text: the banquet ( parks and recreation ) " the banquet " is the fifth episode of the first season of the american comedy television series parks and recreation . it originally aired on nbc in the united states on may 8 , 2009 . it was written by tucker cawley and directed by beth mccarthy - miller . in the episode , leslie attends an award banquet for her mother , a veteran of local government politics , who encourages leslie to resort to blackmail in order to get her way with a zoning board official . the episode received positive reviews , with entertainment weekly claiming the series appears to have grown more " settled and focused " after this episode . according to nielsen media research , it was watched by 4 . 64 million households in its original airing , continuing a downward trend in ratings since the pilot episode , although nbc had already committed to renewing the show for a second season . " the banquet " and the rest of the first season of parks and recreation was released on dvd in the united states on september 8 , 2009 . plot leslie ( amy poehler ) is proud that her mother , school system employee marlene knope ( pamela reed ) , is to receive a public service award during an upcoming banquet . ann ( rashida jones ) , excited to go to a social event after spending so much time taking care of her injured , boyfriend andy ( chris pratt ) , is told by leslie to dress very formally . leslie visits an old - fashioned barber , who unbeknownst to her only gives men 's haircuts ; she is given a very short , mannish hairstyle , which she is very proud of . leslie and ann , who is extremely overdressed in an expensive pink dress , arrive together at the banquet , where they are mistaken for a lesbian couple by many of the attendees . tom ( aziz ansari ) sucks up to marlene during his banquet speech , while ron ( nick offerman ) sticks to a " fact - based " speech ( " it is true that you have won this award . " ) leslie sees jeanine restrepo ( loretta fox ) , an influential zoning board member who could help leslie with her plans to turn the sullivan street pit into a park . leslie is too nervous to approach her , so she practices with mark ( paul schneider ) , who teasingly pinches her nose because he says as jeanine , " i can do whatever i want " ; ann pinches mark 's nose and leslie pinches ann 's , and mark summarizes , " it 's fun to pretend to be zoning board members . " marlene suggests leslie try sucking up to jeanine in her speech , but it comes across awkwardly when leslie claims to " love " jeanine . when leslie tries to approach her later , jeanine suggests leslie make an appointment with her secretary . marlene says this means jeanine is blowing them off , and tells leslie to blackmail jeanine with the knowledge that her husband has a dui offense in illinois . leslie shares the advice with ann , who says she believes it is unethical and wrong ; offended , leslie accuses ann of pampering andy . ( " he 's got three crutches , and one of them is you . and the other two are crutches . " ) ann storms off . tom wants to go bar - hopping with mark , who leaves even though he is enjoying hanging out with leslie and ann . tom wears a goofy orange hat at the bar , which he calls " " , or standing out in a public setting like a peacock . the two talk to women at the bar , but mark finds them boring and he leaves tom alone . ron enjoys the banquet 's bacon - wrapped shrimp , " my number one favorite food , wrapped around my number three favorite food " . leslie confronts jeanine about her husband 's dui , but when jeanine grows angry , leslie is unable to go through with the blackmail ; jeanine splashes water in leslie 's face , and she leaves ashamed . leslie visits ann and apologizes , and ann acknowledges leslie was partially right about andy . the two hug and andy gets angry because he thought leslie was " a dude " due to her haircut . mark comes back to the banquet hall to find ann and leslie , but is disappointed to see the banquet is over . production " the banquet " was written by tucker cawley and directed by beth mccarthy - miller , a long - time television director who worked with poehler on the sketch comedy show saturday night live . the " modern barber shop " featured in the episode is an actual barber shop in burbank , california . the interior is very similar to the inside of the actual barber shop . every time mccarthy - miller visited the real modern barber shop , the barber 's wife was always eating sunflower seeds next to the shop door . as a result , mccarthy - miller added an elderly woman with sunflower seeds into the episode 's barber scenes . the " " element was not included into the script , but added to the episode during filming after actor aziz ansari mentioned to show co - creator greg daniels that he believed the character would be interested in pickup artist tactics like those outlined in neil strauss ' book the game : penetrating the secret society of pickup artists . ansari and daniels asked the wardrobe for something silly for ansari to wear in the bar , and they tried about a half - dozen items before ansari himself settled on the orange hat , which is actually a woman 's hat . the two women mark and tom talk to at the bar were meant to mirror leslie and ann from the banquet . although they do not resemble poehler and jones , the two women had the same color hair ( brown and blond ) and were seated at the table in the same spots in relation to mark that leslie and ann were seated around him at the banquet . the scene in which water is splashed in leslie 's face was only shot twice , because mccarthy - miller said poehler would start anticipating it in more takes and it would not have appeared spontaneous . the first time the scene was acted , the cameras were accidentally not turned on , so only one take was usable for the episode . during the banquet for the tellenson awards , a video is shown of an ill tony tellenson ( for whom the award was named ) in his hospital room . mccarthy - miller shot the scene with minimal staff on a separate set . multiple takes were filmed , and the severity of illness differed in each one . the final clip used in the episode shows tellenson wearing a mask attached to an oxygen tank , which is one of the healthiest versions they filmed . the jeanine restrepo character was originally named janet restrepo , but was changed at the last moment . poehler and the rest of the cast had already memorized the lines with the name janet , and the actors had difficulty filming the scenes correctly as a result . cultural references in an opening statement about the history of pawnee , indiana , leslie says a pilgrim traded a baby to the native americans in exchange " for what is now indianapolis " , the state capital . she said the pilgrim 's face was made into a dreamcatcher , a handmade native american object with a willow hoop and loose web . the barber who gave leslie her haircut also previously cut the hair of former - u.s. vice president dan quayle . ron said he likes shrimp hors d wrapped in bacon so much , he would attend an event honoring pirates in somalia to get them . reception in its original american broadcast on may 7 , 2009 , " the banquet " was watched by 4 . 64 million households , according to nielsen media research , continuing a downward trend in ratings since the pilot episode , although nbc had already committed to renewing the show for a second season . the episode received a 2 . 3 rating / 8 share among viewers aged between 18 and 34 , and a 2 . 0 rating / 6 share among viewers between 18 and 49 . the poor rating for parks and recreation and southland , another then - new nbc series , contributed in bringing the network down to fourth place in the ratings for the evening , behind cbs , abc and fox . " the banquet " , however , received generally positive reviews . most reviewers particularly praised the opening scene with leslie describing the murder of pawnee pilgrim bixby mark at the hands of native americans , who used his body parts for various purposes because , " they used every part of the pioneer " . jeremy medina of entertainment weekly said he believed although the show initially needed improvement , that it had arrived at a " settled and focused " series with " the banquet " . he praised the episode as a whole , as well as individual small moments , like leslie 's haircut , april calling her " sir " , ron 's affinity for bacon - wrapped shrimp , tom 's coining of the phrase " " to mean standing out in bars . alan sepinwall of the star - ledger said " the banquet " was funnier than other recent parks and recreation episodes , although he said the leslie character continues to too closely resemble a female michael scott , the protagonist of the office . sepinwall said of the show , " i know a lot of people have already given up , but i really feel like the show is a summer 's worth of tweaking away from being good . it 's not there yet , but i see glimmers . " matt fowler of ign said the episode " was able to rise a few notches above the last one " and that he enjoyed leslie 's antics and many of tom 's antics , including his suggestions for leslie 's introduction for her mom . he also liked the scene in which mark pinched leslie 's nose , which he described as " a nice , playful scene that brought some much needed humanity to her cartoonish character " . jason hughes of tv squad praised the episode , particularly the characters tom and ann . he said of the episode , " the little things like ( leslie 's haircut and ann ) are what 's making this show work a little more with each episode . finding humor in the small things of small government . " brian howard of the journal news said the series is not great yet , but that " the banquet " included glimpses of possible greatness in the future , particularly in the performances by poehler , jones , ansari and schneider . keith phipps of the a.v. club said the laughs in the episode , particularly involving leslie 's haircut and her perceived romantic relationship with ann , were " a bit thin " . phipps also said he found himself disliking leslie , of whom he said , " here she seems more stupid than pleasantly naïve . " dvd release " the banquet " , along with the five other first season episodes of parks and recreation , was released on a one - disc dvd set in the united states on september 8 , 2009 . the dvd included cast and crew commentary tracks for each episode , as well as about 30 minutes of deleted scenes . the deleted scenes included on the dvd were originally featured on the official parks and recreation website after the episode aired . in the first , an 80 - second clip , leslie gives everyone in the department tickets to the banquet . she tries to invite andy , and when ann says he cannot put on pants due to his cast , leslie asks , " does he have a formal kilt or something ? " the second clip features 100 seconds of extended banquet sequences , including ann 's reaction to leslie 's haircut , ann 's awkward attempts to make small talk with april and more of tom 's speech to marlene . in the third , a 30 - second clip , set at the bar , tom describes to mark his strategy in picking up a girl : he asked her what she did for a living , then , " i just , gave her the middle finger and left . pretty risky but i feel good about it . " in the final clip , which was 15 seconds long , an amused tom shows a newspaper photo caption of leslie and ann from the banquet , with the caption , " mr. leslie knope and wife ann . "