Every so often, I think about the “Before Times” of streaming TV, and how we’d watch shows on network television. Usually, you’d tune into one network on a certain night and watch a solid lineup. Now, I have to remind myself to stream a network TV show, usually on Hulu. This is why I’m chronically behind on Ghosts and Abbott Elementary.

Circa 2009-2013 NBC had an amazing “Must See TV” lineup with Community, The Office, Parks and Recreation, and 30 Rock. It was the last big stand before streaming really took hold. Well, The Office’s “sister show,” The Paper, debuted this fall and Community is finally in the process of fulfilling the “six seasons and a movie” prophecy. While Tina Fey and the 30 Rock cast haven’t shut down a reboot, nothing is actively being talked about right now. This leads us to Parks and Rec. The series ended 10 years ago, but has thus far escaped any serious reboot/revival chatter. And, there may never be. Co-creator Mike Schur went on the record to let everyone know that he has officially closed the door on a Parks and Rec revival.

It’s been a decade since Mike Schur bid farewell to the town of Pawnee as Parks and Recreation ended its seven-season run in 2015, and the prolific show creator stands firm in his decision not to revisit it.

The beloved sitcom starring Amy Poehler, Aziz Ansari, Aubrey Plaza, Nick Offerman, and more, followed the quirky exploits of a dysfunctional, small-town American parks and recreation department. Aside from a reunion special conducted in 2020 over Zoom per peak pandemic guidelines, no formal plans have aligned for a Parks reboot, spinoff, or sequel series. And Schur would like fans to know, he still has no plans for any.

“That show had a very specific argument to make about government at a very specific moment in time, the Obama era,” Schur told The Hollywood Reporter during an interview discussing the second season of his Netflix series A Man on the Inside.

The Good Place creator shared a similar sentiment while speaking with Entertainment Weekly after the 2020 reunion.

“Even as the reboot craze and the reunion craze struck and those things were floating around in the ether, I still was like, ‘I don’t think so. I don’t see why,'” Schur said at the time. “Amy and I and the whole crew had the same feeling, which was: That show had a very specific point to make, and we felt like we made the point, and then we ended the show and we moved on.”

[From People]

In a world full of remakes and reboots, it’s nice that we finally have a showrunner willing to step up and definitively say, ”That’s all folks!” On one hand, I appreciate that and am glad that Parks and Rec will live on in its perfect, original form. On the other hand…actually, there is no other hand. I know the cast has been vocal in their willingness to do it all again, but Schur is right to shut it down. Parks and Rec really was such a product of a completely different era in American television, politics, and society. It would not be the same if they brought it back now. I did love that we got that 2020 reunion show, though. That was also a different time and it met that moment. That said, I wouldn’t be opposed to another reunion show sometime in the future, where the cast meets a la Friends and reminisces, comments on bloopers, and more.

Photos credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Martin Sloan/Avalon, Max DeAngelo, PacificCoastNews.com/Avalon