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After it's first season, Parks and Recreation wasn't off to the best start. It was panned for it's similarities to The Office, and overall didn't live up to the hype of it's predecessor. But at the end of season two, Ben Wyatt and Chris Traeger were introduced and Parks and Rec would never be the same. It's rare that a sitcom can completely save it's self by adding to the central cast, but shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation took the gamble and it paid off.
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Hey, how are you? Hello there. Hi. Chris Traeger. This is Ben. Hello, gents. Ron Swanson. Ron
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Swanson. That was the first time Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson met Chris Traeger and Ben Wyatt
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Within the world of Parks and Recreation, the latter were a team of government auditors sent
0:17
to ruthlessly slash the governmental budget of Pawnee, Indiana. What exactly will you be cutting
0:23
and how much of it and can I watch you do it while eating pork cracklins? But from a storytelling
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perspective, the pair were really there to shake up the dynamic of a series that looked all but
0:33
doomed after a poorly received first season. Luckily, Chris and Ben would literally walk in
0:38
and save Parks and Rec from an early cancellation. Back in 2007, The Office was at the height of its
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popularity, raking in critical acclaim and getting nominated for awards it probably should have won
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Looking to cash in on the success, NBC Entertainment Division co-chairman Ben Silverman
0:53
asks series creator Greg Daniels to work his magic a second time and create a spinoff series
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Daniels was skeptical, but the network insisted, so he enlisted the help of office writer Michael Schur to create a new series
1:06
After considering a wide range of possibilities, the two eventually decided to abandon the idea of a direct spinoff
1:11
and instead create a counterpart that would focus on the tedious bureaucracy of local government
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At first, they considered a story about a humiliated regional official trying to rebuild his career
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but when Amy Poehler signed on to star as Leslie Knope, they decided to make the main character an over-enthusiastic government worker
1:27
in a small-town Parks and Recreation department. The show was rushed into production so it could debut in the second half of the spring television season
1:35
and it kicked off with a truncated season of only six episodes, which might be one of the reasons why, despite the impressive cast
1:41
Parks and Recreation debuted to a chilly reception on NBC in April of 2009
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Critics and audiences alike overwhelmingly seemed to think Parks and Rec was too much like The Office
1:51
And given that newer series shamelessly borrowed its predecessor's mockumentary format, it's easy to know why
1:57
Not helping matters was that many also felt that the cluelessly uptight Leslie Knope
2:01
was too similar to Steve Carell cluelessly uptight Michael Scott and that the general tone of the series was too mean Hey Park Lady Yeah You suck
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Hear that? Called me Park Lady. Not to mention the casting of Rashida Jones as a main character in both shows
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Anne Perkins. Chris Pratt's Andy Dwyer and Aziz Ansari's Tom Haverford drew positive notices
2:25
and critics liked the general premise of the series. But while the premiere performed well in the ratings, from there on out
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Every episode did worse than the one before it. By the time the first season ended, there was a real possibility the series would be canceled
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So when the network gave the green light for another season, everyone knew the show would need something to substantially change up the dynamic
2:44
Or in this case, two somethings. Ben Wyatt, played by Party Downs' Adam Scott
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and his boss Chris Traeger, played by the West Wing's Rob Lowe, made their debut in Season 2, Episode 23, The Master Plan
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And as if to telegraph their mission, they immediately throw Ron and Leslie off balance with their odd demeanor
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The two are a pair of traveling auditors with a sort of good cop, bad cop thing going on between
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them. Chris is extroverted, charming, and relentlessly positive, whereas Ben is a serious-minded
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pragmatist whose job is mostly to deliver bad news. Introduced at the center of a story that
3:24
threatened the existence of the park's department, Ben and Chris initially seemed like temporary
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antagonists who would return to whence they came when their usefulness to the plot ended
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But while Chris was originally intended to appear in only eight episodes, Ben was
3:37
always meant to stick around and become a regular part of the ensemble. In fact, he was a big part of the solution to a very specific problem
3:46
In reflecting on what went wrong with season one, the producers had decided that Leslie's
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personality needed an overhaul. Inspired by a joke Poehler improvised on set during the first season
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Look at those es clean up after me. Schur and writers realized that Leslie
4:04
had to be allowed to be more fun and loose and less uptight. Schur would later reflect that Poehler had changed the course of the show with that one line And as a result the character was ultimately reconceived as being smarter more confident and more optimistic But fully realizing the new take on Leslie
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would require more than just writing her with a new attitude. It would mean solving the problem of her love life
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The first season established that Leslie had an unrequited crush on Mark Brindanowicz
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Mark Brindanowicz. But having her pining over him in the face of his disinterest made her seem weak
4:37
and that wouldn't really fit with the newer version of her character. There was also the problem that, as a character
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Mark was, to put it mildly, boring and unfunny. And he made Leslie's love life boring and unfunny
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And to be clear, that's not on Schneider. The writers just never gave him anything really interesting to do
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In season two, Mark developed a thing for Joneses and Perkins, and Leslie went through a string of love interests that didn't stick
4:59
Then, at the end of the season, Ben showed up. Ben was a failed small-town mayor trying to rebuild his life
5:04
in a rank-and-file bureaucratic job, after the humiliating public defeat he had
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If that sounds familiar, it's because Ben was, in many respects, the potential main character that Daniels and Shur had discarded when Poehler became the star
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His harsh realism puts him at odds with Leslie when they first meet. But as Ben reveals his dorky personality and softer, more compassionate side
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the two become friends, and eventually, an idyllic married couple with triplets
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Unlike Leslie's previous love interests, Ben does the little things, like appreciating her as a person and being supportive of her career and passions
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It makes him a good match for the more confident version of the character, allowing him to fan the flames of her personality in a way that never seems mean or condescending
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Meanwhile, Chris was also there to address a specific problem, namely, Ann Perkins
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Competence isn't particularly funny, and Ann was a smart, level-headed, and comparatively stable type
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so the writers found it hard to get laughs out of her. This meant Jones was typically relegated to playing the comedic straight man role for her co-stars
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As later recalled by Schur, the writers eventually decided that the way to throw a woman like Anne off balance and make her funny was to put her in a relationship with someone like Chris Traeger
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The original plan was to have Chris break up with Anne and then depart the show causing drastic and presumably funny changes in her behavior But that was before anyone realized that Lowe and Jones were going to have incredible chemistry or that he was going to deliver the most hilariously silly comedic performance of his entire career Critics and fans immediately
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loved the character, and Lowe was quickly made a permanent addition to the cast. In season 3
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the writers would continue to use Chris to discombobulate Anne, bringing out the funniest
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in her, just as Ben did for Leslie. Some viewers and commentators would even come to consider their
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relationship one of the most interesting aspects of the show. Chris's unrelenting positivity and
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enthusiasm also became a driving force for the other characters, motivating them to seek changes
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in their lives. His role as the city manager also let him drive events as an occasional antagonist
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like when he disciplined Leslie and Ben for violating his no dating at the office policy
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After a critically acclaimed run, Chris would depart the series in season 6
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moving away to have a baby with Anne in Michigan. As for Ben, his rise in politics alongside Leslie became a major threat in the series
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and along the way, he would, among other things, move in with Andy and Aubrey Plaza's April Ludgate
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forging a friendship with Andy that would span the rest of the show while developing a low-key older brother-younger sister vibe with April
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Now, plenty of sitcoms have introduced funny, new characters in the course of their run
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but the point is that Ben and Chris weren't just funny characters. Thanks to incredible casting and brilliant writing
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Ben and Chris immediately changed the energy of every character they interacted with
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over the course of the series and made them all better, funnier people. Their evolution into central members of the cast made the show richer across the board
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and proved to be the key to unlocking its full potential, elevating it into the beloved sitcom we all remember today
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And it all happened because the creators of Parks and Recreation saw there was a problem and were able to remedy it quickly and smartly
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In an era dominated by streaming services that cancel shows just as they're getting started
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it's a stark reminder that there was a time when series were allowed to learn from their mistakes
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and develop into the shows that help us avoid falling into a bottomless pit of despair