Sir Andrew Maxwell "Andy" Dwyer KBE is a fictional character in the NBC comedy
Parks and Recreation. He is a shoe-shiner at Pawnee City Hall and
April Ludgate's husband. He was later promoted to Leslie Knope's assistant. He
is portrayed by Chris Pratt. Originally meant to be a temporary character, Andy
was so likable that producers asked Pratt back as a series regular. Pratt
was credited as a guest star for the first season, despite appearing in every
episode; he is part of the main cast for every season after season one.
Andy is one of the few starring characters not to appear in every
episode, as he was absent for a multi-episode arc in season six while
Chris Pratt was filming Guardians of the Galaxy.
Background At the start of the series, Andy Dwyer
is dating Ann Perkins. The two met and fell in love in college, but Ann matured
faster than Andy did; while Ann entered into a career in nursing, Andy remained
lazy and spoiled. Andy remained unemployed after school
but was the lead singer and guitarist for his rock band, which has gone
through numerous names, including "MouseRat," "God Hates Figs,"
"Department of Homeland Obscurity," "Flames For Flames," "Muscle Confusion,"
"Nothing Rhymes With Orange", "Punch Face Champions," "Rad Wagon," "Puppy
Pendulum," "Possum Pendulum," "Penis Pendulum," "Handrail Suicide," "Angel
Snack," "Just The Tip," "Jet-Black Pope," "Four-Skin", "MouseRat",
"RatMouse", "Scarecrow Boat," "Tackleshaft" and then "MouseRat".
Though absentminded and possessing an extremely short attention span, Andy is
shown to have a savant-like memory. For instance, Andy received the highest
grade the police academy had ever seen on the written entrance test, has an
uncanny ability to remember movies word for word, and is able to memorize a long
list of facts for his feminist college class in the episode, "Smallest Park."
Andy also had perfect SAT scores, but mentioned it was probably due to broken
Scantron machines. Storyline
= Season one= Before the start of the first season, a
drunken Andy fell into a large construction pit and broke both his legs
while attempting to retrieve a discarded toaster from the bottom of the pit. Ann
is at first unaware that Andy was drunk at the time of the fall, and the
incident inspires her to attend Parks and Recreation meetings to advocate that
the pit be filled in. It is at these meetings that Ann first befriends Parks
Deputy Director Leslie Knope. With both of Andy's legs in casts, Ann pampers
him, bringing him food and letting him play video games all day. When the
doctors inform Andy that the casts can be removed, Andy delays the removal for
several weeks so he can continue receiving this treatment from Ann. After
the casts are removed, Ann discovers the truth and furiously breaks up with Andy.
= Season two= Andy moves into a tent pitched in the
pit and watches Ann, claiming to be protecting her. He makes many failed
attempts to reconcile with Ann. After Mark begins dating Ann, Andy grows to
hate him because he is dating Ann, but pretends to like him whenever Ann is
around. Andy is injured in the pit a second time when Leslie arranges to have
it filled with dirt, unaware that Andy is still in the pit. Andy considers
suing the town with the hopes of getting money and winning Ann back, but Leslie
convinces him to settle out of court in exchange for having the pit filled in.
Leslie gives Andy a job as the shoe-shiner at the Pawnee City Hall as
part of his settlement. April Ludgate, the parks department intern, begins to
develop a crush on Andy, but he is for a long time unaware of her feelings toward
him. As time goes on, Andy begins to develop feelings for April, though he is
unsure about dating her due to their age difference and his own unresolved
feelings for Ann. Simultaneously, Ann begins to show similar feelings for Andy
after her relationship with Mark ends. At the end of the season, having broken
up with Mark, Ann kisses Andy, who does not reciprocate. This later causes him
problems with April, who continues to believe he is still in love with Ann.
= Season three= Andy has been unsuccessfully trying to
get in touch with April. When she finally returns from Venezuela, she
arrives with a new boyfriend, Eduardo. Leslie encourages Andy to not give up.
In the episode "Time Capsule", Andy befriends Eduardo at the advice of Chris
Traeger. As a result, April begins hating her new boyfriend, and he moves
back to Venezuela. Andy also becomes the new coach of one of the two youth
basketball teams, with Ron serving as the other coach. Andy's coaching style
is much lazier than Ron's strict style. He is also briefly Ron's receptionist in
"Flu Season". In the episode "Media Blitz", April leads Andy to believe that
if he completes the tasks she hates every day for a month, she will consider
being with him. Although she begins this as a bluff, after seeing Andy complete
these tasks happily, she kisses him. In the episode "Andy and April's Fancy
Party" Andy reveals that he had proposed to April a day earlier after only one
month of dating to which April replied, "Fine." They are married at the end of
the episode in a surprise ceremony. = Season four=
At the beginning of season four, Tom asks Andy to join his new company. He
declines Tom's offer and instead joins Leslie's campaign as her assistant and
head of security, a role he enjoys very much. At the end of the season, he is
encouraged by April to pursue a career as a police officer as all his "dream
jobs," with the exception of rock star, revolve around law enforcement.
= Season five= During the fifth season, Andy continues
to pursue his ambition to become a police officer and seeks help from
others to better his chances of passing the police academy entrance exams. He
asks Chris to help him get fit enough to pass the police physical. His marriage
to April is not strained by the distance between them: they exchange care
packages and he visits her in Washington, DC.
Andy earns a perfect score on the written portion of the police officers'
exam. When he fails the personality portion of the exam, he gets a rousing
pep talk from Chris. Ben then gives Andy a job working with him at the Sweetum's
charity foundation. = Season six=
Andy's role is reduced in the sixth season, as Chris Pratt was busy with
other filming commitments. Andy spends the early part of season 6 in England
attending to Sweetum's charity work. Before he went to England, he loses 50
pounds after giving up beer. He briefly visits Pawnee and does not want to
return to England, but April convinces him to go back. In the season finale,
Andy reunites with MouseRat and sings a Li'l Sebastian memorial song at the
Pawnee Unity concert. = Season seven=
Andy remains married to April Ludgate, and the two have become responsible
adults, to their horror. He has a TV show on public access, The Johnny Karate
Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show, where he is knighted by Lord Edgar
Covington in its final episode, and later works part-time at the National
Parks service. His friendship with Tom has grown since the previous seasons.
After April decides to leave for a new job in Washington, D.C., Andy goes with
her. In a series of flash-forwards in the
final episode, April and Andy ask Leslie and Ben for advice regarding the
prospect of having children, which Andy very much wants but April does not. They
decide to try for it and their son Jack is born on Halloween 2023. By 2025 the
couple is expecting their second child. Development
Chris Pratt was credited as a guest star throughout the entire first season, but
was promoted to the main cast in the second season. The Andy character was
originally supposed to appear only in the first season, but the producers
liked Pratt so much that almost immediately after casting him, they
decided to make Andy a regular character.
References