'Office' funny as usual; 'Parks' improves

NBC's Thursday night comedies begin their seasons, including the series premiere of "Community," and new episodes of "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation."

On "The Office" (9 tonight, WPXI), Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) are trying to keep her pregnancy a secret from their co-workers while planning a quickie wedding (we previewed the new season this past Sunday in Sunday Mag).

"I don't want to walk down the aisle and have people whisper, 'There goes the fancy whore,'" Pam says.

"We want them to find out she's a fancy whore when we're good and ready," Jim adds.

MIchael (Steve Carell) feels left out when other employees learn gossip about the office interns before he does. In his quest to be in the loop, he spreads damaging gossip and then tries to cover it up with rumors he invents from whole cloth. It's a typically funny "Office" episode that makes good use of most of the cast.

"Parks and Recreation" (8:30 tonight, WPXI) got off to a rocky start last year with too-awkward Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) the only fully-developed character in the show. Too often, it also wasn't all that funny.

The second season begins with a lot more promise. Leslie now has a backbone and at least a glimmer of self-esteem when she defends her inadvertent marriage of two male penguins at the Pawnee Zoo. The publicity stunt comes under fire from a local bigot.

When Leslie first learns the penguins are male, she freaks out at the notion that she's viewed as a "social activist" but ultimately she defends the publicity stunt, saying she did it "because I firmly believed it was cute." And she means it.

The episode, written by Norm Hiscock, doesn't make Leslie a gay rights crusader, which would be false because she is not. But she stands her ground (at least until the episode's visually hilarious coda), something first-season Leslie would not have done.

The secondary "Parks" characters remain under-developed but Leslie does have some nice scenes with Tom (Aziz Ansari) that allow her to get the upper hand (another nice development). "Parks" was disappointing in its first year but tonight's episode and one airing next week -- with a storyline inspired by the Henry Louis Gates-cop kerfluffle -- show that the program is making steady, funny progress.