The Pawnee-Eagleton merger in Parks and Recreation brought some big changes to the Parks Department, including some of the main characters’ counterparts, who were very different to Pawnee’s employees. Parks & Recreation introduced viewers to Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and her friends and coworkers from the Parks Department, such as the extremely deadpan Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), the always cynical April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), and cocky and sarcastic Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari).
Parks & Recreation also introduced the audience to the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana, which Leslie insisted was the greatest town in America (and even wrote a book titled like that). Pawnee had a big enemy: its neighbor town Eagleton. The rivalry between them was a running gag in the series, with Leslie expressing her dislike towards Eagleton and its citizens at any given opportunity, and refusing to go and/or interact with them. Leslie ended up putting her anti-Eagleton ideas aside when the town needed help, and came up with the idea of the merger in order to save both towns.
The Pawnee-Eagleton merger also meant having to sort out the Eagleton government into their new departments, and so in season 6’s episode “Doppelgängers”, the Parks Department welcomed four new employees, who were paired up with their Pawnee counterparts. Some of these ended up staying for the rest of the series, while others were quickly left aside, but they all made an unforgettable impression. Here are the Eagleton versions of each Pawnee character.
April Ludgate and Tynnyfer
Tynnyfer was the complete opposite of April: she only cared about herself and her physical appearance, casually took Xanax as if they were mints, and didn’t pay attention to her job. April immediately began acting like her just to mess with her, and said Tynnyfer was the worst person she ever met, and so she wanted to travel the world with her. April ended up tricking her into quitting, and Tynnyfer never appeared again.
Donna Meagle and Craig Middlebrooks
Craig was introduced in “Doppelgängers” and ended up becoming a recurring character. Craig appeared to be a calm guy but was actually the complete opposite and was quite explosive, but he loved his job and “cared too much”. Craig eventually learned to control his outbursts and married Donna and Ron’s hairdresser, Typhoon.
Ron Swanson and Ron Dunn
Ron and Ron appeared to be very similar, as they both love the outdoors and are pretty quiet, but as Ron Swanson got to know Ron Dunn better, he realized he was nothing like him. Dunn is a vegan and an environmentalist, and is a very spiritual person, which is the exact opposite of Ron Swanson. Dunn appeared a couple more times in the series, much to Ron Swanson’s dismay.
Tom Haverford and ERIC
Tom was paired with Eric, who much to his surprise wasn’t a person but a computer program which name stood for “Eagleton Reservation Information Center”. Tom realized that a machine could easily replace him, and so did his best to make sure Leslie thought Eric was a terrible person with a bad attitude, unreliable, and racist. Leslie never knew that it ERIC wasn’t a real person, and Tom kept his job.