Parks and Recreation

Season 5

Ms. Knope Goes to Washington

1. The title is a reference to the 1939 movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) starring James Stewart.
2. When Mr. Jebson's secretary asks which Pawnee Leslie is from, and the camera pans to the list, all the Pawnees are actual American towns besides the obviously fictitious Pawnee, Indiana. Pawnee, Iowa is actually not a town but a census-designated community.
3. Senator John McCain makes an uncredited cameo in this episode. He would make another cameo in the season seven episode Parks and Recreation: Ms. Ludgate-Dwyer Goes to Washington (2015).

Soda Tax

1. Ben references having played ultimate Frisbee in college in this episode. This is another early reference to his alma mater, Carleton - revealed in the next season episode, Parks and Recreation: Prom (2014) - which is particularly well know for its ultimate Frisbee team.
2. When Andy and Tom talk to Chris, Andy gets bored and tells Tom to time him while he runs around City Hall. When Andy came back and asks what his time was, Tom guesses 43, but his actual time was 31 secs.

How a Bill Becomes a Law

Sex Education

1. When Tom is reading from his Twitter feed in the courtroom, you can see on the paper that Jean Ralphio favourited all of Tom's tweets leading up to his crash.

Halloween Surprise

1. The film shown in the courtyard is actually Blood Hook (1986)
2. Ann shows the audience her boxes of things from her ex-boyfriends. She mentions Tom and Chris but excludes Mark Brendanawicz, he isn't even mentioned.

Ben's Parents

1. Final appearance of Pamela Reed as Leslie's mother.
2. First and only appearance of Ben's parents.
3. Kulap Vilaysack (Ulani) originally auditioned for the role of April Ludgate.
4. Near the beginning of the episode Ben (played by Adam Scott) is talking to Jerry about which Star Trek captain would make a better starship helmsman. Adam Scott appeared in the 1996 Star Trek movie Star Trek: First Contact (1996) where he played the helmsman of the starship USS Defiant.
5. Ben tells Leslie not to mention the Green Bay Packers since Ben's parents are from Minnesota. The Minnesota Vikings play in the same division as the Packers and the two teams are major rivals.

Leslie vs. April

1. First TV series or episode to cast Vice President Joe Biden
2. When Leslie meets Joe Biden, she mentions taking over former Senator Hillary Clinton's job. Amy Poehler portrayed Hillary Clinton several times while being a cast member of Saturday Night Live.

Pawnee Commons

1. The episode's show-opening spoof of public radio (featuring "The Simpsons" star Dan Castellaneta as radio host Derry Murbles) references two actual NPR personalities, "Fresh Air" critics David Bianculli and Ken Tucker.
2. In the scene where Leslie and Ben visit the park in Eagleton, the German national anthem is playing in the background.
3. In the scene where Leslie is struggling to apologize, April crawls from under the desk and runs outside. Andy startles her, making her scream. If you listen closely you'll hear either a cast or crew member laughing off camera.

Ron and Diane

1. First appearance of Jerry's wife, Gayle, despite being referenced to several times.
2. All three of Jerry's daughters have guest-starred in the popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005).
3. Tom tells Ann that she should be a stand-up comedian. Aziz Ansari is a stand-up comedian in real life.

Two Parties

1. The touchdown dance done by Chris Pratt is the same dance as he does on the movie Guardians of the Galaxy.
2. The table that the boys play board games on appears to be the same green hexagonal table from Michael Schur's/Greg Daniel's previous show "The Office" during the "Michael Scott Paper Company" episode
3. The restaurant the boys go to for Ron's 'bachelor party' part of the night is called St Elmo Steakhouse. Rob Lowe was one of the stars of the 1985 brat pack movie St Elmo's Fire.
4. First episode of 2013

Women in Garbage

1. When Chris and Shauna discuss their relationship, they are sitting on the edge of the Smallest Park, the spot where Leslie and Ben reconciled.
2. At the end of the episode, Tom promotes Rent-a-Swag with kids after a basketball game. Promoting all his merchandise, he mentions the have glasses without lens, while it noticeably obvious the glasses the kid is wearing has lenses

Ann's Decision

1. When Ann and Leslie are at the sperm bank and Ann is looking through a binder of potential donors, she exclaims, "Wow, this guy went to Harvard!" Harvard University is Rashida Jones' alma mater.

Emergency Response

1. In desperation Leslie says it will be necessary to destroy the town in order to save the park. This is a reference to an infamous incident during the Vietnam War. An American commander ordered an air strike on a small village that completely destroyed it. When asked why he did this he replied that "it became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it."

Leslie and Ben

1. The song that Donna (Retta) is singing as Ben and Leslie walk into their wedding is a selection from "The Flower Duet" aria from the 1883 opera Lakmé by Léo Delibes. The aria has been used prominently in movies and on television before, especially during the love scene between Susan Sarandon and Catherine Deneuve in the 1983 vampire movie The Hunger and in a long-running series of TV advertisements for British Airways.

Correspondents' Lunch

1. This was Nick Offerman's first time directing.

Bailout

1. During the city hearing to give Pawnee Video Dome Historic Landmark status, one of the crackpot speakers who come to protest it identifies himself as "Wilson Gromling of the Liberty or Die Party". Gromling says, "These government handouts are deplorable. You're just handing out blank checks! I was on food stamps; I was on welfare; nobody helped me!" This is a paraphrase of something that actor (and political conservative) Craig T. Nelson said on May 28, 2009 on FOX News program Glenn Beck (2009). Nelson was widely ridiculed afterward for his hypocrisy, evidenced by the contradiction inherent in saying that he had taken advantage of government assistance programs like food stamps and welfare when he needed them, but that those sorts of government assistance programs are wrong and he never received any help.
2. Dennis states that his store doesn't carry cartoons. However, you can clearly see The Spongebob Squarepants Movie (2004) in the background in a couple shots.

Partridge

1. The compatibility quiz that Chris and Ann take is named "The Incandenza-Pemulis Parenting Compatibility Quiz," referencing two characters from David Foster Wallace's 1996 novel Infinite Jest.

Animal Control

1. When the two guys from animal control re-apply for their old jobs they mention that they live together and yell "wild stallions!" This is a reference to the movie 'Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure'.

Article Two

1. For his character's filibuster, Patton Oswalt improvised an eight-minute monologue linking Disney's Star Wars and Marvel movie franchises. The entire uncut take appears as an extra on the Season 5 DVD set.
2. When Garth Blundin (Patton Oswalt) is filibustering, he mentions a possible connection between the fictional Star Wars and Marvel universes. Patton is a regular on Marvel's TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013) and is therefore part of the Marvel universe.
3. Patton Oswalt's character mentions the Marvel universe; Chris Pratt (Andy) plays Peter Quill aka "Star-Lord" in the Marvel universe.
4. When Donna is talking to Ann about Game of Thrones (2011), she says that Tyrion Lannister is the Lord of Casterly Rock. That is false; Tywin Lannister never made Tyrion his heir and Casterly Rock does not currently have a lord.
5. When Leslie and Garth are living in Pawnee Historical House, they aren't supposed to use or wear anything later than 1817. However, Leslie's hoop skirt was not the fashion for women until the mid-19th century, at least 3 decades later.

Jerry's Retirement

1. The photo of the "current champion" at the sperm clinic is of supervising producer Harris Wittels.
2. On Ben's day off, he wears a Letters to Cleo t-shirt. Letters to Cleo is an early 90's alt-rock band. They broke up in 2000 but did a reunion tour in 2008. In 2016, Letters to Cleo announced they were in the studio recording again.
3. Ann's last episode as a government employee.

Swing Vote

1. Leslie refers to the mini golf course at Putt-Putt. Putt-Putt is a trademarked brand (with the orange rails and all holes are Par 2). The park in this episode is not a Putt-Putt.

Are You Better Off?

1. When Andy puts on his FBI windbreaker as Bert Macklin, he puts it on the same way that Martin Sheen puts on his jacket on The West Wing.
2. When Tom tells his investors that someone wants to buy his company "Rent-a-Swag", April calls Jerry "Gary", which is Jerry's actual name.
3. At the beginning of the episode after Donna talks about her apartment in Seattle, a very brief shot of April making a funny face is shown.