That sound you heard was that of Leslie Knope wailing in grief at the thought of Ann Perkins leaving Pawnee. That’s right folks, Ann Perkins and Chris Traeger are making plans to leave the best city in America for parts unknown. It was announced yesterday that Rob Lowe and Rashida Jones would be leaving the NBC sitcom after episode 13 of the upcoming season.
Because plenty of people can not fathom why on earth the actors would leave the show, speculation immediately began that they were being forced out due to budget cuts. Mike Schur took to the press to assure everyone that this was not the case.
[box_light]Every network comes to you and says, ‘Cut costs,’ all the time. A reality of the network television game is they’ll always tell you to do impossible things with less and less money. But it wasn’t like, ‘Uh oh, we’ve got to hack away our cast.’[/box_light]
Schur is currently in New York at the Television Critics Association press event for his upcoming Brooklyn Nine-Nine starring Andy Samberg, but understandably, people want to know more about this departure. Mainly because it was so unexpected. Most of the time when an actor leaves a show there are rumblings and rumors swirling about for weeks, if not months. Contract disputes, rehab stints, scandal or discord of various other fashions. This time however, there was nothing.
Schur has been assuring people that this is truly a creative move with Jones and Lowe’s story line coming to an inevitable and obvious close. The two characters spent the latter parts of last season discussing having a child together so one has to assume they will be successful, and something will then take them away from Pawnee.
Mike Schur and NBC can try to calmly and rationally explain the reasons till they are blue in the face. Parks and Recreation fans are mourning. At times quite loudly. Granted I am a proud member of the NBC fandom, but my entire dashboard is filled with pictures like these.
It’s been a rough couple of months for the NBC fandom. Jason Sudeikis finally announced he was leaving. Bill Hader is leaving. Seth Meyers is leaving Weekend Update/SNL. John Mulaney’s show appears as if it might be going to Fox. 30 Rock is no more. Andy Samberg went to Fox… And now this news?
Grizzly Bomb 