Parks and Recreation: Amy Poehler, Adam Scott & Mike Schur on the Leslie-Ben Wedding Episode

On February 20, 2013, NBC Universal hosted a press conference call with Parks and Recreation stars Amy Poehler and Adam Scott and executive producer Mike Schur ahead of the show's highly anticipated Leslie-Ben wedding episode. The one-hour special — two back-to-back 30-minute episodes — aired Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 8:30 p.m. on NBC. The wedding episode, in which Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt decide on the spot to get married that very night, had been building since the characters first met in Season 2.

The call covered the mechanics of the surprise wedding, the show's ensemble approach, the Leslie-Ben dynamic post-marriage, and what a potential Season 6 might hold. Below are highlights from the conversation.

On pulling off a surprise wedding in two hours

Mike Schur explained the central conceit of the episode: "The wedding was originally planned for May and at this black tie gala they decide to do it that night. So they basically have two hours to throw it together. So everybody kind of has a role to play — Tom Haverford becomes the officiant and has to get ordained online in like an hour and Donna plays a role and for the first time we're going to feature her beautiful and professionally trained singing voice on the show a couple of times." Schur noted that Donna got to pick which aria she wanted to perform.

Amy Poehler described the episode's energy: "What's cool about that moment for both Ben and Leslie — because they tend to like to control things — is that they kind of throw things up in the air. And Ron Swanson said it very nicely in an episode one time that you act like you jump off a cliff. And so we get to see them do that."

On maintaining the magic after the wedding

Schur pushed back on the idea that getting Leslie and Ben together would drain the show of tension: "Part of the joy of the two characters and their relationship is that they have three-dimensional lives and they're both very committed not only to each other but their careers and to their friends and to just living a sort of full life. In the second episode — the cold open is Leslie and Ben coming back from their honeymoon — but the episode is just a regular episode of Parks and Rec and Leslie and Ben aren't in the same story. Ben is starting a new job and Leslie has an event she's planning. You'll see right away that there's a blueprint going forward where, yes, they're married now but they also have other aspects of their lives that are very important to them."

Adam Scott reflected on the characters' chemistry from the start: "I went back and watched 'The Master Plan' — the first episode Rob Lowe and I were on — and looking at Leslie and Ben at our first couple of scenes together it really speaks to the quality of writing of this show. These are two kind of three-dimensional characters that really sort of fit together and they see things in each other that no one else really sees. Them being married now just sort of fits in naturally with that."

Poehler put it simply: "It's chemistry, baby. You can't fight it."

On the proposal and favorite Leslie-Ben moments

Schur revealed that the proposal was written with deliberate surprise in mind: "We're not going to have the proposal come in a season premiere or in November sweeps or Christmas or whatever. We're going to do it at a time where it just feels natural and right and it kind of takes people by surprise. And it also has led to this very nice thing about Leslie and Ben's relationship — which is that they are constantly sort of surprising each other — which is a very romantic idea. That was actually talked about in the wedding episode in the vows that they exchange."

Poehler cited the proposal as her favorite moment: "I remember us walking into Joe Biden's office and Schur talking about how he was going back to his hotel room to write the proposal. So I remember knowing when he was writing it and then getting it and nobody changed a word. And I remember that day feeling very special because it was the three of us on set and it just felt like a long time coming."

On the ensemble and the town of Pawnee

Schur described the show's ensemble design as intentional from day one: "We always imagined it as an ensemble with Amy at the center. And it's such a cliché to say this but the town was also a sort of character in the show. We were inventing an entire town with its libraries and its parks and its restaurants and its sanitation workers. I remember just staring at one of those Simpsons posters where it's like every character who's ever been on the show — 350 little adorable animated drawings — and that kind of just stuck with me. We have literally invented an entire town from scratch."

Poehler added with characteristic deadpan: "Basically when the show is over, the cast and all the writers are going to go to a town and we're going to live there and we're going to pretend it's Pawnee until the Department of Tobacco and Firearms tells us we have to leave."

On the calzone question

The call's most memorable exchange came when a reporter asked whether Ben's obsession with calzones would survive the marriage. Schur delivered the verdict: "I don't think any other man or woman could ever cause any irreparable harm in their marriage. But I do think that what could is the calzone issue. It's the two things that Ben cares about most in the world and feels the most intensely about — Leslie and pizza wrapped in pastry dough." Scott added that "sometimes you just got to go into the zone," prompting Schur to accuse him of de-emulsifying rather than emulsifying the point.

The Parks and Recreation wedding episode aired Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 8:30 p.m. on NBC, followed immediately by a second episode at 9:00 p.m. The show was renewed for a sixth season.

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