Yahoo Lifestyle Jim O'Heir Details the 'Cruel' Moment He Thought He'd Been Fired From 'Parks and Recreation' (Exclusive)
In the second season of Parks and Recreation, Jim O'Heir found the "rhythm" that saw Jerry Gergich's "recurring character" status bumped up to "series regular," securing his future on the show for the several seasons that were still to come.
But, as he details in his new novel Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation, a time came in the fifth season when he was led to believe that he was being unceremoniously dumped from the cast, after he was presented with a script called "Jerry's Retirement" just minutes before the episode's table read. He wrote that he was "in disbelief" as he quickly skimmed it—it had "every indication that this was it" for him.
He recalled "work[ing] up a sweat" as he read further through the plot before a final tag at the end of the episode assured him that he wasn't going anywhere. As he entered the room full of the rest of the cast and crew, he made eye contact with producer Morgan Sackett and immediately knew he'd "been played."
"It was mean, it was cruel, and they knew exactly what they were doing," he told Parade in an exclusive interview, recalling how he sat in his trailer wondering, "How did nobody tell me this? These people are so nice, why wouldn't they call me in and say they're getting rid of me?"
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But "the funny part" of it all is that O'Heir would've "done it to them in a heartbeat," too. "I love stuff like that, even if it's on me," he admitted.
Unfortunately, he has yet to turn the tables.
"...he got me and he got me good," O'Heir said. While the two are "constantly messing around with each other," he's not had the opportunity to get him back "to that level," though he does promise "pay back" one day.
It doesn't sound like it's top of mind, though, after he was "so generous with his time" to contribute "his perspective" to Welcome to Pawnee. "He has such great stories of things that the actors never would have known because his job as a line producer, executive producer is to try to shield us from nightmares," O'Heir explains.
For example, Sackett impressively orchestrated the arrival of trucks and golf carts to help create and navigate pathways after rain washed everything they needed out one day. "He's the cream of the crop when it comes to that type of work," the actor applauded.
Welcome to Pawnee is available now.
