Rashida Jones Created — and Shot! — Spinoff on “Parks and Rec” Set with Amy Poehler, Adam Scott, Paul Rudd, Kathryn Hahn

Rudd and Hahn both guest starred on the sitcom several times, and Jones recalled those seasons as "the absolute best"

The silliness of Parks and Recreation didn’t end when the cameras cut — in fact, it nearly exceeded the bounds of Pawnee entirely.

In a new interview with The Independent commemorating 15 years since the NBC sitcom premiered, Rashida Jones, who played the beloved Ann Perkins, shared a hilarious idea that she and her costars spawned during their “free time” off-set, one that nearly led to the creation of an entirely new show.

"The season where we had Paul Rudd and Kathryn Hahn on was the absolute best,” Jones, 48, said, referring to seasons 4 and 7 when both Rudd, 55, and Hahn, 50, made recurring appearances as Sweetums heir Bobby Newport and political strategist Jen Barkley, respectively. Rudd and Hahn’s characters worked together to attempt to defeat Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) in the city council election, though their efforts were unsuccessful.

“During our free time on set, we took a picture of me, Kathryn, Amy, Adam Scott and Rudd and we had this fantasy of being in like a Nineties, David Kelley-style procedural show called Philly Justice where we were all playing law clerks in Philadelphia,” Jones continued, referring to the creator of The Practice and L.A. Law. 

Related: Amy Poehler Has Streetside Reunion with 'Parks and Recreation' Costar Rashida Jones: 'Ann and Leslie 4Eva'

What started as a fun non-work related creative musing ended up spinning into more, as the Parks and Rec writers wrote “an entire episode of a different show,” based on the group’s idea, “which we started to actually shoot.”

“We became obsessed with it and so did the writers,” she said. “We shot 15 pages of a show that doesn’t exist with our free time.”

In 2012, during a panel at PaleyFest, Poehler and the show's creator, Michael Schur, discussed the spinoff idea, which Schur, now 48, described as "a pilot that was made in 2003" whose origin was rooted in a photo taken of Poehler, Scott, Hahn, Rudd and Jones on set one day.

Poehler joked that Rudd "didn't really connect with the producers and he was replaced after the pilot with Dylan McDermott," before McDermott, who starred in The Practice, was also replaced, this time by Dermot Mulroney.

"Actually what this is, is we – they were on set and they had someone take that picture and they decided to pretend that they were all on a show called Philly Justice about Philadelphia lawyers," Schur said.

Among the storylines the group concocted, Poehler shared that Scott's character, named Nick Bellows, went to Iraq following 9/11 and Jones' Joanna "Joey" Suarez is a lawyer dedicated to stopping gang violence.

"It's difficult to explain to you how intricate this bit has gotten," Schur admitted. "These actors, these five people, got so into this idea that they had been in this fake show together."

Related: Amy Poehler Says She's 'Always Standing By' for a Potential 'Parks and Recreation' Reboot

Though Rudd and Hahn’s stints on Parks and Rec were short — Rudd appeared in only 5 episodes, while Hahn starred in 10 — they were more than memorable, both for the cast and for the actors themselves.

Hahn enjoyed a mini-cast reunion in 2021 when Rob Lowe filled in as guest host on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and interviewed her. During the appearance, Hahn admitted that she'd grown up with a major crush on Lowe, who starred as Chris Traeger on the show, and so filming alongside him — and being a love interest of his — was daunting.

"I could not believe that we got to have an onscreen romance," Hahn said. "I had to forget everything of my childhood so I could be present, because otherwise I would've exploded. I turned into an animal — I was like, 'Just do the job.' If my 13-year-old self had known that this was in my future, I could not have worked."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Hahn also recently reunited with some of her former female costars for Galentine's Day — the holiday Poehler's character created on Parks and Rec — in 2023.

In a selfie posted by Jones, she posed with Poehler, Hahn and Aubrey Plaza in honor of the unofficial holiday, which is celebrated on February 13, writing in the caption, "Happy Galentine's Day from the original Gals."

Parks and Recreation is streaming in full on Max.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.