On April 9, 2009 we were introduced to Ron Swanson, Leslie Knope, and who could forget Mark Brendanawicz? Okay to be fair, I think we all forgot about Mark after season 2, but I digress. 15 years ago today Parks and Recreation aired on NBC.
It wasn’t all cupcakes and rainbows for creators Greg Daniels and Michael Schur. As it turns out, trying to follow The Office with a series filmed in the same style wasn’t something that audiences could swallow right away.
Instead of scrapping the show entirely, NBC made it clear that changes needed to be made. Hindsight being 20/20, it worked out for the best so kudos to Schur and Daniels. Bringing Chris Pratt on as a series regular, and adding the likes of Adam Scott and Rob Lowe paid off big time, and created one of the greatest ensemble casts in television history.
Cheers to 15 years.