Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 9, 2013

The pilot episode of the American mockumentary comedy television series Parks and Recreation originally aired on April 9, 2009. It was written by series co-creators Michael Schur and Greg Daniels, and directed by Daniels. The episode introduces the protagonist Leslie Knope, played by Amy Poehler (pictured), a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation department in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. Knope sets out to turn a construction pit into a park after local nurse Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) complains about it. Her anti-government boss Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) reluctantly allows her to form an exploratory committee after her friend and colleague Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider) secretly intervenes. Daniels and Schur began writing the script in the summer of 2008, when they were in the early stages of conceiving the series. The episode received generally mixed reviews, although Poehler was widely praised by most television critics. According to Nielsen Media Research, it was watched by 6.77 million households in its original airing.

Recently featured: Hurricane Carol – Canis Minor – Carmen