New 'Parks and Rec' Pregnancy Will Be Different

On last week's Parks and Recreation , Leslie got a bomb dropped on her: she and Ben will be having triplets. Not just one baby, or even two, but three: because of course her ovaries are just as big overachievers as the rest of her. It was a hilarious moment — "If we do this right, we could be parents to one-third of the Supreme Court!" — but didn't completely make up for the fact that the news made some fans nervous. Another pregnancy? So soon after Ann's? Would this lead to repetitive storytelling? Thankfully/of course, series creator Mike Schur and star Amy Poehler have already thought about all that, and on a conference call, the duo shared with us several reasons why we should be excited instead of apprehensive about this big, tri-headed twist.

Don't Worry: They Won't Repeat Ann's Baby Story.

"We explored a lot of baby stuff with Ann," explained Poehler. "So I know we're not going to go down that same route of like kind of rehashing that experience." Going into the decision, Poehler and Schur were both cognizant of the need to differentiate the two experiences.

"We don't want to do the same thing twice, and we have some ideas for how to avoid that trap," said Schur. "How we tell stories about Leslie and her burgeoning family are going to be very different from Ann and her burgeoning family."

And, of course, they're always thinking of their audience — their very intelligent, very savvy (and also very likely attractive, funny, charming, and all-around amazing) audience. "We don't want to repeat ourselves. I think repeating yourself is kind of death in television. ... Everyone has seen a lot of TV these days."

Because They Want to Surprise You!

Said Schur: "Our biggest goal always is to be surprising and different in the way that we let our stories unfold ... we're very conscious of not wanting to repeat ourselves in any of the pregnancy storylines and that’s something that's going to be foremost on our minds going forward."

After All, Leslie Loves a Challenge.

Naturally ambitious, Shur noted that Knope "likes to juggle a lot of balls in the air at the same time, and this is just another one."

And Poehler knows that better than anyone. "She goes big, you know? She always goes big so it's no surprise that this is happening." Besides, let's not play around here. Of course Leslie and Ben are having triplets. Of course. "It makes a lot of sense and goes along with, in general, her idea of swinging big. And I'm not being afraid of ideas that seem kind of insurmountable, you know?"

"Leslie is a very is famously sort of an overachiever," explained Schur. "And having her body overachieve in terms of starting her family just seemed like a very logical thing to have happen."

And There's Heaps of True-to-Life Comedy There

There will certainly be some of that to come as Leslie and Ben try and finagle it all. "It is interesting to figure out how this new stuff will integrate into her new life," explained Poehler. And if anyone can understand those circumstances, it's her. "I can certainly relate to what it feels like to be working on a new job and having someone living inside of you," the actress quipped, a nod to her own second pregnancy which occurred while she was filming Parks.

And as happens in most relationships, there's not really an emotional consensus between the two on how to handle the big news, which will make for some very, very funny moments. "Leslie's attitude would be 'we knocked it out of the park!' in contrast to Ben's attitude of saying, 'oh my God, we're so screwed,'" explained Schur.

"We wanted to do it at a time where it was maximally sort of crazy and inconvenient because that’s just sort of what naturally happens I think," said Schur. Which makes sense, as the ethos and love behind the comedy of the series has always been rooted, ultimately, in the crazy inconvenience of life and the comedy that springs from that. Making this pregnancy one we're quite certain will succeed in its ambitious endeavors.

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