President Barack Obama is regulating Wall Street, reforming health care and saving homeowners. Leslie Knope, the character played by Amy Poehler in NBC’s new comedy, “Parks and Recreation,” is just trying to make the world a better place by turning a pit into a park. And she wants a promotion.
“Leslie is made up of all the elements that create a good comic character: she’s a deluded maniac with a little bit of power,” says Poehler, 37.
Introducing herself to viewers, Knope announces: “I am the Deputy Director of the Parks and Recreation Department here in Pawnee, Indiana. And no, you do not have to adjust your dials. I am a woman. Government is not just a boys’ club anymore. There are 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, thanks to people like Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, and me. And Nancy Pelosi. The Parks department is the site of another one of those cracks.”
Leslie learns of the deserted pit, left empty by a bankrupt real estate developer, when a nurse named Ann (Rashida Jones of “The Office”) asks about it at a public meeting. Leslie immediately decides it will be her cause célébre, the effort that shoots her to the top of the Pawnee bureaucracy.Others are not so sure.
Unlike the Obama administration, the employees of Pawnee’s Parks and Rec department are interested in doing as little as possible. Knope’s disinterested boss, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), sends Leslie to run meetings because he hates the public. Leslie’s undermining assistant Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) has seen enough to know that the bureaucracy usually wins. And Leslie’s office crush, City Planner Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider), is more focused on Ann than Ann’s cause.
“Leslie is a combination of a lot of optimism and a student of politics, but a bad student,” says executive producer Greg Daniels, who creates and produces the show along with “Saturday Night Live” alum Michael Schur. Daniels developed “The Office” for American television and still executive produces that show.
“Parks and Recreation” won’t set out to lampoon the government, but if it sometimes goes there, that’s fine with Daniels and Poehler. “I wouldn’t want to watch something that’s trying to score points or talk about the news that much,” Daniels says. “But we definitely have the ability to do that.”
While Daniels and Schur were creating the show, they researched several different local governments and found a park in Claremont, Calif., that had been 18 years in the making. “No one can agree on anything during these processes,” says Daniels.
It’s the government setting that initially will set “Parks and Recreation” apart from “The Office,” says Daniels. After a few episodes, he expects the characters and storylines to take on lives that are fully their own.
“It’s a whole different world with a different set of characters,” says Poehler, who still lives in New York with her husband, comedian Will Arnett and their five-month-old son, Archie, but commutes to LA to do the show.”
One similarity “Parks and Recreation” does have to “The Office”: both shows are built around one centrally strong comic actor with the well-proven Poehler and Carell in the starring roles.
Carell made his name as a correspondent on “The Daily Show” and has gone on to star in some hit movies. As a member of “SNL'”s ensemble from September 2001 to October 2008, Poehler was a key part of the late-night sketch show’s hugely successful fall. She rapped about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, played Hillary Clinton while standing next to Hillary Clinton herself, and kept a straight face as Clinton next to Tina Fey’s Palin.
” ‘Parks and Recreation’ is built around Amy and her comic sensibility,” says Daniels.One early focus group report, leaked to the press, revealed that early audiences weren’t too impressed with the show’s pilot, but Daniels brushes that off. “Focus groups are legendarily inaccurate and negative. The ones that test best are shows that people think other people should watch.”
And Poehler is more interested in “hearing what people think after the show airs,” she says. ‘Parks and Recreation’ came about when NBC Universal Entertainment Co-Chairman Ben Silverman asked Daniels to create another show to capitalize on the success of “The Office.” “We never specifically said we were going to do a spin-off, just a new show,” says Daniels.
“Schur had worked with Amy at ‘SNL.’ When he heard that she would be available to move to LA and do a half-hour show, we pitched her several ideas. The one she responded to wasn’t the spin-off. We were so excited to have her on board that we went in that direction.”
Even though Poehler had to leave her home and the job that made her famous, she says of her new gig: “It feels totally right. It feels like mama is finally home.”
PARKS AND RECREATION
Thursday, 8:30 p.m., NBC