‘Postcards from Pawnee’
Mike Schur accepting the Peabody for Parks and Recreation. Photo credit: Anders Krusberg / Peabody Awards, creativecommons.org, via Wikipedia
As I write this, it is ‘Galentine’s Day’, dated 13 February. What is ‘Galentine’s Day’, you ask? That is the question Leslie Knope poses to the audience during an episode from the second season of NBC’s Parks and Recreation. The answer: a day to appreciate the female friends that surround us, and it originates from the fictional government employee herself. Yes, Galentine’s Day is a Parks and Recreation concoction! Becoming an increasingly widespread celebration in recent years, it is just one of the many ways in which Parks and Recreation has managed to embed its influence within popular culture.
Just a few weeks ago, Aubrey Plaza made her hosting debut on the comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live. But it was one particular sketch that sent audience reactions alight, as the actor donned a fringe and a frown to reprise her beloved Parks and Recreation character April Ludgate. As Plaza reunited with her fellow co-star and SNL alum Amy Poehler, fans on Twitter erupted with appreciation that their favourite sitcom was once again alive and well on their television screens. Whilst never quite reaching the cultural Zeitgeist status of Friends or The Office, Parks and Recreation has undoubtedly maintained a special place in audiences’ hearts. Reflecting on this, I sought to explore what it is about the series and its accompanying cast that has captured so many loyal fans for years on end.
The series arrived in 2009 into a sitcom landscape that defined itself through absurdist dark humour and satirical commentary on the mundanity of everyday life (The Office and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia being particularly prominent examples). Yet Parks and Recreation was markedly different – this was a sitcom that dared to be a glass half-full. Following a vibrant cast of characters as they navigate everyday life in local government, Parks and Rec (as it is commonly abbreviated) oozes with charm and warm-heartedness. Its main cast are well-meaning and optimistic, collectively (some more enthusiastically than others) seeking to improve the lives of those around them, with their intoxicatingly enthusiastic deputy director Leslie Knope leading the charge.
The well-meaning belief in the power of local government at the crux of Parks and Recreation’s philosophy also carries a unique political significance as a television series neatly slotting into the Obama era, spanning from 2009 to 2015. As such, in the wake of Trump’s presidential win in 2016 the series also gained new importance as an artefact from a bygone era, a symbol of liberal idealism that had slipped from grasp. During the global upheaval and despair of the pandemic, too, Parks and Recreation once again became a source of solace. This is understandable given that there are rarely high stakes in the series, and where conflict arises, it is hardly perilous. Instead, episodes maintain a quintessentially sweet image complete with waffles, tiny ponies, and mosaic portraits of loved ones. In fact, the cast reunited for a Zoom fundraiser in April 2020 to act out how their respective characters would have comically responded to the outbreak of COVID-19. Reviving a series that frequently emphasises the importance of helping one another in need, the fundraiser was a poignant call to community and cooperation in difficult times.
These days, it could be argued that Parks and Recreation has produced one of the most successful casts of any sitcom in recent years. Whereas cast members such as Amy Poehler and Rob Lowe were already well-established stars, little did anyone anticipate just how many breakout stars Parks and Recreation would catapult into stardom. It is now difficult to encounter a piece of media that has not been graced by the presence of a former resident of Pawnee, Indiana. In the past year alone, television has undergone what can only be described as the ultimate Parks and Rec takeover. Adam Scott can be credited for beginning the wave, starring in early 2022 with the first season of Severance, an eerie science-fiction psychological thriller that satirises the monotony of corporate life. Following this was Aubrey Plaza’s role in season two of The White Lotus later that year, as a distrustful employment lawyer caught up in trouble in paradise. Both Scott and Plaza received critical acclaim for their roles, including nominations at the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards. Most recently, Nick Offerman retired his moustachioed alter ego Ron Swanson in exchange for apocalypse gear, as he appeared in the new HBO series The Last of Us. His devastatingly powerful performance as Bill, a closeted gay isolationist turned fierce survivalist, was yet another example of the colossal talent that Parks and Recreation succeeded in fostering during its run. It has been especially heart-warming to witness fans of the sitcom flocking to support the actors in their new projects and thus helping them to prosper beyond type-cast comedy roles, a fate from which other sitcom actors have not been so mercifully spared.
In recent years, the popularity of new workplace sitcoms such as Abbott Elementary has further testified to the power of the ‘feel-good’ sitcom, drawing on the same themes of optimism and community that so charmed audiences in Parks and Recreation. In my own life, Parks and Recreation has become a show I often reach for in times where the outside world feels too fast-paced or too hostile. As the tagline for their COVID-19 special put it: ‘We could all use a little Knope right now.’