Is love in Donna's future on 'Parks and Recreation'?
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Retta -- No, she's not Nell.
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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- On NBC's "Parks and Recreation," stand-up comedian Retta plays Donna Meagle, one of the officemates on the comedy series (8:30 Thursdays, WPXI), although you'd be excused for not noticing her in the first season. I'm not sure she got a single line of dialogue, and I even wondered whether she was new to the cast in season two.
But since then, Donna has grown into a scene-stealer, particularly in an episode last fall when she was paired with Tom (Aziz Ansari) during a shopping spree. Even if some of what she does looks ad-libbed, Retta said it's usually scripted.
"We get to ad-lib every once in a while," she said at an NBC press party last summer. "On our last run-through, we go crazy and most of the time none of that makes it in because we go so far over the edge they would never be willing to put that on the air. So it's essentially the writers who give Donna the words. I know people are big fans of the 'Are you Nell?' line and I thought it was hilarious, but I never wrote it."
Retta said she usually tries three different takes of a line of dialogue and confers with the show's director and writer to land on what works best.
"I'll write notes on my desk and cross off what I've done so I can get through different ideas and ways of saying a line," she said.
"Parks and Recreation" marks Retta's first series regular role.
"I started doing stand-up so I could be on TV," she said. "I wanted my own sitcom. I don't write my own material so it's obviously different. For me, when I do stand-up I'm on autopilot because I've been doing the jokes for so long, whereas in this show each week I get to do something different and it takes the pressure off me because I didn't have to write it and hopefully I do my best to perform it well."
She said before the current season began the writers asked her about the idea of Donna in a relationship.
"I think it would have to be someone super fabulous, and I don't know how fabulous a man you'll find in Pawnee," Retta said. "I hope she has a secret relationship with Jean-Ralphio. She won't let him talk about it or talk to her in public. I love Ben Schwartz and I think it would be super fun to do a scene with him. They said they talked about it, but they also had every permutation. Maybe it will be some brown love between Tom and Donna. I don't know if it's ever going to make the show."
Recurring guest star Schwartz, who is expected to return to film additional "Parks and Recreation" episodes now that he's wrapped production of his series regular role on Showtime's "House of Lies," is game.
"Oh my God, how much fun would that be?" Mr. Schwartz said last week after a Showtime press conference. "Imagine that couple. I think Jean-Ralphio would think that is the best matchup in the world. We purposely have put so much random sexual tension in -- a look or a word. I've been hoping that someone would notice it and now people are noticing it. I think they have some weird past that nobody knows about."
First Published January 22, 2012 12:00 am
