Nick Offerman

Parks and Rec is at its best when Ron and Tammy, played by real-life couple Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally, are making out or fighting it out.

It’s Ron's care for Tom that brings him back to himself in “Ron & Tammy: Part 2” in Season 3, and love for his new partner and family in later seasons that keeps him out of Tammy’s arms altogether. “Ron and Tammy,” our introduction to the woman and the relationship, was the eighth episode of Season 2 of Parks and Recreation, early in the show’s run while it was still figuring out its tone and how its characters would respond to Leslie’s unrelenting energy and optimism. Gone is both his reserve and resolve — with Tammy, Ron is a powder keg of emotions and a puppet on her g-string. Once again, it’s only the bonds of friendship that free him, when he watches Tammy smack Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari) around and remembers once again that looking into Tammy’s eyes is like “staring into the eye of Satan’s butthole.” Throughout the rest of Parks and Recreation, her increasingly and hysterically unhinged attempts to get Ron back into bed and into the palm of her hand fail — his love for another brunette with a new name, Diane (Lucy Lawless), finally overpowers his horny hate for his second ex-wife. What starts as coffee leads to screaming and then to snogging, first in the middle of a diner and then in the hourly embrace of a motel bed. The actors' chemistry and ease together as performers allow both to go truly, hilariously off the rails while revealing a side of Ron no other character can bring out, making every wild encounter an uncomfortable delight and a key bit of storytelling.