at Fez.

Oh, yeah.

I've told the story before.

I don't know if you want to, I don't know how in-depth you want to go here.

I'd love to go in depth because we don't get,

we're going to talk Philly justice, but we have some time.

Great.

So

I moved to New York.

Radford graduated in 97.

In 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 amazing.

It was my first professional job.

Thank you, Jon Stewart.

So we

gave you that money to go away.

That's right.

He looked at my ideas and was like, oh no.

Yeah.

He was like, you're making me nervous.

Please go.

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 John do stand-up.

And so you came out on stage.

I did not know who you were and you said, hey, everyone, I know you're excited to hear the stand-up, John, Stewart, and all these other comedians.

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 100% 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.

And then you announced that you were doing this pilot and you asked if anyone, you, 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.

Yeah, sure.

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 you were, it 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, thought, I was like, this is a sketch, I'm pretty sure.

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.

No.

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,

there's 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?

Like, how does she have time to be in a sketch group when she works at HBL?

She's a multi-talented person.

But I, 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, I, you just like, you just like burrowed into my brain.

And then when you joined the show, I, I started working at SNAL a few months later.

Yep.

That year was what year did you start?

I started January 98.

Yes, 98.

Yeah.

So you came 2001.

2001.

So September 2001.

Yeah.

And

I don't remember where we interacted between those dates, but I remember that when you auditioned, you came to my office and we smoked cigarettes in my office because I was running update.

Oh, remember cigarettes.

Let's just take a minute.

I mean, I know they're bad for you.

They're so bad for you.

And like, you know, they truly are bad for you.

They shorten your life.

They make your skin terrible, but they're, oh, remember them?

They're really, really terrible.

They're terrible, so terrible.

And I looked so cool doing that terrible thing.

And we would smoke cigarettes and we would, we, you know, at 30 Rock, you could just kind of open your window and look at the Empire State Building.

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 just opened your window and smoked out the window.

And it was terrible.

And it was terrible.

And then you were eventually, when did you start running update weekend update?

Your first show was my first update show.

That's right.

So gosh, I forget that.

That was your first,

I took it for, so Robert Carlock 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 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 was 9-11.

And it was your first show on the show.

That's right.

And so, right.

So I was this new cast member and you were running weekend update at a time when comedy was declared over.

Yes.

And when we'll never laugh again.

That's right.

And the first thing that happened on the show for your first show and my first show running update was like Rudy Giuliani, pre-insanity, Rudy Giuliani, and like cops and firefighters and MTA workers standing at home base and talking about like resilience and the power of humanity.

And then Paul Simon singing the boxer.

Yeah.

And then it was like, okay, and you're Britney Spears.

Go.

Remember?

That was your sketch.

You had a

snake wrangler.

It didn't make it.

It got cut.

Oh, did it really?

Yeah,

it's good that it did.

And by the way, I was not Britney Spears.

Who was the snake wrangler?

I was the very sapphic snake wrangler.

Who was Britney Spears?

Was Was it Reese Witherspoon?

Oh, Reese Witherspoon.

She was the host.

Yeah.

That makes sense.

Yeah, yeah.

So then Mike says to us, I'm going to go work on a show.

I'm really excited.

I'm going to leave SNL.

I'm going to 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, well, this is a bad idea.

It's a bad idea.

Yeah.

It was the American adaptation of the British Office.

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

Seth got early from his friend in England and we watched them in my office and

we all like laughed and cried.

And when Dawn came back and kissed him.

Spoiler alert.

Yeah, for spoiler for a 20-year-old British show, we all like jumped up in the air and like.

like we were celebrating like we won the Super Bowl.

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

Yeah.

And we, and I remember us thinking, like, oh, no,

this is never going to work.

Yeah.

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

Yeah.

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 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 going to go down in flames, but it's going to be fun.

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 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 going to 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 going to teach me things about writing.

And so I was not expecting it to work.

I don't think anyone was except maybe Greg.

But it was like, this is going to be an education for me and going from sketchwriting to real or the half-hour writing, you know.

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

Four, the first four, first four plus.

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 approach something and how they had to re-approach, I guess.

But in the very, very beginning, the idea for the spin-off of the office, or was it even an idea for spin-off, was what?

Well, so Ben became Parks and Region.

Ben Silverman was running NBC and they asked, he asked Greg to like do a spin-off.

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 spin-off, then I will do a spin-off.

If the best idea I have is something else, I'll do something else.

Greg is a real, one of 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.

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 spin-off 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 spin-off is coming.

Ben just totally ignored him and just announced an office spin-off.

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.

And we would,

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 by the way, just to say it, some of the ideas we talked about were office spin-offs.

There were like Craig Robinson and Rain 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?

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.

Yeah, we share that data that we, um, 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 pie, if it, if you did a show that ideally lasts for a long time and in the pilot, it's like, we're going to 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 spin-off of the office.

And Greg, true to his word, was like, this is what we want to do.

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 going to be on after the Super Bowl that year.

And this show was going to launch after The Office.

Then you called us back and said, Actually, sorry, Prego.

That's exactly what you said.

Prego.

You said Prego.

Prego.

I sent you a telegraph.

I said, Prego, stop.

Show's off.

Stop.

And it was like, well, you're going to 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 dang and give up the super bowl slot well you guys were and i'm so appreciative you did that 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 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.

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

And I like.

More than this podcast?

No, this is my number one.

Number two, it's number two.

Yeah, this is, I mean, besides this.

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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.

Yeah.

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 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?

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 in their sketches.

But 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 days of the show.

And you would see like woman number two or like man in crowd or guy with 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 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.

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

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 a hundred 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, um, 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 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 and crowd.

And so I decided at that moment, this is early in season one, I think, of Perk's Rec, that every character who appeared on the show was going to have a first and last name.

Amazing.

So when you saw, instead of, if it says man and crowd, you're like, oh, well, that doesn't really count as an acting gig.

But if you see Marv Vivavma, which is a name I gave a character once, you're like, who the hell is Marv Vivavma?

What was Marvavna up to?

So I, and and it has been that 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 yeah 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 going to be like four Winona Coopers in the state that you're setting the show in.

And then the legal comes back back and he says, you can't name your character that a lot of people don't know that.

You have to get names cleared.

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.

None.

Yeah.

I go for the weirdest names.

We had a character recently on the show on a man on the inside named Ophelio Papippapepepe.

There's no Ophelia Papippapeppies anywhere in the continental United States.

So you get to use that name.

That has been my goal is to have none, have the Google search come up empty with every name of every character.

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

Yeah.

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

Okay.

Mona Lisa Saperstein.

Yes.

Jenny Slate's character.

Yes.

Do you remember all these names?

Amazing.

Trad Frankenstipe.

Okay, tell us about

it.

So Trad 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 Knob.

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.

Trad.

And then Frankenstipe is just Frankenstein with a P at the end.

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 Matt Murray did this.

Ah, Panther.

Yeah, Panther.

Tyrion Fonzarelli was a private.

The writer of Fortune Rec, among other things.

He was a guy in a jewelry store who was buying

an engagement ring for his

to be betrothed when Anne and Chris Traeger were shopping for rings.

Great.

Leslie Nope.

We know who that is.

Gretzky Susan Pellegrino.

Okay.

So

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

I don't offhand remember who Gretzky Susan Pellegrino is.

Also, it should be noted, hyphens, huge part of my naming process.

Yeah, I'm so excited

to wait to get another name in there.

Another name.

And also, there's no way that someone's going to have this name.

No one's first name is Gretzky Susan.

Gretzky hyphen Susan.

Typhoon Mantelbon.

Oh, I love Typhoon.

Typhoon was

Donna's hairdresser.

Yep.

Typhoon, also Matt Murray, I believe, named, gave Typhoon the first name, Typhoon.

We needed a last name.

Where do you go for the last name?

Ricardo Montobon.

Typhoon Montobon.

Sassandra Sassasnorp.

Okay.

Sassandra Sassasnorp was, I believe, I could have this wrong, was just Sandra.

It was like Sandra Snorp.

Okay.

And then the legal was like, doesn't, didn't clear.

We found a Sandra Snass.

We found a Sandra Snorp.

So guess what you do?

You had five more S's.

Now you're good.

Cassandra Sassasnorp.

Summer Oly Kraken Frog Frog.

Okay.

This is a Monty Python ripoff.

Straight up.

Okay.

Ole, O-L-E, with an accent.

And

I guess just that part.

There's a Monty Python sketch called, I think, Election Night Special, where they're just going through election results in 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.

It's, if you want names, go watch that sketch.

It'll, it'll, uh, it'll,

it'll sate you.

Summer, Ole, Krak, and Frog Frog.

That's a good one.

Frog Frog is a great last one.

Yeah.

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

No, CC Homo.

I thought that wasn't sure.

CC Homo.

And you know what?

I don't want to talk about hacks.

That's fine.

They'll be here at Six.

Jenna made me do that.

Cece Homo, H-O-M-E-A-U-X was all Jen Statsky and Lucian Yellow and Paul Downs.

I don't know which one of them came up with it.

Yes, but said, but spelled differently than it said.

It's a very funny moment in the show because she introduced herself as Cecil Homo and Gene Smart goes, spell that.

Okay.

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

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

You probably should have mentioned this so long ago.

Oh, yeah.

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

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

Please don't make people sit through summer leg crack and frog frog before they get to the famous people.

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

So,

yeah.

So this is just us talking.

No.

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

Yes.

And then you make me say whatever you want me.

Of course.

I mean, it's just so hard.

Honestly, it's a relief at this point.

AI is a relief.

I keep saying that.

It really is.

And

we might also want to do a little teaser or two to say that you and I are thinking when this comes out,

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

Very exciting.

So we're back together again.

We are renewing our vows, if you will.

I had my fun.

That's right.

I ran around town.

Yes.

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

Yoko knew that John needed a break, okay?

And she let him wander and he came back.

So,

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.

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

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 by far and and that is called philly justice yeah 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 to 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 on set laugh grew into a beast that is still discussed today.

So what do you remember about the beginnings of Philly Justice?

So this is like season four of Parks and Wreck, I think.

You're running for, Lesnar's running for office and we have In this season, incredible regular guest stars on the show.

Catherine Hahn played a campaign manager, high-powered campaign manager from DC who was running the campaign of Bobby Newport, played by Paul Rudd.

And Bobby Newport was the moron son of a wealthy businessman who didn't want the job at all,

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.

Yep.

And Rashida was, Anne Perkins was also wearing something like that.

And then

Jen Barkley, Catherine's character, is always high-powered suit lady.

And Paul Redd 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 yeah 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 like a legal drama and i think rashida maybe just said philly justice and we'll put the picture up here but it look we're just kind of nailing it you're just drama stuff in the mode of that of that kind of show that's right so then what i heard and this stuff was like bleeding up to me in the writer's room is that you guys had started kind of just, you're 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.

Kelly show from like 2005

that had shot the pilot and 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 wafting up to the writer's room that, like, everyone was really enjoying this bit.

Great, fantastic.

Then I think we all collectively blacked out.

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

Like a 20-page script.

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

Of course, writing is the worst.

It's the worst.

And it's like, and if there's like a fun, a more fun thing,

great.

Totally.

And 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

Adam, Scott, and

whoever are like fighting and you take the scene where Rashida is doing this.

And we just started writing scenes, fake scenes for a fake show that didn't exist for you in character.

While we were making another show.

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 kind of like a courtroom if you squinted yep so it was like okay and then i at some point i remember morgan sackett yep who we're going to talk to today 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 yeah but suddenly we were just going going to do this.

We were going to make, we were going to use NBC resources

while we're supposed to be making the show they paid for, which never suffered.

Never suffered.

And then we were going to take some of those resources and divert them without anyone knowing

to a different part of the same set.

Yeah.

And then shoot the scenes from Philly Justice.

And by the way, this is very important for everyone to understand.

to no end.

There was not a point to this.

It wasn't like we're going to 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.

And it wasn't like viral, it wasn't like we're going to make a viral thing or we're going to be talking about it 15, 16 years later.

No.

It was because it was fun.

And really the thing that I think is the most important thing to get across is that that show was so fun to work on.

Everyone was almost singularly devoted to the concept of having fun.

Yeah.

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.

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

Perfect time, actually, because we're going to 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.

I forgot about that.

Okay.

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

character descriptions, tons of scripts, an actual shoot day, a trailer that we're going to show at the end.

And nobody has seen this particular trailer.

It's very exciting.

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

We did, yes.

But we never showed the real deal.

And not only are we going to show it to our

on this podcast, but we're also a lot of the people here today have never seen it.

And we're going to watch them watch it in real time.

Very exciting.

And just like those video games, and we're going to play video games over them watching the video.

Yeah, and then I'm going to Twitch.

I'm going to do a Twitch stream that has that in a small square while I play Castlevania.

Yeah, and then me and Kai Snat are going to go out and give out Nintendo.

We're going to Philly Justice Justice.

And then that whole thing will be on a video, on a phone that Mr.

Beast is holding at the NBA Slam Dunk contest.

When he jumps out of the Lush.

Okay, so let's see.

Do we have anyone on yet?

Oh my gosh, this is exciting.

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So joining us now,

Rashida Jones, Morgan Sackett, and Adam Scott.

Welcome, everybody.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for watching.

Thanks for having us.

Where is everyone zooming from?

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

Great.

In L.A.

Morgan?

I'm at home in L.A.

Adam?

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

And is Aziz there?

No, no, he's, I locked him out.

He's downstairs.

He can't get banging on the door.

That's right.

He's furious.

Wait, Sheeta, upstairs at a barbecue.

Yeah, not mine.

I'm in a person's home.

I asked them where their office was.

This is where I am.

Thank you.

That's always the best place at a barbecue is just upstairs by yourself away from

like a stranger's office.

It's great.

Just going through their stuff.

Emmys up here are just telling you guys.

Dang, whose barbecue is this?

Can we guess who's barbecue it?

It's also Aziz's barbecue.

And he's not allowed in.

He's also not there.

He's not in either place.

By the way, guys, where's Aziz?

Yeah.

I haven't heard from him in years.

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

I guess we wanted to just start,

Morgan.

If we could.

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?

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

Yeah, really.

It just sort of floated around for a while.

But 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 don't know who snapped that photo, but little did they know.

It was just with one of our phones.

It was on my phone,

and we got somebody to do it.

I don't remember who did it, but.

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

Okay.

We were enjoying ourselves, yes.

The photo was commissioned.

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.

Right.

Not enough cameras.

I don't feel satisfied somehow.

While people around us are doing work, like setting up the next shot, carrying cameras and equipment and stuff, we're like,

look at us in front of this,

you know, just like

we were like, Rashida, somebody take a picture with 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?

Or do you remember?

It's probably, I mean, I'm not going to take credit, but it's probably right because

I spent two years on a David Kelly show and like a, you know, in David 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 greatest.

But I'll take credit.

Well, if you pay attention.

Everybody is facing one way except for Adam, and that really did end up informing his character.

Everybody is.

Yeah.

So Adam is the rebel.

Nick something, right?

Yeah, Nick.

Yeah, we'll get, 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?

I don't know.

I think we, it just kept coming up and it's like, and I feel like it was when we had that, the city council chambers you know that Leslie and we're like that courtroom and then we knew the Barclay group was coming up which was Hans characters like high-end DC lobbying firm and it's like that looks like a law office so I sent 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 I have that email

can you read Morgan can you read us the email 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 the piece will play out in the interview segments.

The plan is to dress and groom everyone as 2002 lawyers.

That needs from everybody is character names and backgrounds.

Any bits you want to try in 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.

Okay.

Morgan, why?

I just want to know why, Morgan.

Why?

Why did you, why did you let me?

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 CA agent or something.

It's like, I'm sorry, what is this?

Of course.

And they killed it.

That went away very quickly.

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 yeah yeah he puts his brain on it time will be carved out and it was i remember just being so excited that we were gonna get to do it yeah because we'd been talking about at that point maybe for like six months or so i don't i don't know did we figure out how long from when we had taken the picture to when we shot this holiday.

We

at least most of a season.

It was was like

a connection between.

Yeah, I thought it was a while.

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

I can't believe how long it was.

I'm like in shock that we spent so long.

I do remember there was a lot of, we talked a lot about 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.

I feel like you two and Han

and

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 had 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?

I think that we were, we wanted to do it.

And we're like, we have these sets and we can shoot it.

And Rudd was doing a movie or something, was not available.

Right, but 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.

Yeah.

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.

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

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

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

read the character descriptions of our characters,

if Bones, now you're in a car.

I see you're in a car.

Now you're driving.

Fleeing the market.

Now you're driving.

This is a real active Zoom here.

I'm going to, yes, yes, I'm here.

Okay,

I'm sending you the

character description.

Are you actually driving or is someone driving?

No, wouldn't that be terrible?

No.

Okay.

Okay.

So

if I may,

have our actors here and then

we'll fill in with Hans and Rudd slash McDermott's character.

Sure.

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.

Yeah, yeah, you got it.

Okay, so

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 going to tell you what she thinks yeah that's joey 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.

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

I'm sorry.

I just got the text that Polar sent with these descriptions.

They are so long.

They're so long.

Yeah.

There's hundreds of characters.

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

Yeah.

Well, that's when it makes sense that we spent six months doing it.

That's when it really

makes sense.

All right.

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

Sure.

Nick Bellows.

he's a district attorney

he wrote rides his motorcycle to work leather jacket with a tie 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 blain powers

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,

Melina Powers, Blaine Powers' wife.

Whoa, whoa.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

The location of Powers, Cooper, and Powers' offices, World Trade Center, North Tower, 67th floor.

Bellows is the only survivor from his firm.

Wow.

Unbelievable backstory.

This is quite a backstory.

It's crazy.

I mean, think about the guilt.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You can't imagine.

Just below the surface, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

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 Magna and found his way to Afghanistan, determined to fight for justice in the one place, the only place that truly needs it.

Good Lord.

That's also not true.

There's a lot of places that need justice.

Yeah,

quite a few.

Bellows has more demons than he can count.

And 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 wow so he's just to be clear he's a district attorney who works at this law firm yeah for some reason yeah he is at a private law

you know

see 9-11 made him get grab a pistol and go to afghanistan get his leather jacket and a gun and go to,

I guess, independent of the armed forces.

Yeah, he just went over there on his own.

Hey, guys.

Hey, guys, how could I help?

So I'll blaze through the other fast one.

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 yeah 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 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 going to 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 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 want to let everybody know that doesn't happen in the trailer.

I'm so sorry.

There's no footage of that.

All right.

What's your character?

And very quickly, mine is Holly.

Let's see.

Holly McIntyre, junior partner, head prosecutor.

Stiff and quick to anger.

Doesn't make friends easily.

Everybody doesn't make friends.

Everyone is the same.

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 Burnson, thinks that she cares too much.

She does.

Wait, I'm sorry.

Read the one right before that.

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

Yeah, sure.

Jesus.

She's hard on Joey Martinez, 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

Shane Chains.

Shane Chains.

That's Dylan's character's name.

Also,

let's not forget Nick Offerman played the judge.

Yeah.

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?

Yeah.

I remember we were talking about the next day we were doing it.

It's like, you guys don't work tomorrow and next, like, I'll come in tomorrow.

What do you, what do I do?

And I I said, we need a judge.

All right.

Well, we are very excited.

We're going to have a world premiere.

Yeah.

And, you know, it's really exciting.

I mean,

there's not a lot of things that

we've just kept in a vault for all this time.

No, we threw almost everything we did and then wrote new stuff for the gag reels 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.

Wow.

So it's 13 years old.

13 years.

That's pretty wild.

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

Yeah.

I mean, we got to tell, you know,

it could be nothing, but I think that people are very

interested.

you know or it could be rebooted it could be rebooted

made me called about doing this i'm like this is going to end with us shooting more philly justice this is what i'm saying is that i that's what i hope happens like rebooting a show that never happened i mean there's nothing better than rashida philly has never needed more justice than now i mean justice is needed so i think it's time to make it i mean if there's ever a time it's now i couldn't agree more

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 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 note please please please please please please please please

so we are listening we're learning we're sharing we are gonna play, and will they be able to see it on the Zoom?

Okay, are you guys ready to watch it?

Yeah.

Okay, here we go.

Yes.

Really exciting.

Amy, are you going to play it from your?

Oh,

I am supposed to play it.

I'm supposed to play it.

Here we go.

Oh, my God.

I'm in charge.

Oh, no.

Oh no.

You have to keep that

17 seconds of silence.

Okay, so sorry about that, guys.

Thank you for waiting.

Here we go.

For the first time ever on DVD.

The legendary courtroom drama that no one has ever seen.

Any more witnesses, counselor?

Just one, Your Honor.

Joey Martinez, the defense attorney.

What?

This is preposterous, Your Honor.

You can't possibly.

Overrule!

I hope you know what you're doing, McNeil.

Just follow my lead.

The show that broke all the rules.

Your Honor, I only have one more witness.

It's you.

You can't do that!

The courtroom drama that revolutionized television forever.

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.

Well, we'll see about that.

Well, we will see about that.

Keep your history in your pants, boys.

These lawyers play by their own rules.

Permission to treat the witness as beautiful.

Granted.

And they play for keeps.

Counselor, will you marry me?

She can't.

She's already married.

To her job.

Bring it home for the first time.

Shit!

You're a playboy and a social climber.

I'm a rebel and an outlaw who plays by his own rules.

Of course they're never gonna let me in their little club.

And experience what no one else has ever had the chance to experience.

Let there be justice in Philadelphia.

Once again,

Amy Poland,

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.

Wow.

Wow.

Yes.

Wow.

Wow.

I feel like whoever

wrote Purd Hapley's intros wrote the text for that trailer.

Wait, Morgan, I have an important question for you, and I don't want to get too inside baseball.

Is that Steady Cam?

That is, right?

Maybe.

Did we hire a Steady Cam operator?

We never used Steady Cam on the show once, probably.

We hired a Steady Cam operator to shoot that.

It looked like Steady Cam to me.

Yeah, it probably was.

Do you remember?

Did we

get what?

We built a rig.

We were going to do these walk-and-talks down the hallways, I think.

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

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, it's, it's.

We shot more.

That was just, that was the

trailer.

We shot more.

Somewhere there, yeah.

We were shooting like

an episode.

essentially, right?

Yeah,

never finished it.

No, we were shooting an EPK to go around the pilot.

Right.

Yeah, there's, there's definitely, 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.

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.

That's right.

But in character.

And you bring your motorcycle helmet to court.

Yeah.

Yeah.

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

It's a lot of objecting.

Yes.

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.

I mean,

thank you, Rashida, for naming the show.

Oh, my pleasure.

And Adam, thank you for your work in Afghanistan.

It seems like.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you.

No, thank you.

Thanks for creating space for me to go to Afghanistan with your pistol with a gun.

Yeah.

And

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.

Aziz, everyone says, hey, sorry you weren't in Philly justice oh he just walked out yeah oh he's in rashita's car now oh he's here

everybody says thank you all right thank you guys so much for jumping on it means a lot and i think this will be a very special episode thanks for doing this so fun bye y'all love you guys love all of you bye guys love you love you morgan let's get philly justice back together let's get a call sheet morgis

All right.

Thanks, all.

And thank you, Mike, for joining and talking about this.

It was the best.

It was so fun.

So fun.

Love you.

Love you too.

Bye, all.

That was amazing.

We got to see the trailer of Philly Justice, which really was the only thing we ended up making.

And

we got to talk to the great Mike Scher, who we need to have back to talk more about Parks and Rec because there's just so much to talk to him about.

And if you want, if you're listening to this podcast and you want to watch it, you can go to Spotify or YouTube and see it there.

It's only there on our podcast.

But,

you know, also, it might just be fun hearing it 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

that we were trying to get.

Let's see if we can.

There she is.

catherine on

catherine

catherine you missed it

catherine i'm sorry we we did talk about your character though and we're gonna

thanks catherine on zooming in zooming in i love you so much zooming in beautiful okay okay

thank you so much man i 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.

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 Spilane, Kaya McMullen, and Aalaya Zanares.

For Paperkite, production by Sam Green, Joel Lovell, and Jenna Weiss Burman.

Original music by Amy Miles.

All I