'Parks And Rec’s' Jim O’Heir Recalls The Time Chris Pratt Checked In With Him About A Particularly ‘Rough’ Jerry Joke

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When it comes to the most rewatchable TV shows ever, "Parks and Recreation" has definitely earned a place in that distinction, even as the NBC comedy turned 15 years old earlier this year. And now as fans go back to Pawnee, Indiana to laugh out loud about all the funny bits from the series, they can understand the series from the perspective of the office’s biggest target of mockery, Jerry Gergich… er, Gerry.. or Larry, I mean, and how the rest of the cast really treated the actor behind the character, Jim O’Heir, in real life.  O’Heir has written his own memoir about being part of the Parks And Recreation family called "Welcome To Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation," and CinemaBlend had the chance to chat with him about the making of it. During our interview, O’Heir told me his book is his “love letter to the show,” but most definitely not a “tell-all” to give Jerry a chance at redemption for all those office jokes.

Transcript

00:00this book is my, I call it my love letter. It is my love letter to the show. And I remember when I

00:06was, you know, once you, once the agents are on board with, you know, wanting me to do this,

00:10then we have to pitch it to producers or publishers rather. And I needed to make sure

00:16that they knew this wasn't a tell-all in the world of, Oh, one day, you know, Amy did this

00:22terrible thing and Pratt did this terrible thing. And I said, for two reasons, it will never be

00:28that. And one is because Jim O'Hare, you know, me, I just not that guy who would write that book,

00:34but two, I don't have it. I don't have that good dirt because it didn't happen. And so I thought,

00:41well, they're going to be like less interested, but I even think they were more interested

00:45because it truly was a special place. And so you get to hear me tell my stories. You get to hear me

00:51say, as much as the characters were nasty to Jerry here and there, the love, when the cameras

00:58weren't rolling, it was all great. I mean, particularly, I always say particularly Chris

01:03Pratt, but Amy, I'm, I'm, I think I'm eight or nine years older than Amy, but Amy was absolutely

01:09the mother on that set. She was our fearless leader and she checked in with all of us. How are

01:15we doing any issues? So with all the Jerry stuff, she would check in like, are you okay with this?

01:20Are you, I go like, Oh my God, I am so okay with this. This is my kind of humor. And there was one

01:25day, I remember Pratt said to me, Jimmy, this one seems really rough. What'd be, are you okay with

01:30this? And it might've been the one. Oh, I think when they're mocking me after the burrito incident,

01:37when I fall into the Creek and anyway, I said that I was mugged and all that kind of stuff.

01:43And I said, dude, a couple of things. Number one, it's just funny. Funny is funny too. Thank you,

01:49my friend for being concerned. And three, we're all making a good paycheck. I think it's all good.

01:54And so I guess basically, I just want the world to know Jerry's fine. Jerry did really well. He ended

02:01up, you know, no spoiler alerts, but it's, you know, we've wrapped the show 10 years ago.

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