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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: March 17, 2011
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Parks and Recreation, “Harvest Festival” (Season 3, Episode 7). [Stream the episode on Netflix.]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Parks and Recreation was a triumph of many things: great casting, sharp writing, but most of all it was a triumph of tone. When the show was at its best, Parks & Rec mastered a kind of feel-good comedy that felt neither condescending nor brainless. Time after time, Leslie Knope and her office of municipal public servants managed to wring comedy put of a concept and an organizing principle that was definitively positive. No small feat, that.
One of the show’s best-known bits was something of a play on that very positivity: in preparation and thanks for everybody’s hard work on the Harvest Festival, Leslie brought out a reward for the team: miniature horse Lil’ Sebastian, who was a local icon in Pawnee. For obvious reasons. April probably puts it best: “He does ‘being a mini-horse,’ and he does it better than anyone.” The entire office — even grumpy ol’ Ron — flips out for Lil’ Sebastian, and everybody’s joy is delightfully over the top.
Just the exaggerated reactions to this tiny horse would have been wonderful. But the contrast of having Ben be the resident Lil’ Sebastian agnostic is perfect. He’s not a hater. He just … doesn’t understand what’s so wonderful. He’s missing out, and more than anything, he just wants to know why. Just like me with The Americans! And everybody else reacts to him with swift yet definitive anger. Just like me with The Americans!
“Harvest Festival” is a great episode for a lot of reasons. It’s a great use of the P&R ensemble, for one thing, and it’s a great payoff to a multi-episode mini-arc. But it also delivered another great mini-something, and that was Lil’ Sebastian. Many thanks.
[You can watch Parks and Recreation‘s “Harvest Festival” on Netflix.]
