"Canvassing" is the second episode of the
first season of the American comedy television series ''
Parks and Recreation''. It originally aired on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
in the United States on April 16, 2009. The episode was written by
Rachel Axler and directed by
Seth Gordon
Seth Lewis Gordon is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and film editor.
He has produced and directed for film and television, including for PBS, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the United Nations Staff 1% for Developme ...
. In the episode, deputy director of Parks and Recreation
Leslie
Leslie may refer to:
* Leslie (name), a name and list of people with the given name or surname, including fictional characters
Families
* Clan Leslie, a Scottish clan with the motto "grip fast"
* Leslie (Russian nobility), a Russian noble family ...
and her staff canvass the neighborhood to seek support for an upcoming town meeting on their park proposal but end up drawing more critics than allies.
The episode was originally supposed to be the third episode of the series, but the broadcast order was changed and "Canvassing" was switched with "
The Reporter". The episode received generally mixed reviews. According to
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
, "Canvassing" was watched by 5.92 million households in its original airing, which media outlets said was commendable, although it was about 900,000 less households than the
pilot episode
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...
received the previous week. "Canvassing" and the rest of the first season of ''Parks and Recreation'' was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
in the United States on September 8, 2009.
Plot
The episode begins with
Leslie Knope
Leslie Barbara Knope ( ) is a fictional character portrayed by Amy Poehler and the main protagonist of the NBC sitcom '' Parks and Recreation''. For most of the show's run, she serves as deputy director of the Parks and Recreation Department of ...
, deputy director of the Department of Parks and Recreation for
Pawnee, Indiana
Pawnee ( ) is a fictional town located in the state of Indiana in which the NBC comedy series '' Parks and Recreation'' is set. Since the show's start in 2009, the city's “colorful” history and inhabitants have been the joke or focal point f ...
explaining to a documentary crew about the Annual Easter Egg Hunt, in which her colleague,
Tom Haverford
Thomas Montgomery "Tom" Haverford (born Darwish Sabir Ismail Ghani) is a fictional character on the NBC series '' Parks and Recreation''. He is a sarcastic, underachieving government official for the city of Pawnee who—in his own mind—is rev ...
, has hidden the eggs, and Leslie notes that nobody is able to find them. Tom secretly confesses to the documentary crew that he forgot to plant the eggs.
Leslie plans for an upcoming
town hall meeting
Town hall meetings, also referred to as town halls or town hall forums, are a way for local and national politicians to meet with their constituents either to hear from them on topics of interest or to discuss specific upcoming legislation or ...
about her proposal to turn a construction pit into a park. She invites her mother
Marlene Griggs-Knope
The primary characters of the American television comedy series '' Parks and Recreation'' are the employees of the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional Indiana town. The protagonist is Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), the deputy parks director as ...
, an official with the county school system, but she does not appear supportive and tells Leslie she may be too busy to attend. Leslie holds a subcommittee meeting with Tom, interested citizen
Ann Perkins
Ann Meredith Perkins, RN, portrayed by Rashida Jones, is a fictional character in the NBC comedy '' Parks and Recreation''. She is a nurse and Leslie Knope's best friend.
Ann is originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, moving to Pawnee sometime ...
, intern
April Ludgate
April Roberta Ludgate-Dwyer, Lady Ludgate-Dwyer née Ludgate, is a fictional character in the NBC political satire mockumentary sitcom '' Parks and Recreation''. She is portrayed by Aubrey Plaza. She is first seen as an apathetic college student ...
and
city planner
An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning.
An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, tow ...
Mark Brendanawicz
Mark Brendanawicz is a fictional character in the NBC comedy series '' Parks and Recreation''. He is the city planner for Pawnee, Indiana, as well as Leslie Knope's colleague and one of Ann Perkins' ex-boyfriends. He is portrayed by Paul Sch ...
. Mark warns her it might be too early for a meeting with the public, who could opt to vote the proposal down if they are unhappy with it. Leslie remains confident about the meeting and says the group will be doing neighborhood
canvassing
Canvassing, also known as door knocking or phone banking, is the systematic initiation of direct contact with individuals, commonly used during political campaigns. Canvassing can be done for many reasons: political campaigning, grassroot ...
to try to win support.
The canvassing is largely unsuccessful. Most of the supporters of the park say they will not be able to attend the meeting. Mark, April and Tom speak with one seemingly interested resident, who is implied to be a
pedophile
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puber ...
. Leslie becomes frustrated with the lack of success and attempts to
push poll
A push poll is an interactive marketing technique, most commonly employed during political campaigning, in which a person or organization attempts to manipulate or alter prospective voters' views under the guise of conducting an opinion poll. In ...
the community residents. She suggests phrasing the question, "Wouldn't you rather have a park than a storage facility for nuclear waste?" Tom leaves the canvassing group to call prospective contractors about the park project, hinting at accepting bribes and making corrupt deals. Several residents express a lack of support for the park. Resident Kate Speevak vows to attend the public meeting and voice her disapproval after a frustrated Leslie says, "You don't care about your kids if you don't support this park". The canvassing ends with an angry Leslie finding Mark and April playing ''
Rock Band
''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...
'' with Ann's boyfriend,
Andy Dwyer
Sir Andrew Maxwell "Andy" Dwyer Order of the British Empire, KBE () is a fictional Character (arts), character in the NBC comedy ''Parks and Recreation'' portrayed by Chris Pratt. Originally meant to be a temporary character, Andy was so likabl ...
at Ann's house.
Leslie tries to get her boss
Ron Swanson
Ronald Ulysses Swanson is a fictional character portrayed by Nick Offerman in the political satire sitcom '' Parks and Recreation''. The character was created by Michael Schur and Greg Daniels with inspiration from a real-life Libertarian ele ...
to postpone the town hall meeting, but Ron says he cannot because the town manager
Paul Iaresco has "fast-tracked" the project. As the meeting begins, Leslie notices her mother has attended after all, along with many of the people critical of the project. Led by Kate Speevak, the crowd says they do not support the proposal and are angry an environmental study has not been conducted. Leslie tries to pretend April is a supportive resident, but one of the audience members recognizes her from the canvassing.
When Ron tells Leslie to try to place a positive spin on the meeting and prevent a vote from occurring, Leslie attempts to
filibuster
A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent a decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking ...
the meeting. Kate pushes for a vote, but Leslie says she will not hold one until she has heard from each audience member individually. They criticize and yell at Leslie until 9 p.m., when she announces time is up and ends the meeting. Marlene, who privately described the meeting as a "train-wreck", nevertheless expresses her pride for Leslie with a smile. Although frustrated with the meeting itself, Leslie says she is happy to have hosted her first subcommittee meeting. When one resident,
Lawrence
Lawrence may refer to:
Education Colleges and universities
* Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States
* Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States
Preparator ...
says, "Hey park lady, you suck", Leslie says with pride, "Hear that? He called me 'park lady'".
Production
Conception and filming
"Canvassing" was written by
Rachel Axler and directed by
Seth Gordon
Seth Lewis Gordon is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and film editor.
He has produced and directed for film and television, including for PBS, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the United Nations Staff 1% for Developme ...
, whom the cast and crew of ''Parks and Recreation'' admired for his documentary, ''
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters''.
It was originally supposed to be the third episode shown in the series, but the broadcast schedule was changed and it was switched with "
The Reporter", the original second episode.
Series co-creator
Michael Schur
Michael Herbert Schur (born October 29, 1975) is an American television writer, producer, director, and actor. He started his career as a writer for ''Saturday Night Live'' (1998–2004) before gaining acclaim as a writer and producer of the si ...
said the plot for "Canvassing" was conceived early in the ''Parks and Recreation'' brainstorming process because the staff wanted to demonstrate Leslie's optimism and strong resolve in the face of harsh public criticism. Schur said he felt like Leslie "hangs in and ends up like
Rocky
''Rocky'' is a 1976 American independent film, independent sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the Rocky (film series), ''Rocky'' franchise and also star ...
: beaten and bloodied, but on her feet". Schur said during his research about municipal government, he received a lot of feedback that community meetings are seldom attended except by those opposed to a proposal, and those in favor of it or neutral about it tend not to attend. This was the inspiration behind the public forum at the end of "Canvassing", which was attended almost entirely by opponents of Leslie's proposed park. Alan Yang, a ''Parks and Recreation'' writer, conceived the idea of Leslie using a filibuster at her own public meeting.
Like most episodes of ''Parks and Recreation'', a great deal of the scenes in "Canvassing" were improvised by the actors. The scenes with Tom hinting at bribes and corrupt deals with developers was largely improvised by actor Aziz Ansari.
The producers were concerned the subplot would make Tom too unlikeable, but instead audiences responded positively because they felt it was an accurate portrayal of some aspects of small-town government.
Ansari also improvised the lines in which he brown-nosed to the developers as they entered the public forum. In one talking head-style documentary interview, Leslie insists a park like the one she envisioned for Pawnee could not be built in communist
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, and she goes on to impersonate Russian children playing in a park. The scene was completely improvised by Poehler during multiple takes,
and Michael Schur called it "my favorite talking head that Amy has done".
The
cold open
A cold open (also called a teaser sequence) is a narrative technique used in television and films. It is the practice of jumping directly into a story at the beginning of the show before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. In North ...
of the episode features Leslie wearing bunny ears and helping children on an
Easter
Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...
egg hunt
An egg hunt is a treasure hunt played at Easter during which children look for hidden decorated eggs or Easter eggs. Real hard-boiled eggs, which are typically dyed or painted, artificial eggs made of plastic filled with chocolate or candies, ...
at a park. Since Tom forgot to hide any eggs, Leslie and the children assume it is an extremely difficult egg hunt. The cold open was the last scene shot for "Canvassing", and was conceived at the last moment because the production date was near Easter, and series co-creator Michael Schur said he "thought it would be funny to put Amy (Poehler) in bunny ears". Since it was shot after the majority of the episode, Seth Gordon was not available to direct it.
All outdoor canvassing scenes were shot in a neighborhood of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, outside the ''Parks and Recreation'' studio. Michael Schur said they wanted to establish the type of groundwork public servants often had to conduct in a small town.
Seth Gordon sought to make the canvassing scenes as realistic as possible, so he allowed a large amount of improvisation among the actors.
The Pawnee residents who are vocally opposed to parks were based on real-life California residents the ''Parks and Recreation'' producers encountered who opposed the construction of parks in their hometown. One such group, "The Committee for a Better Park", was actually a group of residents opposed to parks in general, and the deceptiveness of their name and mission inspired the ''Parks'' producers while writing "Canvassing".
Casting
"Canvassing" marked the first appearance of
Marlene Griggs-Knope
The primary characters of the American television comedy series '' Parks and Recreation'' are the employees of the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional Indiana town. The protagonist is Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), the deputy parks director as ...
, Leslie's mother and an important public figure in the Pawnee school system. Marlene was played by
Pamela Reed
Pamela Reed is an American actress. She is known for playing Arnold Schwarzenegger's police partner Phoebe O'Hara in the 1990 film '' Kindergarten Cop'' and portraying the matriarch Gail Green in ''Jericho''. She appeared as Marlene Griggs-Knop ...
, who would continue to make several guest appearances as the character. During the casting auditions, Seth Gordon interviewed Reed as if she were playing the character and Reed improvised a great deal, creating many personality elements that were eventually incorporated into Marlene Knope's character. Gordon said, "Pamela was especially sort of nimble on her feet at inventing a character in the room on the fly, and I thought that was really impressive."
During the audition, Reed was asked whether she was proud of her daughter, and Reed replied, "I want my daughter to be successful, which is why I always tell her, there's nothing wrong with being a wife and mother." The improvised line, which was based on something her father-in-law said to her, so impressed the producers that they incorporated it into the episode.
Schur said the producers sought to establish Leslie's mother early in the series, and he felt her relationship to Leslie was the center of the entire "Canvassing" episode. Schur said of Leslie's attempts to impress her mom at her public forum, "We imagined it in the writer's room that she is eight years old and doing a piano recital, and she's nervous because her mom's there."
Lennon Parham
Lennon Parham (born October 26, 1975) is an American actress and improvisational comedian from the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. With frequent collaborator Jessica St. Clair, she created and co-starred in NBC's ''Best Friends Forever'' and U ...
, an actress and comedian who worked with Amy Poehler on the
Upright Citizens Brigade
The Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Amy Poehler, Matthew Walsh, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, ...
sketch comedy troupe, made a guest appearance in "Canvassing" as Kate Speevak. Michael Schur said early on in the brainstorming process, the ''Parks and Recreation'' producers decided to establish an antagonist for Leslie named Kate Speevak, simply because they thought the name was funny.
Seth Gordon said Poehler and Parham worked especially well together during their largely improvised scenes, which he attributed to their past work together on the Upright Citizens Brigade.
The resident who appeared to be a sex offender during the canvassing was played by
Brian Huskey
Brian Huskey (born September 8, 1968) is an American character actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for his roles in comedy programs such as '' People of Earth'', ''Childrens Hospital'', '' Veep'', and '' Another Period''. He also provi ...
, who Schur called a "fantastic improviser".
Eric Edelstein
Eric Edelstein is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing the role of Bobby Mallison in '' Shameless'', Chad in '' Clarence'', B.O.B. in the ''Monsters vs. Aliens'' television adaptation, and Grizzly "Grizz" in '' We Bare Bear ...
portrayed Lawrence, a resident who antagonizes Leslie and Andy during the public meeting. Edelstein was not originally the actor assigned the "Hey parks lady, you suck" line, but the ''Parks and Recreation'' producers like Edelstein so much they gave it to him.
Leslie's response line, "Hear that? He called me park lady", was improvised by Poehler.
Cultural references
During office hours, Leslie catches Mark, April and Andy playing ''
Rock Band
''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...
'', a popular
music video game
A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a ...
in which the players perform rock music using guitar, drum and microphone controllers;
during the game, Andy sings the song "
My Own Worst Enemy" by
Lit.
Seth Gordon said the ''Parks and Recreation'' producers almost opted not to include a singing part due to concerns about the legalities of using the song, but they ultimately decided to use it.
During Leslie's filibuster at the town hall meeting, she begins reading ''
The Phantom Tollbooth
''The Phantom Tollbooth'' is a children's fantasy adventure novel written by Norton Juster, with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, first published in 1961 in literature, 1961. The story follows a bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly recei ...
'', a children's adventure novel written by
Norton Juster
Norton Juster (June 2, 1929 – March 8, 2021) was an American academic, architect, and writer. He was best known as an author of children's books, notably for ''The Phantom Tollbooth'' (1961) and ''The Dot and the Line'' (1963).
Early life
Just ...
.
The final scene of the episode, with Tom discussing how much he enjoyed ''The Phantom Tollbooth'', was a last minute addition when the ''Parks and Recreation'' producers realized they had six possible seconds left to add to the episode.
During the canvassing, Leslie says she may resort to the tactics of
Karl Rove
Karl Christian Rove (born December 25, 1950) is an American Republican political consultant, policy advisor, and lobbyist. He was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration until his resignation on August ...
, advisor to former
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
, in phrasing her questions to guarantee positive responses.
Leslie refers to Andy as "a cute FDR", a reference to former President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
.
Leslie says her mother is as respected as charity worker
Mother Teresa
Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...
, as powerful as
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
dictator
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
and as beautiful as British politician
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
. A PDF copy of the town hall meeting flyer was posted on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
's official ''Parks and Recreation'' website about Pawnee, Indiana; it included before-and-after pictures of the proposed park.
Reception
In its original American broadcast on April 16, 2009, "Canvassing" was watched by 5.92 million households, according to
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
, earning a 2.5 rating/7 share among viewers aged between 18 and 49, and a 2.5 rating/8 share among viewers between 18 and 34.
Although the episode attracted about 900,000 fewer household viewers than the
pilot episode
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television netwo ...
the previous week, media outlets said the rating was still commendable; "Canvassing" aired following an episode of ''
My Name Is Earl
''My Name Is Earl'' is an American television sitcom created by Greg Garcia (producer), Greg Garcia for NBC. It aired for four seasons from September 20, 2005, to May 14, 2009, with a total of List of My Name Is Earl episodes, 96 episodes. It wa ...
'' which had a series-low rating among viewers aged between 18 and 49, whereas the pilot episode aired between two episodes of the popular series, ''
The Office
''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...
''. Additionally, "Canvassing" was viewed by almost one million more households than ''
Samantha Who?
''Samantha Who?'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on ABC from October 15, 2007, to July 23, 2009. The series was created by Cecelia Ahern and Donald Todd, who also served as producers. Although highly rated during its fi ...
'', which ran in the same 8:30 to 9 p.m. timeslot as ''Parks and Recreation''. "Canvassing" also captured a full 18 to 49 ratings point more than ''Samantha Who?''.
The episode received generally mixed reviews.
Alan Sepinwall
Alan Sepinwall (born October 19, 1973) is an American television reviewer and writer. He spent 14 years as a columnist with ''The Star-Ledger'' in Newark until leaving the newspaper in 2010 to work for the entertainment news website HitFix. He ...
of ''
The Star-Ledger
''The Star-Ledger'' was the largest circulation newspaper in New Jersey. It is based in Newark, New Jersey. The newspaper ceased print publication on February 2, 2025, but continues to publish a digital edition.
In 2007, ''The Star-Ledger''s ...
'' said he thought the episode was an improvement over the pilot episode, which he also enjoyed. Sepinwall said the episode seemed to distance the Leslie character from
Michael Scott Michael Scott, Michael Scot, or Mike Scott may refer to:
Academics
* Michael Scot (1175 – c. 1232), mathematician and astrologer
* Michael L. Scott (born 1959), American academic and computer scientist
* Mike Scott, British linguist and designer ...
,
Steve Carell
Steven John Carell (; born August 16, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He starred as Michael Scott in the NBC sitcom ''The Office'' (2005–2011, 2013), and also worked at several points as a producer, executive producer, writer, a ...
's character on ''The Office'', and gave more for the supporting cast to do; he particularly praised Schneider and Ansari.
Matt Fowler of
IGN
''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
said Amy Poehler "remains frighteningly unflappable" and said he enjoyed how disastrous the town hall meeting turned out to be, but said supporting characters like Mark and Ron "need to be fleshed out a bit more and made... well, funnier."
Josh McAuliffe of ''
The Times-Tribune'' said "Canvassing" was funnier than the pilot episode, but still lacked big laughs and "I think the writers can do some interesting things with the whole playground plot, among them introducing us to some of Pawnee's more colorful denizens."
Keith Phipps of
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...
said although he liked the pilot episode, he thought jokes in "Canvassing" were "pretty thin on the ground", the supporting cast lacked good material and the Leslie character was less likable than the previous week. Phipps, who gave the episode a C grade, said, "This wasn’t a terrible half-hour of comedy by any stretch. It drifted by easily enough. But I’m already having to scour my notes to remind myself of the stuff that was funny."
"Canvassing" was first broadcast in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
on
Channel Seven on December 8, 2009, and received a positive review from ''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...
'' writer Mark Ellis. He particularly praised Poehler and Ansari, and said of the episode, "Tune in just to hear her say to her canvassing companion, who complains it's hot and wants to cool off: 'We could blow in each other's faces.'"
Home media
"Canvassing", along with the five other first-season episodes of ''Parks and Recreation'', was released on a one-disc
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
set in the United States on September 8, 2009. The DVD included cast and crew commentary tracks for each episode, as well as about 30 minutes of deleted scenes.
The deleted scenes included on the DVD were originally featured on the official ''Parks and Recreation'' website after the episode aired. In the first, a minute-long clip, Ron tries to take a job offer that was previously offered to him at an
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
flower company web site, but when he finds the business is doing so poorly, he sadly realizes he will be in his government job for a long time.
In a second minute-long clip, Leslie talks about her very detailed life plan, which involves eventually becoming head of the parks department, then
governor of Indiana
The governor of Indiana is the head of government of the U.S. state of Indiana. The governor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of the functions of many agencies of the Indiana state gover ...
, then
U.S. vice president
The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest ranking office in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. Th ...
and then getting married at age 84. The deleted clips were featured on the ''Parks and Recreation'' official website within a week of the episode's original production date.
References
External links
"Canvassing"at the official ''Parks and Recreation'' site
*
{{Parks and Recreation
2009 American television episodes
Parks and Recreation season 1 episodes