"The main character was eternally optimistic and believed in the power of community to hold people together. She believed that incremental, small, little moments of connection and togetherness were crucial and vital

"The main character was eternally optimistic and believed in the power of community to hold people together. She believed that incremental, small, little moments of connection and togetherness were crucial and vital do the social fabric. And she, like you said, she believed the government could be a force for good and could really help people in small, meaningful ways. That show was forged in the economic crisis of 2007-2008 when it was clear to Greg Daniels and me that government was going to be playing a very active role in people's lives at the national level, the state level, the local level—everywhere. And we're now, obviously, in another one of those moments," Schur said. "What you're seeing on national scale and a local scale is governments are where we're all turning, right? We need information, we need help, we need assistance, people need food, they need money for rent and mortgages and everything. The government, in these moments of crisis, becomes the place where people have to turn. It's the reason why this all made sense to me to do this. I honestly didn't think that Parks and Rec was ever going to reunite for any reason just because I felt like that show had a point to make and I felt like we had made it and we ended the show. It just didn't seem like there was compelling reason, but this is a compelling reason. This is as compelling a reason there is."