Presidents in Parody: Parks and Rec meets William Henry Harrison
Parks and Rec was a series on NBC that ran for 7 seasons from 2009 to 2015. It starred Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, an uber-energetic public servant in the Parks Department of the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana. In its final season, the show projected into the future, 2017, when Leslie is working for the federal government in the Department of the Interior and her former mentor Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman) has gone to the private sector and is now her nemesis. The two battle over a piece of land in Pawnee that the owner intends to dispose of. Leslie wants the land for a national park, but is hamstrung by not having a budget to purchase it. She tries to convince the owner of the land to donate it to the federal government.
In episode 3 of season 7, entitled William Henry Harrison, Leslie stumbles across a tenuous connection between the land and Indiana's former Territorial Governor, the 9th President, William Henry Harrison. According to the story, Harrison had a summer cabin on the land at one time, and Leslie tries to rely on the historical significant of the land in an effort to convince the owner to preserve the land for posterity by donating it for parkland rather than selling it to private developers.
Leslie arranges a presentation to the owners. First however, she visits the William Henry Harrison museum and convinces the pedantic curator to allow her to borrow some of the exhibits for her presentation (which is called "William Henry Harrison: Indiana's Sweetheart"). This includes the giant ball used as a prop in Harrison's election campaign of 1840 (seen in the photo above. Leslie tells her team, "we should be going for quantity over quality.") The museum also has a display of other famous Harrisons, which not only include William Henry's grandson President Benjamin Harrison, but also Harrison Ford. It also has an "If He'd Worn a Coat" room (a reference to the disputed suggestion that Harrison died in office after only 31 days because he gave a two hour inaugural address in cold weather while not wearing an overcoat, causing him to contract pneumonia.) The room features alternate history headlines.
At the presentation, Leslie educates her audience about the 9th President and produces a reluctant supposed descendant of Harrison's named Zach Harrison, who the locals remember for his bad body odor and an embarrassing incident at camp. The band Jug or Not plays its version of the song "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" (very well I might add).
The episode aired on January 20 of this year. The entire episode can been seen here.
In episode 3 of season 7, entitled William Henry Harrison, Leslie stumbles across a tenuous connection between the land and Indiana's former Territorial Governor, the 9th President, William Henry Harrison. According to the story, Harrison had a summer cabin on the land at one time, and Leslie tries to rely on the historical significant of the land in an effort to convince the owner to preserve the land for posterity by donating it for parkland rather than selling it to private developers.
Leslie arranges a presentation to the owners. First however, she visits the William Henry Harrison museum and convinces the pedantic curator to allow her to borrow some of the exhibits for her presentation (which is called "William Henry Harrison: Indiana's Sweetheart"). This includes the giant ball used as a prop in Harrison's election campaign of 1840 (seen in the photo above. Leslie tells her team, "we should be going for quantity over quality.") The museum also has a display of other famous Harrisons, which not only include William Henry's grandson President Benjamin Harrison, but also Harrison Ford. It also has an "If He'd Worn a Coat" room (a reference to the disputed suggestion that Harrison died in office after only 31 days because he gave a two hour inaugural address in cold weather while not wearing an overcoat, causing him to contract pneumonia.) The room features alternate history headlines.
At the presentation, Leslie educates her audience about the 9th President and produces a reluctant supposed descendant of Harrison's named Zach Harrison, who the locals remember for his bad body odor and an embarrassing incident at camp. The band Jug or Not plays its version of the song "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" (very well I might add).
The episode aired on January 20 of this year. The entire episode can been seen here.