Parks & Recreation had some truly memorable couples, all of them very different, and the main couple of the series were Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt – and their relationship seems to have been subtly set up in their very first scene. The 2000s saw a variety of TV shows from all genres, and from the realm of sitcoms, one of the most popular and successful TV shows is Parks & Recreation. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, Parks & Recreation debuted on NBC in 2009 and lived on for seven seasons, coming to an end in 2015 after a bunch of unforgettable moments, jokes, and characters.
Parks & Recreation took viewers to the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana, to meet Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), an eternally optimistic bureaucrat working at the Parks Department of her beloved town. The series followed Leslie and her friends and coworkers from the Parks Department inside City Hall and at their homes, allowing the audience to get to know each character and see them grow. Viewers not only witnessed the Parks crew evolve in their careers but also in their personal lives, and while there were different couples throughout the show, the one that led the series was that of Leslie and Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott).
Ben Wyatt joined Parks & Recreation in season 2, and at the time he was a state auditor, while Leslie was Deputy Director of the Pawnee City Department of Parks and Recreation. At the beginning of season 2, Pawnee was broke, and so two state auditors – Ben and Christ Traeger (Rob Lowe) – arrived to take a look at the problem. Leslie and Ben had a rocky start, as Leslie feared that their arrival would bring severe cuts to the city’s budget (something that delighted Ron Swanson), more so after she had just come up with a proposal for the department’s budget, which she called her “master plan”. That first scene of Leslie and Ben together actually subtly set up their relationship, as revealed by one of Ann’s (Rashida Jones) lines.
A Parks & Recreation fan shared on Reddit that, in season 2’s episode “The Master Plan”, Ann tells Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider) that they aren’t meant for each other because they don’t fight at all, and the next scene sees the first meeting between Leslie and Ben. After Chris paints an optimistic picture of how they can fix the budget and pretty much save Pawnee, Ben is tasked with sharing the serious details, such as having to cut the budget of every department by 40 or 50%. Of course, this doesn’t sit well with Leslie, who lashes out at him, and Ben doesn't stay quiet. These scenes are subtle mirrors of two different relationships and show that Leslie and Ben were meant to be together, and funny enough, once they formally got together, they never fought. Leslie and Ben were very supportive of each other’s careers and passions, while also making time for themselves and their relationship, which led them to be a stable and committed couple and eventually built a family together.
As for Ann and Mark, they really weren’t meant for each other and eventually broke up, just as Mark was planning to propose to Ann. After that, Ann dated different men, among those Chris, but they also broke up – however, they ended up together as Ann wanted to form a family, and Chris was up for it. It’s also fun to see how best friends Ann and Leslie ended up with best friends Chris and Ben, and each pair was so different and represented a different type of relationship and family, and that’s one of many things that made Parks & Recreation so great.