The Parks Department of PawneeLists about Parks and Recreation, NBC's hit comedy series about perky mid-level bureaucrat Leslie Knope and her zany, lovable co-workers, which ran from 2009 to 2015.
Many consider Parks and Rec, which had a seven-season run on NBC, one of the greatest shows on television. The series is sweet and funny, with topnotch writing. If you need proof of the show's superiority, look no further than the way Parks and Rec continuity adds to the series's density. The show foreshadowed many of its best jokes - you have to watch the show two or three times to connect the brilliantly placed Easter eggs.
Shows like The Officeleft an impression on audiences, but in the debate between Parks and Recreation vs. The Office,there's no question that Leslie Knope can hold her own. You're going to need to go full Cones of Dunshire and construct a 3D Parks and Rec model to understand everything that you missed in the show the first time around. It takes the entire seven seasons for the clever references and jokes in Parks and Rec to pay off. Once you've made your way through this list, make sure to check out one of the many funny shows like Parks and Recreation for your next binge watch!
In Season 2, episode 13, "The Set Up," Ann put Leslie together with an MRI technician named Chris, played by Amy Poehler's then-husband Will Arnett - it went poorly, to say the least. While on the date, Chris is shocked to learn Leslie's never had an MRI, so he takes her to the hospital for a run through the machine.
While performing the MRI, Chris tells Leslie she has a "great oven" and could have "triplets right off the bat." As strange as it is to talk about the size of a woman's "oven" on the first date, creepy Chris predicts the events of Season 6, episode 20, "One in 8,000," when Leslie and Ben find they are pregnant with triplets.
In Season 2, episode 20, "Summer Catalog," Leslie asks Ron if he thinks they'll ever hate each other the way most former park directors do. Ron responds, "I don't think so." This sweet moment of workplace proximity associateship becomes sweeter six seasons later.
Leslie and Ron become locked in a deep rivalry because she had accidentally stood him up for lunch. In Season 7, episode 4, "Leslie and Ron," the two work out their differences, solidifying the fact they will never hate each other to the extent of other park directors. In the series finale, Leslie goes out of her way to make Ron the superintendent of Pawnee National Park.
The Season 2 episode, "The Stakeout," follows Leslie and Tom as they stake out a community garden where someone has supposedly planted pot. The perpetrator doesn't get caught, so Leslie has to give up her search - until episode 20 of the same season, "Summer Catalog."
Leslie, Ron, April, Andy, and the former directors of the parks department go for a picnic. Tensions are high, and during a particularly awkward conversation, one former director reveals that he has "planted marijuana in community gardens across this city."
In Season 2, episode 17, "Woman of the Year," Ron wins the Dorothy Everton Smythe Female Empowerment Award after the Indiana Organization of Women decide to give the award to a man for marketing purposes. Ron decides to torment Leslie because of how desperately she values the award. He does this by taking credit for her Camp Athena project, referring to it as "Camp Xena," as in Xena: Warrior Princess.
This joke pays off big time four seasons later when Lucy Lawless - AKA Xena, the warrior princess - steps in to play Ron's independent wife, Diane.
In Parks and Recreation's pilot episode, Leslie shows off the glamorous life of a public servant by sweeping a drunk man off a slide, reclaiming the playground for Pawnee children. Seven years later, in the series finale, a man stops into the parks office and asks Leslie and the gang to fix a broken swing.
The apparently sober and suit-wearing man who requests the staff's help is the same guy stuck in the slide at the beginning of the series.
In Season 2, episode 22, "Telethon," April and Andy maintain a flirty relationship. Expert meddler, Leslie, tells Andy that his band, Mouse Rat, has to perform for the telethon at 2 am, then asks April how her relationship with the goofy rockstar is going. April sarcastically responds that it's great - they're going to get married, and she's carrying his child.
Early on in the next season's episode, "Andy and April's Fancy Party," the couple surprises everyone by marrying after dating for only a month. In the show's final season, they have a kid, fulfilling April's sarcastic Season 2 predictions.
