In Parks and Recreation, the Parks Department is responsible for putting Pawnee, Indiana on the map in a big way. Once isolated from the world, the citizens lived simply, surrendering to Paunch Burger and coping with raccoon infestations. The people responsible for putting this town on the map had more failures than successes. Except for Donna Meagle (Retta), who rarely fails, each of her colleagues faces a variety of health, romantic and professional failures.
Despite their collective failures, the Parks employees persevere. Jerry Gergich faced hourly failures, but still managed to live a happy life. However, Jerry’s colleague Tom Haverford fails so much that he has literally written a book about it. The workplace TV comedy may focus on the uphill battle in government, but the main message is to never give up, because we are all rainbow-drenched space unicorns. Here’s a look at each Parks and Recreation the characters’ experiences with failure, and more importantly, how they persevered.
10 Donna Meagle’s Twitter Gate (Season 6, Episode 5)
Donna Meagle (Retta) is the queen of luxury and honesty. When her boss, Leslie, is recalled, her honesty on the Parks Department’s Twitter landed her in hot water. The pain between Leslie and Donna got so bad that the city manager intervened. After a hearty conversation on Leslie’s favorite bench, they mend their friendship.
9 Jerry Gergich and the Campaign Flyers (Season 4, Episode 22)
Jerry Gergich, played by Jim O’Heir, is the clumsiest person in the Parks department. Under his unlimited mistakes, Jerry can get quite fixated on a task. This concentration indeed proves to complicate matters when he mixes up the flyers he has to hang up and send. He realizes his mistake when he’s practically done! Jerry quickly corrects his mistake as Donna looks on in amazement.
8 April Ludgate’s Parks Website Video (Season 1, Episode 4)
April Ludgate was made exclusively for Audrey Plaza, creator Michael Schur revealed to the AV club. April started out unmotivated and driven by her emotions. While waiting for her sister to pick her up from work, she gets drunk, shoots the video and uploads the video to the official Parks Department website. She makes a huge recovery by working on a congressional campaign, leading the animal department, and finding her true calling at the American Service Foundation.
7 Andy Dwyer’s Failed Police Personality Exam (Season 5, Episode 13)
When Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) and April pretend to play FBI agents, April encourages Andy to report to the police. After failing the personality test, he falls into a deep depression. But Ben, who works at the Sweetums Foundation, offers Andy a job. After meeting a wealthy English family, he works for their foundation for some time. Eventually, he returns to music and becomes TV sensation Johnny Karate.
6 Ben Wyatt’s Ice Town (Season 3, Episode 1)
Before settling in Pawnee, Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) made history twice before turning 20 years old. He was the youngest person to be elected mayor of his hometown and shortly after, he bankrupted his town by building Ice Town. He started working for the state of Indiana, helping cities on the brink of bankruptcy. When Leslie announced her candidacy for city council, Ben campaigned so successfully that a congressman hired him to lead his campaign in Washington DC.
5 Chris Traeger’s Obsession With Fitness (Episode 3, Episode 2) NBC
Vulture reports that Rob Lowe’s delivery of “literally” as city manager Chris Traegar was due to Schur finding it hilarious. Of course, Chris’ literal excitement for life wasn’t enough to keep him from contracting a terrible flu. He repeatedly said that his body was failing him. Much of Chris’ focus was on his physical health, which frustrated the women he dated. After a huge heartbreak, he started therapy, which allowed him to focus on the moment and not on his body.
4 Tom Haverford’s Book About Failure (Season 7, Episode 12)
Donna’s ‘Treat Yourself’ best friend Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) was obsessed with being the next great entrepreneur. screen frenzy provides a complete list of each of Tom’s business ideas that also failed for one reason or another. Though his failures were short-lived, Tom eventually got back on his feet with a new idea. He eventually wrote a book about everything he learned, naming his Parks Department colleagues as different archetypes.
3 Ann Perkins’ Dating Life (Season 3, Episode 13)
Ann Perkins, played by Rashida Jones, was Leslie’s best friend and the best nurse in Pawnee. Although her dating life was a disaster. At a party to support Tom, Ann and Leslie got into a huge fight over her dating life; with Leslie citing that Ann is absorbing her boyfriend’s personality and Ann claiming that Leslie is suppressing her feelings for Ben. They make up the next morning and make drastic shifts in their dating life. With Leslie and Donna as her dating guides, Ann learns to be her true self while dating.
2 Ron Swanson Breaking Tiaras (Season 5, Episode 5)
Stoic Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) was happily single until he started dating a single mom named Diane (Lucy Lawless). When Diane has to work on Halloween, Ron and Andy take her daughters trick-or-treating. The girls get into an argument and one of their tiaras breaks, which Ron uses as confirmation to break the other tiara. When his relationship with Diane is jeopardized, he makes amends with Diane and her daughters by trick-or-treating them the next day.
1 Leslie Knope is recalled (Season 6, Episode 7)
The formidable force that is Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) has seen many failures in her time as a civil servant. But her most crushing failure was recalled by the city counselor. On Ben’s behalf, Jennifer Barkley (Kathryn Hahn) steps in to help lead Leslie into bigger and better career opportunities. She takes on many titles, but her greatest achievement is to be elected governor of Indiana.