Ready for 'Parks and Recreation': The Book?
'Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America' coming in October
Leslie Knope's "Parks and Recreation" book will become a reality this fall.
NBC wound up only needing 16 episodes of "Parks and Recreation" this year, and since 6 of those episodes were produced last spring, only 10 had to be made as part of this production season. Which means "Parks and Rec" co-creator Mike Schur has had a lot of extra time on his hands, and he spent a good chunk of it working on a tie-in project for TV's best comedy that would only come into existence if NBC renewed it for a fourth season.
Well, the renewal came late last week, and now the project is official: "Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America," a book "written by" Leslie Knope but really worked on by Schur and many other members of the "Parks and Rec" cast and creative team.
"Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America" won't come out until October 4 (by which point season 4 will have hopefully begun), but if there's one thing this delayed season of "Parks and Rec" has taught us, it's that things having to do with Pawnee are almost always worth the wait.
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March 23, 2011 at 7:12AM EST Reply to CommentDude, that's Awesome Sauce!
Matt
March 23, 2011 at 8:54AM EST Reply to CommentFinally Pawnee hits the big-time. Move over, East St. Louis!
gladly
March 23, 2011 at 9:04AM EST Reply to CommentSo, Sarah Vowell is doing press this week for her new book, and in one interview I've read, she mentions how much she loves Parks and Rec and specifically Leslie Knope. That's kind of perfect, right, especially with the new book! I feel like Sarah Vowell and Leslie would hang out and nerdily discuss Indian atrocity murals.
srpad
March 23, 2011 at 10:17AM EST Reply to CommentThis book should be fun! It is a shame, though, that they had a shortened season for no real reason.
Also not fun, having to switch back to IE to post comments on Hitfix.
March 23, 2011 at 10:36AM EST Reply to CommentThis should be funny..can't wait!
Zach L
March 23, 2011 at 10:59AM EST Reply to CommentAwesome. Just hope they stay away from what The Office did, making more unneeded merchandise than any other show I can remember. Did the world really need The Office clue game?
March 23, 2011 at 11:02AM EST Reply to CommentIt's the comedic version of Sterling's Gold!
Alan, you always talk about this show as TV's best comedy, and while I love it I think I like Community just a little more. Knowing how much you love that show too, I was wondering if the gap is all that significant.
Jean Ralphio
March 23, 2011 at 11:11AM EST Reply to CommentCommunity is crap in comparison, but I still like Community.
echos myron No, Community is just crap. I watched 6 episodes and didn't feel engaged by the narrative a single time.
March 23, 2011 at 3:01PM ESTFoundNemo Community is creative and well written, but definitely rings hollow next to Parks.
March 23, 2011 at 10:56PM ESTWhat? You people are crazy, Community is almost as good as P&R.
March 24, 2011 at 2:56PM ESTBrian
March 23, 2011 at 11:15AM EST Reply to CommentNo offense to Parks and Rec, which I love, but Ken T had extra time on his hands and didn't go back to blogging on FJM from his mother's basement?!?
Mrs. Theold Alan
March 23, 2011 at 11:39AM EST Reply to CommentAlan, shouldn't there be a disclaimer that you've developed a personal relationship with Mike Schur that goes beyond the traditional boundaries of artist and critic? I'm not saying that it has definitely impacted your opinions, or that the relationship is necessarily inappropriate, but your readers have a right to know. Especially when you're not just reviewing an episode, but now promoting a product that costs money.
This feels a bit off.
Col Bat Guano Perhaps you can explain to me what the traditional boundaries of artist and critic are? Is there a book of rules? No one is making laws about you having to watch the show, buy the book or read this blog so if it feels off to you, just move along. Passive agressively insinuating that Alan has violated some sort of ethical boundary feels a bit off.
March 23, 2011 at 11:51AM ESTAs for the book, if it contains more of the murals and a complete history of the settling of Pawnee, I'm in.
sepinwall My "personal relationship" with Schur is that I from time to time e-mail him questions about his show and he answers them, and if I'm in the same city as him I go over to his office to do an interview.
March 23, 2011 at 11:53AM ESTI am friendly with him - and no more or less friendly than I am with a bunch of other producers of shows I enjoy. (And quite a bit less friendly than, say, Roger Ebert or Pauline Kael have been with certain filmmakers they've admired.) I am not friends with him. There is a difference. I have no problem with anything I've written about Parks & Rec, up to and including this post about a book that would sound fun to me whether or not I had ever met Schur.
Mrs. Theold Alan Is this 1) an emailed question about his show 2) an in-office interview or 3) none of the above?
March 23, 2011 at 12:40PM ESTsepinwall Alan Sepinwall
@ @KenTremendous Heavy metal, son. Heavy metal.
14 Feb Favorite Retweet Reply in reply to ↑
@KenTremendous
Ken Tremendous
@sepinwall Cool. They deserve it. Did Foreigner win Pop Country-Jazz Vocal Performance?
dan At least they weren't tweeting about the People's Choice Awards. Now that, truly, would have been inappropriate.
March 23, 2011 at 12:51PM EST-Daniel
sepinwall Damn. You got me. I have had Twitter exchanges with a person I write about. This has never, ever happened before in the long and nuanced history of Twitter. I feel deep shame. My inappropriate dealings have been exposed, and every review I write will now open a disclaimer like one of the following:
March 23, 2011 at 12:56PM EST-"The following opinion of 'The Office' should be read with the understanding that Jenna Fischer once complimented a question I asked her."
-"You may want to discount my opinion of 'Private Practice' because on an elevator one time, Tim Daly looked at my then-infant daughter and said, 'Cute baby.'"
-"I am only complimentary of 'Chuck' because Josh Schwartz got me out of serving in the first Persian Gulf War."
I am well and truly chastened,
Alan
P.S. Tim Daly really did think my daughter was cute.
Col Bat Guano The more important question is why you haven't used your deep personal connection with Jenna Fischer to get more interviews with her. And pictures.
March 23, 2011 at 1:16PM ESTTammy I feel like this is rehashing last month's debate surrounding the Salon article. Mrs., I get the impression that your name is supposed to be a clever pun, but I can't for the life of me perceive what relevance such a pun would have here.
March 23, 2011 at 2:13PM EST
March 23, 2011 at 2:41PM ESTMrs. Theold Alan <--- misses the old alan. Get it, Tammy?
March 23, 2011 at 2:58PM ESTI stumbled across Alan's original blog when I fell in love with The Wire. The more I searched, the more I realized that his analysis of the show was perhaps the greatest critique of television that I had ever seen. He caught things that I never would have, connected dots that made me appreciate the show even more, etc etc. I dug deeper, and also noticed that we had similar tastes in shows. And the recaps, perhaps not as intense as The Wire ones, were always spot on. It got to the point where I was watching shows based solely on his recommendations, and second guessing myself the few times I disagreed with him.
Around the time he left nj.com/The Star Ledger, things began to change. Maybe he wanted to take his career in another direction, or maybe he saw the writing on the wall, but the passion for critical analysis was replaced with what appears to be a desire to be “an insiderâ€. He mentions Roger Ebert, but I don’t seem to remember Roger being an extra on a movie, particularly so early in his career. I don’t remember a time where Roger says “sorry, I didn’t have time to see any movies this week because I’m headed off to LA to catch some press conferencesâ€. I get how flying off and being in the audience when Mad Men’s start date is announced is glamorous, but it doesn’t play to Alan’s strengths. The few interviews he conducted around that time were softballs.
So what do we have now? A TV reviewer who can’t be bothered to watch much TV at all. On a grossly tacky website. How desperately it begs to be “liked†or “dugg†or “twittered†about. And of course all my complaints can be dismissed with a “then just stop readingâ€, and maybe I will, but I can’t help but miss what he used to be. He was the best. He was the last haven for me to get a true analysis of a TV show. Now, when he goes easy on a weaker Community, I have to wonder if he’s just being a nice guy to people who put him in the show, or let him sit around the writers’ meetings.
And even if I’m the lone minority in this discussion, that’s not to say others don’t agree with me. The vast majority of my friends have simply abandoned the blog because of its decrease in quality.
I apologize if my post was seen as an attack on Alan’s integrity. It was not. My two concerns are the appearance of subjectivity and the possibility of subconscious bias. It would be easy to sit there during a show, and just naturally focus on the better parts of it if you are friendly with writers. I just miss the days where Alan would watch shows and discuss his opinions on them.
Finally, can you please stop using the word penultimate. We get it.
Zach L No need to be jealous because Alan got his picture taken with Lil' Sebastian and you did not. This is a great blog, let the man do his writing por favor
March 23, 2011 at 3:00PM ESTCol Bat Guano "Now, when he goes easy on a weaker Community, I have to wonder if he’s just being a nice guy to people who put him in the show, or let him sit around the writers’ meetings."
March 23, 2011 at 3:45PM ESTSo, because you disagree with Alan's opinion, it's due to him being biased by his friendly interactions with the show's creators and not because he just happened to like an episode more than you? And this isn't an attack on his integrity? Also, your original post implied that he was shilling for the book to help enrich his "friend" Mike Schur, not that he wasn't holding Parks & Rec to some higher standard you imagined he once lived up to. You're free to disagree with his opinions and dislike the layout of the Hitflix blog, but that's not grounds to imply he is paying back favors to shows he covers.
dan Mrs. Theold Alan - Is the paragon of critic-filmmaker separation that you're celebrating there "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" Screenwriter Roger Ebert or "Jiminy Glick in LaLaLand" co-star Roger Ebert? I get them confused!
March 23, 2011 at 3:49PM ESTAnd when you refer to Alan flying off to LA to do press conferences, it should be noted that you're referring to the Television Critics Association press tour and that he did the same thing twice per year when he was also writing about "The Wire."
As for our grossly tacky website? You're totally entitled to your opinion. I'm only stepping in when your facts are weird.
-Daniel
sepinwall If you were such an avid reader of the old blog, you will notice that I very, very, very frequently would do posts about how I didn't have time to review such-and-such, whether because I was heading to press tour - an event I have been covering for 15 years, creating improper personal relationships during all that time apparently - because I had some longer-term project I had to focus on, because my kid was sick, because I was sick, or what have you.
March 23, 2011 at 3:55PM ESTI have been invited to sit in writers' room meetings at various points throughout my career, and I would still be critical of those shows afterwards. I have been conducting and publishing interviews for the life of both blogs, and in print for long before that. (Go look at the Interviews section on the siderail of the old blog for just a small sampling. I'm pretty sure there's an interview with Mike Schur on there, that didn't trouble you back in those days because there wasn't a Digg button attached to it.)
Nothing about the actual content I produce - whether the amount or the subjects or the angles - is appreciably different since I came to HitFix. If anything, I'm writing longer reviews of more shows, and I'd invite you to ask my wife about the hours I put in if you like.
The site is different, and I can understand people who preferred the old look. (At the same time, HitFix has made a LOT of changes to its appearance and system since I came on board, largely as a result of complaints, requests and comments from y'all.) But I'm not. My profile might be higher now (which probably has more to do with my appearances on Bill Simmons' podcast, which began back on the old blog), but what I do is the same. Other than the Community cameo - which I've said I regretted, not because it's softened my opinion of that show but because it creates the perception that I have - there's nothing I have done in the 10 months I've been at HitFix that I didn't do or wouldn't have done in 5 years of running the old blog or 14 years at The Star-Ledger. Your perception of what I'm doing may have changed, but there's only so much I can do about that. As I said, I have been friendly with a LOT of showrunners over the years - Schur is practically a nodding acquaintance compared to some - but because of things like Twitter, it's simply more visible now than when I was exchanging e-mails with, say, Aaron Sorkin. (And if you think I went easy on him at any point, please go read my Studio 60 reviews.)
End rant.
bert sugah There is no doubt in my mind that Sepinwall, as a critic, is well past his prime. He hit his stride in 2001 and peaked in 2007, but has been gradually decreasing ever since, with his writing hitting a nadir in the summer of 2010 that it has yet to recover from.
March 23, 2011 at 3:56PM ESTMrs. Theold Alan, I suggest that you turn to the TV criticism Todd VanDerWerff, a young (30!) upstart who's been offering the most lucid criticisms on TV shows for the past 2 years. He's a real contender, and he's coming for Alan's title.
PotatoSolution Mrs. Theold Alan is married? Damn, why are all the good ones taken?
March 23, 2011 at 4:04PM ESTfashionista I'm more offended by Dan's grossly tacky choice in clothing than by HitFix's design (which is merely plain).
March 23, 2011 at 4:04PM ESTTammy Yes, I got what the pun read, Mrs. I'm not dense. I just didn't recognize the existence of this mythical "old Alan" whose work exemplified the traditional boundaries for a critic. Alan's embrace of the discursive style and format of the blog was itself a challenge to those traditional boundaries.
March 23, 2011 at 4:58PM ESTsepinwall Also, Bert Sugah is absolutely right about the excellence of Todd VanDerWerff, who's kicking ass and taking names in his new role as The AV Club's TV editor. I highly recommend reading him, whether you're sick of me or not.
March 23, 2011 at 6:25PM ESTPotatoSolution Hey guys, Alan needs a hug.
March 23, 2011 at 6:41PM ESTYou're awesomesauce, Alan. Don't let the trolls get you down. Such is life on the interwebs, unfortunately.
velocityknown I agree with Mrs. The Old Alan
March 23, 2011 at 10:56PM ESTYou should give up being a decent person and having a friendly conversation with a person because you're critically reviewing their work.
Sarcasm ended, now to the real stuff.
Right now, I'm a creative writing and film student at a university. I have taken numerous creative writing and film production classes as well as engaged in extracurricular activities that require me to express myself creatively. Many of these classes and activities are done with my very good friends who are within the same major. I often call on them to critically review my work and, trust me, there have been times when they all but say, "This piece totally sucks" while we're having dinner.
It's perfectly acceptable to be friendly (even good friends with someone) and give an honest opinion of their work. It just happens to be one of the best things in the world when you like that person and their work turns out to be especially fantastic.
I don't think that Mike Schur is the first instance of this happening with Alan, but I think it's safe to say this is one of them.
Louis CK gave an interview to Alan, after he came and personally commented on this blog to disagree with something he'd written in his review. But in the same sense, that doesn't mean there's any animosity between them, that just means they have a difference of opinion that they can be respectful about.
One of the reasons I admire this blog is because I get the feeling that Alan would not hesitate to start ripping Parks and Rec to shreds if it went to crap starting tomorrow. Mainly because there are moments in reviews where I disagree with his criticisms of aspects of the episode. Also, because if you follow this blog you know that there was a time when "The Office" was removed from the rotation because of its decline in quality. Granted, I've only been following the blog for a little over a year now, I'm guessing Alan had been reviewing it long before that and had good working relationships with showrunners Paul Lieberstein, Greg Daniels, (and OMG! Mike Schur totally worked on it at one point as well).
Your take on the way in which the blog has gone is a personal preference and not an honest observation. It's fine that you want some place to go where people are kind of just chatting about TV, but don't go after the blog and website just because it's gone a little too mainstream for you with (gasp!) interviews and (holy hell!) a Twitter feed! After 17 years or so of reviewing, I doubt Alan would suddenly be watching Parks and Rec and say to himself as he takes notes, "Oh no, I can't say that! Mike'll be furious!"
But that's just my opinion.
eriklk I think I get why people might feel Alan has "sold out". There was an intimacy on the old blog (especially in the beginning - which I've only read later) that led the reader feel more tightly connected to what Alan was doing. (This is basically the story of the indie band that loses its original fans when it gets a record deal with a major label - the music doesn't really play into it.)
March 23, 2011 at 11:04PM ESTHitFix is a lot 'noisier' than the old blog, both in the design, but also with the podcast, the slideshows, and obviously, the twitter profile adds to the noise. Most of that has an effect on the way we experience what's written, even if that's not fair. (I always preferred the blogspot blog to the NJ blog, even though the words were exactly the same the context was different.)
It seems to me that the quality of the comments is lower now. That may be because Alan has more casual readers than he had earlier or it might be a product of the different vibe (my perception of a lower standard might be a product of the (perceived) different vibe, as well...). I think there are more obnoxious, self-righteous, bratty comments now, e.g. in the Modern Family posts (I guess this trend started with Chuckopalypse on the old blog, so maybe it doesn't have anything to do with the move). Which is a shame, as the comments were really half of the old blog.
Also, there are fewer great shows at the moment. Alan's Wire reviews were great because the episodes were great, because there was a lot of things for him to catch. Other than Breaking Bad and Mad Men (and I would add In Treatment, which never got the detailed, erhm, treatment I thought it deserved), there aren't a lot of shows that really require analysis and critique on TV at the moment (with the exception of Louie, I'm not nearly as impressed with the FX shows as Alan is).
Anyway, Alan is awesomesauce, he works extremely hard and produces more content than ever. He should probably be a tougher moderator in the comments section, though - why not post the commenting rules at the end of every post, like at the old blog?
hipo It is interesting, every time I see these types of complaints about Alan, it is usually in response to his review of a comedy. It baffles me because comedies are so subjective. I never share the complaints because Alan seems to share my love for pop culture references, we are close in age, and have similar affection for comedies centering around quirky friendships. But even if that weren't the case, I would hope I could keep it all in perspective. I am glad that Alan continues to tell us about things that he finds funny, and gives me the opportunity to check them out as well.
March 24, 2011 at 2:16PM ESTAlan is so transparent about what he likes and doesn't like and why, and about his "relationships" I am just not sure what more you are looking for by way of a disclaimer. Unless this site or Alan starts engaging in payola, I am not too worried about his integrity.
I will say I do miss the old blog, but mostly because I liked the community of commenters Alan had created there. I miss when it was about the shows and our thoughts on them, and not so much about Alan and the commenters' opinions about him or mean-spirited gripes if he doesn't agree with them. But change is inevitable, and I am still grateful to Alan for providing us with all this stuff to talk about.
March 23, 2011 at 12:02PM EST Reply to CommentIf it's as funny as the Harvest Festival website was, I'll definitely buy it.
Joey
March 23, 2011 at 12:34PM EST Reply to CommentI can't wait to read the section on Little Sebastian
echos myron
March 23, 2011 at 3:00PM EST Reply to Comment16 episodes is such a rip-off. This is why I hate network channels; their obsession with rescheduling things causes shows to have seasons of uneven length.
simon Hang on, 16 episodes is more than any non-network series would have. So how's that a rip-off?
March 25, 2011 at 6:05PM ESTsyd
March 23, 2011 at 3:28PM EST Reply to Commentaw, i didn't know this season only had 16 episodes. :(
Tony
March 23, 2011 at 3:45PM EST Reply to CommentI'm ok with 16 episodes if we got the other 6 added on to next seasons 22.
Jesse
March 23, 2011 at 4:51PM EST Reply to CommentWill it come with a fullsized poster of the Ron Swanson Pyramid of success?
Jake Comparing the book's pre-order price on Amazon to the price of the poster at the NBC Universal Store, I'm guessing that it will not.
March 23, 2011 at 5:02PM ESTJake Trade paperback, 7.25" × 9.125", 240 pages. Most interestingly, the book will be featured in two episodes of the show, and will receive television promotion by NBC.
March 24, 2011 at 6:04PM EST