Amy Poehler says Parks and Rec reunion will happen when Michael Schur is "good and ready"
Aux Features Parks And RecreationAmy Poehler and Nick Offerman haven’t been shy about their openness to a Parks and Rec reunion, with the pair having recently spoken on the topic as early as this past May. Poehler again batted around the possibility at Smart Girls’ 10th anniversary celebration dinner on Monday night.
“I am technically available,” she told Variety. “I have like six of Leslie’s blazers in my closet, so anytime.”
That might sound noncommittal, but her follow-up comments are much more telling. Speaking of creator Michael Schur, Poehler said, “Our king is busy doing his highly successful show, The Good Place. We really can’t jump without Mike. So when Mike is good and ready, I’m sure we’ll show up like good soldiers.”
That might be a little tougher than it sounds, however, what with Chris Pratt, Adam Scott, and Aubrey Plaza’s packed schedules, Rob Lowe’s pursuit of Bigfoot, and Rashida Jones producing her tail off these days. Aziz Ansari, who was hit with controversial allegations of sexual misconduct earlier this year, will also be welcome, as Schur has made it clear he has no qualms about working with the actor again.
All that said, don’t expect it anytime soon. As Poehler said, Schur’s plenty busy with The Good Place, which was just renewed for a fourth season. Also, it sounds like nobody seems to have a clue just what this reunion would entail. When asked what Leslie Knope would be up to, Poehler guessed that perhaps she’s “president of the moon.” Hey, we’d watch that.
43 Comments
Parks and Recreation was a good show, but why? Just why? Everything doesn’t need a reunion special/reboot. In fact, one could argue that nothing does.
Especially because like… the show ended in 2015. It’s only been 3 years. We haven’t even had time to be nostalgic about it yet and it’s already coming back around for another pass.
I think we’re just nostalgic for a show that featured good and decent people working in government rather than whatever we have these days in the White House.
good and decent people working in governmentAnd Mark Brendanawicz.
I think he died on his way back to his home pod.
*Brendanaquits
More like Brandana-quits.
So I’ve been rewatching it lately, and I’m definitely nostalgic for existence prior to 2017.
I’m all for a P&R reunion/revival/whatever the hell they want to call it, but give it a little more time. It’s only been off the air for three years. Let us miss them a little longer, to make it all the better when they return.
P&R makes me so, so happy. For me, it’s an almost perfect show, and the way they wrapped it up was probably one of the most satisfying show endings I’ve ever seen. I’m sure a reunion would be fun, but everyone from that show is too “cool” now… they were all underdogs before it, and all became much more than they were before. You can’t have a varsity jock play a nerd. You just can’t. Just let it be the perfect little capsule that it is and leave it be.
It ran just one season too long. That last one was meh at best. Really to me, it was peak P&R in season two.
RIGHT? The finale took everyone into the future and it was great. We don’t need more. Not at all.I don’t need a show about Leslie and Anne’s kids dating. They tried it with the Flintstones and it sucked.
Parks and Recreation is the perfect example of something I loved when it was out and never, ever need to go back to it.
I rewatch it, its holds up. It doesn’t need a revival though. 30 Rock on the other hand is due
The series finale (and, frankly, the entire seventh season as a whole) was an amazing send-off for the P&R characters.Honestly, I hate the idea of it coming back.
I’d love the special just being one day-in-the-life episode. Nothing special, nothing crazy. Just another short spin through the world of P&R. Even maybe a period piece set before the last season but after the one prior. Why not? It’d be fun.
I’m not lying, if a P&R reunion happened, I would watch. But… come on. The show was nearly perfect for its whole run, and it was a long run. I’ve watched the whole thing I think 4 times straight through, over the years. Look, I’m happy for the Veronica Mars return, but only because Kristen Bell made it clear that it doesn’t interfere with The Good Place. That’s my goal – nothing can interfere with The Good Place.If Schur does a reunion, it will be great (because look at his damn track record) but if he can’t get everyone he might as well not do it. There was a followup show to M*A*S*H, called AfterM*A*S*H, which managed to snag only the least interesting cast members – Klinger, the chaplain, Potter and I think maybe Radar. A P&R followup would have a major problem if the cast was just Jerry, Tom, and, say, Ann. But yeah. I would watch it.
There was a followup show to M*A*S*H, called AfterM*A*S*HShhh…. we do not speak of this. We never, ever, EVER speak of this!
How about this… A Parks & Rec reunion, but everyone is played by D’Arcy Carden.
This seems pointless because the finale told you how everyone’s future went.Would be interested if it was about the Knope Presidency.
A Parks and Rec reunion would require either reckoning how wrong they got things with the time jump or these characters living in a parallel universe. Neither sounds appealing. Let it go.
Well, I mean, it’s not a real universe. There is no Gryzzl. Pawnee isn’t even a real city in Indiana.
Thank you for this! All this time I thought the little worlds inside the tv and the little people in them were real!
At least they got the Cubs winning the World Series right.
So did BttF 2
The last couple seasons were dreadful, Ansari isn’t the only questionable figure on the show with sexual misconduct in his history (looking at you, Rob “keep the immigrants away” Lowe), and the overly sunny politics on this show have already not aged well at all. I think the finale was one of the worst I’ve ever seen. (Note: I bailed on The Office well before it ended.) Please just let it stay dead.
Booooooooooooo.Boooooooooooooooooooooo.
The last season in particular was junk with a giant ribbon on it.
Yeah, it was especially bad. S6 from what I remember at least had its good points, but 7 had that whole thing with Tom pursuing that girl from like three season prior…holy shit that was bad.
Rob Lowe was questionable before that even. Like over 25 years ago he made a sex tape with an underage girl.
Yeah, that’s what I was alluding to as far as sexual misconduct goes (but I also felt like his Nazi-adjacent rhetoric deserved some mention). Honestly, I really looked askance at Michael Schur after he said he’d work with Ansari again, not just because of lingering questions there but because he wouldn’t even address the Lowe-sized elephant in the room.
Have any of the women on the show complained about the idea of working with either of them?
A friend of a friend of mine who happens to work in the biz wrote a blog expressing discomfort about Ansari in part because of stories she was privy to about harassment on the set of Master of None. (Unfortunately, I think it got taken down.) Beyond that, I have no idea. I imagine there are some who have either expressed concerns like that privately, or don’t feel comfortable expressing them for one reason or another. One of the lessons of MeToo after all is that these things are fairly pervasive and often times those with concerns either don’t feel comfortable raising them or are ignored anyway. I guarantee you someone on set knew about Louis.
It’s not like they’d have any big reason to bring Louis back, though. Heard anything more about Lowe?
Not specifically but I don’t work on Parks and Rec. I know that I personally do not feel comfortable watching him anymore and was relieved when its cancellation made that decision for me.
He wasn’t on the show in its last season.
He would presumably appear in any reunion, and there was always a chance he would make a final appearance in the season or finale (I don’t remember offhand whether he did). Sitcom characters tend to find ways of returning.
Just to address something from your original post: I don’t think the show’s optimism about politics have aged as poorly as you think. For one thing, it’s not like real life politics was all that sunny when the show was on. Also, as much as it sucks to have Trump in power we’ve seen recently an upsurge in people getting more interested in politics(just look at all the diversity milestones in the recent election), so I think there’s still reason for hope.
When I critique the politics of the show in passing, I’m thinking of critiques like this one, that posit it as another show (like The West Wing, albeit WW was definitely a lot worse) that taught a lot of liberals that politics is about being the most competent person and being above it all, and being respectful with your friends on the other side (like lovable wise Ron Swanson, who humanized libertarians who in reality he has almost nothing in common with, and who are almost all outright Nazis now), rather than about seizing power and using it. Parks and Recreation, like West Wing, is sort of the epitome of “they go low, we go high,” one of the most destructive ideologies in modern history and one liberals need to abandon ASAP. https://rhizzone.net/articles/parks-and-recreation-liberal-mind/?fbclid=IwAR0gpwirtdQhfzZeOLMtwEgpgDSkjgvy9z7l5p2UTlYQMuegOoggBQ653GE
It also bothered me – even at the time – when the show started having figures like John “I voted for Iraq and gave you Palin” McCain and Madeline “thousands of dead Iraqi kids is fine” Albright on to the show and basically sucked them off. In the first seasons I thought it was a funny character quirk of Leslie Knope that she had portraits of legitimate feminist figures alongside the likes of Condileeza Rice – that she was well-meaning, but nonetheless internalized the idea that any person in power or government is automatically admirable – but in those last couple seasons or so it became clear that this was not intended as a funny, satirical character flaw for Leslie so much as something the writers believed unironically. So that sucked.It was still a funny show. I don’t, in any of my critiques, suggest that people shouldn’t still continue to enjoy it as a funny sitcom. But after the eight years of Obama that led to the sick reality we’re in now, it is hard at the very least to not look at it as very much a product of its time, and one that in some respects is just not aging well.
Funny you mention The West Wing since I’m almost done watching the whole series. It has its flaws, but I’ve still enjoyed it. One thing I like about it and P&R is that they both push the idea that government can do a lot of good, which I think is important considering all the cynicism there is about government, which I think partially led to Trump(“He’s not a politician!”). Also, you may scoff at “they go low, we go high”, but I think the reverse can be pretty dangerous in its own right. People are very good at convincing themselves that their supposed righteousness justifies any manner of terrible things because the other side is just that evil and therefore the ends justify the means and we’re doing what we have to and “Do you think this is easy for me?” So while it’s important to use power for good, I think it’s good to err on the side of respect even if your opponents don’t reciprocate. Obama had to put up with a lot of shit but still managed to win 2 terms while outclassing his opponents(not to mention the fact that they still haven’t repealed Obamacare). Lastly, what makes you think libertarians are a bunch of Nazis?
Is that really enough to render him problematic forever?
Even if it isn’t, the immigrant rhetoric has kept him squarely in that camp.
to all the naysayers, you don’t need to watch it if it reboots! people like me can enjoy it without you, i never understand why people are against remakes and reboots, you do know you don’t have to watch it right?