Parks and Rec is definitely my favorite television show of the last decade. I embraced Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope like my long-lost doppelganger and fell so passionately in love with her Galantine’s Day that I have celebrate it every year on February 13th. And, truth be told, Ben Wyatt is my idea of the absolute perfect man.
So you can only imagine my glee and excitement when I learned that the world will be getting a brand new COVID-19 from home episode of Parks and Rec to get us through this endless self-isolation on Thursday, April 30th at 8:30 E.T. on NBC. The episode will be a scripted fundraiser for Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund, which enables food banks to provide food and resources to “the most vulnerable members of the community during this difficult time.” The cast of Parks and Rec and NBC, as well as the show’s sponsors State Farm and Subaru, will match funds raised up to $500,000.
“This felt like a moment in time and a cause that we could all rally behind and that made sense,” said Mike Schur, executive producer of the show, on a call with reporters on Tuesday. The original show ran from 2009 to 2015, a seven season run that included a pair of Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, with Poehler winning a Golden Globe for her Leslie Knope performance in 2014.
Every cast member will return including Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Adam Scott, Rob Lowe, Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, Retta and Jim O’Heir. According to the network, “several guest stars from the Pawnee universe” may appear as well.
Schur continued, “I sent a hopeful email to the cast, and they all got back to me within 45 minutes. Our old Parks and Rec team has put together one more 30-minute slice of (quarantined) Pawnee life, and we hope everyone enjoys it. And donates!”
According to the press release, “Pawnee’s most dedicated civil servant, Leslie Knope, is determined to stay connected to her friends in a time of social distancing,” so we can imagine that this episode is going to be one interesting Zoom chat, possibly with waffles.