14 Days of Swooon
Happy ‘Galentine’s Day’! Inside the Iconic ‘Parks & Recreation’ Episode with Director Ken Kwapis
What is Galentine’s Day, you ask? Well, it’s only the best day of the year.
Every year, Galentine’s Day takes place on February 13—the day before Valentine’s Day—to celebrate the girls and pals outside of your romantic relationships. Brunches, apartment soirées, goodie bags, and every other wholesome, friendship-loving activity you can think of run rampant. Perfect for your single friends who deserve to be lovingly celebrated as well, while also just as honorary for the friends in your life you’ve fallen off track with while you’ve been swept up in the honeymoon phase of your new love. But this isn’t news to most romantically-inclined folks.
What you may forget is that this now widely-celebrated holiday was introduced 15 years ago by Pawnee’s own Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) in the workplace sitcom Parks and Recreation. In the Season 2 episode titled “Galentine’s Day,” which aired February 11, 2010, Leslie explains how every February 13, her “lady friends leave husbands and boyfriends at home” to come together as “ladies celebrating ladies.”
Now celebrating the 15th anniversary since its original air date, the director of the episode Ken Kwapis (The Office, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, He’s Just Not That Into You) dusted off the original shooting script to break down his favorite parts of the holiday-defining episode.
Kwapis, who has a particular interest in humanizing the characters he directs onscreen, has helmed some of the most romantic TV episodes and films that have resonated with female audiences. From Jim and Pam’s first kiss in The Office to Alexis Bledel‘s Greek romantic fantasy in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Kwapis has never failed to make audiences swoon. The key to his success: grounded emotional depth.
The director, who was also tapped to direct the upcoming Disney+ Malcom in the Middle revival featuring the original cast, spoke with Swooon for our 14 Days of Swooon series to reveal secrets behind the iconic episode and more.
So, “Galentine’s Day.” Where do we begin?
Kwapis: I had the pleasure of rereading Michael Schur‘s shooting draft of Galentine’s Day, along with the rewatching the episode for the first time in a number of years. And I was so happy. What I love about the episode is that it deals with so many romantic storylines. Whether it’s Leslie and Justin and their relationship that’s falling apart, or whether it’s Tom and Wendy’s relationship which has already fallen apart. But he’s desperately trying to put it back together.
Not to get all film nerdy on you but it reminds me of a film like Smiles of a Summer Night. Ingmar Bergman, where there’s like six different couples. And then there’s Ron, of course, who’s not in a couple, he’s not in a relationship currently, but he has sort of the key moment in the entire episode when he sort of shed some light on Justin’s character for Leslie. I have the script in front of me, so I’m going to read the most important part.
Please do.
Kwapis: When Ron describes Justin as being a tourist: “He vacations in people’s lives, takes pictures, puts them in his scrapbook, and moves on.” It’s interesting because you know the character Justin seems to be so interested in setting up an experiment by putting Marlene and Frank together. He’s almost hoping it’s a train wreck, I feel. Maybe he’s not, but he claims that he’s excited for them to reunite. But I kind of feel like he mostly wants fodder for a good story.
And, you know, it’s painfully obvious to Leslie that Justin’s not the right guy for her, but I love the way Ron kind of tips it in by calling him a tourist. And I’m particularly proud of that scene because it’s very simple. It’s Ron and Leslie sitting side-by-side and staring ahead. I don’t even know if they look at each other during this dialogue. They’re just looking at Justin. I’m kind of patting myself on the back here, but there’s something elegant about just seeing the two of them side by side.
It is!
Kwapis: There’s nothing I find more wonderful than like a two-shot like the one we shot with Ron and with Nick and Amy. I also love the romantic triangle of Anne and April, and, oh, I’m forgetting Chris Pratt’s character’s name. That’s embarrassing.
Andy.
Kwapis: Andy! I was really excited to stage the moment where Andy dedicates a song to April, and we shot Andy over both of their shoulders, so you’re looking over both Anne and April’s shoulders. It’s a very simple visual, but it underscores the tension between Anne and April at that moment. But again, it’s just so many relationships. I love this idea of a romantic story where you get to juggle a number of relationships. It was like a rehearsal for He’s Just Not That Into You.
Do you think you were tapped to direct that episode because of the complexities happening between so many different characters?
Kwapis: I did think about that at the time. But it’s certainly true. “Galentine’s Day” does require juggling a lot of emotional storylines and making sure that they’re all distinct and relatable and funny.
There’s a lot of people who get dumped in that episode, isn’t there? There’s April dumping her two boyfriends. I guess Frank comes back into Marlene’s life in order to dump her. And clearly, Leslie is probably going to dump Justin. Wendy can’t quite convince Tom that their relationship is over. Among many heartbreaking things is the bromance between Tom and Justin that falls apart also. Tom seems just as eager to keep that alive as he is keeping his failed marriage with Wendy alive.
I guess that one way to think of it is. Oh my gosh, there’s a lot of relationships falling apart in this story, and yet it feels very hopeful to me. Maybe that’s the key to it is to not lean into the fact that people are losing love but to think about all the new relationships that are about to blossom.
Was it more fun directing relationships that were blossoming or the relationships that were falling apart?
Kwapis: The ones that are falling apart are exciting to direct because each version of it is different. Leslie is starting to see Justin for who he really is, but you also feel that she’s trying to fold on to the relationship too…She’s such an optimist that I think she’s trying her best to put Justin in a good light or frame him in a positive way. It’s fun to see Amy strike this wonderful balance between wanting it to work and not wanting to be naive.
In the original script, when Marlene tells the story of meeting Frank at the Galentine’s Day brunch, she talks about having sex with Frank the first night, and we shot this, but it didn’t end up in the cut: Leslie covers her ears and starts going “la la la la.” There’s also another wonderful Leslie moment where she doesn’t realize what a “nooner” means so she thinks it’s such a word and Ron tells Justin, “Maybe you should explain it to her.”
Did you have any idea of the cultural phenomenon that “Galentine’s Day” was going to become from then on?
Kwapis: No, I had no expectation that it would catch on as an actual holiday. I just thought it was a cool idea for the story. I’ve never asked Amy or Michael which of them came up with the idea for Galentine’s Day.
I have a hunch.
Kwapis: Sounds like something Amy would come up with, no?
I think so, too.
Kwapis: The other thing that’s so wonderful about the show in general and that episode in particular is that Leslie Knope is such a romantic. When she sort of announces the senior dance, she makes a point of saying, these are people who’ve been married for 50 years, and then she goes around the room and singles out everyone in the room for having a failed relationship, except Jerry, of course—who’s actually been married for over two decades.
Would you consider yourself a romantic?
Kwapis: Yeah, I have to think about what that word means, but definitely. Okay, I’m thinking.
It’s a big question.
Kwapis: I try to bring some humanity to the stories I direct. And that’s kind of a romantic way of looking at life, I think. I make no great claims, but I try my best to make sure there’s something recognizably human going on in front of the camera.
What’s your favorite rom-com?
Kwapis: There are three of them. Two of them by the same director, Ernst Lubitsch. They are Trouble in Paradise and The Shop Around the Corner, which you probably know was remade by Nora Ephron as You’ve Got Mail. But the original with Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan just operates on a level that is so sublime. Equally unbeatable is The Awful Truth with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant. Romantic comedy simply doesn’t get better than that.
This interview was edited for length.
