Parks And Recreation Originally Began As A Spin-Off To A Classic Sitcom

For seven seasons on NBC, "Parks and Recreation" kept viewers in stitches, documenting the hilarity within local government in the fictional Pawnee, Indiana. The show's insanely stacked cast — which included Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Adam Scott, and Rob Lowe — quickly became one of network television's most beloved ensembles. But before we knew it as "Parks and Rec," the project began as a spin-off of "The Office." Well, sort of.

"Greg Daniels was approached by NBC in 2007," Mike Schur explained to the Television Academy in 2024 "What they really wanted at the time was a spin-off, because 'The Office' was huge, and the cast was enormous." The challenge, of course, was spinning off the Steve Carell-led sitcom without actively breaking up the folks who made it special. In the end, the pair decided that the best way to proceed was to come up with the best idea possible, even if it wasn't a spin-off at all.

"We had this revelation that in the same way Greg had created this masterful satire of corporate culture, we could do the same thing for the public sector, but at a very micro level," Shur recalled. To the sitcom gurus, moving out of the corporate sector was a natural transition. "That just became the most exciting idea, even though NBC still wanted a spinoff," Schur added. "And to their credit, they let us do it." With the network on their side, "Parks and Rec" was born.

Another potential link between "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation" was through an office appliance. According to executive producer and "The Office" star Paul Lieberstein, the idea was to connect the two sitcoms through a broken copy machine, which would have been sent to the Indiana-based Parks and Recreation office (via TV Guide). However, Daniels and Schur thought it easier to keep Leslie Knope (Poehler) and her Pawnee crew separate from the folks over in Scranton, and that was for the best.

While "Parks and Rec" didn't end up connecting to "The Office," the latter eventually produced a sequel series titled "The Paper" in 2025. While the streaming sitcom follows a largely new cast of characters, the spin-off does feature the return of Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nuñez), who has since left Dunder Mifflin for the Toledo Truth Teller. Having been renewed for a second season at Peacock, "The Paper" shows no signs of slowing down. In another case of good news, Amy Poehler and Mike Schur are reuniting for a new Peacock comedy.