Parks and Recreation

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. City planner Mark Brendanawicz – for whom Leslie harbors romantic feelings – pragmatically insists the project is unrealistic due to government red tape, but nevertheless secretly convinces Ron to approve the project. Mark leaves his city hall career for a private sector job. 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. After weeks of planning, the festival becomes a tremendous success through Leslie's efforts. Later, Chris returns from Indianapolis to become Pawnee's acting city manager, while Ben also takes a job in Pawnee. April and Andy start dating and, only a few weeks later, marry in a surprise ceremony. 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 Councilor 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 named Rent-A-Swag that rents 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. ==Cast and characters==

, Aziz Ansari, Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, and Chris Pratt. The principal cast starting in season one included: • Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins, a nurse and political outsider who gradually becomes more involved in Pawnee government through her friendship with Leslie. • Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson, the parks and recreation director who, as a staunch libertarian, believes in as small a government as possible. His desire to make his department small and ineffective frequently clashes with his genuine esteem for his coworkers, particularly Leslie. • Aubrey Plaza as April Ludgate, initially a cynical and uninterested intern, who grows into the role of Ron's assistant. • Chris Pratt as Andy Dwyer, a goofy and dim-witted but lovable slacker and rock musician; Ann's ex-boyfriend, married to April. Goes on to become a children's entertainer, as "Johnny Karate". Several cast members were introduced or developed after the first season: • Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt, a brilliant but socially awkward government official trying to redeem his past as a failed mayor in his youth. • Rob Lowe as Chris Traeger, an excessively positive and extremely health-conscious government official. • Jim O'Heir as Garry "Jerry" Gergich. A throwaway joke at Jerry's expense in the episode "Practice Date" led him to be established as the inept coworker whom the rest of the department callously picks on. • Billy Eichner as Craig Middlebrooks, an overly passionate government employee who began working for Pawnee when Eagleton merged with Pawnee. Numerous actors have made recurring guest appearances throughout the series, including Pamela Reed as Leslie's mother and fellow politician Marlene Griggs-Knope, Jama Williamson as Tom's ex-wife Wendy, Mo Collins as morning talk show host Joan Callamezzo, Jay Jackson as television broadcaster Perd Hapley, Alison Becker as newspaper reporter Shauna Malwae-Tweep, and Andy Forrest as Andy's frequent shoeshine customer Kyle. Megan Mullally, the real-life wife of Nick Offerman, portrayed Ron's second ex-wife Tammy, while Patricia Clarkson appeared as his first ex-wife, also named Tammy. Lucy Lawless and Jon Glaser had recurring roles in the fifth and sixth seasons: Lawless as Ron's love interest (and later wife) Diane Lewis and Glaser as Leslie's archenemy 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. Other such celebrity guests included Blake Anderson, Will Arnett, Kristen Bell, H. Jon Benjamin, Matt Besser, Chris Bosh, Louis C.K., The Decemberists, Will Forte, Jon Hamm, Andrew Luck, Letters to Cleo, Parker Posey, Kathryn Hahn, Andy Samberg, J. K. Simmons, Roy Hibbert, Detlef Schrempf, Justin Theroux, Henry Winkler, Peter Serafinowicz, and Yo La Tengo. 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. The series has had cameos by several real-life political figures, including then-Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Barbara Boxer, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Senator John McCain, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Senators Olympia Snowe, Cory Booker, and Orrin Hatch. ==Episodes==

Development and casting (pictured) would be available to play the protagonist. Immediately after Ben Silverman was named co-chairman of NBC's entertainment division in 2007, he asked Greg Daniels to create a spin-off of The Office. Daniels co-created Parks and Recreation with Michael Schur, who had been a writer on The Office. The two spent months considering ideas for the new series and debating whether to make it a stand-alone rather than a spin-off. After Amy Poehler agreed to play the lead, they decided the series would revolve around an optimistic bureaucrat in small-town government. The idea was partly inspired by the portrayal of local politics on the HBO drama series The Wire, as well as the renewed interest in and optimism about politics stemming from the 2008 United States presidential election. The staff was also drawn to the idea of building a show around a female relationship, namely Leslie Knope and Ann Perkins. The producers insisted their new series would be entirely independent. Nevertheless, their concept for it shared several elements with The Office, particularly the mockumentary approach and the encouragement of improvisation among the cast, even though the episodes were scripted. Schur said at PaleyFest that he and Daniels approached casting with the idea of finding "the funniest people and we'll tailor the roles to them". It was only after she was cast that Daniels and Schur established the series' general concept and the script for the pilot was written. Rashida 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. She departed in the middle of season six, and returned for a guest appearance later in the season. Jones returned in the series finale, along with the COVID-19 pandemic special. Schneider left the cast after the second season and the character is not referenced at any point during the remainder of the series' run. Similarly with Jones, Daniels and Schur had intended to cast Aziz Ansari from the earliest stages of the development of Parks and Recreation. Chris Pratt was originally intended to be a guest star, with his character Andy Dwyer 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. Adam Scott left his starring role on the Starz comedy series Party Down to join the series as Ben Wyatt, starting with the penultimate second-season episode, "The Master Plan". Nick Offerman previously auditioned for the role of Michael Scott in The Office, which eventually went to Steve Carell. Offerman was originally considered for another role, but NBC felt that he wouldn't fit for a character who would later kiss Jones at some point in the series; he was cast instead as Ron Swanson. Rob Lowe was introduced as Chris Traeger alongside Scott and was originally expected to depart after a string of guest appearances, but later signed a multi-year contract to become a regular cast member. He departed from the series in the season six episode, "Ann and Chris", and were added to the opening credits during the sixth season. Billy Eichner was a recurring cast member as Craig Middlebrooks during season 6, and began being billed as a member of the regular cast in the fourth episode of season seven. Crew Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios produced Parks and Recreation starting with the first season; the production companies Fremulon and 3 Arts Entertainment also became involved with the show starting with the second season. The series was created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, who served as executive producers along with Howard Klein. Klein previously worked with Daniels and Schur on The Office, a half-hour NBC comedy Daniels adapted from the British comedy of the same name, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. Schur served as the showrunner of Parks and Recreation, while Amy Poehler and Morgan Sackett worked as producers. Mike Scully, a former executive producer and showrunner for The Simpsons, joined Parks and Recreation as a consulting producer starting in the middle of the first season. Allison Jones, who worked as a casting director for The Office, served in the same capacity at the start of Parks and Recreation, along with Nancy Perkins, for whom the character Ann Perkins was named. Dorian Frankel became the casting director starting with the second season. Alan Yang, Harris Wittels, and Katie Dippold, all of whom were Parks and Recreation screenwriters, also worked as executive story editors. The pilot episode was written by Daniels and Schur, and directed by Daniels. "The Master Plan", and "Time Capsule". Poehler wrote three episodes: "Telethon" in season 2, "The Fight" in season 3, and "The Debate" in season 4 (for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series). She also co-wrote "Second Chunce" in season 6, the series' 100th episode, and "One Last Ride", the series finale, with Schur. Poehler also directed three episodes, "The Debate" in season 4, "Article Two" in season 5, and "Gryzzlbox" in season 7. Other cast members that wrote or directed episodes include Nick Offerman, who wrote "Lucky" in season 4, and directed season 5's "Correspondents' Lunch" and season 6's "Flu Season 2"; while Adam Scott directed season 6's "Farmers Market". Holland also directed about thirty episodes of the series. Norm Hiscock, a consulting producer, Other regular screenwriters included Katie Dippold, Dan Goor, Aisha Muharrar, Harris Wittels, and Alan Yang. Frequent Parks and Recreation directors include Dean Holland, Randall Einhorn, Troy Miller, and Jason Woliner, with several others guest-directing one or two episodes such as Jeffrey Blitz, Paul Feig, Tucker Gates, Seth Gordon, Nicole Holofcener, Beth McCarthy-Miller, Michael McCullers, and Charles McDougall. Writing The writers spent time researching local California politics and attending Los Angeles City Council meetings. and the inspiration for Ron Swanson's anti-government convictions came from a real-life encounter Schur had in Burbank with a libertarian government official who admitted, "I don't really believe in the mission of my job." For example, while an early draft of the pilot script had Mark saying he didn't care about Leslie or the pit but would support her plan because he liked Ann Perkins and wanted an excuse to spend more time with her, the finished pilot had Mark backing Leslie because he admired her passion and drive. Schur said the writing staff strove to avoid the type of cynical humor prevalent in most television comedies at the time and wanted the characters to have a genuine appreciation for each other. Schur said of this, "I've never liked mean-spirited comedy. The characters on our show make fun of each other, but not in a biting, angry way. And there's no shortage of conflict in the world of government." During the first season, the writing staff received audience feedback that Leslie Knope seemed unintelligent and "ditzy." Schur said the writers did not intend for Leslie to be stupid, but rather an overeager woman who "takes her job too seriously", so a particular effort was made to present that character as more intelligent and capable at her job starting in the second season. The staff also decided to move on from the construction pit story arc, having the pit filled in the second-season episode "Kaboom". "The Stakeout" included a parody of the controversial arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, Starting in the middle of the second season, the writing staff began to draw inspiration from the premise of The Contender (2000). Schur explained The Contender was about a female politician trying to succeed amid intense scrutiny in a political arena dominated by men, which is similar to challenges Leslie Knope occasionally encounters. The financial difficulties Pawnee experiences during the late second-season and third-season episodes were reflective of the 2008 financial crisis facing the nation and much of the world when the episodes were produced. The third season included a seven-episode story arc about the characters organizing a harvest festival and staking the financial future of their department on its success. The festival served as a device to unite the characters, much like the construction pit had earlier in the show. Schur said this was done because the first six episodes were written and filmed early, and the writing staff felt having one concise storyline to tie them together kept the writers focused and, in Schur's words, helped "organize our tired, end-of-the-year brains". for example, the original cut of the 22-minute pilot was 48 minutes long. Another distinction from The Office is while almost all footage from that show is filmed in a workplace setting, the documentary crew on Parks and Recreation regularly follows the characters into more intimate, non-work settings, such as on dates or at their homes. Parks and Recreation also makes frequent use of the jump cut technique. For instance, one scene in the pilot episode repeatedly jump cuts between brief clips in which Leslie seeks permission from Ron to pursue the pit project. The show faced early production delays because Poehler was pregnant when she signed on, and filming had to be postponed until she gave birth. Scenes set in playgrounds and elsewhere outdoors were filmed on location in Los Angeles. Schur said an aerial shot of the harvest festival at the end of the episode was the most expensive shot in the entire series. After the episodes were already filmed, NBC opted not to put the show on the fall schedule and instead delayed the premiere of the third season until the beginning of 2011. The schedule change meant that all sixteen episodes from the third season were filmed before any of them were shown; NBC chief executive officer Jeff Gaspin said this move was not a reflection on Parks and Recreation, and suggested the extended hiatus would not only have no negative effect on the show, but could actually build anticipation for its return. although Poehler also pointed out it gave them additional time to go back and re-edit episodes or shoot and add new material. The winning entry was written by Gaby Moreno and Vincent Jones. He said Moreno and Jones' song "does a really good job of explaining what the town is like. (The) credits do a really good job of establishing it's just sort of a normal, every-day town in the middle of the country." Pratt and the other band members played live during filming of the episode, rather than being pre-recorded and dubbed later. One song featured in "Rock Show", called "The Pit", chronicles Andy's experience falling into a construction pit and breaking his legs. In "Li'l Sebastian", Andy performs a tribute song called "5,000 Candles in the Wind", so-called because Leslie asks him to write a song like "Candle in the Wind" by Elton John, only 5,000 times better. The song was performed by the show's cast in the 2020 reunion special. The Awesome Album A Mouse Rat album, The Awesome Album, was released by Dualtone Records and Entertainment 720 (a fictional company within the show, created by Tom Haverford) on vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital download on August 27, 2021. The album was announced with the release of two singles: "The Pit" (from the season 1 finale, "Rock Show") and "Two Birds Holding Hands" (from the season 3 episode, "Andy and April's Fancy Party"). The album features guest vocals from Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson and Jeff Tweedy as Scott Tanner. Pratt stated on Rob Lowe's podcast Parks and Recollection that he was not involved with the project or its promotion. On the weekly Billboard charts, The Awesome Album debuted at number 2 on Comedy Albums, number 11 on Heatseekers Albums, and number 17 on Top Album Sales. ==Broadcast==

Parks and Recreation was broadcast in the 8:30 pm timeslot Thursdays on NBC, in the United States, during its first two seasons, as part of the network's Comedy Night Done Right line-up. It was moved to a 9:30 pm timeslot during its third season, where it premiered as a mid-season replacement. In 2012, the fifth season moved back to 9:30 pm on Thursdays. International In Australia, Parks and Recreation aired on Channel Seven's digital channel, 7mate. In Canada, the series was simsubbed in most areas on City. In India, it airs on Zee Café. In the Philippines, it airs on Jack TV. In South Africa, the show airs on Pay-TV operator M-Net. In the UK, the show began airing on BBC Four in 2013. The first three seasons aired on this channel before moving to Dave in the summer of 2015, starting with season 4. Syndication In March 2011, Universal Media Studios announced its intentions to sell the syndication rights to Parks and Recreation. Comedy Central, FX, and Spike were all described as possible contenders to buy the syndication rights. Syndicated episodes have aired on multiple cable networks including NBCUniversal owned Esquire Network (after relaunching from Style) and WGN America. The pilot episode also served as the first official broadcast of FX sister network, FXX, when it launched on September 2, 2013, followed by an all-day marathon, marking the first time the NBC comedy appeared off-network. The series debuted on Comedy Central in the United States on January 21, 2019, and select episodes were available to stream on their website and app. Comedy Central has the rights to air Parks and Recreation through 2024. In June 2020, the show also began airing on IFC in the United States, which they had the rights to until 2024. Streaming By 2018, Parks and Recreation was available for streaming on Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video. Viewership on Hulu increased by 32% in 2017 over the previous year. According to Nielsen data, Parks and Recreation was one of the ten most-streamed shows on Netflix in 2018 based on time spent watching. Analytics from Jumpshot measured Parks and Recreation as the show with the third most views for 2018. In September 2019, it was announced that Parks and Recreation would leave those services for Peacock, NBCUniversal's then-forthcoming streaming service, in October 2020. Variety reported the streaming deal was worth nine figures. According to Schur, the special took about three weeks to complete. Morgan Sackett, who previously directed episodes of the series, was asked to direct, and many of the original writers on the series (including Megan Amram, Dave King, Joe Mande, Aisha Muharrar, Matt Murray, and Jen Statsky) created the script in three days. The cast members were sent camera rigs and iPhones to record their parts, taking four days to do so. The visual effects team from the series The Good Place (also created by Schur) provided visual effects on the special to help "make it look like not everyone was just sitting alone in their houses staring at their computers". ==Reception==

Critical response The first season of Parks and Recreation started to receive criticism before the premiere episode aired. According to a March 18, 2009, report that was leaked to writer Nikki Finke, focus groups responded poorly to a rough-cut version of the pilot. Many focus group members felt the show was a "carbon copy" of The Office. Some found it predictable, slow-paced, and lacking in character development; others said the show lacked strong male characters, particularly a "datable" lead. Many critics said the series was too similar to The Office, and although reviewers praised various cast members in individual episodes, some said the supporting characters in general needed to be more fully developed and provided with better material. The season finale "Rock Show" received far better reviews, with several commentators declaring that Parks and Recreation had finally found the right tone both generally and for the Leslie Knope character in particular. Season two was better received and holds a Metacritic score of 71 out 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". the Chicago Tribune, Time, Entertainment Weekly, GQ, New York magazine, The Star-Ledger, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Paste magazine, IGN, and TV Squad. Several reviewers called the second season one of the most impressive comebacks in television history. Some reviewers said the supporting cast was now working with better material and that Amy Poehler's character had improved and become less over-the-top and more human than in the first season. In TIME magazine's 2012 year-end top 10 lists, Parks and Recreation was named the top TV series. Poehler said the first season struggled in part due to extremely high expectations from comparisons to The Office. After the first season ended, she said, "I think it was something we had to work through in the beginning, and I'm kind of hoping we're on the other side of that and people will start to judge the show on its own, for what it is and realize it's just a completely different world in a similar style." Likewise, Schur said he believed much of the early criticism stemmed from the fact audiences were not yet familiar with the characters, and he thought viewers who revisited the episodes would enjoy them more with a better understanding of the characters. Offerman received particularly strong praise for his minimalist and understated performance as Ron Swanson, whom many considered the show's breakout character. Steve Heisler of GQ magazine wrote that Offerman's role as Ron Swanson was a major part of the show's "creative resurgence". By the end of the second season, the character had taken on a cult status; Jonah Weiner of Slate magazine declared Swanson "Parks and Recreation's secret weapon". The New York Times said that "all the characters were funny and well imagined, but Aubrey Plaza was particularly memorable as April". On the character's cultural impact, Vanity Fair regarded April as "an avatar for millennial jadedness and skepticism". The Daily Beast wrote that Plaza was "one of the greatest elements" of the series, and beyond comedic delivery she also brought "pathos" to the character. New York magazine writer Steve Kandell said, along with Ron Swanson, Andy Dwyer usually steals the episodes he appears in. Cultural and political impact In 2019, Parks and Recreation was ranked 54th on The Guardians list of the 100 best TV shows of the 21st century. Vox and the Rolling Stone both named Parks and Recreation as the television show that "defined" the cultural zeitgeist of the Obama Presidency. Alan Sepinwall wrote in Rolling Stone: Few series in recent memory have been as clearly tied to a moment—and, specifically, a presidential administration—as Parks and Rec. The show's belief in the power of government to make people's lives better—and, more broadly, in the obligation members of a community (be they friends, family, or, as Ron Swanson once put it, "workplace proximity associates") have to help one another in times of need—made it the standard-bearer for the hopefulness of the Obama era. The conservative political magazine National Review argued: Even television shows that are legitimately funny, such as NBC's Parks and Recreation, are designed to flatter the sensibilities of those in charge. In Parks and Rec, self-proclaimed nerds and wonks have adopted liberal bureaucratic functionary and occasional elected official Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) as one of their own. Her overeager chirpiness and her constant ability to one-up her hyper-libertarian boss mark her as a role model for those who believe that government is a force for good rather than a necessary evil. U.S. News & World Report commented on the series finale: : Parks and Recreation never lost the Obama-like belief in government powered by goodwill and consensus. But the obstructionism of the Obama years made this vision seem fantastical, stoking a desire for hardheaded partisans who would get things done. Time magazine's television critic James Poniewozik argued: Parks became network TV's best and brightest sitcom by embodying the slogan that all politics is local....But there's a big idea in Parks small-scale vision. In the frame of today's politics, it might be a liberal notion, but it's one that for much of the 20th century was centrist, and even championed by Republicans like park lover Teddy Roosevelt: that we need government to do things the private sector can't or won't, like preserving public spaces.... Parks argues not only that we need our neighbors' help but that helping makes us better ourselves; it's in the small-town, populist tradition of Friday Night Lights and ''It's a Wonderful Life.'' Ratings Parks and Recreation struggled in the Nielsen ratings throughout its entire run on NBC. Viewership declined every week over the rest of the season, Low viewership presented a greater challenge for Parks and Recreation because NBC now trailed CBS, ABC, and Fox in the ratings, and the move of comedian Jay Leno from The Tonight Show to a variety show in NBC's 10:00 pm weeknight slot left less room on the network's primetime schedule. Although Parks and Recreation achieved critical success during the second season, the show continued to suffer in the ratings. The poor ratings continued into the third season, which ended with an overall average rating of 5.1 million viewers, the 116th ranked network series of the 2010–11 television season. Michael Schur partially attributed the continually low viewership to a decline in ratings for NBC in general, as well as changing viewer trends due to a large number of available channels. NBC had a financial incentive to continue the series, as it owns the distribution rights via its NBCUniversal Television Distribution company: the sixth season put the series over the 100 episodes milestone, making it more viable for syndication. Accolades In 2010, Amy Poehler was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her work in the second season. Also that year, Parks and Recreation was nominated for the Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy and Individual Achievement in Comedy for Nick Offerman for his work in the second season. The second-season premiere episode, "Pawnee Zoo", won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Individual Episode (in a Series without a Regular LGBT Character). Also in 2010, Parks and Recreation received two nominations from Entertainment Weekly's EWwy Awards: Best Comedy Series and Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Offerman. In 2011, Parks and Recreation was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series and Amy Poehler received her second Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. In June 2011, Parks and Recreation was nominated for three awards for the inaugural Critics' Choice Television Awards: Best Comedy Series, Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Poehler, and Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Nick Offerman. Also that month, Parks and Recreation was nominated for four TCA Awards: Program of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, and Individual Achievement in Comedy for Offerman and Poehler. Offerman hosted the TCA Awards ceremony that year. In 2012, the series received a Peabody Award. In January 2014, Poehler won her first Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series Comedy. ==Home media==

The first season of Parks and Recreation was released on DVD in region 1 on September 8, 2009. The DVD included all six episodes, as well as an "Extended Producer's Cut" of the season finale, "Rock Show". The disc also included cast and crew commentary tracks for each episode, as well as about 30 minutes of deleted scenes. The second season was released in a four-disc set in region 1 on November 30, 2010. They included extended episodes for "The Master Plan" and "Freddy Spaghetti", as well as two-and-a-half hours of deleted scenes, a third season preview, and additional video clips. Audio commentaries were recorded for the episodes "Sister City", "Ron and Tammy", "Hunting Trip", "Woman of the Year", "The Master Plan" and "Freddy Spaghetti". The Blu-ray version of the complete series was released from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment on June 15, 2021. ==Potential revival==

In March 2019, during the tenth anniversary reunion at PaleyFest, the cast confirmed they would return for a revival of the series, if series creator Michael Schur "came up with an original, new idea". Schur stated, "I would never ever say never. The chance to do it again, should it arise, would be incredible, but we would only do it if we all felt like there was something compelling us to do it. If one single person said no, we wouldn't do it." Special In April 2020, the cast reprised their roles for a special episode that was created during the COVID-19 pandemic. It first aired on NBC and raised funds for Feeding America. == Notes ==