The crew of Pawnee’s Parks Department in Parks & Recreation was formed by very different personalities, and among the ones who stood out the most is April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), who never showed any interest or enthusiasm in working at City Hall, and a deleted scene explains how she ended up there. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, Parks & Recreation is now considered one of the best TV shows of the decade, but the road to success wasn’t easy, and its first season was so different it feels disconnected from the rest of the show, but luckily, the writers found the right tone for it and the subsequent seasons were a hit with critics and viewers.
Parks & Recreation took the audience to the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana, to meet the Parks Department crew, led by the always optimistic and cheerful Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler). Through her, viewers met her coworkers and closest friends, sharing the spotlight with them and many of them became fan favorites, with the show giving more and more attention to their individual storylines, as happened with Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt), and April Ludgate. The latter was the youngest member of the crew and she was introduced in Parks & Rec season 1 as the Parks Department intern, and the audience saw her grow in all areas of her life, always with the help and support of Leslie and the rest.
April was apathetic and had a deadpan personality that, along with her sarcastic nature, won the audience over, and while she matured a lot throughout Parks & Rec (even becoming a mother of two with her husband. Andy), she never lost that dry sense of humor. Although April worked at the Parks Department for years, she showed very little interest in it, raising the question of why she signed up as an intern at the Parks Department in the first place, and a deleted scene from season 1 has the answer – and it’s very fitting with her personality.
Parks & Rec: The Real Reason April Joined The Parks Department
The pilot episode of Parks & Rec saw the introduction of Leslie and company, including April, who was simply introduced as the intern, yet no more information was given about why she chose the Parks Department. A deleted scene from Parks & Rec’s very first episode reveals that she actually didn’t choose the Parks Department as she missed the sign-up day for intern spots because her sister forgot to wake her up on time, so she was randomly assigned to the Parks and Rec department (and she didn’t even know the full name of the department, nor did she care about it). While April might have not enjoyed her time at City Hall at first, it was the best that could have happened to her as she not only made lifelong friends but she also met Andy while working there.
Although working at the Parks Department wasn’t what April would have wanted, it gave her the opportunity to try different jobs. Ron hired April as his assistant mostly because they both hated people and she kept them away from him, and she later became Chris Traeger’s (Rob Lowe) assistant, Ben Wyatt’s (Adam Scott) assistant during a congressional campaign, Deputy Director of Animal Control, and finally found her passion and her ideal job at the American Service Foundation with the help of Leslie. The deleted scene from the Parks & Recreation pilot episode showing how April ended up there would have explained a lot about her backstory while also adding even more to her as it’s something that perfectly fits her vibe and personality, and the scene is so short that it wouldn’t have even messed with the episode’s pace.