The series changed as time went on. The writers wanted to make the show like real life. To do this, they learned about how governments of cities really worked. They also talked about current political issues in episodes of the show. For example, one episode has the government of Pawnee shut down. This means that there is not enough money for the government to work correctly, so it stops doing everything that is not very important. The writers put this in the show because of a real government shutdown. The real shutdown happened because of a financial crisis in 2007-2008, and this was the same time that the episode was being written. Sometimes, real politicians also acted on the show. Joe Biden, John McCain, and Michelle Obama were some of the politicians who did this. The characters in the show also changed. Some people watched the first season and thought that Leslie Knope was too ditzy—that is, unintelligent and unable to do her job correctly. So the writers changed the way they showed Leslie. They wanted viewers to know she really was smart. During the show, many of the characters have changing romantic relationships and get different jobs. They changed just like people change in real life.