TV Quote of the Day (‘Parks and Recreation,’ on a Pivotal Moment in a Beauty Pageant)

[Serving as a judge in the Miss Pawnee Beauty Pageant, Leslie hopes to weed out one contestant whose lack of cranial matter is cheerfully overlooked by the male-dominated panel.]

Leslie Knope [played by Amy Poehler]: “Trish, Alexis de Tocqueville called America ‘The Great Experiment.’ What can we do, as citizens, to improve on that experiment?”

Trish Ianetta [played by April Eden]: “Uh, well, uh, I think America is the land of the free, which is a wonderful thing, and also the brave, where people can live. And nobody can ever take that away from you, and it never gives up. But the high birthing rate of immigrants frightens me! No offense to anyone out there, but if it were up to me and my family, I would actually call it our America, and not their America! Thank you.”

[The audience applauds enthusiastically.]

Leslie: “Don't applaud that. She didn't—she didn't answer my question.”— Parks and Recreation, Season 2, Episode 3, “Beauty Pageant,” original air date Oct. 1, 2009, teleplay by Katie Dippold and Harris Wittels, directed by Jason Woliner

This is a scene in which the full vacuity of a character can only be conveyed by watching an actor rather than by reading the admittedly clever dialogue.

In a few years, it sounds like Trish and her family would be among the original, hard-core MAGA contingent.

TV Quote of the Day (‘Parks and Recreation,’ on Names and ‘Getting a Little Chummy’)

Ron Swanson [played by Nick Offerman]: "Ann was getting a little chummy. When people get a little too chummy with me, I like to call them by the wrong name to let them know I don't really care about them."— Parks and Recreation, Season 4, Episode 3, “Born and Raised,” original air date Oct. 6, 2011, teleplay by Greg Daniels, Michael Schur, and Aisha Muharrar, directed by Dean Holland

That, folks, is a unique method for throwing shade.

TV Quote of the Day (‘Parks and Recreation,’ With a Bad Blunder in a Public Meeting)

Ann Perkins [played by Rashida Jones]: “I'm a nurse and frankly I don't really care for politics. [Applause] But, um, I'm here to talk about the abandoned lot on Sullivan Street.”

Leslie Knope [played by Amy Poehler]: “Excellent! That sounds like a good idea. Tell us about that.”

Ann: “No, it's a problem. It almost killed my boyfriend. Oh, yeah. There's a lot nearby my house and a developer dug out a basement for some condos and then they went bankrupt, so there's just this giant pit and it's been there for almost a year, 12 months.”

Leslie: “Yes, go on.”

Ann: “Yeah, and my boyfriend, who is a musician—actually, I support him— but anyway he fell in and broke both his legs and….”

Tom Haverford [played by Aziz Ansari, pictured] [interrupting]: “Let me speak with you for a minute. So your boyfriend fell down into this pit…”

Ann: “Right, yes.”

Tom: “And, um, this guy is pretty serious, you guys living together…”

Ann [quizzically]: “Yes.”

Tom: “Wow, uh, I’m sure this must be really tough for you. You know just this guy sounds like he didn't have a lot going on for him to start with, and now both legs broken. He's just weak, you have to take care of him ,you probably feel like you need to move on, just become more adventurous in relationships, with your body, just…”

Ann: “Are you actually hitting on me right now?”

Tom [trying to get out of this hole]: “Oh, oh God no, I'm not. I'm not hitting on you. I’m actually married. I’m just an open person and I like connecting with people. I’m, you know, very comfortable around women, attractive women. I’ve spent a lot of time with them and I just…”—Parks and Recreation, Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot,” original air date Apr. 9, 2009, teleplay by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, directed by Greg Daniels 

TV Quote of the Day (‘Parks and Recreation,’ As Leslie Shows Her Incredible Zeal for Serving the Public)

Leslie Knope [played by Amy Poehler]: “These people are members of a community that care about where they live. So what I hear when I'm being yelled at is people caring loudly at me.”—Parks and Recreation, Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot,” original air date Apr. 9, 2009, teleplay by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, directed by Greg Daniels

This post is for a friend of mine (AND HE KNOWS WHO HE IS!!!) who is quite an admirer of Ms. Poehler.

TV Quote of the Day (‘Parks and Recreation,’ as Ron Explains How He Discourages Chumminess)

Ron Swanson [played by Nick Offerman]: “When people get too chummy with me, I like to call them by the wrong name to let them know I don’t really care.” —Parks and Recreation, Season 4, Episode 3, “Born and Raised,” original air date Oct. 6, 2011, teleplay by Aisha Muharrar, directed by Dean Holland

TV Quote of the Day (‘Parks and Recreation,’ on ‘A Great Time To Be a Woman in Politics’)

Leslie Knope [played by Amy Poehler]: “It's a great time to be a woman in politics: Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, me, Nancy Pelosi.”— Parks and Recreation, Season 1, Episode 1, “Pilot,” original air date Apr. 9, 2009, teleplay by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, directed by Greg Daniels

Don’t you just smile at the way that “me” is inserted so inconspicuously into the list in this quote, when Leslie, like any politician, veteran or aspiring, wants it to be where it’ll be most noticed, whether first or last?

This week, Kamala Harris would surely join the names on this list. (Who knows, at some future point, if Nikki Haley might, too?) But what’s most striking is the evanescence of the others here.

Leslie, of course—“me”—went through her own ups and downs in local politics, before entering Sitcom Valhalla. Sarah Palin parlayed her brief political celebrity into a different kind, one perhaps more suited for her talents—reality TV star—before settling into irrelevance. As for Hillary Clinton, she got her “first”—first female Presidential nominee—before becoming a warning to all future politicians, of both sexes, never to count on a seemingly certain election being in the bag.

Only Nancy Pelosi—biding her time, waiting out those who claimed she was too old and out of touch with her party—persists. I suspect she smiles irrepressibly, the way that Kate McKinnon does in playing her on SNL, when she thinks back on the Presidential primary season in 1976, when Jerry Brown flung the old New Testament line at the born-again candidate, Jimmy Carter: “For the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.”

Maybe that’s the principal lesson for anyone, now or in the future, hoping that this will be “a great time to be a woman in politics”: Above all else, endure.

TV Quote of the Day (‘Parks and Recreation,’ on Ron’s Salad)

“There's been a mistake. You've accidentally given me the food that my food eats.”—Ron Swanson [played by Nick Offerman], to a wedding caterer about his salad, in Parks and Recreation, Season 5, Episode 12, “Ann's Decision,” original air date Feb. 7, 2013, teleplay by Nate DiMeo, directed by Ken Whittingham

TV Quote of the Day (Ron of ‘Parks And Recreation,’ on Blueberry Wine)

“I don't drink alcohol from that portion of the color spectrum.”—Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman), on blueberry wine, in Parks And Recreation, Season 6, Episode 19, “Flu Season 2,” air date April 10, 2014, teleplay by Dave King and Megan Amram, directed by Nick Offerman

After seven years, Parks and Recreation aired its series finale last night. It might have been a bit hard for the Democratic-leaning Amy Poehler to contemplate, but, as this Daily Beast post from Asawin Suebsaeng noted, it was a subsidiary character, Ron Swanson. who became a libertarian hero of sorts. Credit to Ms. Poehler and her show’s scriptwriters for making him comic but not a caricature. (Not that I agree with his brand of politics, but it’s good to see more than one political point of view get an airing on television.)

Johnny-come-lately as I am, at some point, I’ll have to find a channel where the series goes into syndication so I can catch the episodes that I missed.

TV Quote of the Day (‘Parks and Recreation,” on Frozen Yogurt)

“Dear frozen yogurt, you are the celery of desserts. Be ice cream or be nothing. Zero stars." —Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman),writing a complaint letter, on Parks and Recreation, Season 6, Episode 14, "Anniversaries," air date February 27, 2014, teleplay by Megan Amram, directed by Morgan Sackett

TV Quote of the Day (“Parks and Recreation,” With One Male’s Faith in His Attraction for Women)

“Call me a romantic, but I believe by the end of the night I will have between one and four new girlfriends.”—Tom Haverford (played by Aziz Ansari), on Parks and Recreation (Season 2, Episode 22, “The Master Plan”), written by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, directed by Dean Holland

Hmmm…

“Romantic” is not the first word to come to mind here.

“Stupid”? That’s closer.

“Delusional”? Now we’re talking!