Amy Poehler breaks out

Poehler pranks

Parks and Recreation is a mockumentary about local politics done in the style of The Office. Poehler plays Leslie Knope, a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana.

In an attempt to beautify her town -- and advance her career -- Leslie takes on a project: help local nurse Ann Logan (Rashida Jones, The Office) turn an abandoned dumping ground into a park.

To get the job done they must take on defensive bureaucrats, selfish neighbors, real estate developers, and single-issue fanatics -- whose weapons are lawsuits, the jumble of city codes, and the very democratic process that Leslie loves so much.

Up until recently, Poehler had her series being called Public Service but the name was changed so as not to offend, says Ben Silverman of NBC. If he's worried about offending public workers, perhaps he should have commissioned a drama about the challenges of local government instead of a sitcom.

Parks and Recreation premieres on April 9.

Pictured: (l-r) Rashida Jones, Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari -- NBC Photo: Chris Haston

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