The third season Parks and Recreation initially aired in the United States on the NBC television network between January 20 and May 19, 2011. Like the previous season, focus on Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and his staff in the park and the recreational department of the fictional city of Indiana Pawnee. This season featured 16 episodes, mostly about 22 minutes each and broadcast at 9:30. on Thursday.
All the original cast members returned for the third season except Paul Schneider, who previously plays the city planner Mark Brendanawicz. Rob Lowe and Adam Scott, who appeared as guest stars in the second season, began the third season as regular players playing Chris Traeger and Ben Wyatt, respectively. The season also features guest appearances by Megan Mullally, Will Forte and Parker Posey, among others.
To accommodate Amy Poehler's pregnancy, the first six episodes of the third season were filmed as soon as the second season was wrapped so they could be rescued for the projected September 2010 air date. However, after the episode was over, NBC postponed the inaugural season until January to accommodate their new series, Outsourced . The third season consists of several major story arcs, including the complete cessation of the Pawnee government for budgetary reasons, inspired by the real-life global financial crisis. Other storylines include the garden department organization of the harvest festival, the romance between Leslie and Ben, and the dating and eventual marriage of Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) and April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza).
As in previous seasons, Parks and Recreation has been critically acclaimed during its third season, and is expressed by some reviewers as one of the best comedy on television. Entertainment Weekly featured it on its cover in February 2011 and declared it the "smartest comedy on TV". The episodes of "Harvest Festival" and "Li'l Sebastian" received very positive reviews, as did Nick Offerman in his role as park director Ron Swanson. Parks and Recreation received her first nomination for the Emmy Primetime Award for an Extraordinary Comedy Series for her third season, and Poehler received a second nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. However, Garden and Recreation continues to struggle in Nielsen rankings and averaging about 4.75 million household viewers per week.
Video Parks and Recreation (season 3)
Cast
- Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope
- Rashida Jones as Ann Perkins
- Aziz Ansari as Tom Haverford
- Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson
- Aubrey Plaza as April Ludgate
- Chris Pratt as Andy Dwyer
- Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt
- Rob Lowe as Chris Traeger
- Jim O'Heir as Jerry Gergich
- Retta as Donna Meagle
Maps Parks and Recreation (season 3)
Episode
shows an expanded episode.
Production
Cast
Most of the original players from the second season returned for the third season, including Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Pratt. The only permanent member of the non-returning cast is Paul Schneider, who previously plays the city planner Mark Brendanawicz. Schneider departed from the series at the end of the second season. Jim O'Heir and Retta, who made regular appearances as park employees Jerry Gergich and Donna Meagle during the first two seasons, are considered regular members of the cast starting in the third season, although they still have not appeared on the opening credits. Adam Scott, who plays state auditor Ben Wyatt in the last two episodes of the second season, became a regular member of the team starting in the third season, and Rob Lowe, who appeared in the second two episodes of the same season as state auditor Chris Traeger, also joined the cast in season three. Lowe was originally intended only to make a series of performances in season two and three and then leave the show, but instead he became a regular member of the player starting with the third season, having signed a multi-year contract to stay on the show. After actor Charlie Sheen was fired from the CBS comedy series Two and Half Men in March 2011, rumors circulated that Rob Lowe would set off on Parks and Recreation and replace Sheen, but they proved groundless.
Nick Offerman's wife Megan Mullally, formerly Ron Swanson's former wife, Tammy in the episode "Ron and Tammy", imitated the role in "Ron & Tammy: Part Two", and briefly featured as a character at the end of the season " Li 'L Sebastian' Will Forte, a comedian who previously starred in the Saturday Night Live sketch comedy series with Amy Poehler, guest star in Time Capsule as a Pawnee resident who demanded Twilight the book was added to the city time capsule Parker Posey, previously starred by Poehler in the 2009 comedy movie Spring Breakdown, appeared in "Eagleton" as a former best friend of Leslie and rival officials from a neighboring town. discussed with Garden and Recreation staff to make guest appearances since her debut show, and became frustrated when it took several months before she accepted the invitation.
Some of the actors who have appeared in previous seasons of Garden and Recreation continued to appear in the third season, including Ben Schwartz as Arrogant and entrepreneurial friend Tom Jean-Ralphio Saperstein; Natalie Morales as bartender and girlfriend Tom, Lucy; Jama Williamson as Wendy, Tom's ex-wife who started dating Ron; Pamela Reed as Leslie's mother, Marlene Griggs-Knope; Alison Becker as newspaper reporter Shauna Malwae-Tweep; Darlene Hunt as conservative activist Marcia Langman; Mo Collins as host of the morning talk show Joan Callamezzo; Jay Jackson as television broadcaster Perd Hapley; Andy Forrest as a shoeshine customer Andy, Kyle, and Kirk Fox as Joe's waste department personnel. Eric Pierpoint appeared in "Ron & amp; Tammy: Part Two" and "Eagleton" as Hugh Trumple, head of the Pawnee police department. Comedians Matt Besser and Nick Kroll appeared in "Media Blitz" as "Crazy Ira and The Douche", the morning radio show host of the Pawnee zoo. Besser had previously been on a sketch comedy and troupe of the Upright People's Brigade with Poehler. Detlef Schrempf, a retired Indiana Pacers basketball player who played in the second episode of the "Telethon" season, appeared again in "Li'l Sebastian". Jonathan Joss, who previously voiced John Redcorn in the animated television series King of the Hill - co-created by Parks and Recreation co-creator Greg Daniels - guest starred in "Harvest Festival" as a local Native American leader.
Filming
Towards the end of production in the second season, main actor Amy Poehler became pregnant and show producers were forced to go into production in the initial three seasons and filmed six additional episodes to accommodate not only Poehler's pregnancy but also projected September 2010 Air date. Amy Poehler said the players "slightly fried" by an intense shooting schedule, but the addition of Adam Scott and Rob Lowe to the players gives a boost of energy. Because Poehler was six months pregnant while filming the first six episodes, he was often placed strategically behind items to hide his stomach. Although the third episode will be shown, "Time Capsule" is the last of six episodes to be filmed because the story presents the highest amount of props to put Poehler in front of objects to hide his pregnancy, especially the time capsule itself.
However, NBC finally chose not to put the show on the fall schedule, and instead delayed the premiere of the third season until early 2011. It allowed the network to run its new comedy Outsourced within two hours of block comedy schedules than > Parks and Recreation . The schedule change means that all sixteen episodes of the third season will be filmed before one of them is shown; the rest of the episode, beginning with the seventh, was filmed in the fall of 2010. NBC Chief Executive Officer Jeff Gaspin said the move was not a reflection on Parks and Recreation, and suggested a hiatus extension would not only have no negative effects on the show , but it can actually build up the anticipation to return. Co-creator Michael Schur's series said the schedule changes were frustrating, but said: "Sounds a bit tacky, maybe even a little theater community, but when we get bad news, our thinking is to lay our heads and keep making the best show we can. "Amy Poehler said about hiatus," It was NBC's decision and of course we were confused, but I think, strangely enough, there is momentum coming from the people waiting for us, which is nice. " Poehler also says it gives them the luxury of time to go back and reedit episodes or shoot and add new material.
As in previous seasons, the third season shoot of the series included a large amount of improvisation from the players. For example, during a scene in "The Fight" where almost all players get drunk in the Snakehole Lounge bar, each actor spends about two days recording his own individual scene. Many of the improvised films, including the images used in the montage series that show how drunk each character is at the end of the night. Amy Poehler described the filming as "the most fun I ever had". Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally also improvised many of their scenes during the filming of "Ron & amp; Tammy: Part Two". The third season continues to use some visual techniques and cameras that have been introduced in the last season. In the past, Poehler will improvise several different jokes during the shoot, and they will mix into a montage of leap cuts featuring many jokes. The technique was used plainly in "Indianapolis" during the scene where Leslie entertained Ann with stories about Leslie several times being dumped in the past. The same technique used by Aziz Ansari in "Soulmates", during a scene in which Tom describes many of the slang names he has given for food, and in "The Fight", where Tom describes many of the strange entrepreneurial ideas he possesses.
The "Harvest Festival" episode features an elaborate festival setting and a set of corn mazes. Due to budgetary restrictions, the Parks and recreation set departments did not build sets, but instead used real-life settings at Los Angeles Pierce College, a community college in California that hosts yearly festivals. Michael Schur said the air shot from the harvest festival at the end of the episode was the most expensive shot in the entire series. The episode was filmed out of sequence from the rest of the season so the weather would be cooler when the scene was taken; Schur jokingly said if this was not done, "the week we are going to shoot is like 148 degrees here and the actors will die now". Eagleton public forum scene in the episode "Eagleton" was shot at Toluca Lake Sports Center in Toluca Lake district in Los Angeles. The end of season "Li'l Sebastian" sees the introduction of headquarters for the new company Tom and Jean-Ralphio, Entertainment 720. The setting is completely white of 15,000 square feet (1,400m 2 ) room with modern decor and unusual furnishings, and Michael Schur describes his arrangement as, "Probably the craziest thing ever in our series... It's crazy, it's like a hallucinogenic nightmare."
After the original "Ron & amp; Tammy: Part Two" broadcast, NBC runs "April and Andy's wedding registration commercials" on the official Garden and Recreation website. At this point in the season, April and Andy are separated and not yet reconciled. Shortly after the episode aired, HitFix television reviewer Alan Sepinwall wrote that the ad was mistakenly using the wrong name and actually referred to Ron and Tammy's wedding list. However, after "Andy and April's Fancy Party" aired, Schur acknowledged the ad was meant to run with the episode, but ran with "Ron & amp; Tammy: Part Two" due to a mistake by NBC employees: Schur said afterward, "We sincerely hoping that the fans of the show were cool with us gently lying to them, in an effort to keep the surprise marriage as much as we could. "
Write
The financial difficulties experienced by Pawnee during the third season are a reflection of the financial crisis facing the nation and most of the world when the episodes were produced. The idea of ​​state auditors visiting Pawnee, and subsequent government closures, was inspired by news reports as some countries are considering closing schools, parks and other services due to the global recession. Amy Poehler describes one of the themes earlier this season when Leslie Knope sought to maintain his optimism about public service in the face of economic and cynical rebellion about the government: "How does one work in government and not become cynical? How does one believe that change can happen without losing faith? "
Many of the first seven episodes of this season revolve around the characters governing the harvest festival, which was previously a Pawnee tradition before it ended. The storyline stems from Pawnee's serious budget problems and major cuts threatening the park's department, prompting Leslie to bring the harvest festival back and risking the entire department's future on its success and failure. The festival serves as a tool to bring all the characters together working toward a common goal, similar to the effort to turn the construction pit into a park during the first two seasons. Schur said the festival harvest story story was written in part because the first six episodes were written and filmed early, so the writing staff felt having a short storyline to tie them together to keep the show in focus. Schur also said the authors tired of working on six episodes of the third season soon after the second season, so the harvest festival story arc helped "regulate our weary and year-end brains".
One of the biggest story arcs of the third season is the romance between Leslie and Ben, who slowly progressed throughout the series until they officially began dating on the episode of "Road Trip" despite the strict policy on dating at the town hall. The development of Ben's feelings for Leslie coincided with his ever-increasing appreciation for Pawnee; the character has never had a strong feeling at home due to the excessive amount of travel with his work, but throughout the season Ben gradually fell in love with the city because of Leslie Knope's optimism and enthusiasm showing for Pawnee and his work. The policy of dating prohibition, imposed by Chris, comes from a real-life policy in a small town government, which, according to Schur, is considered very important because "these people handle taxpayers' money, so the relationship is even more favorable than in the private sector." During the end of the season "Li'l Sebastian", Leslie was encouraged by the political operation to run, but asked if there was any potential scandal that could risk becoming public. Leslie denied there, but suggested her secret relationship with Ben could be such a scandal.
The first five episodes of the season involve Andy and his attempt to win back April's affection, which previously had feelings for Andy, but became angry after Ann kissed him at the end of his second season, "Freddy Spaghetti". Both are reconciled in "Media Blitz", described by Schur as "an important moment" in their relationship, "almost like Andy as Knight of the Round Table, and he has many different obstacles to overcome in order to win. fair ". Andy and April married during a surprise marriage of four episodes later in "Andy and April Fancy Party". Schur said the decision to ask them to marry after only a short date came from the writing staff's desire to "avoid the standard-sized TV plot of love: fights, other men/women who kept them apart, and so on." They decided the quick marriage was funny, but it also made sense because his character was "two impulsive goofballs that did not approach their lives in a responsible and mature way".
Michael Schur says another goal of the third season is to better demonstrate the comedic ability of Rashida Jones, whose Ann Perkins character is often portrayed as a straight man role against other characters. This is done by placing Jones in a romantic relationship with Rob Lowe's character, Chris Traeger, who is overly optimistic and it seems perfect that Ann has trouble finding shortcomings and is surprised by him. Schur said: "Rashida is a very intelligent and attractive woman, and it's hard to knock someone out like that without balance, and the way to knock him out of balance is to get Rob Lowe in a relationship with you." Ann is further taken from her element when it was revealed in "Indianapolis" that Chris broke up with her, but did so in a positive and upbeat way that Ann did not realize for several days. Afterwards, Ann goes on to move the previous straight man role by going out with a series of dates with lots of random men. During the final episode of the season, Ann takes a part-time job at the town hall as the public relations director of the health department, described by Schur as "a natural full circle from the start of the season". This marks the process of getting over Chris and becoming "more mature". Schur also said having Ann's work at the town hall would make it easier to integrate it into the storyline with other characters.
Tom Haverford's character also changes during the final episode of the season, in which the character begins to consider leaving the city hall position to pursue his own business ambitions. The storyline is very advanced especially in "The Bubble", when Tom becomes frustrated with the task by Chris, and culminates in the end of season "Li'l Sebastian", where he finally stops from the park department to form an entertainment company. "Li'l Sebastian" ends with a few cliffhanger twists including Tom's departure from the town hall, Leslie is approached to run, and the arrival of Ron's former first wife, Tammy, although the actress who will play her is not revealed. Schur said the writing staff had a general idea of ​​where the newly introduced storyline should work, but the actual story had not been fully successful when the episode was broadcast. Schur says they are trying to "write the most interesting, most interesting scenario you might write, and then you have all summer to figure out how to get out of it."
Reception
Broadcast
While Parks and Recreation previously aired at 8:30. EST on Thursday, the third season marks its debut at 9:30 am. Thursday timeslot effective January 20, 2011, aired between two popular series The Office and 30 Rock . Poehler said about the time slot, "'The Office' is a great show and behind it is an honor." Manufacturers are hoping Leaders Office will bring in new audiences, and become the premiere of the "Go Big or Go Home" season including an introductory sequence depicting the previous events of the series. In some cases, the third season's "Producer Cut" episode was made available on NBC's official website after they were broadcast. The cut is about five minutes longer than the television version and includes some scenes that were originally cut because of the long limitations. The episodes for receiving "Producer Cuts" include "Harvest Festival", "The Fight" and "Li'l Sebastian".
During the original broadcast, the episode "Jerry's Painting" runs for 40 minutes instead of the usual 30 minutes for following "Goodbye, Michael", a long episode of The Office featuring Steve Carell's last appearance as a regular cast member. "The Fight" and "Road Trip" retreated during their original broadcast on May 12, 2011, as did "The Bubble" and "Li'l Sebastian" on May 19th. All four are stand-alone episodes that were originally not designed to be shown together, however, because the third season aired late as a substitute for mid-season in January, the episodes aired together so the series' season will end at the end of the television season.
Reviews
Parks and Recreation continue to receive critical acclaim, as happened during the second season. The show is featured on the February 11th cover of Entertainment Weekly, which is called "the smartest comedy on TV" and which includes the article "The 101 Reasons We Love Parks and Recreation ". James Poniewozik from Time magazine called it "a great season - the best on TV in 2011 so far". Maureen Ryan of TV Squad called it one of the top ten shows of 2011, and says this season sees the huge growth of her two main characters, especially Leslie Knope, along with a strong player expansion of secondary and tertiary characters as well. New York writer of the magazine Willa Paskin praised the show for comedy based on optimism and a character that really likes each other, rather than the more prominent humor in other comedy shows of the day. Alan Sepinwall from HitFix called it "an incredible TV comedy season" without a single bad episode. Steve Heisler from The A.V. The club said that although he regarded Parks and Recreation as the funniest sitcom on television during the second season, "it somehow gets better" during the third. Scott Meslow of The Atlantic said during the third season, Parks and Recreation was "the funniest, sweetest, most consistent comedy on television", and that the way characters look for new Opportunities outside the park department at the end of the season showed that the show was willing to change and "not content to just turn the wheel". Eric Sundermann of Hollywood.com says he believes that the third season "will become recognized as one of the best seasons of any sitcom", and that the character and setting of Pawnee is fully developed so that he feels close, personal connections to them. Henry Hanks of CNN called it "a season that is almost flawless".
"Harvest Festival" received a very strong review, with New York magazine writer Steve Kandell calling it the most important episode of the season in terms of "resolving and rearranging narrative stakes". Likewise, "Li'l Sebastian" was praised by some reviewers as one of the best episodes of the season, and Henry Hanks called it "one of the funniest hours of any show this season". As in last season, Nick Offerman continued to receive critical acclaim for his performance as Ron Swanson. In the third season, the character has taken the cult status, and the term "Ron Swanson" is so often discussed on Twitter's social networking website after "Andy and Fancy's April Party" shows that it is listed amongst trending topics on the site. , which indicates to be the most popular topic being discussed on Twitter at any given moment. Rob Lowe received strong reviews for his performance in "Flu Season" where his normally physically fit character became very sick and hallucinated when infected with the flu. Aziz Ansari received a very positive review for his performance on "Soulmates", as did Adam Scott for his performance in "Media Blitz". While some commentators feel the character of Ann Perkins looks distracted and does not work as well as the other cast members, others say they like the new direction of the character that has been taken this season. Eric Sundermann says the relationship between Chris and Ann is described as "one of the most interesting parts of the show", while Joel Keller of TV Squad feels it is not handled properly and makes Ann too passive. Some reviewers say the town of Pawnee itself has evolved into a rich and interesting environment, comparing it to Springfield in Fox's animated series The Simpsons.
Ratings
Despite critical successes, the third season of Garden and Recreation continued to suffer in Nielsen rankings, as happened during the second season. The average audience for the 16 episodes of the third season was 4.75 million household viewers, up slightly from the second-season average of 4.68 million, but lower than the 5.45 million average seasonal average. Michael Schur partially attributes a continuous low view with a downgrade for NBC in general, as well as changing audience trends due to the large number of channels available. He added: "I would be happy if our ratings go up and up, and we've done a pretty good job of making our show inviting and friendly, welcoming new audiences, and I'm not sure what else we can do.. "
Gardens and Recreation saw a slight increase in views during the first episode. The debut of the season, "Go Big or Go Home", was seen by around 6.19 million household viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, with 3.2 rating/8 share among viewers between the ages of 18 and 49. This marks the highest ranking of the series in demographics, and the highest overall view since the series's premiere episode from April 2009, seen by 6.77 million household viewers. However, ratings are rapidly declining, and by the third episode of "Time Capsule" has slumped to 4.95 million household viewers, more than a 17 percent drop from the previous episode, "The Flu Season". In the seventh episode, "Harvest Festival", viewers have dropped to 4.08 million households, one of the lowest ranks of this series.
The ratings increased slightly after that point, with viewers for the next episode of "Camping" jumping 39 percent to 5.15 million households. The rating for the eleventh episode, "Jerry's Painting", is expected to be high as it leads from the last episode of Steve Carell as a regular cast member at The Office. However, the Garden and Recreation episode was seen by about 4.71 million household viewers, down from the previous episode of "Soulmates". Very low ratings for Garden and Recreation for the last four episodes due to changes in timeslots and back-to-back pairs of episodes: "The Fight" and "Road Trip" seen by 4.55 million and 3.54 million households, respectively, while "The Bubble" and the final season of "Li'l Sebastian" are respectively seen by 4.27 and 3.72 million households.
Awards
In 2011, Parks and Recreation was nominated for the Emmy Primetime Award for the Extraordinary Comedy Series, the first nominee for the series. Amy Poehler received a second Primetime Emmy Award nomination for the Best Acting Main Actress in the Comedy Series. Poehler said he was considering sending episodes of "Flu Season" or "The Fight" for Emmy Award considerations. In June 2011, Parks and Recreation were nominated for three Awards Critics' Choice Television premieres. The show itself was nominated for "Best Comedy Series", Amy Poehler was nominated for "Best Actress in a Comedy Series" and Nick Offerman was nominated for "Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series". Also that month, Parks and Recreation was nominated for four TCA Awards: Program of the Year, Extraordinary Achievement in Comedy and Individual Achievement in Comedy awards for Offerman and Poehler. Offerman also hosted the TCA Awards in 2011.
References
External links
- Official Sites Parks and Recreation on NBC.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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