The 101 Reasons We Love 'Parks and Recreation'

AND DON'T FORGET...

74. The jaunty, patriotic theme song.

75. The show built its whole first season around a pit. ''Even our line producer just stared at us,'' chuckles Daniels. ''He didn't believe we were serious.''

76. The smaller the plots, the bigger our grins. (Leslie accidentally marries two male penguins at the zoo!)

77. Fun with puns. Who doesn't want to eat at Jurassic Fork?

78. Those disturbing city hall murals depicting Pawnee's history. ''I went to a wedding in Oklahoma, and we toured some public buildings, and I thought that some of the murals were a little racist,'' recalls Daniels. ''So we just exaggerated that.''

79. The enigma that is Donna (Retta), a low-level government employee who drives a Mercedes SUV and donated money to David Duke based on his pledge to lower taxes.

80. Rotund staffer Jerry (Jim O'Heir) is the perfect punching bag. ''We were being super mean to him,'' admits Schur. ''So we [dialed] it back a bit by explaining that he was totally fine with it because he had this attitude of 'I just want my pension.'''

81. Pawnee's surprisingly active nightlife: (a) The Snakehole Lounge, a skanky club of which Tom owns 2/5 of 1 share. ''It's a fun place to just see all of our characters get hammered,'' says Ansari. ''I feel like out of any sitcom, the Parks and Rec characters have the biggest drinking problem.''

(b) The Bulge, one of two local gay bars.

(c) The Glitter Factory, the strip club the office frequents.

82. The show finds comic riches in small-town media, including a cutthroat morning-show host, a deft newspaper reporter, and a TV personality named Perd Hapley.

83. Town meetings, where crazed residents sound off on irrelevant topics.

84. The Leslie Knope — Ron Swanson friendship, which represents the quintessential liberal-libertarian compromise. ''Ron was intended to be more antagonistic,'' says Daniels. ''But Nick brought so much fun that we ended up making some episodes about their friendship.''

85. Leslie's archnemesis: teenage vandal Greg Pikitis.

86. The show also managed to create a diabolical enemy out of...the public library.

87. As Tom declares, ''Damn! How does Sewage always get the hottest interns?''

88. The tentative season 2 romance between Leslie and Louis C.K.'s bumbling cop.

89. Pawnee councilman Bill Dexhart's admission: ''It was wrong of me to say I was building houses for the underprivileged when I was actually having four-way sex in a cave in Brazil.''

90. You never know when an SNL favorite will pop up: Will Forte is a Twi-hard! Andy Samberg is a shouting park ranger! Fred Armisen is Raul Alejandro Bastilla Pedro de Veloso de Maldonado!

91. Detlef Schrempf.

92. The show found Tom a friend even douchier than he is: Jean-Ralphio, who dreams big but works at Lady Foot Locker.

93. The playground-building charity KaBOOM! in season 2 is a real organization. Yes, you laughed for/at a good cause.

94. The clever and viral ways that the cast has pimped the show (see: Ansari's theme-song remix, the out-of-control Rob Lowe promo, the singing battle against Late Night host Jimmy Fallon).

COMING SOON!

95. Leslie and Ann finally have a blowout. ''I wouldn't call it a dance-off necessarily, but I will say there's a lot of side-by-side dancing filled with venom,'' reveals Jones.

96. April and Andy throw a fancy dinner party — and serve only Bagel Bites.

97. Tom unveils his new drink, Snake Juice.

98. Ron visits his holy shrine, a steak house in Indianapolis. He brings his own utensils.

99. Leslie battles her Eagleton counterpart (Parker Posey), who installs a fence to keep out Pawnee residents. ''It's basically the story of the Berlin Wall,'' says Schur. ''But with higher stakes.''

100. Ben + microphone x interviews = unnatural disaster.

101. Get ready to meet Pawnee's biggest celebrity: a tiny horse. ''Think about the first time you saw the Grand Canyon or your child being born,'' says Poehler. ''Now double it. Now make it tiny. That's Li'l Sebastian.''