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Parks and Recreation Premiere
(Thursday, Apr. 9, 2009)
You knew it as “The Untitled Amy Poehler Project” or The Office spinoff. But, really? It’s about Poeher falling into a hole and what becomes of that LOL moment. Nestled protectively in NBC’s Thursday-night block between The Office and 30 Rock, Poehler stars as a Michael Scott-type in a stapling-papers/phones-ringing kind of sad environment in the fictional Indiana town of Pawnee. One unexpectedly inspiring day, a nurse (Rashida Jones — what is it, Halloween? Because that is a sexy nurse!) arrives at a “community outreach forum” to bitch about the large pit by her house, once dug up by a now bankrupt developer. Poehler, juiced up on “sense of purpose,” peeps that she wants to help this nurse. Help her build … a park! They pinky-promise, and Poehler wonders out loud, “This could be my Hoover Dam.” Begrudgingly along for the ride is her assistant (Aziz Ansari, formerly of Human Giant and the coveted Hollywood.com “Fresh Face” spot) who’s been tasked with taking notes of Poehler’s adventures — to plot out a future memoir, of course. He, instead, doodles, but the ‘tude that he sassy-backs to his superior is among the show’s quiet gems of guffaw: “Committees are the lifeblood of our democratic system,” Poehler would say, and Ansari would read it back to her: “Committees cover our democracy with blood.” With a glassy-eyed protest, she wonders if it sounded better when she said it — but we think not.
YESTERDAY’S DO-IT: Not your usual cops on The Unusuals!
