Jim O’Heir Writes A Love Letter to Jerry Gergich and ‘Parks and Recreation’
Jim O’Heir couldn’t figure out why a publisher would want Jerry (or Garry, Barry, Larry or Terry) Gergich to share his Parks and Recreation adventures, but let me tell you, the guy’s one hell of a storyteller. He sheepishly agreed to put pen to paper after getting the collective blessing of Amy Poehler, Mike Schur and Greg Daniels, and the result is Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles and Parks and Recreation, out November 19th.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with O’Heir about the collection of tales he calls “my love letter to the show.”
“Nick Offerman and I used to always say we were just journeymen actors. We went from job to job, and maybe you get a pilot that goes or that usually doesn’t go. You’re making enough money to pay the bills and life is going on and then a show like Parks and Recreation comes along and it just changes everything.”
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“If you look me up, I’ve done a lot of shows over the years. All shows are not the same. I’ll see these late-night shows have on people from different series and go, ‘Oh, we’re like one big happy family.’ And I’m at home going, ‘You’re a liar. If that’s a big happy family, I don’t want to be a part of that family.’”
“With Parks, I can tell you it truly was this one big happy family. I never saw one actor shit on another actor. I never heard anyone dog somebody else.”
“It’s because we have Amy Poehler. She set the tone. She’s the smartest, the most talented, just the kindest person walking the planet. She and Mike Schur agreed on a No Assholes Policy. And we became the show that people wanted to guest on. People would be like, ‘I want to get on this show!’ I love when people talk like that because it means I wasn’t delusional. It really was what I thought it was.”
“Nowadays, kids are allowed two hours of this or two hours of that. I could watch as much television as I wanted. And so, I did. And we didn’t have the choices that we have now. We had ABC, NBC, CBS. We didn’t have Fox. We had three stations.”
“In my mid-teen years, I became obsessed with Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke. And then Archie Bunker. Oh my God, All in the Family. What he was saying then, now you can say it at a rally, apparently, and nobody even cares. But I became obsessed with those shows. Newhart. And, of course, The Carol Burnett Show.”
“But my favorite shows were the ensemble shows: Cheers, Frasier, M*A*S*H. Shows where it wasn’t just the one person. I always thought, ‘Oh man, wouldn’t it be cool to get on a show like that?’ And through whatever miracle of life, I ended up on an ensemble show where everybody got their laughs.”
“I’ve been on shows where if the lead actor wasn’t getting the bigger laughs, then those laughs changed. And some of your laughs went to that actor. That happens to this day. But we had Amy Poehler, who was like, ‘Oh, there’s plenty to go around.’”
“I will recommend Second City to anyone who will ask. I also mean the Groundlings, UCB, all of these improvisational training grounds., Because for someone like me, I didn‘t like what I was doing in life. The moment that I found my calling was when I got my first laugh on stage at Second City. It was the same stage that (John) Belushi had been on, and (Dan) Aykroyd and (Bill) Murray and Mary Gross.”
“When I started taking classes at Second City, it wasn‘t just actors. There were lawyers, there were accountants and people who just wanted to get more comfortable in front of people. And that‘s why I always tell people: Get to an improv class. I‘m not saying it‘s going to be your lifelong career, but I guarantee it‘s going to open up some things for you.”
“Then I end up on the show with the queen of improvisation, Amy Poehler. Everything comes back to Amy. What the hell? I think I need to talk to somebody about this.”
“We did a thing on Parks called ‘a fun one.’ And the fun one was after the scene was shot and the director is happy, everybody‘s happy, we get to do it again and just add our own two cents.”
“So here I am with improvisational actors like Amy and Aubrey (Plaza) and Nick and (Chris) Pratt, who‘s just a genius. I was scared because I had to try to keep up with these kinds of people. But I learned at Second City. I knew how to do that. I kept saying to myself, ‘Just let this happen.‘”
“You have all these actors together just having fun. One time Retta, her wig came flying off. She literally pulled it off and threw it. Think crazy stuff. There‘s the classic Chris Pratt and Kardashian comeback story that‘s all over YouTube. That came from fun ones.” (Editor‘s Note: The outtake below never made it to air for obvious reasons.)
“You get a new director every once in a while, and that‘s just the nature of sitcom television. (Producer) Morgan Sackett would check in with these directors — you know, ‘How‘s everything going?‘ One director said, it‘s great, but sometimes it‘s hard to get them focused because they‘re all chatting amongst each other. Morgan said, ‘If our worst problem is these people are getting along, we‘re fine.‘”
“I read for Ron Swanson. I wish I could see that video because when you think Ron Swanson, there‘s only one man on this planet who could ever have played it: Nick Offerman.”
“But I must have done enough to intrigue them, that they kept me in mind when it was time to move on to other characters.
“The way that Nick gets the job is they had considered him for a guest role on The Office, and it didn‘t work out. Somebody else got it. But he was so intriguing to them, especially to Mike Schur, that Mike wrote down his name and put it on a Post-It Note on his computer. He knew he needed to keep this guy in his brain. Next thing you know, there‘s Ron Swanson, played by Nick Offerman.”
“Greg (Daniels) was directing the first episode. We can‘t call it the pilot because we didn‘t do a pilot. It was a six-episode order, which is really unusual. It‘s a gift. You‘re like, ‘Wow, six, that‘s amazing!‘ But it‘s also a curse because when you shoot a pilot, you can figure out what works and what doesn‘t. We didn‘t have time to figure things out. And as it turns out, there were some things that needed to be changed.”
“The direction of Leslie Knope — it was coming across too much like Michael Scott from The Office. (Steve) Carell already had nailed that. Nobody needed more of that. He was the king. But they figured all that out.”
“The first day on set, Greg had us do this big improv scene together. He said to Amy, ‘Walk around to your coworkers and just chat with them.‘ And I was terrified. I have my improv training, but here we are, it‘s day one, and I‘m just thinking, ‘Oh no.‘”
“For my moment, she said, ‘Oh, what‘s this jar on your desk?’ I said it was my swear jar. And she goes, ‘Oh, it‘s empty.’ I said, ‘Oh, I don‘t swear.‘”
“I was sticking around but not getting a whole lot to do. And then we do the hunting trip. I call it the episode that we fell in love because the cast was stuck in the forest for a week together. We couldn‘t run to our trailers between takes. It was just a lot of hanging out and getting to know each other. You‘re basically a bunch of strangers coming together, and it‘s got to appear that you‘re lifelong friends.”
“So I get the script and I‘m reading it, and I thought, ‘Oh man, we‘re learning something about Jerry‘s personal life.‘ That‘s always the goal. You want to learn something about a character‘s personal life because that means there‘s a reason to know something personal. Otherwise, he‘s just Jerry, the big guy who sits at the desk and brings coffee to Leslie.”
“For those who know the episode, I‘m out hunting with the boys. It‘s one of my greatest days because I get to pee standing up. And then I swig some beer and then we hear the gunshot and screaming and Ron‘s been shot. I had to start running and the camera followed me, so it was very dramatic. I love that episode.”
“I think our legacy is kindness. People go, ‘But they were always mean to Jerry.‘ I was the guy who played him so I know what they‘re talking about. But ultimately, they always had Jerry‘s back when it counted. And believe me, the cast had more trouble with the show being mean to Jerry than I did, especially Chris Pratt. He’d be like, ‘This one feels kind of mean,’ and I‘d be like, ‘Dude, it‘s funny.’”
“There‘s an episode where Jerry gets mugged, but he really didn‘t. He was trying to cover up something else, and he had to give a presentation. He bends over. He farts. His pants rip. After the table read, Amy comes up and says, ‘Jim, are you comfortable with that?’ And I go, ‘Amy, I was born to do that.‘”
“Ron says it best. He says in every office, there‘s a schlemiel and a schlimazel. Jerry‘s both. It‘s just who Jerry was.”
“Jerry had an incredible life. Like truly incredible. He had a wife and kids who adored him, and his wife was played by Christie Brinkley! And let‘s not forget — they gave him a huge penis! He had the life.”
“People say to me that they‘re obsessed with the show, but they‘ve never seen the finale. And I‘m like, ‘What do you mean you‘ve never seen the finale?‘ And they say, ‘Well, it means it‘s over. And I just don‘t want it to be over.’”
“But you gotta see what happens to Jerry. It‘s really amazing. I mean, spoiler alert, it’s pretty fucking awesome what happens to Jerry.”
“Amy came up to me, this is probably six months before we shot the finale, and she said, ‘Did you hear what they're thinking about for Jerry?‘ Because every character was going to get their goodbye. And she started telling me. And I started getting teary-eyed. She started getting teary-eyed. But then I was like, ‘Oh, this is too good. This won‘t happen.‘ But man, everything she said to me is exactly what it turned out to be.”
“So Jerry got a hell of a send-off. And this is a funny story. After the show airs the finale, spoiler alert, Jerry dies, but he‘s 100 years old. So my sister calls me, and she‘s so upset. She goes, ‘I can‘t believe that killed you off!’ I‘m 100 years old! ‘That means if there’s a reunion, you won‘t be in it!’ I go, ‘I‘m 100! I wouldn’t be in it unless you‘re doing the reunion where everybody‘s in their 90s!‘”
“I love that I ended up, through some miracle of faith, ending up on people‘s comfort show. That's a gift. So I‘m grateful every day.”
