So, two more days.
Hey, did you know that Michale Schur, the writer of this, is Regis' son-in-law? He married J.J. in 2005.
So, we're all very excited for Amy and about Amy's show, of course. I've seen scores of pieces in the papers recently and in both Newsweek and Entertainment Weekly, and I swear to you this morning my Alpha-Bits cereal spelled out "Parks And Recreation, Thursdays at 8:30 on NBC" just pouring them out of the box.
Itzkoff at the NY Times:
While Mr. (Greg) Daniels and Mr. Schur spent months batting around ideas, they were also lining up cast members, including Rashida Jones,
an alumna of “The Office,” and Aziz Ansari, of the sketch show “The
Human Giant,” who were given few details about the project. “They were
like, ‘It’s either going to be a spinoff of ‘The Office’ or a totally separate thing,’ ” Mr. Ansari said. “It could have been like, ‘Yeah, so it’s about you and Vin Diesel running a day care center together, and then at night you’re vigilantes, and you fight crime.’”
The
show became more concrete when the producers learned they could sign
Ms. Poehler, whom Mr. Schur recalled from a late 1990s performance with
her improvisational comedy group, the Upright Citizens Brigade.
“She introduced herself as an executive from a television network,” Mr. Schur
said, “and she was so unlike a comedian. She was so natural and so
believable that when I realized the whole thing was a bit, it blew my
head open.”
Joshua Alston at Newsweek:
Like most starving artists, Poehler had occasional reservations about
surviving as a full-time comedian. She'd considered being a writer, or
a teacher, like both of her parents, but she stuck with comedy, despite
encountering people who reflected back what life might have been like
if she had taken a more traditional path. "I remember opening a bank
account, and the guy who helped me was my age. He had a house and a
family, and I was broke and just starting to be able to get things,"
says Poehler, who was 30 at the time. "He recognized me from 'Wet Hot
American Summer,' and he goes 'How'd you swing that?' And I said, 'You
know how you got married and had kids and built a stable career for
yourself? Well, yeah, I haven't done any of that'."
Andrew Ryan at the Toronto Globe & Mail:
Her character firmly believes in the power of government to change
things, and Poehler knows the type. She was born and raised in
Burlington, Mass., the daughter of public-schoolteacher parents, who
took an active interest in local politics. As a teenager, she
campaigned for Democratic hopeful Michael Dukakis.
"We passed out a lot of leaflets," Poehler said. "My parents watched
town-council meetings on TV, and they cared, obviously, about what was
being built next to them. You know, are they going to put a prison
where the muffin shop used to be?..."
All a truly helpful person ever wants is a big project, and for Leslie it comes in a giant hole. The pilot episode of Parks and Recreation sets up a storyline that will thread through the six-episode test run for the series.
More, including a clip, after the jump.
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