I'm a huge, HUGE Parks and Recreation fan, and if you are too, you may have heard of "Philly Justice." Paul Rudd and Kathryn Hahn (who I may bring up at a later date, because I love her) are both recurring guest stars on Parks, as Rudd is playing Leslie Knope (Poehler)'s political rival, with Hahn as his cut-throat campaign manager. The three regular cast-members and the two guest actors all posed, as a goof, for this photograph and made up a story about how it was from a lost 2003 pilot for a police procedural called "Philly Justice."
Poehler can explain it better than I can. If you think this might be even a little funny, watch this. And then you will find it hilarious.
Anyway, "Philly Justice" has gotten me to thinking a number of things, one of them being that Adam Scott's role in this endeavor tickles me so much that I might be able to forgive him for Friends With Kids. Might. Also, again, how I love Kathryn Hahn, because she would clearly be the ball-bustiest of these ball-busting law-and-orderesses.
But here's my big, hefty question of the day: Why hasn't anyone made Philly Justice yet?!? And I don't mean, why hasn't someone made a forgettable, cliched show about cops and/or lawyers? (Check!) I mean, why hasn't anyone made a long-form TV parody? Like, a modern-day "Get Smart," but instead of spoofying the spy genre, look at cop/law shows!
I would argue that, even if you don't watch "Law & Order" or "Rookie Blue," you would recognize a parody of the police procedural if you saw it. The melodrama, the jargon, how moral dilemmas make prosecutors' faces get all squinty and pinched...
At the very least, I'm surprised the people who brought you "Children's Hospital" on Adult Swim haven't taken on the genre in their absurd way that I sometimes like.
Am I forgetting a "Philly Justice"-esque comedy TV project from the past or in the present? Please no one tell me about the Cops musical, because yes, I've heard of it, and no, it doesn't "count."
I would say that Castle is more of a spoof of a crime drama than a crime drama itself. It's not quite at the level of sitcom as P&R or 30 Rock, but it is self aware in a way that most Law & Order type shows are not.
ReplyDelete"Also, again, how I love Jennifer Hahn, because she would clearly be the ball-bustiest of these ball-busting law-and-orderesses."
ReplyDeleteKATHRYN Hahn. And, word to her ball-bustingness, as it were. She was all that--and a bag of salted peanuts--in Boing-Boing.