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Pilot (Parks and Recreation)
Encyclopedia
"Pilot" is the first episode of the first season
of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation
. It originally aired on NBC
in the United States on April 9, 2009. The episode was written by series co-creators Michael Schur
and Greg Daniels
, and directed by Daniels. Like the rest of the series, the pilot was filmed in the same mockumentary
style as The Office, the NBC comedy series also created by Daniels.
The episode introduces the protagonist Leslie Knope
, played by Amy Poehler
, as well as the other regular characters played by cast members Rashida Jones
, Paul Schneider
, Aziz Ansari
, Aubrey Plaza and Nick Offerman
. Knope is a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation department in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana
. In "Pilot", Knope sets out to turn a construction pit into a park after local nurse Ann Perkins
(Jones) complains about the dangerous pit during a town meeting. Her anti-government boss Ron Swanson
(Offerman) reluctantly allows her to form an exploratory committee after her friend and colleague Mark Brendanawicz
(Schneider) secretly intervenes on her behalf.
Daniels and Schur first started writing the script in the summer of 2008, when they were in the early stages of conceiving the series. About one month before the pilot aired, a focus group report discussing several perceived problems with the episode was leaked to the media, which led to speculation that Parks and Recreation was not ready for prime-time television. The pilot episode featured a number of cultural references to such people as Bobby Knight
, Larry Bird
and Laura Linney
, as well as female political figures Leslie compares herself to, like Hillary Rodham Clinton
, Sarah Palin
and Nancy Pelosi
.
"Pilot" received generally mixed reviews, although Poehler herself was widely praised by most television critics. According to Nielsen Media Research
, "Pilot" was watched by 6.77 million households in its original airing. Although it received lower ratings than the two Office episodes it aired between, television critics pointed out it achieved an identical rating to the popular NBC show 30 Rock
, which was broadcast the same night. The pilot, along with the rest of the first season of Parks and Recreation was released on DVD
in the United States on September 8, 2009.
(Amy Poehler
), a mid-level bureaucrat with six years of experience in the Parks and Recreation Department in the town of Pawnee, Indiana
, discussing with a documentary crew her strong belief in the power of government to help other people. Later, Leslie hosts a community outreach public forum at an elementary school along with her jaded colleague Tom Haverford
(Aziz Ansari
). Leslie is enthusiastic despite the low turnout and angry complaints, which she describes as "people caring loudly at me". Local nurse Ann Perkins
(Rashida Jones
) complains about a giant pit near her house, which was dug out by a condominium developer that went bankrupt in the middle of the construction project. Ann says her boyfriend broke both his legs after falling into the pit, and she demands something be done about it. Leslie is inspired by the challenge and vows that she will fill in the pit and build a park on the land.
Leslie seeks advice from colleague Mark Brendanawicz
(Paul Schneider
), who feels the project would prove practically impossible due to the logistics and bureaucratic red tape
, but Leslie's enthusiasm is undeterred. Leslie later fondly tells the documentary crew that she and Mark made love five years ago, but Mark only vaguely recalls the encounter. Leslie, Tom and the uninterested intern April Ludgate
(Aubrey Plaza) visit Ann and meet Ann's boyfriend Andy Dwyer
(Chris Pratt
), a lazy and demanding musician who she is forced to wait on and support financially. Afterward, Leslie and Ann visit the pit, which Leslie accidentally falls into as Tom and April make fun of her. Some time later, Leslie asks her boss Ron Swanson
(Nick Offerman
) for permission to form an exploratory committee for the pit project. Ron initially refuses, but eventually agrees to consider it so that Leslie will leave his office. Ron explains that he does not want the Parks Department to build any parks because he believes government is a waste of money, and that all government should be privatized and run by corporations for profit. Leslie repeatedly pesters Ron about the park project, but he refuses to commit.
Meanwhile, Tom and April continue to make fun of Leslie, much to the displeasure of Mark. Mark, who tells the documentary crew he is impressed that Leslie has somehow maintained her optimism about government for six years, secretly asks Ron to give her the park project. Mark said doing so would return a favor Ron owes him for unspecified reasons. Leslie and Ann are extremely excited about the new exploratory subcommittee, and despite her skepticism about politics and government, Ann pledges to do whatever it takes to help get the pit filled in, "even if it takes two months".
was named co-chairman of NBC
's entertainment division in 2007, he asked Greg Daniels
to create a new comedy series. Silverman and Daniels previously worked together on The Office, a half-hour comedy Daniels adapted from the British comedy of the same name
by Ricky Gervais
and Stephen Merchant
. Daniels wrote the pilot for what eventually became Parks and Recreation
along with series co-creator Michael Schur
, who had served as a writer on The Office. Daniels and Schur had been considering ideas for a possible show with cast members Rashida Jones
and Aziz Ansari
, but the concept for the series did not form until they learned Amy Poehler
could play the lead character. Once that casting was determined, the script for the pilot episode was first written in the summer of 2008 revolving around her as a city bureaucrat seeking to turn an enormous construction pit into a park. They also decided the script would include the mockumentary
comedy style of The Office and, like that show, would allow for improvisation
on set. However, they did not consider the script an Office spin-off and NBC officials vehemently insisted to media outlets that the show was a completely separate series, despite the similarities between the two shows.
meetings. Daniels and Schur wanted the pilot to establish that one of Leslie's duties was talking to the public on a regular basis, and they deliberately portrayed her public forum meetings as poorly attended except by a select group of angry residents. Schur said, "I've been to some community meetings in my life, and it is often this feeling of utter sparseness. That nobody cares." In writing the script, Schur wanted Mark and Leslie to have a long history together before the events of the episode, rather than having the two characters meet for the first time on screen, which he felt had already been done in many television shows. The first shot of the pilot was originally a scene with Ann standing over the pit and staring at it with an annoyed expression, followed by a documentary interview with Ann and Andy. The opening scene was changed because Daniels and Schur decided they wanted the first scene of the series to be set in a park. As a result, the episode started with a cold open
of Leslie interviewing children in a park, then using a broom to push a drunk man out of spiral slide. Daniels had such a specific vision for the scene, he drew an elaborate and detailed storyboard
sketch of a drunk man stuck in a tubular slide.
Some parts of the episode consisted of a mixture of written dialogue and comedic improvisation from the actors. In one such scene, Aziz Ansari attempts to flirt with Rashida Jones when she speaks at a Parks and Recreation public forum. The scene was included in the script, but Ansari continued to improvise long after his dialogue ended, and Jones said she found it difficult to keep a straight face during filming. Schur encouraged Ansari to continue, and suggested the line in which Ansari asks to go away with Jones for the weekend. Daniels called the scene "probably the highlight of the pilot." The ending included another example of written dialogue mixed with improvisation, when Ansari recited a list of unusual things Leslie has attempted to do while drunk. In other scenes, the written dialogue was abandoned altogether in favor of improvisation, such as the scene of Ann and Andy talking on Ann's couch after Leslie fell into the pit and injured herself. Chris Pratt improvised a number of other lines and scenes in the episode, including when Andy asked Leslie to pass him his "itch stick", which he then used to scratch under his leg cast in an awkward and disgusting way.
The pilot script included several political cultural references. Leslie compares herself to Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton
, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin
and House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi
in describing the prevalence of women in government. Leslie invokes former U.S. Presidents
Richard Nixon
and George W. Bush
as shining examples of democracy. The episode also features several references to sports figures. Ron has a poster of Bobby Knight, the famous retired basketball coach, hanging in his office. The Bobby Knight image later had to be removed from the show for legal reasons. Leslie has an autographed photo of Indiana-born basketball player Larry Bird
on her desk. It reads, "To Lesly, Sink That Shot, Larry B." This is a reference to a deleted scene in which Tom reveals he has tricked Leslie into believing he has brunch with Bird once a month. Tom himself actually faked the autograph, and deliberately misspelled her name "Lesly" as a joke.
Although the series shared the same mockumentary style as The Office, Daniels and Schur sought to establish a slightly different tone in the camerawork of the pilot episode of Parks and Recreation. For example, the documentary-style interviews with characters sometimes feature two separate angles on the same person, with footage of the two different angles intercut into a single scene for the final episode. This distinguishing technique was inspired by The Five Obstructions
, a 2003 documentary by Lars Von Trier
and Jørgen Leth
, which Daniels watched at the suggestion of actor Paul Schneider. The pilot episode also makes use of the jump cut
technique more often than in The Office. In one example from the pilot episode, a scene repeatedly jumps cuts to several brief clips in which Leslie seeks permission from Ron to pursue the pit project.
The pilot episode was filmed in southern California. The construction pit featured in the episode was dug out by the episode's producers at an undeveloped property in Van Nuys
, a district in Los Angeles. The producers went door-to-door to neighboring residents to seek their permission, then rented construction equipment to dig the hole in the ground. The pit was guarded 24 hours a day, and paparazzi
regularly came to the set to take photos of the actors during filming. The exterior of the Pawnee government building, and several of the hallway scenes, were shot at the Pasadena
city hall building. The interior parks and recreation department scenes were filmed on a sound stage. The windows could drop water that would simulate falling rain, and the windowsills included fake pigeons. The cold open scene was filmed in an actual playground in Los Angeles. The spiral tube slide used in the scene was the only one of its type left in the city, because the rest had been deemed too dangerous and removed. The public forum scenes were filmed in a Los Angeles middle school. The script originally called for the meeting to be held in a classroom because the auditorium door was locked. However, Daniels said the writers thought the school's auditorium was such a "cool location" that they added a scene in which the auditorium lights were turned off in the middle of the meeting.
Singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III
makes a cameo as Barry, one of the citizens who makes wild complaints at the parks and recreations community meeting. Wainwright was selected for the part at the suggestion of casting director Allison Jones
. Comedian and actor Ian Roberts
, who worked with Amy Poehler on the Upright Citizens Brigade
sketch comedy troupe, also made a cameo at the public meeting as Ian Winston, a man complaining about cursing at the park. During filming, guest star Chris Pratt said Poehler "[went] out of her way" to welcome him, and that her polite behavior put him at ease during filming.
, said he found the script very funny even though he normally hates reading comedy scripts "because they're rarely as funny on the page as they are coming out of an actor's mouth".
According to a March 18 report that was leaked to television journalist Nikki Finke
, focus groups responded poorly to a screening of the rough-cut version of the pilot. Several viewers felt the show was a "carbon copy" of The Office, and needed to be differentiated from that series to avoid coming across as forced and unoriginal. Some viewers found it predictable, slow-paced and lacking character development, and felt the beginning of the episode needed to better explain the situation and setting. Several viewers said the show lacked quality male characters, particularly a "datable" lead male. Other viewers, however, said The Office needed time to develop into a quality show, and they felt audiences would be more patient with Parks and Recreation than other shows due to its connection to The Office. Viewers also said the show's portrayal of bureaucracy of local government was "very believable" and could provide quirky and silly situations for the show, and they liked Poehler's character and performance. The release of the report led to speculation in the media that Parks and Recreations was not ready for prime-time television. In response to the leaked negative feedback, Ben Silverman said rough cuts of shows are usually received negatively, even for ultimately successful shows. Schur also said there had been at least four complete edits to the pilot since the focus-group results came in.
. It was shown in a time slot between two fifth season episodes of The Office: "Dream Team
" and "Michael Scott Paper Company". In its original American broadcast on April 9, the pilot was watched by 6.77 million overall households, according to Nielsen Media Research
. Media outlets described it as a solid rating for the premiere, and said it was comparable to average ratings for 30 Rock
, the NBC show that also airs Thursday nights; 30 Rock achieved the same 6.8 million overall household rating during the 9:30 p.m. time slot on April 9. "Pilot" also had a 40 percent higher rating than the final episode of Kath & Kim
, which previously held the show's time slot. However, "Pilot" did not capture the same amount of viewers as the Office episodes that ran before and after it. "Dream Team", which ran at 8 p.m., drew 7.2 million households, and "Michael Scott Paper Company", which ran at 9 p.m., drew 8 million households.
The episode received mixed reviews from television critics. Daniel Carlson of The Hollywood Reporter
said Parks and Recreation appears to be a "genuinely funny and engaging comedy" and that inevitable comparisons to The Office are not fair; he also said Poehler "proves instantly she's got the comic intelligence to carry a series like this one". Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly
said "Pilot" lacked the "snap and clear character delineation" of The Office, but pointed out that show also appeared flat in early episodes; Tucker said he liked the performances, attitude and atmosphere of the show, although it had few laugh out loud moments. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe
said the show has the potential to become a "flip, witty political allegory" and praised Poehler and the supporting cast. Los Angeles Times
television critic Robert Lloyd praised the show for providing strong female leads, which he said was rare on television. He also said, "It has a kind of sunny charm, a premise fit for a novel... Poehler and Jones have a nice, contrapuntal rhythm. I stamp this show: approved."
Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
said the series needs to find a way to distinguish Leslie from Steve Carell
's Michael Scott
from The Office, but he said the pilot episode was funny, particularly the Aziz Ansari character. Sepinwall also said The Office did not find its footing until the second season, so comparisons simply based on the pilot were not fair. Alessandra Stanley
of The New York Times
said the supporting cast needed stronger writing and reinforcements, but that Poehler was excellent in a lead role unique for women because it is based on weakness and wrongheadedness, but still a positive and strong part. Stanley said, "The pilot episode isn’t perfect, but Ms. Poehler very nearly is." Verne Gay of Newsday
said Poehler has "plenty of appeal here" so he felt the show might have potential, but felt the pilot was for the most part a "near knockoff" of The Office. Likewise, Paige Wiser of the Chicago Sun-Times
said "so far it's a pale Xerox of the paper company", although she said "there are lots of funny little moments that could add up to a great series." Robert Bianco said the episode was not funny, and the way in which the scripts and supporting cast ridicule and ignore the Leslie character leaves a "sour whiff of gratuitous cruelty." He also called the pilot unoriginal and described it as "a style in search of a show," despite Poehler's likability. Similarly, Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
said, "Watching Poehler's pathetic character have her dreams stomped on by apathetic bureaucrats is off-putting, more so than Michael Scott's obliviousness," although Owen said the Ansari character was amusing.
Philadelphia Inquirer
television critic Jonathan Storm strongly criticized the show, calling it a flat, "miscast mess" with serious structural problems. Storm also said the Leslie character lacked energy and Poehler was playing the part against her comedic strengths. Tom Shales
of The Washington Post
said, "Poehler's show unfortunately isn't worthy of her. It's dry and hesitant when one longs for it to be raucous and madcap." David Hinckley of New York Daily News said the show was not funny enough to deserve Poehler's comedic talents, and compared the dialogue to a Saturday Night Live
sketch that he said could not sustain a whole sitcom. New York Post
television critic Linda Stasi said the pilot lacked laughs and was so similar to The Office that "it's starting to look like a one-trick pony outfit that's gonna keep dressing that horse up in new saddles, hoping that no one will guess it's been around the track so many times, it's worn a ditch in the dirt." The pilot episode premiered in Australia on Channel Seven
on December 1, 2009, when episodes from the critically acclaimed second season were already playing in the United States. Sacha Moritorisz of The Sydney Morning Herald
said of the episode, "To be frank, tonight's premiere is weak. But the potential is obvious and word from the US is that it gets much better."
. The scene was eventually worked into the second season episode, "The Stakeout
".
Parks and Recreation (season 1)
The first season of Parks and Recreation originally aired in the United States on the NBC television network between April 9 and May 14, 2009...
of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation is an American comedy television series on NBC that focuses on Leslie Knope , a mid-level bureaucrat in the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, the series debuted on April 9, 2009; it has run for three seasons and...
. It originally aired on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
in the United States on April 9, 2009. The episode was written by series co-creators Michael Schur
Michael Schur
Michael Herbert Schur is an American television producer and writer, best known for his work on the NBC comedy series The Office and Parks and Recreation, the latter of which he co-created along with Greg Daniels...
and Greg Daniels
Greg Daniels
Gregory Martin "Greg" Daniels is an American television comedy writer, producer, and director.-Life and career:...
, and directed by Daniels. Like the rest of the series, the pilot was filmed in the same mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
style as The Office, the NBC comedy series also created by Daniels.
The episode introduces the protagonist Leslie Knope
Leslie Knope
Leslie Barbara Knope is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. She is portrayed by Amy Poehler. Poehler garnered two Emmy Award nominations for Best Lead Actress in Comedy Series for her role.-Background:...
, played by Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler
Amy Meredith Poehler is an American comedian, actress and voice actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls with Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is...
, as well as the other regular characters played by cast members Rashida Jones
Rashida Jones
Rashida Leah Jones is an American film and television actress, comic book author, screenwriter and occasional singer. She played Louisa Fenn on Boston Public and Karen Filippelli on The Office as well as roles in the films I Love You, Man and The Social Network...
, Paul Schneider
Paul Schneider (actor)
Paul Andrew Schneider is an American film actor.-Early life and career:Schneider was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. He graduated from the North Carolina School of Arts...
, Aziz Ansari
Aziz Ansari
Aziz Ansari is an American actor, writer, and stand-up comedian. He currently stars as Tom Haverford on the NBC show Parks and Recreation....
, Aubrey Plaza and Nick Offerman
Nick Offerman
Nick Offerman is an American actor best known for his role as Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. He is also a skilled woodworker.-Early life and career:...
. Knope is a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation department in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
. In "Pilot", Knope sets out to turn a construction pit into a park after local nurse Ann Perkins
Ann Perkins
Ann Meredith Perkins is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. She is a nurse and best friend of Leslie Knope. She is portrayed by Rashida Jones.-Season one:...
(Jones) complains about the dangerous pit during a town meeting. Her anti-government boss Ron Swanson
Ron Swanson
Ronald Ulysses "Ron" Swanson is a fictional character played by Nick Offerman in the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation on NBC. Ron is parks department director in the Indiana city of Pawnee and the immediate superior of protagonist Leslie Knope...
(Offerman) reluctantly allows her to form an exploratory committee after her friend and colleague Mark Brendanawicz
Mark Brendanawicz
Mark Brendanawicz is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. He is the city planner for Pawnee, Indiana, one of Ann Perkins's ex-boyfriends, and Leslie Knope's colleague. He is portrayed by Paul Schneider...
(Schneider) secretly intervenes on her behalf.
Daniels and Schur first started writing the script in the summer of 2008, when they were in the early stages of conceiving the series. About one month before the pilot aired, a focus group report discussing several perceived problems with the episode was leaked to the media, which led to speculation that Parks and Recreation was not ready for prime-time television. The pilot episode featured a number of cultural references to such people as Bobby Knight
Bobby Knight
-Indiana:When Indiana University was seeking a new coach in 1971, they turned to Knight. Knight was given the nickname "The General" by former University of Detroit and Detroit Pistons coach-turned-broadcaster Dick Vitale....
, Larry Bird
Larry Bird
Larry Joe Bird is a former American NBA basketball player and coach. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, spearheading one of the NBA's most formidable frontcourts that included center Robert Parish...
and Laura Linney
Laura Linney
Laura Leggett Linney is an American actress of film, television, and theatre. Linney has won three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has been nominated for three times for an Academy Award and once for a BAFTA Award...
, as well as female political figures Leslie compares herself to, like Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
, Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
and Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
.
"Pilot" received generally mixed reviews, although Poehler herself was widely praised by most television critics. According to Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
, "Pilot" was watched by 6.77 million households in its original airing. Although it received lower ratings than the two Office episodes it aired between, television critics pointed out it achieved an identical rating to the popular NBC show 30 Rock
30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
, which was broadcast the same night. The pilot, along with the rest of the first season of Parks and Recreation was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in the United States on September 8, 2009.
Plot
The episode opens with Leslie KnopeLeslie Knope
Leslie Barbara Knope is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. She is portrayed by Amy Poehler. Poehler garnered two Emmy Award nominations for Best Lead Actress in Comedy Series for her role.-Background:...
(Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler
Amy Meredith Poehler is an American comedian, actress and voice actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls with Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is...
), a mid-level bureaucrat with six years of experience in the Parks and Recreation Department in the town of Pawnee, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, discussing with a documentary crew her strong belief in the power of government to help other people. Later, Leslie hosts a community outreach public forum at an elementary school along with her jaded colleague Tom Haverford
Tom Haverford
Thomas Montgomery "Tom" Haverford , born Darwish Sabir Ismael Gani, is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. He is a sarcastic, underachieving government official for the city of Pawnee who is revered for his high levels of swagger and unmatched entrepreneurial skills...
(Aziz Ansari
Aziz Ansari
Aziz Ansari is an American actor, writer, and stand-up comedian. He currently stars as Tom Haverford on the NBC show Parks and Recreation....
). Leslie is enthusiastic despite the low turnout and angry complaints, which she describes as "people caring loudly at me". Local nurse Ann Perkins
Ann Perkins
Ann Meredith Perkins is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. She is a nurse and best friend of Leslie Knope. She is portrayed by Rashida Jones.-Season one:...
(Rashida Jones
Rashida Jones
Rashida Leah Jones is an American film and television actress, comic book author, screenwriter and occasional singer. She played Louisa Fenn on Boston Public and Karen Filippelli on The Office as well as roles in the films I Love You, Man and The Social Network...
) complains about a giant pit near her house, which was dug out by a condominium developer that went bankrupt in the middle of the construction project. Ann says her boyfriend broke both his legs after falling into the pit, and she demands something be done about it. Leslie is inspired by the challenge and vows that she will fill in the pit and build a park on the land.
Leslie seeks advice from colleague Mark Brendanawicz
Mark Brendanawicz
Mark Brendanawicz is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. He is the city planner for Pawnee, Indiana, one of Ann Perkins's ex-boyfriends, and Leslie Knope's colleague. He is portrayed by Paul Schneider...
(Paul Schneider
Paul Schneider (actor)
Paul Andrew Schneider is an American film actor.-Early life and career:Schneider was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. He graduated from the North Carolina School of Arts...
), who feels the project would prove practically impossible due to the logistics and bureaucratic red tape
Red tape
Red tape is excessive regulation or rigid conformity to formal rules that is considered redundant or bureaucratic and hinders or prevents action or decision-making...
, but Leslie's enthusiasm is undeterred. Leslie later fondly tells the documentary crew that she and Mark made love five years ago, but Mark only vaguely recalls the encounter. Leslie, Tom and the uninterested intern April Ludgate
April Ludgate
April Roberta Ludgate is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. She is an apathetic college student employed by the Pawnee Department of Parks and Recreation as Ron Swanson's assistant. She is married to Andy Dwyer. She is portrayed by Aubrey Plaza...
(Aubrey Plaza) visit Ann and meet Ann's boyfriend Andy Dwyer
Andy Dwyer
Andrew Maxwell "Andy" Dwyer is a fictional character in the NBC comedy Parks and Recreation. He is Ann Perkins' ex-boyfriend, a talented-if-yet-unsuccessful musician, a shoe-shiner at Pawnee City Hall, and April Ludgate's husband. He is portrayed by Chris Pratt.-Background:At the start of the...
(Chris Pratt
Chris Pratt
Christopher Michael "Chris" Pratt is an American actor, best known for his roles as Harold Brighton "Bright" Abbott in the television series Everwood, the recurring character Winchester "Ché" Cook in season 4 of The OC, Andy Dwyer in the television series Parks and Recreation and for portraying...
), a lazy and demanding musician who she is forced to wait on and support financially. Afterward, Leslie and Ann visit the pit, which Leslie accidentally falls into as Tom and April make fun of her. Some time later, Leslie asks her boss Ron Swanson
Ron Swanson
Ronald Ulysses "Ron" Swanson is a fictional character played by Nick Offerman in the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation on NBC. Ron is parks department director in the Indiana city of Pawnee and the immediate superior of protagonist Leslie Knope...
(Nick Offerman
Nick Offerman
Nick Offerman is an American actor best known for his role as Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation. He is also a skilled woodworker.-Early life and career:...
) for permission to form an exploratory committee for the pit project. Ron initially refuses, but eventually agrees to consider it so that Leslie will leave his office. Ron explains that he does not want the Parks Department to build any parks because he believes government is a waste of money, and that all government should be privatized and run by corporations for profit. Leslie repeatedly pesters Ron about the park project, but he refuses to commit.
Meanwhile, Tom and April continue to make fun of Leslie, much to the displeasure of Mark. Mark, who tells the documentary crew he is impressed that Leslie has somehow maintained her optimism about government for six years, secretly asks Ron to give her the park project. Mark said doing so would return a favor Ron owes him for unspecified reasons. Leslie and Ann are extremely excited about the new exploratory subcommittee, and despite her skepticism about politics and government, Ann pledges to do whatever it takes to help get the pit filled in, "even if it takes two months".
Conception
Immediately after Ben SilvermanBen Silverman
Benjamin Noah "Ben" Silverman is the founder and CEO of Electus, a next generation entertainment studio staked by IAC's Barry Diller....
was named co-chairman of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's entertainment division in 2007, he asked Greg Daniels
Greg Daniels
Gregory Martin "Greg" Daniels is an American television comedy writer, producer, and director.-Life and career:...
to create a new comedy series. Silverman and Daniels previously worked together on The Office, a half-hour comedy Daniels adapted from the British comedy of the same name
The Office (UK TV series)
The Office is a British sitcom television series that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious...
by Ricky Gervais
Ricky Gervais
Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, director, radio presenter, producer, musician, and writer.Gervais achieved mainstream fame with his television series The Office and the subsequent series Extras, both of which he co-wrote and co-directed with friend and frequent collaborator...
and Stephen Merchant
Stephen Merchant
Stephen James Merchant is an English writer, director, radio presenter, comedian, and actor. He is best known for his collaborations with Ricky Gervais, as the co-writer and co-director of the popular British sitcom The Office, as the co-writer, co-director and a co-star of Extras, and as the...
. Daniels wrote the pilot for what eventually became Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation is an American comedy television series on NBC that focuses on Leslie Knope , a mid-level bureaucrat in the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, the series debuted on April 9, 2009; it has run for three seasons and...
along with series co-creator Michael Schur
Michael Schur
Michael Herbert Schur is an American television producer and writer, best known for his work on the NBC comedy series The Office and Parks and Recreation, the latter of which he co-created along with Greg Daniels...
, who had served as a writer on The Office. Daniels and Schur had been considering ideas for a possible show with cast members Rashida Jones
Rashida Jones
Rashida Leah Jones is an American film and television actress, comic book author, screenwriter and occasional singer. She played Louisa Fenn on Boston Public and Karen Filippelli on The Office as well as roles in the films I Love You, Man and The Social Network...
and Aziz Ansari
Aziz Ansari
Aziz Ansari is an American actor, writer, and stand-up comedian. He currently stars as Tom Haverford on the NBC show Parks and Recreation....
, but the concept for the series did not form until they learned Amy Poehler
Amy Poehler
Amy Meredith Poehler is an American comedian, actress and voice actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls with Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is...
could play the lead character. Once that casting was determined, the script for the pilot episode was first written in the summer of 2008 revolving around her as a city bureaucrat seeking to turn an enormous construction pit into a park. They also decided the script would include the mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
comedy style of The Office and, like that show, would allow for improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
on set. However, they did not consider the script an Office spin-off and NBC officials vehemently insisted to media outlets that the show was a completely separate series, despite the similarities between the two shows.
Writing
The first draft of the script portrayed Leslie and Mark as slightly less likable characters. Originally, Mark asked Ron to green-light the park project not to help Leslie, but because he was attracted to Ann and wanted another excuse to keep seeing her. These elements of the script were changed after press tours and focus group screenings. The show's writers spent time researching local California politics and attended Los Angeles City CouncilLos Angeles City Council
The Los Angeles City Council is the governing body of the City of Los Angeles.The Council is composed of fifteen members elected from single-member districts for four-year terms. The president of the council and the president pro tempore are chosen by the Council at the first regular meeting after...
meetings. Daniels and Schur wanted the pilot to establish that one of Leslie's duties was talking to the public on a regular basis, and they deliberately portrayed her public forum meetings as poorly attended except by a select group of angry residents. Schur said, "I've been to some community meetings in my life, and it is often this feeling of utter sparseness. That nobody cares." In writing the script, Schur wanted Mark and Leslie to have a long history together before the events of the episode, rather than having the two characters meet for the first time on screen, which he felt had already been done in many television shows. The first shot of the pilot was originally a scene with Ann standing over the pit and staring at it with an annoyed expression, followed by a documentary interview with Ann and Andy. The opening scene was changed because Daniels and Schur decided they wanted the first scene of the series to be set in a park. As a result, the episode started with a cold open
Cold open
A cold open in a television program or movie is the technique of jumping directly into a story at the beginning or opening of the show, before the title sequence or opening credits are shown...
of Leslie interviewing children in a park, then using a broom to push a drunk man out of spiral slide. Daniels had such a specific vision for the scene, he drew an elaborate and detailed storyboard
Storyboard
Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....
sketch of a drunk man stuck in a tubular slide.
Some parts of the episode consisted of a mixture of written dialogue and comedic improvisation from the actors. In one such scene, Aziz Ansari attempts to flirt with Rashida Jones when she speaks at a Parks and Recreation public forum. The scene was included in the script, but Ansari continued to improvise long after his dialogue ended, and Jones said she found it difficult to keep a straight face during filming. Schur encouraged Ansari to continue, and suggested the line in which Ansari asks to go away with Jones for the weekend. Daniels called the scene "probably the highlight of the pilot." The ending included another example of written dialogue mixed with improvisation, when Ansari recited a list of unusual things Leslie has attempted to do while drunk. In other scenes, the written dialogue was abandoned altogether in favor of improvisation, such as the scene of Ann and Andy talking on Ann's couch after Leslie fell into the pit and injured herself. Chris Pratt improvised a number of other lines and scenes in the episode, including when Andy asked Leslie to pass him his "itch stick", which he then used to scratch under his leg cast in an awkward and disgusting way.
The pilot script included several political cultural references. Leslie compares herself to Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
and House Speaker
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
in describing the prevalence of women in government. Leslie invokes former U.S. Presidents
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
as shining examples of democracy. The episode also features several references to sports figures. Ron has a poster of Bobby Knight, the famous retired basketball coach, hanging in his office. The Bobby Knight image later had to be removed from the show for legal reasons. Leslie has an autographed photo of Indiana-born basketball player Larry Bird
Larry Bird
Larry Joe Bird is a former American NBA basketball player and coach. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, spearheading one of the NBA's most formidable frontcourts that included center Robert Parish...
on her desk. It reads, "To Lesly, Sink That Shot, Larry B." This is a reference to a deleted scene in which Tom reveals he has tricked Leslie into believing he has brunch with Bird once a month. Tom himself actually faked the autograph, and deliberately misspelled her name "Lesly" as a joke.
Filming
Michael Schur made his directorial debut with the pilot episode. The original cut of the pilot episode was 48 minutes long, and had to be trimmed down to 22 minutes. Due to the improvisational style and hand-held camerawork of the series, a great deal of extra footage is filmed in each episode and ultimately has to be discarded for the final cut. Amy Poehler said of this, "For every show, there could probably be a second show of stuff we've edited out." Brief portions of those deleted scenes were interwoven into short montage sequences that played along with dialogue from the documentary-style interviews conducted within the episode with the characters.Although the series shared the same mockumentary style as The Office, Daniels and Schur sought to establish a slightly different tone in the camerawork of the pilot episode of Parks and Recreation. For example, the documentary-style interviews with characters sometimes feature two separate angles on the same person, with footage of the two different angles intercut into a single scene for the final episode. This distinguishing technique was inspired by The Five Obstructions
The Five Obstructions
The Five Obstructions is a 2003 Danish film by Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth. The film is a documentary, but incorporates lengthy sections of experimental films produced by the filmmakers. The premise is that Lars von Trier has created a challenge for his friend and mentor, Jørgen Leth, another...
, a 2003 documentary by Lars Von Trier
Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier is a Danish film director and screenwriter. He is closely associated with the Dogme 95 collective, although his own films have taken a variety of different approaches, and have frequently received strongly divided critical opinion....
and Jørgen Leth
Jørgen Leth
Jørgen Leth is a Danish poet and film director who is considered a leading figure in experimental documentary film making. Most notable are his epic documentary A Sunday in Hell and his surrealistic short film The Perfect Human...
, which Daniels watched at the suggestion of actor Paul Schneider. The pilot episode also makes use of the jump cut
Jump cut
A jump cut is a cut in film editing and vloging in which two sequential shots of the same subject are taken from camera positions that vary only slightly. This type of edit causes the subject of the shots to appear to "jump" position in a discontinuous way...
technique more often than in The Office. In one example from the pilot episode, a scene repeatedly jumps cuts to several brief clips in which Leslie seeks permission from Ron to pursue the pit project.
The pilot episode was filmed in southern California. The construction pit featured in the episode was dug out by the episode's producers at an undeveloped property in Van Nuys
Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California
Van Nuys is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California.-History:Look at the two photos of Van Nuys' first year—and then listen to what the Los Angeles Times wrote on February 23, 1911, the day after the Van Nuys town lot auction--"Between dawn and dusk, in the...
, a district in Los Angeles. The producers went door-to-door to neighboring residents to seek their permission, then rented construction equipment to dig the hole in the ground. The pit was guarded 24 hours a day, and paparazzi
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
regularly came to the set to take photos of the actors during filming. The exterior of the Pawnee government building, and several of the hallway scenes, were shot at the Pasadena
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
city hall building. The interior parks and recreation department scenes were filmed on a sound stage. The windows could drop water that would simulate falling rain, and the windowsills included fake pigeons. The cold open scene was filmed in an actual playground in Los Angeles. The spiral tube slide used in the scene was the only one of its type left in the city, because the rest had been deemed too dangerous and removed. The public forum scenes were filmed in a Los Angeles middle school. The script originally called for the meeting to be held in a classroom because the auditorium door was locked. However, Daniels said the writers thought the school's auditorium was such a "cool location" that they added a scene in which the auditorium lights were turned off in the middle of the meeting.
Singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III
Loudon Wainwright III
Loudon Snowden Wainwright III is a Grammy Award-winning American songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor. He is the father of musicians Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche, brother of Sloan Wainwright, and the former husband of the late folk singer Kate McGarrigle.To...
makes a cameo as Barry, one of the citizens who makes wild complaints at the parks and recreations community meeting. Wainwright was selected for the part at the suggestion of casting director Allison Jones
Allison Jones
Allison Jones is a popular casting director who is credited for helping to bring together realistic ensemble casts for such television shows as Freaks and Geeks , Curb Your Enthusiasm, United States of Tara, Parks and Recreation, Arrested Development , and the US version of The Office.She has...
. Comedian and actor Ian Roberts
Ian Roberts (actor)
Ian Michael Roberts is an American actor, comedian and writer best known as a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe.-Life and career:...
, who worked with Amy Poehler on the Upright Citizens Brigade
Upright Citizens Brigade
The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The most recent incarnation consists of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh...
sketch comedy troupe, also made a cameo at the public meeting as Ian Winston, a man complaining about cursing at the park. During filming, guest star Chris Pratt said Poehler "[went] out of her way" to welcome him, and that her polite behavior put him at ease during filming.
Pre-broadcast feedback
Parks and Recreation was rushed into production for the pilot to meet the April 9 premiere date. As a result, when the series was paneled at a January 2009 television critics press tour, NBC did not have a finished episode to air, and only had a copy of the pilot episode script available for critics to review. Some of the parts were not yet cast, and without a finalized title, the series was known only as The Untitled Amy Poehler Project or TUAPP. Alan Sepinwall, television writer for The Star-LedgerThe Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
, said he found the script very funny even though he normally hates reading comedy scripts "because they're rarely as funny on the page as they are coming out of an actor's mouth".
According to a March 18 report that was leaked to television journalist Nikki Finke
Nikki Finke
Nikki Finke is an American journalist and blogger. She is Founder and Editor in chief and President of Deadline.com, a website with original content consisting of her and other veteran showbiz journalists' reporting and commentary on the business of the entertainment industry formerly known as...
, focus groups responded poorly to a screening of the rough-cut version of the pilot. Several viewers felt the show was a "carbon copy" of The Office, and needed to be differentiated from that series to avoid coming across as forced and unoriginal. Some viewers found it predictable, slow-paced and lacking character development, and felt the beginning of the episode needed to better explain the situation and setting. Several viewers said the show lacked quality male characters, particularly a "datable" lead male. Other viewers, however, said The Office needed time to develop into a quality show, and they felt audiences would be more patient with Parks and Recreation than other shows due to its connection to The Office. Viewers also said the show's portrayal of bureaucracy of local government was "very believable" and could provide quirky and silly situations for the show, and they liked Poehler's character and performance. The release of the report led to speculation in the media that Parks and Recreations was not ready for prime-time television. In response to the leaked negative feedback, Ben Silverman said rough cuts of shows are usually received negatively, even for ultimately successful shows. Schur also said there had been at least four complete edits to the pilot since the focus-group results came in.
Ratings and reviews
The Parks and Recreation pilot first aired on April 9, 2009, in the United States on NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. It was shown in a time slot between two fifth season episodes of The Office: "Dream Team
Dream Team (The Office)
"Dream Team" is the twenty-second episode of the fifth season of the television series The Office, and the 94th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on April 9, 2009. In the episode, Pam and Michael try to keep each other motivated as the two form their new...
" and "Michael Scott Paper Company". In its original American broadcast on April 9, the pilot was watched by 6.77 million overall households, according to Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
. Media outlets described it as a solid rating for the premiere, and said it was comparable to average ratings for 30 Rock
30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
, the NBC show that also airs Thursday nights; 30 Rock achieved the same 6.8 million overall household rating during the 9:30 p.m. time slot on April 9. "Pilot" also had a 40 percent higher rating than the final episode of Kath & Kim
Kath & Kim
Kath & Kim is a Logie Award-winning character-driven Australian television situation comedy series. The series was created by, and is written by Jane Turner and Gina Riley who play the title characters: a suburban mother and daughter with a dysfunctional relationship...
, which previously held the show's time slot. However, "Pilot" did not capture the same amount of viewers as the Office episodes that ran before and after it. "Dream Team", which ran at 8 p.m., drew 7.2 million households, and "Michael Scott Paper Company", which ran at 9 p.m., drew 8 million households.
The episode received mixed reviews from television critics. Daniel Carlson of The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
said Parks and Recreation appears to be a "genuinely funny and engaging comedy" and that inevitable comparisons to The Office are not fair; he also said Poehler "proves instantly she's got the comic intelligence to carry a series like this one". Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
said "Pilot" lacked the "snap and clear character delineation" of The Office, but pointed out that show also appeared flat in early episodes; Tucker said he liked the performances, attitude and atmosphere of the show, although it had few laugh out loud moments. Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
said the show has the potential to become a "flip, witty political allegory" and praised Poehler and the supporting cast. Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
television critic Robert Lloyd praised the show for providing strong female leads, which he said was rare on television. He also said, "It has a kind of sunny charm, a premise fit for a novel... Poehler and Jones have a nice, contrapuntal rhythm. I stamp this show: approved."
Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger
The Star-Ledger is the largest circulated newspaper in the U.S. state of New Jersey and is based in Newark. It is a sister paper to The Jersey Journal of Jersey City, The Times of Trenton and the Staten Island Advance, all of which are owned by Advance Publications.The Newark Star-Ledgers daily...
said the series needs to find a way to distinguish Leslie from Steve Carell
Steve Carell
Steven John "Steve" Carell is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer, and director. Although Carell is notable for his role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on The Office...
's Michael Scott
Michael Scott (The Office)
Michael Gary Scott is a fictional character on NBC's The Office, portrayed by Steve Carell, and based on David Brent from the original British version. Michael, the central character of the series, was the manager of the Scranton branch of paper and printer distribution company Dunder Mifflin Inc...
from The Office, but he said the pilot episode was funny, particularly the Aziz Ansari character. Sepinwall also said The Office did not find its footing until the second season, so comparisons simply based on the pilot were not fair. Alessandra Stanley
Alessandra Stanley
Alessandra Stanley is an American journalist. In 2003 she became the television critic for The New York Times. Stanley was previously co-chief of the paper's Moscow bureau, Rome bureau chief, and as a correspondent for Time. She is the daughter of defense expert Timothy W...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said the supporting cast needed stronger writing and reinforcements, but that Poehler was excellent in a lead role unique for women because it is based on weakness and wrongheadedness, but still a positive and strong part. Stanley said, "The pilot episode isn’t perfect, but Ms. Poehler very nearly is." Verne Gay of Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
said Poehler has "plenty of appeal here" so he felt the show might have potential, but felt the pilot was for the most part a "near knockoff" of The Office. Likewise, Paige Wiser of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
said "so far it's a pale Xerox of the paper company", although she said "there are lots of funny little moments that could add up to a great series." Robert Bianco said the episode was not funny, and the way in which the scripts and supporting cast ridicule and ignore the Leslie character leaves a "sour whiff of gratuitous cruelty." He also called the pilot unoriginal and described it as "a style in search of a show," despite Poehler's likability. Similarly, Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also known simply as the "PG," is the largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.-Early history:...
said, "Watching Poehler's pathetic character have her dreams stomped on by apathetic bureaucrats is off-putting, more so than Michael Scott's obliviousness," although Owen said the Ansari character was amusing.
Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
television critic Jonathan Storm strongly criticized the show, calling it a flat, "miscast mess" with serious structural problems. Storm also said the Leslie character lacked energy and Poehler was playing the part against her comedic strengths. Tom Shales
Tom Shales
Thomas William "Tom" Shales is an American critic of television programming and operations. He is best known as TV critic for The Washington Post; in 1988, Shales received the Pulitzer Prize...
of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
said, "Poehler's show unfortunately isn't worthy of her. It's dry and hesitant when one longs for it to be raucous and madcap." David Hinckley of New York Daily News said the show was not funny enough to deserve Poehler's comedic talents, and compared the dialogue to a Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
sketch that he said could not sustain a whole sitcom. New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
television critic Linda Stasi said the pilot lacked laughs and was so similar to The Office that "it's starting to look like a one-trick pony outfit that's gonna keep dressing that horse up in new saddles, hoping that no one will guess it's been around the track so many times, it's worn a ditch in the dirt." The pilot episode premiered in Australia on Channel Seven
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
on December 1, 2009, when episodes from the critically acclaimed second season were already playing in the United States. Sacha Moritorisz of The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Sydney Morning Herald is a daily broadsheet newspaper published by Fairfax Media in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald, the SMH is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia. The newspaper is published six days a week. The newspaper's Sunday counterpart, The...
said of the episode, "To be frank, tonight's premiere is weak. But the potential is obvious and word from the US is that it gets much better."
DVD release
The pilot episode, along with the five other first season episodes of Parks and Recreation, was released on a one-disc DVD set in the United States on September 8, 2009. The DVD included cast and crew commentary tracks for each episode, as well as about 30 minutes of deleted scenes. The deleted scenes included on the DVD were originally featured on the official Parks and Recreation website after the episode aired. In one of them, Tom talks about changing his name because he thought it sounded too foreign for politics, although he admits this was not a problem for U.S. President Barack ObamaBarack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
. The scene was eventually worked into the second season episode, "The Stakeout
The Stakeout (Parks and Recreation)
"The Stakeout" is the second episode of the second season of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation, and the eighth overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on September 24, 2009...
".