More than five years after the final episode aired, “parks and recreation” made a triumphant return Thursday night with a 30-minute reunion special in which the cast dealt with the covid-19 pandemic and the social distancing.
Throughout its seven seasons, “Parks and Recreation” has had numerous cameos from professional athletes. Set in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana, the show has used many athletes who played in the Hoosier State, including former Indianapolis Colts Andrew Luck, Reggie Wayne, as well as team owner Jim Irsay. While he never played for a team in Indiana, there was also a random sighting of Chris Bosh there.
Reading: Roy hibbert parks and rec
However, my favorite scenes involving former Indiana athletes come from former pacemakers Detlef Schrempf and Roy Hibbert. the two appeared together and separately and provided some great moments during their time on the show. so while watching the reunion special last night, i got to thinking. how did these guys end up on the show?
detlef schrempf and roy hibbert were nba stars with the indiana pacers
Before arriving on the “Parks and Recreation” set, Detlef Schrempf played parts of five seasons with the Indiana Pacers. As Aziz Ansari’s Tom Haverford character told us in season two, Schrempf was traded to Indiana from the Dallas Mavericks in February 1989 for veteran center Herb Williams. Schrempf enjoyed some of the best seasons of his 16-year NBA career with the Pacers, averaging 17 points per game from 1989 to 1993. Detlef Schrempf earned his first All-Star selection in 1993, but that summer he was traded to the Los Angeles Jets. Seattle, where he later became the first German player to appear in the NBA Finals.
roy hibbert was drafted by the indiana pacers in 2008 and spent seven seasons with the team, averaging 11.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks. Hibbert earned All-Star Game nominations in 2012 and 2014.
the creators of “parks and recreation” wanted larry bird before deciding to bring in detlef schrempf
detlef schrempf first appeared on “parks and recreation” in the aforementioned season 2 episode, “telethon,” in which amy poehler’s character leslie knope hosts a four-hour block of a telethon that lasts all night to raise funds for diabetes. Schrempf was going to be picked up by Tom and brought to the studio as a surprise guest, but gets distracted. Turns out detlef wasn’t the original choice for the episode. The show’s co-creator, Michael Schur, actually wanted to bring in Larry Bird, but he didn’t think he’d make a cameo appearance on a new show that was still looking for an audience. brainstorming sessions followed and they settled on schrempf.
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detlef schrempf had acted a little in commercials and had appeared in other programs such as “married with children”. Although he was used as a joke in his first appearance on “Parks and Recreation”, he actually appeared in two episodes of the German soap opera, “Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten”. It turned out that Detlef’s son Alex had walked into UCLA, so Schrempf was constantly coming to Los Angeles for the games and it worked out wonderfully. Schrempf appeared in two more episodes, “Li’l Sebastian” in Season 3 and “Ron and Tammys” in Season 4, the latter of which also featured Roy Hibbert.
roy hibbert came up with the idea of making a cameo in “parks and recreation”
after hearing a rumor that derrick rose was going to appear in “the good wife”, roy hibbert decided he wanted to try his acting skills too. he realized that being on a show set in indiana made a lot of sense and had his agent, david falk, contact the “parks and recreation” people. They loved the idea and brought Hibbert to the set in the summer of 2011 to film his scene with Detlef Schrempf, which also featured Aziz Ansari, Ben Schwartz and Adam Scott, whose characters discussed the business aspects of 720 entertainment in the episode .
schrempf really helped train hibbert during his scene and hibbert was very impressed with his co-star.
“He just told me to relax and let it happen. he had one or two sentence lines…and he literally had a very close paragraph and he was spot on and I was very, very impressed…he was definitely a pro in that regard. he came prepared and he just told me to relax.”
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hibbert appeared in two more episodes after his debut alongside detlef schrempf. He passed out shrimp at “World’s End” in season 4 and ran into the group’s bachelor party at “Two Parties” in season 5.