We demand 'Philly Justice,' the courtroom comedy created by the cast of 'Parks and Recreation'

PHILADELPHIA — Philly justice takes on many forms, from the storied Eagles court at Veterans Stadium for drunk and unruly fans to the Philadelphia court of public opinion, which has ruled in favor of everything from librarians to Gritty and against everyone from NBA player Ben Simmons to the Atlanta Braves mascot Blooper.

But there’s a Philly justice that exists that’s never been seen before in the City of Brotherly Love, or anywhere else for that matter — "Philly Justice," the fake-but-kind-of-real TV show created by the cast and crew of "Parks and Recreation." It’s been whispered about for more than a decade, but has never been seen.

Now, thanks to an article in the Independent last week, we know a "Philly Justice" script and footage exist.

We the people of Philadelphia must see this footage. We demand justice. "Philly Justice." (dun dun)

From what I find, the first mention of "Philly Justice" was during a "Parks and Rec" panel at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills in 2012. Series star Amy Poehler and co-creator and showrunner Michael Schur explained that "Philly Justice" was created during downtime on the set of "Parks and Rec," which ran on NBC from 2009 to 2015.

They were inspired to create the show after members of the cast, including Poehler, Adam Scott, Kathryn Hahn, Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones, took a very serious picture in suits one day.

“They were on set and they had someone take that picture and they decided to pretend that they were all in a show called "Philly Justice" about Philly lawyers,” Schur said at the panel.

According to the backstory the cast and crew created, as told by Poehler, the "Philly Justice" pilot was made in 2003 and all of the characters have been named and given backstories (Scott is “loose cannon” Nick Bellows and Jones plays Joanna “Joey” Suarez, who “likes to stop gang violence”).

Lore from the made-up backstory was that Rudd didn’t connect with the show’s producers and was replaced after the pilot with Dylan McDermott, who was later replaced by Dermot Mulroney.

“It’s difficult to explain to you how intricate this bit has gotten,” Schur said. “These five people got so into this idea that they had been in a fake show together and that Paul Rudd had been replaced by Dylan McDermott that Adam Scott created a fake email address for Dylan McDermott and started emailing everybody about how excited he was to be on the show.”

...continued

swipe to next page