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Leslie's Family
Marlene Griggs-Knope
Marlene Griggs-Knope
Played By: Pamela Reed
Leslie's mother and "a big mucky-muck in the county school system". Leslie's father has been dead since she was ten years old, which was first implied in a throwaway line explaining that 'he lives in Florida, in a cemetery' and later made explicit in the fifth season. "Galentine's Day" states she was born on March 5, 1953, the same day that Joseph Stalin died.
- Demoted to Extra: After Season 3, she gets a cameo at best.
- Iron Lady: She's a big deal in Pawnee politics, and wheels and deals with the best of them. Her daughter even compares her to Margaret Thatcher. Ron Swanson says her affectionate nickname around town (started by him) is "The Iron Cock-Shredder of Pawnee" (bleeped in broadcast and script, but improvised on the spot by Nick Offerman).
- It Runs in the Family: Later on, once she was retooled more into a Hypercompetent Sidekick, it's clear Leslie's inherited Marlene's savvy and intelligence.
- Nepotism: Early on, it seemed like a large part of Leslie's success was because of her mother. She specifically mentions getting the job at Parks because of Marlene.
Ron's Family
Tammy Zero
Tamara "Tammy" Swanson
Played By: Paula Pell
Ron's mother, aka "Tammy Zero." Even more reclusive than her son, and a gun nut.
- Apron Matron: To an extent.
- Crazy Survivalist: She lives alone in a secluded cabin far from civilization, lives off the land, has a whole room filled with nothing but guns, and she generally acts a lot like her son turned up to eleven.
- The Dreaded: Prompts an Oh, Crap! reaction from Tammy One, who is herself The Dreaded for Ron and Tammy Two.
- Gun Nut: Has a whole room filled with nothing but guns.
- Godzilla Threshold: Leslie recruits Tamara to save Ron from Tammy One after he becomes a Henpecked Husband due to her influence.
- It Runs in the Family: Seeing her, it's easy to see where Ron and the other Swanson men get their badassery from.
Tammy One
Tammy Swanson "One"
Played By: Patricia Clarkson
Ron's first wife. Makes her first appearance as the back of a head in the Season 3 finale, which is enough for Tammy Two and Ron to drop everything and head for the hills. She works for the IRS. Her influence can turn Ron into a dorky, pro-government Henpecked Husband.
- Always a Bigger Fish: Tammy Two barely qualifies as a pest when compared to her.
- Ambiguously Human: Ron treats her as if she is a literal demon from Hell and she has a supernatural-like intimidating aura about her. She is at least 20 years older than Ron yet fully intends to outlive him and be present at the minute of his death. She also has no trouble drinking the Swanson family alcohol (so strong its only legal application is stripping marine varnish) and dismisses it as "watered down baby formula".
- Candy Striper: Tammy One was a volunteer assisting at the hospital Ron was born in and helped to deliver him.
- Control Freak: Her defining characteristic. She shows up at the office and immediately orders everyone around (and is obeyed almost instantly). Her Evil Plan involves a fake audit against Ron which becomes an excuse to take control of his finances and move back in with him, taking complete control of his entire life including deciding whether or not he can go to lunch, and in the past when Tammy Two stole Ron from her, she responded by pouring acid on her foot.
- The Dreaded: Her mere presence is enough to provoke Tammy Two and Ron to drop everything and flee.
- Eviler than Thou: Tammy Two knows better than to even bother trying to compete with her, and immediately flees Pawnee upon learning that she's around.
- Gold Digger: A literal example — she's trying to find Ron's hidden stash of gold.
- The Ghost: She doesn't appear until long after she was first mentioned, but her presence can be felt throughout the series nonetheless.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Considering she basically raised Ron, she's responsible for shaping most of his character, flaws and all.
- Hates Small Talk: When Leslie tries to introduce herself, she simply replies:Tammy One: I don't think it will be necessary for you to speak again while I'm here.
- Intimidating Revenue Service: Her employers, although she admits that the audit is actually fake and just an excuse to get close to Ron again.
- Iron Lady: An unflappable, unstoppable and emotionless woman who is feared by everyone, and the only person capable of truly breaking Ron Swanson.
- Knight of Cerebus: Seen as genuinely terrifying by every character, and has very few jokes of her own.
- May–December Romance: She was Ron's nurse when he was born.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Doesn't play any games, and is incredibly efficient and thorough about getting what she wants out of others.
- Skip to the End: Inverted. It took Ron two hours to get through his wedding vows at the altar with her, although the reason had nothing do with her — Ron just disliked being told what to do so much that after the priest said "repeat after me" he fell silent and kept everyone waiting.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: She virtually never raises her voice, and clearly relishes controlling Ron.
- Teacher/Student Romance: She was also Ron's (and Tammy Two's) Sunday school teacher.
- The Stoic: Very cold and emotionless. As a result, April comes to admire her.April: She's the cold, distant mother I never had. I love her.
- Vague Age: She's basically joked about as being Ambiguously Human with some Really 700 Years Old mixed in, being already a volunteer at the hospital by the time Ron was born, being his and Tammy 2's teacher, babysitter, and driving instructor, but she doesn't look a day over 50 at most and Patricia Clarkson is ten years older than Nick Offerman.
- Wife Husbandry: Strongly implied. No one in town tried to stop her because they were all scared of her.
Tammy Two
Tammy Swanson "Two"
Played By: Megan Mullally
The second of Ron's evil ex-wives. Not only is she also named Tammy, so is Ron's mother. This Tammy is a Vampy Manipulative Bitch and the deputy director of the Library Department, the Sitcom Arch-Nemesis of the Parks Department. Her influence can turn Ron into a pliable sex freak.
- Ax-Crazy: She can be pretty deranged and unstable, especially when she attacks people randomly.
- Depraved Bisexual: At one point, she gets into a wrestling match with Leslie and gets incredibly turned on.
- Evil Counterpart: To Leslie.
- Evil Laugh: The character gets a lot of mileage out of Mullally's signature cackle.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: She does wear glasses, and she is evil.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Employs this frequently.
- Jerkass: A horrible person all around.
- Ms. Fanservice: Has no problem showing off her body, though her personality is so horrible that it borders on Fan Disservice despite her good looks.
- Naked People Are Funny: She strips naked in public often.
- Official Couple: Ron sets her up with Jeremy Jamm to get her off his back. In "Ron and Jammy", they break up after Leslie sees what Tammy has done to Jamm, namely tried to turn him into Ron.
- Phrase Catcher: Ron usually reacts to her (off-screen) presence in this almost primordially-instinctive fashion:Ron: [Sniffs, stands up, an alarmed and hunted expression on his face] She's here, isn't she.
- Sadist: She enjoys giving (and receiving) pain during sex, but she is also just a straight up bully who cackles while picking on those weaker than herself, best exemplified when she brutally beats up Tom in the library, reminding Ron again of why he broke up with her in the first place.
- Scary Librarian: Could be a Hot Librarian, but she's the meanest person possible, giving reason for the P&R department to hate the library one.
- Sex Goddess: She's a toxic Manipulative Bitch, but she gives Ron some downright explosive sex.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: To Ron, Leslie and Diane.
- The Vamp: Uses her feminine wiles to get what she wants.
- Villain Decay: Once Ron falls for Diane, he is completely immune to Tammy's charms and views her with annoyed contempt.
Diane Lewis
Diane Elizabeth Lewis
Played By: Lucy Lawless
Ron's girlfriend in Season 5. She is a middle school vice principal with two young daughters named Ivy (Rylan Lee) and Zoey (Sadie Salazar). According to Leslie and Ron himself, she is perfect for Ron. They are married at the start of Season 6.
- Birds of a Feather: With Ron.
- Happily Married: She and Ron tie the knot in Season 6.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Lucy Lawless does a decent American accent, but sometimes those Kiwi vowels sneak in.
- Troll: When she married Ron, she stated her middle name was Tammy just to screw with him, before revealing it's actually Elizabeth.
- Out of Focus: While it's confirmed by some lines of dialogue that she and Ron are still married, Diane doesn't show up in the final season or in the reunion special.
- Seen It All: As a middle school vice principal, Diane has seen her fair share of kids behaving badly. She takes Ivy and Zoey chopping their hair off with Ann's medical scissors in stride and isn't afraid of Tammy Two since her job requires her to deal with Hormone Addled Teenagers on a daily basis.
- The Stoic: She's not emotionless, but is overall cool-headed and reasonable, which makes her deal well with Ron's quirks.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Twice towards Ron.
- When Ron misguidedly breaks one of her daughters' tiaras in two so they can share.
- When Ron tries to get off the grid, she gives him a gentle one of these, pointing out that while she's okay with his privacy, he needs to be available to his family.
Tom's Family
Wendy Haverford
Wendy Haverford
Played By: Jama Williamson
Tom's wife at the start of the series. She is Canadian and married him to stay in the country, resulting in the Irony of an interracial Citizenship Marriage where it's the white partner who is trying to avoid being deported from America. They split up during the second season, in an episode appropriately titled "Tom's Divorce". Ron dated her for a while before she moved back to Canada near the start of the third season.
- Citizenship Marriage: She's Canadian and married Tom to stay in the US so she could keep working legally as a doctor. As noted above, there's an ironic aspect to their union as she's white while Tom is Indian but a born and bred US American citizen.
- Oblivious to Love: Was entirely unaware Tom had feelings for her at first.
- Put on a Bus: In "Ron and Tammy 2", she goes back to Canada, specifically her hometown of Ottawa, to help her parents out.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Not that Tom is genuinely ugly, but this is the reaction of most people when they see them together.
Lucy
Lucy
Played By: Natalie Morales
A bartender Tom dates in Season 2. They reconnect in Season 7, getting engaged in the penultimate episode and are implied to be married in the Distant Finale.
- Birds of a Feather: With Tom.
- Deadpan Snarker: It's how she puts up with Tom.
- Establishing Character Moment: When she first appears, it's as a bartender at the Snakehole Lounge while Tom is settling his bill, showing how snarky she is and how well she can read Tom, but also why they click so well:Lucy: Ten Cosmos, eight Smirnoff Ices, and everything else starts with the word "pomegranate". Aw, was it your bachelorette party?
Tom: No, I invited a bunch of girls here last night, and they all put drinks on my tab. And then I went home alone. I'm not sure what happened.
Lucy: You invited a bunch of girls here and tried to hit on all of 'em.
Tom: Fair enough.
Lucy: I mean, what were you expecting was going to happen, a 43-way?
Tom: (chuckling) That would have been a little out of control.
Lucy: But awesome.
Tom: Yeah. The problem is I only have fifteen penises, so there would have been twenty-eight girls that were really upset with me. (both laugh) - Nice Girl: She's a sweet and friendly person.
- Only One Name: Her last name isn't given in the show, though supplementary info reveals it's Santodomingo.
- Only Sane Man: She and Tom have similar interests and senses of humor, but she's much more levelheaded than him, especially before he undergoes some Character Development.
- Token Minority Couple: She's Cuban, and partnered with the Indian Tom.
- Weakness Turns Her On: She states that she enjoys how easy it is to throw Tom around.
Jerry's Family
Gayle Gergich
Gayle Gergich
Played By: Christie Brinkley
Garry's loving and unreasonably hot wife.
- Alliterative Name: Gayle Gergich.
- Birds of a Feather: She and Garry share the same sweet, humble disposition, and hold similar values and interests.
- Characterization Marches On: In earlier episodes before she appeared, "Jerry" often implied that he felt his masculinity smothered by his wife and enjoyed time away from her. Once she appears, she's shown to be an impossibly gorgeous, kind, loving, and doting wife, and she and Garry are Happily Married.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: If she gets very angry with Garry, she'll call him the B-word: Bozo.
- Happily Married: No one understands why, but she's incredibly happy with Garry.
- Nice Girl: Much like her husband, Gayle doesn't appear to have a mean bone in her body.
- Older Than They Look: Justified example, as Christie Brinkley really is in her 60s. This is taken to absurd lengths in the Distant Finale, where, in a scene where she would have to be in her mid-90s at least, she looks exactly the same.
- Phrase Catcher: "And Gayle looks amazing!"
- Silver Vixen: Played for laughs in the Distant Finale, when she looks exactly as she does in the present day, despite the fact she should be in her nineties.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Most likely the basis of her and Garry's marriage. He's not much of a looker (at least nowadays; he was a lot less rotund twenty years ago), but he's a ridiculously sweet guy and loving father, and Gayle genuinely adores him.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Ben is especially flabbergasted by the Gergiches' relationship, but no one can understand it.Ben: So, Jerry and Gayle?
Chris: I've thought a lot about it, there is no logical explanation.
Millicent Gergich
Millicent Gergich
Played By: Sarah Wright
Garry's oldest daughter. She's an athletic sort and dates Chris for some time.
- Birds of a Feather: She likes guys who share similar interests as her.
- Daddy's Girl: Other than her seeming obliviousness to her father's discomfort with her dating Chris (who is technically his boss, and had a bad tendency to go into Too Much Information territory regarding their relationship), she's close to Garry and adores him very much.
- Has a Type: Chris and her later fiance Carl are both handsome and chiseled athletic types.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Can outrun Chris in a jog, and served as a camp counselor at a teen sport camp (where she met her fiance).
- The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: She and her two sisters are incredibly beautiful, as they all take after their mother in looks.
Donna's Family
Joe
Joe
Played By: Keegan-Michael Key
An elementary school music teacher and ex-boyfriend of Donna's, whom she begins dating again in Season 6. They get married in Season 7's aptly-titled "Donna & Joe".
- Bait-and-Switch: Donna describing Joe as "her Tammy" leads Ron to believe that Joe is a monstrous, controlling abuser like Tammy 1 and Tammy 2. Turns out he's actually a Nice Guy and Donna was referring to their incompatibility, and Ron calls her out on the unfair comparison.
- Cool Teacher: Implied to be one, as all his students love him and he's invested in their futures, to the point a flash-forward in the Grand Finale reveals he runs a non-profit teaching program.
- Covert Pervert: Despite his general wholesomeness, pretty much every conversation he and Donna have is charged with sexual innuendo, and he seems very invested in seeing Donna wear a revealing outfit they both refer to as "the red thing".Donna: I'll wear that red thing when you deserve to see me in that red thing.
- Friend to All Children: Appears to be one - he knows exactly how to politely calm Ron's stepdaughters down when he sees them bothering Ron, and he seems to be a very popular teacher at the school he works at.
- The Generic Guy: Donna's opinion of him when she first dated him; she broke up with him because he constantly wanted to spend time with her doing "boring" things such as making pasta and watching movies together, and didn't realize he wasn't letting her live her life the way she wanted to.
- Happily Married: He and Donna get married in season 7, and according to the time skips in "One Last Ride", they definitely qualify for this trope.
- New Old Flame: He and Donna apparently broke up and got together again several times in the past before they begin dating seriously in Season 6.
- Nice Guy: To an incredible degree. He will happily help anyone in need, no matter how big or small their problems are.
- Only One Name: His last name isn't given, even at his and Donna's wedding.
- Opposites Attract: Why they originally didn't work out. Joe is a gregarious Nice Guy who contrasts with the dramatic, adventurous Donna, and Donna felt that her steady relationship with him was "too boring". Ron calls her on this, and she gives him another shot with the understanding that he won't try to change her. It works out so well they end up married.
- Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: Given how Donna describes Joe as "her Tammy", Ron keeps waiting for him to reveal his true nature as a horrible person. He doesn't. Donna just doesn't like who she is with him.
- Token Minority Couple: He and Donna are both black.
The Meagles
The Meagles
Donna's family, the most passive-aggressive group of people that ever lived. Includes Donna's brothers, George and LeVondrias, and her cousin, the singer Ginuwine.
- Dysfunctional Family: To the point that no more than three Meagles are allowed on an international flight together. During Donna's wedding, April's job is to stop the family from causing any trouble. She ends up rounding up all the "troublemakers" in the kitchen and putting the fear of God into them (and making Ginuwine cry in the process.)
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Everyone in this family snipes at each other all the time over some kind of Noodle Incident that happened years ago.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Played for Laughs — every member in the Meagle family has a grudge against some other member over some kind of idiotic minor incident from the past that they won't let go of.
April's Family
The Ludgates
The Ludgates
Played By: John Ellison Conlee (Larry), Terri Hoyos (Rita), Minni Jo (Natalie)
April's family, consisting of her father Larry, mother Rita, and sister Natalie.
- Alliterative Name: Larry Ludgate.
- Emotionless Girl: Natalie is just as snarky as April and as much of a troll.
- Fangirl: Rita owns all of Duke Silver's albums. It's very lightly implied she recognizes Ron when he stops by the Ludgate residence in "94 Meetings".
- Good Parents: While we don't see much of them, Larry and Rita do come across as loving and sweet.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: April and Natalie pulled pranks on one another and stole each other's stuff throughout their childhoods. Unlike other examples of this trope, they're actually pretty similar personality-wise.
- Open-Minded Parents: A deleted scene from "April and Andy's Fancy Party" shows that Larry and Rita are completely okay with April marrying Andy so soon after she began dating him. Apparently, it helps that Andy's actually straight unlike Derek, and isn't a weirdo like Orin.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Larry and Rita are very peppy compared to their sarcastic daughters.
Andy's Family
The Dwyers
- Disappeared Dad: Andy's father either died or left the family at some point.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Andy has six brothers. They're named Aaron, Adam, Anthony, Alex, Alan, and Albert.
Rebecca
Rebecca
Andy's niece (her parents are not mentioned in-show).
- The Ghost: She's only mentioned once when Andy admits to provoking a goose into attacking her.
Ben's Family
The Wyatts
Ben's family, consisting of his father Steve (Jonathan Banks), mother Julia (Glenne Headly), stepmother Ulani (Kulap Vilaysack), sister Stephanie (Annabeth Gish), brother Henry, and an unnamed half-sibling.
- Amicable Exes: Inverted - Steve and Julia are still bitter and acrimonious towards one another and drag everyone else down with them.
- Casting Gag: According to Michael Schur, Jonathan Banks was cast as Steve precisely because they wanted the character to be like Mike Ehrmantraut.
- The Ghost: Henry never appears and is only mentioned a couple of times.
- May–December Romance: Steve and his second wife Ulani. Ulani is at least young enough to be his daughter. Naturally, Julia makes a lot of snipes at her ex-husband for this.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: According to Ben, his parents mostly just kept everything bottled up and only subtly hinted at what was bothering them. Unsurprisingly, this led to them divorcing.
- Perpetual Frowner: Steve. Being played by Jonathan Banks helps.
- Practically Different Generations: Ben's in his mid to late thirties when Steve and Ulani reveal they're expecting.
- Serious Business: The Wyatts are a Twizzlers family and Steve will not entertain the thought of eating Red Vines.
