Chicago's Jim O'Heir puts his 'Parks and Recreation' memories on paper
Jim O'Heir is a very grateful man.
Grateful that his character Jerry wasn't actually being written out of the acclaimed sitcom “Parks and Recreation” when, panicked, he first glimpsed a show script titled "Jerry's Retirement."
He's grateful that his character in the show is described as having "the largest penis that this doctor has ever seen" — rather than the opposite.
Grateful too that he was able to tame the "ugly two-headed monster of anxiety" long enough to enjoy having supermodel Christie Brinkley play his wife on the show.
Just in time for Thanksgiving, there are heaping servings of gratitude in the Chicago area native's new book, "Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation," a memoir of O'Heir's time on the show, which ran for seven seasons ending in 2015.
O'Heir, who was born in Blue Island and is promoting the book in Chicago this weekend, describes it as a "love letter" to the show, on which he played the oafish but lovable Jerry Gergich. Readers looking for tawdry tales about the show's other stars — Amy Poehler, Chris Pratt, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Rob Lowe and fellow Illinoisan Nick Offerman — won't find them here.
During his "million years" in Hollywood, O'Heir said he's never worked on a show with quite the camaraderie of "Parks," which probably explains why, 10 years after the show ended, the castmates still regularly contribute to a text chain, why O'Heir co-hosts a podcast about "Parks" and why the book is sprinkled with written contributions from Pratt, Retta (Donna Meagle in the show) and many others.
“They get nothing out of this, other than being the greatest damn people in the whole world," the former Chicago theater actor said during a Zoom chat with the Sun-Times this week.
In the book, we learn that in the beginning, the show's creators gave up the chance to land a highly coveted post-Super Bowl slot because Poehler — the actor they wanted to play the lead — was pregnant and unavailable to shoot.
And when, in the middle of shooting Season Six, Pratt was offered the lead role in “Guardians of the Galaxy” while he was under contract to the TV show, "Parks" creators accommodated him by shooting in England, where the movie was being filmed, and then letting him skip a few episodes.
“You couldn’t blame them, if they would have said, 'Chris, we're so sorry, but we're shooting a show here. We’ve got scripts, we're ready to go,' " O'Heir said.
We also learn that O'Heir, plagued by self-doubt that goes beyond the garden variety afflicting most actors, was terrified that he was about to be fired when he saw the Jerry retirement script during Season Five.
"I've been in this business for almost a million years and have heard all sorts of crazy stories about how people have been let go from shows," he writes. "Some saw it on the news. Some showed up to find their parking space was gone. I even heard a story where an actor found out they were let go from their series regular role when the guard on the lot wouldn't let them in."
O'Heir had nothing to fear. It was decided that he would be working part-time in the Pawnee, Indiana, Parks and Rec office, not being axed from the show.
Perhaps the most touching episode in the book occurs long before "Parks" aired. O'Heir had landed one of his first lead roles — in a remake of the movie classic "Harvey," which starred James Stewart. O'Heir flew his mom, Eileen O'Keefe O'Heir, up from Chicago to Vancouver, where the film was being shot. When she arrived on set, the crew were shooting a scene in which O'Heir is in a telephone booth. The sky was ablaze with "moon lights" and the street had been shut down. His mother began to cry, not quite believing this was all for her "little Jimmy."
“I felt it was the moment she realized it worked out, after all the sacrifice," O'Heir told the Sun-Times.
O'Heir's mother died Dec. 31, 2011, of complications from lung cancer. "Parks" producer Morgan Sackett offered to pay for the catering for the gathering after O'Heir's mother's funeral.
Since "Parks" ended, O'Heir said he's stayed busy — thanks, in large part, to his role in the show. He's had countless roles, including in "Better Call Saul," "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" and on "The Bold and the Beautiful," for which he won a daytime Emmy in 2017.
“I’m not fighting for every job anymore, like I used to. That’s pretty amazing," he said, adding of his time on "Parks," “I call it the gift that keeps on giving.”