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Parks and Recreation premiered on April 9, 2009. At the time, NBC marketed it as “if you like The Office, you’ll LOVE this,” which is only half-true. They share comedic DNA, including Ken Tremendous himself, Michael Schur, who wrote for The Office before creating Parks, and they likely appeal to the same comedy nerd fanbase, but the similarities end there — when Parks tried to straight-face emulate The Office, as it did in season one, it was disappointing. There was no room for the small-town weirdness mixed with equal parts enthusiasm and April Ludgate that have since come to define the show, and separate it from the more droll Office.
That all changed in the first scene of season two, when Leslie busts out “Parents Just Don’t Understood.” It was fun, loose, and loyal (note the everyone, sans Ron, cheers her on), and Parks has been one of the best sitcoms on television ever since. But it’s all coming to an end soon, beginning tonight with the first two episodes of the show’s seventh and final episode. And man, are we going to miss Pawnee. Here are but 20 reasons why.
1. The adventures of Burt Macklin, that son of a bitch.
2. Ron Swanson’s love of meat…
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3. …a passion rivaled only by hating things that aren’t meat (also, cats).
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4. April and Andy’s romance, which unlike Jim and Pam’s, never got obnoxious.
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5. The music of Mouse Rat.