Parks and Rec Star Rashida Jones Reflects on Show’s Turbulent Run

While Parks and Recreation has become one of the most popular and re-watched sitcoms of all-time, its success wasn’t always as clear-cut, at least according to one of its stars, Rashida Jones. Jones played Ann Perkins, a nurse in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana, who quickly becomes the best friend of the show’s lead, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler). Jones appeared in the show’s pilot episode, and was a mainstay of the series until its sixth season, when the character left Pawnee to start a new life with her husband, Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe).

Rashida Jones recently appeared on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast to promote her upcoming Apple TV+ series, Sunny. During the conversation, Jones reflected on her tenure on Parks and Recreation, and revealed that the series wasn’t the smash-hit many new fans assumed it was. According to the actress, the entire cast lived in constant fear of cancelation. Jones said:

“Every single season, we were like, ‘This is it. They’re not gonna want us back.’ At one point we were canceled and then the president of NBC got off the plane and changed his mind. It was like, ‘Eh, don’t cancel it yet, I guess.’ It was not really a thing at all.”

Parks and Recreation has found a second life in the age of streaming. While the series failed to reach the ratings highs of similar shows like The Office, recent years have seen the sitcom become a mainstay of whichever streaming service it presides on (the show has bounced between several streamers in the past few years). While that fear of job security would usually result in a stressful work environment, Jones said the cast of Parks and Recreation thrived in it. The actress explained:

“The whole time, we were just holding on for dear life, hoping we got to do more. Which is probably part of why it was so good – because there was no stardom. It wasn’t infiltrated by any outside feelings about us. People kind of liked us if they knew who we were. And, besides that, we just had fun together.”

Parks & Recreation Is Now Considered a Modern Classic

For contemporary and newer audiences, it’s hard to imagine Parks and Recreation constantly living on the brink of cancelation. The beloved series, which also stars Nick Offerman, Chris Pratt, Jim O’Heir, Aubrey Plaza, Aziz Ansari, Retta, Adam Scott, and a bunch of guest stars, is now regarded as one of the greatest sitcoms of all-time.

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During the conversation, Rashida Jones touched upon the show’s second life on streaming, and how the series has attracted a new, dedicated fan base. Jones reminisced about a cast re-union five years ago that brought the cast to tears because of the overwhelming love and applause from the audience. Jones said:

“It’s kind of iconic now. It’s one of those great comedies of that time. I think it was five years ago, we went to the Dolby, and we did a 10th-anniversary thing where we all came out the whole cast. The reception was so – I felt like the Beatles, it was so nuts. People were screaming so loud [and] we were all crying because we had never been in a room where anybody cared.”