I’ve watched the whole thing when it originally aired, but Kim has not. We’ve started on it together now. Nick Offerman is fantastic. This is the clip that convinced her to watch. 
But the parallels to our local government are spot on.
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Very good points. This should be required watching for anyone running for local office and people looking to work in local government for the first time.
Sample - “There was supposed to be a Paunch Burger on this lot next to my house and then you stripped my freedom by putting a park there. Now if I want to start my day off with a triple-pancake breakfast pizza, I have to go to the one that’s 10 minutes away and that makes me 20 minutes late to work every day…I work at home.”
Edit: My first job out of school was as a planner for a small Wake County town. One day a man in a cowboy hat came in, accused me of being a communist and then left after claiming that he was from Sweden and saw it ruined by communism. At one council meeting about a new McDonald’s being built on the main road through town, the council debated a requirement that it should build a sidewalk along this very busy street. Half of the council said they didn’t want it required because it might scare McDonald’s away from building in the town.
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You absolutely must watch - I would argue it was actually consistently funnier than The Office, even though it was often referred to as a lesser ripoff of it (instead, it’s like a cousin show - not the same “universe” but was created by Greg Daniels as well). Nick Offerman’s Ron is also arguably the funniest character. One of my favorite Ron gags was when he did a whole-hog bbq in a public park, and a cop walks up and asks him if he got a permit to bbq in the park. Ron says “of course, I have my permit right here” and hands the cop a torn strip of white paper on which he typed “I can do what I want -Ron” 
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As someone who didn’t connect with The Office’s cringe comedy, I liked Parks & Rec’s more earnest tone much more. Once you get past the pretty underwhelming first season of course.
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Leslie Knope is also a MUCH more likeable main character than Michael Scott - though I would argue Steve Carell gave one of the greatest comedic performances of all time playing him. The Office was certainly much harder on the cringe-comedy - my dad would often leave the room when I’d be watching it because he couldn’t handle some of the intensely awkward interactions and it’s funny you say that about the first season, because I was actually pretty hooked on it from Episode 1, as opposed to The Office which actually had a much tougher-to-get-through initial season, IMO! Both great, of course.
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my usta leage in roanoke va leases city courts for league play. there is a little kiosk there that has printed schedules on it but o no one sees it. on a few occasions when telling ‘citizens’ that the public courts were leased for a few hours a day we actually had to verify with a city employee that the public court leasing was ‘real’ to them. it was tense.
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Since you mention Roanoke,Va., the movie true story on Tubi Badge Of Faith is about a Roanoke police officer. This is a good movie that does end happy.
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The director lives in Wendell. The director lives in Wendell.
Nothing crazy but definitely made me double-take: Raleigh was mentioned in last night’s episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, a few times actually. Susie was invited to a “Textiles Convention” in “North Carolina” and wanted Jeff to join her, which he was opposed to so Larry gave him a scheme idea to get out of it.
Later, either he or Susie (can’t recall) mentions the “flight to Raleigh” by name. Then at the end of the episode (when he inevitably has to go with Susie anyway) they’re on the plane and the captain comes over the speakers and says “Due to a bad storm in the Raleigh/Durham area, we’re going to have to divert to Greensboro, sorry folks”
All around completely random and surprising! I’ve noticed “Raleigh” and “North Carolina” mentions more and more in media as time goes on!
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It’s a great thing for our brand. I remember an episode of Modern Family when Claire Dunphy said she headed to Raleigh for Carolina fest I remember that episode. That impart to Disney own ABC11, making it ABC owned station since 1985, Disney got it in 1995.
I’m just hellbent on reviving this thread! I would like to invite and encourage any comedy fans in the community to check out Rhizome Comedy - they are a local comedy production company, and filmed quite a few specials from both local and touring comedians last year that are starting to debut on their YouTube page. This one JUST dropped today, and he’s a local guy, Mark Brady! Not only that, but the set was filmed at Kings! I will also link the first special they put out this year from a NY comic who they filmed at Neptunes. They also do a monthly Sunday comedy show at the Pour House called “Superbloom” (the next one is this Sunday!) where they bring touring comics to film shorter sets. Lots of cool stuff to come from Rhizome, and very cool to have them here!
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This is the NY comic they filmed at Neptunes, this one has done pretty well too at 13k views!
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Another new special from local comedy production co. Rhizome Comedy! This one was filmed at Kings the same night as Mark Brady’s I shared recently:
My favorite is that right in the beginning it says “Filmed in Raleigh” 
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I just saw this the other day and thought it was so neat they filmed at Kings. Surprised I hadn’t heard it was happening tbh
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