I was happy to hear about “Parks and Recreation” being renewed for a seventh season — the pickup was announced over the weekend — if only because that means we’ll have at least one more season to watch Jim O’Heir, who plays good-natured, put-upon schlump Jerry Gergich on the NBC sitcom (star Amy Poehler just won a Golden Globe as Best Actress in a Comedy).
Regular readers of this column know that O’Heir is a Starr Report favorite, since I consider him to be one of the most underrated comedic actors working in TV today. He’s also very humble and just a really nice guy (like his “Parks and Rec” alter-ego).
“We’ve never found out [about a renewal] this early. Usually we wait until the end up upfronts and, dude, this is such a gift,” O’Heir told me Monday from the Sundance Film Festival, where he’s promoting “Life After Beth” (which stars his “Parks and Rec” colleague Aubrey Plaza).
“We’re the perpetual ‘bubble’ show,” he said. “The ratings for NBC are not great but we’re still their number-one comedy. We were hopeful [at being renewed], but nobody was walking around thinking, ‘Hell yeah, we’re coming back.’ We’re not ‘Modern Family’ . . . and for this to happen so soon, wow, it’s such a great feeling as an actor. It’s just so nice to know we don’t have to panic. We wrap [the season] the first week in March and it won’t be a goodbye. We know we’ll all be back together in August . . and I love being part of a big ensemble. I’ve got a character the people seem to like and I like him, too.
“I’m in a perfect world right now.”
O’Heir is in the midst of his first sojourn to Sundance, and is psyched that “Life After Beth” has snared some good reviews. “I don’t know the routine here, but I’m told that if people stay for the Q&A after the screening, and it gets big applause, it means it did well,” he said. “Well, it seemed to me like almost everyone stayed and it was really well-reviewed. I play a zombie mailman [in the movie] and I spent almost four hours in makeup and when I got on the set the director goes, ‘You’ve got the wrong makeup.’ Apparently there are three different levels of zombies and I was Level 3 when I was supposed to be Level 1.”
And, he says, it sometimes pays not to be the star attraction at a venue like Sundance. “People have been running up to me and it’s been awesome but controllable,” he said. “Then Bradley Cooper came walking by and his life is not his own — and that’s terrifying.”