'Parks and Recreation' Reunion Special Raises $2.8 Million USD for Charity
The full episode now watchable on YouTube.
On Thursday, NBC aired the reunion episode of the cult classic Parks and Recreation, which has currently raised a whopping $2.8 million USD for charity.
The feature episode brought back together all the series’ lovable characters, including Amy Poehler (Leslie Knope), Nick Offerman (Ron Swanson), Aziz Ansari (Tom), Rob Lowe (Chris), Adam Scott (Ben), Chris Pratt (Andy), Aubrey Plaza (April), Rashida Jones (Ann), Retta (Donna) and Jim O’Heir (Jerry). There were also special appearances from Paul Rudd, Mo Collins, Jay Jackson, Jon Glaser, and Ben Schwartz.
As of writing, the episode brought in $2.8 million USD in donations from viewers, all of which will go towards Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund, an initiative to feed those in need at various food banks across the U.S. during this pandemic. In addition to the nearly $3 million USD raised, NBCUniversal, the show’s cast as well as producers have together pledged a matching donation of $500,000 USD, while State Farm and Subaru are also donating $150,000 USD each.
Explaining why they decided to make a reunion, the episode’s co-writer Mike Schur told Entertainment Weekly: ”Because now you’re thinking with a different calculator and you’re thinking to yourself, ‘Well, there are a tremendous number of people who need help, and there’s a tremendous amount of potential energy in the idea of this group of people getting back together. And if you could combine those two things and use the ‘one-time reunion’ as a way to be noisy and to try to get people happy for half an hour and maybe to throw 25 bucks at a website — that’s something worth doing. If we could pull it off, it would be worth it. So the joy of making this project and this little special is that I had this whole argument of why we should do it prepared, and I never had to make the argument because the second that I suggested it to everybody, they all said yes! [Laughs] So it came together very quickly.”
Watch the full episode above now.
Elsewhere in entertainment, Larry Clark’s KIDS is now free to watch on Supreme’s website.
