Chris Pratt-AV club

Chris Pratt sits in the A.V. Club’s hot seat
November 3rd, 2009
From A.V. Club:

Andy Dwyer has become the show’s breakout character; it seems like the more of him we see, the better the episode. Did you have any inkling when you got the part that it might work out that way?
No, at first it was given to me as a guest-star role for six episodes. I had a pretty good idea that by the end of his run, Rashida’s character would break up with him, so I thought I could just have fun with it, and that would be that. There were no guarantees. But they told me if the show got picked up, and if they brought Andy back, it would be as a regular; I guess that was kind of the carrot that you dangle in front of the actor. “Hey, there’s a chance you can come back as a regular!” But they didn’t have to, so I was just assuming they wouldn’t bring him back. As the episodes went on, though, it was more and more apparent that they were writing really funny stuff for the character.

Do you think it was their plan all along to give Andy more screen time, or do you think it was because of how the character was received?
I think it’s a testament to Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, who created the show, that a lot of what they planned gets thrown out the window when it becomes clear how things are developing. We’re obviously working from a plan, but they’re very willing to just throw everything out there, see what’s working, and see who has chemistry. With a cast like this, too, you see a lot of freestyling, a lot of improvisation, and they really swing with it when they go forward. So there just happened to be this ridiculous character, Andy, who kept getting laughs, and that’s been why he’s gotten more scenes. And I think that’s going to happen with more and more characters—I think everyone’s going to get their moments and find their groove, it’s just a matter of letting it work itself out. It’s not something that’s possible to plan, but it wasn’t planned with me, either.

Will we be seeing any more of (Mouse Rat)?
Man, I sure hope so. If it was up to me, Andy would team up with Ron, playing Duke Silver—he’d be blowing the saxophone and Andy would provide the guitar and piano, and they’d go on tour together. Of course, I always pitch stuff like that, and the writers just look at me and go, “Uh, yeah, I don’t think so.”

Andy might not work if he was super-thin and handsome. Part of what’s funny about him is that he’s this type of guy that everyone’s met, this sort of band schlub who mooches off his girlfriend, he’s not too good-looking…
I think if Andy were super-fit and buff, people would really hate his guts. That’s another reason that he stays likeable—he thinks he’s really handsome, but he’s just this dude with a double chin and a belly, who sits around and drinks beer and eats pizza and doesn’t really work toward anything. It was Nick Offerman who told me this first, and I really liked it: he said “Andy is living the American dream—the new American dream, which is do as little as possible and get as much in return as possible.”

The Onion gives Kaboom an A!

The AV Club:
Right around the time Parks & Recreation returned for its stellar second season, I started thinking about the episode grading happening over here. Every episode was so much better than the one before it, so I was beginning to wonder what the show would have to do for an A. I figured I'd just have to be confident that I'd know it when I saw it.
Then I saw Chris Pratt show up to Anne's house completely naked, run around for a while, then put on an apron covering only the front part of his buff-ness. And I knew I had to see no more.
That scene was by far the highlight of the series, and demonstrates something key about season two of P&R: The characters have to keep us guessing. Season one mostly laid the groundwork, and found each character except Ron Swanson returning to stock, flat jokes every week—which says something, given the show hadn't even been on for very long. But now the characters have been winding up, bouncing off each other in unexpected ways, and the results are fresh, like a cereal box you realize you haven't read yet.
Of course, it helps that this ensemble-focused show isn't shying away from outrageousness, and this was one of the more outrageous episodes of them all. The parks department volunteers with a charity called Kaboom, that builds playgrounds in one day, and the sudden spark of motion gets Leslie thinking about ways she can jump start the pit beautification project. Only one person has anything resembling a reasonable idea, and it's Mark with the crazy notion that Leslie should just fill in the pit herself. Take action now, ask for forgiveness later. And because of her Kaboom experience and Anne's neverending support, she thinks the idea's just crazy enough to work. She goes out and rents a truck, starts putting dirt down, and realizes Andy is being covered—and he intends to sue the city for this.
While last week's episode suffered from being too Leslie-focused, this episode shined by once again sharing the limelight. Leslie got to plunge into the depths of her own patheticness by going through credit card purchases over the phone ("man pillow: the pillow shaped like a man; something called 'bucket o cake' "); Tom, always eager for more Leslie gossip, gets to listen in and giggle. Ron's grumpy attitude at the Kaboom site, followed by his angry outpouring towards Leslie ("What the ka-fuck were you thinking?") demonstrates once again that the character's a delight when he couldn't care less about anything that's going on. Even Anne got a few jokes in, though her moments were strongest when she played off other characters, like clearly opting for the "kick" hat and leaving Leslie to wear the "ass" one.
And Andy, oh boy. Over the last few weeks, we've watched Andy's steady decline. In season one, he was content knowing things with Anne were good, that she'd never dump him, but obviously he was delusional; these season two Andy-centric episodes have continued the delusional streak, this time about whether or not Andy's going to get back together with her. And we see much of that in the first half of the episode. Andy shows up unannounced to the Kaboom site, proudly proclaiming that he's living now with his drummer—in a house with a roof, he doesn't mean to brag—and trying to get his life together. He's even quick to cover up the pit dump in the hopes that he remain in good standing with Anne over at the hospital; after all, she's been waiting on him hand-and-foot, and Andy's too enamored to realize it's just her job. So he puts himself out there, and she rejects him. Not like the other rejections: she makes it very clear that Mark has everything Andy does not. Everything. A job, financial security, an apartment, his life together, everything. For the first time, we see Andy in the kind of pain that might have him doing something sensible, like sue the city for money so he can get himself together (that's sensible to him).
Which leads me back to the nakedness moment. He's clearly in a sorry state, so hearing from Anne puts him so outrageously over the top, he's willing to bound over to her place, naked as the day he was born, with such glee and optimism it's impossible not to laugh. I feel that way about this show at its best; when its bits are surprising and completely committed—Leslie trying to erase the marker, realizing it's permanent; "I can't really do her voice"—they soar. Let's go Parks & Rec, one of the funniest shows on TV right now.
Stray observations:
The entire office's inexplicable hatred for Jerry reminds me of The Office and Toby, and it gives the characters something else to play with.
"I like saying no."
H. Jon Benjamin: Greatest comedy resume on the planet?