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The Banquet (Parks and Recreation)
Encyclopedia
"The Banquet" is the fifth episode of the first season
of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation
. It originally aired on NBC
in the United States on May 8, 2009. It was written by Tucker Cawley
and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller
. In the episode, Leslie
attends an award banquet for her mother, a veteran of local government politics, who encourages Leslie to resort to blackmail
in order to get her way with a zoning board official.
The episode received positive reviews, with Entertainment Weekly
claiming the series appears to have grown more "settled and focused" after this episode. According to Nielsen Media Research
, it was watched by 4.64 million households in its original airing, continuing a downward trend in ratings since the pilot episode
, although NBC had already committed to renewing the show for a second season. "The Banquet" and the rest of the first season of Parks and Recreation was released on DVD
in the United States on September 8, 2009.
(Amy Poehler
) is proud that her mother, school system employee Marlene Knope
(Pamela Reed
), is to receive a public service award during an upcoming banquet. Ann
(Rashida Jones
), excited to go to a social event after spending so much time taking care of her injured, freeloading boyfriend Andy
(Chris Pratt
), is told by Leslie to dress very formally. Leslie visits an old-fashioned barber, who unbeknownst to her only gives men's haircuts; she is given a very short, mannish hairstyle, which she is very proud of. Leslie and Ann, who is extremely overdressed in an expensive pink dress, arrive together at the banquet, where they are mistaken for a lesbian
couple by many of the attendees. Tom
(Aziz Ansari
) sucks up to Marlene during his banquet speech, while Ron
(Nick Offerman
) sticks to a "fact-based" speech ("It is true that you have won this award.")
Leslie sees Jeanine Restrepo (Loretta Fox), an influential zoning board member who could help Leslie with her plans to turn the Sullivan Street pit into a park. Leslie is too nervous to approach her, so she practices with Mark
(Paul Schneider
), who teasingly pinches her nose because he says as Jeanine, "I can do whatever I want"; Ann pinches Mark's nose and Leslie pinches Ann's, and Mark summarizes, "It's fun to pretend to be zoning board members." Marlene suggests Leslie try sucking up to Jeanine in her speech, but it comes across awkwardly when Leslie claims to "love" Jeanine. When Leslie tries to approach her later, Jeanine suggests Leslie make an appointment with her secretary. Marlene says this means Jeanine is blowing them off, and tells Leslie to blackmail Jeanine with the knowledge that her husband has a DUI offense in Illinois
. Leslie shares the advice with Ann, who says she believes it is unethical and wrong; offended, Leslie accuses Ann of pampering Andy. ("He's got three crutches, and one of them is you. And the other two are crutches.") Ann storms off.
Tom wants to go bar-hopping with Mark, who leaves even though he is enjoying hanging out with Leslie and Ann. Tom wears a goofy orange hat at the bar, which he calls "peacocking", or standing out in a public setting like a peacock. The two talk to women at the bar, but Mark finds them boring and he leaves Tom alone. Ron enjoys the banquet's bacon-wrapped shrimp, "my number one favorite food, wrapped around my number three favorite food". Leslie confronts Jeanine about her husband's DUI, but when Jeanine grows angry, Leslie is unable to go through with the blackmail; Jeanine splashes water in Leslie's face, and she leaves ashamed. Leslie visits Ann and apologizes, and Ann acknowledges Leslie was partially right about Andy. The two hug and Andy gets angry because he thought Leslie was "a dude" due to her haircut. Mark comes back to the banquet hall to find Ann and Leslie, but is disappointed to see the banquet is over.
and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller
, a long-time television director who worked with Poehler on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live
.. The "Modern Barber Shop" featured in the episode is an actual barber shop in Burbank, California
. The interior is very similar to the inside of the actual barber shop. Every time McCarthy-Miller visited the real Modern Barber Shop, the barber's wife was always eating sunflower seeds next to the shop door. As a result, McCarthy-Miller added an elderly woman with sunflower seeds into the episode's barber scenes.
The "peacocking" element was not included into the script, but added to the episode during filming after actor Aziz Ansari mentioned to show co-creator Greg Daniels
that he believed the character would be interested in pickup artist
tactics like those outlined in Neil Strauss
' book, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
. Ansari and Daniels asked the wardrobe for something silly for Ansari to wear in the bar, and they tried about a half-dozen items before Ansari himself settled on the orange hat, which is actually a woman's hat. The two women Mark and Tom talk to at the bar were meant to mirror Leslie and Ann from the banquet. Although they do not resemble Poehler and Jones, the two women had the same color hair (brown and blond) and were seated at the table in the same spots in proportion to Mark that Leslie and Ann were seated around him at the banquet.
The scene in which water is splashed in Leslie's face was only shot twice, because McCarthy-Miller said Poehler would started anticipating it in more takes and it would not have appeared spontaneous. The first time the scene was acted, the cameras were accidentally not turned on, so only one take was usable for the episode. During the banquet for the Tellenson Awards, a video is shown of an ill Tony Tellenson (for whom the award was named) in his hospital room. McCarthy-Miller shot the scene with minimal staff on a separate set. Multiple takes were filmed, and the severity of illness in each one. The final clip used in the episode shows Tellenson wearing a mask attached to an oxygen tank, which is one of the healthiest versions they filmed. The Jeanine Restrepo character was originally named Janet Restrepo, but was changed at the last moment. Poehler and the rest of the cast had already memorized the lines with the name Janet, and the actors had difficulty filming the scenes correctly as a result.
", the state capital. She said the pilgrim's face was made into a dreamcatcher
, a handmade Native American object with a willow hoop and loose web. The barber who gave Leslie her haircut also previously cut the hair of former-U.S. Vice President
Dan Quayle
. Ron said he likes shrimp hors d'œuvres wrapped in bacon so much, he would attend an event honoring pirates
in Somalia
to get them.
, continuing a downward trend in ratings since the pilot episode
, although NBC had already committed to renewing the show for a second season. The episode received a 2.3 rating/8 share among viewers aged between 18 and 34, and a 2.0 rating/6 share among viewers between 18 and 49. The poor rating for Parks and Recreation and Southland
, another then-new NBC series, contributed in bringing the network down to fourth place in the ratings for the evening, behind CBS
, ABC
and Fox
. "The Banquet", however, received generally positive reviews. Most reviewers particularly praised the opening scene with Leslie describing the murder of Pawnee pilgrim Nathanliel Bixby Mark at the hands of Native Americans, who used his body parts for various purposes because, "They used every part of the pioneer".
Jeremy Medina of Entertainment Weekly
said he believed although the show initially needed improvement, that it had arrived at a "settled and focused" series with "The Banquet". He praised the episode as a whole, as well as individual small moments, like Leslie's haircut, April calling her "sir", Ron's affinity for bacon-wrapped shrimp, Tom's coining of the phrase "peacockin" to mean standing out in bars. Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger
said "The Banquet" was funnier than other recent Parks and Recreation episodes, although he said the Leslie character continues to too closely resemble a female Michael Scott
, the protagonist of The Office. Sepinwall said of the show, "I know a lot of people have already given up, but I really feel like the show is a summer's worth of tweaking away from being good. It's not there yet, but I see glimmers."
Matt Fowler of IGN
said the episode "was able to rise a few notches above the last one" and that he enjoyed Leslie's antics and many of Tom's antics, including his suggestions for Leslie's introduction for her mom. He also liked the scene in which Mark pinched Leslie's nose, which he described as "a nice, playful scene that brought some much needed humanity to her cartoonish character". Jason Hughes of TV Squad praised the episode, particularly the characters Tom and Ann. He said of the episode, "The little things like (Leslie's haircut and Ann overdressing) are what's making this show work a little more with each episode. Finding humor in the small things of small government." Brian Howard of The Journal News
said the series is not great yet, but that "The Banquet" included glimpses of possible greatness in the future, particularly in the performances by Poehler, Jones, Ansari and Schneider. Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club
said the laughs in the episode, particularly involving Leslie's haircut and her perceived romantic relationship with Ann, were "a bit thin". Phipps also said he found himself disliking Leslie, of whom he said, "Here she seems more stupid than pleasantly naïve."
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 the first, an 80-second clip, Leslie gives everyone in the department tickets to the banquet. She tries to invite Andy, and when Ann says he cannot put on pants due to his cast, Leslie asks, "Does he have a formal kilt
or something?" The second clip features 100 seconds of extended banquet sequences, including Ann's reaction to Leslie's haircut, Ann's awkward attempts to make small talk with April and more of Tom's speech to Marlene. In the third, a 30-second clip, set at the bar, Tom describes to Mark his strategy in picking up a girl: he asked her what she did for a living, then, "I just yawned, gave her the middle finger and left. Pretty risky but I feel good about it." In the final clip, which was 15 seconds long, an amused Tom shows a newspaper photo caption of Leslie and Ann from the banquet, with the caption, "Mr. Leslie Knope and wife Ann."
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 May 8, 2009. It was written by Tucker Cawley
Tucker Cawley
Tucker Cawley is an American television comedy writer and producer, best known for writing episodes for Everybody Loves Raymond. He has also written for Men of a Certain Age, and created the ill-fated Kelsey Grammer sitcom Hank.-Career:...
and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller
Beth McCarthy-Miller
Beth McCarthy or Beth McCarthy-Miller was the director of NBCs Saturday Night Live starting in 1995. She left SNL in 2006 at the end of season 31, replaced as director by Don Roy King...
. In the episode, Leslie
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:...
attends an award banquet for her mother, a veteran of local government politics, who encourages Leslie to resort to blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
in order to get her way with a zoning board official.
The episode received positive reviews, with 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...
claiming the series appears to have grown more "settled and focused" after this episode. 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...
, it was watched by 4.64 million households in its original airing, continuing a downward trend in ratings since the pilot episode
Pilot (Parks and Recreation)
"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...
, although NBC had already committed to renewing the show for a second season. "The Banquet" and 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
LeslieLeslie 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...
) is proud that her mother, school system employee Marlene Knope
Marlene Griggs-Knope
Marlene Griggs-Knope is a fictional character played by Pamela Reed in the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation. She is the mother of the show's protagonist, Leslie Knope, and an important political figure in the school system at the fictional Indiana town of Pawnee, where Leslie...
(Pamela Reed
Pamela Reed
Pamela Reed is an American actress. She is known for playing Ruth Powers in various episodes of TV's The Simpsons, as Arnold Schwarzenegger's hypoglycemic partner in the 1990 movie Kindergarten Cop and as the matriarch Gail Green in Jericho...
), is to receive a public service award during an upcoming banquet. Ann
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...
), excited to go to a social event after spending so much time taking care of her injured, freeloading boyfriend Andy
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...
), is told by Leslie to dress very formally. Leslie visits an old-fashioned barber, who unbeknownst to her only gives men's haircuts; she is given a very short, mannish hairstyle, which she is very proud of. Leslie and Ann, who is extremely overdressed in an expensive pink dress, arrive together at the banquet, where they are mistaken for a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
couple by many of the attendees. Tom
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....
) sucks up to Marlene during his banquet speech, while Ron
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:...
) sticks to a "fact-based" speech ("It is true that you have won this award.")
Leslie sees Jeanine Restrepo (Loretta Fox), an influential zoning board member who could help Leslie with her plans to turn the Sullivan Street pit into a park. Leslie is too nervous to approach her, so she practices with Mark
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 teasingly pinches her nose because he says as Jeanine, "I can do whatever I want"; Ann pinches Mark's nose and Leslie pinches Ann's, and Mark summarizes, "It's fun to pretend to be zoning board members." Marlene suggests Leslie try sucking up to Jeanine in her speech, but it comes across awkwardly when Leslie claims to "love" Jeanine. When Leslie tries to approach her later, Jeanine suggests Leslie make an appointment with her secretary. Marlene says this means Jeanine is blowing them off, and tells Leslie to blackmail Jeanine with the knowledge that her husband has a DUI offense in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Leslie shares the advice with Ann, who says she believes it is unethical and wrong; offended, Leslie accuses Ann of pampering Andy. ("He's got three crutches, and one of them is you. And the other two are crutches.") Ann storms off.
Tom wants to go bar-hopping with Mark, who leaves even though he is enjoying hanging out with Leslie and Ann. Tom wears a goofy orange hat at the bar, which he calls "peacocking", or standing out in a public setting like a peacock. The two talk to women at the bar, but Mark finds them boring and he leaves Tom alone. Ron enjoys the banquet's bacon-wrapped shrimp, "my number one favorite food, wrapped around my number three favorite food". Leslie confronts Jeanine about her husband's DUI, but when Jeanine grows angry, Leslie is unable to go through with the blackmail; Jeanine splashes water in Leslie's face, and she leaves ashamed. Leslie visits Ann and apologizes, and Ann acknowledges Leslie was partially right about Andy. The two hug and Andy gets angry because he thought Leslie was "a dude" due to her haircut. Mark comes back to the banquet hall to find Ann and Leslie, but is disappointed to see the banquet is over.
Production
"The Banquet" was written by Tucker CawleyTucker Cawley
Tucker Cawley is an American television comedy writer and producer, best known for writing episodes for Everybody Loves Raymond. He has also written for Men of a Certain Age, and created the ill-fated Kelsey Grammer sitcom Hank.-Career:...
and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller
Beth McCarthy-Miller
Beth McCarthy or Beth McCarthy-Miller was the director of NBCs Saturday Night Live starting in 1995. She left SNL in 2006 at the end of season 31, replaced as director by Don Roy King...
, a long-time television director who worked with Poehler on the sketch comedy show 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...
.. The "Modern Barber Shop" featured in the episode is an actual barber shop in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
. The interior is very similar to the inside of the actual barber shop. Every time McCarthy-Miller visited the real Modern Barber Shop, the barber's wife was always eating sunflower seeds next to the shop door. As a result, McCarthy-Miller added an elderly woman with sunflower seeds into the episode's barber scenes.
The "peacocking" element was not included into the script, but added to the episode during filming after actor Aziz Ansari mentioned to show co-creator Greg Daniels
Greg Daniels
Gregory Martin "Greg" Daniels is an American television comedy writer, producer, and director.-Life and career:...
that he believed the character would be interested in pickup artist
Pickup artist
Pickup artist describes a man who considers himself to be skilled, or who tries to be skilled at meeting, attracting, and seducing women.The use of pickup in this context, slang for making a casual acquaintance with a stranger in anticipation of sexual relations, dates from at least the World War,...
tactics like those outlined in Neil Strauss
Neil Strauss
Neil Darrow Strauss , also known by the pen names Style and Chris Powles, is an American and Kittitian author, journalist and ghostwriter...
' book, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pick-up Artists is a non-fictional book written by investigative reporter Neil Strauss as a chronicle of his journey and encounters in the seduction community.The book was featured on the New York Times Bestseller List for two months after its release in...
. Ansari and Daniels asked the wardrobe for something silly for Ansari to wear in the bar, and they tried about a half-dozen items before Ansari himself settled on the orange hat, which is actually a woman's hat. The two women Mark and Tom talk to at the bar were meant to mirror Leslie and Ann from the banquet. Although they do not resemble Poehler and Jones, the two women had the same color hair (brown and blond) and were seated at the table in the same spots in proportion to Mark that Leslie and Ann were seated around him at the banquet.
The scene in which water is splashed in Leslie's face was only shot twice, because McCarthy-Miller said Poehler would started anticipating it in more takes and it would not have appeared spontaneous. The first time the scene was acted, the cameras were accidentally not turned on, so only one take was usable for the episode. During the banquet for the Tellenson Awards, a video is shown of an ill Tony Tellenson (for whom the award was named) in his hospital room. McCarthy-Miller shot the scene with minimal staff on a separate set. Multiple takes were filmed, and the severity of illness in each one. The final clip used in the episode shows Tellenson wearing a mask attached to an oxygen tank, which is one of the healthiest versions they filmed. The Jeanine Restrepo character was originally named Janet Restrepo, but was changed at the last moment. Poehler and the rest of the cast had already memorized the lines with the name Janet, and the actors had difficulty filming the scenes correctly as a result.
Cultural references
In an opening statement about the history of Pawnee, Indiana, Leslie says a pilgrim traded a baby to the Native Americans in exchange "for what is now IndianapolisIndianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
", the state capital. She said the pilgrim's face was made into a dreamcatcher
Dreamcatcher
Dreamcatcher is a Native American cultural object.Dreamcatcher may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Dreamcatcher , a 2001 novel by Stephen King** Dreamcatcher , based on the Stephen King novel...
, a handmade Native American object with a willow hoop and loose web. The barber who gave Leslie her haircut also previously cut the hair of former-U.S. Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Dan Quayle
Dan Quayle
James Danforth "Dan" Quayle served as the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving with President George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana....
. Ron said he likes shrimp hors d'œuvres wrapped in bacon so much, he would attend an event honoring pirates
Piracy in Somalia
Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been a threat to international shipping since the second phase of the Somali Civil War in the early 21st century...
in Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
to get them.
Reception
In its original American broadcast on May 7, 2009, "The Banquet" was watched by 4.64 million households, according to Nielsen Media ResearchNielsen 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...
, continuing a downward trend in ratings since the pilot episode
Pilot (Parks and Recreation)
"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...
, although NBC had already committed to renewing the show for a second season. The episode received a 2.3 rating/8 share among viewers aged between 18 and 34, and a 2.0 rating/6 share among viewers between 18 and 49. The poor rating for Parks and Recreation and Southland
Southland (TV series)
Southland is an American drama series created by writer Ann Biderman and produced by Warner Bros. Television. It premiered on NBC on April 9, 2009...
, another then-new NBC series, contributed in bringing the network down to fourth place in the ratings for the evening, behind CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
and Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
. "The Banquet", however, received generally positive reviews. Most reviewers particularly praised the opening scene with Leslie describing the murder of Pawnee pilgrim Nathanliel Bixby Mark at the hands of Native Americans, who used his body parts for various purposes because, "They used every part of the pioneer".
Jeremy Medina 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 he believed although the show initially needed improvement, that it had arrived at a "settled and focused" series with "The Banquet". He praised the episode as a whole, as well as individual small moments, like Leslie's haircut, April calling her "sir", Ron's affinity for bacon-wrapped shrimp, Tom's coining of the phrase "peacockin" to mean standing out in bars. 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 Banquet" was funnier than other recent Parks and Recreation episodes, although he said the Leslie character continues to too closely resemble a female 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...
, the protagonist of The Office. Sepinwall said of the show, "I know a lot of people have already given up, but I really feel like the show is a summer's worth of tweaking away from being good. It's not there yet, but I see glimmers."
Matt Fowler of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
said the episode "was able to rise a few notches above the last one" and that he enjoyed Leslie's antics and many of Tom's antics, including his suggestions for Leslie's introduction for her mom. He also liked the scene in which Mark pinched Leslie's nose, which he described as "a nice, playful scene that brought some much needed humanity to her cartoonish character". Jason Hughes of TV Squad praised the episode, particularly the characters Tom and Ann. He said of the episode, "The little things like (Leslie's haircut and Ann overdressing) are what's making this show work a little more with each episode. Finding humor in the small things of small government." Brian Howard of The Journal News
The Journal News
The Journal News is a newspaper in New York serving the suburban New York City counties of Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam, a region known as the Lower Hudson Valley. It is owned by the Gannett Company, Inc. The Journal News was created through a merger of several daily community newspapers...
said the series is not great yet, but that "The Banquet" included glimpses of possible greatness in the future, particularly in the performances by Poehler, Jones, Ansari and Schneider. Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
said the laughs in the episode, particularly involving Leslie's haircut and her perceived romantic relationship with Ann, were "a bit thin". Phipps also said he found himself disliking Leslie, of whom he said, "Here she seems more stupid than pleasantly naïve."
DVD release
"The Banquet", along with the five other first season episodes of Parks and Recreation, was released on a one-disc DVDDVD
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....
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 the first, an 80-second clip, Leslie gives everyone in the department tickets to the banquet. She tries to invite Andy, and when Ann says he cannot put on pants due to his cast, Leslie asks, "Does he have a formal kilt
Kilt
The kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century. Since the 19th century it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland in general, or with Celtic heritage even more broadly...
or something?" The second clip features 100 seconds of extended banquet sequences, including Ann's reaction to Leslie's haircut, Ann's awkward attempts to make small talk with April and more of Tom's speech to Marlene. In the third, a 30-second clip, set at the bar, Tom describes to Mark his strategy in picking up a girl: he asked her what she did for a living, then, "I just yawned, gave her the middle finger and left. Pretty risky but I feel good about it." In the final clip, which was 15 seconds long, an amused Tom shows a newspaper photo caption of Leslie and Ann from the banquet, with the caption, "Mr. Leslie Knope and wife Ann."
External links
- "The Banquet" at the official Parks and Recreation site
- "The Banquet" at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...