Mark Brendanawicz

Mark Brendanawicz
Biography
Aliases	Mark Brendana-quits Brendanawicz
Born	January 11th 1975 Pawnee, Indiana
Age	46 (2021)
Gender	Male
Occupation	City planner of Pawnee (former) Employee at Norton Construction
Nationality	American
Family
Significant other(s)	Leslie Knope (former lover) Ann Perkins (ex-girlfriend)
Series Information
First Appearance	"Pilot"
Last Appearance	"Freddy Spaghetti"
Portrayed by	Paul Schneider

Mark Brendanawicz was a main character in the first and second seasons of the NBC comedy-drama Parks and Recreation. He is Ann Perkins' ex-boyfriend, and Leslie Knope's colleague, who works with the City Planning Department of Pawnee, Indiana.

Background

Mark Brendanawicz was a city planner with the Pawnee municipal government. When he studied city planning in college, Mark was optimistic about the field and dreamed of designing huge and impressive cities. However, since graduation, Mark learned most of the job largely involved mundane technical issues, such as regulating the sizes of garages and proposed construction additions to houses. As a result, Mark grew jaded and disillusioned with the career, and became critical of government processes in general. Mark and Leslie slept together on one occasion - as a result, Leslie harbored romantic feelings for him for over six years. Mark does not return said feelings and barely remembers the incident taking place.

Storyline

Season 1

Leslie continues to harbor a crush on Mark from their hookup several years ago, but Mark is not interested in her romantically, and instead appears to be more interested in her new friend Ann Perkins. Mark agrees to help Leslie in her quest to turn a large construction pit into a park, but he is cynical about her chances of success and warns it has little chance of succeeding. Mark is somewhat self-absorbed and engages in romantic flings with multiple women without any sign of seeking a commitment. When Leslie seeks his help in dealing with a female reporter (Shauna Malwae-Tweep) writing a negative story about the pit, Mark sleeps with the reporter, which makes the situation worse and angers Leslie. Andy Dwyer gets his casts removed and invites the department to see him play a show with his band, and Mark feels even more dissatisfied about his job, as his most significant contribution to the city as city planner has been getting a speed bump reduced by 2 inches. While attending Andy's band's show, Mark makes a halfhearted attempt to flirt with Ann, unaware of Ann's anger over problems with her boyfriend Andy. Mark's advances are quickly and brutally rejected by Ann as a result. Later that night, Mark and Leslie spend time together at the pit and Mark attempts to kiss her. Not wishing to reconnect with Mark in his drunken state, Leslie rejects his advances, and Mark accidentally falls into the pit and hits his head.

Season 2

Following the accident at the pit, Mark reevaluates his life, becoming less jaded and abandoning his promiscuous lifestyle. He and Ann develop a romantic interest in each other after she nurses him back to health at the hospital while he healed from his injuries. They start dating only after Leslie assures Ann she is fine with the pairing and appears to have moved on from her long-standing infatuation with Mark. He engages in the Parks Department's game of digging up dirt on one another but backs out in guilt after accidentally revealing to Jerry that he was adopted; later, he tells Tom about a musician in Eagleton named Duke Silver since Tom wasn't able to find dirt on anyone but Ron found something on him (Tom's marriage to Wendy is a "green card marriage"). This leads to Tom discovering Ron moonlights as a jazz musician under a pseudonym and the two declare a truce so they will keep each other's secret.

At the same time, Mark fends off Andy's juvenile insults and attempts to sabotage his and Ann's relationship, but also contends with some jealousy when Ann tries to "save" her close friend Justin as a potential future mate. Mark decides he wants to propose to Ann, but by this point, Ann has realized the relationship hasn't been satisfying her, so Leslie has to stop Mark from embarrassing himself on live TV during the Diabetes Telethon. After Ann breaks up with him, Mark is left confused and surprised, wondering why she's ending things when it seemed to be stable; Ann explains she simply didn't feel any passion or excitement in their relationship and adds that Mark hadn't really dated anyone for a long period of time before and thus, overestimated the strength of their relationship as a result. When the Pawnee government is shut down, Mark decides that between this, Ann dumping him, and a pigeon defecating on his head from inside the building, he needs a change and takes a job with Norton Construction. Leslie is angry that he's leaving, but she later apologizes for calling him "Mark Brendana-quits" and he simply says that if more people in local government were like her, he wouldn't be leaving it. He also gives her design plans he drew up for a park at Lot 48 before giving her a goodbye kiss on the cheek and leaving for new horizons.

Departure

It was announced in March 2010 that Paul Schneider would leave Parks and Recreation at the end of the second season. Michael Schur claimed the decision was a combination of the original conception of the character switching between the public and private sectors, as well as Schneider's increasing success in independent films such as Bright Star. In the initial announcement, Schur claimed that both the producers and Schneider were interested in having Schneider return for guest appearances in the future, even hoping they could get him back on as early as Season 3. Schur said at the time, "He's going to remain in the world of the show in a way that not only allows but hopefully demands that he'll reenter it. He's not going to be killed in some weird accident."

Despite these plans and promises, however, Schneider did not make a return appearance on the show and no references were made to Mark after his departure. During the episode "Halloween Surprise", when Ann assembles her "ex-boyfriend boxes" by clearing out items she had collected from her previous relationships to sell in the charity Leslie puts together to raise money for Jerry's hospital bills, she has a box for every other ex-boyfriend she's had except for Mark, even though they dated for almost all of the second season. The park design plans he gave to Leslie in "Freddy Spaghetti" also appear to have been forgotten about while she's looking for a park designer in "Pawnee Commons". Shortly after the announcement that Parks was renewed for a seventh and final season and before the sixth season finale aired, Schneider was interviewed about his time on Parks and Rec and admitted that he was not interested in returning to the show and had not been contacted about it. While almost every other major and minor supporting character made cameo appearances in Season 7, Mark wasn't one of them, nor did he show up in any of the clips playing in the flashback montage in "One Last Ride". He also was not included in the special COVID-19-set reunion episode that aired in 2020.

Trivia

• In the episode "Practice Date", during a game in which the Parks Department employees attempt to dig up dirt on each other, Mark reveals to Ann that he had an affair with a married woman when he was 16.
• He drives a red Ford F150 truck.
• He is the third (and final) citizen to fall into the Sullivan Street Pit.
• The drawing he made of a man feeding birds in a park during "The Camel" is shown to still be hanging in Ron's office until he leaves the Department Director job.
• In Season 7, a sign for Norton Construction can be seen in the background when the Parks Department is looking at buildings to turn into the Gryzzl campus.