and had been a focal point of the series since the show began. Schur said while the pit project was originally conceived as a device to bring all the characters together working toward a common goal, and it was expected to only become a park during the series finale. However, Schur said he felt the early episodes were too focused on the pit and had led viewers to believe the entire show was about filling the pit, which was not the writers' intention, so they accelerated the resolution of that story arc. The idea of Ben and Chris, two state auditors who come in from outside Pawnee to help the town deal with budget problems, was conceived from news reports at the time of a number of states considering shutting down schools, parks and other services due to the global recession. Poehler became pregnant during the latter half of the season, with her baby due in the summer or early fall of 2010. The Parks and Recreation producers decided not to write the pregnancy into the show, so they decided to enter into a continuous production after the season ended to bank episodes for the third season. Six season three episodes were filmed in this fashion. However, in May 2010, NBC announced the third season of Parks and Recreation was being moved to an undisclosed midseason premiere date to allow the network's new comedy, Outsourced, to run in the Thursday two-hour comedy schedule block. NBC chief executive officer Jeff Gaspin said this move was not a reflection on Parks and Recreation, and suggested the extended hiatus would not only have no effect on the show's momentum, but could actually build anticipation for its eventual return. In November 2010, it was announced Parks and Recreation would return to a 9:30 p.m. Thursday timeslot effective January 20, 2011. Reception Reviews The first season of Parks and Recreation received mixed to negative reviews, with many critics deeming it too similar to The Office, which shared the same mock documentary style as Parks and Recreation. In particular, several commentators said the naive and well-meaning Leslie Knope character too closely resembled The Office protagonist Michael Scott, a well-intentioned but dimwitted protagonist manager of a paper company sales office. However, most critics declared the second season a vast improvement over the first, with some even claiming it had surpassed The Office and 30 Rock as the