Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Arden Marine from Insatiable and then will you
Speaker 1: accept this Rose Podcast? And I'm Julianne Robinson, an Emmy
Speaker 1: nominated director of Bridgeton And we are the hosts of
Speaker 1: Lady of the Road, a funny and inspiring podcast where
Speaker 1: we have conversations with influential women about their lives and
Speaker 1: we get self help advice because we are always looking
Speaker 1: to improve ourselves. True story. We talk about money, health, relationships,
Speaker 1: you name it, from inspiring women like jo't Jet, Nicole Buyer,
Speaker 1: Lauren Lapiz, Rtta and more. Listen and subscribe to Lady
Speaker 1: of the Road on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. On the latest season
Speaker 1: of The Next Question with Katie Correct podcast, Katie dives
Speaker 1: into Well Katie Here, exclusive podcast only conversations between Katie
Speaker 1: and the people who made her memoir Going There Possible.
Speaker 1: Katie is a pack rad and she has basically her
Speaker 1: own archive of sorts in her basements. Plus, Katie explores
Speaker 1: some of the big news stories she's covered over the
Speaker 1: decades and the people behind them, like Anita Hill. I
Speaker 1: thought I could just get back to my life and
Speaker 1: that was impossible. It was not going to be the same.
Speaker 1: There's plenty of Katie's signature curiosity and no holds barred interviews,
Speaker 1: along with some of her own revealing answers. We spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time together around a dining room table
Speaker 1: here and in the city, and you know, it was
Speaker 1: a very intense experience. All episodes of Next Question with
Speaker 1: Katie Curic are available now. Listen on the I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Hillary Clinton, and I'm so excited to be back
Speaker 1: with a third season of you and Me both. When
Speaker 1: I started this podcast, we were going through some tough times,
Speaker 1: and let's face it, we still are. And here's what
Speaker 1: I know. We cannot get through this alone. So please
Speaker 1: join me for more conversations with people who will make
Speaker 1: you think, make you laugh, and help us find a
Speaker 1: path forward. The season, I'll be talking about the state
Speaker 1: of our democracy with experts and with people organizing on
Speaker 1: the ground. We'll draw inspiration from some amazing people like
Speaker 1: Olympic star Alison Felix and Grammy Award winner Brandy Carlisle.
Speaker 1: And we'll get into the hard stuff with writer Cheryl
Speaker 1: Strait and my dear friend and colleague Juma Aberdeen, So
Speaker 1: join us. Listen to you and me both on the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Hi, I'm Terry Weinberg and I am the
Speaker 1: executive producer of the Office. Hello everyone, and welcome to you.
Speaker 1: Guessed it the Office deep Dive. I am your host
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner. But I bet you guessed that too, because
Speaker 1: you are all very smart, as is my wonderful guest today,
Speaker 1: Terry Weinberg. That was a transition. Now, Terry was an
Speaker 1: executive producer of the Office and a longtime partner of
Speaker 1: Ben Silverman, which truly makes her a saint, let's be honest. Uh.
Speaker 1: But she was definitely there from the very beginning in
Speaker 1: the room where it happened, as they say, the room
Speaker 1: where they grew the Office from a tiny seed of
Speaker 1: an idea into the crazy popular show that it is today. Um,
Speaker 1: as you will hear all about momentarily, Terry was involved
Speaker 1: from day one in the casting and and really the
Speaker 1: creation of the show. But what's even more fast nating
Speaker 1: to me is that in the later years of the show,
Speaker 1: Terry jumped over to work on the network side at NBC,
Speaker 1: so she saw things from the inside and then also
Speaker 1: from the network side and how the network was dealing
Speaker 1: with the show. She has a really unique perspective on
Speaker 1: the whole story of the Office. And this conversation kicks
Speaker 1: off another mini series that we're doing highlighting just some
Speaker 1: of the many talented, hilarious, super smart women who made
Speaker 1: The Office what it is, both in front of the
Speaker 1: camera and behind the scenes. This is a great bunch
Speaker 1: of interviews, if I do say so myself, So I am.
Speaker 1: I'm really excited to share them all with you. So
Speaker 1: let's get started, shall we today with Terry Weinberg, Bubble Squeak.
Speaker 1: I love it, Bubble squign Bubble and Squeaker Cookie every
Speaker 1: moment look over from the nuts people. You know, a
Speaker 1: lot of the cast, I will say, like, we do
Speaker 1: really still, you know, keep in touch. Yeah, like our
Speaker 1: fantasy football league is still going, like fifteen years later,
Speaker 1: So John and Rain and me and some of the
Speaker 1: crew guys, and good luck with that this year exactly.
Speaker 1: But you know, Oscar and Angela and I and you know,
Speaker 1: Rain and I and John. And that's part of the
Speaker 1: thing too about this COVID business is that people are
Speaker 1: reaching out Mare. You know, my birthday was on Monday,
Speaker 1: and I spent the entire day and zooms, I mean
Speaker 1: the entire day. You know. But people, you you're learning
Speaker 1: two things. One we're working harder to stay connect with people,
Speaker 1: and then you're also learning who wants to stay connected
Speaker 1: to you. You know, Father's Day I heard from people
Speaker 1: like Father's Day, like, what nobody ever reached his act?
Speaker 1: Why are you right, I'm not your father? Like everyone's
Speaker 1: reaching out. I don't know. That's been really great. Okay,
Speaker 1: So you were so omnipresent through all of the beginning.
Speaker 1: So if you go all the way back now is
Speaker 1: nineteen years ago, how did you meet Ben? When did
Speaker 1: you start working for Reveling? What was the transition there?
Speaker 1: I'm at Ben in two thousands. I had two roommates
Speaker 1: at the time. One of my roommates, who Ben had
Speaker 1: known for some time, who I think date he dated
Speaker 1: for one second, introduced him to our other roommate. Now
Speaker 1: Ben was still working at William Morris, I think he
Speaker 1: was still in London, and he would fly out to
Speaker 1: l A and he would be out here every month
Speaker 1: and he would stay for you know, a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks whatever. So she introduced one roommate introduces him to
Speaker 1: the other. They start dating in true Bend fashion. He
Speaker 1: used to stay at the Lermitage. I think it was
Speaker 1: for three weeks at a time. Either she would stay
Speaker 1: at the Lirmitage with him or he would stay and
Speaker 1: our duplex. And so I started to see him a
Speaker 1: lot and got to know him just socially. And at
Speaker 1: that point my roommate that he was dating and me,
Speaker 1: I just left I c M and we started a
Speaker 1: skincare company. I would be up all day, all night
Speaker 1: making all these skincare products in my kitchen, and I
Speaker 1: was talking about about, you know what my experience was
Speaker 1: at I c M and whatever. We just got to
Speaker 1: know each other really well. And it was in March
Speaker 1: I think of two thousand one. He pulled an all
Speaker 1: night er I think at the Oscars, came home. I'm
Speaker 1: up at four or five in the morning making these things.
Speaker 1: He comes walking in in his Oswald Botang purple suit,
Speaker 1: right and m we just started talking. He said, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm gonna start my own production company. I've
Speaker 1: been bringing formats in to the States and I really
Speaker 1: just want to have more of a creative experience. I
Speaker 1: want to be a producer, and when I do that,
Speaker 1: I want you to go work for me. And I said, okay, well,
Speaker 1: I have no idea what you're talking about, but okay.
Speaker 1: Ben talked to me next year because I didn't take
Speaker 1: him seriously, but he kept bringing up and he always
Speaker 1: said to me, you know, I really appreciate your work ethic.
Speaker 1: I like the experience that you have. I have no
Speaker 1: idea what you'd be doing yet, but I know that
Speaker 1: I need you to be a part of my company.
Speaker 1: So cut to that next year where he made the
Speaker 1: deal with the vend Universal was very diller at the time,
Speaker 1: and he brought Howard Owens, Mark Coops, and Chris Grant
Speaker 1: from New York. They were all still in New York,
Speaker 1: and he said, I'm bringing these three guys. US didn't
Speaker 1: know them. We have a bungalow at Universal. So I
Speaker 1: want you to go and set at the office and
Speaker 1: I meet a house. Go find me a house. This
Speaker 1: is no surprise at all, and we will be there
Speaker 1: in two months or something like that. So what do
Speaker 1: I do. I go on the lot. I get the
Speaker 1: whole entire bungalow up ready to go. All they had
Speaker 1: to do was walk in and pick up a pen
Speaker 1: and go to work. Phones everything. I'm navigated my way
Speaker 1: through the entire universal, every department you could possibly imagine,
Speaker 1: anyway they come out, and we all just learned how
Speaker 1: to produce, just the five of us. You would have
Speaker 1: thought that a hundred people worked at that production company,
Speaker 1: and it was us five, and so Ben, Mark and Howard.
Speaker 1: You know, we're focusing mostly on international all. You know,
Speaker 1: we had Nashville Star I think, was being developed and
Speaker 1: the Biggest Loser just kind of you know, looking at
Speaker 1: formats and kind of touching on what that stuff was
Speaker 1: going to be, which I really didn't have any interest in.
Speaker 1: And we had the format too, Coupling. That was our
Speaker 1: first show that we started to produce in scripted television,
Speaker 1: and so I just kind of cut my teeth in
Speaker 1: that process. I would just sit in a corner, you know,
Speaker 1: in a room and listen to, you know, the conversations,
Speaker 1: and I went to every I did everything with Ben.
Speaker 1: I went everywhere. I was on every phone, call you
Speaker 1: everything that you could possibly imagine. That's really how I
Speaker 1: learned is listening to executives, listening to studios, listening to
Speaker 1: creative people. I certainly had a deep familiarity with script
Speaker 1: because that's how I was raised at I c M.
Speaker 1: And then I just each day I just kept immersing
Speaker 1: myself deeper and deeper in that process, and that's really
Speaker 1: how I built the scripted department at REVELI what did
Speaker 1: you learn from your experience on coupling that felt like
Speaker 1: impacted bringing the office over? We learned a couple of things. One,
Speaker 1: you know, there was so much pressure on that show
Speaker 1: because it was being coined the next Friends, and we
Speaker 1: realized that, oh, ship, that's a big problem because people
Speaker 1: are going to have an expectation that we are trying
Speaker 1: to be the next Friends, which we had no intention
Speaker 1: of being. So learning about how critical marketing is of
Speaker 1: a show, and also we pretty much adhered to every
Speaker 1: script from the British version instead of kind of making
Speaker 1: it our own. And so we also learned that that
Speaker 1: stuff doesn't necessarily translate. So I think we learned that
Speaker 1: going into that process, we needed to have a voice.
Speaker 1: We needed to have somebody come in that, you know,
Speaker 1: understood the rhythms and the uniqueness of what that show was,
Speaker 1: but had to bring in their own voice and make
Speaker 1: it their own right. Stephen actually said to me that
Speaker 1: he thought like his greatest contribution was actually and one
Speaker 1: thing he said to Ricky was stepped back, like they
Speaker 1: know culturally about what's happening in America or rhythms or
Speaker 1: specific sensibilities or whatever. So the more we can stay
Speaker 1: out of it, the better. I Mean. The most beautiful
Speaker 1: thing about what Ricky and Stephen did was exactly that
Speaker 1: they came over, met the cast, spent time with Greg
Speaker 1: and just talked about the things that we really cared about.
Speaker 1: How did you create these characters? What made you want
Speaker 1: to be in this world? How did these rhythms, like
Speaker 1: all of the things that we're more important. Instead of
Speaker 1: tell us exactly how you you know, get this shot
Speaker 1: or whatever, it was really more about all the impetus
Speaker 1: is on creating the show. And then they were the
Speaker 1: most incredible cheerleaders one could ever have. I mean, they
Speaker 1: were absolutely dream partners, and they literally just sat back
Speaker 1: and like fans is fell in love with the show
Speaker 1: and I'll never forget, and I'm sure you'll remember. I mean,
Speaker 1: I was kind of a blur. But when we won
Speaker 1: the Emmy and we were all up on the stage
Speaker 1: and Greg reached out and said, Ricky and Stephen, I
Speaker 1: know you're out there somewhere, you know, because of you,
Speaker 1: you're brilliantly I can't remember exactly what he said, and
Speaker 1: then I remembered watching the telecast back and Ricky and
Speaker 1: Stephen they were so proud but got so shy and
Speaker 1: didn't want to take any of the credit for it.
Speaker 1: It was beautiful, and they never had egos about it
Speaker 1: to say, this is our thing, and we're lending it
Speaker 1: to you. This is our thing, and we're giving this
Speaker 1: to you, and we're trusting you to go and do
Speaker 1: your own thing. Yeah. So, at what point in the
Speaker 1: process when you were working with REVELI did you become
Speaker 1: aware of the office, the British Office. I mean it
Speaker 1: had to be in the beginning because Ben had the rights,
Speaker 1: he had already secured them. And I remembered Ben showing
Speaker 1: it to me and said, look at this and tell
Speaker 1: me what you think. And I remembered watching and said,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I have to we have to do this.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the funk we're doing, but we
Speaker 1: have to do this. I was absolutely obsessed so very
Speaker 1: early on. And then then we put the time into
Speaker 1: you know, try to find the right voice. And in
Speaker 1: the conversations that Bennett had with Ari, Greg's name obviously
Speaker 1: came up, and I'm sure he probably told you this,
Speaker 1: but he just would not watch it. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think he sat on it for three weeks or something
Speaker 1: like that. And then finally Ben was talking to Ari
Speaker 1: and said, is this guy that ever you know watched this?
Speaker 1: And I think already said the same thing to Greg,
Speaker 1: are you gonna watch this? You know, because they're going
Speaker 1: to move on? And then Greg, I think watched it
Speaker 1: over that weekend and came back and said, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I hope to god they didn't move on because I
Speaker 1: have to do this. Yeah, that's awesome. What was your
Speaker 1: initial impression of him? Introvert, brilliant, one of the nicest
Speaker 1: people I've ever met, collaborative, open, you know, and welcome,
Speaker 1: didn't bring any ego, respected us and me even I
Speaker 1: don't know if he knew how much I'd ever, you know,
Speaker 1: produced in my life, and immediately just treated us like
Speaker 1: his partners. I fell in love with him immediately and thought,
Speaker 1: my god, how do we get so lucky? This man
Speaker 1: is just brilliant, you know, Greg, He's thoughtful, he's tactile
Speaker 1: in his hands, like he thinks before he you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot ruminating in here before he would share
Speaker 1: an idea. But he was incredibly thoughtful and very very
Speaker 1: respectful of the format and of Ricky and Stephen, and
Speaker 1: cautious because we all knew we were stepping in a
Speaker 1: gigantic pile of are you guys kidding me that you're
Speaker 1: actually going to attempt to do this? So yeah, I
Speaker 1: just I only have the most and still the fondest
Speaker 1: memories of Greg. Was there anybody else that you feel
Speaker 1: like you seriously considered? Or? Was Greg it? Greg? Was it?
Speaker 1: Ricky and Stephen told me both separately that what sold
Speaker 1: them was that Greg saw it as a love story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a It was a love story. Was about humanity,
Speaker 1: it was about human behavior, It was all about people.
Speaker 1: It was all about heart. The thing that we can
Speaker 1: all relate to is that, in some form or fashion,
Speaker 1: we've been in a workplace where you're not necessarily happy
Speaker 1: about the work that you're doing, but you fall in
Speaker 1: love with the people. It's love and hate relationship. They
Speaker 1: become family, they become you know, you see them more
Speaker 1: typically in your life than you do your family members,
Speaker 1: and so it really was about the love that's created,
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Speaker 1: I'm Glory Adam, host of Well Read Black Girl. Each week,
Speaker 1: I sit in close conversation with one of my favorite
Speaker 1: authors of color and share stories about how they found
Speaker 1: their voice, hone their craft, and navigated the publishing world,
Speaker 1: and composed some of the most beautiful and meaningful words
Speaker 1: I've ever read. We journey together through the cultural moment
Speaker 1: where art, culture and literature collide and pay homage to
Speaker 1: the women whose books we grew up reading. And of
Speaker 1: course I check in with members of the Well Read
Speaker 1: Black Girl book Club. It's a literary kickback you never
Speaker 1: knew you needed. And you're all invited to join the club.
Speaker 1: So tell your friends, tell their friends so we can
Speaker 1: be friends who would love books. Listen to a Well
Speaker 1: Read Black Girl on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
Speaker 1: podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. You were in
Speaker 1: the room for the majority, if not all, of the
Speaker 1: casting sessions. Was there anyone who walked in right away
Speaker 1: that was ultimately cast that you went, that's the person
Speaker 1: John Steve. But Steve is a different story. He didn't
Speaker 1: really audition. Um, you know, it was a really interesting
Speaker 1: audition process because I don't think any one of us
Speaker 1: had ever really kind of been through anything like that before.
Speaker 1: Because actors would come in and read a scene and
Speaker 1: then they would improv, you know, and Greg would throw
Speaker 1: ridiculous little lines out and say, go tell me you
Speaker 1: just got into the refrigerator this morning, you know, or
Speaker 1: just these really kind of weird random things. And we
Speaker 1: saw so many actors, you know, Greg myself, Ken Howard, Ben,
Speaker 1: you know, Allison and um Phillis would be in the
Speaker 1: conference room at REVELI for eight or ten hours a
Speaker 1: day just and it was just a constant. And Alison,
Speaker 1: she had such a deep knowledge of you know, stand
Speaker 1: ups and second cities and groundlings and people that we've
Speaker 1: never seen before. And so there were so many people
Speaker 1: that were so interesting to us. And I think as
Speaker 1: we whittled things down and it became all of you,
Speaker 1: we knew it was all of you because everybody didn't
Speaker 1: fit a mold that we were looking for, but they
Speaker 1: brought something special and beautiful. It was like making a puzzle.
Speaker 1: Everybody just fit in so beautifully for you know, Jim
Speaker 1: and Pam and Dwight, etcetera. Talk to me a little
Speaker 1: bit about doing screen tests, filming them in the office
Speaker 1: as opposed to doing regular studio and network tests. How
Speaker 1: rare was that at that time we were the first,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, And the reason was very It
Speaker 1: was selfish on our part because a we thought they
Speaker 1: will never make this show if two actors, you know,
Speaker 1: because at that time, actors used to walk into the
Speaker 1: President's office and there would be twenty people behind the
Speaker 1: president and two people would be asked to perform a
Speaker 1: scene or something with all these eyeballs on them, and
Speaker 1: it was the most unnatural process anybody could ever imagine.
Speaker 1: And then I remember when I went to NBC and
Speaker 1: became a programmer and we were asking people to do that.
Speaker 1: I said, I don't want to I don't want to
Speaker 1: do that. I want to put people on tape because
Speaker 1: it doesn't you don't get the real person because they're
Speaker 1: so busy performing her room and so so. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think we were the first of its kind, and I
Speaker 1: think because of that, it started to kind of shift
Speaker 1: the way people were auditioning. Do you remember Phillis of course, no,
Speaker 1: I mean reading, and of course anything about the discussion
Speaker 1: around casting her. Yes, I mean part of the process
Speaker 1: was either she would run the camera or Allison would
Speaker 1: run the camera, and then if Allison didn't feel like reading,
Speaker 1: Phillis would read. And then Phillis started reading more and more.
Speaker 1: And I don't remember if it was Ken that said
Speaker 1: it first or Greg but said, oh my god, she
Speaker 1: has to be in the show. She's so funny, and
Speaker 1: we all said, oh my god, yes, And I remembered
Speaker 1: us asking Allison how do you feel about if we
Speaker 1: steal Phillis? And she said, oh my god, you know, yes,
Speaker 1: you know, take her And I remember us telling her
Speaker 1: and it was it was pretty amazing. What do you
Speaker 1: remember so thinking about the Office and what that show was,
Speaker 1: the style to no laugh track, all that, What was
Speaker 1: the landscape of television that that show was born into,
Speaker 1: Like what was popular? What was done on broadcast TV
Speaker 1: at that time? Seinfeld cheers all of the seminal comedies
Speaker 1: that were so smart. But the thing about that time,
Speaker 1: as I remember, is that ratings were everything. Eighteen to
Speaker 1: thirty four was everything. You had to have, you know,
Speaker 1: a twenty share or something. So having you know, five
Speaker 1: million people or six million people watching your show is
Speaker 1: just a non starter. You know, it had to be
Speaker 1: twenty million. And our audience was very, very concentrated in
Speaker 1: the eighteen to thirty four and it was very k plus,
Speaker 1: but it was small. And so that's the challenge was
Speaker 1: how do we keep ourselves on the air when a
Speaker 1: the pilot tested worse than I think any other pilot
Speaker 1: had ever tested on NBC. Besides, I think Seinfeld didn't
Speaker 1: test well either, And uh, you know, we only had
Speaker 1: six episodes to prove ourselves, and we were kind of
Speaker 1: at that time also scheduled in kind of the Okay
Speaker 1: you're dead. It was in March, and that's when people said, well,
Speaker 1: why are shows starting to air after the you know,
Speaker 1: prime time fall in mid season shows, and so we
Speaker 1: kind of felt like they were just getting rid of us, right,
Speaker 1: So the pilot bombed when it was tested. Were you
Speaker 1: concerned about that, yes, because it was you know, at
Speaker 1: that time, if something tests really bad, it's d o A,
Speaker 1: you know, and if it's not d o A, good
Speaker 1: luck trying to convince your network that it's a pilot
Speaker 1: that they should bet on. And so if not for
Speaker 1: Kevin Riley, this would not have a life. I really
Speaker 1: do believe that he put his career on the line.
Speaker 1: So yeah, we were very concerned, and I think it's
Speaker 1: part of the reason why it tested so poorly. It's
Speaker 1: just because it was something that people have never seen before.
Speaker 1: And those groups that come in to do the testing,
Speaker 1: you know, they get paid seventy five or fifty dollars
Speaker 1: or whatever, and then they judge your material based on
Speaker 1: twenty minutes of something and tell you if it's good
Speaker 1: or it's bad. That was a real learning experience for
Speaker 1: me and something that I thought, God if I could.
Speaker 1: And I think when Ben and I went to NBC,
Speaker 1: we didn't care so much about testing. We cared more
Speaker 1: about instinct. We cared about the shows that we loved
Speaker 1: and wanted a program So I think that came into
Speaker 1: a full circle as we went from producer to programmer.
Speaker 1: That testing serves a certain purpose, but it shouldn't be
Speaker 1: the be all, hand all of the success of something, right. Well,
Speaker 1: speaking of that, how did your relationship to the Office
Speaker 1: change when you moved to NBC. The only thing that
Speaker 1: changed was that I could be an even larger advocate
Speaker 1: for it inside the network. Not that I needed to be,
Speaker 1: because at that point, you know, we were we were
Speaker 1: just a well oiled machine. You know. It was interesting
Speaker 1: because then I became Greg's executive and to switch from
Speaker 1: being partner and fighting for certain things over here and
Speaker 1: now being you know, I had programmer, having to fight
Speaker 1: for certain things that I knew were in the best
Speaker 1: interest of the network without interfering with the integrity of
Speaker 1: the show. And here's a perfect example. We wanted The
Speaker 1: Office to to air after the Super Bowl, and um,
Speaker 1: we needed to make sure that if whoever was watching
Speaker 1: the super Bowl had never seen The Office before, that
Speaker 1: we had to do something completely outrageous to let people say,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I i'niversing this show, I love this
Speaker 1: I'm staying And Greg had pitched a cold open, and
Speaker 1: I remembered saying, you know, this is kind of cool,
Speaker 1: but getting a little pressure from Jeff, you know, and
Speaker 1: then to make sure that we have some celebrities in there.
Speaker 1: And you know, we never had celebrities on our show.
Speaker 1: It was always about, you know, making sure that it
Speaker 1: felt like we were dropping into a world of just
Speaker 1: human beings, and in Greg's brilliant fashion, found a way
Speaker 1: to bring in celebrities without having the celebrities feel like
Speaker 1: they were really a part of the Office. And I
Speaker 1: challenged him to do the most outrageous cold open that
Speaker 1: he could, you know, if people were only going to
Speaker 1: see the first minute and a half of the show.
Speaker 1: So it was having to you know, maneuver a little
Speaker 1: bit differently as becoming a kind of network person as
Speaker 1: opposed to his partner on the show. That's fascinating. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I never put it within that context that at that moment,
Speaker 1: the people that he was having to do this push
Speaker 1: and pull for that episode. You guys, I was the
Speaker 1: person that would call the network for Greg or the
Speaker 1: studio and say he's not doing that, or we're not
Speaker 1: changing this or you know, because he did not like
Speaker 1: those confrontational moments. And I always said, you want confrontation,
Speaker 1: just bring it over to Mama and I'll take care
Speaker 1: of it. Now I'm the person on the other end
Speaker 1: of the phone getting you know, well, we want to
Speaker 1: do this, we need to do that, you know, and
Speaker 1: and giving notes you know, on scripts was crazy, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't. It was you know, my instincts didn't change
Speaker 1: because I always knew that he was way smarter than me,
Speaker 1: and I would, you know, I could only you know,
Speaker 1: the one thing that Greg said to me way back
Speaker 1: in the beginning when we first started this relationship and
Speaker 1: he started developing the show was what's most important to
Speaker 1: me is that you tell me how you feel. How
Speaker 1: does the episode make you feel? How did the relationships
Speaker 1: of the characters in this episode make you feel? You know,
Speaker 1: do you feel moved enough, do you feel motivated enough?
Speaker 1: Do you feel And so I would look at the
Speaker 1: scripts and just think about how did it make me feel.
Speaker 1: I didn't look at it and say, well, the structure
Speaker 1: isn't so much blow la llah. It is about are
Speaker 1: we accomplishing this really quiet moment between Jim and Pam.
Speaker 1: Is there something going on with the accountants in the
Speaker 1: in the corner that we're peeking in on, you know?
Speaker 1: But the rest of the office is and seeing so
Speaker 1: those little things. Are you feeling them? Are you picking
Speaker 1: up on them? It was really about how it made
Speaker 1: me feel, and that's how I continued to produce from
Speaker 1: that point on. How did characters make me feel? How
Speaker 1: do the moments make me feel? Love that so much?
Speaker 1: Look for your children's eyes to see the true magic
Speaker 1: of a forest. It's a storybook world for them. You
Speaker 1: look and see a tree. They see the wrinkled face
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Speaker 1: see treasuring pebbles, They see a windy path that could
Speaker 1: lead to adventure, and they see you. They're fearless. Guide.
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Speaker 1: you by the United States Forest Service and the ad Council. Hello, Hello, Hi,
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I want to come through the screen
Speaker 1: and hug you. Hey, everybody. Jessica's or here also known
Speaker 1: as Vanessa Abrahams on Gossip Girl. I am so excited
Speaker 1: to share my new podcast with you guys. It's called
Speaker 1: XO XO and it's a walkdown memory lane about Gossip Girl.
Speaker 1: I'll chat with some of the cast crew fans of
Speaker 1: the show, and I'm just so pumped for you guys
Speaker 1: to go on this journey with me. All Right, I
Speaker 1: made Westwick, I played Chuck Bass. I just can't leave that.
Speaker 1: I did that with my life Jay. We had like
Speaker 1: the most amazing time. Listen to XO XO on the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Hello, and welcome to our show. I'm Zoe
Speaker 1: de Chanelle and I'm so excited to be joined by
Speaker 1: my friends and cast meats Hannah Simone and Lamar and
Speaker 1: Morris to recap our hit television series, New Girl. Join
Speaker 1: us every Monday on the Welcome to Our Show podcast,
Speaker 1: where we'll share behind the scenes stories of your favorite
Speaker 1: New Girl episodes, revealed the truth behind the legendary game
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Speaker 1: the writer's guest stars and directors who made the show
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Speaker 1: New Girl recap for years, and we finally meet a
Speaker 1: podcast where we answer all your burning questions like is
Speaker 1: there really a bear? In every episode of New Girl?
Speaker 1: Plus each week you'll hear hilarious stories like this at
Speaker 1: the end, when he says you got some schmid on
Speaker 1: your face. I feel like I pitched that joke. I
Speaker 1: believe that. I feel like I did. I'm not on
Speaker 1: a thousand percent I want to say that was I
Speaker 1: tossed that without listen to the Welcome to Our Show
Speaker 1: podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Um musty TV became a
Speaker 1: big thing for NBC. Where do you feel like the
Speaker 1: Office fit into that legacy of musty TV comedy on NBC?
Speaker 1: Oh well, maybe you know this is um arrogant, But
Speaker 1: we're integral to the NBC Thursday night lae up. I
Speaker 1: mean we are integral to the conversation of about what
Speaker 1: a seminal NBC comedy is. I absolutely believe that. I
Speaker 1: believe that we defied all odds of becoming a successful comedy.
Speaker 1: Who would have ever thought we were going to do
Speaker 1: two d and twenty episodes. I mean, think about it.
Speaker 1: We got a five episode pick up and then we
Speaker 1: got at episode pickup. Really we didn't get a full season,
Speaker 1: so not only define all of those odds, but also
Speaker 1: kind of redefining what a comedy was, you know, on
Speaker 1: television and introducing people into a world that might have
Speaker 1: felt different, but they also felt like it was so
Speaker 1: familiar to them and that you could really you know,
Speaker 1: because people come to comedies for two reasons, really to
Speaker 1: laugh their faces off and to fall in love with
Speaker 1: a cast, a family, a workplace, you know, buddy comedy,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. And I think having the extensive cast
Speaker 1: that we had, I mean, what did we have towards
Speaker 1: the under the run characters? Fifteen characters? Who does that?
Speaker 1: And every single one of you had people who just
Speaker 1: loved you. Everybody had their fans. I mean, we got
Speaker 1: our TV Land Future Comedy Classic in season three or
Speaker 1: four or something. It's right here. Yeah, so what year
Speaker 1: is that? Oh my god, there's not a date on it.
Speaker 1: Hold on, now, there's a date. It's probably on the
Speaker 1: other side. Oh it is two eight. So we were
Speaker 1: a classic already in season three or four, yeah, four,
Speaker 1: and the fact that we were considered that and look
Speaker 1: at it, you know now, I mean, I have young kids.
Speaker 1: I went to a kid's bar mitzvah last year. They're
Speaker 1: all thirteen fourteen. I was accosted. It was like I
Speaker 1: was a celebrity at this bar mitzvah because these kids
Speaker 1: were obsessed with the show. And we always said we
Speaker 1: had a hidden demographic from the beginning that was under eighteen.
Speaker 1: But now we have This show has had a life
Speaker 1: and then another life and another life, and I really
Speaker 1: do believe that we are are a part of that conversation.
Speaker 1: What do you remember about the decision to end the show? Pain?
Speaker 1: I hated it. It was one of the worst memories
Speaker 1: that I have of our beautiful love story. It's always
Speaker 1: hard when you're making decisions about when you move forward
Speaker 1: on a show and when you don't from a business standpoint,
Speaker 1: which I can't respond to because I wasn't on that
Speaker 1: side of the business at that point, but it was
Speaker 1: really fucking hard. It was hard. All the conversations we had,
Speaker 1: you know, from from being an executive producer, sitting with
Speaker 1: our cast, talking to you know, the studio, the network
Speaker 1: and it's kind of a blurn out because I've tried
Speaker 1: to push it out of my consciousness, but it was.
Speaker 1: It was excruciatingly painful, and um, I think it hurt
Speaker 1: a lot of us. I don't know if people really
Speaker 1: talked about it, but when we shot the last episode,
Speaker 1: I was so emotionally and physically exhausted. I think I
Speaker 1: cried for the last month, you know, But when we
Speaker 1: were all taking that very last shot. I have a
Speaker 1: book that NBC made for us. I'm sure you've looked
Speaker 1: at it, and my face is this big, and I'm
Speaker 1: bright red and I am crying, and I couldn't believe
Speaker 1: that it was over. I felt like we had so
Speaker 1: much more to do and it was over and took
Speaker 1: a long time to I have a lot of my
Speaker 1: own kind of internal things about the show that you know,
Speaker 1: I'll you deal with as a professional. It was excruciatingly hard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what are you most proud of about the show? What?
Speaker 1: My god? How do I put that in one thing? Dude?
Speaker 1: H I'm most proud that every single one of us
Speaker 1: that were involved in the first season of our show,
Speaker 1: we came to work every day and said, if we're
Speaker 1: only making six total episodes. Let's make the best episodes
Speaker 1: that we know how to make, and let's come in
Speaker 1: here and do the work and do it with love,
Speaker 1: and do it with everything that we have, and do
Speaker 1: it for ourselves, you know. And we all showed up
Speaker 1: on that lot every single day and made I'm getting
Speaker 1: emotional about this, and made an incredibly beautiful show. And
Speaker 1: it was for all of us. Whether you were in
Speaker 1: the cast, whether you were in the crew, whether you
Speaker 1: were in accounting, whether you were in props, catering, whatever,
Speaker 1: everybody came and just it was like we were on
Speaker 1: our own island. I think that we all loved it
Speaker 1: so much, and everybody came and did their job and
Speaker 1: did it really well and for each other. I could
Speaker 1: tell you a million other things, but I think I'm
Speaker 1: most proud of that being given that opportunity and making
Speaker 1: our family. Thenk you cry. I hope I got it here.
Speaker 1: I was trying to not say anything. I wanted to
Speaker 1: get your audio there. No, it was, Yeah, everybody that
Speaker 1: came in, I played them a clip and we don't
Speaker 1: have that ability here, goddamn it. No. But you'll know
Speaker 1: it's the last line of the show. It's Jenna it's sorry,
Speaker 1: it's Pam, and there's beauty and ordinary things. Isn't that
Speaker 1: kind of the point. I feel like Greg wrote that episode,
Speaker 1: he wrote that last line, that's what he thought it
Speaker 1: was about. What did you think it was about? I
Speaker 1: thought it was I thought it was too I thought
Speaker 1: it was taking something that could have been the most
Speaker 1: simple and uninteresting idea about a group of people, you know,
Speaker 1: going to work in a dying business, and turning it
Speaker 1: into something that was so much bigger than that. It
Speaker 1: was bigger than them, it was bigger than us, all
Speaker 1: of us. Yeah, it was finding joy and using opportunities
Speaker 1: to just make people laugh, you know, and be able
Speaker 1: to escape the you know, maybe the dull drums of
Speaker 1: their own life and go be with their friends. All
Speaker 1: of those little beautiful gems that all of you guys
Speaker 1: were able to create. Every episode. I mean, we can
Speaker 1: still probably go back through and I'll see things I
Speaker 1: never saw before. And I've seen those things a million times,
Speaker 1: and that was the whole idea. You know, everything was
Speaker 1: calculated to where Homer Simpson was sitting in the you know, bullpen,
Speaker 1: you know, all those everything was perfectly calculated, just too
Speaker 1: for fun of people being able to find the little
Speaker 1: easter eggs. That's another thing about Greg. He's like a
Speaker 1: grown child. It was juicy, and when he spoke, he
Speaker 1: did these things with his hands because it was so fun.
Speaker 1: You know. He always just wanted people to have fun
Speaker 1: and joy, even if you're an adult, that you could
Speaker 1: still just be a kid. Yeah, is that answer your
Speaker 1: question totally? Terry, thank you so much for talking to me.
Speaker 1: I really so good to see you. You're so smart.
Speaker 1: I hope you stay healthy, and I just appreciate your time.
Speaker 1: I'm and talking to me about this. First of all,
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you about anything because I love you.
Speaker 1: And it's such a joy to be able to kind
Speaker 1: of walk back down certain parts of our super long
Speaker 1: you know, memory lane. I'm really excited to hear what
Speaker 1: everybody else has to say to I know, I know
Speaker 1: it's gonna be really cool because I think I get
Speaker 1: these questions asked all the time, and so it's nice
Speaker 1: that we'd be able. We're able to, you know, share it.
Speaker 1: So I love that you're doing this and I'm absolutely
Speaker 1: thrilled to be a part of it. It's my pleasure. Well, there,
Speaker 1: you haven't Terry Weinberg folks. I truly love talking about
Speaker 1: the business of things, but I have to say it
Speaker 1: is always so special to talk to a producer who
Speaker 1: feels so passionately about the creative side of the show
Speaker 1: as well as Terry clearly does. So thank you so
Speaker 1: much for stopping by. Terry, I love you, um and
Speaker 1: thanks to all of you for stopping by as well.
Speaker 1: I look forward to seeing you next week for more
Speaker 1: of our series on the women of the Office. We've
Speaker 1: got some terrific stuff coming your way, so until then,
Speaker 1: I hope you have a great week. The Office. Deep
Speaker 1: Dive is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
Speaker 1: alongside our executive producer Langley. Our senior producer is Tessa Kramer.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Emily Carr and Diego Tapio, and our
Speaker 1: intern is Hannah Harris. My main man in the booth
Speaker 1: is Alec Moore. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed
Speaker 1: by my great friend Cree Breton, and the episode was
Speaker 1: mixed by seth Olandskip. I'm Sarah Wendell and for close
Speaker 1: to twenty years I've been a wildly recognized expert in
Speaker 1: the world of romance and I'm Alicia Ry, best selling
Speaker 1: author of over twenty romance novels, Introducing I Heart's new
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Speaker 1: on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. I'm in love with you, Hey Leeth,
Speaker 1: the listeners take here. Last season on Lethal Lit, you
Speaker 1: might remember I came to Hollow Falls on a mission. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm finding out that in this town, the dead don't
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Speaker 1: The second season if Lethal Lit is available now on
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