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Speaker 1: My name is Michael Shore. I was a writer for

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Speaker 1: the first four point two seasons and a producer on

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Speaker 1: the Office. Hi, everybody, Welcome to a new day, and

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Speaker 1: a new day brings a new episode of the Office

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Speaker 1: Deep Dive with me your host Brian baum Gartner. Now,

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Speaker 1: I'm thrilled to tell you that today I am bringing

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Speaker 1: back the incredible Mike Shure for part two of our conversation.

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Speaker 1: This is going to be a good one to remind you,

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Speaker 1: Mike was one of our original writers and producers on

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Speaker 1: the Office. He went on to co create Parks and

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Speaker 1: Wreck with Greg Daniels, as well as some other huge

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Speaker 1: TV shows of our time like Brooklyn, The Good Place,

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Speaker 1: just to name a few. Now, as I mentioned in

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Speaker 1: the last episode, which you should definitely check out if

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Speaker 1: you haven't already, Mike as a writer, as a producer,

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Speaker 1: as an artist, he's had some insane achievements, and we're

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Speaker 1: gonna get into some of those. But more importantly, you're

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Speaker 1: going to get to hear about the one thing that

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Speaker 1: he always hated, that he described as a quote waking nightmare.

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Speaker 1: That's right, his role as mos Shrewd. Now, I was, Oh,

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Speaker 1: you have no idea how happy I was to find

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Speaker 1: out that my suspicions were correct, that Mike had to

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Speaker 1: play Mos as kind of a cruel joke in the

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Speaker 1: writer's room, a writer's room joke because they found it

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Speaker 1: funny to make him do all of the stupid stuff

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Speaker 1: that he had to do. And boy, he had to

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Speaker 1: do some really stupid stuff. But I'm glad he did,

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Speaker 1: and I'm glad he is back joining us today because

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Speaker 1: Mike is a force in the world of TV, and

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Speaker 1: more than that, he was a huge and important part

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Speaker 1: of the Office family. So please join me in welcoming

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Speaker 1: the man who helped create so many of the iconic

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Speaker 1: TV personalities we know and love. Mike. Sure, Bubble and Squeak.

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Speaker 1: I love it Bubble and Squeak on Bubble and Squeaker

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Speaker 1: Cookie every month left over from the night before. You

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Speaker 1: and I. You may have forgotten this, but you and

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Speaker 1: I share an Emmy. We do we do yes for

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Speaker 1: the webisodes, for the webisodes. Yes, um, did you ever

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Speaker 1: get yours? I don't think I have a actual trophy

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Speaker 1: for it now. Well I did, I do, partly or

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Speaker 1: all because we were invited to the ceremony and we

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Speaker 1: accepted them, and it came home with me. Great. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so I have it. Look it's great. Actually, it's really

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Speaker 1: was really fun. I have nothing but fun memories of

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Speaker 1: that little crazy day that we spent around you and

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Speaker 1: Paul wrote them and it was longer than a day.

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Speaker 1: It was three days and three days. It was ten

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Speaker 1: episodes over three days. That was like before everyone did

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Speaker 1: webisodes all the time and these little extra things like

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Speaker 1: that was a really fun like side project that we

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Speaker 1: just sort of threw together. They're really funny too, they are, yes,

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Speaker 1: And I think Randall's idea was we were able to

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Speaker 1: do some things there that we well, we couldn't necessarily

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Speaker 1: do that without the full camera crew. I think, yes,

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Speaker 1: it was. The premise was it was like a holiday

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Speaker 1: or something because we didn't have everyone to be in

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Speaker 1: the background. So yeah, that was right. It was. We

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Speaker 1: had a lot of backstory for why it was the

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Speaker 1: way it was, but um, the accounts significant because um,

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Speaker 1: I have an Emmy, congratulate an actual emmy, but you

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Speaker 1: also want an Emmy. But we were never paid for it,

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Speaker 1: and it led to the writers strike. I've watched a

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Speaker 1: video of you yesterday from when we were on strike.

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Speaker 1: When you were on strike, Yeah, you guys produced a

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Speaker 1: video and you said a number of things in the video. Okay,

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Speaker 1: I don't remember any of them, but I saw it

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Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my god. And then we

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Speaker 1: were joking that you guys were coming up with bits

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Speaker 1: as you were walking the picket line and making the video.

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Speaker 1: Kind of funny anyway, um, but you said in part

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Speaker 1: that you're watching this on the internet, a thing that

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Speaker 1: pays us zero dollars. They were put on NBC dot

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Speaker 1: com and they so old ads and we won a

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Speaker 1: Daytime Emmy and didn't make any money. The writer strike

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Speaker 1: was a really big deal. I don't know. Just talk

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Speaker 1: to me about that time and what you remember of

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Speaker 1: Greg saying no, we're not going to produce material for free.

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Speaker 1: There It was a very inspiring moment for me personally,

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Speaker 1: because the central issue at the time, this is two

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Speaker 1: thousand and seven. The central issue at the time was

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Speaker 1: jurisdiction over the internet because Netflix hadn't started making original

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Speaker 1: shows yet, but people felt like they were going in

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Speaker 1: that direction, and NBC and every every network had a

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Speaker 1: website and they were starting to like stream in primitive fashion,

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Speaker 1: the stream things on the over the internet, and suddenly

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Speaker 1: it was like, well, if this is the future. It

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Speaker 1: didn't take a genius to think like, well, this is

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Speaker 1: the future, Like who cares whether you it's a television

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Speaker 1: screen you hang on your wall or sit on a platform,

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Speaker 1: or whether it's your computer screen. This is how people

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Speaker 1: are consuming the work we do, and we ought to

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Speaker 1: get paid for them. So so those episodes were like

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Speaker 1: a big part of that because I they were shot

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Speaker 1: with the union labor and no one got paid. So

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Speaker 1: that was like the you know, it wasn't like because

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Speaker 1: of those episodes that the writers could want one strike.

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Speaker 1: Those we episodes were an example of the kind of

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Speaker 1: thing that we were trying. We were saying, like, if

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Speaker 1: this is the way things are going, we gotta do

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Speaker 1: something about this, right. So because the companies at the time,

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Speaker 1: we're saying like, you know, we don't have enough information.

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Speaker 1: Let's just let's just let's just wait three years from now,

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Speaker 1: we'll have more information and then we'll know what the

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Speaker 1: future of this is. And we were like, no, you're

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Speaker 1: you're trying to you're basically trying to grandfather in the

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Speaker 1: internet as like a thing that you don't pay for him. So, um,

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Speaker 1: we went on strike and it was a huge deal

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Speaker 1: and it was very scary. It was like unclear what

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Speaker 1: was going on. The communication wasn't sublime. And Greg was like, well,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna pick out our own show. And the reason

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Speaker 1: we're gonna pick out our own show is isn't a

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Speaker 1: show of solidarity. Isn't a saying like this is the

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Speaker 1: thing we care about the most in the world. And

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Speaker 1: we were in that little Chandler studios out in the

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Speaker 1: middle of Van Eyes and it was not on a

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Speaker 1: major studio lot, and so we all showed up to

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Speaker 1: work at six in the morning and we pick it

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Speaker 1: at our own show. And we were in the middle

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Speaker 1: of season four. We were about to shoot the Dinner

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Speaker 1: Party episode, one of the most famous episodes of the

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Speaker 1: show of all time, the best read through I think

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Speaker 1: we ever had. You remember that read through? That read

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Speaker 1: there was was like it was like a rock concert.

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Speaker 1: And we had finished that script. That script is ready

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Speaker 1: to go, and that script could have been shot. The

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Speaker 1: actors could have just executed the script and the directors

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Speaker 1: were on strike and the crew wasn't on strike. But

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Speaker 1: Steve Carrell said, um no, I'm not. This is the

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Speaker 1: way we make this show is collaborative. And there's writers

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Speaker 1: on the set and there's producers on the set, and

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Speaker 1: we changed things and we work out new little moments

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Speaker 1: and pitched new jokes, and I don't think I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: make the show without the writers. And he didn't shot up,

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Speaker 1: and so they shot a couple of scenes from the

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Speaker 1: episode that Michael Scott was in, and then there was

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Speaker 1: nothing else to do and the show shutdown. And that

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Speaker 1: was such a heroic thing. He just stayed home and

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Speaker 1: he got calls from a lot of lawyers and a

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Speaker 1: lot of studio executives, from really really powerful people saying

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Speaker 1: you have to do this, and he was like, no,

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Speaker 1: don't watch me. And Greg called him and he was

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Speaker 1: home and Greg was like, hey, I know that you've

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Speaker 1: been had a lot of pressure coming at you. Are

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Speaker 1: you okay? And he was like, yeah, I'm home, I'm

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Speaker 1: playing with my kids, and was totally unfazed by it

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Speaker 1: and had the attitude of like, this is a collaborative effort,

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Speaker 1: this is a thing that we do together. We don't

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Speaker 1: do this, this isn't without writers on the set. We

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Speaker 1: don't make the same show. And I'm not going to

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Speaker 1: make that show fire me basically, was what he was saying,

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Speaker 1: he called their bluff and the show shut down and

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Speaker 1: writs around strike for four months, and then they gave

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Speaker 1: up jurisdiction of the internet. We went back to work

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Speaker 1: and then we made the Dinner Party, which is amazing,

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Speaker 1: and it was truly the story of what he did

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Speaker 1: spread like wildfire. Um, he did not have to do that.

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Speaker 1: There were very few people who were in the position

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Speaker 1: that he was in, obviously as the star of a

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Speaker 1: very popular, successful, gigantic, monolithic hit show. But still he

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Speaker 1: didn't have to do that. He could no one would

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Speaker 1: have been mad at him. He wasn't on the actor

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Speaker 1: and I was, you know, I remember having a huge,

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Speaker 1: long conversation with my representation saying like, how can I

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Speaker 1: walk past them? How can I cross how can I

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Speaker 1: cross the line? And he said that that you know,

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Speaker 1: you have no choice. You have to show up, and

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Speaker 1: we knew that, and Ed, I remember Ed came out

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Speaker 1: and was like hey, guys, and he hung out with us,

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Speaker 1: and I remember Ed going, I'm really sorry, but I

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Speaker 1: have and we're like, no, no, no, we get it.

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Speaker 1: Your union is not on strike here, like you're not.

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Speaker 1: We get it. It's fine. No one's bad at you. Like,

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Speaker 1: no one had any animosity towards any of the actors

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Speaker 1: because you were in breach of contract if you didn't

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Speaker 1: show up. Steve was in breach of contract. He just said,

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Speaker 1: I don't care fire me. And it's easier for the

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Speaker 1: star of the show to do that than it is

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Speaker 1: for anyone else. But the story spread like wildfire, and

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Speaker 1: Mindy wrote a sign in marker um hung it on

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Speaker 1: his trailer that said like Steve Corral American hero or

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Speaker 1: something and took a picture of it, and it spread

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Speaker 1: very quickly around the town and it was a real

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Speaker 1: like wind beneath the wings of the guild at the time.

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Speaker 1: It's amazing. I mean he you can't sort of overstate

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Speaker 1: just what an amazing guy he is and person to

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Speaker 1: work with ya, I mean, the person who's number one

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Speaker 1: on the call sheet sets the tone of the show

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Speaker 1: age He or she just does. It's people take their

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Speaker 1: cues from that person. That person kind of says like,

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Speaker 1: this is what's allowable behavior, and this is what isn't

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Speaker 1: allowable behavior in a in a number of different ways,

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Speaker 1: actively and passively. And his presence at the top of

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Speaker 1: the call sheet, especially in that early going, but his professionalism,

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Speaker 1: his his dedication. He was never late a day in

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Speaker 1: his life. He knew all of his lines, and when

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Speaker 1: he didn't, he improvised something that was funnier than what

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Speaker 1: we had written. Um. I don't know if you know

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Speaker 1: this story, but there was a even on successful shows.

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Speaker 1: In fact, especially on successful shows, networks are always trying

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Speaker 1: to slash budgets, right, Like it's when something's making money.

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Speaker 1: It's not like thank God, we're making money, it's how

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Speaker 1: do we make more money? And there was a budget

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Speaker 1: meeting with NBC and Greg. It must have been after

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Speaker 1: season four because Greg and I were developing Parks and

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Speaker 1: Wreck and he asked me to come to say, like,

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Speaker 1: you're gonna have to deal with this kind of crap

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Speaker 1: and you should see what it's like. And there was

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Speaker 1: a budget terry meeting and they were trying to slash

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Speaker 1: the budget and one of the things on the table

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Speaker 1: was reducing the size of the cast because at that point,

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Speaker 1: how many series regulars were there? Twenty two or something.

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Speaker 1: It was a lot by far, the largest cast of

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Speaker 1: any show on television. And Greg was like, I don't

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Speaker 1: think that's a good idea that people invest in these characters.

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Speaker 1: Everyone has a different favorite character, and even a side character,

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Speaker 1: a character like you know, Jan or something who was

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Speaker 1: not even a series regular, Like if you don't have

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Speaker 1: her on the show in a certain number of episodes,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't feel like the same show. And they were like, well,

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Speaker 1: we have to find the money somewhere, you know, and

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Speaker 1: we're only making seven eight million dollars a year on

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Speaker 1: this thing. And so we went back and we had

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Speaker 1: a meeting with Steve and I can't remember who was there,

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Speaker 1: but Greg was like, okay, so here's what happened in

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Speaker 1: the meeting, and they want to cut the budget in

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Speaker 1: this and that, and they threw out a number of options,

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Speaker 1: one of which was reducing the cast, and Steve went no, no, no, no, no, no,

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Speaker 1: Like he said no like eight times in a row.

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Speaker 1: And Greg was like, well that was my reaction to

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Speaker 1: and Steve just went, no, it's not happening. That is

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Speaker 1: not happening. We with that is not going to happen,

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Speaker 1: Like he just so completely shut it down as even

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Speaker 1: he was like, this is the show. These are the

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Speaker 1: people on the show. This is how the show will

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Speaker 1: be until the end of the show. That's it. That's it,

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Speaker 1: And and there were executives in the room, and it

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Speaker 1: was like that ended the discussion. It was just over,

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Speaker 1: like there was no It was a little bit like

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Speaker 1: sue me or fire me. It was like, in so

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Speaker 1: many words, he was saying, I won't do the show

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Speaker 1: if you do that, like I will walk away, and

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Speaker 1: it just shut it down and shut it down forever,

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Speaker 1: and no one ever ever came up again, never once.

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Speaker 1: So mazing. Yeah, he's just he's just such a mench

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Speaker 1: and and his like it wasn't angry, he wasn't pounding

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Speaker 1: his fist. He was just saying, no, that's not going

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Speaker 1: to happen, that nonstarter. Move on, what's next. And that's

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Speaker 1: the way he is he was. It was just this quiet,

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Speaker 1: firm leadership that he exhibited all the time in every direction.

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Speaker 1: And he there was another time in two the big

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Speaker 1: future of TV was product placement. That's where money was

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Speaker 1: going to really be made, right, you were gonna Greg

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Speaker 1: used to say, like the deal was you have to

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Speaker 1: take some medicine when you watch TV in the medicine

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Speaker 1: as these ads, but then you get a yummy treat

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Speaker 1: and the treat is the show you like, right, And

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Speaker 1: product placement was they were going to try to whirld

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Speaker 1: of medicine into the the and um Ben was like

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Speaker 1: a big proponent of it, and so was it by

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Speaker 1: the way everyone else like it was like this is

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Speaker 1: the future, Like the futures were going back ironically to

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Speaker 1: like the fifties, and it was like the Lucky Strike

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Speaker 1: comedy exactly, this is delicious. So we have this big meeting,

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Speaker 1: all hands on deck meeting. Um we had done the

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Speaker 1: Staples thing, remember the Staples where you had it. You you

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Speaker 1: you bore the brunt of it because you had to

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Speaker 1: play with that shredder and Staples didn't send me a check. No,

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Speaker 1: Well that was that was that was partly. That was

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Speaker 1: a big part of Greg's objection to it was like,

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Speaker 1: if Brian wants to do a Staples ad, then he

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Speaker 1: can go do a Staples ad and they can pay

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Speaker 1: him money. But Staples is getting free Brian baum Gardner

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Speaker 1: and free Rain Wilson and free whoever by like giving

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Speaker 1: NBC money and the show doesn't even really benefit. It's

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Speaker 1: this kind of complicated calculus, right, But we had this

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Speaker 1: big meeting where we were really being sold on product placement,

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Speaker 1: and it was it was getting away from us. It

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Speaker 1: was being put to us in a way where it

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Speaker 1: was like, you're going to say yes to this. We're

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Speaker 1: going to keep telling you to do this until you

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Speaker 1: say yes. Talk talk talk talk, talk talk. And then

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Speaker 1: Craig went, Steve, what do you think? Which was a

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Speaker 1: brilliant idea, and Steve said, you know, I started in commercials,

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Speaker 1: and commercials are great when you're a struggling actor and

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Speaker 1: you need money and stuff. But what happens in commercials

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Speaker 1: is you do a commercial for coke, and you know,

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Speaker 1: you do a take where you take a sip of

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Speaker 1: coke and you say mmmmm, coke tastes great, and then

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Speaker 1: they go, okay, cut, can you rotate the can a

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Speaker 1: little more like this and hold it like this? Okay, good,

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Speaker 1: Go again and you go coke. I love coke. Coke

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Speaker 1: takes right, and they go great, But can you raise

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Speaker 1: it up to your lips an inch higher when you

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Speaker 1: take the sip? Because you just do that over and

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Speaker 1: over and over again. And he said, the idea that

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Speaker 1: anyone would have that kind of influencer control over our

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Speaker 1: show and the way we make our show, which is

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Speaker 1: loose and fun and collaborative, and the operators are diving

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Speaker 1: for different things, and the actors get to try different

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Speaker 1: things every time. I remember him saying the idea that

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Speaker 1: Rain would say something funny and we wouldn't be able

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Speaker 1: to use it because he wasn't holding the coke can

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Speaker 1: at the right angle. I don't think that's a good idea.

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Speaker 1: And there was a pause and then it was like, Okay, well,

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Speaker 1: let's we'll pick up this discussion, you know, next week

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Speaker 1: or something. Never brought it up again. He just like

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Speaker 1: he was just the He was the guardian of the show.

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Speaker 1: In that way, he and Greg were just they had

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Speaker 1: two different versions of the job, but the onset world

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Speaker 1: of the show. Steve was the guardian protector of what

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Speaker 1: we did and how it was done and who did

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Speaker 1: it and no one messed them. It was just like

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Speaker 1: he was the final arbiter because he knew, he understood

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Speaker 1: so implicitly what made it great and he wasn't interested

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Speaker 1: in letting anyone mess it up. What to you makes

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Speaker 1: the office the office? Or what does the office mean

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Speaker 1: to you? Oh? God, well those are those are even questions?

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Speaker 1: What makes the office the office? And what does the

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Speaker 1: office mean to me? What? What what does the office

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Speaker 1: mean to you? Well? I mean, it's where the Office

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Speaker 1: is where I learned how to write. And I mean

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Speaker 1: that in exactly as fundamental a way as I'm saying.

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Speaker 1: And I didn't know how to write before I got

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Speaker 1: the job, and now I do. And it's because of

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Speaker 1: that show, not just Greg's tutelage, but the mechanics of

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Speaker 1: the stories that we told and the the obstacles we

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Speaker 1: had to overcome. Obstacles are good for comedy, and the

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Speaker 1: Office had the basic obstacles of being a network show

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Speaker 1: and having to cram a story into twenty two minutes

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Speaker 1: and all that stuff, which are great obstacles everyone should

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Speaker 1: learn how to write on a network sitcom. But then

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Speaker 1: it had all these other artificial obstacles the Greg added

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Speaker 1: and the mocumentary style added, and the number of characters

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Speaker 1: that in the show. So Greg taught me how to

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Speaker 1: actually write, and then the show taught me how to write. Well,

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Speaker 1: I think, because any episode you did, you would look

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Speaker 1: at it and go like, well, it's like a jigsaw puzzle.

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Speaker 1: There are twenty people in the cast, and there's there's

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Speaker 1: three stories, and I have twenty one minutes and thirty seconds,

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Speaker 1: and how do I put this all together? And you

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Speaker 1: learn to be really non precious with your own writing.

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Speaker 1: You learn like these things are disposable. They're not poems.

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Speaker 1: Greg used to say that the scripts aren't poems, right,

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Speaker 1: their architectural blueprints there. They're living documents, and they change,

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Speaker 1: and it's okay for them to change, Like you can

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Speaker 1: think this is great. There's only a couple of times

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Speaker 1: in my life where something didn't really play well and

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Speaker 1: I really really odd for it, knowing that it wasn't

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Speaker 1: gonna play well. One of them, this is like, this

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Speaker 1: is like my own, this is my own like indulgence,

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Speaker 1: but I wrote it. I wrote a Dwight has a

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Speaker 1: talking head where he says, um, it was always backstory

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Speaker 1: that Dwight's and maternal ancestors were maybe Nazis, And so

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Speaker 1: we did a talking head where Dwight says, um, my

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Speaker 1: maternal grandmother is like a hundred and two and still

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Speaker 1: puttering around down in Argentina, And then he says, um,

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Speaker 1: I tried to visit her once, but my visa was

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Speaker 1: protested by the show of Foundation, and I just I

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Speaker 1: it didn't really It got like a moderate laugh because

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Speaker 1: a lot of people probably didn't what the show of

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Speaker 1: Foundation was. But like I remember fighting really hard for

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Speaker 1: that in the edit, like Greg wanted to cut it,

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Speaker 1: I think, and I was like, please, please, please, please please.

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Speaker 1: But that's the exception that proves the rule. Mostly it

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Speaker 1: was like you watch, we watched these cuts together, and

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Speaker 1: you see what works and what doesn't work, and you

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Speaker 1: just cut everything that doesn't work, like you don't get precious?

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Speaker 1: Was the show foundation in there? Yeah? That that aired? Okay, Yes,

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Speaker 1: that totally aired, and it makes me laugh every time

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Speaker 1: I remember that. I remember that part of it. No,

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Speaker 1: it aired, It definitely aired because I was basically like,

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Speaker 1: I will never ask you for anything for the rest

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Speaker 1: of my life if you leave this in. Was there

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Speaker 1: anything that got cut that you wish hadn't. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: there was. I don't remember offhand. So in the Job

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Speaker 1: I think it was. In the Job we wrote talking

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Speaker 1: Hand for Dwight that was I think an entire page long.

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Speaker 1: It was insane. It was like, um, a version of

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Speaker 1: a much shorter version of it aired, but there was

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Speaker 1: a It was about how one of his cousins, I

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Speaker 1: think or Moses brother or something was had one leg

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Speaker 1: that was shorter than the other one, and when he

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Speaker 1: ran to the bus he would have to curve in

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Speaker 1: like a long arc because the natural awkward gait of

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Speaker 1: one leg being shorter than the other one would cause

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Speaker 1: him to run in like a into like a long curve.

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Speaker 1: And it was nonsense. I mean it was. It went

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Speaker 1: on for so long on Paul and I were just

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Speaker 1: in a crazy giggle fit and we wrote like the

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Speaker 1: Endless talking Head for Rain and he loved it and

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Speaker 1: he like memorized the whole thing and like nailed it.

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Speaker 1: And I was like, I wish this could air, but

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Speaker 1: there's no way to justify it. It's complete. There's nothing

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Speaker 1: to do with the story at all, you know. Um.

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Speaker 1: Greg Greg also introduced this concept of double duty. Have

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Speaker 1: people talking about double duty. Greg's thing was like, look,

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Speaker 1: we have such a limited time here, and he said

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Speaker 1: the bad sitcoms split there lines. Some are jokes and

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Speaker 1: some are are like story, because he said, what happens

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Speaker 1: is if you've separated the story and the jokes, you

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Speaker 1: cut all the jokes to get the story, and then

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Speaker 1: you have nothing but stories. So he was like really

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Speaker 1: hard on us of like, you have to make the story.

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Speaker 1: Minds funny. They have to do double duty, and if

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Speaker 1: they don't, then it's not good enough and you gotta

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Speaker 1: do it again, do it again, and do it again. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and it's that was an amazing lesson to learn it

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Speaker 1: because it was like, yeah, you don't have time. You

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Speaker 1: can't have talking heads that are jokes, except for when

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Speaker 1: they were about the show A Foundation. Yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: they're definitely worse. So that's so funny. Yeah, I want

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Speaker 1: to get you out of here. You have talked so

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Speaker 1: much about Greg and so poetically and articulately. Is there

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Speaker 1: anything that you want to say about you leaving with

415
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Speaker 1: Greg to start Parks and Wreck? Yeah? So he was

416
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Speaker 1: actually during the writers strike, we were picketing UM at

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Speaker 1: Paramount and he was like, Hey, I want to talk

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Speaker 1: to you, and he basically said like the network wants

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Speaker 1: me to do a new show, and I want to

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Speaker 1: do it with you, which was like, you know, I remember,

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Speaker 1: I remember, like what what does this feel like? And

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Speaker 1: I was like, oh, it feels like Mozart told me

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Speaker 1: he wants to design a piano with me or something like.

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Speaker 1: That's the closest analog I could come. Was like, this

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Speaker 1: is the this is it, Like this is the moment

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Speaker 1: that my life changes even more than it has already

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Speaker 1: and so at the time Ben wanted to do a

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Speaker 1: spinoff of the Office for obvious reasons. But I was like,

429
00:22:56,520 --> 00:22:58,000
Speaker 1: is that? What was that? What this is? And he

430
00:22:58,040 --> 00:23:00,639
Speaker 1: was like, I don't know. I told Ben in the

431
00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:04,160
Speaker 1: network that I would do another show with with you

432
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,119
Speaker 1: and if it turned out that the best idea this is,

433
00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:09,560
Speaker 1: It's classic Greig. It's like, if the best idea is

434
00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:11,480
Speaker 1: to do a spinoff of the from the Office, great,

435
00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:13,080
Speaker 1: But if the best idea is something else, then we

436
00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:15,720
Speaker 1: should do something else. Which is such a again like

437
00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:19,640
Speaker 1: Greg also is a man of enormous integrity, creative integrity,

438
00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:22,359
Speaker 1: and personal integrity. But the idea that he wouldn't just

439
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:24,600
Speaker 1: cash in. He could have cashed in so easily. He

440
00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:27,200
Speaker 1: could have taken every department. He could have taken the

441
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,280
Speaker 1: accountants and spun them into his own show. And he

442
00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:31,359
Speaker 1: could have taken Kelly and spun her into a show.

443
00:23:31,359 --> 00:23:33,120
Speaker 1: And he could have taken Jan and spun that into

444
00:23:33,119 --> 00:23:34,760
Speaker 1: which he could have it. He could be the dick

445
00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:37,399
Speaker 1: Wolf of comedy if he wanted to. But he was like,

446
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:41,160
Speaker 1: I don't want to harm the integrity of the office proper.

447
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:44,439
Speaker 1: If there's a way to do it that doesn't do that,

448
00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:46,359
Speaker 1: then great, but if not, then we'll do something else.

449
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 1: And so the strike ends and we go back and

450
00:23:50,040 --> 00:23:52,439
Speaker 1: we make I don't know fifteen or sixteen episodes of

451
00:23:52,440 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 1: the show that year. And then he and I started meeting.

452
00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:58,280
Speaker 1: We went to um Norm's diner, and we met for

453
00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:03,000
Speaker 1: breakfast like three times a week, and I pitched him

454
00:24:03,080 --> 00:24:05,280
Speaker 1: I don't know, two hundred and seventy five ideas for

455
00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:07,800
Speaker 1: TV shows, and he and he picked, and he to

456
00:24:07,840 --> 00:24:09,720
Speaker 1: me like it wasn't a one way street. Some of

457
00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:11,200
Speaker 1: them were spin off. Some of them was like, well,

458
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:13,199
Speaker 1: maybe we could do something with the warehouse, you know,

459
00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:15,520
Speaker 1: or maybe a different branch. I mean, he called the show.

460
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:18,000
Speaker 1: I don't if you've ever heard this story, but the

461
00:24:18,080 --> 00:24:20,280
Speaker 1: reason the show is called the Office cole in an

462
00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 1: American Workplace is because he, thinking a thousand chest moves ahead,

463
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:27,480
Speaker 1: was like, if this works, you could do the school

464
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,159
Speaker 1: an American workplace and do a show about teachers. You

465
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,120
Speaker 1: could do like, you know, the Team, an American workplace

466
00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:36,320
Speaker 1: about a monor league baseball team. Whatever. So some of

467
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:38,240
Speaker 1: them were spinoff, some of them weren't. We ended up

468
00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:40,920
Speaker 1: settling on what became Parts and Wreck, which was basically

469
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:44,160
Speaker 1: like the Office is an investigation of the private sector,

470
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:45,600
Speaker 1: and we could do it at the same thing with

471
00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:47,639
Speaker 1: the public sector. And then we got really excited about

472
00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:51,200
Speaker 1: like we can invent dunder Mifflin, but an entire town,

473
00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:54,879
Speaker 1: like an entire ecosystem with media outlets and restaurants and

474
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:59,080
Speaker 1: city hall and local celebrities and all and a history

475
00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:01,080
Speaker 1: and all that stuff and now. So that was what

476
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:03,879
Speaker 1: set our brands on fire. So I was around for

477
00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,000
Speaker 1: the beginning of season five through Weight Loss and a

478
00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:10,960
Speaker 1: couple other episodes, but really mostly what I was doing

479
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:13,800
Speaker 1: was focusing on Parks and Rack from that time. So,

480
00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:17,720
Speaker 1: I mean, I I was very nervous because The Office

481
00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:19,520
Speaker 1: is the best job I had ever had in my

482
00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:23,240
Speaker 1: life by a factor of a thousand. But again I

483
00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:26,359
Speaker 1: was like, I don't you don't turn down the chance

484
00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:28,399
Speaker 1: to develop a show with Greg Daniels would be like

485
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:31,240
Speaker 1: telling Mozart, no thanks, I can find a better piano teacher,

486
00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:34,359
Speaker 1: you know. Um. So it was very scary, but it

487
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:36,160
Speaker 1: was also I was like, yeah, this is right, this

488
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:40,000
Speaker 1: is the right move. And obviously I was correct. Right,

489
00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:42,719
Speaker 1: here's a I don't know, this just occurred to me.

490
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 1: If Greg had not said that to you, would you

491
00:25:46,000 --> 00:25:49,000
Speaker 1: have left the office? No? God, no, No, I would

492
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 1: have stayed. I mean I don't know if I would

493
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:52,760
Speaker 1: have stayed the whole time, but I certainly would have stayed.

494
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:55,480
Speaker 1: I had no plans to leave, like I was happily

495
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 1: working there. I would have worked there for at least

496
00:25:57,520 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 1: another I think my contract was like two more years

497
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:02,920
Speaker 1: at so yeah. I mean I wasn't looking to leave

498
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:05,480
Speaker 1: at all, Like, there was no part of me that

499
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:09,000
Speaker 1: was itching. I mean when he offered me that chance,

500
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:11,679
Speaker 1: and I sort of did my evaluation of like, is

501
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:13,919
Speaker 1: there any reason not to do this? The only reason

502
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:16,200
Speaker 1: not to do it was how much I love working

503
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:19,000
Speaker 1: on my current job. And like any obvious risks involved

504
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:22,120
Speaker 1: with starting something new, there is a real scary thing

505
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:24,560
Speaker 1: in this business of like if you've got a bird

506
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:27,639
Speaker 1: in the hand, man take like leave in your hands,

507
00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:29,880
Speaker 1: Like what are you doing? But then I was like, well,

508
00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:34,879
Speaker 1: if it blows up, I'll bet he'll hire me. Still

509
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:37,200
Speaker 1: find some junior writer to kick out of the way.

510
00:26:37,280 --> 00:26:39,440
Speaker 1: Can I tell you my favorite here's my favorite Greg

511
00:26:39,480 --> 00:26:43,159
Speaker 1: story maybe ever And it doesn't even really involve Greg.

512
00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:45,359
Speaker 1: So we're trying to come up with the idea for

513
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:48,720
Speaker 1: Parks and Wreck, and I got really excited about it.

514
00:26:49,160 --> 00:26:50,840
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh yeah, it's like it's like

515
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:53,159
Speaker 1: a comedy West Wing. That's the like, if the stakes

516
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:56,240
Speaker 1: of the West Wing are Russia and China are going

517
00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 1: to go to war in Kazakhstan, the stakes of this

518
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,160
Speaker 1: show are the boys soccer team and the girls soccer

519
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:03,800
Speaker 1: team both are trying to use the same soccer field, right,

520
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,320
Speaker 1: And I just saw the whole thing. I saw and

521
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:07,800
Speaker 1: Greg was the one who came up with the idea

522
00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:09,680
Speaker 1: that there's like a pit that she's trying to fill in.

523
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 1: And and so we talked and talked and talked about

524
00:27:12,040 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 1: like a full day session where we'd like pitch and

525
00:27:14,240 --> 00:27:19,000
Speaker 1: it's usually with ideas for episodes or anything like you know,

526
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:21,880
Speaker 1: it's good when, like you, it feels like you accidentally

527
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:24,600
Speaker 1: hit an oil vein, you know, the oil spurt, like

528
00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:27,720
Speaker 1: ideas are just flying. But because he's Greg, he didn't

529
00:27:27,760 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 1: commit to it. He was like, Okay, good, we've got that.

530
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:31,280
Speaker 1: Let's keep let's keep pitching, trying to come up with

531
00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:33,240
Speaker 1: something else. And we talked about a family show, a

532
00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:36,480
Speaker 1: mockumentary about a family, and we talked about I can't

533
00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:39,439
Speaker 1: remember what else, but just day after day after day

534
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: after day, and the whole time, I was like, no,

535
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:42,679
Speaker 1: we have the idea, we know what it is, we

536
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:44,760
Speaker 1: know what it is. So Greg used to have people

537
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:47,119
Speaker 1: over to his house to watch episodes, right were the

538
00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:48,879
Speaker 1: whole cast and all the writers, everybody who come to

539
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,960
Speaker 1: his house. And I saw his wife, Suzanne, and she

540
00:27:52,040 --> 00:27:53,520
Speaker 1: was like, how's it going? And I was like, it's

541
00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:55,919
Speaker 1: going great, you know. And she was like, do you

542
00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:57,679
Speaker 1: know what the ideas yet? And I was like no,

543
00:27:57,880 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: and she was like, I kind of hope it's that

544
00:27:59,640 --> 00:28:02,520
Speaker 1: government at one And I was like I kind of

545
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:05,840
Speaker 1: couldn't mask my like anxiety. And I was like, yeah, yeah,

546
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 1: me too, me too. And she laughed and was like,

547
00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 1: let me tell you a story. And I said okay,

548
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:16,640
Speaker 1: and she said, so early on in Gregg's in my marriage,

549
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:19,800
Speaker 1: we were driving, I think they were driving from Chicago

550
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:23,639
Speaker 1: to New York and she says, uh, it's ten o'clock

551
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:27,000
Speaker 1: at night and I'm starving and we're driving through like

552
00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:30,560
Speaker 1: shull Kill, Pennsylvania. And I said, honey, you gotta you

553
00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:32,720
Speaker 1: gotta start, you gotta pull around, starving. I just need

554
00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:34,200
Speaker 1: I need someone to eat and he was like, okay.

555
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,480
Speaker 1: So we pull off the highway and we see I

556
00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 1: was like, there's a dinner. Go to the dinner. So

557
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:40,640
Speaker 1: we go to the diner. We walk in and the

558
00:28:40,680 --> 00:28:43,320
Speaker 1: waitresses comes over and Greg starts going out, what do

559
00:28:43,360 --> 00:28:45,280
Speaker 1: you guys serve here? Like what is everyone like? What's

560
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:47,480
Speaker 1: everyone's favorite dish here? And she was like, oh, people,

561
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:49,960
Speaker 1: we really like the meat loaf and and he goes like, like,

562
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 1: how do you prepare it? And she doesn't meat loafing

563
00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:54,239
Speaker 1: and whatever, and he's like what else do people like?

564
00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 1: And Suzanne says to him, can we just sit down

565
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 1: and eat? And he goes, no, I don't want to

566
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 1: know what kind of food they have, And so he

567
00:29:00,680 --> 00:29:02,600
Speaker 1: asked that hunter more questions and she goes, Honey, I'm

568
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:05,200
Speaker 1: starving less to see and he goes, Susanne, we may

569
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:07,720
Speaker 1: never be in Schulkill, Pennsylvania again. This might be the

570
00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:09,840
Speaker 1: only time we're ever here. We have to like eat

571
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 1: at the best place. We have to like learn everything

572
00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:15,960
Speaker 1: about this place, like get the best dining experience in Scholkill, Pennsylvania.

573
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:18,760
Speaker 1: And she said, Then we pulled out and we we

574
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:20,520
Speaker 1: we left. We didn't sit down. We what drove to

575
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:24,480
Speaker 1: another restaurant. We went in, he repeated the asked, you know,

576
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:27,240
Speaker 1: more questions, what do you serve here? What do people like? Whatever?

577
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:30,320
Speaker 1: And finally they found like the fourth place they went to,

578
00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:32,280
Speaker 1: and maybe they even doubled back and ended up going

579
00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:35,440
Speaker 1: back to the first one. But she tells me this

580
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:38,480
Speaker 1: story and I'm like staring at her mouth agape, and

581
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:41,200
Speaker 1: she goes, that's the man I chose to marry, and

582
00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 1: that's the man you've chosen to develop a TV show.

583
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 1: And it was like I was like, you're right, You're

584
00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:54,400
Speaker 1: totally right, and like the truth is, I'll bet they

585
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:57,960
Speaker 1: did have the best meat loaf in Scholkill, Pennsylvania, and

586
00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:00,280
Speaker 1: like there's no better TV show that I would have

587
00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:02,400
Speaker 1: created other than the one that we created together, and

588
00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:25,960
Speaker 1: like it's it's just who he is. Yeah, well let's

589
00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:30,840
Speaker 1: let's play that. Uh played number six. I thought it

590
00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:34,520
Speaker 1: was weird when you picked us to make a documentary,

591
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:40,800
Speaker 1: but all in all, I think an ordinary paper company

592
00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 1: like dunder Mifflin was a great subject for a documentary.

593
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:50,440
Speaker 1: There's a lot of beauty and ordinary things. Isn't that

594
00:30:50,560 --> 00:31:01,040
Speaker 1: kind of the point. So it's really to me clear

595
00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:03,520
Speaker 1: that's what Greg thought it was all about. Did Lee

596
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:05,880
Speaker 1: or anyone to talk about truth and beauty? Has that

597
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:09,320
Speaker 1: phrase come up? Truth and beauty. There were a bunch

598
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,400
Speaker 1: of phrases that were like sort of the mantras early on,

599
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:15,280
Speaker 1: and Greg's the number one most repeated allem with truth

600
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 1: and beauty. And he was like, everything that we make

601
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:22,320
Speaker 1: should be true, should be real, should feel like it's true,

602
00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:25,920
Speaker 1: and it should be the attempt should be to find

603
00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:28,560
Speaker 1: the beauty. And whatever you're doing and the writing and

604
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:30,560
Speaker 1: the acting and the directing and the set design and

605
00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:33,480
Speaker 1: the costumes and everything, truth and beauty, Truth and beauty.

606
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:36,240
Speaker 1: And it just got deeply ingrained in us. He gave

607
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:40,240
Speaker 1: us an analogy for what the show was um in

608
00:31:40,280 --> 00:31:46,320
Speaker 1: the first season, which was, imagine a completely paved parking

609
00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:49,239
Speaker 1: lot in an office park. It's stretching out as far

610
00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 1: as you can see, and you're walking across it, and

611
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,880
Speaker 1: it's a hot day and as you're just in a

612
00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 1: corporate industrial waste land, and then you look down and

613
00:31:57,800 --> 00:31:59,920
Speaker 1: there's a crack in the asphalt and there's a single

614
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,600
Speaker 1: little dandy lion growing through the crack. He's like, that's

615
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:06,280
Speaker 1: what the show is. It's finding that Dandylion right, finding

616
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:10,400
Speaker 1: that little tiny glimmer of truth and beauty and happiness

617
00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:15,960
Speaker 1: in aggressively unbeautiful landscape. Greg used to say, I'm really

618
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:19,040
Speaker 1: I found like like a like a cult member. It's

619
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:20,960
Speaker 1: we're talking about Greg as much as I am, but

620
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,360
Speaker 1: it's impossible to talk about the show without talking about him.

621
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:27,400
Speaker 1: The truth and beauty was like, it didn't surprise me

622
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:29,800
Speaker 1: when that was the end of the show. I remember thinking, like, yeah,

623
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 1: he nailed He like at the very end of the day,

624
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:35,840
Speaker 1: he sort of laid out his view of what why

625
00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:39,800
Speaker 1: the show mattered for everyone through Pam, which is the

626
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:43,400
Speaker 1: right character to do it through. You know, Pam believes

627
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:50,080
Speaker 1: that Michael may have been whatever lead, but that Pam

628
00:32:50,320 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 1: was truly the heart of the show. Who said that,

629
00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:57,120
Speaker 1: Jenna Jenna, I think she's probably right. Um. I've had

630
00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:00,160
Speaker 1: this conversation with a bunch of people in the US

631
00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 1: with the with the weird resurgence of the show in

632
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:05,440
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. I've talked to Gentilata and

633
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:09,440
Speaker 1: Paul and and Lee and Mindy. I think about like

634
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 1: just when you rewatch it, one of the episodes that

635
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:17,200
Speaker 1: hit you the hardest. I think that the maybe maybe

636
00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:21,320
Speaker 1: the best episode that we ever did was Pam's art show.

637
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:24,480
Speaker 1: The ending of that episode is no one comes to

638
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:26,280
Speaker 1: her art show because no one likes her at that

639
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:28,360
Speaker 1: moment in the show, and at the end of it,

640
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:30,600
Speaker 1: Michael shows up and one of the things that she

641
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 1: drew was the office and he is just like so

642
00:33:35,440 --> 00:33:38,880
Speaker 1: blown away by it, and it's so meaningful that he's

643
00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:40,800
Speaker 1: there for her because no one else showed up, Jim

644
00:33:40,800 --> 00:33:45,240
Speaker 1: didn't show up, nobody showed up and um, and she

645
00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:47,920
Speaker 1: hugs him and then there's a great joke that I

646
00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:52,440
Speaker 1: think they added on the set where she's like, what's

647
00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:54,720
Speaker 1: in your pocket? And he goes chunky and she looks

648
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:56,200
Speaker 1: at him and he pulls it out and it's an

649
00:33:56,200 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 1: actual chunky. But that the moment where he shows up,

650
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:04,360
Speaker 1: I think is the is maybe the best moment and

651
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:06,320
Speaker 1: that we ever did, like him showing up at her

652
00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:09,239
Speaker 1: our show and her reaction to it and her hugging him,

653
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,320
Speaker 1: like I think she's right, Like Pam, that is the

654
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:15,600
Speaker 1: She is the person in those moments who makes Michael

655
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:19,319
Speaker 1: feel better when the bird dies, and who like he's

656
00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:22,720
Speaker 1: kind of the gatekeeper of everybody's emotional status and stuff

657
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,480
Speaker 1: and yeah, I know, well it's interesting that you bring

658
00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:30,919
Speaker 1: that up because that coupled with that talking head. That's

659
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 1: the last moment of the show, is Pam picking up

660
00:34:33,680 --> 00:34:36,480
Speaker 1: that drawing and taking it with her. That's right, Yeah,

661
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:40,440
Speaker 1: I know. And it was very That episode was very

662
00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:43,920
Speaker 1: hard to break. I remember I think Brent wrote it

663
00:34:43,960 --> 00:34:46,960
Speaker 1: Brent Forrester. As we did every episode, we rewrote it

664
00:34:47,040 --> 00:34:48,960
Speaker 1: over and over and over and over again, and like

665
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:52,360
Speaker 1: that was the that was like a late addition, was

666
00:34:52,440 --> 00:34:54,560
Speaker 1: like that the way out of this. We're always looking

667
00:34:54,560 --> 00:34:56,319
Speaker 1: for the for the off ramp for Michael of like

668
00:34:56,360 --> 00:35:00,000
Speaker 1: how does he get out of his whatever miserable circumstance

669
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,560
Speaker 1: hands he put himself in. And it was like, oh,

670
00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:04,200
Speaker 1: the way out is he goes to Pam's art chow

671
00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:06,920
Speaker 1: and then the idea that she drew the office and

672
00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:08,920
Speaker 1: he takes it back and hangs it up like he's

673
00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:12,759
Speaker 1: It was like that was the emotional solve, and uh,

674
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 1: it was like, oh, he should that's where he should

675
00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 1: hang it, right outside his office. It should be the

676
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:19,000
Speaker 1: thing that he sees every day before he goes to work,

677
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:23,200
Speaker 1: you know. Is I mean those little those little tiny consistencies,

678
00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:24,959
Speaker 1: that's what's so great about having a show that lasts

679
00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:26,440
Speaker 1: for a long time as you get to do these

680
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:29,799
Speaker 1: things in season three or whatever that are there and

681
00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:32,440
Speaker 1: that like end up mattering a whole lot in season

682
00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:35,920
Speaker 1: I mean, as a fan, I wrote the episode with

683
00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:38,279
Speaker 1: the teapot and the note and everything, and then it

684
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:40,279
Speaker 1: was like in season nine when I was watching just

685
00:35:40,360 --> 00:35:41,719
Speaker 1: as a fan and I was like, oh my god,

686
00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:47,080
Speaker 1: it's coming back, right, and we had I had um

687
00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 1: John write the note himself and I said, don't tell

688
00:35:50,960 --> 00:35:54,080
Speaker 1: anyone what you're writing. Write whatever you want, right, whatever

689
00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:55,880
Speaker 1: you think Jim would write. And I don't know what

690
00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:58,239
Speaker 1: he wrote. I no, I've never seen it, and I

691
00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:00,560
Speaker 1: don't think he ever told anyone. I don't think Jenn

692
00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:03,040
Speaker 1: ever told anyone. Like it's like I think I believe

693
00:36:03,080 --> 00:36:05,080
Speaker 1: it's like a secret shared by the two of essentially

694
00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:08,520
Speaker 1: by the two of them and maybe the props department

695
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:14,200
Speaker 1: if they steamed it open and looked at Wow, Um,

696
00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:18,480
Speaker 1: what do you think it's legacy is? I mean, it's

697
00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:23,000
Speaker 1: legacy is Uh, it's going to be enormous, I think.

698
00:36:23,040 --> 00:36:25,160
Speaker 1: I mean for a couple of reasons. One is it's

699
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:29,279
Speaker 1: really good. Two is the cast is incredible. And every time,

700
00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:33,000
Speaker 1: every time someone discovers Jenni Fish or John Krasinski or

701
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:37,400
Speaker 1: Rain Wilson or you or Angelo or anybody or Craig Robinson,

702
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:39,280
Speaker 1: they're going to go, like, where did this person start?

703
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:41,160
Speaker 1: And then they're gonna go back and watch the show.

704
00:36:41,960 --> 00:36:43,719
Speaker 1: But also it just was on. It did that, We

705
00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:46,279
Speaker 1: did two episodes, Like there aren't many shows that do

706
00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:49,399
Speaker 1: that anymore. That era is over, Like there, how many

707
00:36:49,400 --> 00:36:51,920
Speaker 1: more shows are going to even do a hundred in

708
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,680
Speaker 1: this era that we're in a six episode, eight episode,

709
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:56,960
Speaker 1: ten episodes seasons, even shows that last ten years do

710
00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:01,000
Speaker 1: eight episodes or something. And I think the reason why

711
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:03,080
Speaker 1: so many people have discovered it and have like really

712
00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:06,920
Speaker 1: sat with it is because it's one of the last shows,

713
00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:08,800
Speaker 1: one of the most recent shows where you feel like

714
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 1: you can watch a new episode every night. And and

715
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:13,880
Speaker 1: you know, my son is eleven now. My son was

716
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:16,560
Speaker 1: was born in season four of the show, and he's

717
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:20,279
Speaker 1: now eleven, and he just watched every single episode, and

718
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:22,719
Speaker 1: every kid in his grads watched every single episode. By

719
00:37:22,760 --> 00:37:24,800
Speaker 1: the way, here's another thing Greg did. We used to

720
00:37:24,840 --> 00:37:27,879
Speaker 1: try constantly to like put pop culture references in the show,

721
00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:31,799
Speaker 1: and Greg was like, you know, no no pop culture references. Um,

722
00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:34,360
Speaker 1: this show needs to feel like it could. It's timeless,

723
00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:36,840
Speaker 1: like it could be happening in any moment in time

724
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:40,319
Speaker 1: from the seventies until like two thousand fifty. And I

725
00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:43,480
Speaker 1: remember thinking at the time, like, all right, you're pretty

726
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:45,719
Speaker 1: high on yourself there. But they just think that this

727
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:48,640
Speaker 1: show is gonna matter. And now look it's twenty years

728
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:50,879
Speaker 1: later and it matters just as much. And my son

729
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:53,360
Speaker 1: doesn't know that that show isn't on the air. Netflix

730
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:57,439
Speaker 1: shows and ABC shows and are the same. And it's

731
00:37:57,480 --> 00:37:59,400
Speaker 1: crazy because now you can watch it and it doesn't

732
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:03,520
Speaker 1: feel dated because there's no references to, you know, things

733
00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:05,759
Speaker 1: that were happening in two let's see. I think it's

734
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:09,879
Speaker 1: different than that. I respectfully slightly disagree. Interesting because when

735
00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:13,560
Speaker 1: you watch it, which I recently did, it doesn't feel dated. Yeah,

736
00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:16,720
Speaker 1: we'll see when I think it was? Was you guys

737
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:21,360
Speaker 1: in the writing, we're so specific. The characters were written

738
00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:25,680
Speaker 1: so specifically, and so it almost functions that because you

739
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:28,319
Speaker 1: don't watch a documentary about the seventies and go that

740
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:31,720
Speaker 1: feels dated, right, It's just like that's when it happened.

741
00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:36,320
Speaker 1: So now we're watching a documentary about this very specific

742
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:40,160
Speaker 1: placement at this very specific moment. I I think maybe

743
00:38:40,160 --> 00:38:42,640
Speaker 1: it's both things, right. It's like we didn't call attention

744
00:38:42,680 --> 00:38:44,799
Speaker 1: to when it was happening, and also we were very

745
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:47,440
Speaker 1: specific about what was happening. And then that way, it

746
00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:50,320
Speaker 1: just feels like it's a moment in time, of place

747
00:38:50,360 --> 00:38:52,840
Speaker 1: in time, wherever you want to put it. So I

748
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:55,520
Speaker 1: like the in terms of its legacy. To get back

749
00:38:55,520 --> 00:38:58,040
Speaker 1: to that, I keep getting off topic, but I think

750
00:38:58,040 --> 00:39:00,200
Speaker 1: that people settle into the show and watch this show

751
00:39:00,320 --> 00:39:06,080
Speaker 1: because it has this incredible specificity and it has this

752
00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:10,640
Speaker 1: just deep It feels like you're eating the richest dessert

753
00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:13,520
Speaker 1: a tiny bit at a time, and that is a

754
00:39:13,560 --> 00:39:16,640
Speaker 1: really lovely feeling to have. Like, you know, it's a

755
00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:21,800
Speaker 1: different kind of hangout show from other successful hangout shows,

756
00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:24,239
Speaker 1: from Cheers or Friends or the It's a it's a

757
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:28,080
Speaker 1: hangout show that that feels like the emotional lives of

758
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:33,759
Speaker 1: the characters are completely wrought and thick and juicy, and

759
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:37,920
Speaker 1: you can really follow people's psychologies and their lives as

760
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:39,880
Speaker 1: they grow over the course of nine years. And I

761
00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:42,319
Speaker 1: don't I think a show like that is very rare,

762
00:39:42,440 --> 00:39:44,320
Speaker 1: and I think that people will still be watching this

763
00:39:44,400 --> 00:40:06,279
Speaker 1: show a very long time right now. When was the

764
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:09,719
Speaker 1: decision made for writers to start acting in the show

765
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:12,880
Speaker 1: from the before the before the pilot, I mean Greg

766
00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:17,120
Speaker 1: coming from SNL, Greg wanted SNL is very um. The

767
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:20,960
Speaker 1: membrane between writers and actors is very thin, and all

768
00:40:21,040 --> 00:40:23,280
Speaker 1: the actors write stuff, and a lot of the writers

769
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:26,000
Speaker 1: are in sketches and stuff. And almost everyone there's a

770
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:28,839
Speaker 1: writer performer, even if he or she is only on

771
00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:31,759
Speaker 1: staff as a writer or something. And he liked that,

772
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:35,360
Speaker 1: and he wanted to get rid of the false dichotomy

773
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:38,280
Speaker 1: of writers and actors. So he hired Mindy specifically because

774
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:40,879
Speaker 1: she was a performer. She was in a play called

775
00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:42,799
Speaker 1: Mattin Band that she had written in New York. He

776
00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:44,800
Speaker 1: hired b J because BJ was a stand up and

777
00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:49,320
Speaker 1: a writer. He and then like we made Paul against

778
00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:53,120
Speaker 1: his will play Toby in the first season, like we forced.

779
00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:55,239
Speaker 1: He did not want to do it. He hated it,

780
00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,000
Speaker 1: he hated acting, but we forced him to do it

781
00:40:58,000 --> 00:40:59,799
Speaker 1: because he was so funny to have him be the

782
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:02,799
Speaker 1: guy that Michael Scott hates more than anybody. But it

783
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:04,720
Speaker 1: was that was always the design. I think he wanted

784
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:08,600
Speaker 1: everybody to to write and perform ideally except for me,

785
00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:13,239
Speaker 1: because he made me a freak. Most famously and most

786
00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 1: annoyingly to me, played the character most shrewd. Oh my god.

787
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:24,360
Speaker 1: We never talked about most Oh my god. I assumed

788
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:26,000
Speaker 1: it was gonna be your first question. I I know,

789
00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:27,960
Speaker 1: I have a whole section on it. But you were

790
00:41:28,080 --> 00:41:33,360
Speaker 1: so great? Um, all right, well then just very quickly

791
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:36,359
Speaker 1: sure you were cast as most I was, and you're

792
00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:39,600
Speaker 1: happy about that. Hated it. I hated every second of it.

793
00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:42,000
Speaker 1: Why did you hate it? Because I was wearing wool

794
00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:44,560
Speaker 1: clothes and had a neck beard and it was always

795
00:41:44,680 --> 00:41:47,640
Speaker 1: really hot, and I didn't The joke was I didn't talk,

796
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:53,760
Speaker 1: and that's not a funny joke. And it was always

797
00:41:53,760 --> 00:41:55,360
Speaker 1: like I had to get up at four thirty in

798
00:41:55,360 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 1: the morning and drive to the middle of nowhere and

799
00:41:57,280 --> 00:41:59,799
Speaker 1: wear wool clothes and it was. And then the joke

800
00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:01,600
Speaker 1: came with the writers because they knew how much I

801
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:04,160
Speaker 1: hated it. They loved like, what if you're shirtless, what

802
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:06,239
Speaker 1: if you're on a seesaw, What if you're on a trampoline,

803
00:42:06,239 --> 00:42:09,200
Speaker 1: What if you're running as fast as you can alongside

804
00:42:09,239 --> 00:42:11,480
Speaker 1: a car like a dog I was at Parks and

805
00:42:11,480 --> 00:42:13,279
Speaker 1: wreck and they would call me and they like, we

806
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:15,360
Speaker 1: need mos And I was like, I have a job,

807
00:42:15,719 --> 00:42:17,840
Speaker 1: I have a life, I have young children, and they

808
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:20,560
Speaker 1: would just make me do it. They would compete with

809
00:42:20,600 --> 00:42:22,800
Speaker 1: each other to see what was the most humiliating possible

810
00:42:22,840 --> 00:42:25,239
Speaker 1: thing they could have me do. But that that episode

811
00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,080
Speaker 1: Paul So, Paul wrote that episode where they were Jim

812
00:42:28,080 --> 00:42:30,719
Speaker 1: and Pam go to Shreot Farms, and he wrote in

813
00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:33,359
Speaker 1: the in the script, it literally says, Mose appears out

814
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:35,080
Speaker 1: of nowhere and runs along the side of the car

815
00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:37,560
Speaker 1: like a dog. That's what it says. That's I'm a

816
00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:41,160
Speaker 1: human being. And so we did that scene. It was

817
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:43,760
Speaker 1: a hundred and forty degrees. I was in woolf clothes

818
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:46,600
Speaker 1: and and old work boots that like didn't fit properly.

819
00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:50,800
Speaker 1: And that sprint is probably a hundred and fifty yards

820
00:42:51,480 --> 00:42:53,399
Speaker 1: down that dirt road from the time I come out

821
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:55,319
Speaker 1: to the time I had to run all the way

822
00:42:55,360 --> 00:42:58,800
Speaker 1: up into Shrewt Farms. Of course cuts off long before

823
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:00,279
Speaker 1: I ever get there, of course, but they like, you

824
00:43:00,280 --> 00:43:02,040
Speaker 1: got it, Paul was directing, was like, you gotta run

825
00:43:02,080 --> 00:43:05,640
Speaker 1: all the way there. So I did over and over

826
00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:08,839
Speaker 1: and over again, probably twelve or fourteen takes because Paul

827
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:11,200
Speaker 1: delighted in it so much. And then later in that episode,

828
00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:14,360
Speaker 1: I'm in Jurassic Park pajamas that don't fit me properly.

829
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:16,719
Speaker 1: And then Greg pitched the thing where he was like,

830
00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:19,040
Speaker 1: what if there's a loud noise and Pam goes to

831
00:43:19,080 --> 00:43:20,759
Speaker 1: the window and looks at it, and Moses in the

832
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:24,160
Speaker 1: outhouse with his pants down and the doors flapping clothes.

833
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:26,279
Speaker 1: I mean it was like it was aggressive. It was

834
00:43:26,480 --> 00:43:29,000
Speaker 1: They knew I never should have been. If I had said, like,

835
00:43:29,040 --> 00:43:30,840
Speaker 1: I love doing this, they never would have put me

836
00:43:30,840 --> 00:43:32,640
Speaker 1: in the show again. But because I hated it so

837
00:43:32,719 --> 00:43:35,120
Speaker 1: much and was so vocal about hating it, well, you

838
00:43:35,400 --> 00:43:39,520
Speaker 1: have confirmed something. Moses a is a fan favorite. You

839
00:43:39,640 --> 00:43:43,480
Speaker 1: hear about people loving most. Okay, let me tell you something.

840
00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:47,040
Speaker 1: What I have always said is I think Moses a

841
00:43:47,080 --> 00:43:51,960
Speaker 1: writer's room joke. Oh, you have now confirmed without a

842
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:55,919
Speaker 1: doubt that it was literally a writer's room meant to

843
00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:59,799
Speaker 1: torture you, meant specifically to make me miserable. Yes, yes,

844
00:44:00,120 --> 00:44:04,200
Speaker 1: was in a coffin. I was like hanging upside down somewhere,

845
00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:06,080
Speaker 1: like there were a bunch of things that we did

846
00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:08,880
Speaker 1: that were then just cut out of the show. I

847
00:44:08,920 --> 00:44:12,360
Speaker 1: was riding a moped over like trying to jump a

848
00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:15,440
Speaker 1: bunch of cars. They made me do that moped thing.

849
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:17,399
Speaker 1: I don't know how to drive a moped. I don't

850
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:19,040
Speaker 1: know how to drive a moped. No one taught me

851
00:44:19,080 --> 00:44:20,600
Speaker 1: how to drive. They were like, just get on and

852
00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 1: just rev the thing, because the point was if I

853
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:26,239
Speaker 1: wipe out, it'll be really fun now, and then run

854
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:29,520
Speaker 1: across the roofs of these cars again. If you slip

855
00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:32,280
Speaker 1: and fall and break your pelvis, it'll be really funny.

856
00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:35,840
Speaker 1: Like they was. The subtext was always the worst this goes,

857
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:38,879
Speaker 1: the funnier it will be when it happens. Well, I

858
00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 1: this was after you left. I mean sort of from

859
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:45,440
Speaker 1: the beginning, but then more and more Kevin started having

860
00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:49,080
Speaker 1: a lot of physical comedy type stuff. And there would

861
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:53,560
Speaker 1: be times where I would go to the writer's room

862
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:55,680
Speaker 1: and say, I don't remember if you were ever there,

863
00:44:55,680 --> 00:44:58,440
Speaker 1: but I would say, you guys are writing for Homer

864
00:44:58,520 --> 00:45:03,040
Speaker 1: Simpson right now, and a cartoon you can force to

865
00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:06,960
Speaker 1: do whatever you'd like him to do. He can do whatever, right,

866
00:45:07,360 --> 00:45:10,880
Speaker 1: but I can't. My body doesn't work that way. No

867
00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:14,200
Speaker 1: one does right, like the most painful. I feel like

868
00:45:14,239 --> 00:45:17,480
Speaker 1: I still have pain from it. Is the most innocuous.

869
00:45:17,480 --> 00:45:20,640
Speaker 1: You would never ever ever know. The office workers have

870
00:45:20,719 --> 00:45:23,359
Speaker 1: to go to the warehouse and move boxes, so they

871
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:26,480
Speaker 1: decide they're gonna put remember that episode Boiled Down, so

872
00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:30,759
Speaker 1: they could move boxes to get to the troll. And

873
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:34,319
Speaker 1: everyone thought the big guy falling is really funny. So

874
00:45:34,440 --> 00:45:38,920
Speaker 1: I just kept falling slipping and which means on a

875
00:45:38,960 --> 00:45:44,680
Speaker 1: concrete surface with oil, kneecap on concrete over and it's like, guys,

876
00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:50,080
Speaker 1: I can't keep You've got to like, yeah, there has

877
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:52,960
Speaker 1: to be some other solution. We had a We had

878
00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:55,799
Speaker 1: a similar thing on Parson Wreck, where Nick Offerman's character

879
00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:58,280
Speaker 1: Ron Swanson was a sort of he was a little

880
00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:01,839
Speaker 1: cartoonish in his abilities to do various things, and we

881
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:03,680
Speaker 1: wrote this joke where he wanted to get he was

882
00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:06,920
Speaker 1: eating a he got lunch and he was eating as hamburger,

883
00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:09,359
Speaker 1: and and the joke was he wanted to get out

884
00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:11,240
Speaker 1: of the lunch as quickly as possible, so when the script,

885
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:13,560
Speaker 1: he shoved the entire hamburger into his mouth and ate

886
00:46:13,560 --> 00:46:16,400
Speaker 1: it in one bite. So they Dean Holland was directing

887
00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:18,520
Speaker 1: it and he was like okay action and Nick did

888
00:46:18,560 --> 00:46:21,839
Speaker 1: his best, but then Dean was like, you you really

889
00:46:21,880 --> 00:46:23,360
Speaker 1: need to eat the whole thing in one bite, and

890
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:26,800
Speaker 1: he was like this is a like a half pound hamburger. Okay,

891
00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:29,680
Speaker 1: Like I maybe the character can do this, but a

892
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:34,560
Speaker 1: human can't. And yeah, all right, yeah right, sorry, yeah,

893
00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:40,000
Speaker 1: you're not your character, right, Okay, I almost wiped out

894
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:42,279
Speaker 1: super hard on that moped. Like well, first of all,

895
00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:44,239
Speaker 1: the joke was someone pulls up in the car. It

896
00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:46,480
Speaker 1: was the Garden Party episode. Someone pulls up in the

897
00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:48,520
Speaker 1: car night and I'm the valve most of the valet

898
00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:49,960
Speaker 1: and I get in and they're like, just get in

899
00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:52,919
Speaker 1: and tear off down this road, right, And the joke

900
00:46:52,960 --> 00:46:55,160
Speaker 1: at the time is why is most driving so fast

901
00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:58,560
Speaker 1: and so insistent? And so I did, and like I

902
00:46:58,640 --> 00:47:01,799
Speaker 1: tore off down the road and I'm not a stunt driver.

903
00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:04,200
Speaker 1: I don't know, like and suddenly I'm going sixty five

904
00:47:04,920 --> 00:47:07,400
Speaker 1: on a dirt road and on a set and the

905
00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:10,319
Speaker 1: back tires fish tail because it's a dirt road, and

906
00:47:10,360 --> 00:47:14,080
Speaker 1: I like slowed down and was like, oh right, I'm

907
00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:16,880
Speaker 1: not This isn't a no One's gonna like save me

908
00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:19,879
Speaker 1: if I crashed this car, I'll die because I also

909
00:47:19,920 --> 00:47:22,000
Speaker 1: got in and didn't put my seatbelt on because the

910
00:47:22,080 --> 00:47:24,520
Speaker 1: joke was you get in and take off, and I

911
00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:26,560
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, I just I forgot for

912
00:47:26,560 --> 00:47:28,920
Speaker 1: a second that I'm not fictional. I'm like, sure, I'm

913
00:47:28,920 --> 00:47:35,319
Speaker 1: not fictional. I'm a human could suffer consequences. Mine very

914
00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:37,919
Speaker 1: similar to that was I think it was when there's

915
00:47:38,000 --> 00:47:41,640
Speaker 1: the storyline of Dwight telling Holly that that Kevin is slow,

916
00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:44,920
Speaker 1: and there was a scene we did a number of

917
00:47:44,920 --> 00:47:49,080
Speaker 1: different ways. This didn't end up in but where I'm

918
00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:51,759
Speaker 1: driving and she's like you're driving. You have a car,

919
00:47:51,800 --> 00:47:55,839
Speaker 1: and I'm like, yeah, I have a car, And at

920
00:47:56,000 --> 00:47:59,080
Speaker 1: one point they were like, okay, so do that, but

921
00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:03,440
Speaker 1: then get out of the car, but leave it running,

922
00:48:03,600 --> 00:48:07,719
Speaker 1: like leave it, leave it like leave it, leave it

923
00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:10,200
Speaker 1: in gear. So like as you step out, the car

924
00:48:10,280 --> 00:48:12,080
Speaker 1: is going to move forward and then we'll have somebody

925
00:48:12,080 --> 00:48:16,360
Speaker 1: else who can jump in and stop it. Yeah, I

926
00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:21,560
Speaker 1: did ideas like profound Meanwhile, it's vedas car, right like

927
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:26,399
Speaker 1: her real car. I uh. That joke that they did

928
00:48:26,440 --> 00:48:28,359
Speaker 1: with Kevin in the later years where he didn't know

929
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:33,920
Speaker 1: the alphabet elemento. Paul pitshed that in season two and

930
00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:37,120
Speaker 1: we were like, Paul, that's insane, Like you can't say

931
00:48:37,160 --> 00:48:39,319
Speaker 1: that he doesn't know that he's an accountant. He's a

932
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:42,040
Speaker 1: working accountant. Like he might not be the best accountant,

933
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:45,480
Speaker 1: he's an accountant. It made Paul laugh so hard. And

934
00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:49,040
Speaker 1: the second that Paul took over the show, that joke aired,

935
00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:51,319
Speaker 1: and I was like, well, that's what he got what

936
00:48:51,360 --> 00:48:54,239
Speaker 1: he wanted. Six years later, he told me it was

937
00:48:54,400 --> 00:48:57,920
Speaker 1: his favorite joke that he ever wrote. Yeah, yes, element

938
00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:01,520
Speaker 1: he told me and us that and and tried to

939
00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:03,319
Speaker 1: get it into the show and like season two or

940
00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:06,880
Speaker 1: three or something, and we're like, you know, there's crazy

941
00:49:06,920 --> 00:49:08,680
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I mean, you know, again, this is

942
00:49:08,680 --> 00:49:11,040
Speaker 1: a writer's room joke that no one would ever know.

943
00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:14,959
Speaker 1: But what was Kevin's band going to be? And having

944
00:49:14,960 --> 00:49:18,799
Speaker 1: it be the Police? This sounds like a you thing actually,

945
00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:23,160
Speaker 1: But the idea that I was a drummer lead singer

946
00:49:23,680 --> 00:49:27,880
Speaker 1: of the police, and with the Police, the lyrics and

947
00:49:27,920 --> 00:49:31,120
Speaker 1: the singing is off of the beat of the drums

948
00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:34,440
Speaker 1: because they had like rhythms. You would have to be

949
00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:39,000
Speaker 1: a musical savant to be able to play drums and sing. Well,

950
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:41,799
Speaker 1: it wasn't the Police Originally it was Steve was Steve

951
00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:44,080
Speaker 1: Miller band and they were called the Midnight Tookers. My

952
00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:47,760
Speaker 1: friend scotts Olvery was in a Steve Miller cover band

953
00:49:47,760 --> 00:49:50,160
Speaker 1: in high school called the Midnight Tookers. Scott's a writer,

954
00:49:50,239 --> 00:49:53,040
Speaker 1: and I always thought that was the perfect amount of

955
00:49:53,080 --> 00:49:56,239
Speaker 1: stupid for a cover. But like Midnight Tookers is like, oh,

956
00:49:56,280 --> 00:49:58,080
Speaker 1: what a great and so it's a Steve Miller band.

957
00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:00,319
Speaker 1: And then they didn't give us the rights to the music, yes,

958
00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:02,600
Speaker 1: and so we had to change it. And so I

959
00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:07,000
Speaker 1: think Mindy maybe pitched Scrantnicity Mindy or Paul. But I

960
00:50:07,040 --> 00:50:09,480
Speaker 1: remember being so bummed out that it couldn't be the

961
00:50:09,480 --> 00:50:11,560
Speaker 1: Midnight Pokers, just because I had really had my heart

962
00:50:11,560 --> 00:50:15,720
Speaker 1: set on it. I sang, we did the whole video, right,

963
00:50:15,960 --> 00:50:18,279
Speaker 1: that's right, and we're trying to volume down because it

964
00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:22,319
Speaker 1: was too like jet Airliner or whatever, remember what it was.

965
00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:24,040
Speaker 1: But yes, and maybe it was the Joker. I don't

966
00:50:24,080 --> 00:50:27,480
Speaker 1: know it was, yeah, right, But I'm happy at the

967
00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:29,799
Speaker 1: end of the day, I'm happy that it was Scrantnicity. Yes,

968
00:50:30,160 --> 00:50:36,600
Speaker 1: that was a good solution to that stupid problem. Um, okay,

969
00:50:36,920 --> 00:50:39,160
Speaker 1: you've given us so much time. Thank you so much,

970
00:50:40,440 --> 00:50:43,719
Speaker 1: so really fun. I like walking down memory Lane. It's fun. Yeah,

971
00:50:44,160 --> 00:50:47,919
Speaker 1: it's such a I mean, it's just actually awesome to see.

972
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:51,080
Speaker 1: I know it's been too long, I know. And congratulations

973
00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:55,200
Speaker 1: on everything, and um, thank you so much, my pleasure,

974
00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:11,920
Speaker 1: wow the things that could have been. Thank you Mike

975
00:51:12,560 --> 00:51:15,480
Speaker 1: for coming back and sharing so much of your story

976
00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:18,680
Speaker 1: with us. It was so great to have you and

977
00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:23,600
Speaker 1: just so great to talk the office with you. And

978
00:51:23,680 --> 00:51:27,759
Speaker 1: thank you all as always for listening week to week

979
00:51:28,040 --> 00:51:32,560
Speaker 1: or day to day. Don't forget to come back next Tuesday,

980
00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:38,120
Speaker 1: same time, same place, for another very special episode, because

981
00:51:38,320 --> 00:51:41,840
Speaker 1: that day, next Tuesday, is the day that we, or

982
00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:45,560
Speaker 1: at least I have been waiting for. It will finally

983
00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:51,120
Speaker 1: be here the launch of our brand spanking new book

984
00:51:51,680 --> 00:51:55,960
Speaker 1: Next Tuesday. Head to Amazon dot Com, Barnes and Noble

985
00:51:56,400 --> 00:51:59,640
Speaker 1: Books a million, wherever you get your books. Basically, go

986
00:51:59,800 --> 00:52:03,120
Speaker 1: the pre order your very own copy of Welcome to

987
00:52:03,200 --> 00:52:06,319
Speaker 1: dunder Mifflin, The Ultimate Oral History of the Office, and

988
00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:09,720
Speaker 1: if you do, you could be reading it one week

989
00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:14,759
Speaker 1: from today. Grab one for yourself, grab one for everyone

990
00:52:15,040 --> 00:52:17,880
Speaker 1: that you know, because when it comes to a gift,

991
00:52:18,520 --> 00:52:23,399
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have a hard time getting it in. That's

992
00:52:23,400 --> 00:52:26,560
Speaker 1: what she said. Wait, no, you shouldn't have a hard

993
00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:30,880
Speaker 1: time getting it in time for the holidays or you know,

994
00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:34,680
Speaker 1: any day, because every day is a holiday when you're

995
00:52:34,840 --> 00:52:48,920
Speaker 1: with me. Oh okay, have a great week everyone. The office.

996
00:52:48,960 --> 00:52:52,520
Speaker 1: Deep Dive is hosted and executive produced by me Brian

997
00:52:52,560 --> 00:52:57,440
Speaker 1: bond Gartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Our senior producer

998
00:52:57,600 --> 00:53:01,800
Speaker 1: is Tessa Kramer. Our producers are Is Hayes and Diego Tapia.

999
00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:05,239
Speaker 1: My main man in the booth is Alec Moore. Our

1000
00:53:05,360 --> 00:53:08,840
Speaker 1: theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great friend

1001
00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:28,800
Speaker 1: Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed by Seth Olandsky.