It was a 'Parks and Recreation' reunion on Friday's 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show'

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 5/21/21

Rob Lowe guest-hosted The Ellen DeGeneres Show for Friday's episode, and he brought his Parks and Recreation pals Adam Scott and Kathryn Hahn with him.

Scott shared that he is currently subletting Aziz Ansari's apartment while filming a television show in New York City before he and Lowe reminisced on how much they loved working together on Parks and Rec. "You can't fake the kind of relationships that we had," Lowe said.

They more specifically recounted the first time they met, which according to Scott, was "literally 30 seconds—literally—before they called action on our first scene in the show."

"You're totally remembering it correctly," Lowe added. "The show had been on for two seasons, I think, and they brought you and I in. We have to walk in, meet that entire cast, which was like murderers' row of comedians, and we had never even said hello to each other."

Lowe's and Scott's characters complemented each other perfectly. Chris Traeger (Lowe) was unshakably peppy and positive, while Ben Wyatt (Scott) was dry and realistic. Both characters became regulars in Season 3. Ultimately, Ben married Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), and Chris married Leslie's best friend, Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones).

Kathryn Hahn had a recurring role on Parks and Recreation, too, as Jennifer Barkley—a political strategist pitted against Leslie.
"I remember, like, I could not believe that we got to have an on-screen romance," Hahn said. "It was almost like I had to implode. My brain—I had to forget everything of my childhood so I could be present because otherwise I would have exploded. ... If my 13-year-old self had known that this was in my future, I could not have worked!"

Hahn, Lowe and Scott also played a round of "Literally Local Laws," playing off of Chris Traeger's incessant use of the word "literally" on the show:

Parks and Recreation was created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur and ran for seven seasons on NBC from 2009 to 2015. The series was nominated by 14 Primetime Emmy Awards with a star-studded cast including Chris Pratt, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Retta, and more.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that the show's fictional band Mouse Rat fronted by Andy Dwyer (Pratt) will drop a very real full-length album called The Awesome Album in August.

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