Few TV shows have concerned themselves in a more cheerfully aggressive fashion with topics like local government and civic duty than NBC’s Parks And Recreation. Neatly bookended by Barack Obama’s entrance and exit from the Oval Office, Mike Schur’s beloved small-town sitcom centered on public servants taking an actual stab at public service—the sort of thing that felt nice at the time, and which now feels positively magical five years on. But fear not, Pawnee-ites: Leslie Knope has not abandoned you. Per Rolling Stone, the series will be returning for a single episode of the show set to air next Thursday, showing how Leslie and friends are dealing with a socially isolated world.
Schur (who actually addressed this very topic recently, thinking up a potential Parks And Rec COVID episode for Vulture) assured viewers that Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Chris Pratt, Nick Offerman, Rob Lowe, Aziz Ansari, Adam Scott, Aubrey Plaza, Jim O’Heir and Retta will all appear in the episode. (Plus some potential special guests pulled from Pawnee’s deep bench of oddballs.) The episode will center on Leslie doing her best to stay in contact with her friends in a difficult time, and is part of wider efforts to raise money for food bank network Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund, which distributes needed cash to aid organizations around the country.
Per Schur: “Like a lot of other people, we were looking for ways to help and felt that bringing these characters back for a night could raise some money. I sent a hopeful email to the cast and they all got back to me within 45 minutes. Our old Parks and Rec team has put together one more 30-minute slice of (quarantined) Pawnee life and we hope everyone enjoys it. And donates!”