‘Parks & Recreation’ Reunion: How To Watch Special Episode On April 30

“Parks & Recreation” signed off after seven seasons in 2015, but it’s coming back for one special night on Thursday. NBC is bringing back the series to help raise money for Feeding America amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

The “Parks & Rec” reunion episode will air Thursday, April 30 at 8:30 p.m. EDT on NBC. “The Paley Center Salutes Parks & Recreation,” a live, unscripted reunion that took place last year in Los Angeles, will precede the scripted special at 8 p.m. EDT on NBC. Watch Thursday on either the NBC TV channel or online with the NBC live stream.

The episode will also be available to stream Friday. NBC will make it available on the network's app and Hulu, as usual, and it will be on YouTube and Peacock (NBC's new streaming service, which is only available to Xfinity customers right now).

The new “Parks & Rec” special is a scripted episode that all of the actors self-filmed from home on iPhones, and it will show Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) trying to keep in touch with her friends while social distancing.

In addition to Leslie (Poehler), Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt), Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott), Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe), Jerry/Garry/Larry/Terry Gergich (Jim O’Heir), and Donna Meagle (Retta) are also set to appear. The episode will also include some cameos from recurring characters, like “Ya Heard? With Perd” host Perd Hapley (Jay Jackson).

Since the “Parks & Rec” series finale showed us the characters’ futures, the writers had to make sure that they kept the characters on track for those endings.

“Ordinarily you can just make everything up and start from scratch, but we had already said what had happened to everyone in years past, and so we had to go back and retrofit everything and make sure it made sense,” creator Mike Schur told Entertainment Weekly.

The social distancing episode is expected to offer explanations for why married characters aren’t quarantined together.

The special is not expected to lead to a full-blown reboot, but Schur wouldn’t shut down the idea completely. “I would never say never, because why bother to say never,” he explained. “We made our point, so I don't anticipate any long-term reboot or anything like that.”

The main purpose of the special reunion is to raise money for Feeding America, a nonprofit that feeds hungry Americans. State Farm, Subaru of America, NBCUniversal and the show's writers/producers/cast are matching donations up to $500,000 made to the organization through May 21.