Amy Poehler finally drops the real trailer for ‘Philly Justice,’ the fake legal drama from the ‘Parks and Rec’ team
Starring Rashida Jones, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, and others, the 'show' started out as a joke but now enjoys a dedicate fan base.
It started as an inside joke that nobody was meant to see.
In 2012, the cast and crew of legendary NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation worked on a fake courtroom comedy called Philly Justice with absolutely no end goal — just for fun.
Following years of rumors around the “show,” Amy Poehler finally dropped its never-before-seen trailer, giving fans a peek into the “locked-in-a-vault” Philly Justice, on Tuesday’s episode of her podcast, Good Hang.
“We have been kind of teasing this thing called Philly Justice, which is a fake idea of a TV show that was created on the set of Parks and Rec that we made a one-and-a-half minute trailer for,” said Poehler, before introducing her guest, Parks and Recreation creator and producer Mike Schur.
» READ MORE: We demand ‘Philly Justice,’ the courtroom comedy created by the cast of ‘Parks and Recreation’
Parks and Recreation actors Rashida Jones and Adam Scott and director/producer Morgan Sackett were also asked to join in as they pieced together their memories of how the parody got made.
The idea arose when Poehler, Jones, and Scott, along with guest stars Paul Rudd and Kathryn Hahn, posed for a photo on set, clad in business attire.
No one remembers who took the photo, but it was taken on Jones’ phone. It was Jones who first joked that the group looked like they were on a David E. Kelley legal drama and coined the title, Philly Justice.
As the cast began fleshing out their characters’ backstories, the joke got bigger and bigger. Excitement from the showrunners added fuel to the comedic fire, and the small joke became “hours of emails, character descriptions, tons of scripts, an actual shoot day, [and] a trailer,” Poehler said.
“It just kept wafting up to the writers room; everyone was really enjoying this bit,” Schur told Poehler. “Then I think we all collectively blacked out, and when we woke up, the writers had written scenes for Philly Justice.”
It was a 20-page script for a pilot episode. The Pawnee City Council chambers, built for the set of Parks and Recreation, serves as the Philly Justice courtroom.
Rudd, missing from the action because he was filming a movie at the time, was replaced by Dylan McDermott.
“The lore in the meta, meta, meta world became that Paul Rudd had been that character and had been [fired and] recast after the table read,” said Schur.
In Philly Justice, Joey Martinez (played by Jones), is a first-year associate with a tough background who “gives it to you straight even if you don’t ask her opinion,” said Jones. Poehler plays Holly, the nemesis to Jones’ Martinez, who works hard to distance herself from the fact that she’s a nepo hire. Nick Offerman, unsurprisingly, plays the judge.
Nick Bellows (Scott) is a motorcycle-riding district attorney who survived 9/11 because he overslept after spending a night with his mentor’s wife. He goes on to serve in Afghanistan.
“Bellows has more demons than he can count. Now that he’s back, he’s on the right side of the law,” Scott said, reading his character’s bio. “He cares about one thing and one thing only: justice.”
Hahn’s character is Valerie McNeil, a criminal prosecutor and partner at the firm who never married or had kids. The trailer shows Hahn and Scott kissing before he proposes to her in the courtroom.
Poehler mistakenly thought Hahn and Jones also kissed in the trailer, which she said got fans excited, but she apologized for misremembering.
The very silly, very corny trailer features a few-but-memorable mentions of the city. McDermott tells a jury dramatically, “Let there be justice in Philadelphia, once again.” At the end, Hahn throws a notebook on Jones’ desk and says, “Welcome to Philly, b—.”
“A lot of people have asked me what the future life of Philly Justice is,“ said Jones. ”It could be nothing, but I think that people are very interested.”
Could it actually become a real show?
“Rashida, Philly has never needed more justice than now,” Poehler quipped. “I think it’s time to make it.”