On the series finale of “Parks and Recreation,” one of the show’s more likable losers finally made good with a best-selling advice book titled “Failure: An American Success Story.”

That joke has a second bounce.

This NBC sitcom, which starred Amy Poehler as a dedicated civil servant and ardent feminist in Pawnee, Ind., was never a ratings giant, but it had a well-deserved following. The little comedy that could lasted seven seasons and was very funny and sweet all the way to its Tuesday night end.

“Parks and Recreation” was a celebration of workplace friendships and well-meaning underdogs that lived up to its promise: The series finale, which kept flashing forward, lovingly tied up loose ends without undoing the bond among the show’s core characters.

And, in that way, it was the opposite of the recent series finale of “Two and a Half Men,” an epilogue driven by bitter jokes about its errant former co-star, Charlie Sheen, whose very public battle in 2011 with the show’s creators was so toxic that Mr. Sheen declined to make even a brief cameo at the end. A stand-in was hired for the final episode to play his dissipated character, Charlie, who hadn’t died after all, as was previously assumed, but was nonetheless crushed by a falling piano.