Summer_Catalog_Page_9This was doing the rounds on Twitter last night, and was pointed out by someone on Facebook apparently – so I can’t claim credit. But it’s worth re-posting for those who might not have seen it. The map above is from a catalogue used in the show Parks and Recreation, and is quite clearly based on a map of pre-quake Christchurch. The episode in question (Summer Catalogue; Season 2, episode 20) aired in March 2010, almost a year before the February quake. Who knows why they chose Christchurch? Maybe cos we are “the Garden City”, and they needed somewhere with a bunch of green? Maybe they thought we were so small and far away that no-one would ever notice?

Now that we’ve found out, the council should be capitalizing on our vicarious fame. Lianne Dalziel could start dressing as Lesley Knope. Since we’re still paying Tony Marryatt $10k a week, the least he could do is pretend to be Ron Swanson for us. Who will be our April Ludgate? Maybe we could make the fictional town of Pawnee an honorary sister city, and see if we can get them to come and film an episode here?

UPDATE: Just went through the episode, and it does actually appear during the show (though you would have to have an HD tv and a magnifying glass to pick it out.) It’s the page at the bottom middle, above the data projector. The image at the top is from the Parks and Recs wiki,  which the show’s creators use to put quite a bit of extra info from the show onto the net for super-fan type people.

Parks Chch Map