Five years after its last episode, Parks and Recreation is coming back, for a good cause.
Yes, that’s right, Leslie Knope and company will be video chatting, like the rest of us, to, you know “stay connected in a time of social distancing.” The episode will also raise money for Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund.
The entire main cast, which includes Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Adam Scott, Rob Lowe, Jim O’Heir, and Retta are expected to be featured. In a conference call yesterday, Mike Schur also revelaed that the special will have about a half-dozen guest stars mixed in.
For a show that flashed all the way forward to 2065 with its final episode, putting this together meant a lot of thinking to make sure things stay canon. But no worries, those endings still happened. This episode is meant to fit with continuity. Or so Schur says.
And well, at this point, we gotta trust Mike Schur, don’t we? When has he let us down?
Important to note: this episode is about coping, about how we stay in touch – not about coronavirus. The disease won’t be the main focus, and despite the fact that Ann is a nurse, she won’t be in the frontlines of fighting Covid-19.
Instead it’s just about raising money for a good cause and having some fun with the characters we love. Which sounds just like what we need right now, doesn’t it?
The new episode of Parks and Rec will air Thursday, April 30, at 8:30/7:30c on NBC.