Christopher "Chris" Traeger is a fictional character played by Rob Lowe
in the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation on NBC. He began on
the show as an Indiana state auditor who visits the fictional city of Pawnee to
help solve their crippling budget problems, and eventually becomes
Pawnee's acting city manager. Chris is an extremely positive person who is
constantly upbeat and energetic. Extremely health-conscious, he exercises
constantly and eats only healthy foods, and hopes to be the first human being to
live 150 years. Chris first appeared in the second
season episode "The Master Plan". Originally expected to appear in eight
episodes as a guest star, Lowe eventually signed on to remain on the
show as a permanent cast member. Chris was a romantic interest for Ann Perkins
for several episodes, but the two split up in the third season. Chris imposes a
strict policy against workplace dating at city hall, but series protagonist
Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt begin secretly dating anyway.
The idea of Chris as a state auditor was inspired by real-life reports of
government shutdowns amid the global financial crisis. The Chris Traeger
character has received generally positive reviews from critics, and has
been described as "one of the great comedic creations of the past couple
years" and "one of the funniest performances of Rob Lowe's career".
Character biography = Background and personality=
Portrayed by Rob Lowe, Chris Traeger begins the show as an auditor working
for the Indiana state government in Indianapolis, but eventually becomes the
acting city manager of Pawnee, the fictional Indiana city where Parks and
Recreation is set. Originally from Wisconsin, he is an excessively positive
and optimistic person, who is constantly upbeat and extremely energetic. As a
baby, Chris was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder and was not expected to
live longer than three weeks, but miraculously survived. As a result, he
sees every day he is alive as a gift, which results in his intensely cheerful
and enthusiastic personality. In "Lucky", Chris mentions that he has a
stepbrother who lives in London. Chris is extremely health-conscious and
exercises constantly; he runs 10 miles during his lunch break alone, and
considers a 15 km run to be "light" exercise. He avoids eating red meat and
fatty foods in favor of dishes like lean turkey burgers and vegetable loaf
sweetened with fruit reduction, and takes a huge assortment of unusual
vitamins. Chris always stays extremely well-hydrated, and as a result of his
extreme exercise regimen has only 2.8% body fat, which makes him very
susceptible to illness due to a weakened immune system. His ambition is to become
the first human being to live 150 years. Chris always greets people with a firm
handshake and direct eye contact, and to remember their names often points
directly at people and repeats their names upon first meeting them. His
constant desire to make everyone around him happy means Chris hates having to
deliver bad news, a task he often assigns to his subordinates, usually Ben
Wyatt. He often declares things to be "literally" the best thing he's ever
seen or done, strongly emphasizing the word and pronouncing it "littrally". He
is very specific about his needs, giving long, drawn out requests, often making
only one point per sentence, as can be seen in the episode "Ron & Tammy: Part
Two", his beer order is as follows: "I would like a local beer... I'd like it
in a bottle ... And I'd like that bottle to be cold."
= Season two= Starting in the penultimate second
season episode "The Master Plan", Chris Traeger and fellow state auditor Ben
Wyatt are sent to Pawnee to help solve the city's crippling budget deficit.
Despite the seriousness of the problems, Chris presents the situation in an
extremely positive light and tries to make all the city hall employees around
him happy, leaving the hard decisions and delivery of bad news up to Ben. Due
to the poorly managed Pawnee government, Chris and Ben need to slash every city
budget by up to 50 percent, much to the disappointment of deputy parks and
recreation director Leslie Knope. During an outing at a bar, Chris meets
Leslie's best friend Ann Perkins, who is drunk and experiencing conflicting
emotions following her recent breakup with Mark Brendanawicz. Ann makes out
with Chris and, although she was too drunk to even remember the incident the
next day, he develops romantic feelings for her. Ann rebuffs his requests for
dates, and finds him too intense, but the ever-optimistic Chris does not
become discouraged and insists he will continue courting her. Meanwhile, in
"Freddy Spaghetti", Chris and Ben reveal Pawnee's budget problems are worse than
anticipated, which would require the government to be temporarily shut down,
much to the horror of Leslie, but the delight of parks and recreation director
Ron Swanson, an anti-government libertarian. Chris and Ben even consider
firing Leslie to save money, but Ron persuades them otherwise.
= Season three= In "Go Big or Go Home", after three
months of closure, the Pawnee government reopens in a limited capacity, but Chris
and Ben insist the parks and recreation department's budget can only sustain
existing park maintenance. Leslie, however, wants to offer better programs
and services for the Pawnee citizens. She asks Ann to go on a date with Chris,
then try to convince him to increase the budget. Ann reluctantly agrees to the
plan, but as the date progresses, she finds she actually enjoys herself and
develops feelings for Chris. When Leslie accidentally gives away her secret plan,
Chris is hurt and disparaged by Ann's ulterior motive. The next day, however,
Ann apologizes and asks to continue dating Chris, who happily accepts.
Ann finds she likes Chris very much, but is intimidated because she cannot find a
single flaw with him, which causes her to act socially awkwardly around him.
However, when a flu outbreak strikes Pawnee in "Flu Season", Chris becomes
severely ill, as due to his extreme workout regimen, he has a poor immune
system and low body fat. He suffers a complete physical breakdown and becomes
delirious from fever, which causes Ann to feel less intimidated by him. Later,
when he recovers, Chris and Ben are called back to Indianapolis for another
assignment, but Chris requests an extension to stay in Pawnee, seemingly
due to his feelings for Ann. In "Ron & Tammy: Part Two", Ann begins
to question why Chris has not asked her to move with him to Indianapolis when he
eventually returns there, especially after he offers for Ron's assistant
April Ludgate to come there to work for him. After Ann insists they need to
decide what their future holds, Chris breaks up with Ann. However, he does so
in such a positive and upbeat way that she does not actually realize they have
broken up. When Chris returns to Indianapolis, Ann becomes confused about
why they have had such little contact and suspects he is cheating on her. In
the episode "Indianapolis", Ann confronts Chris about her suspicions,
only to become humiliated to learn he had actually intended to break up with
her. In the episode "Camping" a few months
later, Chris returns to Pawnee to work as acting city manager after former
manager Paul Iaresco suffers a major heart attack. A still devastated Ann
meets with him to try and clear the air. However, Chris is once again so
optimistic while discussing their break-up that she falsely believes they
have gotten back together and tries to kiss him, thus embarrassing herself
further. Meanwhile, Chris offers Ben a full-time job working at the Pawnee
government, which Ben accepts. Chris proves to be an energetic city
manager, encouraging Leslie to pursue ambitious, grand-scale projects like the
harvest festival she organized before he returned to Pawnee. In "Soulmates", he
also attempts to combat Pawnee's notorious obesity problem by enacting a
government-wide health initiative. In that same episode, when he sees Leslie
kiss fellow employee Tom Haverford and falsely believes they are dating, Chris
warns her he maintains a strict policy against workforce dating and insists she
could be fired if she engages such a relationship. He is unaware, however,
that Leslie and Ben actually have romantic feelings for each other, and
eventually start dating without his knowledge.
During the season finale "Li'l Sebastian", Chris learns he has
tendinitis. Although it is not particularly serious, it terrifies the
health-conscious Chris and makes him begin to ponder his own mortality. He is
eventually comforted by Ann, who now works part-time at city hall as the
health department's public relations director. Chris feels better and appears
to begin developing feelings again for her.
= Season four= In "Ron and Tammys", Chris helps Ann
shoot a health-related PSA. His determination to make it perfect,
filming take after take, reminds Ann of some of her reasons not to date him. In
"Pawnee Rangers", Chris meets Jerry's daughter Millicent. The two start dating
and Chris makes sure that it is okay with Jerry. Jerry says that he is fine
with the two of them dating, much to Chris' delight. Chris and Millicent go
together to April and Andy's Halloween party, with Chris dressing as Sherlock
Holmes, his favorite character. After Chris starts to lose contact with
Millie, he enlists Jerry, Donna, and Ann to help him, against Jerry's wishes. Ann
tells him that he is too accessible and needs to back off a little bit so he can
continue dating Millie. In "Bowling for Votes", Millie dumps Chris, leaving him
depressed. In "Operation Ann", Leslie convinces Chris that he is still a
likable person and that Millecent's opinion does not mean anything. He
immediately loses his depression. In "Dave Returns", Chris discovers Tom's
relationship with Ann and confronts Tom about it, making Chris realize that he
has to "...adjust." He then freezes and stares sadly into space. In the same
episode, when Andy, asks Chris to sing for him, he sings "Take Me Out to the
Ball Game" out of tune and with the wrong lyrics, causing everyone else
there to wince. Chris helps Leslie's campaign however he can, even taking on
a large amount of busy work to distract him from his loneliness "Bus Tour". He
has a brief liaison with Bobby Newport's campaign manager, which cheers him up.
= Season five= In season five, Chris is still working
as Pawnee's City Manager. He is no longer depressed, but is continuously
seeing a therapist. He is also asked to be the father of Ann Perkins' child via
in vitro fertilization. He is hesitant at first and turns to Ben and others to
help him make a decision. After "Bailout", he tells Ann that he will be
the father and the two begin parenting compatibility testing to see how well
they will work together with raising a child. During "Jerry's Retirement", they
get back together but Ann is not sure if they should continue their relationship
the way they are now. = Season six=
With Ann pregnant at the beginning of season six, Chris is preparing to be a
father. In addition, when Ann expresses interest in leaving Pawnee to be closer
to her family in Michigan, Chris decides to go with her. Some time after the pair
leaves, Ann gives birth to their son Oliver Perkins-Traeger.
= Season seven= Chris and Ann return for a guest
appearance in the series finale in order to advise Leslie in 2025. It is revealed
that after Oliver, the couple had a second child, a daughter named Leslie.
Development Shortly following his departure from the
ABC drama series Brothers & Sisters, Rob Lowe accepted the role of Chris Traeger
on Parks and Recreation. He made his first appearance on the show in "The
Master Plan", the penultimate episode of the second season. The character debuted
the same episode that Adam Scott began his role as Ben Wyatt. Originally, Chris
Traeger was only meant to be a guest role, with Lowe portraying him in the
final two episodes of the second season and the first six episodes of the third
season before departing the series. However, Lowe instead became a regular
cast member starting with the third season, and signed a multi-year contract
to remain on the show. The idea of Chris as a state auditor visiting Pawnee, and
the subsequent government shutdown, was inspired by news reports at the time of
a number of states that were considering a shut down of schools, parks and other
services due to the global financial crisis.
Parks and Recreation co-creator Michael Schur said Chris' habit of pointing
directly into the faces of people he meets and repeating their names was one
of the first elements of his character that the writing staff conceived. Chris'
desire to live 150 years was inspired by Schur's wife, J. J. Philbin, who had
read an article which stated that scientists believe the first human who
will live 150 years has already been born, and felt it applied to the Chris
Traeger character. Lowe's first day of filming on the series was his birthday,
which was the day his kiss scene with Rashida Jones in "The Master Plan" was
shot. Lowe said he loved his character's "unrelenting enthusiasm" and the fact
that he is not a romantic lead, but rather a "big, fat nerd". Parks and
Recreation star Amy Poehler said of Chris Traeger: "It's a really fun
character to play against because what you’ll see start to happen is Chris
doesn’t want to deliver any bad news, but he’s actually like the Bad News
Bear." Like much of the rest of the cast, Lowe occasionally improvises lines
and actions for his character that are not included in the script. The writers
hoped to use Ann Perkins' breakup with Chris, and the drastic changes in her
behavior afterward, as a way of tapping into more comedic potential of her
character rather than having her fill the role of straight man as she had in
the past. Schur said: "Ann is a very intelligent and attractive woman, and
it's hard to knock someone like that off balance. And the way to knock that
person off balance is to get Rob Lowe in a relationship with you."
Once Lowe joined the permanent cast, Chris' role changed into more of an
authority figure concerned with integrity and efficiency, although he
continued to maintain his positive attitude and personality. Schur said of
this second role: "He doesn’t like frayed ends or controversies – he wants
the body politic to be as clean-running and organic as his own human body. Part
of the design of the character was to give the other characters a true boss –
an actual authority figure whose rules and regulations meant they had to toe
certain lines, even while his endlessly cheery disposition made it hard to argue
with him." As a result, Chris Traeger changed in minor ways once he became a
regular character. In his earlier episodes, Chris avoided associating
himself with anything negative and constantly made Ben report bad news to
people. As city manager in later episodes as a regular, however, Chris
started imposing rules or changes around the office that were not popular and
seemed less resistant about enforcing them. For example, Chris began to
enforce his strict no-dating policy around city hall. Additionally, in the
episode "Jerry's Painting", Chris forcefully orders Leslie to destroy a
painting when it proves to be controversial, and becomes angry with
her when she tries to resist those orders.
Reception The Chris Traeger character has received
a critical acclaim from critics. Rick Porter of Zap2it described him as "one
of the great comedic creations of the past couple years", and Hitfix writer
Alan Sepinwall called it "one of the funniest performances of [Rob Lowe's]
career". David Hinckley of the New York Daily News said both Lowe and Adam Scott
were excellent additions to the cast, and Eric Sundermann of Hollywood.com
said Chris was "exactly what the show needed to push itself to another level
of silliness". Some reviewers believed Chris' over-the-top personality would be
funny in the short run, but that the character would not prove
three-dimensional enough to have long-term sustainability. New York
magazine writer Steve Kandell initially described him as "funny, but sorta
one-note", and Eric Hochberger of TV Fanatic first found Chris funny, but
likewise said he was "not sure how great he'll be long term". Matt Fowler of IGN
expressed the same sentiments after earlier episodes, but by the third
season said Chris proved to be a great addition to the show.
The relationship between Chris and Ann was described by Sundermann as "one of
the most interesting parts of the show and the reason, specifically, is Chris".
Likewise, Porter said Lowe and Rashida Jones had developed a "fantastic
dynamic". Joel Keller of TV Squad said he found Chris "a little
two-dimensional", and believed the relationship was poorly handled because
it made Ann too passive. Lowe received particularly strong praise for his role
in "Flu Season", in which Chris became extremely ill and hallucinatory when
infected with the flu. Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter said Lowe's
character seemed well-integrated into the cast by the episode "Flu Season",
and added "If you've never believed Lowe can make you laugh out loud, pay
attention to that episode." Steve Kandell said Lowe stole the show from
the usual Parks powerhouses of Nick Offerman and Chris Pratt, and called one
scene, when Lowe tries to will away his flu by yelling to himself in the mirror
"Stop...pooping!", the "single greatest self-effacingly comic moment of his
long, handsome career". Parks and Recreation has traditionally
experienced poor Nielsen ratings, and NBC officials hoped the addition of Lowe
to the cast would help increase viewership. His premiere on the second
season episode "The Master Plan" was heavily publicized in commercials with
the hopes of drawing new viewers. However, ratings continued to be low
after he joined the show, and his appearances only resulted in what HitFix
writer Daniel Fienberg called "a statistically irrelevant bump" in the
ratings. Following actor Charlie Sheen's
departure from the CBS comedy series Two and a Half Men in March 2011, rumors
began to circulate that Rob Lowe might leave Parks and Recreation to take
Sheen's place on that show. People magazine reported that Two and a Half
Men creator Chuck Lorre was "seriously discussing the possibility" of signing
Lowe, and Sheen himself said he would be a "fabulous" successor. Those rumors
proved unfounded, however, and were flatly denied by Michael Schur, who
called it "complete gibberish". Although widely considered a supporting role,
Lowe's performance as Chris Traeger was submitted for a 2011 Primetime Emmy
Award in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series category.
References External links
Rob Lowe biography at official Parks and Recreation site at NBC.com
Chris Traeger at the Internet Movie Database