We know not all of you are up-to-date with the final season of Parks & Recreation, for whatever reason. So as more of a legal disclaimer on our behalf than anything, we’re giving you one last chance to back out now to avoid spoiling possibly the greatest surprise the show’s ever managed to pull off.
And while the rest of us wait for the others to leave, let’s all enjoy this GIF of Ron Swanson dancing for a few seconds.
Alright. Are they gone? Awesome.
As the final season of the much beloved NBC sitcom draws towards its final curtain call, they’re still managing to throw out the occasional hilarious surprise. And this week’s episode had probably the best one yet.
In the cold open of “Two Funerals,” the season’s eleventh episode, the Pawnee gang learns that mythical, up-until-this-point-unseen, and much beloved Mayor of Pawnee, Walter Gunderson, had died.
After the title sequence we’re dropped straight into the memorial service for the late, beloved Mayor, which featured an open casket.
Your eyes do not deceive you. That is a very still and patient BILL FREAKIN’ MURRAY.
The man long wanted to be the unseen Mayor actually materialised in glorious fashion. And the story behind how exactly the show’s cast and crew convinced B-to-the-M to get on board has been revealed.
Turns out that way back in season 3 the show actually reached out to Arnold Schwarzenegger for the role – cast member Rob Lowe is a friend of Arnold’s, and thus contacted him about doing a guest spot. But at the time, Arnold was the Governor of California, and politely declared that he couldn’t actually take on the role whilst still in office.
It was at that point that the show’s producers and creators decided that the Mayor would either be Murray, or it wouldn’t be anyone.
Amy Poehler and Aubrey Plaza sent the word out to Murray ahead of production on the show’s final season, stating that the Mayor was dying and this is the last chance: “Do you want to come lie in a coffin? It would be REALLY funny.”
Not long after that, show co-creator Michael Schur received a voicemail.
“Hey, this is Bill Murray. I hear you might have some dead work for me.”
The decision was made to keep the cameo under the tightest of wraps, and Murray did indeed report to the set of Parks one day back in November. The bulk of the memorial service scene had been shot without him already, but writers and producers re-worked it to shoot additional scenes involving Murray’s smirking “corpse” lying in state – ironically, a corpse that was corpsing – including that amazing forehead kiss from Ethel Beavers.
As Schur explained to EW, “Once he had agreed to do it, we thought: The coolest possible thing is just to have him lying in the coffin. That’s the artistic choice. But if you’ve got that guy around, you might as well as try to get him to say something out loud, right?“
And that’s when writers threw in the memorial video for Murray to let loose on. The writers apparently came up with 30 different options of Murray to read.
“He did every single one of them, one after another, and then he improvised two complete ones by himself. The one in the show is one that he used a tiny bit of what we had written and then it’s an improv from Bill Murray, which is so cool.“
As for how Bill was on set? Schur had nothing but glowing words.
“He was just the most delightful person. Not only was he incredibly complimentary of the show, he went around to every one of the actors and told them how great they were and cited specific episodes and moments. He hung out on the set for three hours, watching us shoot the show.“
And that’s the story of how Bill Murray managed to upstage John Cena for surprise cameo of the night.
Parks & Recreation‘s final ever episode airs next Wednesday (Australian time) and I am in absolutely no way emotionally ready for it to be over.
Someone hold me.
