The NBC small-town comedy “Parks and Recreation” returns for its third season on Thursday night after a long break. NBC opted to hold the comedy out of its fall lineup, which struck some as a puzzling choice for a show that was just starting to gain momentum in its second season.

NBC

“It was an NBC decision and certainly we were confused,” Amy Poehler, the star of the series, said this week. “But I think, weirdly, there’s a momentum that comes from people waiting for us, which is nice.”

The series received a lukewarm critical reception to its debut but began to jell in its second season, as what started as a show about Ms. Poehler’s ambitious but deluded bureaucrat broadened into an ensemble piece that also leaned heavily on supporting players like Aziz Ansari and Nick Offerman. Mr. Offerman’s Ron Swanson, in particular, has become something of a cult figure.

This season includes new regulars Adam Scott and Rob Lowe. (Mr. Lowe ranted profanely about the lengthy hiatus in a promo released this week on Funny or Die.) But Ms. Poehler’s plucky but increasingly clear-eyed bureaucrat Leslie Knope remains at the heart of the series.

“Leslie is making her way through local government and realizing how difficult it is to make change happen,” she said. “The long journey of the show is to try to keep her from becoming too cynical.”

Ms. Poehler called from Los Angeles this week to discuss the evolution of her character and the myth of Ron Swanson, and to break down a scene from the season premiere.

Q.

How has your character evolved?

A.

When we first meet her she’s really energetic and optimistic and really believes that she can, at the very least, build a park in her town and at most, change the world. Now that we’re starting season three, she’s realizing that the government has no money and that the parks department is a very low priority for people.

Q.

Is there a guiding principle with your character? Enthusiasm? Optimism?

A.

I’ve used this term before but she’s an open-faced sandwich, you get what you get. She’s not good at tricks or manipulation. She’s a very honest person and she’s not very suave, so there’s a lot of comedy in her not being good at being tricky.

Q.

Are there any broad themes shaping this season?

A.

At the end of the day the show is just a character comedy, right? It’s people working in a small town with very little power. So the big theme is, how do we keep our jobs?

Q.

The show seemed to evolve between the first and second season — your character grew more competent and the show became more of an ensemble piece. Was that organic or by design?

A.

We only did six episodes in the first season. So like with any new show, I think it was just a matter of it kind of finding its rhythm. There wasn’t a big sit-down where we planned big changes. I think it was just that people got to know us.

Q.

Was there a point when you knew the show was hitting its stride?

A.

We started to hear in season two that people had started watching the show and started to care about the characters, and started to become interested in Pawnee, Ind., the fictional town where the show is set. There wasn’t a single moment — I don’t think there’s ever a moment when you’re working where you think, ‘This is it. Nailed it. Next!’ If that’s the case, you’re doomed.

Q.

How much is scripted on the show and how much is improvised?

A.

Because we shoot in a mockumentary style everyone’s on camera all the time. So we get to do a lot of takes and sometimes we get to improvise just to fool around at the end. Sometimes those things make it in but frankly, the stuff on the page is usually the best choice.

Q.

Do you think the show pokes fun at small-town life?

A.

No, Leslie’s very small-town and very proud of it, and what that means to her is loyalty, knowing where you came from and working within the system to make change. But what does happen in a small town is everybody is in each other’s business, and everybody’s a little removed from the bigger game. Everybody feels at worst closed-in and at best, like they’re in the only place they ever want to be. And we play around with that a lot.

Q.

The town hall scenes recall the kind of overheated populist rhetoric that seems inescapable these days. Is that why you include them?

A.

Not only is it just a good structure for comedy, but it’s based on the fact that people’s relationships with their government are not usually on a macro level. We talk in big terms about policy but at the end of the day, you go to the D.M.V., you don’t want someone to put a dumpster in your parking lot, you’re angry that the snow hasn’t been shoveled quickly enough. People pretend that they care about the environment or gay marriage, but they really care about their curbs being too high.

Q.

Are you in any way surprised by the mythic status of Ron Swanson?

A.

No, Ron Swanson was an icon from the minute he walked on the set. Nick Offerman is such an amazing actor, he plays this very specific and weird character and manages to give him some humanity. But he also manages to embrace the weirdness.

Q.

Will the show revisit the Pit-park campaign that first animated the series?

A.

Yes we tend to go back to the Pit every season to kind of show Leslie’s progress. Right now, the Pit is filled in and we call it the Lot, and the Lot is no longer a hole, it’s now flat ground. So things are moving ahead, maybe?

Below, Ms. Poehler, battling allergies, discusses a scene of her and Rashida Jones from the season premiere.