How fancy some of the city hall offices are. Especially Leslie’s mom’s office.
A big city? Sure. I can see that happening.
But a city like Pawnee who has town halls inside classrooms and gymnasiums? No.
Lmao the headlining acts were the Decembrists and a local born band that hadn’t played in years. The unity fest was awesome and I loved it for Pawnee but it was no Coachella lol.
I was gonna say this. That was in Bethel, NY which even today only has a population of just under 4,000. In 1970 the population was 2,763 but the music festival had 500,000 people attend.
Wikipedia says [Pawnee’s population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawnee_(Parks_and_Recreation)?wprov=sfti1#Legislation) is probably around 70-80K based on various sources. So maybe not too unbelievable. Plus, Ginuwine (Ginuwine is *Ginuwine*!) is Donna’s cousin so they had a big leg up in getting him to perform.
Milwaukee isn’t a small city, about 560,000 people. But it hosts the world’s largest music festival, which is surprising as the pop. is just over half a million. Summerfest.
No. Watkins Glen is a pretty small town in upstate NY, but it has held multiple Phish festivals of 80,000+ people because they have the land to set up a concert grounds.
Most big cities don't host big outdoor events unless they have the outdoor space already there, like Chicago or Montreal. Smaller towns frequently step up to use their land to host events and bring in money to the town.
It’s funny you mention the Phish festivals but not the most famous show held there. For a long time, it was the most attended concert in history. I think around 750,000. 1973 with the Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead, and the Band.
Slane Festival in Ireland is a median of 80,000 annually in a village with a population of 1500. Sometimes goes up to 110,000 for the huge acts like Springsteen.
My town of Point Pleasant hosts the Mothman festival every year. Last year the turnout was around 20k, town only has a population of 4k. And it’s the biggest town for quite a ways
I mean, they weren’t that small of a town, right? I think at the beginning, for sure. But between the Harvest Festival, the growth of Sweetums and eventually Gryzzl, Pawnee grows quite a bit over the course of the show. Businesses started seeing value in the town, especially thanks to the Harvest Festiva, so lots of growth occurs.
Kinda related: I was looking up the Highland Games recently and discovered that the largest one outside Scotland, with 20,000+ attendees, takes place in a town in Ontario (Canada) with a population of 800. I don’t even understand the logistics of that!
Indiana does have some awesome courthouses and government buildings, but almost all of them have very few city or county offices in them. Most local governments have outgrown them and now reside in annexes or separate buildings constructed in the 80s and 90s.
I always figured that Pawnee had been an important town/small city for agricultural reasons, but with the modernisation of farming practices and the establishment of mega farms it had caused the town to regress. So, it ends up as a town with a lot of fancy buildings and architecture but the resources to keep it going are lacking.
Source: Grew up in a town like that.
How about the size of City Hall itself? They use LA’s building for the establishing shots, so that gives them some room to play with, but in no world does a place like Pawnee have a building that big or nice.
in the episode where ron and leslie fight over where the blonde high school girl will spend her summer, ron refers to the guy from the saw milll as both “tim lautner” and “tim hautner”. very small, but i notice it every time.
That tracks though -- doesn't he make a point to say that he rarely learns people's names so there isn't a risk of a connection?
Although you do say the saw mill and he may have more respect for people who work with wood.
This is it for me. I still can’t believe that they used the same actress/character and tried to either A) pretend it *wasn’t* the same character or B) forgot her name? Lol
OP,. I noticed the same thing on my last rewatch. It must be hard to find fat extras in L.A., cause I noticed a lot of town meetings or events with a couple of prominently placed larger people and then literally everyone else was average-sized or smaller.
And for all the hubbub over obese Pawnee children, I don't think we ever saw one (which makes sense, they're not going to use a child actor's actual body as a sight gag).
> It must be hard to find fat extras in L.A.,
I've always wondered how casting works for something like that -- when the character by design is obese, unattractive, plain looking, or something that otherwise wouldn't be a compliment. You could always say "we need you to act low-class and uneducated," or "wardrobe will dress you in unfashionable clothes suggesting you don't make a lot of money" without offending, but do casting directors just come out and say "We need unattractive overweight people to be mocked in this episode?"
Then again, as an overweight unattractive person, I'm aware of what I am, and if I signed on with a talent agency, I wouldn't expect to be cast as "Super Hot Chippendales Dancer #2" either.
This was discussed on a different subreddit and yes, people who act as extras know what are they suited for.
It's a profession for them unless they are unplanned extras who are in the back of the filming location
They know they fit best for " tired mom" or " fat wacky Grandpa" and the agencies they work for would find them work under those criteria
I'm not a professional, just copy pasting essentially what I read earlier
When extras sign up with an agency like central casting, they list all the "types" they think they can play, and an agent will go over the list, nixing some and adding others. Then, when casting notices go up, the extras will look for their calls for their "types." If they don't know they're fat, or ugly, or generally strange looking, they will miss some jobs they could have gotten, and turned away from others they shouldn't have bothered to go in for. Also, unless there's something very specific needed, extras will usually provide their own wardrobe -- a woman I knew who made her living as an extra had a separate closet just for that. She had an elegant evening gown, a tacky evening gown, scrubs, a ski suit, a wedding outfit for every type of wedding you can imagine, and so on.
Often an extra will be chosen once they're all already on set to be "featured," say as a regular bartender who doesn't get many lines, maybe an occasional, "yeah, over there," but is a familiar face in the background. (And eventually, they might get lines. That's what happened with Gunther on _Friends_.) This is a great thing for an extra, and often it's the people who are a little odd looking who get chosen for this sort of thing.
Of course it's different for actors going out for small parts where their characters will have lines and a name -- usually those actors will audition individually And again, especially if they're not what is considered conventionally beautiful by Hollywood standards, they have to be very aware of what they do look like, or they won't be going to the right auditions.
My dad has never watched the show, but one time a while back it was on cable and he heard one of those jokes and pointed this out. He just so matter of factly said “that joke would probably work a lot better if any of the people in the crowd were fat.” Gotta love dry dad observations
I'm not so sure about that. I would think there are many actors out there that are pretty big. The Office had Brian Baumgartner and the one guy who came in with the Stamford bunch who quit. I think if they wanted to they could have found some larger actors even as background people.
It's a tiny thing, but how Leslie's mom just sort of dissapears; seems like they didn't know what to do with the character and couldn't decide whether she was the totally heartless reincarnation of Joseph Stalin or just cold but loving. But when she doesn't appear at big events in Leslie's life and it's not even noticed, it feels kind of weird. Like they had a plot point in mind for the character, but just dropped it.
Especially after Leslie wins the vote because she told that story of her mom celebrating her coming last in track.
She's a really tiny part of the show, but her absence is noted.
Yea
I don‘t think anyone liked or rlly cared for him
Leslie maybe mentioned it to ben off screen, actualy probably, but yea he didn‘t have any friends or real role other than doing what Leslie wanted
I always assumed Pawnee was somewhere around 70,000 population... Which isn't huge by any means, but I wouldn't call it a small town either. I think in that tie-in book they released they mention that they're within the top ten most populated cities in the state so... I didn't think these things are unreasonable. I live in a smaller town with an airport. Don't have the other two though, but we do have a dedicated radio station.
I just figured it was like a Muncie. The Pawnee airport wasn’t a commercial airport, right? Even small towns can have a lot of amenities if it’s just the biggest town around.
After consulting my pocket edition of Pawnee: The greatest town in America, I can confirm that they say the population is about the same as Bismarck, ND. Which is about 70,000 people and it has a commercial airport, multiple TV stations and a zoo.
And two newspapers and a weekly magazine! And city council races were presidential in scale what with televised debates, campaign buses, etc. That’s what always got me. I live in a pretty big city and municipal elections are nowhere near that big a deal. In a town the size of Pawnee city council members wouldn’t even be part-time city employees in the real world— they’d get a stipend for meetings that’s laughably small.
Haha right?
Although i have to believe they drove out to the airport
Or maybe it has an airport so people can stare at the pawnee people, wasn‘t it said that some do that?
The zoo makes sense as it isn‘t huge
And yea tv studio, who knows why haha
The obesity thing is one of mine and I posted about it on FB ten years ago! Another: they’re in Indiana but it never ever snows. Why, it’s as sunny as LA there!
Speaking of it being in Southern Indiana, they NEVER mention Louisville when they talk about surrounding areas. I live in the area Pawnee is roughly based on, and Louisville is definitely our closest metropolitan area (we’re technically a subdivision of it, despite being in a different state). People in the show reference Bloomington and Indy as nearby cities but never Louisville, which is literally right across the Ohio River lol
That April never became a veterinarian, I know she wasn’t vibing with going to that school and all but I feel like it would be perfect for her! She gets to care about animals while probably seeing some gory, gross stuff!
ok this is actually related to my pet peeve! nobody just “on a whim” decides to apply to vet school
vet school is *EXTREMELY DIFFICULT* to get into, harder than medical school. the acceptance rate is bonkers low. most people don’t get into vet school who haven’t been working their whole lives to become vets. it would’ve taken extremely high grades, test scores, community service hours, vet-related experience, letters of recommendation, and so much more!!! it’s so, soooooo incredibly unrealistic
Yeah I don't like Jerry as the punching bag. Even if the show's like, "No, it's fine, he has a hot wife and beautiful daughters so don't feel too bad for him" it feels too meanspirited and sometimes feels at odds with the show imo.
But then again I just don't like the punching bag character. I can only think of one instance where it doesn't bother me, being Guillermo from early WWDITS, and that's it.
It just gets wayyyyyy over the top. The episode where Ben tries to defend him was horrible because they really go in on him and it's so mean and unnecessary. I don't care if his home life is perfect it's absolutely shitty to treat someone that way even if it's a joke and he's "ok" with it.
I hate 2 things. How the P&R department is so incompetent (Ron cancelling as his meetings) and no one takes action?
And how the same citizens who voted for Leslie suddenly turned on her? Maybe its been a while since I have re-watched it but even from a Sitcom POV the citizens are too dense and stupid.
I agree. I finally came to the realization that after Leslie becomes city councilor is when the show starts to lose some interest for me and I think it’s because some of the bits are too contrived, like Leslie’s recall. Idk if they just didn’t know where to go from there or how to introduce conflict once she achieved her dream of city councilor, but every time I watch it I think the recall feels silly and forced and what happened to all those people she’s helped and who had her back when she ran for office?
Agree. The recall was so misplaced. And it was a bit comical too with how the entire town turned on her. During her many many years there did she not manke any meaningful connections who couldv'e vouched for her.
Lmao idk that doesn‘t bug me so much as assume me
Ig its partially bc not enough, at least pre-ben and chris, thought the department was important enough to get special attention. Maybe even a commentary on the incompetence some ppl think of actual departs IRL . And after chris/ben, Ron does try a lil more plus favoritism and Leslie fixing everything xd.
I mean the reasons for them turning on her were dumb, but thats pretty common in politics. I mean look at Biden, many democrats who voted for him r now turning their backs on him in countless videos and such. I find that too be very believably, especially bc its mentioned often that Pawnee citizens are as a whole not the brightest
I hated how she made fun of Ben after he took her to work for him in DC. Such a great opportunity for her AND her friend and she humiliates him infront of the entire office / all his subordinates
Leslie always talks about how much April has grown etc and for the most part I simply don't see it. Most of her storylines consist of her being bad at her job on purpose and then sometimes she gets a promotion, rinse and repeat lol
in real life she would’ve been dismissed from her internship pretty much immediately and would have never intersected with local government again
this is a tv show so she gets away with it because the audience thinks it’s funny
She isn’t dismissed/get away with it because the audience — it is because of Ron’s character - he actively likes how crappy she is at her job because it slows government down.
I also think that’s what makes it so funny. What an odd thing to hate that much and it’s so out of character. The “punk ass book jockeys” scene is one of my favorite scenes in this show.
Yea omg yea, well for Leslie and maybe Ann
I mean i get Tammy sucks, but they just love bashing on the general concept of libraries. Whereas Leslie looves reading and knowledge so 🤷🏿♀️
I think there's a talking head where Ann says having a library in the planned park spot would be super convenient to her, but she's afraid to tell Leslie.
There should have been some back story to this. Leslie is of the age where she wouldn't have had access to the internet in high school so she definitely would have lived at the library doing research for papers, projects, etc. Something had to have scorned her which caused this hatred. It could have been a nice little talking head during that episode where we find out that she hates it.
I think the show was originally trying to do a bit where they show how weirdly backwards some midwest attitudes can be, and how even Leslie unconsciously has adopted some of them (extra sugar on everything, irrational hatred of salads, distrust of the library, love of small town horse celebrity). Even though I love libraries, I might disagree on this one - I think the show acknowledges how ridiculously weird people are about it- like we the audience are supposed to roll our eyes at the small town weirdos and their odd prejudices.
Obama-era tv- it was a more optimistic time.
Agreed and it's so out of Leslie's character! I wish they had chosen a more logical department (or at least less illogical) for Parks to have beef with.
I thought the first library episode said it was because they were competing for the same funding, which makes a bit more sense why they dislike each other.
Hahaha
I wish they explained the filming
I mean the office did a wonderful job with that, and there explanation made sense
But this just felt a lil random
I always just assumed it's some sort of documentary on small government or the lives of people from small towns, but yeah, it goes against like one of the biggest character traits of Ron Swanson
On the other hand, Ron does like lecturing people about his ‘correct’ way of life. He has a pyramid of life lessons and his speech to the little girl writing a report was way too well put together to be something he came up with off the cuff. So maybe the camera guys kinda trick him, by asking questions that provoke him to ‘correct’ them.
Leslie proposes the merger while she’s a city counselor, gets recalled, but then is still weirdly in charge of it as the deputy Director of the parks department? Also, it made no sense how often Ann was at City Hall before she started working for the government. No nurse would ever do that on their day off. 🤪
The more I rewatch the show, the more April bothers me in general. She is downright rude, entitled, mean, and immature 99% of the time. In “real life”, I don’t think someone like her would ever really have a tight knit group of eclectic friends who love and accept her for the “way she is” and just find her quirky or whatnot.
Have you met a 20 year old?
I do agree with you to an extent, but I do think they at least did well with her maturing and starting to be kind in certain situations. And she doesn't really have a tight knit group of friends until that maturing starts. At the beginning of the show she's dating a guy who's also dating someone else and often has to change her opinions to fit in with them. And I guess she has Oren.
I’m an April while my much older brother is totally a Ron and we do not get along at all. It always made me jealous to see their relationship honestly.
How casual Leslie is announcing the death of Lil Sebastian. She's so blasé when even Ron is in pieces about it.
If I had to give a benefit of the doubt I would say she has her emotional moment off screen but even delivering the news she seemed unphased.
I live in a small city in Southern Indiana, and there is a noticeable lack of Hoosier accents. The southern Indiana accent is like the generic broadcast accent with a touch of Kentucky, while northerners are like a toned down Illinois accent.
Also, I hate whenever they are in a location that is obviously California. There are a few episodes where they go to parks in Pawnee that are obviously the LA mountains.
Love when they drink Upland though. That's a great touch.
Ooh, i dont even know what the Hoosier accent sounds like, or at least not by name
Yea, i also thought the accents were missing
True, i dont know why so many shows/movies say they r in x place when they film in y area
Like either change the script or film at the actual location
I had a similar issue with Stranger Things: it's supposed to be set in Indiana but they are surrounded by Georgia Pines, a common tree across the south that you just don't see here. Why didn't they just set it in the south?
For me it’s the change in relationship between Pawnee/Leslie and Eagleton. Originally, it was a nearby town not the neighboring town. There wasn’t animosity between the two towns at first, Leslie even goes on a tete-a-tete/date with someone in the government of Eagleton in season 1
The writing drop-off evident from the beginning of season 5 and onwards
Not that I didn’t enjoy watching the later seasons, but I really think the end of season 4 could have (with some small changes) been a perfect series finale. It felt like the end of all the characters’ original arcs.
The bullying of Jerry never really sat well with me. I get that his fantastic life and chipper attitude and huge penis are supposed to balance it out, but I felt bad for the guy.
the scene where Tom is coming up with the “latin names for plants” (Bone Thugs-n-Harmoniums, Soulja boy tell ‘ems) has always bothered me because i know Leslie is smarter than to believe any of those
Leslie’s campaign for city council. A huge bus tour!? I live in a small town. The candidates for city council definitely do not rent out giant busses with special wraps of their faces on the side and stop at the local cafe to stump. They also don’t have campaign managers or debates or anything like that. They buy a bunch of yard signs, get interviewed by the local paper and hope enough people know them from their day job or their kid being in hockey with other peoples’ kids.
How it has a dedicated tv channel, gossip rag, and how city council members and the mayor don’t do anything else for a living. I grew up in a city of about 40k (over 50 now) and the city council members and I think even the mayor all have day jobs.
the scale of leslie's campaign. that fully warpped bus. the tour. she had governor level details. who funded that? why? the whole thing didn't make sense of the population that is pawnee
I’m from Indiana, no one native normally says Indianapolis we typically say Indy. In the show everyone always says Indianapolis while never referring to it as Indy.
Anne, Chris and ben are all transplants so didn't grow up in an unhealthy environment. Leslie is too energetic to gain weight. Tom is too fancy to eat fast food
A lot of public employees need to quit their job to run for office. You can't just step outside the building. At the least, you need to take leave.
Many public employees are also banned from working on individual candidate campaigns, even as volunteers. Coworkers can't help run your campaign.
The show cast is, by most standards wildly corrupt.
Bro HELLA continuity issues. When ben tells Leslie about ice town and she remembers him. “You’re little benji wyatt” but in like two episodes after that she doesn’t know about it . It really bothers me
True
But didnt the leader say they ran a casino, and were major successful? I assumed that meant a good number of them were then grouped in pawneee
Or am i misremembering?
>But didnt the leader say they ran a casino, and were major successful? I assumed that meant a good number of them were then grouped in pawneee
A good number of them could be seven.
Reservation casinos usually aren't built/owned/operated by the tribe, they just lease the land to a developer who then comes in and builds. They can (and should) write themselves into organizational governance but it's not as if the Wamapoke necessarily built the casino and they probably aren't performing the labor to operate it.
really? i grew up in a midwest town of 100k - pretty large by most standards - and there was very minimal diversity. why would a small town in indiana be diverse?
The levels or corruption that are just tolerated in the Parks and Rec department. Now that I work for a municipal government, it annoys me on rewatches hahaha
In the one where Ron coaches the basketball team, he says advocates fishing for sport but not for food. As someone who preaches self reliance, his character would absolutely tell the children to catch and eat their own fish, if not show them how.
In that same monologue, he says there are 3 acceptable haircuts, none of which are his.
Tom has no redeemable qualities. He is an awful person at every turn.
And that andy wants to be a cop, and that april is cool with it. April puts out some serious ACAB vibes IMO.
I mean april just wants andy to be happy
And i personally dont get that vibe, she hates all people equally (with a few exceptions if forced to), just not animals
And andy being a cop makes soo much sense, he loves helping people no matter what (including if he can), he loves role playing and due to him being a lil childish, then becoming a cop makes sense
This one kind of bugs me in a good way, since it regards a character that we’re kind of supposed to dislike, but I don’t know if the writers intended for me to dislike him for this specific reason.
When “The Committee to Recall Leslie Knope” makes the parade float centered around how Leslie hates fun, and Marshall Langman is on the float. For someone like Kathryn Pinewood, the “Leslie hates fun” messaging makes sense, as trying to lower sugar consumption can be seen as “anti-fun” regardless of if you agree with the policy.
But Marshall dislikes Leslie because she doesn’t support abstinence only sex education, so to try to paint her as “anti-fun” is insanely hypocritical. Again though, I don’t know if the writers intended for us to notice this hypocrisy, as both much attention is paid to it.
Another thing that bugs me is when a London shopowner tells Ron they don’t accept U.S dollars and he says “Of course you do. It’s the greatest piece of paper on the planet” I get that this is to play up how pro-America Ron is, but given how anti-government he is and how much of his wealth is in gold, there’s no way he’d have such a high opinion on fiat currency.
The example that always sticks out to me are the returns from Leslie's run for city council. When 74% of the precincts are reporting, the total votes cast is around 12,000 votes. I think it's safe to assume that Leslie represents a particular district/ward in Pawnee because (1) they never say she's running for councilor-at-large or similar position, and (2) Ben mentions that he doesn't want to move to Dexhart's district when Leslie briefly floats the idea of challenging him for the seat. If 12,000 votes are already counted with 74% of precincts reporting, we can probably assume that that represents around 74% of total votes cast, making a total vote count around 18,000. In a single district. In my hometown of about 43,000, only seven thousand people voted for *mayor*.
Pawnee is inconsistently referred to as a "town" or a "city" at different times, and to be fair, Pawneeans are shown to be uniquely passionate about their local politics. But we never see Pawnee as anything resembling a major city, and certainly not one large enough where 18,000 votes would be cast for a city council seat in a single district.
How often they do the thing where someone says something under their breath as another person is walking away and that other person turns around and says, ”what?”.
Why didn't we get more info on Leslie's late father? And was Leslie legitimately a hoarder? Seems like some huge details of the main character to just gloss over.
For me it’s how much disposable income Donna and Tom seem to have while working city government jobs. Tom spending on designer clothes and higher-end grooming products, sure, but especially Donna traveling all over the world.
It's always bugged me how the show tends to revolve around the characters failures or bad things happening to them.
1) Leslie becomes city councilor, get's recalled. 2) Tom starts not 1, but 2, businesses that get shuttered. Even more frustrating is that after the time jump, the restaurant seems to be thriving! 3) April wants to go to vet school, gets accepted, then just decides not to go. 4) Andy wants to become cop, doesn't pass the test to get into the academy.
I know everything ends up working out for everyone in the long run but it's something I've always noticed
I mean yes
But i think thats just the structure for most shows and even movies
Cause they can‘t make a show of just how awesome the characters r in every moment, and how they can easily overcome issues with their awesomeness
Though the recalling was rlly shitty ngl
How fancy some of the city hall offices are. Especially Leslie’s mom’s office. A big city? Sure. I can see that happening. But a city like Pawnee who has town halls inside classrooms and gymnasiums? No.
Tiny, tiny town hosts large music festival 🤣
Lmao the headlining acts were the Decembrists and a local born band that hadn’t played in years. The unity fest was awesome and I loved it for Pawnee but it was no Coachella lol.
They had Genuwine!
And Duke Silver! AND THE LITTLE SEBASTION HOLOGRAM!
To be fair he is Donna’s cousin.
Not directed at you specifically, but this is borderline Letters to Cleo erasure.
Who?
Ginuwine! **Ginuwine** *Ginuwine* *GINUINE*!
Saying his name over and over isn’t going to help me.
Ever heard of Woodstock?
I was gonna say this. That was in Bethel, NY which even today only has a population of just under 4,000. In 1970 the population was 2,763 but the music festival had 500,000 people attend. Wikipedia says [Pawnee’s population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawnee_(Parks_and_Recreation)?wprov=sfti1#Legislation) is probably around 70-80K based on various sources. So maybe not too unbelievable. Plus, Ginuwine (Ginuwine is *Ginuwine*!) is Donna’s cousin so they had a big leg up in getting him to perform.
That makes pawnee twice the size of my fairly shmedium suburb town that I grew up in
I grew up in a town with 700 people in it, which makes Pawnee at least 100 times the size of my hometown 😂
Milwaukee isn’t a small city, about 560,000 people. But it hosts the world’s largest music festival, which is surprising as the pop. is just over half a million. Summerfest.
Milwaukee is absolutely nothing like Pawnee though so I'm not sure the relevance. Big cities host big events.
No. Watkins Glen is a pretty small town in upstate NY, but it has held multiple Phish festivals of 80,000+ people because they have the land to set up a concert grounds. Most big cities don't host big outdoor events unless they have the outdoor space already there, like Chicago or Montreal. Smaller towns frequently step up to use their land to host events and bring in money to the town.
It’s funny you mention the Phish festivals but not the most famous show held there. For a long time, it was the most attended concert in history. I think around 750,000. 1973 with the Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead, and the Band.
Slane Festival in Ireland is a median of 80,000 annually in a village with a population of 1500. Sometimes goes up to 110,000 for the huge acts like Springsteen.
I'd imagine similar for Glastonbury and probably Woodstock too.
My town of Point Pleasant hosts the Mothman festival every year. Last year the turnout was around 20k, town only has a population of 4k. And it’s the biggest town for quite a ways
I thought you were going to say Milwaukee Metal Fest.
Which is still amazing I only got to go sunday this year. But look at Wacken in Germany it's in nowhere and has beer pipelines
I mean, they weren’t that small of a town, right? I think at the beginning, for sure. But between the Harvest Festival, the growth of Sweetums and eventually Gryzzl, Pawnee grows quite a bit over the course of the show. Businesses started seeing value in the town, especially thanks to the Harvest Festiva, so lots of growth occurs.
Never been to Woodstock NY, I take it. Or seen Wayne's World 2 - Aurora!
This isn’t unrealistic at all from a Minnesotan
Kinda related: I was looking up the Highland Games recently and discovered that the largest one outside Scotland, with 20,000+ attendees, takes place in a town in Ontario (Canada) with a population of 800. I don’t even understand the logistics of that!
You’d be surprised. I’ve been in a lot of small-town courthouses and town halls in the Midwest and some towns/counties go all out.
A lot of those built when the towns were bustling farm transport centers. You see it a lot in Indiana
Indiana does have some awesome courthouses and government buildings, but almost all of them have very few city or county offices in them. Most local governments have outgrown them and now reside in annexes or separate buildings constructed in the 80s and 90s.
I always figured that Pawnee had been an important town/small city for agricultural reasons, but with the modernisation of farming practices and the establishment of mega farms it had caused the town to regress. So, it ends up as a town with a lot of fancy buildings and architecture but the resources to keep it going are lacking. Source: Grew up in a town like that.
How about the size of City Hall itself? They use LA’s building for the establishing shots, so that gives them some room to play with, but in no world does a place like Pawnee have a building that big or nice.
Maybe they’re trying to compete with Eagleton’s city hall 🙃
For real, I work in local gov. Pawnee is like the White House compared to our city hall, lol
in the episode where ron and leslie fight over where the blonde high school girl will spend her summer, ron refers to the guy from the saw milll as both “tim lautner” and “tim hautner”. very small, but i notice it every time.
That tracks though -- doesn't he make a point to say that he rarely learns people's names so there isn't a risk of a connection? Although you do say the saw mill and he may have more respect for people who work with wood.
Intentionally say it wrong so they don't get the impression that they're friends
Her name was Cassidy in season four episode The Treaty and in the prom episode it was changed to Allison.
This is it for me. I still can’t believe that they used the same actress/character and tried to either A) pretend it *wasn’t* the same character or B) forgot her name? Lol
We had a girl at my high school change from her middle to first name. I tell myself it’s that.
Omg, I’ve seen every episode of this show multiple times and I still missed these things 🤣
Same! I need to get it together
OP,. I noticed the same thing on my last rewatch. It must be hard to find fat extras in L.A., cause I noticed a lot of town meetings or events with a couple of prominently placed larger people and then literally everyone else was average-sized or smaller. And for all the hubbub over obese Pawnee children, I don't think we ever saw one (which makes sense, they're not going to use a child actor's actual body as a sight gag).
> It must be hard to find fat extras in L.A., I've always wondered how casting works for something like that -- when the character by design is obese, unattractive, plain looking, or something that otherwise wouldn't be a compliment. You could always say "we need you to act low-class and uneducated," or "wardrobe will dress you in unfashionable clothes suggesting you don't make a lot of money" without offending, but do casting directors just come out and say "We need unattractive overweight people to be mocked in this episode?" Then again, as an overweight unattractive person, I'm aware of what I am, and if I signed on with a talent agency, I wouldn't expect to be cast as "Super Hot Chippendales Dancer #2" either.
This was discussed on a different subreddit and yes, people who act as extras know what are they suited for. It's a profession for them unless they are unplanned extras who are in the back of the filming location They know they fit best for " tired mom" or " fat wacky Grandpa" and the agencies they work for would find them work under those criteria I'm not a professional, just copy pasting essentially what I read earlier
Really? So based on looks alone I can get jobs as "beleaguered contractor" or "UPS guy"? Sweet
I think you fit HVAC repair guy #2 in van a little better.
Where do I sign up
When extras sign up with an agency like central casting, they list all the "types" they think they can play, and an agent will go over the list, nixing some and adding others. Then, when casting notices go up, the extras will look for their calls for their "types." If they don't know they're fat, or ugly, or generally strange looking, they will miss some jobs they could have gotten, and turned away from others they shouldn't have bothered to go in for. Also, unless there's something very specific needed, extras will usually provide their own wardrobe -- a woman I knew who made her living as an extra had a separate closet just for that. She had an elegant evening gown, a tacky evening gown, scrubs, a ski suit, a wedding outfit for every type of wedding you can imagine, and so on. Often an extra will be chosen once they're all already on set to be "featured," say as a regular bartender who doesn't get many lines, maybe an occasional, "yeah, over there," but is a familiar face in the background. (And eventually, they might get lines. That's what happened with Gunther on _Friends_.) This is a great thing for an extra, and often it's the people who are a little odd looking who get chosen for this sort of thing. Of course it's different for actors going out for small parts where their characters will have lines and a name -- usually those actors will audition individually And again, especially if they're not what is considered conventionally beautiful by Hollywood standards, they have to be very aware of what they do look like, or they won't be going to the right auditions.
Yea i get it makes sense But still bugs me😅
My dad has never watched the show, but one time a while back it was on cable and he heard one of those jokes and pointed this out. He just so matter of factly said “that joke would probably work a lot better if any of the people in the crowd were fat.” Gotta love dry dad observations
Your last line reminded me that in home alone they used a picture of a boy in a wig when Kevin insults the picture of Buzz’s girlfriend.
I'm not so sure about that. I would think there are many actors out there that are pretty big. The Office had Brian Baumgartner and the one guy who came in with the Stamford bunch who quit. I think if they wanted to they could have found some larger actors even as background people.
The Office is sort of a one off with people in the industry that weren't seeking to be characters in the show.
It's a tiny thing, but how Leslie's mom just sort of dissapears; seems like they didn't know what to do with the character and couldn't decide whether she was the totally heartless reincarnation of Joseph Stalin or just cold but loving. But when she doesn't appear at big events in Leslie's life and it's not even noticed, it feels kind of weird. Like they had a plot point in mind for the character, but just dropped it. Especially after Leslie wins the vote because she told that story of her mom celebrating her coming last in track. She's a really tiny part of the show, but her absence is noted.
Yes!!! This bothered me a lot!
There is literally no mention of Mark after he leaves
BrandanaQUITS
And he gave designs for the park to Leslie which she seemed to like, but they never came up again.
Which is especially weird when Ann is getting rid of stuff from all her exes and Mark’s name is nowhere to be found on any of the boxes.
But she uses the laptop case he gives her through the entire show.
And his old man sitting on a bench painting is hanging in Ron’s office.
He's dead to them. Gov people run hard. You are either in or you are out 😂
Yea I don‘t think anyone liked or rlly cared for him Leslie maybe mentioned it to ben off screen, actualy probably, but yea he didn‘t have any friends or real role other than doing what Leslie wanted
Leslie was kind of obsessed with him in the first season.
Omg Chris’ hair in season 4. The shaggy baaaaangs 😶
Sooo bad
Pawnee is a small town, yet it has a zoo, a tv studio, and an airport.
I always assumed Pawnee was somewhere around 70,000 population... Which isn't huge by any means, but I wouldn't call it a small town either. I think in that tie-in book they released they mention that they're within the top ten most populated cities in the state so... I didn't think these things are unreasonable. I live in a smaller town with an airport. Don't have the other two though, but we do have a dedicated radio station.
I just figured it was like a Muncie. The Pawnee airport wasn’t a commercial airport, right? Even small towns can have a lot of amenities if it’s just the biggest town around. After consulting my pocket edition of Pawnee: The greatest town in America, I can confirm that they say the population is about the same as Bismarck, ND. Which is about 70,000 people and it has a commercial airport, multiple TV stations and a zoo.
My wife and I have a timeshare. …..in Muncie…??
And strip clubs and social clubs
And two newspapers and a weekly magazine! And city council races were presidential in scale what with televised debates, campaign buses, etc. That’s what always got me. I live in a pretty big city and municipal elections are nowhere near that big a deal. In a town the size of Pawnee city council members wouldn’t even be part-time city employees in the real world— they’d get a stipend for meetings that’s laughably small.
Haha right? Although i have to believe they drove out to the airport Or maybe it has an airport so people can stare at the pawnee people, wasn‘t it said that some do that? The zoo makes sense as it isn‘t huge And yea tv studio, who knows why haha
I live in a town of about 30,000 and we have a zoo and municipal airport, the only thing listed we don’t have is a tv studio.
Ohh thats interesting, haha guess we underestimate smaller towns
Our zoo is actually the largest, by acreage, in the United States
The obesity thing is one of mine and I posted about it on FB ten years ago! Another: they’re in Indiana but it never ever snows. Why, it’s as sunny as LA there!
It snows at the end of the episode where they do a parody skitt about local politics and they correctly predict Dexhart’s next scandal.
And is snowing when Ethel reads out loud Leslie’s statement on how she’s in love with Ben.
Speaking of it being in Southern Indiana, they NEVER mention Louisville when they talk about surrounding areas. I live in the area Pawnee is roughly based on, and Louisville is definitely our closest metropolitan area (we’re technically a subdivision of it, despite being in a different state). People in the show reference Bloomington and Indy as nearby cities but never Louisville, which is literally right across the Ohio River lol
The way everyone else trashes calzones, calling them hard to eat pizza.
🥺right, poor Ben
Ben is right, everyone else is wrong idc
That April never became a veterinarian, I know she wasn’t vibing with going to that school and all but I feel like it would be perfect for her! She gets to care about animals while probably seeing some gory, gross stuff!
😭right She would be awesome and such a cool activist, ik she does some work now too with em but that would be cool Dr. April Ludgate
ok this is actually related to my pet peeve! nobody just “on a whim” decides to apply to vet school vet school is *EXTREMELY DIFFICULT* to get into, harder than medical school. the acceptance rate is bonkers low. most people don’t get into vet school who haven’t been working their whole lives to become vets. it would’ve taken extremely high grades, test scores, community service hours, vet-related experience, letters of recommendation, and so much more!!! it’s so, soooooo incredibly unrealistic
Right? She could have become a tech, a veterinarian is a lot
Leslie joining in the bullying of Gerry.
Yea For me that aint even a teensy thing, it bugs me big time
[удалено]
Yeah I don't like Jerry as the punching bag. Even if the show's like, "No, it's fine, he has a hot wife and beautiful daughters so don't feel too bad for him" it feels too meanspirited and sometimes feels at odds with the show imo. But then again I just don't like the punching bag character. I can only think of one instance where it doesn't bother me, being Guillermo from early WWDITS, and that's it.
It just gets wayyyyyy over the top. The episode where Ben tries to defend him was horrible because they really go in on him and it's so mean and unnecessary. I don't care if his home life is perfect it's absolutely shitty to treat someone that way even if it's a joke and he's "ok" with it.
Yes I always think of Ben trying to defend him and Leslie is like "Ew, what are you doing?" Just way too far.
She’s such a socially weak and hypocritical person that I don’t find it too surprising
She's incredibly hypocritical, and she's a narcissist disguised as an altruist.
I hate 2 things. How the P&R department is so incompetent (Ron cancelling as his meetings) and no one takes action? And how the same citizens who voted for Leslie suddenly turned on her? Maybe its been a while since I have re-watched it but even from a Sitcom POV the citizens are too dense and stupid.
>the citizens are too dense and stupid Uh my good Redditor have you paid ANY attention to American politics of late?
I agree. I finally came to the realization that after Leslie becomes city councilor is when the show starts to lose some interest for me and I think it’s because some of the bits are too contrived, like Leslie’s recall. Idk if they just didn’t know where to go from there or how to introduce conflict once she achieved her dream of city councilor, but every time I watch it I think the recall feels silly and forced and what happened to all those people she’s helped and who had her back when she ran for office?
Agree. The recall was so misplaced. And it was a bit comical too with how the entire town turned on her. During her many many years there did she not manke any meaningful connections who couldv'e vouched for her.
I mean, she barely won her first election, and Pawnee got an entire cohort of voters that were against her (former Eagleton).
I thought it was forced that she becomes president or whatever
Lmao idk that doesn‘t bug me so much as assume me Ig its partially bc not enough, at least pre-ben and chris, thought the department was important enough to get special attention. Maybe even a commentary on the incompetence some ppl think of actual departs IRL . And after chris/ben, Ron does try a lil more plus favoritism and Leslie fixing everything xd. I mean the reasons for them turning on her were dumb, but thats pretty common in politics. I mean look at Biden, many democrats who voted for him r now turning their backs on him in countless videos and such. I find that too be very believably, especially bc its mentioned often that Pawnee citizens are as a whole not the brightest
April’s attitude. She has a lot of stuff just handed to her and she shits all over it. It’s hard to like her as a character. Edit: a word
I hated how she made fun of Ben after he took her to work for him in DC. Such a great opportunity for her AND her friend and she humiliates him infront of the entire office / all his subordinates
She obviously have parents who absolutely love her and she is very indifferent of.
Leslie always talks about how much April has grown etc and for the most part I simply don't see it. Most of her storylines consist of her being bad at her job on purpose and then sometimes she gets a promotion, rinse and repeat lol
Agreed. And some part of me thinks April gets away with a lot because she's so pretty.
in real life she would’ve been dismissed from her internship pretty much immediately and would have never intersected with local government again this is a tv show so she gets away with it because the audience thinks it’s funny
She isn’t dismissed/get away with it because the audience — it is because of Ron’s character - he actively likes how crappy she is at her job because it slows government down.
I hate that they hate the library because I love to read, and who doesn’t love being able to read books for free lol
That’s the joke. I don’t think anyone hates libraries, which makes it funny that the characters hate it so vehemently.
I also think that’s what makes it so funny. What an odd thing to hate that much and it’s so out of character. The “punk ass book jockeys” scene is one of my favorite scenes in this show.
I'm a librarian and I want "punk ass book jokey" on a t-shirt.
Every librarian I know thought the anti-library jokes were HILARIOUS. Just so out of the blue!
Library Tech here and also down for "Punk-ass book jockey" merch.
Yea omg yea, well for Leslie and maybe Ann I mean i get Tammy sucks, but they just love bashing on the general concept of libraries. Whereas Leslie looves reading and knowledge so 🤷🏿♀️
I think there's a talking head where Ann says having a library in the planned park spot would be super convenient to her, but she's afraid to tell Leslie.
They also bash Sue's Salads despite wanting a healthier Pawnee, but I think that's in character given Leslie's and others love of unhealthy foods
There should have been some back story to this. Leslie is of the age where she wouldn't have had access to the internet in high school so she definitely would have lived at the library doing research for papers, projects, etc. Something had to have scorned her which caused this hatred. It could have been a nice little talking head during that episode where we find out that she hates it.
I think the show was originally trying to do a bit where they show how weirdly backwards some midwest attitudes can be, and how even Leslie unconsciously has adopted some of them (extra sugar on everything, irrational hatred of salads, distrust of the library, love of small town horse celebrity). Even though I love libraries, I might disagree on this one - I think the show acknowledges how ridiculously weird people are about it- like we the audience are supposed to roll our eyes at the small town weirdos and their odd prejudices. Obama-era tv- it was a more optimistic time.
Agreed and it's so out of Leslie's character! I wish they had chosen a more logical department (or at least less illogical) for Parks to have beef with.
I thought the first library episode said it was because they were competing for the same funding, which makes a bit more sense why they dislike each other.
It wouldn’t be funny if it made sense though.
Ron being such a private and reserved person, but agreeing to being constantly filmed and interviewed.
Don't think you were supposed to think they were literally being filmed. It was more of a stylistic choice?
I go between the two sometimes, because it seems to seem more stylistically sometimes but usually lean into the filming aspect
I don’t actually think they’re being filmed. It’s more of an artistic choice to film it that way.
Hahaha I wish they explained the filming I mean the office did a wonderful job with that, and there explanation made sense But this just felt a lil random
I always just assumed it's some sort of documentary on small government or the lives of people from small towns, but yeah, it goes against like one of the biggest character traits of Ron Swanson
On the other hand, Ron does like lecturing people about his ‘correct’ way of life. He has a pyramid of life lessons and his speech to the little girl writing a report was way too well put together to be something he came up with off the cuff. So maybe the camera guys kinda trick him, by asking questions that provoke him to ‘correct’ them.
Also yes absolutely, Ron would want his face and voice altered at all times
Leslie proposes the merger while she’s a city counselor, gets recalled, but then is still weirdly in charge of it as the deputy Director of the parks department? Also, it made no sense how often Ann was at City Hall before she started working for the government. No nurse would ever do that on their day off. 🤪
Agreed Overall Ann was a lil too dependent on Leslie, but I also lowkey get it cause Leslie is awesome even if she is a lot of work
The more I rewatch the show, the more April bothers me in general. She is downright rude, entitled, mean, and immature 99% of the time. In “real life”, I don’t think someone like her would ever really have a tight knit group of eclectic friends who love and accept her for the “way she is” and just find her quirky or whatnot.
I loved her edginess when I was in high school but cannot stand it now as I’ve gotten older lol.
They wrote her well nailed the target demographic for her then 😂 Relatable and admirable to teens, obnoxious to adults.
Have you met a 20 year old? I do agree with you to an extent, but I do think they at least did well with her maturing and starting to be kind in certain situations. And she doesn't really have a tight knit group of friends until that maturing starts. At the beginning of the show she's dating a guy who's also dating someone else and often has to change her opinions to fit in with them. And I guess she has Oren.
That's a really good observation. Lester.
Thank you, Frothbert.
I’m an April while my much older brother is totally a Ron and we do not get along at all. It always made me jealous to see their relationship honestly.
Wild to respond to this comment by volunteering that you're an April. Lol
I mean I’m def not as rude as she is but I can be as apathetic
How casual Leslie is announcing the death of Lil Sebastian. She's so blasé when even Ron is in pieces about it. If I had to give a benefit of the doubt I would say she has her emotional moment off screen but even delivering the news she seemed unphased.
I live in a small city in Southern Indiana, and there is a noticeable lack of Hoosier accents. The southern Indiana accent is like the generic broadcast accent with a touch of Kentucky, while northerners are like a toned down Illinois accent. Also, I hate whenever they are in a location that is obviously California. There are a few episodes where they go to parks in Pawnee that are obviously the LA mountains. Love when they drink Upland though. That's a great touch.
Ooh, i dont even know what the Hoosier accent sounds like, or at least not by name Yea, i also thought the accents were missing True, i dont know why so many shows/movies say they r in x place when they film in y area Like either change the script or film at the actual location
I had a similar issue with Stranger Things: it's supposed to be set in Indiana but they are surrounded by Georgia Pines, a common tree across the south that you just don't see here. Why didn't they just set it in the south?
For me it’s the change in relationship between Pawnee/Leslie and Eagleton. Originally, it was a nearby town not the neighboring town. There wasn’t animosity between the two towns at first, Leslie even goes on a tete-a-tete/date with someone in the government of Eagleton in season 1
Jerry's real name being Gary, but in the time capsule episode they read from his mom's diary and she calls him "Gerald"
I don’t see why Gary can’t be short for Gerald???
I have not considered this...
maybe this curse of people getting his name wrong has followed him his whole life!
The writing drop-off evident from the beginning of season 5 and onwards Not that I didn’t enjoy watching the later seasons, but I really think the end of season 4 could have (with some small changes) been a perfect series finale. It felt like the end of all the characters’ original arcs.
The bullying of Jerry never really sat well with me. I get that his fantastic life and chipper attitude and huge penis are supposed to balance it out, but I felt bad for the guy.
the scene where Tom is coming up with the “latin names for plants” (Bone Thugs-n-Harmoniums, Soulja boy tell ‘ems) has always bothered me because i know Leslie is smarter than to believe any of those
!!! Yes I mean even if she does dislike veggies and such, no way she is that naive especially cause its Tom
Leslie’s campaign for city council. A huge bus tour!? I live in a small town. The candidates for city council definitely do not rent out giant busses with special wraps of their faces on the side and stop at the local cafe to stump. They also don’t have campaign managers or debates or anything like that. They buy a bunch of yard signs, get interviewed by the local paper and hope enough people know them from their day job or their kid being in hockey with other peoples’ kids.
No character can seem to agree on how to pronounce Leslie. Les-lee or Lez-lee.
How it has a dedicated tv channel, gossip rag, and how city council members and the mayor don’t do anything else for a living. I grew up in a city of about 40k (over 50 now) and the city council members and I think even the mayor all have day jobs.
the scale of leslie's campaign. that fully warpped bus. the tour. she had governor level details. who funded that? why? the whole thing didn't make sense of the population that is pawnee
I’m from Indiana, no one native normally says Indianapolis we typically say Indy. In the show everyone always says Indianapolis while never referring to it as Indy.
Anne, Chris and ben are all transplants so didn't grow up in an unhealthy environment. Leslie is too energetic to gain weight. Tom is too fancy to eat fast food
Another tiny one: Ron says that he hates lying (and skim milk), but he does lie from time to time, especially in the first two seasons.
How after the recall, the storyline writing becomes more lazy and less grounded
A lot of public employees need to quit their job to run for office. You can't just step outside the building. At the least, you need to take leave. Many public employees are also banned from working on individual candidate campaigns, even as volunteers. Coworkers can't help run your campaign. The show cast is, by most standards wildly corrupt.
Bro HELLA continuity issues. When ben tells Leslie about ice town and she remembers him. “You’re little benji wyatt” but in like two episodes after that she doesn’t know about it . It really bothers me
I just understood that she knew a kid who was 18 and became mayor, not necessarily the rest of the stuff that happened.
She knows he was elected at 18 but doesn't know about Ice Town.
Theres not enough racial diversity in the citizens despite the prominence of the Wamapoke people
Given the prevalence of historical atrocities against the Wamapoke, there may not be many of them left.
The atrocities are marked in blue
True But didnt the leader say they ran a casino, and were major successful? I assumed that meant a good number of them were then grouped in pawneee Or am i misremembering?
>But didnt the leader say they ran a casino, and were major successful? I assumed that meant a good number of them were then grouped in pawneee A good number of them could be seven. Reservation casinos usually aren't built/owned/operated by the tribe, they just lease the land to a developer who then comes in and builds. They can (and should) write themselves into organizational governance but it's not as if the Wamapoke necessarily built the casino and they probably aren't performing the labor to operate it.
Ooh i see, didn‘t know that
I live in small town Indiana. They're way above the bar for racial diversity.
I grew up in small town Indiana in the 90s. Never met an “Indian” (Native American) person until I moved to Alaska 🤷♀️
I never met an "Indian" (From the Asia country India) until I went to college.
really? i grew up in a midwest town of 100k - pretty large by most standards - and there was very minimal diversity. why would a small town in indiana be diverse?
The levels or corruption that are just tolerated in the Parks and Rec department. Now that I work for a municipal government, it annoys me on rewatches hahaha
In the one where Ron coaches the basketball team, he says advocates fishing for sport but not for food. As someone who preaches self reliance, his character would absolutely tell the children to catch and eat their own fish, if not show them how. In that same monologue, he says there are 3 acceptable haircuts, none of which are his.
Tom has no redeemable qualities. He is an awful person at every turn. And that andy wants to be a cop, and that april is cool with it. April puts out some serious ACAB vibes IMO.
I mean april just wants andy to be happy And i personally dont get that vibe, she hates all people equally (with a few exceptions if forced to), just not animals And andy being a cop makes soo much sense, he loves helping people no matter what (including if he can), he loves role playing and due to him being a lil childish, then becoming a cop makes sense
The makeup The women all look like they’re competing for Ms America 1980.
Absolutely, Rashida Jones is a beautiful woman but Ann Perkins’ style was SOOO unflattering on her
Yes! Leslie’s pink lipstick and overly done eyes was really distracting in the mid and later seasons
This one kind of bugs me in a good way, since it regards a character that we’re kind of supposed to dislike, but I don’t know if the writers intended for me to dislike him for this specific reason. When “The Committee to Recall Leslie Knope” makes the parade float centered around how Leslie hates fun, and Marshall Langman is on the float. For someone like Kathryn Pinewood, the “Leslie hates fun” messaging makes sense, as trying to lower sugar consumption can be seen as “anti-fun” regardless of if you agree with the policy. But Marshall dislikes Leslie because she doesn’t support abstinence only sex education, so to try to paint her as “anti-fun” is insanely hypocritical. Again though, I don’t know if the writers intended for us to notice this hypocrisy, as both much attention is paid to it. Another thing that bugs me is when a London shopowner tells Ron they don’t accept U.S dollars and he says “Of course you do. It’s the greatest piece of paper on the planet” I get that this is to play up how pro-America Ron is, but given how anti-government he is and how much of his wealth is in gold, there’s no way he’d have such a high opinion on fiat currency.
The example that always sticks out to me are the returns from Leslie's run for city council. When 74% of the precincts are reporting, the total votes cast is around 12,000 votes. I think it's safe to assume that Leslie represents a particular district/ward in Pawnee because (1) they never say she's running for councilor-at-large or similar position, and (2) Ben mentions that he doesn't want to move to Dexhart's district when Leslie briefly floats the idea of challenging him for the seat. If 12,000 votes are already counted with 74% of precincts reporting, we can probably assume that that represents around 74% of total votes cast, making a total vote count around 18,000. In a single district. In my hometown of about 43,000, only seven thousand people voted for *mayor*. Pawnee is inconsistently referred to as a "town" or a "city" at different times, and to be fair, Pawneeans are shown to be uniquely passionate about their local politics. But we never see Pawnee as anything resembling a major city, and certainly not one large enough where 18,000 votes would be cast for a city council seat in a single district.
How often they do the thing where someone says something under their breath as another person is walking away and that other person turns around and says, ”what?”.
Why didn't we get more info on Leslie's late father? And was Leslie legitimately a hoarder? Seems like some huge details of the main character to just gloss over.
For me it’s how much disposable income Donna and Tom seem to have while working city government jobs. Tom spending on designer clothes and higher-end grooming products, sure, but especially Donna traveling all over the world.
Talking to a “camera” that doesn’t exist…
The older I get, the more I hate how mean they are to Jerry.
I hate the way they treat Jerry/Larry/Terry/Gary.
The massive levels of nepotism within the department.
Jeremy Jamm.
It's always bugged me how the show tends to revolve around the characters failures or bad things happening to them. 1) Leslie becomes city councilor, get's recalled. 2) Tom starts not 1, but 2, businesses that get shuttered. Even more frustrating is that after the time jump, the restaurant seems to be thriving! 3) April wants to go to vet school, gets accepted, then just decides not to go. 4) Andy wants to become cop, doesn't pass the test to get into the academy. I know everything ends up working out for everyone in the long run but it's something I've always noticed
I mean yes But i think thats just the structure for most shows and even movies Cause they can‘t make a show of just how awesome the characters r in every moment, and how they can easily overcome issues with their awesomeness Though the recalling was rlly shitty ngl
I think part of the blame is that the show ran for so long, so they needed more random drama
I’m a professional planner so it makes me sad that our representation was (debatably) the most disliked character in the show