It might seem unbelievable now that Parks and Recreation wasn't always super popular, but for years, the series was constantly on the verge of being cancelled. In 2013, when asked if he was hopeful that NBC would renew the series for a sixth season, Schur responded, "We feel fairly confident, I'd say. Cautiously optimistic. But I've come to really enjoy the uncertainty. I think it breeds good ideas. Never taking anything for granted is a good way to make sure you're exploring every possibility for a show" (via HitFix).
With that said, Schur and his team often prepared in advance for cancellation; in a 2015 interview with Yahoo! in advance of the show's final season, Schur admitted that the writing staff had actually penned several series finales. "It's either the fifth or sixth time we've written a series finale, depending on how you count," he said. "We did it at the end of Season 3. We did it at the end of Season 4. We did it midway through Season 5, and then again at the end of Season 5." In fact, the season five episode "Leslie and Ben," which features Leslie and Ben's wedding, could have been a perfect finale — but luckily, Schur got the chance to expand the story a little further. In fact, Schur told Yahoo! that knowing the seventh season would be their last gave them more creative freedom, saying, "It's a move you make when you know you only have one year left. We threw all the spinning plates as high as we could in the air, and we [didn't] have to worry about where they land, really."
