Hi – I’m Bailey! I live in San Francisco and work on the writer partnerships team at Substack. Welcome to Park It, an episode-by-episode recap of Parks and Rec and basically an excuse for me to write about my favorite comedians.
I’ve been wanting an outlet to write about funny women for a long time, but a comedy show I recently attended kicked this project into gear: I saw Tina Fey and Amy Poehler live for the first time on their Restless Leg tour (see the attached contraband photo I took before they came onstage, as well as their poster I now have hanging on my wall). I went by myself to the Masonic on a Friday night and sat dead center in the balcony. When the lights dimmed, an opening montage started playing on the screen. It was a highlight reel of all of Tina and Amy’s best comedic moments over their 30-year friendship, together and apart. It ended by replicating the opening credits of the Golden Globes, and then Tina and Amy walked out on stage in floor length, sparkling ball gowns, waving like Queen Clarisse teaches Mia in Princess Diaries. I was so excited and so overwhelmed I instantly teared up a bit and had to quickly wipe away any trace of this before the middle school girl sitting next to me with her mom noticed. The show reminded me why I love these women so much — Tina and Amy, but the women in comedy more broadly. They’re certainly not perfect people, but they seriously crack me up.
Why Parks and Rec then, you ask? Because I think it’s one of the greatest sitcoms of all time and it helps that I’ve watched it straight through about five times already. It’s comfortable enough that I know where the story is going without needing to take super notes throughout.
So here we are and here’s what I can offer subscribers:
You’ll get some tasteful but shameless spoilers (but totally your fault at this point if you haven’t watched the show)
A reason to rewatch this total masterpiece of sitcom art rather than starting Succession or Love Island or whatever other shows have been on your watchlist for ages. Sometimes it’s hard to justify why the hell you’re going to spend another weeknight rewatching the same ole thing. Let me justify!
As little soapbox preaching as I can muster about why these funny women are awesome
Lots and lots of gib gab, mostly in the form of very verbose stories about me that leave you thinking “I’m having fun, but how is this relevant?” or “how does this story end?”
Similarly wordy digressions into all of the truly random facts I know about this genre and tangents into questionably relevant reflections on women in comedy more broadly. You’ll leave with a really strong trivia secret weapon to impress your friends
It’ll be free for now while I figure out my little rhythm and start posting once a week, but down the line I’ll let you hit that little “upgrade to paid” button if you want. I promise I’ll buy you a beer the next time I see you (knowing me, I’ll do this anyway, but now my bank account won’t look so brutal).
Let’s give it a whirl!
