The Terrible Catsafterme

SEASON 1 – NBC

Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur

Theme song written by Gaby Moreno and Vincent Jones

• 001. Pilot – 4/9/2009
  • Presented as a mockumentary, the show follows Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), who works at the Parks and Recreation department in the town of Pawnee, Indiana. She is over zealous and has grandiose dreams for her future. Her co-workers include anti-government boss Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider), a level-headed guy with whom she once slept, the unenthusiastic Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), and even less interested intern April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza). Leslie hosts a community outreach forum that is typically only attended by nuts, but at this particular one, concerned citizen and nurse Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) brings up a giant gaping hole that has been left on a property across from her house into which her lazy boyfriend Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) fell when he was drunk, breaking both of his legs. Leslie pledges to get the hole filled and to build a park on the property. Swanson has no intention of letting her do this, but with pressure from Mark, who owes him a favor, he lets her start her own exploratory sub-committee. During a visit to the hole, she also falls in, which is captured on camera…but despite everyone making fun of her, Leslie remains optimistic about getting the park built. Loudon Wainwright III plays Barry, Retta is Donna Meagle, Jim O’Heir is Jerry Gergich. Ian Roberts appears as Ian Winston. 5/30/14

• 002. Canvassing – 4/16/2009
  • Leslie plans a town meeting to present her proposal for the park she intends to build, but Mark warns her that the town may turn it down if she proposes it too early. She then organizes neighborhood canvassing with Ann, Mark, Tom, and April. She also invites her mother Marlene Griggs-Knope (Pamela Reed), a high ranking government official, to attend the meeting. The feedback is largely negative and one angered citizen named Kate Speevak (Lennon Parham) promises to be at the meeting. Leslie gets cold feet and tries to have the meeting canceled but Ron will not allow it since his boss, city manager Paul Iaresco (Phil Reeves) has fast-tracked the project. Tom fills the meeting with potential vendors, and Leslie tries to filibuster the meeting, refusing to take a vote until everyone in the place has presented their case. When the time runs out for the meeting, she ends the meeting and tables the vote. Eric Edelstein plays Lawrence. 5/30/14
• 003. The Reporter – 4/23/14
  • A reporter from the Pawnee Journal named Shauna Malwae-Tweep (Alison Becker) does an article on the pit. After Andy lets it slip that he was drunk when he fell in the pit, Leslie brings Mark in for damage control. He ends up sleeping with Shauna and thinking he was speaking off the record, says that he believes the park will never get built. Ann gets Mark to confront Shauna and she agrees to drop his quotes until he denies the fact that they are romantically involved. Meanwhile Tom’s practice of letting Ron win at computer Scrabble is interrupted when April takes over for a few plays. 7/15/14
• 004. Boys’ Club – 4/30/2009
  • After infiltrating the ‘boys’ club’ of after-work gatherers – including Mark – who are having a few beers, Leslie insists on keeping the party going and swipes a gift basket filled with wine that she wouldn’t allow her co-workers to accept. She feels guilty afterward and issues a public email apology with a link to the new website about the pit, on which April – who is only 19 – has added a video of her drinking the wine. Leslie is brought before the disciplinary committee with Ron sitting in with her. They grill her until Ron steps in and gets them to reduce the punishment to a letter in her file. She is still upset by this, but Mark assures her that everyone has a letter in their file. Meanwhile Andy decides to surprise Ann by cleaning the house. He does a good job, although along the way he has to chase down a neighbor while naked for stealing his ghetto box. Todd Grinnell appears as Nate. Stewart Skelton is Phil. 7/16/14
• 005. The Banquet – 5/7/2009
  • Leslie attends a banquet honoring her mother Marlene for excellence in Pawnee public service – the Anthony V. Tellenson Award. She brings along Ann, who is getting bored with her home life. Leslie visits a male barber named Salvatore Menfraladi (Cietus Young) and ends up with a man’s hairstyle, leading former city councilman Frank Schnable (Bruce Jarchow) to believe that she and Ann are lesbians. Also at the banquet is zoning official Janine Restrepo (Loretta Fox), who Leslie thinks can help with her park project. After calling her out during her speech, Leslie attempts to make an appointment but Marlene feels she has been blown off and encourages her to blackmail by hinting that she’ll expose her husband who received a D.U.I. Ann is disgusted by the situation and leaves. Restrepo throws a drink in Leslie’s face. Tom and Mark ditch the banquet and go and hunt for women, but Mark ultimately decides not to see any of them, racing back to the banquet. Ron is simply there for the bacon wrapped shrimp. Leslie and Ann hug and make up, and Andy momentarily thinks Ann is hugging a man. Jim Meskimen is Martin Housely. 9/8/14
• 006. Rock Show – 5/14/2009
  • Andy gets his casts off and is scheduled to play with his band Scarecrow Boat, and the department is invited. Leslie regrets that she can’t attend because her mother scheduled a tete-a-tete with a city manager George Gernway (Ron Perkins), which actually turns out to be a blind date. Tom brings his attractive wife Wendy (Jama Williamson), Ron brings his ex-wife Tammy’s sister Beth (Stephanie Erb), and April bring her gay friend Derek, which makes Mark feel like a ‘seventh wheel.’ He hits on Ann, who is furious with Andy because Dr. Harris (Cooper Thornton) tells her that Andy could have gotten his cast off two weeks earlier. Furious that her mother set her up with an 80-year-old man, she brings him to the rock show. He falls asleep and then leaves, so Leslie stays with Mark and the two end up going to the pit and drinking. When they kiss, Leslie thinks it is a bad idea and sends him home, but he falls into the pit. Andy, who has been thrown out of the house, yells for Ann who runs to him taking along her nursing supplies. Andrew Burlinson appears as a scarecrow boat builder but will go on to play guitarist Burly. Mark Rivers is the drummer Mark. Alan Yang is the bass player Chang. 9/10/14

SEASON 2

• 007. Pawnee Zoo – 9/7/2009
  • Leslie officiates a ‘wedding’ between two penguins at the Pawnee Zoo in order to promote the facility. When it turns out that the penguins are actually male, she gets reactions from both political sides. Marcia Langman (Darlene Hunt), representing the Society for Family Stability Foundations, demands her resignation, while April’s boyfriend Derek (Blake Lee) and his boyfriend Ben (Josh Duvendeck) make Leslie their hero. They invite her to speak at the gay bar The Bulge, where she intends to tell everyone that she wasn’t trying to make any sort of political statement. However after getting drunk and seeing the adoring crowds cheering her name, she ends up announcing support for their cause. She winds up on a debate talk hosted by Joan Callamezzo (Mo Collins) going up against Langman, and although she denies supporting any cause, she refuses to annul the ‘marriage’ of the penguins. She ends up driving them to Iowa where gay marriage is legal. Meanwhile Ann, who has been nursing Mark since his fall into the pit, is asked out by him. She declines for the sake of her friendship with Leslie, but Leslie insists that she go out with him, and even tells Mark that she is attracted to him. Andy returns dressed in a suit and tries to win back Ann, but she denies him. He then returns to his new home – a tent inside the pit. 10/8/14
• 008. The Stakeout – 9/24/2009
  • Leslie and Tom discover that someone is planting marijuana in the community garden that Leslie set up in the pit. She and Tom go on an overnight stakeout to try and catch the perpetrator and end up watching Mark and Ann go on their first date. It is implied that the pot belongs to Andy, who is living in the pit, and he joins them on the stakeout. When Leslie and Andy go out for food, Tom gets locked outside the van and is reported by Mark and Ann to be trying to break into it. Officer Dave Sanderson (Louis C.K.) arrests Tom, and Leslie talks the Dave into releasing him. It is clear that Dave has a crush on Leslie. Mark and Ann’s date goes well, but he only kisses her on the cheek…and is seen doing so by Andy. Meanwhile Ron’s hernia is aggravated, and he is unable to move all day and remains at his desk into the night, until April sneaks her father’s car out and takes him home. 10/10/14
• 009. Beauty Pageant – 10/1/2009
  • Leslie sits on the board of judges for the Pawnee Beauty Pageant and Tom pulls some strings to get on there as well, so he can hit on contestants and offer a key to his house to them. April enters the pageant, but quits in the middle of it when she realizes that $600 prize is actually credit toward fencing. Leslie is pulling for a more homely girl who has substance, but Tom and the others – including a former Miss Pawnee, Jessica Wicks (Susan Yeagley) – push for the ‘hot girl’ Trish Ianetta (April Eden). She does her utmost to convince them otherwise, but Trish is voted Miss Pawnee. Meanwhile, Ann has Mark over to fix her shower and have dinner, and discovers that Andy is living in the pit. Mark suggests they invite him over for dinner, but Ann makes him sit on the couch while they are eating. Leslie agrees to go on a date with Officer Dave, even though he doesn’t know anything about politics. Linda Montana is Denise Yermley. 11/9/14
• 010. Practice Date – 10/8/2009
  • In the midst of a sex scandal with Pawnee councilman Bill Dexhart (Kevin Symons), the Parks crew bets who can dig up the most dirt on each other. Jerry hopes to stay out of it, because most of the scandals involve him, including the fact that he learns he’s adopted. Ron discovers that Tom’s wife only married him in order to stay in the United States instead of being forced back to Canada. Mark helps Tom figure out that Ron is actually jazz saxophonist Duke Silver, who plays for mature women. They agree to keep each other’s secrets. Meanwhile, Leslie is nervous about her first date with Dave, so she has a rehearsal date with Ann, ends up getting drunk, and goes over to Dave’s house and makes a fool of herself. Dave eases the tension by referring to that as the ‘first date’ so their next date won’t be as awkward. Jay Jackson is newscaster Perd Hapley. 11/9/14
• 011. Sister City – 10/15/2009
  • Pawnee is paid a visit from Parks & Recreation officials from their sister city Boraqua, Venezuala, led by Raul Alejandro Bastilla Pedro de Veloso de Morana (Fred Armisen). The delegates are rude and condescending, often citing their superiority and dominance in their country. They mistake Tom for their servant, a role he accepts in order to receive tips. After they belittle Leslie and Pawnee after town meeting, she insults them and their president Hugo Chavez. The next day she apologizes so that they will continue with a photo op with the mayor, and they present her with a check for $35,000 toward building Pawnee’s park. Later they insist she shoot a video in which she praises Chavez. April translates their conversation and finds out that the Venezuelans are part of a committee to shame and humiliate America, so she rips up the check and sends them on their way. Meanwhile, April is pursued by Venezuelan intern Jhonny (JC Gonzalez), and eventually she and Donna – whom they all desire – accompany him back to Venezuela. Tom ends up donating his tip money to Leslie’s park fund. Karen Teliha makes her first of three appearances. 12/14/14
• 012. Kaboom – 10/22/2009
  • Officials from Pawnee visit neighboring city Eagleton to assist with the erecting of a city park, led by the efforts of a group called KaBOOM!, which, led by a man named Keef (Paul Scheer), gathers volunteers and brings them up in 24 hours. Inspired by the energy of the organization, Leslie decides to bypass all red tape and simply order a bulldozer to fill in the pit. When they do, they end up dropping dirt on Andy who is sleeping in it under a tarp. He winds up in the hospital and decides to sue the city, while Ron reams Leslie for what she has done. Leslie concocts a plan with Roy whereby he opts not to sue with the condition that the pit is filled in immediately. He hopes that this will impress Ann, with who he is still trying to get back together. Clearly impressed, she gives him a wave as the pit it being filled. Leslie hopes to bring KaBOOM! in to help erect another park, but Keef reveals to the documentarian that his operation is fake, merely a prank to get parks built. H. Jon Benjamin plays city attorney Scott Braddock. Chris Tallman plays Andy’s attorney Wendell Adams. 12/14/14
• 013. Greg Pikitis – 10/29/2009
  • It is Halloween and Leslie is obsessed with making sure that high school student Greg Pikitis (Cody Klop) does not deface the town statue of Mayor Percy this year. Leslie and Dave follow Greg all evening, while Andy stands guard at the statue. Meanwhile Ann is hosting a costume party which is a complete bore, until Tom, whom Ann had hoped not to invite, and his wife Wendy show up and turn the party into a fun and wild celebration. Since Greg doesn’t appear to be moving, Leslie decides to go to the party and stops at the Town Hall to get her costume, only to find their area trashed. Leslie has Dave arrest Greg and bring him in for questioning from them and Andy, who is assuming the role of FBI agent “Burt Macklin.” After their futile questioning, Greg’s mother shows up and reads them the riot act about holding her son. Leslie and Andy then toilet paper Greg’s house, only to find that Greg’s real mother is fed up with his shenanigans…including hiring a “fake mother” to bail him out. They find Greg and his friends trashing the Mayor Percy statue and arrest him. Wendy thanks Ron for not revealing their Green Card marriage and reveals that they soon can get divorced, which visibly upsets Tom. Through flashback, it is revealed that Greg had disguised himself as a janitor and hid in a dumpster in order to vandalize the office immediately after they left for the day. Josh Duvendeck is Ben. Jeanne Simpson is Diane the nurse. Nicole Pettis is Paula. 1/25/15
• 014. Ron and Tammy – 11/5/2009
  • Leslie finds out that the public library is petitioning for the land on Lot 48, on which she wanted to build the park. Both she and Ron are livid, Ron mostly because his ex-wife Tammy (Megan Mullally) is the new library director. When Leslie goes to see her, she finds her charming, despite the fact that Ron despises her. She encourages Ron and Tammy to speak to each other. When they do, they wind up passionately getting a motel room together. Later Leslie learns that Ron is going to give up Lot 48, admitting that he is helpless around Tammy. Leslie now encourages him to break it off and accompanies him to offer moral support. When Leslie gets frustrated, she tells Ron to do whatever makes him happy. Impressed that she put his needs before hers, this gives him the inspiration to break it off, even if it means getting half of his mustache shaved off by her. Meanwhile Andy takes over for the retiring Gus (Jack Carter) and operates the City Hall shoeshine stand, putting up pictures of Ann and continuing to try and win her over, much to Mark’s chagrin. Mark tries to discuss this with Andy, but Andy is intent on winning her back. Ann confronts him and tells him to stop trying and take down the photos. 1/25/15
• 015. The Camel – 11/12/2009
  • When the inappropriate Spirit of Pawnee mural is defaced with pudding, a contest is held among the departments at City Hall to come up with new artwork to replace it. Leslie assigns each team member to come up with a piece of art, with Ann contributing as well. Tom hires an abstract artist to make a painting of shapes which he initially hates but then becomes obsessed with. April creates hers out of garbage, Donna makes hers The Last Supper with famous Indianans, Ann creates a park scene collage, and Jerry makes his a mosaic but makes the fatal mistake of calling it a ‘murinal’, and Leslie’s is the burning of the Pawnee Bakery. Everyone votes for their own, so they combine them all into one piece of art, which Mark refers to as The Camel, because of the joke that the camel is a horse designed by committee. Leslie asks Mark to create a painting and he comes up with a serene image of a man feeding a pigeon. At the last minute Leslie decides to enter their team effort. In the end, it is decided to refurbish the original painting, so no one wins. Meanwhile Ron takes far too much pleasure in Andy’s shoeshining and lets out an inappropriate moan as he’s getting his third shine of the day. Kirk Fox is Joe Fantringham, head of the Sewage department. Andy Forrest is attorney Kyle. 3/14/15
• 016. Hunting Trip – 11/19/15
  • Ron, Mark, and Jerry are getting ready to head out for a trail survey at Slippery Elm Park, but their real agenda is an annual hunting trip. Leslie convinces them that she should be able to go along and she brings Tom, Donna, and Ann. She disrupts things by having everyone pair up boy/girl, and then challenges Ron to who can shoot more quail. The contest comes to an abrupt halt when Ron is shot in the back of the head, along with Donna’s Mercedes. While Ann cares for him, Leslie confesses to the Park Ranger (Jay Johnston) that she shot run. However she was only covering for Tom, who actually shot him but had no hunting license. The fact that Leslie took the rap for Tom earns Ron’s respect. Meanwhile back at City Hall, April wait on hold endlessly for the State Parks Department and while she is waiting ends up having fun with Andy, and gives him hickeys that are intended to make Ann jealous. Yvans Jourdain plays Councilman Howser. 3/14/15
• 017. Tom’s Divorce – 12/3/2009
  • Leslie spots Tom and his wife Wendy coming out of divorce court and insists that his co-workers do something to cheer him up. Tom assures Ron that he is fine since it was only a green card marriage, but Ron recommends that he simply act depressed so that Leslie can get it out of her system to cheer him up. The gang goes to the dinosaur-themed restaurant Jurassic Fork where Tom takes full advantage by loading up on food and alcohol. Andy challenges Mark to a game of pool in hopes of impressing Ann, but loses $6400 in the process. He asks for one final game with Ann as the wager. Andy actually wins when Mark scratches on the 8-ball, but Mark and Ann just mock the bet. Andy eventually announces to them that he is going to leave them alone to pursue their relationship. Tom actually does get depressed when Ron asks Tom if he can ask out Wendy. Leslie and Ron end up taking Tom to the Glitter Club strip joint, where Tom can’t muster any enthusiasm and gets drunk and passes out. Leslie and Ron take him back to Wendy, who has a date. Leslie berates Wendy and Ron for betraying Tom. When Tom returns to work, he confesses to Leslie that it was actually a Green Card marriage. 6/8/15
• 018. Christmas Scandal – 12/10/2009
  • At the Pawnee City Government Follies, Leslie pokes fun at the sex scandals involving Councilman Bill Dexhart, who then asks for a private meeting with Leslie. He assumes she knew about some additional trysts, but she she assures him that she didn’t and leaves the dinner. The Pawnee Sun then publishes pictures of Leslie with Dexhart and declares that she is another one of his mistresses, and further speculates that Ann is her lesbian lover. Leslie goes on Pawnee Today to set the record straight, only to be confronted by Dexhart who maintains that they did in fact have an affair, and claims he can prove it by describing a birth mark on her buttocks. Leslie bares her butt on TV in order to set the record straight. Meanwhile Ron has given Leslie the day off and divided up her numerous duties among everyone, which results in a raccoon infestation around their garbage dumpster. Dave invites Leslie to move to San Diego with him for eighteen months as he is being called away by the Navy Reserves. Leslie decides that she is needed too much in Pawnee. At the tree lighting, Leslie’s mother shows up to tell her that she’s proud of her for fending off the media. Ron is relieved that she has returned to work. April asks Andy for advice on what to get her gay boyfriend for Christmas, while Tom gives advice to Mark on what to get Ann. April ends up getting Andy a Reggie Wayne jersey as thanks for his help. Gillian Vigman is Alexa. 6/8/15
• 019. The Set Up – 1/14/2010
  • Ann recommends her old lawyer friend Justin Anderson (Justin Theroux) to represent Pawnee when the town is being sued by the former owner of ‘the lot’. Lamenting her breakup with Officer Dave, Leslie is interested in Justin, but Ann tries to dissuade her from Justin and sets her up with an M.R.I. technician named Chris (Will Arnett). Their date goes from awkward to strange as he ends up giving Leslie an M.R.I. scan at the hospital. Mark can’t understand Ann’s obsession with Justin, until she is forced to admit that she was saving him for a possible future romance. As a show of good faith, Ann arranges a date between Leslie and Justin. Meanwhile Ron decides he needs an assistant when he starts getting too many visits and calls form the public. Tom interviews candidates for him, choosing the ones who best suit Tom’s interests. April and Andy continue their friendship, and April ends up interviewing for the job. Ron hires April, knowing that she can scare away prospective visitors. Ben Schwartz is prospective assistant Jean-Ralphio Saperstein. 7/29/15
• 020. Leslie’s House – 1/21/2010
  • Leslie has to tell the teachers at the Pawnee Recreation Center that five classes will be dropped thanks to the lowering of the budget. Meanwhile after some great dates with Justin, Leslie promises to arrange a great date for him, but the best idea she can come up with is to have a dinner party. She ends up staffing the party with some of the Rec Center teachers, while using others as entertainment. Tom hopes to impress Justin, and also tries to impress Wendy when she shows up by eating a spicy pepper to upstage Ron, who is mostly concerned about the party’s food. April brings her gay dates, but is more concerned after praising Justin, how to make it up to Andy, which she does by shoving chewing gum into Justin’s pockets. After the party Leslie calls for a hearing so that she won’t be accused of misusing her power by inviting the teachers. She is let off the hook after she donates enough money to the college to keep all teachers, and she is thrilled when Justin says he had a great time… in an official government hearing no less. Bonita Friedericy is Maria. John Balma is Barney. Becky Thyre is Tania. 8/2/15
• 021. Sweetums – 2/4/2010
  • Pawnee announces that the Sweetums candy company will become the official vendor of the city’s concession stands. Soon the workers at City Hall are eating their new supposedly healthy snack bar NutriYum and getting sugar highs. Ann points out how unhealthy they are, so Leslie advises that they take it back to the people to vote. Ron supports Sweetums, although it is mostly because he is angry that Leslie blocked him from driving after he had drank the night before. When Sweetums heir Nick Newport Jr. (Gary Weeks) show up at the town hall meeting and gives out free candy, the town votes favorably for Sweetums. Ron realizes he was being a jerk to Leslie and apologizes. Meanwhile Tom is forced to finally move out of his house and cons his friends into helping since Mark has a tow truck. Tom leaves the work to everyone else, so when he finds out that his apartment isn’t available right away, they end up abandoning him with his stuff at the office. Derek and Ben criticize Andy to April, so she becomes hesitant to hang out with him. Don McManus is Randall. Christopher Murray is Nick Newport Sr. Brooke Baumer is Marci. Sara Van Horn is Gretel.  Jeffrey Markle plays a man, and will eventually become Chance Frenlm. 10/26/15
• 022. Galentine’s Day – 2/11/2010
  • At the “Galentine’s” ladies breakfast on the day before Valentine’s Day, Leslie’s mother Marlene relates the story about a fling she had with a lifeguard before she married her father. Justin gets the idea to track down the lifeguard, who is Frank Beckerson (John Larroquette), an unemployed loon. Even though Leslie wants to abandon the idea, Justin pushes forward, causing her to see him in a new light and ultimately break up with him. The Parks department puts on a Senior Center Valentine dance with Andy’s band Mouse Rat providing the music of old standards. Mark spoils Ann for the holiday, and then asks how he’s doing in the relationship. Ann starts to notice that April is attracted to Andy. Tom reveals his true feelings for Wendy, and then sues her for alimony when she rejects him. April breaks it off with her gay boyfriends, when they show up at the dance to mock the elderly. Frank tries to get back together with Marlene, and she rejects him, he tries to embarrass her from the stage. Ron’s soft spot for Leslie is revealed as he analyzes why Leslie is starting not to like Justin. Andy’s band is a success with the old folks. 10/27/15
• 023. Woman of the Year – 3/4/2010
  • Leslie thinks she is getting named as the Woman of the Year and will receive the Dorothy Everton Smythe award from the IOW – Indiana Organization of Women – but is enraged when Ron gets named as the winner. Ron has no desire to win the award and attempts to turn it over to Leslie while teaching her that awards are meaningless, but the IOW wants the publicity of naming a man as winner, even though it based on Leslie’s efforts. Ron plans to denounce the award when receiving it onstage, but ends up turning it over to Leslie, who then turns it back to him, and they bicker on stage as to who will receive it. Meanwhile Tom tries to buy a $10,000 share into the Snakehole Lounge from the owner Fred (Andy Milder), but he only has $4000, so he turns to his friend Jean-Ralphio, who can come up with $5000. He looks to his co-workers for the additional money, but no one is interested except for Donna, who ends up refusing because she can’t stand Jean-Ralphio. April encourages Andy to get an apartment near her when his band’s guitarist Burly kicks him out, but Andy ends up giving Tom his $1000 to complete his investment. Donna ends up buying her own share, so shares special seating privileges along with Tom. Susan Isaacs is the apartment broker. Meribeth Monroe is IOW representative Elise Yarktin. Sara Sanderson is Cindi. 12/31/15
• 024. The Possum – 3/11/2010
  • Evelyn Roushland (Judith Moreland), assistant to Pawnee Mayor Gunderson, approaches Leslie to assist in capturing a possum named Fairway Frank, who bit the Mayor’s dog on the public golf course. Although she works with Eugene (Paul Raci) with Animal Control to get two men Harris (Harris Wittels) and Brett (Colton Dunn) to assist in capturing the possum, it is actually Andy who catches it. However when Leslie sees another possum on the course, she’s not sure if she caught the correct one. Shauna Malwae-Tweep from the Pawnee Journal writes an article about Andy’s brave act, but Leslie, who refuses to put down the wrong possum, has Ann kidnap the possum and stash it at Ann’s house, where April is house-sitting. April lets the possum out to eat, and it ends up ransacking Ann’s house. Leslie put the possum in the zoo, which doesn’t put her in good graces with the Mayor’s office. Ron asks Mark to approve his woodshop, but Mark finds it full of code violations and refuses, leading to a fight between them. Mark makes up for it by showing up to help Ron fix all of the violations, to which Ron responds by making a canoe for Mark. Tom becomes obsessed with learning golf and practices around the office. April gets angry when she realizes that Andy is hoping to impress Ann with his article, but Andy makes it up to her with an apology and a mention in his article. 12/31/15
• 025. Park Safety – 3/18/2010
  • Jerry, who is the butt of everyone’s jokes, sends Jerry out to fill the park’s hummingbird feeders, and winds up in the hospital when he dislocates his shoulder. When Jerry tells Leslie that he was mugged in the park, she asks that people stop laughing at him, and meets with the annoyingly boisterous park ranger Carl Lorthner (Andy Samberg). Carl takes Leslie and Jerry – and Tom, who has to job beside the golf cart – to the scene of the crime. Meanwhile Ron conducts a class in self defense and ends up squeezing Andy unconscious. Andy is impressed by Ann’s technique, which makes April visibly jealous. Leslie goes on a crusade for additional funding by appearing on Pawnee Today and criticizing the city. City Manager Paul scolds her badmouthing her own government, but she does in fact get $2500 for security upgrades. Jerry then admits to injuring himself while retrieving a breakfast burrito from the creek. Carl gets ahold of a video of Jerry’s actual injury occurring and threatens to expose it on Pawnee Today. Leslie bribes him with a new golf cart, and the two of them end up simply discussing the film Avatar on the show, much to the irritation of show host Joan Callamezzo. Ann is impressed that Andy has become so giving with April. Everyone returns to making fun of Jerry. 3/6/16
• 026. Summer Catalog – 3/25/2010
  • Leslie works on the Pawnee Summer events catalog, and hopes to write a introductory letter inspired by surprise reunion she has planned involving Ron and his three predecessor Parks Department Directors, Clarence Carrington (Jack Wallace), David Moser (Dakin Matthews), and Michael Tansley (Michael Gross). April and Andy work together to plan the picnic and rush ahead to set it up. Leslie soon realizes that the men have no respect for each other, that Carrington is a sexist, Moser is a litterbug with no respect for the parks, and Tansley is a perpetual marijuana user. Sensing her disappointment after the unsuccessful picnic, Ron takes Leslie to dinner and they express their mutual admiration for each other, although Ron privately claims he will eliminate the Parks department if he becomes City Manager, while Leslie claims she will work to double its size. Meanwhile Tom attempts to photograph Ann and Mark for the coer of the catalog, but Ann looks unhappy in all of the photos, leading Mark to question whether she is happy with him. Andy and April however have a great time together and attempt to go out for drinks after the picnic, but Andy realizes that April isn’t yet 21. Nevertheless it is their picture that winds up on the catalog cover, much to the bewilderment of Ann. Ana Rey is Marta the waitress. Mike Mauloff is the bouncer. 3/6/16
• 027. 94 Meetings – 4/29/2010
  • In an effort to keep anyone from getting an appointment with Ron, April has re-scheduled 93 meeting for Ron on March 31, believing that it is not a valid date. Ron is livid about the meetings and divides them up among himself, Leslie, April, Ann, and Andy. Leslie’s first meeting is with Bill Haggerty (Hamilton Mitchell) from the Pawnee Historical Society, who informs her that Jessica Wicks has rented out the historic Turnbill Mansion to host a birthday party for her elderly husband Nick Newport Sr. and plans on making alterations to it and tear down a gazebo where a historic wedding took place. She and Tom head to the mansion to try and stop it, but Tom is more interested in hitting on Jessica. Leslie ends up chaining herself to the front gate, but the effort is in vain and the gazebo is destroyed. Ann ends up diagnosing patients’ medical conditions and Andy promises everything he’s asked. Ron yells at April for the mistake, causing her to call for a 94th meeting during which quits. Andy talks Ron into retrieving her, and Ron visits April at the home of her parents Larry (John Ellison Conlee) and Rita (Terri Hoyos) and convinces her to come back, and she agrees… mostly because Andy has asked. Meanwhile Mark tells Leslie that he plans to ask Ann to move in with him, and eventually marry her. Minnie Jo Mazzola is April’s lookalike sister Natalie. Tonja Kahlens is Teri Keenly. 6/12/16
• 028. Telethon – 5/6/2010
  • Leslie announces the annual the 24-hour Pawnee Cares telethon for diabetes research, and signs everyone up to participate on the phones. She puts Tom in charge of entertaining celebrity guest NBA player Detlef Schrempf (himself), but Tom takes him to the Snakehole Lounge and gets drunk, leaving an exhausted Leslie, who has been up for two nights in a row, to try and keep the entertainment going. Ron, who is catching a nap and ‘sleep fighting’, ends up going on and showing how to re-cane a chair. Leslie tries to stay awake by filling up on NutriYum bars. Mark decides to ask Ann to marry him instead of to move in with him, and Leslie suggests that he do it on the air. She then finds out from Ann that she is thinking about breaking up with Mark, so Leslie stops Mark before he can pop the question by pulling down her pants on the air. April tries to make Andy jealous by inviting male caller Joe to come visit her, but when he shows up and acts creepy, Andy runs him out. After a night of boring demonstrations, Tom finally shows up around 6am with Schrempf, who presents a $5000 check, taking them over Leslie’s goal of $20,000. Leslie goes over to Ann’s to talk to her and ends up falling asleep for 22 hours. 6/12/16
• 029. Parks and Recreation – 5/13/2010
  • Leslie is poised to present what she refers to as the ‘Master Plan’ for the upcoming year’s budget and planning. However due to a financial gridlock, all spending is shut down and the state sends in financial auditors, the overly friendly workout fanatic Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe) and the matter-of-fact and callous Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott), who receives a particularly cold reception from Leslie.  Meanwhile April is celebrating her 21st birthday and Tom arranges to have a giant party at the Snakehole Lounge and invites every attractive woman he can find. Andy wants to ask out April but fears he may be a little too old for her. Leslie and Ann get drunk at the party, and when April sees Ann flirting with Andy, she gets jealous and pretends that Jean-Ralphio is her date for the night. Ben shows up at the party, but Leslie throws him out. Ann has broken up with Mark and tries to talk her into reconsidering, but she declines. She ends up getting drunk at the party and making out with someone, but doesn’t know who, so she asks everyone until she finally realizes that it was Chris. Leslie finds out that Ben had run for mayor at the age of 18 in the small town of Partridge, Minnesota, which nearly cost him his political career when he ran the town into the ground quickly. Tom has no luck with any of them women he invited to the party, but ends up getting a date with the bartender Lucy (Natalie Morales). Ron is ecstatic with the budget and personnel cuts, and even more so when Chris and Ben reveal that the entire government needs to be shut down. Ralph Richeson appears as the ghoulish man. 9/4/16
• 030. Freddy Spaghetti – 5/20/2010
  • City Hall is nearly vacant after the shutdown, and Ron is still ecstatic about it. Andy however is a bit nervous since he just bought an expensive motorcycle. Leslie becomes even more enraged by the situation when she finds out that the kids concert by Freddy Spaghetti (Brian McCann) had been cancelled. She vows to hold the concert in the vacant lot by Ann’s house. When Ron finds out that Chris and Ben intend to fire Leslie, Ron has a fit and lets it slip that she is single-handedly putting the concert on. They try to stop it, but the fact that Freddy has taken another job nearly scuttles it anyway. Leslie tries to get Andy and his band to substitute, but Andy is struck by a car while on his motorcycle and winds up in the hospital with a broken arm. Ann nurses his wound and ends up kissing him, although he pulls away. April and Andy finally confess their feelings and begin their relationship, but it fall apart within seconds when Andy tells her that Ann had kissed him. Leslie is surprised when Ben actually pays Freddy to return to Pawnee and put on the show. Tom and Lucy’s relationship gets off to a rousing start with constant sex, and the fact that Lucy gladly accepts all of Tom’s inappropriateness. Leslie is furious with Mark when accepts a buyout since nothing is going right for him. Mark makes it up to her by presenting her with some plans he drew up for the future park that Leslie had always wanted. Ron gives Leslie a classification of Essential personnel and makes her the Parks and Rec representative for the budget discussions. Tom finds out that his ex-wife Wendy has been having an affair with Ron. 9/5/16

SEASON 3

• 031. Go Big or Go Home – 1/20/2011
  • After three months of working other jobs or hobbies, Ron, Tom, Jerry, and Donna are recruited by Leslie to return to work where although on a shoestring budget, they will maintain the existing parks. While Leslie deals with complaints from citizens who have had their programs cuts, Ben reinstates youth basketball, with Ron and Andy acting as coaches for opposing teams, and Tom as the referee despite having no idea how to play. Although Tom is still with Lucy, he is very jealous that Ron is with Wendy, and therefore throws Ron and his entire team out of the game and declares Andy’s team the winners. Leslie convinces Ann to accept a date with Chris and talk him into raising the budget for the Parks Department. Their dinner goes well and Ann really likes him, but Leslie and Ben end up joining them to push their agenda. Chris ends up saying he will consider giving them the money, but when Leslie tells him that the date was just about the money, Chris is very hurt. Ann tells him later that although she went out with him for Leslie, she really likes him. Andy tries desperately to get hold of April all summer, but she doesn’t return his calls. She ends up coming back to work and telling Andy that she’s been in Venezuela, and now has a new boyfriend named Eduardo (Carlo Mendez). Andy decides to ‘go big or go home’ and continue pursuing her. Eduardo believes that Andy actually wants a sex change. Chris and Ben eventually agree to give the Parks department one chance to make money by holding a Pawnee Harvest Festival. Jason Boegh is the bartender.  11/22/16
• 032. Flu Season – 1/27/2011
  • The flu has hit Pawnee and put April in the hospital where she takes out her bitterness about Andy on Ann by abusing her as her nurse. Ann takes it in stride while on her shift, but the minute Ann’s shift in she lets April have it and demands she stop taking it out on Andy since their kiss was a mistake, finally earning April’s respect. In April’s absence, Ron puts Andy into her spot, and bonds with him over his lackadaisical attitude and for introducing him to Big Head Joe’s meat tornado burritos. Although Ron prefers to stay out of personal affairs, he lets it slip that Ann is in the hospital. Andy pays her a visit and she pretends to be asleep, but smiles to herself. Meanwhile Leslie too has been struck with flu just before her big presentation to hit up local businesses for money for the Harvest Festival. Ben and Tom agree to make the presentation for her, but Tom ends up spending all of his time in a hot tub with a group of elderly men. Although Leslie can barely form a coherent sentence, she escapes the hospital and delivers a flawless presentation, gaining more business commitment than they even needed… in addition to Tom getting his hot tub friends to loan cars for the festival. Ann is intimidated by Chris’s perfection until he too winds up in the hospital from the flu. Chris and Ben get called back to Indianapolis for their jobs, but they request an extension so that they can stay in Pawnee a while longer. Brent Briscoe is JJ from JJ’s Diner. Michael McGreevey is Preston. Terrence Beasor s Ed. 11/24/17
• 033. Time Capsule – 2/3/2011
  • Leslie heads up filling a 2067 Pawnee time capsule but has trouble coming to a consensus with with everyone what is going to go inside. A man named Kelly Larson visits the office and demands that the book Twilight be placed in the time capsule and handcuffs himself to Leslie’s chair until she agrees. Meanwhile Tom’s girlfriend Lucy breaks up with him, while Tom still is reeling over the fact that Ron is dating Wendy. Andy and Chris become friends, much to Ann’s fear that Andy will screw up her relationship, while Chris gives Andy ideas how to win back April from Eduardo. Leslie decides to have a town hall meeting to figure out what to put in the time capsule, but the suggestions get so out of hand that they wind up planning for multiple time capsules. In the end, they decide to just put the video of the town hall meeting in the capsule. Lucy tells Tom, who becomes obsessed with Twilight himself, that the only reason she broke up with him is because he was obsessed with Wendy. Andy decides to be nice to Eduardo and they become friends, which irritates April. Eduardo ends up going back to Venezuela. Andy tells Chris that he would be crazy to let Ann get away. Kelly Hawthorne is Jill. 3/4/17
• 034. Ron and Tammy: Part 2 – 2/10/2011
  • Tammy, knowing that Ron is happy with Wendy, begins harassing him by saying he has an overdue library book. Meanwhile Leslie hosts a pizza party for the Pawnee police to try to get them to volunteer for security at the upcoming Harvest Festival. Chris borrows April to work for him, and as much as she tries to get out of it, she considers going with him when he returns to Indianapolis. Wendy has to break it off with Ron when she decides to move back to Canada. At the pizza party, police Chief Trumple (Eric Pierpoint) takes a disliking to Ben, and Tom shows up with Tammy trying to make Ron jealous as revenge. Later Leslie is called to bail Ron and Tammy out of jail after they got drunk and got married, Ron now wearing cornrows in his hair. Despite his irritation with Ben , the Chief releases Ron and agrees to the security for Leslie’s sake. Leslie stages an intervention for Ron, using a video that Ron himself filmed to talk himself out of being with Tammy. Tom visits Tammy’s bridal shower at the library to warn Ron that Tammy only wants to make him visible. When Tammy beats him up badly, Ron finally sees the error of his ways and rescues Tom and breaks it off with Karen. Ann is disappointed that Chris hasn’t asked her to move to Indianapolis like he did April. Craig Pearman is the Justice of the Peace. Tracy Howe is Officer Skorggel. Will McLaughlin is Officer Randy Killnose. 3/5/17
• 035. Media Blitz – 2/17/2011
  • Leslie arranges a media blitz to promote the Harvest Festival, but when they go on the radio show Crazy Ira and the Douche (Matt Besser, Nick Kroll), more interest is made of Ben’s history as the 18-year old mayor who bankrupted the town. Ben freezes under the pressure of his questioning, and he ends up blabbering nonsense on Ya Heard? with Perd Hapley. Finally Leslie brings him onto Pawnee Today where he is able to defend himself, and interest is returned to the festival. Meanwhile April agrees to go to Indianapolis to work for Chris, but Andy promises her that he’d do ten things that she hates to do for thirty days, ultimately leading to April’s sister Natalie having him arrested. Ron tells April not string Andy along, so after the first day, she kisses him. Ann tries to figure out where she stands in her relationship with Chris, and after he diverts her attention with Feng Shui ideas and herbal teas, he agrees they should talk about it. Ron gets a vintage typewriter that everyone hates. Danny Cho is China Joe. Rachael Drummond is Louise. Jeris Poindexter is George. 8/27/17
• 036. Indianapolis – 2/24/2011
  • Leslie and Ron head to Indianapolis to receive a commendation from the state. Ron’s real interest is to eat a steak at Mulligan’s, but when they arrive they find that it has been shut down by the Board of Health. Ann thinks that Chris is cheating on her, so Leslie pays him a visit as well and finds a pink razor and shower cap in his bathroom. Ann drives up to find that both actually belong to him… but that he had actually broken up with her a week ago but she didn’t realize it. Meanwhile Tom invites a lonely Ben to attend a cologne launch party with him and the gang at the Snakehole, so that Tom can pitch his fragrance Tommy Boy to fragrance mogul Dennis Feinstein (Jason Mantzoukas), but Feinstein rejects and ridicules him leading to Tom’s depression. Chris helps get him out of it by spraying the perfume all over Feinstein’s car. Andy and April have a contest at the bar who can get the most free things, which April easily wins. They return the money as tips, but Andy keeps the giant toilet paper roll. Ron tries to get a substitute steak meal at Chris’s house, but he only grills mushrooms. Mike Mitchell is Bjorn Lerpiss. Tim Acres is the bartender. 8/27/17
• 037. Harvest Festival – 3/17/2011
  • The finishing touches are put on the Harvest Festival, and Leslie surprises everyone by bringing in mini-horse Li’l Sebastian, who everyone is enamored with except for Ben who can’t understand its appeal. Problems arise when Womapoke tribe chief Ken Hotate (Jonathan Joss) tries to halt the festival because it is going to be held on sacred Indian burial ground, and when Leslie denies his request, he warns her that the festival may be cursed. Joan Callamezzo reports on the festival the night before it opens, looking for any hint of impropriety or scandal. Jerry watches over Li’l Sebastian, but when he leaves for a break, he has Tom watch him, and Tom promptly loses him, but still passes blame to Jerry. Joan finally gets her scoop when the the horse goes missing and she finds out about the curse, exacerbated even further when the generator blows, leaving the festival in the dark and Ron, Tom, Jerry, April, and Andy in a Ferris Wheel looking for the horse. April is angry at Andy for replying that it is ‘awesomesauce’ when she tells him that she loves him. Ron finally calls for a truce between April and Andy, and Tom and Jerry, offering them all sage advice. Leslie finds out that the generator was blown because the press had plugged into and used too much power. Ben thinks that he is the jinx and leaves the festival. Leslie pleads with Ken to borrow the Indian Casino’s generator, and he agrees when she offers to put up a Womapoke display at the entrance to the festival. Meanwhile while working in the First Aid tent, Ann expresses to Donna how upset she was when Chris broke it off with her. Donna encourages her to make out with her dumb but attractive patient Kiley (Joseph Russo), but not pursue a relationship, and she follows through with both. Ken performs a fake curse-removal ceremony and the festival is a rousing success. Ben returns and admits his insecurity but Leslie assures him that the success of the festival was as much his as hers. Nevertheless, she has Ken do fake curse-removal on him too. Li’l Sebastian is found in the corn maze, and although Ben appears to be won over, he is still baffled by the horse’s appeal. Vincent Angelo is Ed. 2/26/18
• 038. Camping – 3/24/2011
  • As city manager Paul Iaresco is in the middle of a presentation congratulating the Park & Rec team on the success of the festival, he goes down groping Leslie’s breast as he has a heart attack. Chris returns to town to act as the city manager while Paul undergoes surgery, and challenges Leslie and her team to come up with more revenue generating ideas. She decides to take the team on a camping trip to brainstorm, but no one is much interested in working; Ron just wants to fish, Tom creates a tent full of luxuries, April has no interest in camping but agrees when Andy agrees to come, and Ben neglects to bring a tent. Leslie begins to panic when no one has any ideas, including herself. Andy sets up a romantic campsite but he’s in an area miles away from where they are, so he roams through the wilderness trying find them. Eventually frustrated, everyone decides to pack up and go home, but Tom has drained Ron’s truck battery with all of the electronics in his tent. They all agree to walk to a the nearby bed-and-breakfast called The Quiet Corn, ran by the strange and boring Elsa Clack (Annie O’Donnell). Meanwhile Ann runs into Chris and they go out to dinner to sort out their relationship, during which she once again mistakes his intentions and thinks they are back together when they are not. Andy finally catches up with April at the Quiet Corn and sets up the romantic tent outside. Ron intervenes with the panicky Leslie and locks her in her room to decompress. It works like a charm and after seven hours of sleep, twice her norm, she wakes up with multiple great ideas that Chris likes. 2/26/18
• 039. Andy and April’s Fancy Party – 4/14/2011
  • Andy and April invite everyone at the office to a dinner party at Burly’s home where Andy is staying, asking them all to each bring a food or a supply. Meanwhile, at Donna’s suggestion, Ann attends a Singles Night event at Mezze, where she awkwardly introduces herself to several men. Donna wants Ann to stay away from her since they are in competition, but when she sees how poorly she is doing, she ends up helping her. Leslie finds out that the dinner party is actually a wedding for Andy and April, and tries everything she can to try and stop it, even calling Ann to get involved. Tom offers to be best man and tries his best to carry out his duties, but he is pushed to the side by the other Best Men that Andy has selected. The wedding goes off without a hitch and they wind up married. Although Leslie had tried hard to stop it, April tells Leslie she loves her and she is glad she is there. Eric Isenhower is April’s scary friend Orin. Pat Crawford Brown is Andy’s grandmother. Fred Stoverink is Aaron. Kathleen Coyne is the Justice of the Peace. Tonya Cornelisse is Juliet. Shawn Parsons is Brian. 11/11/18
• 040. Soulmates – 4/21/2011
  • After a meeting during which Chris declares a government health initiative, Leslie is hit on by sewage employee Joe, and is then rejected by Ben when she asks him to go to dinner. Ann is busy dating multiple men that she is meeting on HoosierMate.com, and encourages Leslie to join. She is disturbed even further when she winds up as a 98% match – or soulmate – for Tom. Seeking to find out why the wrong type of men are always attracted to her, she takes Tom out for lunch, and frustrated by his typical obnoxious answers, admits that they were matched. Tom continues to tease her throughout the day, alluding to the fact that they are a couple, until Leslie finally silences him by kissing him. When Chris sees this, he warns Leslie about dating a co-worker, explaining why Ben had turned her down earlier. Meanwhile Ron takes issue with the health initiative as it will mean removing red meat from the cafeteria. He challenges Chris to a cook-off pitting his meat from the Food and Stuff store versus the healthy turkey that Chris obtains from Grain ‘n Simple. Ron, Andy, and April join him on the trip to the store, and while Andy is enthusiastic about exploring Chris’s culinary talents, Ron and Andy merely mock the store, throwing samples into the trash. Tom, Donna, Jerry, and Kyle act as judges during the cook-off and unanimously vote for Ron’s plain beef burger, and even Chris has to admit that the beef wins, and thus agrees to allow the cafeteria to continue to sell it. Leslie finds out that Tom had created 26 profiles on the dating site in order to attract all walks of women, in this case ‘the nerd.’ She deletes her profile, and is happy to have a working lunch with Ben in front of her favorite City Hall mural. Mark Saul is Ann’s date Ted, James Harvey Ward is her jockey guy date, and Josh Pence is her date the cowboy. Aimee Parker is the checkout girl. 11/14/18
• 041. Jerry’s Painting – 4/28/2011
  • The parks team attends an art show to showcase paintings that will be hung in Pawnee government buildings, including one painted by Jerry of a topless centaur who is a combination of the Greek goddess Diaphena and Leslie, as well as a tiny fat cherub who resembles Tom. Leslie, who is feeling frustrated that Chris has insisted on a no-dating policy among the workers, decides she likes the painting as it portrays her in a flattering light. However conservative activist Marcia Langman  thinks the painting is pornographic and pleads with the Pawnee Public Arts Commission to have it destroyed. Leslie goes on the talk show Ya’ Heard? with Perd with porno film actress Brandi Maxxxx (Mara Marini) to defend the painting. When the committee decides not to risk the backlash and orders the painting destroyed, Leslie steals it and tries to take it to Andy and April’s house, where Ben has recently moved in. Chris orders Leslie to return the painting, so she schemes to have Jerry paint a similar painting with Tom as the centaur, and passes it off as an altered version of the original, thus appeasing Marcia. Tom is delighted with this until he realizes the centaur has no penis. Meanwhile Ben tries to teach Andy and April how to keep up their home, and gives them money to buy some of the essentials. They mostly blow the money on frivolous ‘As Seen on TV’ items, but Andy insists they do purchase some necessities as well. Ben confides in Andy that he likes Leslie but is unable to ask her out due to Chris’s policy, but Andy assures him that things will work out. Mark Colson is the Head Chairman. Jozef Fahey is an art patron. Biff Yaeger is Lenny. 8/19/19
• 042. Eagleton – 5/5/2011
  • The neighboring city of Eagleton has erected a fence in the shared Lafayette Park, dividing it between the run-down section in Pawnee and the nicer area in the more prosperous Eagleton. The parks and recreation director Lindsay Carlisle Shay (Parker Posey) is behind the deed, and had once been Leslie’s best friend in Pawnee. Leslie had been offered the job in Eaglton, but the friends vowed to stay together, only have Lindsay go behind her back and take the job. In a public meeting, citizens demand the wall be taken down, so Leslie, Tom, and Ben attend a swanky Eagleton town meeting to plead their case. They are condescending and decline the request, leading Leslie to seek revenge by throwing garbage into their side of the park… which leads to a physical altercation between Lindsay and Leslie. They are stopped by both Eagleton and Pawnee police, with Lindsay thrown into the Pawnee jails, while Leslie enjoys the swanky high-class Eagleton lock-up. Ann bails out Lindsey and gives her a better idea on how to get even. Leslie builds a baseball diamond on the Pawnee side, using the fence as the outfield wall, which successfully draws Eagleton’s kids to the Pawnee side. Lindsay is impressed and the two begin to mend their friendship. Meanwhile Leslie finds out the date of Ron’s birthday, and he begins to freak out when he believes that Leslie is going to throw him a surprise party, a notion which seems supported by everyone around him making the plans. He begins losing sleep and starts to have a breakdown as he awaits the inevitable, but in the end when Leslie drags him off to his party, he is delighted to find that it is no more than a comfortable chair set up in the office with a steak dinner, whisky, and a screening of The Bridge on the River Kwai. She warns him that this will be the last year he gets off so easy. Eric Pierpoint is Chief Trumple. Tina Morasco is Christine Porter. Bob Elliot is Bill. Bruce Green is Gary. Mike Scully is Pearl. Alan Naggar is Larry. Virginia Louise Smith is Florence. Harrison Thomas Boxley is Joey. Todd Stanton is Bertram. Steven Meek is William. 8/19/19
• 043. The Fight – 5/12/2011
  • Tom invites everyone to attend the Snakehole, where he is launching the sale of his new liqueur Snake Juice, and he coaches them on conversations for other to overhear raving about the drink. Meanwhile Health Department P.R. director Dennis Cooper (Harvey J. Alperin) is let go after he goes bananas when his cheating wife gives him chlamydia and he responds by putting signs about her all over City Hall. Leslie and Ben are charged with finding a replacement, so Leslie turn to Ann to attend an interview. Ann is unsure if she wants to give up her nursing career so she appears to hedge, and despite Leslie telling her to bone up on policies for the interview the next morning, Ann attends the launch at the Snakehole. This leads to a big fight with Ann, which centers around Ann’s revolving door of boyfriends that now includes Howard Tuttleman, aka radio host The Douche. Andy and April aren’t keen about promoting Tom’s drink, but since they look at it as a form of role playing, so they dress up as FBI agent Bert Macklin and rich widow Janet Snakehole. Tom persuades Ron to try the Snake Juice and agree to promote it if he likes it, and if he doesn’t, he gets to shave Jean-Ralphio’s head. As the night goes on, everyone gets drunker and drunker on the 140-proof Snake Juice. Chris shows up and tells Tom that it is a conflict of interest to send out invitations promoting his drink, and tells him that he will need to sell his interest in the Snakehole. The next morning everyone is drastically hungover except for Ron, who bring hamburgers in. Leslie and Ben conduct their interviews while hungover, and Leslie expresses tremendous regret about her fight with Ann. April continues her role-playing to a reluctant Andy, who finally give in and plays along before throwing up. Ben goes and talks to Ann and tell her how much Leslie cares about her, so Ann winds up showing up for the interview. She and Leslie apologize to each other before they go to throw up. Ann has a second interview with Chris and gets the job part-time so that she can stay at the hospital two days a week. Micah Beals is Len. 3/17/20
• 044. Road Trip – 5/12/2011
  • With the romantic tension escalating between Leslie and Ben, Chris sends them on a road trip to Indianapolis together to plead their case to the Athletic Commission to host the Indiana Little League tournament in Pawnee. Back in Pawnee, Tom decides they can all mess around with their boss Leslie gone, so he hosts a mock game show he plans to pitch called Know Ya’ Boo, a Newlywed Game style show. When Retta and Jerry start doing better than Andy and April, tensions start to mount between Andy and April. Andy storms out when he feels like Apirl likes the band Neutral Milk Hotel better than him. When Andy sells his guitar, April has Tom host some more of the game and stack it to make her compliment him. He doesn’t fall for it, and storms out again. Meanwhile a little girl named Lauren Burkiss (Alyssa Shafer) shows up with her class tour and asks to interview an employee for her report on government. Since Ron is the only one available, he reluctantly educates her on the disastrous pitfalls of government. He eats part of her lunch to illustrate how the government taxes its citizens. When she re-joins their class tour, he gives her a land mine to protect herself. Leslie and Ben have a successful meeting, and go to dinner. Leslie tries to invite the photographer Kip (Todd Berger) along so that it doesn’t get awkward, but he declines. At dinner Ben tells Leslie that he likes her, so she halfheartedly calls Ann to talk her out of kissing him. However she returns to the table only to find Chris there. He has driven up to celebrate with them, and invites them to say at his place. Even after he goes to bed, he continues to interrupt them and then drives back to Pawnee with them. April goes to see Ann to find out how to make Andy not angry at her, and she advises her to not worry about being right, but to be supportive. April steals back Andy’s guitar and then gathers Mouse Rat so she can sing one of their songs with the ‘greatest’ band ever, which wins Andy back over. Lauren’s mother Denise (Jessica St. Clair) visits Ron to chastise him for the advice he gave her daughter. Ron meets with Lauren again and softens his position, but has Lauren autograph the original paper she wrote Why Government Matters, to which she simply wrote: “It doesn’t.” Back at work, Leslie and Ben kiss passionately the first minute they have alone, to which Leslie can then only say, “uh-oh.” John Sloman is Doug. J. Rene Pena is Julie. Donna Silverberg is the teacher. 3/18/20
• 045. The Bubble – 5/19/2011
  • Ann beings her new job at City Hall, where she will now share an office with the cranky Stuart (Jim Jansen) who demands that they get the outrageous number of balloons that Leslie brought out of their office. Leslie and Ben are enjoying the bubble of their new relationship, while ensuring they keep it a secret from Chris due to the no-dating policy. When Leslie finds out that Ben has a meeting with her mother, she claims they are not related. However she relents at the last minute and tells him the truth. This makes him nervous and Ben folds quickly when asked for additional school buses. He then demands another meeting with her, and this time he comes at her more hard-nosed, which impresses Leslie, but also impresses Marlene, who begins to flirt with him. When this makes him even more uncomfortable, he tells Leslie, then comes clean with Marlene, who admits to Leslie that she still actually likes him. Meanwhile Chris exercises his City Manager authority by instituting changes to everyone’s jobs, bringing Jerry to the forefront, having April be assistant to everyone, sending Tom up to the creepy fourth floor to digitize boxes of records, giving Chris a three-week assignment to assist Tom, giving Donna a spaceship keyboard she hates, and worst of all, forcing Ron to sit insides a circular desk with a revolving chair. He tries to utilize the chair to turn his back on anyone who confronts him. Although Ron assumes the new configuration will blow over, he goes back to Chris and insists that no one is shining in their new element, but Chris only allows him to return everyone to their original job if Ron agrees to stay in his new desk for at least a week. Helen Slayton-Hughes is the elderly fourth floor denizen Ethel Beavers. Dana Gould is the coffee pot-smasher looking for Mort. Yolanda Snowball is the crying woman. Vivian Smallwood is Ethel’s friend Muriel. Jeff Sloniker is Andy’s temporary shoeshine replacement. Production assistant Tami D’Addio is Ben’s assistant Kim. 6/29/20
• 046. Li’l Sebastian – 5/19/2011
  • Leslie announces that the mini-horse Li’l Sebastian has died and suggests that they arrange a massive memorial service for him. She pays Andy $50 to write a song that is 50 times better than Candle in the Wind. Tom has been discussing a new business with Jean-Ralphio called Entertainment 720, and he volunteers Jean-Ralphio to put on a media barrage gratis for the publicity. Meanwhile Dr. Harris diagnoses Chris with shoulder tendonitis, which makes Chris start to question his own mortality. He tries to talk to Ann about it, but she says she’s not his nurse or girlfriend, and she’s not ready to be friends. However later she has second thoughts and is able to give him some comforting words as a friend about his condition. When Leslie attempts a clandestine meeting with Ben, she comes upon Ron who has figured out that they are dating because Ben accidentally butt-dialed Ron while the two of them were role playing as historical government figures. He warns them that Chris will fire them if he finds out, so they decide to stop fraternizing at work. However when they kiss after discussing this at the memorial spectacle, they are spotted by a maintenance man named George Williams (Biff Yeager), so they let him go home. They send Jerry to get the propane for the lighting of the flame instead, and he comes back with lighter fluid which blows up in Ron’s face and singes his facial hair off. After a video tribute to Li’l Sebastian, Andy performs his song 5000 Candles in the Wind. Ron’s ex-wife Tammy Two shows up to provoke him, but even she is scared off when Tammy One shows up. At the reception at City Hall after the service, April helps Andy sell his CDs, and Andy asks her to be his manager. Leslie is approached by a man named William Barnes (Johnny Sneed) and his associate Elizabeth (Antonia Raftu), who are part of a group who try to identify potential political candidates for City Council and they think Leslie fits the bill. They ask her if there is anything in her personal life that could be scandalous, and although she takes a look at Ben, she says no. Tom asks Ron’s advice about making a career move, then puts in his resignation, starting up the Entertainment 720 with the Dreamatorium headquarters where they are stocked with parlor games, strange furniture, DJ Bluntz, NBA superstar Detlef Schrmepf (himself), and secretary with an attitude named Tessa (Talia Tabin). NOTE: The producers cut on DVD adds over six minutes of additional footage. 6/30/20

SEASON 4

• 047. I’m Leslie Knope – 9/22/2011
  • Leslie is excited about the prospect of running for City Council, but looks for every possible out from breaking it off with Ben to avoid a scandal. Meanwhile Ron runs screaming from the office, grabs his hidden survival bag, and heads to his cabin in the wilderness when he learns that his first wife Tammy One (Patricia Clarkson) has come to see him. Three weeks later Tom comes to visit the office to promote Entertainment 720 and offers Andy a job. He is initially excited, but after consulting with April, he decides to decline. Everyone in the office receives an anonymous email of a man’s genitals, which Ann diagnoses from the picture as having mumps. Chris and Ben are able to track it to sewage worker Joe Fantringham, who is promptly fired. When Chris lets it out that Ann has diagnosed him, she starts receiving multiple emails with pictures of other workers’ genitals asking her to diagnose them. Chris eventually has to have a meeting with everyone and asks them to desist, but a guy named Irving (Dennis Howard) gets in one last photo. They also bring in Dr. Harris to examine everyone for mumps. Joe later announces he is suing Ann for a litany of reasons, and she finally gets irritated and throws him out of the building. After a successful on-air interview with Perd Hapley, Lesile is asks to announce her candidacy right away. She attempts to break it off with Ben, but when he offers her a gift, she panics and flees the restaurant to the wilderness with Ron. They live in the wild for a while, but then decide they need to return and face their problems. Leslie announces her candidacy to the team, and Ron appoints Andy to become her assistant so she can focus on her campaign. Leslie tries again to break it off with Ben, but he again presents her with the gift. When he opens it and shows it to her, it is a campaign button which indicates that he knows about her office run and wants to support her, even if it means breaking up. Tammy One finally makes contact with Ron and tells him that he is being audited by the I.R.S. and she is there to help him. Jazmyn Simon is the waitress. 10/15/20
• 048. Ron and Tammys – 9/29/2011
  • Ron attempts to assemble paperwork for his audit, and also gives Leslie some backstory about their relationship, revealing that Tammy had been the nurse who delivered him, as well as his Sunday school teacher. She manages to het her grip on him again, moves into his house, and has him add her to his checking account. When everyone sees Ron again, he is completely emasculated and as wimpy as possible. Meanwhile Tom engages Ben to help him analyze the business model of Entertainment 720, but Ben only becomes frustrated because neither Tom or Jean-Ralphio can give a satisfactory answer as to what they due or how they earn revenue. They end up giving up on Ben and turn to other accountants who all say the same thing. Tom finally approaches Ben and genuinely asks for help, and he agrees to be their accountant. Ann is working on filming a public service message for diabetes and the old video starring Walt Morphling (Robert Machray) is outdated, so she asks Chris to star in the video. He winds up driving her crazy when he insists on filming it over and over again hundreds of times. Leslie, Andy, and April visit Tammy Two to see if she can pry Tammy One away from Ron, but she is scared of her too, and admits that Tammy One had been her Sunday School teacher as well. They then turn to Ron’s mother – also named Tammy (Paula Pell) – and she agrees to help. She proposes a moonshine drinking contest with Tammy One, with the winner getting to take Ron home. Leslie jumps in as well since she doesn’t want either of them to take him. She becomes instantly drunk while the contest continues between Tammy One and Tammy Zero… until Ron jumps in and downs the entire jug of alcohol and makes them both scram. Tammy One says she already stole half of his hidden gold, but Ron tells her that it was actually his decoy gold. Ann has had too much of Chris and can’t understand why she ever dated him, but once they finish the commercial he tells her thanks and how amazing she is. Basketball player Roy Hibbert is himself, playing at E720 with Detlef Schrempf. Danny Vasquez is John the delivery guy. Chuck Spitler is the complaining citizen Leopold. 10/15/20
• 049. Born and Raised – 10/6/2011
  • Leslie has written a book called Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America and goes on the public radio show Thoughts for Your Thoughts with Derry Murbles (Dan Castellaneta) to promote it, and then gets booked on Pawnee Today, hoping to get Joan Callamezzo’s book club sticker of approval, which would greatly increase sales. Unfortunately word gets back to her that Joan is claiming there is an error in the book, so Leslie hires Tom’s Entertainment 720 to ensure she gets the sticker, while she assigns Ron, April, and Ann to double check to see if there is a mistake in the book, and sends Jerry out to re-interview everyone in the book who lives outside of Pawnee. Ann takes it more of a challenge to try and get even one minute of conversation with April and Ron. After they give her the silent treatment for days, she finally tells them a disgusting story from the hospital about a guy who got his hand stuck in a Pringles can and tries to cut it out. This gets them all talking, but Ron calls her by the wrong name so she doesn’t get too attached. The error in the book ends up being that Leslie wasn’t actually born in Pawnee, which Leslie vehemently denies. She, Chris, and Andy, who is acting like he is secret service for her, go to Eagleton to get her long form birth certificate to prove her case. The receptionist Alexis Pratchett (Elizabeth Sandy) says it will take weeks, but Andy jumps the counter and retrieves it from the backroom files… and it turns out she was actually born in Eagleton because the Pawnee hospital was infested by racoons. Meanwhile Tom is trying to charm Joan by taking her out for lunch and flirting with her, but when she gets drunk and he finds out she is separated, he starts to get concerned. She winds up getting so drunk that they have to carry her home and put her to bed. After Leslie gets heckled by readers Beverly (Dee Baldus), Sally (Lila Walters), and Mel the red-faced man (Mel Cowan) at a bookstore book signing, she goes back on Pawnee Today, and makes the case that although she wasn’t born in Pawnee, that her heart is most assuredly from Pawnee. Jerry returns from his interviews and Leslie sends him back out to do more. Nick Toth is the radio announcer/producer. Kenny Stevenson is Leslie’s old classmate Jim Kabernick. 1/31/21
• 050. Pawnee Rangers – 10/13/2011
  • Ron hosts a wilderness weekend with the Pawnee Rangers, with Andy acting as assistant. Leslie, who was unable to participate in the Rangers, started the Pawnee Goddesses. Leslie is convinced that her group is better and wants Ron to admit it. The boys are forced to rough it by being forced to create their beds from a cardboard box and canvass sheet. Leslie brings along Ann and April, and the girls are provided a comfortable cabin. Although Ann is regularly snubbed, Leslie hands out merit badges and fancy foods and snacks regularly. Soon one of the Rangers, Darren (Jacob Bertrand) wants to join the Goddesses. Most of the girls are in favor of it, even though Leslie thinks it would be better to keep it all girls, so she invites both group to a public forum. When a lady (Penny L. Moore) delivers puppies, even Andy is ready to be initiated into the Goddesses. Ron is forced to admit that he has lost touch with the kids of today, and admits that Leslie’s group is better. Ann finally earns the respect of the boys in the group by pretending to catch a fish that she had pre-hooked on her line. Meanwhile, Donna and Tom have a ‘Treat Yo Self’ day, and Donna forces Tom to bring Ben along since he seems to be depressed after his relationship with Leslie ended. He has a hard time loosening up until they get him to buy a Batman costume. Chris gives Jerry the day off and then brings Jerry’s daughter Millicent (Sarah Wright) to the office to go to lunch. She and Chris hit it off right away, and Jerry is supportive of them dating… until Chris tell him that she spent the night after their first date. Goddess Lauren (Dani Fish) and another group of kids show up in Ron’s office, responding to an ad that Leslie place for a group called ‘Swansons’ that concentrates on survival. Kayla Simpkins aka Ayla M. Simpkins is Casey. Annalise Basso is Abigail. Dmitri A. Schuyler is Chignole. Gavin MacIntosh is Wayne. Emily Maya Mills is Lisa the acupuncturist. Adrian Zeigler is DJ Blutz. 2/1/21
• 051. Meet ‘n’ Greet – 10/27/2011
  • Tom arranges to have a meet and greet for businesses to meet with Leslie in attempt to get them to support her candidacy, with the primary target being the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Martin Kernston (Nicholas Hormann). Meanwhile Andy and April are hosting a costume Halloween party at their house, but neglect to tell Ben what they are doing. He refuses to be part of the party and continues to sulk all night. Finally Andy gets tired of it and puts him in a headlock until he will let out his feelings. Chris is afraid to invite Millicent to the party since Jerry is there, but Jerry assures him it will be alright. However Jerry winds up being forced to spend the evening watching Chris dirty dance, make out, and grope her. Ron sees that the sink isn’t working, so he heads out to Lowe’s for some tools and spend the evening fixing things around the house. He uses Ann to help him, and she gets into it, and especially enjoys speaking in made-up fix-it terms. At the end of the night, he presents her with his toolbox. Tom uses the meet and greet as an opportunity to place his face and promotional materials for Entertainment 720 all over the hall. Leslie gets furious with the way he is monopolizing the evening, especially when it completely turns of Kerston. Leslie reads him the riot act and dunks him in his mobile hot tub, before Tom eventually admits that he’s broke and his business is a flop. Leslie then take him out to eat and he laments his failure. Later he shows her a nice biographical video of Leslie that he produced and makes her cry with delight, and he bribes Kernston to meet with her again. Ben finally escapes Andy’s headlock and accidentally breaks his nose and sends him to the hospital, but Andy now considers themselves as ‘brothers.’  Rob Mainor is Lowe’s employee Dave Freemop. Matt Schwartz is a party-goer. 5/26/21
• 052. End of the World – 11/3/2011
  • Pawnee citizen and Reasonableism cult founder Herb Scaifer (Robert Pine) requests a permit for an end-of-the-world vigil, at which time the lizard monster Zorp will come to earth and wipe it out with his volcanic mouth. Leslie, Andy, and Ben attend to make sure things stay under control, while Ron comes to sell his homemade flutes and recorders, which are part of their ritual. When Leslie notices that reporter Shauna Malwep-Tweep is flirting with Ben, she does everything she can to try and keep them apart. Meanwhile, Tom and Jean-Ralphio decide to take their final $10,000 – out of the $450,000 they started with – and have one last giant party, which includes such luxuries as gambling tables, free hats, gift bags, a make-out room, a Bengal tiger, and Roy Hibbert handing out shrimp cocktails, and free shuttles home. Andy and April are spending their Friday night working on Andy’s bucket list, which includes holding $1000 in cash, making the best grilled cheese sandwich in the world, and portraying FBI agent Bert Macklin and jumping through the glass patio door. They end stealing April’s father’s car and driving for thirty hours to the Grand Canyon, where they are both in awe, although Andy looks for the Presidents’ faces. Tom’s ex-girlfriend Lucy shows up at the party thanks to Jean-Ralphio’s invite, and Tom impresses her with the party and she plants a kiss on him the next morning, and encourages him that he’ll recover from being broke and jobless. Leslie tries to stop Ben from going to Tom’s party with Shauna, by grabbing him and taking him to an abandoned gas station that she claims was once owned by Mick Jagger. He tells her that he knows what she is trying to do, and that it isn’t fair of her to stop him from dating since she broke it off with him so she could run for office. She comes to his house the next morning to apologize to him and tell him that Shauna thinks he is cute, while also checking to ensure that she didn’t spend the night with him. Mike Polli is the mover. When the world doesn’t end, Herb re-schedules another vigil for six months later. Jeryl Prescott Sales is the bank teller. Katerina Mikailenko aka Katerina Kopel is the Melissa. 5/26/21
• 053. The Treaty – 11/10/2011
  • Leslie is asked to run this year’s model U.N. at Pawnee’s Central High School, and she asks Ben to participate as well. April and Andy participate as well, after arguing over which country they get to be. April also insists on having control of the moon. Meanwhile, Ron is trying to convince Tom to take is job back, but Tom has too much pride to accept, even though he is currently spraying perfume samples at Macy’s. After four dates with Jerry’s daughter Millicent, she isn’t returning his calls, so Chris turns to Ann, Jerry, and Donna for advice. Ron interviews candidates like the elderly Courtney (Murray Gershenz) who has been out of work for over forty years, Gary (Gary Moglovkin) from Gary, Indiana, Keith (Kyle Mooney), who marked “Yes ha ha ha ha ha ha” on his application under sex. Cracks begin to show between Leslie and and Ben’s friendship, when she keep stopping and working with her campaign manager William Barnes to gather publicity. Ben separates his Peru alliance away from Leslie’s Denmark. Leslie then declares war on Peru. The French ambassador Cassidy (Kelly Washington) and the Switzerland ambassador (Jennifer Soo) are highly disappointed that Leslie has swayed so far from the goal of solving the world’s hunger problem. Peru then gets a nearly unanimous vote to condemn Denmark. Leslie forms a coalition with Botswana and the moon. Kelly then joins the Security Council and expels Denmark and Peru. April convinces Leslie that she needs to talk to Ben, so that he doesn’t mope around the house. Leslie tries to convince Ben that she needs him in her life as a friend, but Ben isn’t so sure it work. However, they form a treaty that they will have one fun conversation today. Tom finally agrees to take time back if Ron begs him in front of the other. Ron does it, but Tom declines. Ron then gets physically violent with him and then insists that Tom beg Ron to take him back in front of the others. Ann tells Chris that they broke up because he tries to turn her into him, and then got bored with her. She tells him that if he chills out with Millicent that they will be fine. Ann and Ben make it up to the kids by telling them they can run the show at the Capitol when they host a statewide mock U.N. council. Eric Braun is China. Ashton Bingham is Bulgaria. 9/22/21
• 054. Smallest Park – 11/17/2011
  • Leslie is working on opening a park that is .000003 square miles, which will be replacing a pay phone, making it the smallest park in Indiana. Meanwhile, Tom wants to take a college class, so April suggests that he sample multiple classes to find one that he likes. Ron suggests he try to broaden his horizons, while April suggests that he take one that is slam dunk. Ben tells Leslie that after they finish work on the park, he wants to spend less time in the Parks & Rec department because it bums him out to work with her since they can’t date. Chris asks Tom and Jerry to team up and come up with a new logo for Parks & Rec. Andy quickly gets bored in his Guitar for Beginners class taught by Penny (Breon Gorman), and make an exit while playing the guitar. Leslie decides to try and drag out the park project so she can continue to spend more time with Ben. She starts out by trying to stretch out the Public Forum meeting by asking clarifying questions from racist woman Rose (Brenda Ballard), Mel the red-faced man, and Joe (Jeff Holman), but ultimately is annoyed that no one will complain about the park. Andy joins a class on lasers taught by Professor Hal Barnes (Keith Sellon-Wright), but is disappointed when there are no lasers that he can play with. Andy decides to make a class choice at random and winds up with Intro to Women’s Studies taught by Professor Linda Lonegan (Danielle Bisutti), which mesmerizes Andy, Audrey, and Ron. He goes to sign up for the class until the clerk (Melissa Jo Baily) tells him that it costs $940. When Andy starts trying to raise money by returning to his shoe-shining job, Ron decides to award him with the Ron Swanson Scholarship to fund his way through college. Leslie goads citizens to start picketing against the park, so that she can call for an environmental assessment. When Ben sees what she is doing, he formerly requests to be removed from working on any projects with Leslie. When she turns to Ann for advice, Ann tells her that she steamrolls people and a has been doing so to Ben all along. Leslie requests that Ben meet her at the new park, and apologizes and tells him that she will no longer steamroll him, but suggests that they move forward with the relationship no what matter the cost, and Ben agrees by giving her a big kiss. Tom goes overboard re-designing the logo, by extending the task to include ranger uniforms and the rec center. Jerry reels him back in and tells him to never go the extra mile, showing Tom his old badge from the 1970’s. This gives Tom the idea to use the retro logo from that era, an idea that Chris loves. Tom even shares the credit with Jerry in his own way. 9/22/21
• 055. The Trial of Leslie Knope – 12/1/2011
  • After Ron throws away his computer when he discovers that it is keeping information about him, Leslie and Ben go see Chris and admit that they have been dating off and on over the past few years. Chris wants to find out the extent of their misdeeds so pulls together the Ethics Committee to see if there had been any favoritism, fraud, corruption, or misuse of funds involved. They hold Leslie’s trial first, and Chris is so distraught since Leslie and Ben are great employees, that he has to overcome his sadness and anxiety by filling up on herbal medicine and exercising constantly throughout the trial. In all he has fourteen witnesses against Leslie. Chris promises Leslie he’ll be outside the room all day pulling for her. Leslie had her teammates going through all of her emails and files to see if there is any information to counter arguments against her. Ann shows off her video email from Leslie to pinpoint the timeframe they started dating. Chris pulls in Tammy 2, who supposedly has a smoking gun, but when she finds out that she can get in trouble for falsifying information, she immediately pulls her testimony. Tom is questioned about the time that he and Leslie kissed, but he testifies it was a joke when they got setup as a match on an online dating site. It looks as if Leslie has her ducks in a row, until Chris brings in George Williams, who Leslie and Ben once bribed with a gift certificate to keep quiet about the kiss he saw them in at Li’l Sebastian’s memorial service. Leslie becomes concerned as being seen as a bad person, but Ron reminds her that people who do wrong, accept it, and learn from it are good people at heart. Leslie decides to stop the team from looking for any loopholes, and decides to take her medicine, although she is concerned she may be fired. She is surprised when the head of the committee Allenbach (Kevin Rock) hands her a two week suspension with pay. Chris then tells Leslie that he took full responsibility for the bribe, and handed Chris his resignation, reducing Chris to unstoppable tears. Chris also tells Leslie to have the stenographer Ethel Beavers read the page of Ben’s confession transcript, in which he states it was well worth losing his job to be with the women he loves. Leslie goes to see Chris at the end of the day and brings Ethel with her to read him the fact that Leslie had the transcripts re-opened so she could put it on the record that she loves Christ. Jerry admits that his name is actually pronounced as Gary, but when his boss got it wrong on his first day, he just went with it. 3/21/22
• 056. Citizen Knope – 12/8/2011
  • Leslie comes into the office to get her flash drive so she can work from home during her suspension, but Chris insists that she do no work while suspended. She then plans to work on her campaign during the two weeks that she’s off, but her campaign managers William and Elizabeth want her to lay low until they can assess the damage from her scandal with Ben. To keep busy she brings all of her co-workers Christmas gifts, which Ron explains are always the perfect gift. Beginning to feel bad because the good gifts are so one-sided, he orders everyone in the office to put their heads together to get Leslie something she will love. They all agree on making a model of the office, but whereas Ron wants to do it with wood, everyone else decides to make it from gingerbread and candy. Meanwhile, Ben goes for an interview to be an accountant within an accounting firm Tilton and Radomski. The interviewer Barney wants to hire him, but Ben admits to Leslie that it sound too boring and she encourages him to keep looking. Since Leslie can’t do anything for work, she decides to start her own Citizen’s activist group called PCP – Parks Committee of Pawnee. Ben goes for an interview with Dennis Feinstein, who runs a perfume company, but Dennis is so unprofessional by having the current CPO who he would replace in the room during the interview, that Ben decides he doesn’t want this job either. Leslie takes the PCP to the City Council meeting, and encourages them to call Chris repeatedly and picket his jogging route in order to get their demands met for the Rec Center improvements. William and Elizabeth come to see Leslie and tell her that her approval rating has dropped to one percent, and they can no longer represent her. Jean-Ralphio runs into Ben and tells him how lame the account to the accountants job seems, so Ben decides to pass on that as well. Leslie is happy with his decision and encourages him to hold out until he finds something she likes. Leslie is touched when she gets the gingerbread office model, but even more so, when everyone at work tells her they want to help her work on her campaign for City Council. Chris even gives her a nice gift: her name badge indicating that her suspension has been lifted. Jean-Ralphio gets hired at Tilton and Radomski, but is fired during his orientation for lying on his resume and being inappropriate with a worker named Nancy (Claire Titelman). Mary Garripoli is Jeannine from PCP. Megan Grano is Diane from PCP. Robin Thorsen is Maya at the council meeting. Denver Smith is Herman (deleted from aired version). 3/21/22
• 057. The Comeback Kid – 1/12/2012
  • Leslie calls everyone together and announces that she is naming Ann as her campaign manager since having Ben do the job would be too scandalous. She runs into William and Elizabeth at City Hall, where they are scouting new potential candidates. They plan to hold a re-launch rally at the Pawnee Sports Center where they will announce Leslie as the ‘Comeback Kid’, putting each person on the team in charge of something. April and Andy have adopted a three-legged dog named Champion so they are a bit distracted. Ron plans to construct the stage. Back at his house, Ben is exploring new ventures like making Calzones and trying out Claymation, but Chris thinks he is depressed and wants to hang out with him to see him through it. Ann gets a local legend named Pistol Pete Disellio (Tuc Watkins) who once made a last-second dunk shot to win a game against Eagleton Hight in 1992. Tom plans to get red carpet for Leslie to walk on at the event. Ron, Tom, April, Andy, and Champion all squeeze into the cab of a truck to haul the wood for the stage over to the Sports Center, but when Andy keeps tooting the horn, they get pulled over for that and other infractions by Officer Len (Boo Arnold). Leslie gets the call about them getting ready to be arrested while she and Ann are trying to talk Pete into a doing a ‘slam dunk’ promotion for her. Pete, however, has qualms about living in the past and refuses to do it. Leslie rushes over and talks to Len and gets him to drop the charges, but he tells them they can’t operate the commercial vehicle without a license, so they’re only able to carry a fraction of the wood in their car. Ann tries to talk Pete into doing the promo at the rally, but he digresses into a life story of misery and tears. Ben tries to convince Chris that he isn’t depressed, but when he shows him the Claymation project he’s been working on, Ben realizes that the project he’s been working on for two weeks, Requiem for a Tuesday, only lasts about three seconds… which finally sends him into a true funk. When they all arrive at the sports center, they realize that the basketball floor is now ready for hockey, so Leslie has to deliver the speech on ice. Tom’s red carpet isn’t long enough to get them to the extremely tiny stage that Ron was able to salvage form his limited wood. Everything appears to be a disaster, but then Pistol Pete shows up and prepares to do his slam dunk promo for her, but he slips and falls on the ice. Realizing how poorly everything was planned, Leslie decides to switch her campaign manager to be Ben, regardless of any repercussions. Ann and Leslie visit Pistol Pete in the hospital, where Pete asks Ann to dinner. She tells him that she’s married, but Leslie says that she’s not. 7/23/22
• 058. Campaign Ad – 1/19/2012
  • Sweetums Candy heir Bobby Newport (Paul Rudd) has announced his City Council campaign against Leslie, and despite having no knowledge of politics whatsoever, he is immediately 70 points up on Leslie. She introduces herself to him during his autograph signing after a rally, and he has no knowledge of her existence, thinking that he was running unopposed. Meanwhile, Andy has a headache and is seeing double after sneezing and hitting his head on the wall. Ann recommends that he use his insurance and go see a doctor, so he and April make appointments with Dr. Harris, who then gives them referrals to specialists all over town for various issues. Ben comes up with a strategy to air a smear ad against Newport during the Pawnee-Eagleton basketball game. Leslie clearly doesn’t like the idea, and admits that she never foresaw herself doing any sort of negative ad campaigning. The two argue about it, with Tom taking a completely neutral stance, until they agree to each come up with their own ad demo and see which one is better. Back at the office, Chris invites Ron to sit in on a Public Works meeting, and Ron accepts because he gets to help tell John (Paul Hayes) in the department that his project are getting cut. Chris then gets Ron to go to lunch with him, but Ron quickly realizes that it’s not about business, and starts to fear that Chris needs a friend. Donna also believes that he misses his buddy Ben, and is trying to find a replacement. When Chris asks Ron to attend a Japanese Tea Ceremony with him, Ron passes off Kyle as a fan of Japanese culture since he saw him eating rice, in order to line up a new potential friend for Chris. After Chris realizes he’s being pawned off, he tells Ron that he wasn’t looking for a friend, but rather a replacement for Ben’s old job as Assistant City Manager. Leslie comes up with a very positive campaign ad, listing all of the things in town that she supports, up to and including hot dogs, while Ben’s ad gets right to the heart of the fact that Bobby Newport has had everything handed to him and has no experience in government. Although everyone on the team likes Ben’s ad better, Leslie can’t stand it, but finally gives in. However just as Ben is about to hand it over to Channel 4’s engineer Walter Klarmingbing (Michael Maccarone), Leslie tackles him and takes the DVD back. Thus, no ad gets aired and they lose the money they spent to air it. Leslie apologize, but Ben tells her that she needs to get tougher in the campaign. They then work on a video of Leslie at age 10 (Audrey P. Scott) showing more knowledge of government than Newport has in any of his current ads. When it airs, they get a call from Newport asking for a meeting, in which he begs them to stop airing the ad because it makes him look stupid. Furthermore, he asks them to drop out of the campaign so he can have it like he wants. Leslie refuses to drop out, and tells him that soon they will be debating so he needs to get tougher himself. When Andy and April check out of their final doctor’s office, the receptionist Eleanor Puntrupple (Jenny Phagan) hands them a bill for $500, so they run out of the hospital… where Andy smacks head first into an ambulance. Mike Rylander is Newport’s announcer. Sean Blodgett is the eye doctor Mitch Fortch. Tylen Jacob Williams is Charlie, the boy at the hot dog stand. Rick Fitts is Dr. Lipp Nerpins. Luke Colombero is Joey, the boy Andy tries to bribe with a rubber band ball to move him up on the list in the waiting room. Janell Winkler is the receptionist Andy tries to bribe with a rubber band ball. 7/24/22
• 059. Bowling for Votes – 1/26/2012
  • Leslie’s team hold a focus group to see what citizens like and don’t like about Leslie. A girl named Laura (Heather Horton) thinks she is too short, a guy named Horace (Brad Slaight) doesn’t like anyone named Leslie, and a guy named Derek (Kevin Dorff) thinks she is uptight, and you couldn’t go bowling with her. Leslie takes offense to the latter reason especially since Ron has told her that she is a good bowler. This gives her an idea to go bowling with Ben, Ann, Tom, and Ron, and have a meet and greet at the alley. Since Leslie is so obsessed with making Derek like her, she makes sure he specifically gets the invite. Meanwhile, another group on her committee including Chris, Jerry, and Donna meet at Chris and April’s house to do some phone fundraising. Jerry announces that the person who raises the most money gets two tickets to the movies. Chris starts off the strongest, quickly surpassing everyone else. April decides she doesn’t like Chris to be so happy, so she starts using her many voices to talks people into contributing substantial amounts. Chris also announces to everyone that he is going to ask Jerry’s daughter Millie to move in with him. Jerry happens to know that she is planning on breaking up with him and tells the others. Back at the alley, Ron gets extremely annoyed with Tom when he bowls under-handed and keeps getting strike. In his frustration, Ron causes Tom to smash his finger between balls, and he then carries on like a baby. When Derek shows up at the alley, Ben realizes that Leslie is obsessed with him and tells her that she needs to let everyone see a different side of her, not just one person. Leslie buys some beer and wings and invites Derek to bowl with her, getting irritated with herself for bowling too well and not letting him win. After Leslie and Derek finish bowling, he says he still won’t vote for her. When she keeps pressing her on the issue, he admits he doesn’t like her. She then gets annoyed and asks for a rematch whereby if she wins, he’ll vote for her, and if he wins, she’ll clean his house for a month. Leslie soundly defeats him, but says that instead of voting for her, he’ll write in ‘bitch’, prompting Ben to punch him in the face. Randy the policeman comes and takes their statements, and Leslie is smitten by what Ben did for her. The newspaper headline features a photo of Leslie and Ben standing over Derek on the floor. Ben offers to resign, but during a press conference with Leslie and Derek, she tells the reporters (Dave Matos, Kristin Pfeifer) how proud she is of Ben and says that Derek deserved it… causing him to call her a bitch again. Millicent breaks it off with Chris, April wins the contest, and then the next day, April adds a third ticket to them and gives them to Chris to help him feel better, offering for all three of them go to the movies. When a focus group sees Leslie’s press conference, a lady named Gloria (Polly Humphreys) and a guy named Nermal (Bill Coelius) like and respect her for it. Ron returns to the bowling lanes by himself incognito and asks the worker Bob Manager (Bruno Alexander) for a lane in the corner so he can practice Tom’s underhand bowl. He ends up bowling a 300, but doesn’t want any credit for it. Frank Kopyc is Rich Gurdmin. James Albert is Orbert, the man with the beard in the focus group, although his speaking role was deleted from the episode. 11/16/22
• 060. Operation Ann – 2/2/2012
  • Leslie holds her annual Galentine’s Day the day before Valentine’s Day with her mother and her friends at the Bluebelle Cafe. As they go round the room and talk about their relationships, it is fairly obvious that Ann is depressed since she is alone. Leslie later holds a meeting with her crew to tell them that the Valentine’s Day dance is planned, but they have another task to find Ann a date, asking each person to bring an eligible bachelor along. Ben gets Leslie a stuffed animal otter for Valentine’s Day, and she presents him with a cryptex and gives him a clue as to the code to open it. Once he does, it will show him where their secret meeting place is that night. Andy sees the cryptex and suggests that they turn to Ron to help him solve it, but Ron merely smashes it open. Inside is another clue to a location where he can find further clues: 25 in all! Chris decides he will be the DJ for the dance, but he is so depressed he plays nothing but funeral dirges for the evening. Jerry brings along Enrico (Jordi Vilasuso), an obviously gay escort for Ann. April brings Orin since she has no interest in helping Ann. Donna brings her own three dates. Leslie introduces Ann to her lawyer Alex (Craig Woolson) and they chat for a while. Ben, Ron, and Andy continue with the scavenger hunt that takes them to a restaurant, library, gay bar, and the bottom of Ron’s shoe. Ron pretends he hates puzzles but is gleeful when he realizes they will be spending all evening trying to solve this one. Tom gets into the act of trying to help Ann by setting her up with Harris, who lives with his parents, and Bill (Kurt Long), an amateur juggler. Leslie tries to give Chris some counsel by telling him that he’ll find someone who is perfect for him. Ann decides to leave the dance, and she thanks Leslie for all of her effort finding her a date. Leslie decides to follow her and take her out for drink, then surmises that she is actually leaving to meet up with someone. When she hears that the music has gotten better inside, she assumes it is Chris, but then becomes irritated that Chris made such a big deal about her dating Ben since he didn’t allow office romances. Between Ben, Ron, and Andy, they find all the clues but the final one. Ron suggests that Leslie is a romantic who loves being right, and he asks Ben if there is any place that he initially didn’t like but then came around to her way of thinking. He realizes that it must relate to Li’l Sebastian, so he shows up at the Li’l Sebastian statue, where he indeed finds her. She tells Ben about Ann and Chris and they agree to try and catch them in the act before their date. but April tries to tell her to let them be. When they finally catch up with Ann, they realize it is not Chris she is meeting up with, but Tom. April show up also and explains that the only time she saw Ann smile that night was when she was talking to Tom, and though they could possibly be good together. Leslie tells April she’s a good person for trying to help Ann. During their date, Ann makes it clear that they’re going to eat, get to know each other, and then go home alone. Tom suggests that they do all that, except go home and snuggle like bunnies, to which Ann almost ends the date. Ron makes it clearl to Leslie that he doesn’t want her doing a scavenger hunt for his birthday, but then makes sure that she knows he really wants that a lot actually. Martin Starr is Kevin, worker at the Snow Globe museum. Tom Costello is Jeff, who is attracted to his sister. Rogelio Douglas Jr. is Cupid the bartender. 11/17/22
• 061. Dave Returns – 2/16/2012
  • Leslie is working on trying to get the endorsement of retiring Pawnee police chief Hugh Trumple (Eric Pierpont), and he tells her that he will let her know if she and Ben attend his retirement party. Ben is petrified of cops and feels uncomfortable around them. One cop who returns from San Diego for the party is Leslie’s ex-boyfriend Dave Sanderson. Although Ben is uncomfortable around him as well, Leslie invites him to go to dinner with them before the retirement party. When Ben goes to the restroom, David tells Leslie that he is still in love with her. He wants to talk privately with her, but she avoids the situation. When he goes to the restroom, Leslie tells Ben what he said, so everyone wants to speak privately to everyone else. Ben tells David that he won’t give his blessing to him to pursue his girlfriend, so David handcuffs him to the bathroom urinal. Ben calls Leslie at the table and she comes in and makes David remove the cuffs. Meanwhile, Andy has written a song called Catch Your Dream for Leslie’s campaign and asks everyone on her team to sing background vocals. Ron is nervous about visiting the studio because this is where he records his saxophone music as Duke Silver. Andy thinks everyone sounds terrible so he demands to hear everyone sing solo so he can tell who to remove. Ron tells him to go take a walk and then works with the engineer on adding sax to the recording and mixing it correctly. This makes all the difference and Andy is then pleased with the song. Tom keeps pursuing Ann and wanting to level-jump on their relationship. He also tells everyone at the office that he made out with her. She starts to get annoyed with him, but ultimately agrees to see him again to get him to stop serenading her. Brandon Jay Sornberger is Lars the waiter. 4/24/23
• 062. Sweet Sixteen – 2/23/2012
  • Leslie is attempting to both do her normal job plus campaign for City Council, even making sure she doesn’t conduct campaign business inside the government building. Ron wants her to go on sabbatical because he thinks she is working way to much and her job is suffering. She insists that she can do both, and when she realizes that she’s forgotten Jerry’s birthday, she doubles down on her efforts to get it corrected. Since Jerry was born on February 29 and is turning 64, she wants to throw him a sweet sixteen birthday party at Donna’s secret family cabin. Meanwhile, Tom starts to realize that he and Ann have nothing in common, so he starts to ask her a barrage of questions, none of which she seems to answer to his liking. He is also driving her crazy by acting like a crazed game show host. Tom confides in April that he may have to break up with her. April gets tired of hearing their problems, so she begins drinking heavily. When they finally reach the point of calling it quits, she, in her drunken state, tells them to stop sweating over such stupid details. They take her words to heart and make up with each other. Leslie gets everyone to Donna’s place for the surprise party, but realizes she forgot to tell Jerry about it. She and Ron then drive to retrieve him, and along the way she sees that her campaign signs feature a large web address rather than the visual that address pointed to. They visit the printer Walter Fungerson (Sam Carson) and demand that he fix them. Back at Donna’s, Andy realizes that since Chris has recently babysat his dog Champion, he has become obsessed with him and has started training him in the German language. Chris also wants to keep him on a leash, but Andy thinks he should be able to roam free… and as a result, Champion runs away. Everyone is up late looking for him, and some have gone to bed by the time Leslie and Ron arrive with Jerry. Therefore, there is no one there to greet them except for Ben, who is asleep on the couch. Andy admits that he’s not a great dog caregiver so he offers to let Chris have the dog, but Chris advises Andy to sing one of his songs since Champion likes his voice. Sure enough, Champion returns to him… but Chris then reveals to the camera that he was blowing a dog whistle. Once everyone gathers around Jerry, Lesile asks them to give a good memory of Jerry, but no one can come up with much of anything. Leslie falls asleep on Jerry’s stomach. The next morning, Ron is finally able to convince Leslie that she can’t handle so much at once, so she agrees to cut her work down to ten hours a week. To make it up to Jerry, they all get him a weekend for he and his wife Gail to spend at a B&B in Muncie. He has a great time, even though they get food poisoning the second day and wind up confined to the bed. Andy can see that Chris is lonely. so he tells him that he can spend time with Champion whenever he wants. 4/26/23
• 063 Campaign Shake-Up – 3/1/2012
  • While watching The Final Word with Perd and his discussion with the two pundits, Dylan Peever (Chris Regan) and Lisa Multaro (Sarah Gaboury), Leslie and Ben see that they are reporting that Bobby Newport is slipping in the polls. Most of this is due to Ben’s campaign management skills. In fact, this causes Newport to fire his campaign manager and hire a new one, a superstar from Washington D.C. named Jennifer Barkley (Kathryn Hahn). Ben and Leslie arrange to meet with Ned Jones (Carl Reiner), the president of Pawnee Seniors United, in the hopes of getting the ‘gray vote’. They present their initiative ‘Ramp Up Pawnee’, which will add ramps all of the city for senior citizens and wins him over. Meanwhile, Chris tells Ron that he needs to hire a Deputy Director to pick up the slack of Leslie while she campaigns and possibly wins. Ron absolutely does not want this, so Chris challenges them to complete one project to prove that they can handle it without Leslie. They choose to come up with a solution to make the town’s drinking fountain more sanitary, since a local custom of Pawnee is for people to put their entire mouths over the splash guard on them. Ben and Leslie arrange a meeting with Barkley, and she confesses that Leslie is the better candidate, and she only took the job because they offered her $250,000. She is very nice and respectful to them, but when she goes on Perd’s show, she does nothing but attack Leslie. Ann takes charge of the fountain project, but they all wind up in a water balloon fight in front of Chris. Eventually April comes up with an idea to remove the splash guard altogether. Chris is impressed enough to agree to not hire anyone else. Leslie makes her ramp pitch to the seniors, but it is interrupted by Jennifer, who brings in Ned Jones, who now supports Bobby Newport, and they show off their idea: “Rise Up, Pawnee”, which entails putting an electric lift on stairs all over Pawnee. Ben’s next plan for Leslie is to go back on Perd’s show and let everyone know that the Newport campaign stole her idea. Leslie runs into Jennifer again and is surprised that she has been able to anticipate Leslie’s next move, offering a rebuttal of what she could do to combat that off the bat. Leslie and Jennifer have a debate on the show, with the upper hand going back and forth. However, when Leslie mentions Newport of being off in Europe rather than campaigning, Jennifer says that he is lining up an agreement with a European company to bring a factory to Pawnee. This makes Newport’s numbers skyrocket, and Ben is forced to admit that he’s no match for Jennifer. Ann tells Ron that the water fountain adjustment was April’s idea, and Ron asks April to actually step up and not waste her brain. April agrees since Ron ‘begged.’ Jennifer admits to Leslie and Ben that she made up everything about Newport’s European trip. Mitchell Edmonds is Gustin Kippman. Gloria Henry appears as Mary-Elizabeth Clinch, and Angela McEwan appears as Helen, both briefly in the senior crowd. However, their dialogue only appears in the ‘Deleted Scenes’ on the DVD. 9/12/23
• 064. Lucky – 3/8/2012
  • Leslie is excited that she is going to be interviewed by Indianapolis TV host Buddy Wood (Sean Hayes), so she goes to work trying to find the right outfit. Ben is more interested in prepping her for his questions, but Leslie thinks Ben is becoming less fun because of his commitment to the race. Unfortunately, Buddy gets called away for another story, and Ben is the most disappointed of all. Leslie suggests that everyone go out for a drink. Ben declines, but Ann and Tom join her. Meanwhile, Andy is studying for his final exam in his Women’s Studies class. Professor Linda Lonegan conducts an oral exam with Andy, and he gets the “P” grade for passing. Ron takes Andy and April out for a celebratory steak, and Andy invites Linda to join them. While Leslie is getting drunk, Adam calls her and lets her know that Buddy has agreed to do a quick interview at the airport, so she shows up drunk. April spots Chris at the restaurant and invites him to join their table, hoping to help him get over his breakup with Millicent by introducing him to Linda. Chris and Leslie hit it off and seem to have a lot in common. Leslie arrives at the airport drunk and struggles to maintain her composure through the interview, especially when Buddy is condescending to her and won’t stop asking her about her relationship with Ben. She admits to having had a couple of drinks, and Buddy rejoices at having such a juicy story to share. At the end of the lunch, Chris asks Linda out on a date, but she declines and says she’s not ready to date right now. As soon as Chris leaves, she asks Ron to go back to her place. When Buddy heads back to Indianapolis, the gang follows him in a giant hot tub limo and pleads with him not to air the tape of Leslie drunk. He laments that the airline lost his luggage anyway so he can’t do anything at all with the tape. It turns out that a baggage handler named Paul (Hal Havins), for whom Leslie had gotten security badges, repaid the favor and threw away Buddy’s luggage. The morning after Ron’s fling, Chris tells April that he plans to ask out Leslie again, so she insists the Ron tell him the truth. Chris thanks him for it, embraces him, and tells him how lonely he is. Tom celebrates 48 hours with Ann without breaking up, which is their personal record. He gets her 48 condoms, causing her to break it off with him again. Donna becomes obsessed with watching Jerry stuff campaign flyers in and lick shut envelopes for hours on end. Then he realizes that he’s put the wrong flyers in them, and joyfully starts over. Leslie Thurston is Kendra the waitress. Ervin Ross is the limo driver. Michael D. Roberts is Joe Appledemas. Donna Lazar is Lalyssa Lerpiss, the waitress at Scully’s Bar. 9/15/23 
• 065. Live Ammo – 4/19/2012
  • Ann sneaks Leslie into Tom’s apartment so she can show her how great his apartment is, since it is outfitted with nearly everything a woman would love. Meanwhile, Leslie pleads with state Councilman Pillner (Bradley Whitford) to not cut the budget of the Parks department. He agrees to cut funding somewhere else, but it turns out to be the West Side animal shelter, which means that many animals could be euthanized, which also means very bad publicity for Leslie in her campaign. In response, Leslie brings home all of the animals from the shelter. Chris tells Ron that he is one of the finalists to take the job of the Assistant City Manager, and claims he wants to spend some time with Ron in meditation. Chris is amazed that Ron was able to clear his mind so successfully, but Ron admits that he got nothing out of the exercise. Chris tells him that he was just testing Ron to see if he was flexible enough to participate in an activity in which he has no interest. He then tells Ron that he has the job. With April taking over for Leslie while she works on her campaign, she finds that she’s getting a lot of questions from the staff members that she can’t answer. She hates the job and goes to Tom for help, who advises her to find a project she is passionate about. Ron attends the meditation and stands the entire time, not thinking about a single thing. April chooses a pet adoption drive in the park but finds that more people are leaving animals than adopting them. Leslie also discovered that there are three employees designated as D1, or on retainer, who haven’t worked in two years but are still getting paid. They bring this information to Councilman Pillner to try and get this money used for the animal shelter. Pillner jumps on the idea, and announces that all D1 employees, including Ann, will be terminated in two weeks. Leslie and Ben return to Pillner, who gives them until the end of the day to come up with another idea, but reminds them that if she wins the election, she will be playing with ‘live ammo’ and will make decisions that will affect people’s lives every day. Councilman Howser reminds Chris that if Bobby Newport wins, he will try to bring his own guy for city planner and Chris may be out of a job. Chris then tells Ron the bad news, but Ron tells him that he’ll be fine. He then pulls out the whiskey and shows Chris how to experience things with true freedom and bliss. He tells Chris to think about the upsides of losing the job as City Planner. April is upset that she worked so hard on the pet adoption and failed, but then Tom visits her and shows her a picture of a little girl named Trina (Lolli Sorenson) who wound up with a puppy thanks to April’s efforts. Leslie comes up with an idea that she considers political suicide. She meets with Jennifer Barkley and tells her to announce that Bobby Newport will use his personal fortune to save the animal shelter, and she agrees it is a great idea to promote him. She agrees to pull back the Leslie Knope puppy killer ads, or else they told Pillner that if she doesn’t agree, he should cut the Parks budget to make Leslie look tough and fair. They admit that this will give Newport a week’s news cycle, but that they will come back when they debate. Chelsea Peretti is Zelda from the Parks’ staff. Billy Merritt is Scott from the Parks staff. Greg Vrotsos is Nikko the angry delivery man. Kate Martin is Betsy, Trina’s mother. Katie Dippold is Mindy, the lady dropping off pets at the drive. 12/29/23
• 066. The Debate – 4/26/12
  • With Newport leading Leslie 40-32 percentage points in the polls, she and her team are hoping that the debate between them will be the best chance for recovery. Chris, Ann, and Tom are assigned to be the ‘spin team’ to talk to reporters and provide feedback on the debate. Tom is annoyed that Ann has broken things off with him for announcing her name on the radio and telling everyone that they got to second base and is now acting flirty with Chris again. Ron, April, and Andy are assigned to throw a party for their biggest donors during the debate. As they are getting ready for the spin team, Chris tells Ann that he still has feelings for her and that he might not be her boss for long, so they could technically date again. Just before the debate begins, Leslie tries to greet Bobby and psych him out, only to find him in the fetal position on the floor crying that he is too scared to debate. When Ron tries to turn the debates on for the donors, the cable is out because Andy forgot to play the bill. Any occupies the time by acting out scenes from various movies. The debate begins, with the conservative Fester Trim (Brad Leland), porn star Brandi Maxxxx, and animal rights activist Manrico Della Rossa (Gary Carlos Cervantes) joining Leslie and Bobby on the stage. Leslie comes out fighting and talk about how Bobby is buying the vote, but he counters by saying she hurt his feelings and asks to keep it positive. Before Leslie knows what is happening, Bobby has the favor of the audience, while Leslie keeps getting compared to the porn star. Tom puts a negative spin on everything he says to the press, mostly revolving around life not being fair and how the good-looking guys get all of the breaks. Ann pulls him aside to confront him, and Tom admits that he only acts the way he does because he’s so scared of losing her since she is out of his league. He pleads that she take him back. Leslie wants to go back on the attack against Bobby, although it makes her look aggressive to the audience. Bobby announces to the debate audience that if Leslie winds the election, his father told him that he will have to move his Sweetums business to Mexico, costing Pawnee thousands of jobs. Ron climbs up the telephone pole so he can tap into the neighbor’s cable so the donors can see the end of the debates. Leslie decides to go for the throat in her closing statement, speaking about how angry she is that Bobby Newport is holding the town hostage for their votes by threatening to wreck the economy by pulling their business out of Pawnee. She talks about her love the city, and how you love and protect something when you love it, not threaten it. Even Bobby is impressed by her final comments and tells her that it was awesome. Andy is so excited with the finale that he kicks the TV and breaks it. Ann tells Chris that it wouldn’t be a good idea for them to start dating again, much to Tom’s excitement. However, she tells him that they’re not getting back together at this point. Bobby is thrilled just to get through the debate and invites Leslie and her staff to a party at his dad’s lake house. Lorenzo dela Rosa is stage manager Lorenzo. James Michael Connor is reporter Eugene Pilogrimaldy. Gustavo Pena is donor Clem Temple. Liz Benoit is donor Tanda. 12/29/23
• 067. Bus Tour – 5/3/2012
  • Leslie is only two points behind Bobby Newport in the City Council race, so the staff embarks on a bus tour throughout Pawnee for last-minute campaigning, giving a speech that is perfectly time and running like a well-oiled machine. Meanwhile, Andy has taken on the persona of Burt Macklin, who is acting as an FBI agent, investigating a cream pie that was thrown at Leslie, but ended up hitting Jerry. In order to investigate this, Andy hits Jerry with numerous pies as part of his investigation. Chris is depressed about the women he lost over the past year, so he is keeping busy with menial talks like picking up coffee and washing down the tour bus. One of their plans is to hire vans to take elderly voters to the polls, but when they find out that the rentals have been cancelled, Ron, Tom, and Donna go to the rental office and meet with the owner Bill (Mike O’Malley), who tells them that the price of the vans has gone from $900 to $10,000. This was an effort to stymie their efforts by Jennifer Barkley with the Newport campaign. At one of the campaign stops, a reporter (Danielle Kennedy) asks Leslie about Bobby Newport’s father Nick, and she lambasts him for being a jerk. The reporter then reveals that she was only asking because Nick Newport had just died. This suddenly causes Leslie to get a load of bad press due to her insensitivity, the fallout which is felt when Leslie reads her book Groffle the Waffle at an elementary school, and the students Mandy Bil (Avery Phillips) and Max Amil (Lukas Martin) ask her hard questions about why she called Nick Newport a jerk. Her team decides to take her to see Bobby so that she can offer her condolences and then let it leak to the press. However, when they arrive, they find that the press is already there, making it seem as if they are there to campaign since Leslie’s face is plastered all over the bus. As they try to leave, they knock down a large poster of Nick Newport and drag it through the dirt. When Tom fails at talking Bill into releasing the vans at the original cost, Ron tries to talk to Bill about integrity, and then when Bill refuses to budge, Ron offers him the full $10,000. When Bill then tries to raise the price, they decide they have been beaten and decide to leave. Donna is furious and won’t pull her car out of the way as Bill is trying to get out of his own lot. When he berates her, she throws her beloved Mercedes into reverse and slams it into his car. Donna, Ron, and Tom all swear that he rear ended her, and threaten to call the police and sue if he doesn’t rent them the vans. Leslie moves forward with offering Bobby her condolences, and he admits that he only was running for the office to impress his father, who didn’t seem to care at all. She tells a story about how she had tried to win her mother’s approval, a story that Bobby later appropriates when talking to the press. However, to everyone’s surprise, Bobby also tells the press about Leslie’s kindness and encourages anyone not voting for him to vote for her. His campaign manager Jennifer propositions Chris to sleep with him in one of the empty rooms of the Newport mansion, and after some consideration, Chris agrees to it. Andy finally solves the pie case by determining that it had been meant for Ben, and was thrown by Sewage Joe Fantringham, whom Ben had previously fired. Andy catches him in the act of trying to hit Ben with another pie, and is so pleased to have solved the case, that he fails to stop him from being hit. Leonard Robins is Officer Golis at the elementary school. Brenda Canela is Rebecca Polkat, the reporter at the school. John J. Deignan is the two truck driver. 5/6/24
• 068. Win, Lose or Draw – 5/10/2012
  • Leslie and Ben meet with election commissioner Terrence (Randy Kovitz) to go over final rules on how to contest a narrow victory, and to lodge a complaint about the voting machine supplied by Bobby Newport that gives out free candy vouchers. Leslie then meets with her staff and gives an emotional speech, during which having only nine hours of sleep over the past four days causes her to struggle to keep it together. Tom lets everyone know about the election night party at the Jermain Jackson Ballroom in the Pawnee Super Suites. Tom lets Ann know that he had a dream that she is going to take him back that day, but she remains unconvinced. At the party, Ron provides the bartender Dana (Aubyn Philabaum) with his own bottle of Scotch to celebrate the end of the campaign. Andy plans to perform with Mouse Rat and has two versions of his song Catch Your Dream ready to go, one in case Leslie wins and one if she loses. However, he gets an emergency call from April, and he has to leave the party go check on her. She has accidentally deleted all of department files on every computer. He spends the evening drawing up plans for their future if they should have to leave town and change their names. Jennifer tells Adam he did a great job on the campaign and asks him to join her in running Congressman Murray’s re-election bid in Washington D.C. When he runs it by Leslie, she tells him how she was so looking forward to their relationship now that the campaign is over. He says that he was on the fence about it anyway, so he is going to turn it down. Leslie and Bobby join forces with the press to emphasize that everyone should get out to vote no matter who they are voting for. During their interview, Bobby tells everyone that he is voting for Leslie since he thinks it is illegal to vote for himself. Ann has the volunteers gather up every piece of paper they can find for Leslie’s scrapbook of the election. Chris comes to Ann to ask advice on whether he should sleep with Jennifer again, and she tells him that it can’t hurt now that the election is over. After Jerry hands out leaflets all over town, even after the election has ended, he suddenly realizes that he missed his chance to vote. He worries all night that Leslie will lose by one vote, and he will be blamed. With Perd Hapley reporting the neck-and-neck election, Ann takes Leslie to a boxing ring so that she can release her stress. Ben asks Ron for advice about his job offer, and Ron tells him that his relationship with Leslie is very special and that he should cherish it. Tom tries to convince Ann to come back with him, but she thinks that their relationship is like a rollercoaster ride through Idiotville. Jennifer and Chris sleep together at the party, and she and Chris discuss how they might keep their relationship going. She doesn’t seem interested when her assistant Jeremy Bullbell (Drew Rausch) offers to show her the latest election numbers. Perd Hapley calls the election for Bobby Newport in a 21-vote victory. Leslie can do little more than laugh manically, but Ben and Leslie then demand a recount from Terrence. Ron finds Leslie sitting in the councilman’s chair, and she tells him how hard her friends worked on her campaign, and that she’ll never forgive herself if she loses. He tells her that they didn’t volunteer for their own glory, but because they care about her and her dream. Ron doesn’t understand why he has engaged in about ten conversations that night. Donna shows up to help April and is able to immediately restore the files. She says that Jerry does it all of the time, so she has installed backup software. As they are waiting the recount results, Leslie tells Ben that she wants him to go to Washington in order to return the favor of him putting his life on hold for her. Ann then comes in and says that the recount is done, and they are still 21 votes apart… but this time it is in her favor. Jerry cries with relief. Bobby Newport is relieved to concede. Jennifer is happy that Adam is going to join her in D.C. Mouse Rat performs Catch Your Dream. Ron turns down Chris’s offer to become the new City Manager in Ben’s place. Jean-Ralphio announces that he was just cleared from insurance fraud. Ben gives Leslie the victory speech he wrote and tells her that he never wrote the concession speech. After Leslie’s victory speech, the group parties into the night. Ann gets drunk enough to tell Tom that she wants him back and that they should move in together. April tells Andy that everything he wrote down as a dream job involves law enforcement and that maybe he should consider the Pawnee police department. As they head out for victory waffles, Ron announces that Jerry forgot to vote. Mike Hanford is volunteer Brad. 5/8/24

SEASON 5

• 069. Ms. Knope Goes to Washington – 9/20/2012
  • Ben is working in Washington D.C. on Congressman Murray’s campaign and has brought April with him as his intern. Leslie and Andy decide to go visit them, and Leslie plans to present a proposal to get some federal funding to clean up the Pawnee River. While they are there, Leslie takes Andy through many of the tourist sites including the National Mall, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the United States Capitol and the National Museum of American History. Back in Pawnee, with Leslie gone, Ron takes over the role of throwing the employee appreciation barbecue. However, he announces that he will only be providing meat and that there will be none of the cutesy games that Leslie had hosted. He also declines Jerry’s request to have corn on the cob. As Andy looks for National Treasure clues at the Lincoln Memorial, Ron opens the barbecue by introducing everyone to their meat, a pig named Tom. However, when Ranger Patrick (Ben Zelevansky) points out that this is against the law, Ron is forced to leave and go buy meat at the Food ‘n’ Stuff. Leslie and Andy finally meet up with Ben and April at the museum. Andy and April run off to have sex, while Ben has to get back to work. Leslie heads to see Mr. Jepson with the Department of the Interior but is told by his secretary Lucinda (Amy Tolsky) that he is busy all week, and to simply leave her proposal in the giant stack of presentations already left for him. Ben gets everyone added to the list of a swanky D.C. cocktail party. Tom and Ann broke up one day after their drunken commitment to live together, but everyone is so smug about them not staying together that they haven’t told everyone and pretend to still be together. Furthermore, Tom has bet Donna $1000 that they will be together for another month. Ron finally returns with the meat to a starving crowd but warns them that it will take a few hours to thaw it out and cook it. Everyone starts to get antsy, angry, and thirsty since Ron has only brought beer, eventually leading to so much complaining that Ron gets annoyed and drives off, dragging the grill with him. Leslie starts to feel jealous of the many tall, pretty, successful women that Ben introduces her to, including a girl named Kate (Jessica Hansen) from the Pentagon, and Lacey (Lauren White), who works for Eric Cantor. When Ben then introduces her to Senators Barbara Boxer (herself) and Olympia Snowe (herself), Leslie tells them how much she admires them, but feeling insignificant herself, breaks down crying and runs to the closet, where she snubs Senator John McCain (himself) without even seeing who he is. When Ben tries to comfort her, she tells him that he’s the most amazing boyfriend ever, but if he doesn’t leave her alone, she will punch him in the face. When Ann realizes that Tom has put glitter in her laundry detergent to test one of his inventions, Ann retaliates by putting glitter in his expensive lotion. Tom loves the idea of “Sparkle Skin” but is upset that she ruined his lotion. Donna sees them arguing again and asks them if they are okay. She decides to let them off the hook with the bet and admits that she has lies about many relationships of the past. Leslie confides to Andy that she is disturbed from this thought of Ben making out with “Hot Rebecca,” an amalgam of beautiful, powerful, D.C. women. Andy tries to put into words that she is much more kick-ass than Hot Rebecca and tells her that she herself is an “amalgam.” Chris gives Ron a lecture about abandoning his team and not remembering that the barbecue was meant to show the employees that they are appreciated. Ron then brings in corn on the cob for everyone, as well as plateful of Tom of the pig. Everyone grimaces at the idea, but then agrees that he looks and smells delicious. Leslie begins an initiative to clean up the Pawnee River herself for two hours every Saturday morning. Leslie and Ben video conference and agree to meet up again the following month. Jenny Anne Hochberg is Ben’s colleague Talia. 9/23/24
• 070. Soda Tax – 9/27/2012
  • Concerned about the levels of sugar in the town’s restaurant sodas that are causing diabetes and obesity, Leslie plans to propose a tax on sodas to City Council. Ron celebrates by going to Paunch Burger and getting a 64-ounce Sugar Splash. Meanwhile in Washington, Ben starts to get picky about the fonts that his interns are using but has trouble gaining any of their respect. Andy starts working with Chris and Tom to train so that he will be able to run two minutes in 25 miles on order to qualify to become a law enforcement agent. During his first run, he gets so tired that he pulls down his pants and lays in the middle of the track, taking nearly 30 minutes to run the two miles. Leslie meets with Kathryn Pinewood (Mary Faber), who represents the Pawnee Restaurant Associates, and she threatens to cut 100 restaurant jobs if the tax is imposed. Chris becomes especially annoyed with an intern named Ellis (Pete Ploszek) who keep putting off adding photos on their website. He also finds that someone has drawn a caricature of him with a stick up his butt. Ben decides to fire and replace him, but finds out that he is Congressman Murray’s nephew, and that many of the other interns are well-connected too. He realizes that he needs to suck up to them instead, so he arranges an Ultimate Frisbee game for the interns. Leslie becomes conflicted about which way to go with the tax, so she holds a public forum to get feedback from the citizens, but the feeling from the public is basically split down the middle. Chris has a pep talk with Andy, so that Andy realizes his motivation is provide a good life for April. Chris realizes that he really has no motivation since he thinks he may die alone. The next time Andy and Chris run, Chris collapses and thinks he has broken his legs. They take him to the hospital, where he finds that there is nothing wrong with him. Leslie is so stressed out about her vote on her own proposal that she drinks a 120-ounce suicide before the meeting, causing her to vomit in a trash can when it comes time to vote. Even after their good time playing Ultimate, Ben finds another caricature of himself with a stick up his butt and goes off on Ellis, who denies doing it and says that Ben’s ‘daughter’ did it. April admits that she did it, and Ben tells her that she needs to take her job more seriously. They agree on her giving fifteen percent effort. She then lays into Ellis and tells him to get the website completed immediately or that she would murder him and scoop out his eyeballs. Leslie looks to Ron for some guidance on what to do for the vote. Ron tells her that tried to fire her four times when she first started, but he had them withdrawn because he realized that he wanted to work with someone with conviction. Ron gives Leslie a compass and tells her that he knows that she will display her conviction. Andy finally hits his goal, but Chris is preoccupied with the fact that will one day die without a leaving a mark on the world. Tom tells Chris that he might want to consider a therapist, and Chris agrees that it is good advice. Leslie casts the tie-breaking vote in favor of the soda tax. Roderick Lamar McCarthy is Roger, the concerned citizen who works at Colonel Plump’s. Courtney Cook is Dee Dee, whose husband gained 100 pounds in three months. Bobby Reed is Grover, who thinks if he can be taxed, he can steal purses. Lee de Broux is Terrance, who thinks that all bad things should be taxed. James Greene is Councilman Milton. 9/24/24

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