NBC Puts Parks and Rec on the Bench to Save Sean Saves the World

By Kate Dries | October 21, 2013 | 8:45pm

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It’s been sort of a lackluster fall pilot season, I feel. Super Fun Night is mildly blah, love of my life Michael J. Fox’s return to the screen has been mixed and I keep forgetting to watch Mom because CBS isn’t on Hulu (and that’s about as uncreative a name for a show as you can get). So the news that NBC has, in Vulture’s words, “quietly” moved Parks and Recreation into a timeout until 2014 is far less tolerable to hear right now than it normally would be.

Parks and Rec will air two episodes in November and will then return in January. Vulture attributes this change to NBC’s desire to get more eyeballs on Sean Saves the World. A few weeks ago, I sat through about half a plane ride of Sean Hayes hosting one of those airplane specials where they introduce you to all the new shows the network has to offer through a series of clips. This concept clearly came from some deranged person in marketing who thought would be good idea. “Oh I KNOW. We’ll just make them watch Sean Hayes read some very bad jokes while they’re on an airplane. They’ll literally be FORCED to love it!” I imagine this person saying in a meeting, while the network executives who surround them cackle. A few American Airlines higher-ups try to chime in over speakphone, unaware of the torture they’ve just submitted their patrons to. “What? We can’t hear you, this conference call just got really loud with the sound of PURE EVIL!” one yells loudly. But the damage was done.