‘Parks and Rec’s Jim O’Heir Reveals His Embarrassing Encounter With Mary Tyler Moore

To millions of TV fans, he’s Jerry Gergich, the lovable, often-ridiculed office worker from Parks and Recreation. But long before Jim O’Heir became a familiar face on the small screen, he was a sitcom-obsessed kid growing up in suburban Chicago, who found himself in some pretty hilarious situations, especially when it came to his celebrity crush.

O’Heir had a friend who wrote for Saturday Night Live, and she knew he had a massive obsession with Mary Tyler Moore, who hosted the show in 1989.

“Through some miracle, I actually got to meet her,” O’Heir shares with ReMIND. “My friend called and said, ‘Just so you know, Mary Tyler Moore is hosting.’ Everybody knew I was in love with her.”

All O’Heir needed to do was get to New York, and his friend would take care of the rest in terms of getting him into the show.

“I was acting in Chicago at the time but wasn’t making any money, so my buddies and I scraped together everything we could. I think five of us stayed in one hotel room. We lied about how many people were staying there!,” he explains. “Elvis Costello was the musical guest, which my friends were obsessed with. They didn’t care about Mary Tyler Moore, and I didn’t care about Elvis Costello. I was there for Mary.”

Raymond Bonar/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

He got to attend rehearsals, and his friend offered to introduce him to Mary, but O’Heir said, “No, not yet,” as he was just too worked up about it.

Then he went to the after-party, and he still couldn’t approach her.

“Finally, she was leaving, and I knew this was my last chance. I stepped in front of her, and my brain just stopped working. I stood there staring at her,” he explained. “She looked at me, smiled, and said, ‘Would you like a picture?’ All I could do was nod.

Jim O’Heir

“She took the picture with me, and I still hadn’t said a word. I have that picture sitting on my desk to this day,” he continues. “Then she said, ‘Well, it was so nice to meet you.’ As she started walking away, I finally blurted out, ‘I’m in awe of you!’ She turned around and said, ‘I’m in awe of you, too.’”

O’Heir said it “was incredibly sweet but horribly humiliating.”

And, as any good friends would do, especially after watching it all go down, they never forget.

“My friends witnessed the whole thing, so to this day, I’ll occasionally hear one of them say, ‘I’m in awe of you!’”

Watch for the special Blu-ray release of O’Heir’s 2016 comedy film Middle Man coming out soon.

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Vol. 4, Issue 7

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