The journey of Leslie Knope in Parks & Recreation made its debut on NBC in 2009 and came to an end in 2015. The series had a rough start, as the writers struggled to find the right tone for it, which is why season 1 was very different from the rest, but they eventually found the right path for the series and its characters, and subsequent seasons were better received.
Parks & Recreation followed the daily lives of perky bureaucrat and eternal optimist Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott). After a complicated start as they weren’t allowed to date because they worked together, Leslie and Ben found a way to make it work without giving up their personal and professional goals and stood by each other’s side through highs and lows, such as during Leslie’s campaign for city council and Ben’s constant struggles to shake off the image of the failed mayor of Partridge, Minnesota.
Ben, along with his boss and friend Ann Perkins. With time, the audience learned more about Ben’s backstory, most importantly that he became mayor of his hometown Partridge, Minnesota when he was 18, but he was so inexperienced that he ended up driving the town to bankruptcy after building a winter sports complex called “Ice Town”. As a result, he became a state auditor so he could help cities escape bankruptcy, and spent the rest of the series trying to shake off the image of the teen mayor who left the town broke.
As revealed by Michael Schur in the audio commentary on the Parks & Recreation season 2 DVD, the idea of a character trying to rebuild their government career after a humiliating public failure was one of the original ideas for the lead character of the series, so instead of quite possibly President of the United States. The idea was too good to be completely left behind, and so the writers of Parks & Recreation ended up using it in Ben Wyatt’s story.
Although Leslie had some lows in her government career, such as when she was recalled from City Council, it can’t be compared to the “Ice Town” disaster, which haunted Ben for many, many years. Ultimately, both Leslie and Ben got over the biggest obstacles thrown at them in Parks & Recreation and found the career path that suited them best, and most importantly, they stayed together through it all.