Top 10 'Parks and Recreation' episodes

5. Media Blitz

“Media Blitz” is one of the early examples of how great the character of Ben Wyatt can be. To promote the upcoming Harvest Festival, Leslie makes an appearance on talk shows around Pawnee, only for Ben to be thrust into the spotlight when his past failures as mayor are revealed. This leads to one of the best visual gags of the show when Leslie and Ben go on Pawnee Today, Ben starts stuttering and freaking out, and a graphic appears saying “Ben Wyatt: Human Disaster.” This episode also features the introduction of Crazy Ira and the Douche, a send-up of morning radio shock jocks that continues to be completely hilarious throughout the series.

“Media Blitz” is also a great episode for April and Andy. April is angry at Andy for kissing Ann, and so she’s considering moving away from Pawnee. Trying to convince her to stay, Andy agrees to do all the things she doesn’t like to do for a month. This both leads to a lot of great scenes of Andy fumbling to fulfill basic tasks, as well as a pretty sweet ending for the characters where April sees how much Andy cares for her and they kiss. This episode has both the insanity and the sweetness of life in Pawnee on full display.

This episode, like so many great episodes of Parks, was written by Harris Wittels, who tragically passed away this week. Wittels joined Parks as a staff writer during its second season, later becoming an executive producer for the show. So much of the shows comedy was clearly a direct result of Wittels, and he made the show hilarious both off screen and on, playing an animal control employee. The world of comedy is so much greater for Harris having been a part of it, and it's an incredible loss that we won't get any more glimpses into his brilliant mind. Thanks Harris for leaving us with one of the funniest sitcoms of all time, and for making so many of our lives that much brighter. You will be missed.