St. Denis Medical Star Mekki Leeper's Hilarious Reaction to The Americas Clip
Tom Hanks’ soothing nature narration can’t keep Leeper’s mind off a gang of trash pandas who might be (gulp!) coming for his job.
Epic new nature documentary series The Americas is heading to NBC on Sunday, February 23, and with wall-to-wall narration from the amazing Tom Hanks, you’d think each hour in the 10-part event series would flow like a soothing, nicely inquisitive look into the western hemisphere’s animal kingdom and all its hidden secrets.
The fact is, you’d probably be right — unless you can’t keep from viewing each watch-what-happens twist of animal fate with the same hilarious keyed-up intensity as St. Denis Medical star Mekki Leeper (who plays wide-eyed Montana transplant Matt on the hit NBC medical sitcom). Leeper’s nerves nearly reach their fraying point In a funny new watch-along clip where he checks in on Hanks as the Oscar-winning acting icon describes a day in the lives of a resourcefully scrappy gang of raccoons — and by the end, he’s half-convinced they might even be coming for his job!
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St. Denis Medical Star's Reaction to The Americas Raccoons
Riffing on Hanks’ raccoon recon mission with just a touch of city-slicker’s anxiety, Leeper (who honed his comedy chops in stand-up circles) has an uncanny knack for dialing in on the little details. Where we (and Hanks!) see a squad of lovable raccoons living in hard-knocks survival mode from the sanctuary of a tiny rock crevice in Central Park, Leeper sees a fuzzy family that’s bogged down by overvalued real estate: “It’s probably like $6,000 a month!” he teases, after spying the raccoons’ tiny, bare-bones residential hide-y hole.
At least Leeper can relate to the raccoon’s nighttime urban-commando mode, where one of the nocturnal omnivores’ street smarts really begins to shine.
“He's got a big advantage over country raccoons,” jokes the St. Denis Medical star and stand-up comedian: “He's gonna do better in an arts program… He’s gonna have a better shot at my career than probably me!”
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There’s tons of lighthearted fun in Leeper’s watch-along clip, but —and this is no joke — The Americas is a seriously well-curated nature doc. Made over a five-year span and encompassing all of the Americas (both North and South), the Hanks-narrated event series comes from legendary BBC documentary mastermind Mike Gunton (a frequent past collaborator with award-winning British narrator Sir David Attenborough) and features an inspiring score by Oscar-winning film composer Hans Zimmerman.
Of course Leeper’s actually no stranger to all the behind-the-scenes effort that goes into making a great show. After all, he’s part of an awesome ensemble St. Denis Medical cast that includes Wendi McLendon-Covey (Reno 911!, The Goldbergs), David Alan Grier (In Living Color), Allison Tolman (Fargo), Josh Lawson (Mortal Kombat), and tons more.
But even Leeper can’t help but be impressed by all the patient professional effort it must’ve taken to put The Americas together.
“I always wonder how they shoot this stuff,” he ponders as an epic hawk-versus-raccoon battle shapes up. “Like, how are there five camera operators not bothering this guy? And how long did they sit there before he showed up?!”
The Americas debuts on Sunday, February 23 at 7 p.m. ET with a big two-part series premiere on NBC. From there, catch new episodes weekly on Sundays, when the 10-part series resumes at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 2.
Catch Leeper and the rest of the St. Denis Medical gang each week on NBC, where fresh episodes of the hit new sitcom air each Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.
