10 Best Parks And Recreation Episodes To Stream On Peacock

Parks and Recreation kicked off its second season, after a lackluster debut season, with “Pawnee Zoo,” which starts off with Leslie Knope accidentally officiating a wedding between two male penguins. The mixup brought the town of Pawnee to the forefront, with the crazy citizens getting featured for the first time, while the supporting cast was all elevated, practically Aubrey Plaza’s April and Chris Pratt‘s Andy.

Leslie finds support with The Bulge, a local gay bar, and spends the night partying with Tom (Aziz Ansari), which features more of Amy Poehler’s horrible karaoke skills. “Pawnee Zoo” was the first sign that Parks and Recreation was going to correct the first season, and the result is an episode that stands on its own but also starts the ball rolling for some of the series’ best running gags.

“Telethon” gives Amy Poehler another Parks and Recreation showcase to demonstrate her gift for physical comedy during a late-night (or early-morning) telethon after staying up for 24 hours to make merchandise. Running out of material, it’s up to the rest of the team to step up, including Andy’s band, Mouse Rat, performing, with Ron (Nick Offerman), offering to teach woodworking tips, which is just as exciting as it sounds.

The B-plot, centered on April flirting with someone over the phone in order to make Andy jealous, takes a turn, but it does bring the show’s second-best couple closer together. “Telethon” stretches a premise for an entire episode, a trait that would become a Parks and Recreation staple while giving everyone on the cast a chance to shine.

Ron Swanson’s love of woodworking takes centerstage in “Ron and Diane” as he’s up for an award from the Indiana Fine Woodworking Association, the first event in the history of Parks and Recreation that he wants to attend. The return of his ex-wife, Tammy, played by his real wife, Megan Mulally, threatens to derail a perfect night with his new girlfriend, Diane (Lucy Lawless), and of course, it ends in a wild fight out in a field in the middle of nowhere.

The rest of the department goes out to celebrate their annual “Jerry Dinner,” paid for with the money from a jar they put money in whenever Jerry does something stupid. A long-running joke is finally paid off when instead, they wind up at Jerry’s house for a Christmas dinner with April, Andy, and Tom, making a horrible realization about their email filters. At this point during its run, Parks and Recreation excelled at awkward, heartfelt humor with “Ron and Diane” one of the best of the series.

Parks and Recreation was on a roll during its second season, and thanks to the existence of March 31, “94 Meetings” gave one of the first April-centric episodes. After thinking that March 31 didn’t exist, April realizes that she scheduled all of Ron’s meetings for the same day, resulting in 93 citizens waiting for a meeting. If “Pawnee Zoo” gave a hint as to the insanity of the town of Pawnee, “94 Meetings,” brought it to the forefront.

From a citizen banned from the park for yelling at five-year-olds to an ultimate frisbee league, and a never-ending stream of citizens that want to show Ann (Rashida Jones) weird growths, anyone that’s spent time around small-town government can relate to this episode. The best part is the kicker, though, by revealing April’s home life for the first time, and it’s exactly what everyone expected.

“Fancy Party” was meant to be as much of a surprise for the Parks and Recreation viewers as the characters, but a poorly timed preview aired by NBC wrecked the surprise, yet the episode is still one of the sweetest, most heartfelt episodes of the show. April and Andy, dating for under a month, with no place to live, getting hitched, solidified the show’s second-best couple. Before he was Hollywood’s default leading man (seriously, his IMDb has grown since he was part of Pawnee), Chris Pratt puts in one of his performances as the lovable doofus Andy.

It’s a running theme that the best episodes of Parks and Recreation involve the whole cast getting together and sharing the spotlight, and “Fancy Party” is no exception.

Ron Swanson and Andy are leading the Boy Scout-like Pawnee Rangers against Leslie, April, and Ann’s Pawnee Goddesses, an all-female group created in response. The result is one of the best examples of Parks and Recreation’s characters, with Leslie’s relentless optimism matched by Ron’s stubborn worldview. Juxtapositioning Ron’s rugged survival training with pillow fights and candy, a generic sitcom plot is elevated by frequent one-liners, absurd situations, and a series of heartwarming resolutions to the whole situation.

A Parks and Recreation recurring joke appears for the first time in the B-plot, as Tom and Donna (Retta) convince Ben (Adam Scott) to their “Treat Yo Self” trip. Spending money on extravagant things for no reason other than to “treat yourself,” the philosophy became a rallying cry that endures today.

The second surprise Parks and Recreation wedding on the list didn’t feature a reading of 70 pages of wedding vows, but it honored the greatest couple on the show, Leslie and Ben. Everything goes wrong, with the entire department pitching in to make it the perfect wedding, but then Councilman Jamm, Leslie’s long-running nemesis, gets involved. The result is a very satisfying moment that unfortunately ruins the festivities, but it was perfect in its sudden execution.

From “I’ve never been here after 5:04 PM” to “It’s the Leslie Knope of dresses,” “Leslie and Ben” is the pinnacle of Parks and Recreation’s optimism, character development, cringe humor, and unbridled joy.

One of Park and Recreation’s best episodes, “The Fight,” starts inconspicuously with Tom celebrating the opening night of The Snakehole, and the debut of his special drink, Snake Juice, by inviting the department out for the night. What happens next is one of the all-time best sitcom moments of all time, as everyone gets drunk, and starts opening up. Ann’s new boyfriend, a local radio DJ dubbed “The Douche” (Nick Kroll), gets involved, as does Tom’s business partner, Jean-Ralphio (Ben Schwartz), while the situation starts out manageable and quickly deteriorates over the course of a series of confessionals.

April and Andy, in an attempt to make the night out fun and exciting, adopt the personas Janet Snakehole and FBI Agent Burt Macklin, Andy’s go-to alter-ego, as their relationship starts to heat up. Filled with amazing lines and the talented cast providing amazing reaction shots as they get more and more wasted, “The Fight” isn’t as heartfelt as other episodes, but it makes up for it.

Pawnee’s most beloved citizen, Lil’ Sebastian, the miniature horse, has passed away. What follows is Parks and Recreation at its very best: a low-key premise, in this case, a memorial celebration for a miniature horse, provides all the fuel for a series of incredible character moments, dumb physical humor, and a sight gag that it’s impressive took three seasons for the writers to make happen. Leslie and Ben’s relationship gets outed in the most nondescript way, but the best moment is Andy Dwyer’s tribute song, “5,000 Candles in the Wind.”

Mouse Rat’s performance of a tribute song more touching and meaningful than that other, similar song, is one of Chris Pratt’s best musical moments. Equal parts sad (a horse died!) and hilarious (all this is for a horse), the memorial service is a highlight of the entire series. Everyone watching can understand either Leslie’s enthusiasm to make it magical or Ben’s frustration over…a horse funeral.

Parks and Recreation was a comeback series for Rob Lowe, and it’s a shame he hasn’t been mentioned yet in this list, but his finest moment comes in “Flu Season.” One of the greatest laughs of the entire series, and one of the show’s most iconic lines, comes from Lowe as Chris, the Indiana State auditor stationed in Pawnee, when he’s facing the camera and deadly serious, says, “Stop. Pooping.” The handsome 80s heartthrob, one of the mainstays on the drama series The West Wing, reaches a new comedic height as Chris suffers from the common flu thanks to his healthy lifestyle and complete lack of body fat.

April, stricken with the flu, spends the episode berating Ann, leading to another classic bit, since as soon as the nursing shift is over, Ann unloads with how she really feels about the horrible patient. Though it’s Lowe that does the heavy lifting in Parks and Recreation’s best episode, forcing characters out of their usual element gave the writers a chance to mess with pairings that usually don’t occur naturally, specifically, Ron and Andy. It’s a testament to one of the best sitcoms in television history that so much can be done, again, with such a basic concept.