Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's it right there, scrant the Electric City.
Speaker 1: It's been seven years since The Office finale aired and
Speaker 1: we had the Scranton Rat Party here. I haven't been
Speaker 1: back since. Really, in exploring anything about the Office, I
Speaker 1: felt like it was important to come back here to Scranton.
Speaker 1: It's not really where it all started, but it somehow
Speaker 1: feels like it's where it all started.
Speaker 2: My name is Michelle Dempsey and I'm a co chair
Speaker 2: of the Office Convention in the Office Rat Party.
Speaker 3: My name is Tim Holmes. I'm a co chair of
Speaker 3: the Office Convention in the Office Rat Party.
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, Bonus episode alert. That's right. You thought you
Speaker 1: were done with me for twenty twenty three, but guess what.
Speaker 1: I'm back baby. Off the beat, of course, this is
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner. Now, I told you I get sentimental around
Speaker 1: the holidays, and I meant it. I got so sentimental
Speaker 1: that I decided to bring an episode back. I mean
Speaker 1: way back, an episode I recorded a long time ago,
Speaker 1: one of my favorite episodes from one of my favorite
Speaker 1: places ever, Scranton, Pennsylvania. Now, if you know me, you
Speaker 1: know how much I love it there. One of the
Speaker 1: reasons is that every time I visit, I'm welcomed not
Speaker 1: only by the city, not only by its incredible residents
Speaker 1: and the students there at the University of Scritton, but
Speaker 1: by my dear friends Michelle Dempsey and Tim Holmes. I
Speaker 1: call them the Ambassadors to Scranton because one, they love Scrinton,
Speaker 1: but two they also are some of the biggest Office
Speaker 1: fans around. They organize the very first Office convention and
Speaker 1: the rap party for the show that we did back
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen. They've helped me with various book tours.
Speaker 1: In fact, pretty much every time I go back to Scranton,
Speaker 1: they are my wingman and my wing woman for whatever
Speaker 1: it is that I'm doing there. Going back to Scranton
Speaker 1: always feels like home. I know many of you have
Speaker 1: returned home during this holiday season, so for my last
Speaker 1: episode of twenty twenty three, I wanted you to enjoy
Speaker 1: my little trip back home. Here's Tim and.
Speaker 4: Michelle Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeak,
Speaker 4: A Bubble and Squeaker cooking at every mole lift over
Speaker 4: from the nine before.
Speaker 1: I was driving down the highway here and we got
Speaker 1: off and there was the mural there. I started no joke.
Speaker 1: I started getting emotional when I just like, I just
Speaker 1: saw the sign.
Speaker 2: Honest to God, when Scranton heard you were coming, you
Speaker 2: felt the electricity search through the city.
Speaker 3: I'm not kidding, are you?
Speaker 2: Every my phone hasn't suffering. I'm sure Tim has been
Speaker 2: the same way it has been everybody and anybody who
Speaker 2: thinks they might be you know they it has just
Speaker 2: been on fire. And since your since your tweet, Yeah,
Speaker 2: we were trying to keep it under.
Speaker 3: Let's love them, yeah.
Speaker 2: And then your treat went out, We're like, okay.
Speaker 1: It's on Well. John just kind of he was because
Speaker 1: I talked to him yesterday and then he was like,
Speaker 1: will you send me a photo? You send me a photo?
Speaker 1: And I sent John the picture. And the true story
Speaker 1: is I like put my phone in my pocket and
Speaker 1: then it like buzz is what seems like fourteen seconds
Speaker 1: later and it's I don't know if you guys remember
Speaker 1: Steve Socks. I think he was here at the rap party.
Speaker 1: He was like the long time stand in, like like
Speaker 1: he was like Steve stand In or am I anyone
Speaker 1: stand in on the show? And I look at my phone,
Speaker 1: I'm like Steve Socks and he goes, hey, if you're
Speaker 1: with Krazinsky telling me owes one hundred dollars for the
Speaker 1: fantasy football buy end this year, because he's like the commissioner.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, how does he know it with Krazinski?
Speaker 1: And then suddenly my phone went like, you're with John
Speaker 1: tell him this you're blah blah blah, And I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god. He posted it like so quickly after
Speaker 1: he got his hands pretty nimble. I guess, yeah, Now,
Speaker 1: how did you first find out about the Office?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I was a huge fan of the British version of
Speaker 2: the Office. Okay, so when I heard that the Office
Speaker 2: was coming to America, yay. And then when I heard
Speaker 2: with Scranton, I actually panick. I paniced. I was I went,
Speaker 2: I didn't know the mayor well, but I like, like
Speaker 2: march to city Hall, Like, this is not a good thing.
Speaker 2: This is not a good thing because Slow they are
Speaker 2: not kind to slough in that show, and the mayor
Speaker 2: was trying to turn Scranton around and we were on
Speaker 2: this up swing and and so I thought, you know,
Speaker 2: do Slow was really the road to nowhere in that show.
Speaker 2: And Chris Doherty, who's the mayor at the time, he's like, well,
Speaker 2: I talked to Greg Daniels and who's the creator of
Speaker 2: the American version, and he said, he's you know, it's
Speaker 2: gonna be different, like he's going to be good to
Speaker 2: the city. And I took a deep breath, like, Okay,
Speaker 2: that sounds good, and I hope this Greg Daniels is
Speaker 2: everything he told you he is, And like, could I
Speaker 2: think higher of Greg Daniels, I don't think so. Like
Speaker 2: he he meets Granton like another quirky, lovable character on
Speaker 2: the show. Right, he captured the essence of who we
Speaker 2: are and that, you know, to me is important because
Speaker 2: it's forever changed the perception on the outside. It finally
Speaker 2: let people like the perception wasn't what the reality was
Speaker 2: to us and now they match, right, Like the perception
Speaker 2: is the reality. And the Office was the springboard for that.
Speaker 2: Like it really had an impact on Scranton, like huge,
Speaker 2: And I know we'll talk about that a little bit,
Speaker 2: but there's the before the Office and after the Office
Speaker 2: for Scranton and for when you leave Scranton and tell
Speaker 2: people where you're from, Right, what used to happen is
Speaker 2: like I'd say I'm from Scranton, people be like oh,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, right, right, right, like really right. And I
Speaker 2: always I never knew what they were sorry about, because
Speaker 2: I always loved to hear and thought it was a
Speaker 2: great place. But now it's I'm from Scranton. It's like,
Speaker 2: I love the office and it's your instant bond across
Speaker 2: the world with everybody, and you'll hear from all these
Speaker 2: people the connections and the love and the interesting moments
Speaker 2: that they've had outside of the area telling people that
Speaker 2: they're from Scranton. Right, And I think there's a cool
Speaker 2: story about how Greg picked Scranton too that folds into pain.
Speaker 1: Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2: So actually Tim tells this better than I do. So,
Speaker 2: so this is.
Speaker 3: Greg's words, not ours, and we're obviously paraphrasing, but it
Speaker 3: is our understanding that he chose, you know, basically, when
Speaker 3: he's looking where he's going to do. Philosophically speaking, it's
Speaker 3: a it's a satellite branch, so it's got to be
Speaker 3: a kind of a smaller city. He felt that it
Speaker 3: had East Coast sensibility, so he was kind of looking
Speaker 3: at the East Coast. When he decided the home office
Speaker 3: would be in New York City. He began to look
Speaker 3: at cities with which in might be a two hour
Speaker 3: driving distance. So he looks at Strand, Pennsylvania, Stanford, Connecticut, Utica,
Speaker 3: New York, Nashua, New Hampshire. These may all sound familiar
Speaker 3: because they all wind up being the branches and so,
Speaker 3: and that's when he sends out these teams to go
Speaker 3: check out, and Johnny Ka happens to be one of
Speaker 3: them coming into Scranton. So, you know, from what we understand,
Speaker 3: there was a lot of little happy circumstances because it
Speaker 3: wasn't only penn Paper. There was another place here called
Speaker 3: paper Magic, which is also a place that John visited.
Speaker 3: And paper Magic is the one that had a greg
Speaker 3: members getting a greeting card that had paper Yeah, a
Speaker 3: paper Magic Scranton, PA. So he kind of had that
Speaker 3: in mind, you know, and he's he he did say,
Speaker 3: you know, he might have just been being nice to us,
Speaker 3: but he felt Scranton was kind of the one to
Speaker 3: beat because he felt it was a big enough name
Speaker 3: just because of how big we were during the Industrial
Speaker 3: Revolution and a bunch of things, you know, for a
Speaker 3: little town, we have a big name, you know. And
Speaker 3: ultimately everything fell into place and it and it worked
Speaker 3: out wonderfully for the show, for us, for everybody.
Speaker 2: Involved, from Magic makes all those valentines that used to
Speaker 2: give out.
Speaker 1: In Great School and.
Speaker 2: Paper Magic, scrant Pa on the back of all of them,
Speaker 2: and he remembered that. So it was a confluence of things, right,
Speaker 2: and that was one of them.
Speaker 1: Yes, And he also thought the name Scranton was a
Speaker 1: funny thing to say, and it is. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of consonants all in a row, but it works around
Speaker 1: in your mouth a little bit. And so that's that
Speaker 1: was the one thing.
Speaker 2: And if you're from here, you don't pronounce the tea.
Speaker 1: Right, scr scrit right, So so you you were born here.
Speaker 2: I was born here. Yeah, So that was how I
Speaker 2: heard about the office. And then probably a few years
Speaker 2: into the show, I have an architecture firm, and I
Speaker 2: was at work and I opened up my web browser
Speaker 2: and there was just an article. You know, they'll populate.
Speaker 2: There was an article about Preston, Idaho getting this little
Speaker 2: economic boom from people who were fans of the cult classic,
Speaker 2: the cult movie Napoleon Dynamite going there to see all
Speaker 2: the sites. I'm like, we're the fictional home of Don
Speaker 2: tre Mifflin that seems like cooler. We should invite everybody
Speaker 2: to come here and like have like invite the actors
Speaker 2: to come here and see the city and show people
Speaker 2: what it's like here, and they'd have a great time.
Speaker 2: They'd meet with the fans, the city, you know, would
Speaker 2: be on display. Be a win win win, which is
Speaker 2: what we ultimately that's that's what we ultimately pitched, right
Speaker 2: win when right. But that's where the idea came from,
Speaker 2: and it literally went nowhere, and this is where Tim
Speaker 2: comes and went nowhere. I met with like three groups
Speaker 2: of people until somebody was finally like, I have to
Speaker 2: introduce you to Tim Holmes, right. I didn't know you
Speaker 2: at We didn't know each other at all, which is
Speaker 2: crazy to think of a time I didn't know Tim
Speaker 2: and the Homes family right right right, And so we
Speaker 2: were introduced and Tim instantly saw the you know, he
Speaker 2: got it, yep, all right, here's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 2: And then he went to Tim mode right.
Speaker 1: Right right now? Did you know the show? Were you
Speaker 1: watching the show?
Speaker 3: So I was definitely familiar with it, but I wasn't
Speaker 3: as immersed in it as Michelle was. Right, So I
Speaker 3: certainly saw the value in it, but it was definitely
Speaker 3: something that we were all beginning to see license plates
Speaker 3: from Ontario and South Carolina and everything driving through town
Speaker 3: that doesn't happen in Scranton, right, but it began to happen,
Speaker 3: and we're all like, yeah, I guess what you're saying.
Speaker 3: Michelle Is made an awful lot of sense.
Speaker 2: So and like we were doing things. Just to be clear,
Speaker 2: Tim worked for the local newspaper and I was an architect.
Speaker 2: We had no background and anything, okay, Like like Tim
Speaker 2: did planning events locally, right, so he knew how to
Speaker 2: put an event together. But this was going to be
Speaker 2: bigger than anything I think you'd ever for sure. And
Speaker 2: so here I am an architect, he's his marketing. We
Speaker 2: come up with this big idea. We got all these
Speaker 2: partners on board, I remember at one point. Then then
Speaker 2: we had to go through everybody's act like agents and managers, right,
Speaker 2: Like everybody I'm calling I'm like, hello, Hi, I'm representing
Speaker 2: office convention, right, I'm I'm putting together contracts. I'm like
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm like what am I doing?
Speaker 3: Staring at a white piece of.
Speaker 2: Paper and I'm like negotiating? Like this was crazy. We
Speaker 2: had to do it all right.
Speaker 3: It was like Tim and I had to do all
Speaker 3: of that, which is exactly why I think Greg liked
Speaker 3: it because he could see it wasn't like some outside
Speaker 3: group that was coming in and trying to monetize this thing.
Speaker 3: It was not set up to be a you know,
Speaker 3: a for profit thing, which is why you guys gave
Speaker 3: us a break on talent fees and you know, and
Speaker 3: they helped travel and all this other kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: They could see right from the get go that it
Speaker 3: was it was a partnership. The partnership was with the
Speaker 3: Cetius Grant, and it was with the County, it was
Speaker 3: with the Visitors Bureau. We weren't selling you know, sponsorships
Speaker 3: where you had to put a shirt on that said
Speaker 3: somebody Sonoko Like, we weren't going to you know, we
Speaker 3: knew enough not to do any of that stuff. And
Speaker 3: I think, you know, we would have conversations with Jowayne
Speaker 3: Park and the NBC Universal folks, and and truly they
Speaker 3: were kind of put they were put on the screen cheapers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they didn't open the door to the producers of
Speaker 2: the show and to Greg until they realized we really
Speaker 2: had something that they're like, Okay, I think these guys
Speaker 2: have their stuff together, right, so we're going to now
Speaker 2: make this connection because we had to dream up the
Speaker 2: entire like all of the Office Olympic Games, the Writer's block,
Speaker 2: like that just came out of our heads, right. That
Speaker 2: was like sitting around.
Speaker 3: It was maybe about seven or eight of us that
Speaker 3: did it. Tuck our house, Matt Smith, you know, Eric
Speaker 3: Dove and all these guys are building our websites and everything.
Speaker 3: All of that stuff was critical because they all played
Speaker 3: a certain role in it. And then all the partners,
Speaker 3: the University of Scranton and all these guys tapping into
Speaker 3: all that. But once we had it all, yeah, one
Speaker 3: of these conference calls. We had already had a number
Speaker 3: of them, but I later found out that at one
Speaker 3: of the big ones when they were deciding whether we're
Speaker 3: in or out, Kense Borneck had told me when he
Speaker 3: came to Scranton that he was listening in on the
Speaker 3: one and he just truly was looking to hear if
Speaker 3: we're just a bunch of fangirls we're gonna lose their
Speaker 3: minds when you guys get to town, or if we're
Speaker 3: actually going to hold this together and keep you guys
Speaker 3: safe and have it lined up with the University of
Speaker 3: Scrand police and you know in the Scrand Police and
Speaker 3: the State Police and the Marshall's office. Like Michelle's brother
Speaker 3: in law is a he's an faag and it works
Speaker 3: here in downtown Runner. We had all of that, but
Speaker 3: it's such a small town you can do something. And
Speaker 3: our whole pitch to Greg was, you know, office fans
Speaker 3: are unique. They need to come together like a La
Speaker 3: Star Trek convention. But it can't be done in LA.
Speaker 3: It cannot be done in New York. It has to
Speaker 3: be done in Scranton.
Speaker 2: Because it was such a part of the charts and
Speaker 2: interesting afterwards became a more a part of the show,
Speaker 2: which I thought was was interesting because Greg had the
Speaker 2: foresight to bring the writers here too. But but I think,
Speaker 2: but not to get ahead. I think, so here we
Speaker 2: have we've like sort of put this this agenda together.
Speaker 2: We have this thing. The only thing we didn't have
Speaker 2: for the actors mh you and Angela had come in
Speaker 2: like that may to to say, hey, we're gonna there's
Speaker 2: gonna be the Office convention, like you sort of generously
Speaker 2: because at the all this could have backfired, right, like
Speaker 2: kind of put yourselves out in front, but come like
Speaker 2: a month before still there was nobody officially signed up
Speaker 2: to come.
Speaker 3: One month of the day that we got our first
Speaker 3: actual country.
Speaker 2: We were panicking. They're like, we're gonna have a party
Speaker 2: no matter what. And I remember you called me. You did, right,
Speaker 2: and you called me one night You're like, how's it going?
Speaker 2: And I was like, well, you know, it's going pretty well.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to like keep up the front, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's going pretty well. You know, all the planning seems
Speaker 2: to be happening. You know, we got this, that got that,
Speaker 2: and yeah, we just uh, we don't have any of
Speaker 2: the actors yet. And you said something that made my
Speaker 2: stomach drop. First. You said, I just want to start
Speaker 2: by apologizing. I'm just so sorry. And I was like
Speaker 2: and I'm like, okay, it's cool. Trying to keep up,
Speaker 2: you know, the front again, and you're like, I've talked
Speaker 2: to my people and I can I could only convince
Speaker 2: thirteen of them. I think I'm pretty sure. I started
Speaker 2: crying when I ran on the phone, right, I was
Speaker 2: like so emotional, I don't even know what I said.
Speaker 2: After that, I just lost it and I was like,
Speaker 2: cause that was then I knew it was going to happen.
Speaker 2: It was going to be this thing and it was
Speaker 2: going to be unprecedented, and you know that was everything
Speaker 2: that moment to me with you on the phone. It
Speaker 2: was just too much. It was awesome.
Speaker 3: So just to put a timeline on this, So this
Speaker 3: is two thousand and six, so you're already in season
Speaker 3: three at this point. We hosted it in October, late October,
Speaker 3: but that was we all remember that day when you're like,
Speaker 3: we got twelve now the beauty of that. So you
Speaker 3: may remember that none of the Fab four could make
Speaker 3: it that year, right, so Steve, John, Jenna and uh
Speaker 3: and Rain could not make it, you know, just conflicts
Speaker 3: and all that other kind of stuff. What we felt
Speaker 3: from the very beginning is the actually convention was so
Speaker 3: special because it celebrated the ensemble cast. Everybody else was there,
Speaker 3: all the writers were there, so it really you know,
Speaker 3: we you know, we're glad that we didn't want Jenny
Speaker 3: to be distracted. Jenny Tan was there, like Dancer was there.
Speaker 3: But we you know, we were able to build it
Speaker 3: and get our hands around it, you know, and the
Speaker 3: people who were there were truly office fans, you know.
Speaker 3: They weren't four year old virgin fans. They were office fans, right,
Speaker 3: And that was why that the first one was so
Speaker 3: special and it was packed.
Speaker 1: It was packed. I was actually there, yeah, and I.
Speaker 2: Thought like it was one of the moments to me
Speaker 2: because I was up in the balcony kind of looking
Speaker 2: down and just enjoying it so much. And each writer
Speaker 2: told episode that they wrote, and people were like cheering
Speaker 2: for the episodes, like I, you know, I did the
Speaker 2: Baconator with the folk George Forman girl. That was selling.
Speaker 2: But the cool moment too, was at the end. First
Speaker 2: everybody was so into it, but then at the end
Speaker 2: they did a little clip of a piece of a
Speaker 2: show that hadn't been seen yet, and the crowd got
Speaker 2: to watch it live. And the actor or the writers
Speaker 2: later told us they'd never like they'd never gotten to
Speaker 2: see the fans watch the show and get the reaction
Speaker 2: in real time, and that that was like a really
Speaker 2: cool moment for them to hear them laughing where they
Speaker 2: hoped they would get a laugh and like just so
Speaker 2: appreciating the beauty and the joy of it.
Speaker 1: You know, well, I remember, great, Yeah, I remember I
Speaker 1: mean from my side, and I don't even think that
Speaker 1: I was aware that it was like a tryout, but
Speaker 1: I remember coming there was this brunch and I remember
Speaker 1: Tim saying, yeah, you know, this was like for VIP things,
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm not sure how many people are
Speaker 1: going to be there, but you know, then we've got this, this, this,
Speaker 1: and Angela and I show up and I don't know
Speaker 1: if you remember this, but like something happened and we
Speaker 1: were walking into a room that was way over fire
Speaker 1: code capacity of people and us walking in and like
Speaker 1: you just like you feel a wave of heat from
Speaker 1: bodies just walking into this room, and I like I
Speaker 1: remember like my breath like being taken away, and like
Speaker 1: where the fuck am I. I could say whatever we want,
Speaker 1: I can say whatever I want and I and I
Speaker 1: I mean, I will never I will never forget. I mean,
Speaker 1: I will tell you right now. There was a plan
Speaker 1: in place of the VIP and they were gonna be
Speaker 1: able to have a picture with us, and then so
Speaker 1: many people came in. You were like, okay, so here's
Speaker 1: the plan. You're going to go around to each table
Speaker 1: and they were like banquet tables of like ten or
Speaker 1: twelve people you're going to go around to each table
Speaker 1: and you're gonna say hi to each table, and then
Speaker 1: they'll take a picture with you, and then you'll move
Speaker 1: around to the next table. And what happened was there
Speaker 1: were so many people that you you began I mean,
Speaker 1: this is one hundred percent what happened. People started thinking
Speaker 1: they're not going to get to us, like they're going
Speaker 1: to leave before it's our turn. And so then the
Speaker 1: plan went awry and everybody stood up and started just
Speaker 1: like descending into this corner. And I had Jen Garrety
Speaker 1: police officers. Police officer Jen Garrety's four foot ten and
Speaker 1: I was told could take me over her back if
Speaker 1: she needed to, like body slam me. And I remember
Speaker 1: I was taking napkins off the table because it was
Speaker 1: so hot and there were so many people, and I
Speaker 1: was like wiping sweat on my face and she's like
Speaker 1: her eyes are big, like whoa. And I turned around
Speaker 1: her at one point and I said, okay, and I
Speaker 1: I mean, you have to understand, I'm just a theater
Speaker 1: guy from Atlanta, Georgia, Like this is I was like,
Speaker 1: what is going on? I turned her at one point,
Speaker 1: I looked I looked in her eyes and I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: I just I need I need to make sure you
Speaker 1: know you're watching my back because I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: going to die. I feel like I'm not going to
Speaker 1: make it out of here. If I know you got
Speaker 1: my back, we're good. And just that whole trip, the
Speaker 1: you know, the roof party and everything. So when we came,
Speaker 1: you had this idea to do the convention, and then
Speaker 1: we came and it was clearly I mean, I feel
Speaker 1: feel like even then it was surpassing your expectation. Were
Speaker 1: you so prized by people's reaction or was that had
Speaker 1: you come to know that this was how it was
Speaker 1: going to be.
Speaker 2: I think from your visits, we knew if everybody came
Speaker 2: it would be something epic. It was even more epic.
Speaker 2: It was just beyond like you can't imagine those things, right,
Speaker 2: Like even when you try, it's like it just because
Speaker 2: there are so many stories from that visit. So the
Speaker 2: Today Show came right and they filmed live at the
Speaker 2: University of Scranton, and then we're realizing that everybody thinks
Speaker 2: actors or like other worldly and kind of whatever. And
Speaker 2: because we had this Tim and I had this sort
Speaker 2: of backstage access. We're realizing, my god, they're just people
Speaker 2: who and this is kind of new to them too, right.
Speaker 2: So Phyllis was getting ready with Stanley to go out
Speaker 2: and be interviewed by by Al Broker and on the
Speaker 2: when she came out on the crowd went insane, insane, insane,
Speaker 2: and she got very emotional because she never felt any
Speaker 2: like that. Like, wasn't she one of the people who
Speaker 2: helped casting?
Speaker 1: Yes, she yeah, she she started out in casting, wasn't
Speaker 1: an actor, and Ken Kwappas and Greg Daniels and everybody
Speaker 1: just thought, well, this is what we're looking for. We're
Speaker 1: looking for real people. And yeah, she got cast. So
Speaker 1: she was here since she was feeling this reaction, right.
Speaker 3: She was one of the first famous faces the kids saw.
Speaker 3: So like that was you guys had come on a
Speaker 3: Thursday night, Friday night, we're about to go live. It's
Speaker 3: a three day convention. And again this is October two
Speaker 3: thousand and six, season three, so we have we all
Speaker 3: stay out way too late Thursday night, so you guys
Speaker 3: all come to town birthday. It was Craig Robinson's so
Speaker 3: we you know, we say, ad what was Whistles Pub
Speaker 3: back in the day and we're doing karaoke it which
Speaker 3: just want to be in a wild night. So now
Speaker 3: it's we've got to be here at like six in
Speaker 3: the morning because we're going live with local TV stations.
Speaker 3: So the students at the University of Scranton, about four
Speaker 3: thousand of them, camped outside, so they are waiting all
Speaker 3: night long for this and they are losing their minds.
Speaker 3: And so it's when we're pulling, you know, out of
Speaker 3: the out of kind of the staging area. We're pulling
Speaker 3: fill us out of there. She is like, if you remember,
Speaker 3: she had like a cane. She had hurt her ankle
Speaker 3: that week, so she has like this cane, and she
Speaker 3: has her purse on her arm, like she's just like
Speaker 3: going to the store. And as we're walking up a door,
Speaker 3: it's like, go time. We're gonna be live in about
Speaker 3: fifteen seconds, she starts reaching in her purse to get
Speaker 3: out a camera to take a picture for her mom. Again,
Speaker 3: that's that's the part that she's a regular person, you know,
Speaker 3: and so I like grab the camera and I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'll take pictures for your mom. You gotta get on
Speaker 3: national TV. So it's just those experiences, but everyone you know,
Speaker 3: every one of the folks. Ed Helms is a young guy.
Speaker 3: He never been in the hangover, Like people don't know
Speaker 3: who he is, right, and we have him playing a
Speaker 3: banjo at the Bog, which is legitimately about three hundred
Speaker 3: square feet.
Speaker 4: Right right right.
Speaker 2: So many things that happened, but I remember we were
Speaker 2: actually in this room I think or no was another
Speaker 2: building at you and we had fireworks going off and
Speaker 2: it was another really nice event. But a gentleman came
Speaker 2: over to me and he said, are you Michelle Dempsey
Speaker 2: And I said yes, and he's like, I'm like, who
Speaker 2: are you? And it was Greg Daniel's dad. And I
Speaker 2: was like and he told me that he knows name.
Speaker 2: Was like catching my breath, right, and he's like, he's like,
Speaker 2: I just want to let you know that I've been
Speaker 2: to an oscars and I've been to an Emmy's and
Speaker 2: I you know, been to a super Bowl. He's like,
Speaker 2: he's like, and this is the best party I've ever
Speaker 2: been to this this weekend is no. It was in
Speaker 2: his son's honor, and like you maybe a little biased
Speaker 2: in that, right, but but like for us, I think
Speaker 2: that moment was like wow, like this did happen and
Speaker 2: it came together and people are enjoying it. And then
Speaker 2: the letters we got afterwards from the fans who came
Speaker 2: that would just melt your heart about how it was
Speaker 2: the best weekend of their lives or you know, people
Speaker 2: who came here who you know, were special needs who
Speaker 2: got to meet their their heroes, right like it. It
Speaker 2: really was for some people they had the best day,
Speaker 2: weekend of their lives in Scranton because.
Speaker 1: Of the office.
Speaker 3: The press was also a great thing. So you talked
Speaker 3: about the letters we received and everything you know, we got.
Speaker 3: We were in the China Dimes like it got on
Speaker 3: the ap wire. It was a sweetheart of a story.
Speaker 3: So it was in every newspaper in the nation, you know,
Speaker 3: back when people read newspapers. It was in I forget
Speaker 3: what paper, but one of them said that it was
Speaker 3: like a Star Trek convention with girls. But it just
Speaker 3: it was just great group of people. Everybody was happy.
Speaker 3: Now fast forward to twenty thirteen with the wrap party.
Speaker 3: That was bananas.
Speaker 1: That was it. Everybody came for that. How did you
Speaker 1: feel when you found out the show was?
Speaker 2: Of course bittersweet, right, it felt like it had this
Speaker 2: amazing like you can if you go on too long.
Speaker 2: It's like knowing when to and I guess is as
Speaker 2: important as anything else. Right, So it was like sad,
Speaker 2: but oh my god, the way the show ended was
Speaker 2: so there's not a show in anywhere in TV history
Speaker 2: that ended more beautifully in my personal opinion, then.
Speaker 3: The big endings that you can talk about, but this
Speaker 3: was this was fantastic, awesome.
Speaker 2: So it was so we just I think I texted
Speaker 2: it's time and you were like, let's go or something.
Speaker 2: It was like a real nice little we were both
Speaker 2: almost like Kis met like the same moment saying we've
Speaker 2: got it. Take a deep breath, We're going to do
Speaker 2: it again.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: So, just so you know, it didn't that didn't just
Speaker 3: come out of thin air. So as we were wrapping
Speaker 3: up the Sunday, Greg Daniels, you know, everybody had already
Speaker 3: gotten off. Greg was on one little flights out of Scranton.
Speaker 3: You know, we got to have a moment with him
Speaker 3: where we just said, you know, hey, this was awesome.
Speaker 3: You're welcome to do this anytime you want, come on back.
Speaker 3: If we can't do something like this every year every year,
Speaker 3: just at least consider doing a wrap party here, you know,
Speaker 3: and just instead of going wherever you would normally go,
Speaker 3: just get on an airplane party at thirty thousand feet
Speaker 3: and let's just do it here. And instead of this
Speaker 3: crazy three day thing, let's cram it into one super
Speaker 3: awesome day, because we already knew once it had started
Speaker 3: that was way too big and unwieldy. You know.
Speaker 2: Just when I went out and I met with Steve Carrel,
Speaker 2: He's like, I'd love to be in a parade and
Speaker 2: scrint here. You have a big parade, right and you
Speaker 2: wanted to be in a coffee cup World's best Boss Coffee.
Speaker 2: I like, Stee Carl, you want a parade and scrin
Speaker 2: you've got a pray to say the word.
Speaker 3: And we did.
Speaker 2: We had a parade.
Speaker 3: We had it all mapped out. It was a perfect,
Speaker 3: like four block parade to this awesome thing we had
Speaker 3: set up right at Courthouse Square. And everybody is off
Speaker 3: on the streets easily twenty thousand people on the streets
Speaker 3: and just a very small area. And so everything is
Speaker 3: looking good. I take a nice little picture of the
Speaker 3: parade route. We've got everybody in these beautiful open cars
Speaker 3: and everything. First, guy, we have going down is Craig Rabbinson,
Speaker 3: and he is on you know, on the back of
Speaker 3: his pickup truck, and he just starts dancing. He's got
Speaker 3: his arms with it, and he starts waving the crowd
Speaker 3: to command you're too far away, come on. That's how
Speaker 3: it happened. And then the whole the entire length of
Speaker 3: the parade route all collapsed on the parade, so we
Speaker 3: were literally elbowing eighteen year old girls away from Steve Garrel.
Speaker 3: We could have never protected him.
Speaker 2: It was just again the whole thing that that evening,
Speaker 2: and just the the genuine smiles on the faces of everybody. Yes,
Speaker 2: the fans could not I mean I think they lost
Speaker 2: their mind, like they couldn't have if you that is
Speaker 2: what happiness looks like. That's what joy looks like. That
Speaker 2: stadium is like what joy looks like if you get
Speaker 2: to see it right, And everybody's faces were just lit
Speaker 2: up like and including Steve's. He came out and hit
Speaker 2: the He just you could tell, even at that level
Speaker 2: of fame, he genuinely appreciates. Yeah, that those people were there,
Speaker 2: you know, to to to appreciate the body of work
Speaker 2: that was created, you know, and and and you guys
Speaker 2: as individual actors and your extreme and massive talent that brings.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about the other night because I went
Speaker 2: home and I was you know, it doesn't matter how
Speaker 2: your day is, you put The Office on and you're
Speaker 2: gonna smile and you're gonna laugh, you know. For me,
Speaker 2: I adopted two boys three years ago from Kyrgyzstan, so
Speaker 2: they came over. They spoke Russian on a order of English,
Speaker 2: and we were still using translators. And my older son
Speaker 2: started watching The Office, probably because it was in my
Speaker 2: saved programs, right, and he just started binging it. And
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, maybe there's a little inappropriate here and there,
Speaker 2: but what's he gonna know?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: I let him watch it, right, And one day I'm
Speaker 2: sort of sitting there watching it with him, and he's
Speaker 2: laughing at the jokes. He's laughing at all the right
Speaker 2: not just the slapstick, He's laughing at all the right spots.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, he can't talk to me yet, but
Speaker 2: he knows what's happening here right right. I'm like, so
Speaker 2: he probably knows when I say clean your room too,
Speaker 2: But like, you know, but it was the appeal was
Speaker 2: so uniqu like, what is that? I don't know. I
Speaker 2: can't see it ever ending because it just it's timeless.
Speaker 2: It is timeless.
Speaker 1: Well, Ken today was talking about I said, what is
Speaker 1: the office done for Scranton or why is the office
Speaker 1: so special? Or why is that bond there? And he
Speaker 1: just very plain spoken, said well, what is your life
Speaker 1: and your career since the office? And I said, well,
Speaker 1: it's completely in total changed me and people's perception of me.
Speaker 1: And he said, yeah, that's that's the town too. And
Speaker 1: I can't explain it is it makes no sense to me.
Speaker 1: I'm a guy from Georgia that now lives in California,
Speaker 1: but the bond that I feel to this place, it
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2: I am telling you. I said this, when you got
Speaker 2: hered like you are, your love is so it's so real,
Speaker 2: it's so felt by us. And I think maybe you're
Speaker 2: feeling that genuine love that people have for you here
Speaker 2: because it is it's as real as as it gets
Speaker 2: for someone that you didn't grow up with, who wasn't
Speaker 2: your family, do you know what I mean? But they
Speaker 2: feel your your love, We feel your love for us
Speaker 2: a town that wasn't loved for a long time, right,
Speaker 2: and you came here and you're like, I this is
Speaker 2: this is part of me now, you know, and we
Speaker 2: get it and we love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. But the two of you and the initiative you showed,
Speaker 1: and how respectful you were of the show as we
Speaker 1: tried to be of Scranton, your love of the place,
Speaker 1: and how hard I know you were. The show was
Speaker 1: a little engine that could terrible ratings. We were trying
Speaker 1: to do something new and different. And you know, my
Speaker 1: my last impression or memory from the office convention was
Speaker 1: you know, they said yes, but did they think it
Speaker 1: was going to be a success. And all I remember
Speaker 1: is we had a three day convention, an NBC sent
Speaker 1: only one semi truck of merchandise down and by halfway
Speaker 1: through the first day everything was gone. And I think
Speaker 1: we were underestimated. You guys were underestimated, and our fans
Speaker 1: were underestimated in a way. And you guys will always
Speaker 1: have huge love in my heart and appreciation for the
Speaker 1: two of you and what you did for us. I
Speaker 1: just want to thank you.
Speaker 3: That is wonderful. Well, we certainly appreciate it. And as
Speaker 3: we said, without your connection, it never happens. And we
Speaker 3: all pass this way but once and at the you know,
Speaker 3: my parents are in a nursing home right now and
Speaker 3: they look back and look at the fun times in
Speaker 3: their lives. We'll all be doing that soon enough. And
Speaker 3: those real connections that you create is all that matters,
Speaker 3: you know, And this has been wonderful.
Speaker 2: I said to to Greg after after I think after
Speaker 2: the originally convention said, I said, thank you for the
Speaker 2: rocking chair stories. You know, these are experiences and memories
Speaker 2: when I'm an old lady on the rocking chair in
Speaker 2: the old folks home, I'll still be telling people about
Speaker 2: until they don't want to hear it anymore. I'm like,
Speaker 2: it's still good though, And so we have these rocking
Speaker 2: chair stories now, thanks to the office, thanks to Greg's
Speaker 2: risk taking belief in us. And we always tell people
Speaker 2: who ask us, like, these characters you love, they deserve
Speaker 2: your love because it's people. They're the exact same. It's
Speaker 2: like you were just sall to the earth, amazing wonderful
Speaker 2: people too. And so where maybe I'll end it is
Speaker 2: sort of what I heard Steve Carell say to a
Speaker 2: little group of people at the wrap party. He said,
Speaker 2: don't be sad it's over. Be happy it happened, and
Speaker 2: I'm a rocking chair. I'm gonna feel about my life too, right,
Speaker 2: And this is something I always these these events and
Speaker 2: even these conversations like the office gave us this and
Speaker 2: you just that's priceless.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you guys so much. No, and thank you
Speaker 1: for coming and talking to me and being so open
Speaker 1: and letting me, letting me come back again.
Speaker 2: I so so appreciate it as always welcome.
Speaker 1: All right, makes me want to fly to Scranton right now. Everybody,
Speaker 1: thanks for coming along with me the nostalgia trip. It's
Speaker 1: officially over done. I'm going to be back next week
Speaker 1: or well next year, with brand new guests, brand new
Speaker 1: episodes for you. Let me tell you this. I've recorded
Speaker 1: a few and I'm not going to give anything away,
Speaker 1: but let's just say it's going to be hard hitting
Speaker 1: and wishful. Have a safe and celebratory New Year, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to see all of you in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer lingg Lee. Our senior
Speaker 1: producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes Hannah
Speaker 1: Harris and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary,
Speaker 1: and our intern is Ali Amir Saheed. Our theme song
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton.
Speaker 1: Where are you guys from here?
Speaker 2: I wrote a texitd in the video Texas. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: literally watched your show at least twenty times, really dared.
Speaker 4: I'm about to cry right now, just because I love.
Speaker 3: You so much.
Speaker 1: I drove all the way from Shilling to meet you.
Speaker 1: I have an interview in the morning. Got to get
Speaker 1: back to it.
Speaker 4: My brother got.
Speaker 1: Married at the Radison when the convention was on, and
Speaker 1: you and Andrew came downstairs and you took a picture
Speaker 1: with him and his wife her wedding.
Speaker 3: We actually walked into the Office theme song I.
Speaker 2: Have a tattoo of Jim Helper when he addresses this twice.
Speaker 3: My mom would not believe this because she thinks the
Speaker 3: Office is as stupid at show of all time.
Speaker 1: Please cut that part.
Speaker 3: I love you