NBC’s Parks & Recreation ended its sixth season with an epic one-hour episode that no one could have possibly guessed. Executive producer Michael Schur and Amy Poehler spoke about the surprising finale.
During the final moments, after Unity Concert and Leslie Knope taking the National Parks Service job to Pawnee, the story flashed forward one month and then three years! Suddenly, Leslie (Poehler) and Ben Wyatt’s (Adam Scott) triplets are three-years-old and Leslie has just fired Jon Hamm (yes, the Jon Hamm) for being incompetent. It was hilarious and Schur told Entertainment Weekly that the writers really enjoy throwing the audience for a loop.
“Yes, 100 percent,” Schur said when asked if he likes to throw viewers off balance. “ I’m a broken record about this, but I think that’s the best weapon we have in our arsenal, and that’s doing things unexpected and throwing people off-balance. It’s the last potent weapon for a network television show.”
As for the time jumps, Schur called it his “fun, little impish wink at the audience.”
Schur also said that everyone is coming back for season seven, even though Ron (Nick Offerman), Tom (Aziz Ansari) and Donna (Retta) weren’t in the last scene.
Poehler caught up with TheWrap and also noted how the show’s characters are constantly changing and that the plot follows their development.
“What's exciting about working on Parks always is that we keep moving things forward and [are] never kind of sitting still as far as what happens to people,” Poehler said before the finale aired. She later added, “I think fans of ours will be really excited coming into Season 7 about what this season's finale will mean.”
Parks and Recreation has already been renewed for a seventh season.