“The Office” was a landmark moment in television, setting the template for grounded ensemble comedies that focus on people brought together by a mundane, relatable workplace environment. Once it took off, it spawned two direct descendants: “Parks and Rec” and “Community.” Both started as knock offs, but quickly became unique stories in their own right.
So! I got to thinking: which of these titans is actually the best overall show? I’ve recently seen every episode of each, so the time felt right to decide. Here’s how I did it: I created twelve criteria by which to judge all three shows. Each of these criteria is worth either 5 or 10 points, and those points are distributed proportionally by merit (and that means mathematically no ties, someone has to win every round). There are 100 points total on the board.
The results absolutely shocked me. Ready to see them? Let’s rock and roll.
[DISCLAIMER: I would think this is obvious, but everything below is subjective and just my opinion. I’m going to assume no one wants to read the words “from my point of view” two dozen times in the next twelve paragraphs.]
ROUND ONE: MAIN CHARACTERS (10 POINTS)
“Community’s” ensemble was always the weakest to me: Britta never developed much, Troy was wonderful but often lapsed into being Abed 2, and Jeff Winger, while ably played by Joel McHale, never felt like he deserved the leadership role he automatically got from the group. They get 2 POINTS. “The Office” fares much better with a great core cast, all of whom develop and change and intersect with each other in interesting ways. Michael Scott remains a bit of a problematic character, though, stuck between the raw British humor of the original and the American need for him to be likable, so I’m giving them 3 POINTS. “Parks and Rec” wins this one. Leslie Knope is a stellar protagonist, and she’s flanked by constantly evolving characters. Tom Haverford goes from shuckster to entrepreneur; Andy Dwyer evolves from wannabe cop/rock star to successful kid’s show host and stable husband; April Ludgate begins as an apathetic poison-spitter but develops into an ambitious professional woman. Everyone grows, and the show is better for it. 5 POINTS.
ROUND TWO: SUPPORTING CHARACTERS (10 POINTS)
“The Office” loses by a mile. Once you get outside the core cast, everyone is one-note. Stanley is fat and lazy, Kevin is a dullard, Meredith is drunk and horny, Creed is weird. And sure, the stuff works, but there’s a reason the show doesn’t dedicate more time to these people. Do you really wanna know more about Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration? No you do not. 1 POINT. “Community” comes back with a vengeance here, they had a real penchant for fun, interesting supporting players. I find Chang to be massively overrated but “Changnesia” is genuinely hilarious. Betty White and Michael K. Williams as professors too good for their surroundings are knockouts. And then there’s the pan-sexual, costume-obsessed Dean, who was so funny and sharply acted that he eventually elbowed his way into the core ensemble. 4 POINTS. Buuuuut “Parks and Rec” is gonna take this one too, although it’s close. There’s just too much gold here: Tammy 1 and 2, Ron Dunne (Sam Elliott crushes), Larry/Gerry’s improbably hot wife and daughters, the insufferable Councilman Jamm, the sly white-people-duping Ken Hotate, everyone from Eagleton, the drunk and insane Joan Callamezzo, and holy hell Jean-Ralphio. Jean-Ralphio is the best supporting character in any of the three shows, and I’m dead-serious about that. No one on any of these shows has a line funnier than “Two ankle bracelets! The judge said it’s the first time he’s had to do that. Ja boy’s a question on the bar exam.” 5 POINTS.
ROUND THREE: CONSISTENCY (10 POINTS)
Woof. This is going to be a tough one. “The Office,” again, bottoms out here, because their first “season” was too beholden to the British version, and its last two seasons lost the magic and fell apart. 2 POINTS. “Parks and Rec” fares better, but its first season was a different and worse show, and they took two seasons figuring out they needed to drop Mark in a ditch and never speak of him again. 3 POINTS. “Community” got its house in order fast and never really fell off. Its Yahoo season definitely slipped a bit, and they weren’t quite the same without Troy and Shirley, but there isn’t a season you have to skip outright like the other two. 5 POINTS.
ROUND FOUR: FUNNY (10 POINTS)
Look… all of these shows are world-class funny, but the points have to go somewhere, so let’s rip the band-aid off. “Parks and Rec,” as brilliant as it is, is lighter on the true gut-busters (unless Jean-Ralphio is on the screen) than the other two. Punchlines aren’t the focus, it’s a show about optimism and fun characters. 2 POINTS. Now these next two are tougher, because it depends on what’s funny to you, but I think “Community” is more interested in being meta and conceptually bold than hitting you with zingers, so 3 POINTS. “The Office” mastered every kind of humor a network show can have, from slapstick to meta. The prank wars of Jim and Dwight are STILL massive YouTube hits, Michael remains an evergreen meme (“I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious”). This show knew how to throw a comedy haymaker like no one else. 5 POINTS.
ROUND FIVE: SMARTS (10 POINTS)
If you’ve watched these shows, this one should be obvious. “The Office” (2 POINTS) and “Parks and Rec” (2 POINTS) are far from stupid, but “Community” is prime Dan Harmon, riffing on everything from the tropes of television to quantum physics. They did an entire episode inside a video game that is “Ready Player One” years before “Ready Player One.” And also better in every way, because “Ready Player One” is some garbage. 6 POINTS.
ROUND SIX: HEART (10 POINTS)
I’m gonna be pretty hard on “Community” here, but its a pretty cerebral show, and its attempts at character bonding are often perfunctory (as Abed will happily tell you while they’re happening). 1 POINT. “The Office” obviously told one of the great love stories with Jim and Pam, but it also took time to show tender moments between many of the characters. 3 POINTS. “Parks and Rec” eats this one alive, though. This show is all heart. Heart is number one in Pawnee. No one on the other two shows love each other or bond with one another the way this group does. 6 POINTS.
ROUND SEVEN: ROMANCE (10 POINTS)
I don’t mean to keep bashing “Community” but they suck at romance. Britta-Troy was so bad they had the characters forget they were dating. Jeff-Annie was creepy and mean-spirited. Even Alison Brie as Abed’s quirky girlfriend felt like an afterthought. 0 POINTS. “Parks and Rec” is a masterful romantic show, both because it has so many great couples and because it devotes time to exploring relationships instead of just teasing break-ups and reunions. 4 POINTS. But look, Jim and Pam are Jim and Pam. I personally prefer Ben and Leslie or April and Andy, but this is the love story that set the template. And, to their credit, once the writers put them together, they stayed together, and a lot of good story came out of their relationship. 6 POINTS.
ROUND EIGHT: REWATCHABLE (10 POINTS)
“Community” relies heavily on novelty. The thrill of “are they really going there?!” dies off a little when you already know what they did. 2 POINTS. “Parks and Rec” is a delightful rewatch, a safe and warm place full of love and acceptance amongst wildly different people. 3 POINTS. But the king is the king. “The Office” has more views than all of Netflix’s original programming… combined. I am not making that up. It is the show for all seasons, because it fits so many moods. It can be biting and satirical, or sweet and relatable. 5 POINTS.
ROUND NINE: PILOT (5 POINTS)
The “Parks and Rec” pilot is for a different, bad show. Leslie as a character just isn’t where she needs to be, and without her, the show can’t find its tone. Plus, Mark is there. He sucks joy from every scene he’s in. 0 POINTS. “The Office” doesn’t fare much better. They tried mimicking the British version of the show, and it just did not work. To their credit, they figured that out pretty fast. 1 POINT. “Community,” as mentioned above, landed on its feet for a solid if unspectacular pilot. The heights the show would achieve weren’t there yet, but the tone, characters and structure clicked immediately, and that’s rare. 4 POINTS.
ROUND TEN: THEME SONG (5 POINTS)
I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate the “Community” theme song. A show as brilliant and daring as this should not be tethered to this off-brand Toad The Wet Sprocket garbage. But I know I’m overreacting there so I’m not gonna donut them. (1 POINT) It’s a dead tie for the other two, 2 POINTS a piece. “Parks and Rec’s” better fits the show, but “The Office” is more memorable and unique.
ROUND ELEVEN: NARRATIVE CONCEIT (5 POINTS)
This one takes some explaining. Basically this is my way of PUNISHING “Parks and Rec” for using the mockumentary style but NEVER EXPLAINING OR ACKNOWLEDGING IT (looking at you too, “Modern Family”). Mother of God, I hate this so so much, and I hate it even more because it does not seem to bother anyone else. You can’t just take the easy parts of a genre and ignore all the inconvenient stuff, you lazy cretins! 0 POINTS. “The Office” gets marginal points for at least justifying the existence of the cameras and brilliantly shooting scenes through windows, car doors, cracks in doors, and the like. Of course, no one can explain what the hell kind of documentary is being made for this long. (2 POINTS) I’m giving “Community” the win here for not using the easy-out of camera monologues (unless Abed was making a documentary). They earned their exposition, damn it! (3 POINTS)
ROUND TWELVE: BREAKOUT CHARACTERS (5 POINTS)
Defining “breakout” is tricky. The way I see it, it’s a character that greatly exceeded their expected popularity. There’s no one way to measure this, but I think when you see a strong surge in the actor’s career immediately after the show, it’s a decent sign. Some people will get furious at me for this, but I don’t think “The Office” has a breakout character. Maaaaaybe Dwight, but he’s a lead, he’s supposed to be a big deal. Michael doesn’t feel like a breakout to me since Steve Carrell was already a reasonably big comedy star before the show, and again, he’s the centerpiece, he’s supposed to be big, so it’s hard to say he exceeds what was expected of him. Calling Michael a breakout is like saying House was the breakout star of “House.” 1 POINT. “Community” has Ben Chang, who I still think is overrated, but his career did lift off after the show, so fair enough. And don’t get @ me with Abed or Troy. I love them too, but the former was only popular among “Community” fans, and the latter became famous for doing other things. 1 POINT. “Parks and Rec,” meanwhile, is a breakout MACHINE. Ron Swanson jump-started Nick Offerman’s career and became an iconic character. Andy Dwyer also broke out huge, putting Chris Pratt on the map. And I think there’s a case to be made for Aziz Ansari and Aubrey Plaza, especially since both play characters that somewhat mirror their public persona. 3 POINTS.
ADD IT ALL UP, AND YOU GET…
3. COMMUNITY–32 POINTS
2. THE OFFICE–33 POINTS
1. PARKS AND RECREATION–35 POINTS
I’m… genuinely surprised at that result. Clearly, all three shows are within a whisper of each other. A few observations…
-I think “Community” lagged a bit because its romance and character work were a step off the pace set by the other two shows. It’s the biggest delta in quality between any of the shows.
-“Parks and Rec” scored more zeroes than the other two shows combined, so the fact that it came out on top… baffles me. Looking over the results, though, I stand behind the scores. It’s just a really great show that did all the most important things right, and its focus on characters (post season one) really helped it overperform in a lot of categories.
-“The Office” is obviously the grandaddy of them all, but its schizophrenic split between its biting British origins and romantic American core never quite resolved. And the character work isn’t quite on pace with “Parks.” The core cast is legendary, but the extended is lacking, and you really feel that in the later seasons when Steve Carrell is gone, Jim and Pam are done to death, and suddenly there’s no one left to carry the show. You could remove half the cast of “Parks and Rec” and the other half would still make wonderful television.
At the end of the day, my takeaway from doing this is that “Parks and Rec,” “Community” and “The Office” are all legendary, and the differences in quality between them are pretty minute. I scored them completely blind and had NO idea they would all come within three points of each other, and I think that speaks volumes about all three programs. More than anything, this exercise was just an excuse to sit around thinking about great television. Mischief managed.