From Emmy Award-winning executive producers Greg Daniels (“The Office,” “King of the Hill”) and Michael Schur (“The Office,” “Saturday Night Live”), “Parks and Recreation” is a hilarious ensemble comedy that follows Leslie Knope (Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Amy Poehler, “Saturday Night Live,” “Baby Mama”), a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana, and her tireless efforts to make her quintessentially American town just a little bit more fun.
In the Pawnee Parks and Recreation Department, Leslie’s office mates include Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe, “Brothers and Sisters,” “The West Wing”), a health nut who wants to live to be 150 years old, and Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari, “Human Giant,” “Scrubs”), a fashion-obsessed wannabe player whose greatest dream is to own his own nightclub. Leslie’s boss, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman, “Children’s Hospital”), hates the very government he works for, and sports one of the most impressive moustaches on primetime television. Rounding out the cast are: Adam Scott (“Friends with Kids,” “Party Down”) as Leslie’s husband and former campaign manager, Ben Wyatt; Rashida Jones ( “Celeste and Jesse Forever,” “The Office”) as her best friend, Ann; Chris Pratt (“Zero Dark Thirty,” “Moneyball”) as shoeshine boy extraordinaire Andy Dwyer; and Aubrey Plaza (“Funny People”) as Andy’s wife, April, who doubles as Ron’s sullen assistant. Also starring are Retta (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) as the fun-loving Donna Meagle and Jim O’Heir (“Castle”) as the department’s punching bag, Jerry Gergich.
Since its premiere in 2009, the critically-acclaimed series has been included on dozens of television critics’ Top 10 lists and was named “TV’s Smartest Comedy” in Entertainment Weekly’s 2011 cover story. “Parks and Recreation” is the recipient of a Peabody Award for excellence in television programming, an AFI honor as one of the Top 10 Television Shows of the Year, Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series, and three consecutive Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations for Amy Poehler’s individual performance. Additional accolades include Writers Guild Award and Producers Guild Award nominations, 2010 GLAAD Award for Outstanding Individual Episode, NAACP Image Award nominations, Imagen Award nominations and Television Critics Award nominations for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, Program of the Year and Individual Achievement in Comedy for Poehler and co-star Nick Offerman, which Offerman won.