Parks And Recreation's Jim O'Heir Loved The Nonstop Laughs Between Takes In The Conference Room
The cast of "Parks and Recreation" is surprisingly close in real life. Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones, especially, are every bit as good friends in real life as the characters they play, as evidenced in their joint lie detector interview for Vanity Fair in which Poehler referred to Jones as her "wife" and said she would bail her co-star out of jail.
During a guest appearance on an episode of the "Gilmore Guys" podcast, actor Retta, who played Donna Meagle on "Parks and Recreation," revealed that the "Parks and Recreation" cast has a group text that's still very active, or at least was in 2021 when the podcast episode aired. That means that the cast still kept in close contact following the finale of their hit show. "And it's like, everyday," Retta told the hosts of "Gilmore Guys." "I have it on 'Do Not Disturb' because there's just too many and it's all hours of the night ... [and] because Nick [Offerman] has no sense of time." (via Showbiz Cheat Sheet) She also mentioned that Aziz Ansari would send texts late at night while "Master of None" was shooting in Italy.
Jim O'Heir played Gary Gergich on the show, a character who was mistakenly called Jerry by his co-workers, then Larry, then Terry, then finally was called by the correct name in the last few episodes. Despite the fact that Gary was often looked down upon by his co-workers, Jim O'Heir had a lot of fun with his co-stars on set. He particularly enjoyed when they would shoot scenes around the conference room table — which, in the Season 5 episode "Jerry's Retirement," was renamed The Jerry Gergich Memorial Conference Room.
The Parks and Recreation cast had a lot of fun in the conference room
In an interview posted to YouTube of Jim O'Heir looking back on the show while shooting the finale, the actor said one of his favorite things to do was to shoot in the conference room. "I love every single scene when I'm in the conference room, because that meant that between takes we were just laughing and having a ball with each other. And those are always my favorite." It's good to know that O'Heir had more of a pleasant relationship with his castmates than the unfortunate Gary did.
One of the most memorable scenes in the conference room came in the Season 2 episode "Park Safety," when Gary tries to give a presentation after getting beat up in the park. Since he is hurt everyone tries not to laugh at him, only for the entire presentation to go terribly wrong, ending with Gary splitting his pants and farting. In an interview with IndieWire, O'Heir revealed that the show's star, Amy Poehler, wanted to make sure he was comfortable shooting the embarrassing scene. "Amy goes 'Are you comfortable with that?' And I said 'I'm a comedy guy who gets to do a big fart on television. I got no problem. That's right up my alley.'" He obviously loved having fun with the whole cast there to laugh with (and at) him.
Once again O'Heir's real-life castmates show him more consideration than they ever did his fictional counterpart.