Parks and Recreation
American television sitcom (2009–2015) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Parks and Recreation?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Parks and Recreation (also known as Parks and Rec) is an American political satire mockumentary television sitcom created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur. The series aired on NBC from April 9, 2009, to February 24, 2015, for 125 episodes, over seven seasons. A special reunion episode aired on April 30, 2020. The series stars Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, a perky, mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks Department of the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. The ensemble and supporting cast features Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins, Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford, Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson, Aubrey Plaza as April Ludgate, Chris Pratt as Andy Dwyer, Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt, Paul Schneider as Mark Brendanawicz, Rob Lowe as Chris Traeger, Jim O'Heir as Garry "Jerry" Gergich, Retta as Donna Meagle, and Billy Eichner as Craig Middlebrooks.
Parks and Recreation | |
---|---|
Also known as | Parks and Rec |
Genre | |
Created by | |
Starring | |
Theme music composer | |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 7 |
No. of episodes | 126 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producers |
|
Producer | Amy Poehler |
Camera setup | Single camera |
Running time | 22–42 minutes |
Production companies |
|
Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | April 9, 2009 (2009-04-09) – February 24, 2015 (2015-02-24) |
Release | April 30, 2020 (2020-04-30) (special) |
The writers researched local California politics for the series and consulted with urban planners and elected officials. Leslie Knope underwent major changes after the first season, in response to audience feedback that the character seemed unintelligent and "ditzy". The writing staff incorporated current events into the episodes, such as a government shutdown in Pawnee inspired by the real-life global financial crisis of 2007–08. Real-life political figures, including John McCain, Michelle Obama, and Joe Biden, have cameos in later episodes.
Parks and Recreation was part of NBC's "Comedy Night Done Right" programming during its Thursday night prime-time block. The series received mixed reviews during its first season (including comparisons to The Office, a sitcom also produced by Daniels and Schur), but, after a re-approach to its tone and format, the second and subsequent seasons were widely acclaimed. Throughout its run, Parks and Recreation received several awards and nominations, including 14 Primetime Emmy Award nominations (two for Outstanding Comedy Series), a Golden Globe Award win for Poehler's performance and a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. In Time's 2012 year-end lists issue, Parks and Recreation was named the number one television series of that year.[2] In 2013, after receiving four consecutive nominations in the category, Parks and Recreation won the Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy.
The first season focuses on Leslie Knope, the deputy director of the Parks and Recreation Department in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. Local nurse Ann Perkins demands the construction pit beside her house created by an abandoned condo development be filled in after her boyfriend, Andy Dwyer, fell in and broke both legs. Leslie promises to turn the pit into a park, despite resistance from the parks director Ron Swanson, an anti-government libertarian.[3] City planner Mark Brendanawicz – for whom Leslie harbors romantic feelings – pragmatically insists the project is unrealistic due to government red tape,[4] but nevertheless secretly convinces Ron to approve the project.[3] Leslie and her staff, including her assistant Tom Haverford and intern April Ludgate, try encouraging community interest in the pit project, but meet resistance.
In the second season, the pit is eventually filled in because Leslie takes it upon herself to fill in the pit without permission, not realizing Andy was in the pit. Andy became injured and works with Leslie to threaten to sue the city of Pawnee unless the pit was filled.[5] Mark leaves his city hall career for a private sector job and is never seen, heard from, or even referred to on the show again. Meanwhile, a crippling budget deficit leads state auditors Chris Traeger and Ben Wyatt to shut down the Pawnee government temporarily.
The third season opens with the Pawnee government reopened, but with budget cuts frustrating Leslie's attempts to provide services. Leslie makes a deal with Chris and Ben to bring back the Pawnee Harvest Festival, but if the festival fails the Parks Department will be eliminated.[6] After weeks of planning, the festival becomes a tremendous success through Leslie's efforts.[7] Later, Chris returns from Indianapolis to become Pawnee's acting city manager,[8] while Ben also takes a job in Pawnee.[9] April and Andy start dating and, only a few weeks later, marry in a surprise ceremony.[9][10] Tom quits his city hall job to form an entertainment company called Entertainment 720 with his friend, Jean-Ralphio. The business cannot maintain its lavish spending and quickly runs out of money, leaving Tom to return to the Parks Department. Leslie and Ben show romantic interest in each other; however, Chris has implemented a rule that would prevent a superior (Ben) from dating his employee (Leslie). In spite of this rule, Leslie and Ben begin secretly dating.
The fourth season deals with Leslie's campaign to run for city council. As Leslie begins preparing a campaign, she realizes she must break up with Ben to avoid scandal. Ben and Leslie restart their relationship and Ben sacrifices his job to save Leslie from losing hers, due to Chris' policy against romantic relationships in the workplace. The Parks Department volunteers to become her campaign staff, with Ben as Leslie's campaign manager. Leslie's campaign faces myriad setbacks against her main opponent, Bobby Newport, and his famous campaign manager Jennifer Barkley.
In the fifth season, Leslie begins working as a City Councillor but finds opposition from angry locals and her fellow councilmen. Ben is at his new job on a congressional campaign in Washington DC, alongside April whom he brought along as an intern. Ron begins a romantic relationship with a woman named Diane. Ben returns to Pawnee and proposes to Leslie. They get married midway through the season. Tom starts a successful business renting high-end clothing to teenagers. Leslie and Ben plan a fundraising event for the park, now called the Pawnee Commons, and decide to have an impromptu wedding that night in City Hall. Later, Leslie's changes to Pawnee lead to several locals petitioning for her to be recalled from office.
The sixth season begins with the absorption of Eagleton by Pawnee after the former town declares bankruptcy. As the governments merge, Leslie loses the recall vote and returns to the Parks Department full-time, while Ben is voted in as the next City Manager. Tom sells Rent-A-Swag to Jean-Ralphio's father, Dr. Saperstein in a cash settlement and opens a restaurant called "Tom's Bistro". Ann and Chris, now in a relationship and expecting a baby, leave Pawnee for Michigan. As a way to garner public support for the unpopular merger, the Parks Department hold a Unity Concert. Later, Leslie reveals she is pregnant with triplets. Leslie takes the job as Regional Director for the National Park Service in Chicago, immediately submitting a proposal to bring the job to Pawnee.
The seventh season, though it aired in 2015, takes place in 2017. Ron and Leslie are shown to be enemies due to Ron's company having torn down Ann's old house in order to build an apartment building. Ben convinces a technology company, Gryzzl, to bring free Wi-Fi to the city of Pawnee. Gryzzl engages in intense data mining, inducing Ron, whose new construction company, Very Good Building and Development Company, has been handling their construction needs, to reconnect with Leslie to correct the issue.
The principal cast starting in season one included:[11]
- Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, a mid-level bureaucrat with a strong love of her hometown of Pawnee, who has not let politics dampen her sense of optimism (which apparently has lasted six years in her job); her ultimate goal is to become President of the United States.[12] Poehler departed from the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, where she was a cast member for nearly seven years, to star in Parks and Recreation.[13][14] It was only after she was cast that Daniels and Schur established the series' general concept and the script for the pilot was written.[15]
- Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins, a nurse and political outsider who gradually becomes more involved in Pawnee government through her friendship with Leslie.[10] Jones was among the first to be cast by Daniels and Schur in 2008, when the series was still being considered as a spin-off to The Office, where Jones had played Jim Halpert's girlfriend Karen Filippelli, who formerly worked at the Stamford Branch but was soon transferred to the Scranton Branch in the third season.[15][16] She and Lowe departed in the middle of season 6, and she returned for a guest appearance later in the season.[17] Jones and Lowe returned in the series finale, along with the COVID-19 pandemic special.[18]
- Paul Schneider as Mark Brendanawicz, a city planner who entered the field with a sense of optimism, but has since become jaded and disillusioned.[19] Schneider said early in the series he was insecure in the role because he was still trying to figure out the character's motivations.[20] Schneider left the cast after the second season and the character is not referenced at any point during the remainder of the series' run.[21][22]
- Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford, Leslie's sarcastic and underachieving subordinate,[23] who eventually begins to consider leaving his city hall job to pursue his own entrepreneurial interests.[24] As with Jones, Daniels and Schur had intended to cast Ansari from the earliest stages of the development of Parks and Recreation.[15][16]
- Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson, the parks and recreation director who, as a staunch libertarian, believes in as small a government as possible. As such, Ron strives to make his department as ineffective as he can, and favors hiring employees who do not care about their jobs or are poor at them.[23] Nevertheless, Ron consistently demonstrates that he secretly cares deeply about his fellow co-workers.[25]
- Aubrey Plaza as April Ludgate, a cynical and uninterested parks department intern who speaks in a monotonic voice. She eventually becomes the perfect assistant for Ron.[26] The role was written specifically for Plaza; after meeting her, casting director Allison Jones told Schur, "I just met the weirdest girl I've ever met in my life. You have to meet her and put her on your show."[27]
- Chris Pratt as Andy Dwyer, a goofy and dim-witted but lovable slacker and Ann's ex-boyfriend. Pratt was originally intended to be a guest star and the character Andy was initially meant to appear only in the first season, but the producers liked Pratt so much that, almost immediately after casting him, they decided to make him a regular cast member starting with season two.[28]
Several cast members were introduced or developed, and added to the opening credits over the course of the series:
- Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt, a brilliant but socially awkward government official trying to redeem his past as a failed mayor in his youth.[29] Scott left his starring role on the Starz comedy series Party Down to join the series,[30] starting with the penultimate second-season episode, "The Master Plan."[30]
- Rob Lowe as Chris Traeger, an excessively positive and extremely health-conscious government official.[31] Lowe was introduced with Scott and was originally expected to depart after a string of guest appearances,[32][33] but later signed a multi-year contract to become a regular cast member.[33][34][35] He and Rashida Jones departed from the series in the season 6 episode, "Ann and Chris",[17] returning in the series finale and the 2020 special.[18]
- Jim O'Heir and Retta made regular appearances respectively as Garry "Jerry" Gergich and Donna Meagle since the first season, but their personalities did not become developed until the second season. Schur said the Parks and Recreation staff liked the actors so he decided to include them in the show and "figured we'd work it out later". A throwaway joke at Jerry's expense in the episode "Practice Date" led him to be established as the inept co-worker the rest of the department callously picks on.[27] Donna was developed as a sassy hedonist whose mysterious life is occasionally hinted at. It was not until the third season they became considered regular cast members,[36] and were added to the opening credits during the sixth season.[37]
- Billy Eichner as Craig Middlebrooks, an overly passionate employee of the Pawnee local government, began working for Pawnee when Eagleton merged with Pawnee. He was recurring during season 6 and began being billed as a member of the regular cast in the fourth episode of season 7.
Numerous actors have made recurring guest appearances throughout the series, including Pamela Reed as Leslie's mother and fellow politician Marlene Griggs-Knope,[38] Ben Schwartz as Tom's fast-talking friend Jean-Ralphio and Jenny Slate as his twin sister Mona-Lisa,[39] Jama Williamson as Tom's ex-wife Wendy,[40] Mo Collins as morning talk show host Joan Callamezzo, Jay Jackson as television broadcaster Perd Hapley,[41] Alison Becker as newspaper reporter Shauna Malwae-Tweep,[42] Darlene Hunt as conservative activist Marcia Langman,[43] and Andy Forrest as Andy's frequent shoeshine customer Kyle.[44] Megan Mullally, the real-life wife of Nick Offerman, portrayed Ron's ex-wife Tammy in the second season's "Ron and Tammy", a role she reprised in later episodes.[45][46] Lucy Lawless and Jon Glaser have recurring roles in the fifth and sixth seasons. Lucy Lawless plays Ron's love interest and later wife Diane Lewis. Jon Glaser plays Leslie's arch enemy on the city council Jeremy Jamm.
Mullally's performance was well received, which made the Parks and Recreation producers feel more comfortable about using celebrity guest actors in later episodes.[47][48] Other such celebrity guests included: Blake Anderson,[49] Fred Armisen,[50] Will Arnett,[51] Kristen Bell,[52] H. Jon Benjamin,[53] Matt Besser,[54] Chris Bosh,[55] Louis C.K.,[56] The Decemberists,[49] Sam Elliott,[57] Will Forte,[33] Ginuwine,[49] Michael Gross,[58] Jon Hamm,[49] Nick Kroll,[54] John Larroquette,[59] Andrew Luck,[60] Letters to Cleo,[49] Natalie Morales,[61] Parker Posey,[62] Kathryn Hahn, Andy Samberg,[47] J. K. Simmons, Roy Hibbert,[63] Detlef Schrempf,[64] Justin Theroux,[59] Wilco,[49] Henry Winkler,[65] Peter Serafinowicz, and Yo La Tengo.[66] Paul Rudd appeared in several season four episodes as Bobby Newport, Leslie's opponent in the City Council race, and returned for two episodes in the final season.[67]
The series has had cameos by several real-life political figures, including then Vice President Joe Biden,[68] Senator Barbara Boxer,[69] former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich,[70] Senator John McCain,[69] Michelle Obama,[71] former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,[72] and Senators Olympia Snowe,[69] Cory Booker, and Orrin Hatch.
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | Rank | Viewers (millions) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | |||||
1 | 6 | April 9, 2009 (2009-04-09) | May 14, 2009 (2009-05-14) | 96 | 6.00[73] | |
2 | 24 | September 17, 2009 (2009-09-17) | May 20, 2010 (2010-05-20) | 108 | 4.60[74] | |
3 | 16 | January 20, 2011 (2011-01-20) | May 19, 2011 (2011-05-19) | 116 | 5.10[75] | |
4 | 22 | September 22, 2011 (2011-09-22) | May 10, 2012 (2012-05-10) | 134 | 4.40[76] | |
5 | 22 | September 20, 2012 (2012-09-20) | May 2, 2013 (2013-05-02) | 111 | 4.06[77] | |
6 | 22 | September 26, 2013 (2013-09-26) | April 24, 2014 (2014-04-24) | 115 | 3.76[78] | |
7 | 13 | January 13, 2015 (2015-01-13) | February 24, 2015 (2015-02-24) | 119 | 4.57[79] | |
Special | April 30, 2020 (2020-04-30) | — | 3.64[80] |