Parks and Recreation is better than The Office. Sorry, it just is. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can all celebrate together at JJ’s Diner—because Parks and Recreation is coming back into our lives! (Should we thank L’il Sebastian?). Comedy Central has acquired all seven seasons of the beloved sitcom, which originally ran from 2009 to 2015, and the Viacom-owned cable network will introduce its shiny new toy in January with a daylong marathon.
The workplace comedy was created by Michael Schur (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place), who is quickly becoming the best sitcom maker in the biz. It revolved around Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope, an overly enthusiastic and optimistic midlevel bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation department of Pawnee, Indiana. She was joined by a handful of lovable supporting characters played by Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Rashida Jones, Chris Pratt, Aubrey Plaza, Retta and Rob Lowe, and they all came together to support literally one of the best series of the past decade.
It’s honestly something of a small miracle that Parks and Rec survived as long as it did—it was constantly on the chopping block because of low ratings. Had the show come along a few years later, its viewership would have undoubtedly been bolstered by streaming—just like what’s happening now with NBC’s similarly delightful The Good Place.
“I’ve come to really enjoy the uncertainty. I think it breeds good ideas,” Schur told HitFix’s Alan Sepinwall in 2013 when discussing the series’ unlikely lifespan. NBC did the show no favors by delaying certain seasons and playing around with its air date and time [stares daggers at the Peacock]. However, justice prevailed and it went out with a bang.
The show’s Comedy Central debut marathon will kick off on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 21. Until then, all seven seasons are available for binge-watching on Netflix. Now go out there and live your life with the delusional confidence of Andy Dwyer.
