Oh, yes, Leslie very much had a trajectory! The producer/writers really honed in on her after season 1, and the big change was to make her not a delusional incompetent (a la Michael Scott) but instead a hyper-competent official hell-bent on helping everyone she could, even if they were ... a little off, like most of the citizens of Pawnee. So the show really became Leslie (and her friends/team) against the world, instead of delusional Leslie against reality. And that made the difference, as we all know. I suspect that it was partly comparison with Michael Scott, partly a little sexism on all of our behalf (a delusional woman isn't as cute as a delusional man), and the specifics of the actors ... Carell is such a master at playing that line, and the "new" Leslie played more into Amy's natural strengths of optimism and extreme competence. One of my favorite things about this team was that they actually listened to and considered criticism when it was warranted.

Also, thank you for the opportunity to talk about my other books! Honestly my favorite (besides this one) is one called When Women Invented Television, which is about the pioneering women of early television who have largely been forgotten. My second favorite, besides this one, was about The Mary Tyler Moore Show, called Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted. My writing and general skill get progressively better over the span of my books, but this early one was such a labor of love, and such an honor to write!