If there’s one heartwarming thing about the COVID-19 pandemic—arguable, but grant the conceit for a second—it’s that it’s served as a wonderful reminder that celebrities are just like the rest of us, i.e., when they get bored and lonely they tend to start podcasts to better spend time with the sounds of their own voices. The “TV stars recap their own old work” genre has become a thriving one in recent years, with Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey dishing on The Office with Office Ladies, and Zach Braff and Donald Faison giving a similar treatment to Scrubs with Fake Doctors, Real Friends. Now we can add Rob Lowe’s name to that of the famous, bored, and microphone-possessed, with news today that Lowe is set to launch Parks And Recollection, a Parks And Recreation recap podcast.
Lowe is embarking on the series (a co-production with Stitcher) with Parks writer/producer Alan Yang, working their way through Pawnee’s fictional history, and presumably talking a lot about that small horse that people seem to like so much. Of course, one of the more interesting things about this project is that Lowe didn’t join Parks until the end of its second season, which means we’re going to have to listen to multiple episodes of him trying to find nice things to say about Mark Brendanawicz. (As opposed to the show itself, which went pretty far out of its way to ignore actor Paul Schneider’s existence after he left the series.)
Parks And Recollection is being produced by Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco, its second podcast with Lowe, after Literally! With Rob Lowe—also a Parks reference—which is set to return for a second season soon with the actor’s old pal Molly Ringwald. In announcing this new show, Lowe said some Parks And Recreation stuff:
This is literally the best, second best, or third best idea for a podcast I’ve ever heard. Whether you’re a Parks And Recreation fan or not, this one’s going to be fun!
Meanwhile, you can check out the above trailer, which features audio from Chris Pratt, Ben Schwartz, Fred Armisen, and plenty of people who worked behind the scenes on the series.