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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is Lee Eisenberg played Pam Beasley on The Office. No,

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Speaker 1: don't do that, just for the whole day. This is

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Speaker 1: Lee Eisenberg. I was a writer producer on The Office. Hello,

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Speaker 1: everybody here, I am again Pam Beasley. No, Brian Baumgartner

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Speaker 1: with another enlightening episode of The Office deep Dive. Today,

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Speaker 1: we are continuing our conversation with the writing staff of

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Speaker 1: the Office, So you're going to hear my conversation with

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Speaker 1: the hilarious Lee Eisenberg. Lee and his writing partner, Gene

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Speaker 1: Stupnitsky joined the show at the beginning of season two.

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Speaker 1: Lee and Jean they were basically attached at the hip,

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Speaker 1: best friends. They lived together, they drove to work together

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Speaker 1: every day, they lunched together, they wrote together. Everything well,

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Speaker 1: accept this interview, they didn't do that together. But the

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Speaker 1: Office was their first real TV writing job, and as

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Speaker 1: you will hear, they were more than a little nervous

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Speaker 1: to be running with the big dogs, so to speak.

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Speaker 1: And I have to say, it was so funny for

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Speaker 1: me to hear that they felt like that, because to me,

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Speaker 1: like on set, they were always just completely self assured,

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Speaker 1: like these are the brilliant, twisted minds that brought you

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Speaker 1: our cringe eest episodes right Dinner Party and Scott's Totts.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that is who we are dealing with here.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, it's kind of mind boggling to me. Lie

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Speaker 1: and Gene, if you can hear me out there, just

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Speaker 1: what I want you to do right now is I

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Speaker 1: want you to look into the mirror and I want

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Speaker 1: you to tell yourselves I'm good enough, I'm smart enough,

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Speaker 1: and dog on it. People like me. In fact, that

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Speaker 1: goes for all of you. You're all great people like you.

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Speaker 1: So there you go. For me to you, there's there,

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Speaker 1: there it is. Anyway, let's get let's get back on track.

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Speaker 1: Here without further ado, here is Lee Eisenberg, 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're

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Speaker 1: just like this is like, uh, I think it's like

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Speaker 1: summer camp. It's like you come back and you just

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Speaker 1: like see people and you're like, hey, well I know.

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Speaker 1: I mean I've talked to Jenna Rain Angela Quapas. It's

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Speaker 1: such a fucking like I haven't seen you in so long,

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Speaker 1: and I love you and I know it's so stupid. Um,

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Speaker 1: this is all recording now right, this is no, it's

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Speaker 1: totally all recording. I bumped into Rain, I bumped into

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Speaker 1: Jenna somewhere. I haven't seen Angela and forever. I never

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Speaker 1: see Kappas. I hadn't seen Kappas in a really long time.

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Speaker 1: And I hadn't seen Randall in a while. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: saw rand Randall and I would like grab like breakfast

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Speaker 1: like once a year to kind of just like talk

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Speaker 1: about work and trap a nice breakfast. Who paid varied? Varied?

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Speaker 1: I don't remember who paid for the last I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to think who was reporting who? Yeah, like who was

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Speaker 1: I don't know. That's a really good question. Whenever i'm

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Speaker 1: a doubt, I always pay because then I don't want

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Speaker 1: it to feel like I took you to breakfast, like

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Speaker 1: like like breakfast is like not worth anything. I didn't

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Speaker 1: prepare for this at all. I've never seen the office before. No, No,

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Speaker 1: it's totally fine. I was so what's amazing is no joke.

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Speaker 1: I watched last night The Fight, the Return, dinner Party,

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Speaker 1: and Scott's tats. You know that there's a there's a

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Speaker 1: Reddit thread devoted to people Gene was telling me it's

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Speaker 1: like people can't watch Scotts Taughts. Yes, this is true.

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Speaker 1: I know. I get this all the time because you know,

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Speaker 1: we are doing colleges and meeting fans at various events,

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Speaker 1: and by the way, the Scots Tats shirts are very

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Speaker 1: prevalent the fans events. Yes, Scott's the other Scotts Taughts shirts.

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Speaker 1: And then sometimes even the people who are wearing the

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Speaker 1: Scots Tats shirts say it's the one episode I can't

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Speaker 1: I can't watch. And so I started engaging about why,

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Speaker 1: because to me, Dinner Party is equally as cringe e

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Speaker 1: as Scott's Totts. And they're like, oh, dinner Party is

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Speaker 1: my favorite, and I'm like, hold on, how is that one? Okay? Theory, Okay,

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Speaker 1: well you go ahead. My theory is that Dinner Party

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Speaker 1: you're watching him destroy his life, and then in Scott

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Speaker 1: Stots you're watching him destroy other people's lives. Okay. What

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Speaker 1: they say is that basically in Dinner Party, he's making

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Speaker 1: characters go through uncomfortable, cringing moments, but we know them

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Speaker 1: and we know their relationship to Michael, whereas now there's

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Speaker 1: like other people show out to the world thinking a

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Speaker 1: show to the world. We don't have any connection. We

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Speaker 1: just know it's horrible and oh gosh, so good. I

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Speaker 1: woul't see it, Scott stots in a little bit. It

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Speaker 1: is so uncomfortable. It is, it really is. And that

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Speaker 1: came from your brain, which makes it even weirder. But

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Speaker 1: we'll talk about that in a minute. Um all right,

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Speaker 1: So you what were you doing before you join the

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Speaker 1: writing staff of the office. I was an assistant to

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Speaker 1: directors and you know, writer's assistant, and then was a nanny.

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Speaker 1: You were writing together. Though we were writing together, we

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Speaker 1: sold some ideas to Larry David for Curb and then

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Speaker 1: we came up with a pilot idea that was about

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Speaker 1: two codependent roommates with unisex names and it was about

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Speaker 1: me and Jean, and then we decided to make it magicians, okay,

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Speaker 1: and then we and then we changed the names to

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Speaker 1: Lonnie and Gordo. Lonnie for League, Gordo for Gene. Are

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Speaker 1: you following? And then uh, and then that's what Greg red.

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Speaker 1: That's how we got hired on the office. Okay, So

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Speaker 1: you submitted this spec pilot script that you wrote, Well,

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Speaker 1: we sold it to Fox. The pilot was the first

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Speaker 1: thing we'd ever sold. We sold to Fox, and then

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Speaker 1: it was like this crazy thing. Like the people who

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Speaker 1: liked it were Greg Daniels and Harold Ramos. Those are

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Speaker 1: the only two. I mean, I think other people liked

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Speaker 1: it fine, but like for years it was like, oh,

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Speaker 1: like Jean was Harold Ramos is nanny. I'm not Harold's nanny,

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Speaker 1: but his kids nanny. He wasn't taking care of Harold,

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Speaker 1: he wasn't taking care of ral okay. And so when

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Speaker 1: you were brought on for a meeting with Greg Daniels,

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Speaker 1: did you know, Well, first of all, did you know

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Speaker 1: the British Office? Yeah, we knew the British Office. And

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Speaker 1: they've been six episodes of the American Office, And had

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Speaker 1: you watched that? Oh yeah, we're obsessed. We were big

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Speaker 1: fans of the We got the British Office really early

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Speaker 1: because I was working for a guy who had gotten Remember,

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Speaker 1: like the DVD kind of got like passed around, so

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Speaker 1: we watched it. We like couldn't believe that it existed,

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Speaker 1: and it was just insane. And then when they announced

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Speaker 1: the American version. My friend was Kevin Riley's assistant, so

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Speaker 1: we got to see the American version early and we're like, oh,

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Speaker 1: these poor fuckers, and then we saw it was like, oh,

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Speaker 1: that's really good. We were really into it. And then

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Speaker 1: and again we were like g made eight thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: the year before he was on the office, and I

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Speaker 1: wasn't that far ahead of him, and so I was like,

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Speaker 1: now of a sudden, we're sitting now with Greg Daniels.

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Speaker 1: Was incredible. Yeah, and how did that meeting go? He

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Speaker 1: had read your the script that you sold. He read

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Speaker 1: the script and people warned us that Greg would do

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Speaker 1: long meetings. We're like, okay, and Greg was very serious.

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Speaker 1: He took a lot of pauses, and my instinct, out

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Speaker 1: of like a desperate need to be liked and like

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Speaker 1: fit in is like, oh, you fill in the pauses

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Speaker 1: and you kind of like make jokes and all that

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff. And I was like, he's obviously very funny.

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Speaker 1: He's not demonstrating any he's not near funny right now,

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Speaker 1: but he's obviously very funny person and he's not trying

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Speaker 1: to make us laugh, and he must think that we're

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Speaker 1: funny because we're here. So I was just like I

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Speaker 1: went against every instinct of my that I had, and

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Speaker 1: I just was quiet and just waited for his next question,

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Speaker 1: and then at one point Jean said, he said, oh

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Speaker 1: my god, Harold's taught us so much. And I was like,

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Speaker 1: what has Harold taught us? We like smoke weed with

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Speaker 1: him and he hasn't taught us anything. I love him,

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Speaker 1: but he does anything. And Greg was like, what does

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Speaker 1: he taught you? I was like, fun, fun, fun, fun,

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Speaker 1: And then I was like, um, Harold always says to

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Speaker 1: write from theme, which, by the way, Jean and I

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Speaker 1: don't do. It was just the only thing that I

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Speaker 1: could ever think that Harold had said. And Greg got

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Speaker 1: really excited and flipped through his like UNI bomb or

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Speaker 1: notebook and he held up this page on the top

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Speaker 1: of the page. It's that theme is important in like

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Speaker 1: block letters. And I was like, I think that was good.

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Speaker 1: I think that was good. And then we met with

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Speaker 1: him for two and a half hours and then our

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Speaker 1: agent was like, don't read anything into that. Right has

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Speaker 1: really long meetings. I was like, who the fox, It's

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Speaker 1: down with people for two and a half hours and

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Speaker 1: doesn't hire them. And then we got a call and

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Speaker 1: just it was like crazy and we had turned down.

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Speaker 1: We turned on other jobs to get the Office, and

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Speaker 1: the Office was six episodes and the others were for

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Speaker 1: twenty two and we were just like, let's work on

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Speaker 1: something good and we had no I mean, that makes

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Speaker 1: a lot of sense now, but at the time, we

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Speaker 1: just needed money, right. I had a friend tell me

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Speaker 1: as I was in Guest star Land essentially the first

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Speaker 1: twelve and my friend was like, you have got to

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Speaker 1: get out of there, like you cannot keep doing this,

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Speaker 1: You've got it, And I was like, no, I think

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Speaker 1: this is this is good. And I I've been talking

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Speaker 1: a lot with people who, you know, like what was

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Speaker 1: the special sauce or like what made it so special?

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Speaker 1: And to me, your story fits in perfectly. The actors,

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Speaker 1: Ben Greg, everybody in some way was an underdog, and

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Speaker 1: everybody was just really focused on doing good work. And

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Speaker 1: nobody knew any better. I mean, we've never been in

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Speaker 1: the writer's room before, so we didn't know anything. And

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Speaker 1: so in the writer's room, if you pitch a joke

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Speaker 1: and people don't like it, they don't tell you they

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Speaker 1: don't like it. It's just you're met with silence, and

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Speaker 1: then you extrapolate the silence to me move on. But

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Speaker 1: we didn't know that, so we thought that maybe like

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Speaker 1: people couldn't hear and so like I remember Jane saying

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Speaker 1: to Paul once like did you hear what I said?

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Speaker 1: And that like stuff like that would happen a lot.

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Speaker 1: And then I pitched. I I pitched something. And because

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Speaker 1: you thought they were being rude, well I didn't. Well,

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Speaker 1: it's just not the way that people interact with each other.

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Speaker 1: You don't you acknowledge someone you said, like, oh, I'm

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Speaker 1: not sure that's right for me, But like if you did,

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Speaker 1: you know, you're generating thousands of jokes a day. Like

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Speaker 1: if you have every single joke and explain why it's

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Speaker 1: not right, you would get anything done. That's funny, Lee,

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Speaker 1: I don't think it works for this moment. No one

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Speaker 1: does that. We keep going. It was just weird and

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Speaker 1: we didn't know what we were doing. And then um,

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Speaker 1: everyone go out to lunch together. They would all kind

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Speaker 1: of like run to their cars and like five people

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Speaker 1: pile into a car, and then Jeane and I would

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Speaker 1: like get into like our camera. It just we felt

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Speaker 1: like we were the new kids and we didn't fit in.

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Speaker 1: And so I think our contract was like twenty weeks.

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Speaker 1: It was ten weeks with an option for another ten

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Speaker 1: weeks or something like that, and we were ten, We're

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Speaker 1: getting close to the ten weeks, and we're we were nervous,

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Speaker 1: but we also kind of felt like, no one's that

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Speaker 1: nice to us. I think we're gonna get fired anyways,

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Speaker 1: can we can we quit? And uh? And we called

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Speaker 1: our agent and we said, uh. He's like, hey, so

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Speaker 1: you're you're almost up. You know you're gonna you know,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna try getting you those other ten weeks. We said, well,

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Speaker 1: what if we want to quit? They said, well, I

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Speaker 1: understand where you're asking. And we said, well, like, you know,

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Speaker 1: people aren't that nice to us, like we're fourth graders

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Speaker 1: at the New School. And he was like, this is

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Speaker 1: the stupidest question anyone's ever asked me. And he just

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Speaker 1: was Mark Probozaro, who represented me and Bean and Mindy

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Speaker 1: and e J. And he was like, the dumbest question

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Speaker 1: I've ever been asked. And he hung up on us.

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Speaker 1: And then we've stayed on the show for five more years.

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Speaker 1: Were you close to being fired? Do you think? Or

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Speaker 1: do you Was that just your perception because people didn't

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Speaker 1: seem nice. I think that when you say people didn't

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Speaker 1: seem nice, I really feel young. I think that the

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Speaker 1: you know when you're acting and when you first started

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Speaker 1: acting and you're like, the scene isn't about you, and

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Speaker 1: you're like you want to go up to the director

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Speaker 1: and be like, hey, did you like what I was doing?

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Speaker 1: And you think the scenes about you even though no

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Speaker 1: one cares about you because the scene isn't about you.

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Speaker 1: That's the way I felt about the writer's room was

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Speaker 1: I was like, they're scrutinizing us every moment and they weren't.

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Speaker 1: Greg had thousand other things to worry about. Then the

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Speaker 1: staff writers happiness or our contributions. We were we were contributing.

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Speaker 1: But I think for us it was like Gina I

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Speaker 1: would drive back and forth. We lived together, and we

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Speaker 1: have like a forty five minute commute every day each way,

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Speaker 1: and all we would do was just say like, hey,

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Speaker 1: Paul laughed a little bit at that joke I said

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Speaker 1: in the small room, did how did it go with

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Speaker 1: Mike and Gen in the other room? Did bj acknowledge

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Speaker 1: you today? I mean it was like we were parsing

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Speaker 1: out the smallest little things. And then Greg got pneumonia

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Speaker 1: season two while we were breaking the fight, so we

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Speaker 1: had to outline the fight. Everyone else got to outline

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Speaker 1: the episodes kind of more as a group, and for

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Speaker 1: us it was like me and Jean and Paul and

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Speaker 1: everyone else was off on script and then we had

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Speaker 1: to go meet Greg at his house because he had

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Speaker 1: walking pneumonia, and it was like, Oh, they're setting us

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Speaker 1: up to fail. They gave us this episode that's like

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Speaker 1: goofy and different from the rest of the show. There's

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Speaker 1: like a fight in a dojo, like they don't want

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Speaker 1: us to do well, and then when we handed a

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Speaker 1: bad script, they'll fire us. This is what we were

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Speaker 1: convinced of. I think we didn't. I think we didn't

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Speaker 1: feel confident that we weren't going to be fired until

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Speaker 1: three years in. I'm not kidding. Every single time, like

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Speaker 1: when we wrote the Secret, we were like, they gave

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Speaker 1: us a secret because there's not a lot of time,

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Speaker 1: and then we won't deliver and then they'll fire us.

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Speaker 1: That's how we went through the first few years where

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Speaker 1: we liked everyone eventually, but we were terrified. It was

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Speaker 1: like a culture of fear. It was just too insecure.

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Speaker 1: Guys were just worried about yourself. We're terrified. Yeah, wow, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm really sorry to hear that. Thanks. I mean, it

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Speaker 1: doesn't surprise me. You're a bit neurotic, But but I've

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Speaker 1: monetized the neuroses. That's all that matters. Why do you

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Speaker 1: think that Greg hired you and Gene. I think it's

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Speaker 1: probably some program that was That's what I think. I mean,

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Speaker 1: that's why they have to hire. Yeah, a certain percentage

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Speaker 1: of yeah, Oh, it was charitable, okay. I think that

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Speaker 1: he was just really good at spotting people that fit

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Speaker 1: the tone that he was going for. And I think

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Speaker 1: we wrote that pilot, and that pilot was about underdogs,

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Speaker 1: and the jokes were very specific and unexpected, and before

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Speaker 1: we even understood like how to make an act one,

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Speaker 1: you know, like the way I would talk about Act

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Speaker 1: one now. I couldn't have articulated it then, but like

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Speaker 1: somehow we kind of knew enough, and I think there

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Speaker 1: was enough promise there that I think he I think

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Speaker 1: he took a chance. Also, we're inexpensive, and we were

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Speaker 1: two people for the price of one. That's really why

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Speaker 1: I thought it was. Yeah, I think that that's not

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Speaker 1: an unreasonable things like both of them probably don't actually

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Speaker 1: equal one great writer, but we get to yea, so

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Speaker 1: we can at least move them around in different What

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Speaker 1: was the office writer's room? Like, how is it different

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Speaker 1: from other writer's rooms? I think that it was in

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Speaker 1: some ways it was looser. It's like we it would

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Speaker 1: take us a long time to focus. But it's like

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Speaker 1: you're writing a show about an office. You're writing a

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Speaker 1: show about coworkers, and we're working in an office and

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Speaker 1: we're co workers. We just happened to be writing a

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Speaker 1: show about the ing. So you know, we played Call

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Speaker 1: of Duty a lot, and then we did an episode

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Speaker 1: about Call of Duty or everything is fodder. I remember

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Speaker 1: going into the editing bay one time, uh, and I

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Speaker 1: was having a conversation with Dave Rogers and somebody kind

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Speaker 1: of whizzed by the door and they were like, okay

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Speaker 1: one minute, and someone else is like you ready, Dave,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, what is going on? He goes It's

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Speaker 1: Call of Duty time, And literally the screens from editing

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Speaker 1: the show became Call of Duty, and you guys were

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Speaker 1: everybody would run to their battle stations and start playing

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Speaker 1: Call of Duty. No, so I think like it all

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Speaker 1: turns into something, you know what I mean, Like when

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Speaker 1: you're doing a show where it's just about people trying

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Speaker 1: to make it through the day. Everything becomes up for grabs.

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Speaker 1: So you come in and I would talk about my

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Speaker 1: date from the night before, and all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: that could be you know what I mean, like the

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Speaker 1: problem with the writer's room. I mean the beauty of

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Speaker 1: a writer's room and the trickiness of it is you

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Speaker 1: don't know what you're doing from day to day, and

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Speaker 1: as experienced as everyone is, it feels like you're starting

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Speaker 1: over every single time because you want to do something

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Speaker 1: that nobody else has done before. And if you're greg

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Speaker 1: and you're excellent at it and you feel like you

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Speaker 1: have all these great actors and writers and whatever, you

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Speaker 1: just keep you just keep pushing, You just keep trying

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Speaker 1: idea and idea and idea until you finally come up

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Speaker 1: with hopefully the best one. But you're not. It's not

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Speaker 1: like somebody says, like, what if you do an episode

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Speaker 1: about a dinner party and everyone's like yes, and then

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Speaker 1: you just start writing an episode of a dinner party,

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Speaker 1: Like months or months are spent debating it. There's like

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Speaker 1: there's probably amazing office outlines. There was something that um,

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Speaker 1: I don't think it was already, but we were going

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Speaker 1: to write. It was called the Premonition, and it was

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Speaker 1: basically that Aaron is like, I don't want to say

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Speaker 1: any thing, and everyone's like, what is it, And she's like,

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Speaker 1: I had a dream last night that someone died on

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Speaker 1: the way home from work, and she's like, the only

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Speaker 1: reason I want to say it is because I predicted

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Speaker 1: something else years ago and it did come true. And

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Speaker 1: so then just like people didn't want to leave the

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Speaker 1: people didn't want to leave work, and we outlined it,

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Speaker 1: like g and I were in the office. I remember

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Speaker 1: working on the Premonition and it was like there's a

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Speaker 1: faction of people that were like it was a bullshit,

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Speaker 1: a faction that didn't and Jim was on one side

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Speaker 1: and Pant was on another. But we like for a

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Speaker 1: day we worked on the Premonition. Their act breaks and

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Speaker 1: somewhere there's notes on it on a long lost office

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Speaker 1: episode and there's there's probably you know a dozen of those. Well,

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Speaker 1: there there is an there is a script that was

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Speaker 1: never produced. Pet Day was that before you? Pet Day

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Speaker 1: was before me? I read pet Day. There's another script

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Speaker 1: about like new higher, new higher. Yeah, there's gonna be

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Speaker 1: like a new higher in the office. Oh, it feels

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Speaker 1: like that is the name of an episode that actually

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Speaker 1: got produced. Sounds like it sounds like we probably did

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Speaker 1: New Higher four times. So that's why you exactly, Um,

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Speaker 1: is there a moment that you remember just a great

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Speaker 1: joke that got lost? Justin Spitzer Road a talking head

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Speaker 1: where Dwight explains what happens when you fart is that

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Speaker 1: a million tiny ship particles explode at once, but you

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Speaker 1: can't see any of that. They're invisible to the eye.

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Speaker 1: And I was just like, this is incredible, because what

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Speaker 1: a weird, specific Dwight thing to talk about. And I

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Speaker 1: have no idea what happened to it. I don't know

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Speaker 1: what episode it was for that might have been NBC, right,

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Speaker 1: just being like, no, if you said ship, yeah it was.

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Speaker 1: That was crazy. There's a thing in Dinner Party that

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Speaker 1: I think must be in the extras where Pam's trying

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Speaker 1: to eat because the dinner is so late, and she

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Speaker 1: sticks upstairs with Jim and she has a protein bar

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Speaker 1: and she starts seeing the protein bar and we basically

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Speaker 1: had jan like a horror movie. She just shows up.

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Speaker 1: She just appears and she's like, really, Pam at a

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Speaker 1: dinner party just like so disappointed and Jim. It was

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Speaker 1: the beginning of Jim selling out Pam and he's like, Jan,

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Speaker 1: I had nothing to do with this, and she, you know,

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Speaker 1: and then Pam's mad at Jim. And but that was

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Speaker 1: that was very funny based on your recollection, Yeah, what

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Speaker 1: episode came in that was changed the least? Was there

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Speaker 1: an episode that you remember that it was just like

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Speaker 1: it was handed in and it was okay, No, we're

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Speaker 1: good with that. I mean, I don't want to I mean,

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Speaker 1: Dinner Party is like that. I mean, I think, you know,

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Speaker 1: a lot of the work that the writers did on

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Speaker 1: it in a way kind of happened before. But I

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Speaker 1: think we did a really good job with it. The

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Speaker 1: big big change in the original draft of Dinner Party,

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Speaker 1: Jan intentionally drove over her neighbor's dog. She killed the

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Speaker 1: neighbor's dog, and she claimed it was an accident, but

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Speaker 1: you knew it wasn't. And then we changed it where

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Speaker 1: she wrote funk on the neighbor's dog and uh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: so that was a change. But I think Dinner Party

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Speaker 1: probably like changed like five and so there. And you know,

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Speaker 1: there's a double edged sword where if you write a

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Speaker 1: very good first draft, sometimes it's like, oh, thank God,

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Speaker 1: and then the room kind of works on it for

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Speaker 1: a day. And if you write a terrible draft, the

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Speaker 1: room was forced to work on it for a week.

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Speaker 1: And then now all of a sudden you have this

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Speaker 1: like collective rewriting a script from scratch, and sometimes those

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Speaker 1: become the best episodes, whereas like we did Michael's Birthday,

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Speaker 1: which I think is a good episode but not one

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Speaker 1: of my favorites, and we handed a draft that I

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Speaker 1: think was like a A B and I think the

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Speaker 1: episodes of B plus. And so if you're handed a

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Speaker 1: B script, it might go to A B plus And

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Speaker 1: if you hand in if you hand in a C,

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Speaker 1: we're not gonna shoot a C script. So now everyone

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Speaker 1: has to work really hard and you work really late,

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Speaker 1: and that might become an A minus or in a

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Speaker 1: you know, that's fascinating. Yeah. Um, how much communication did

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Speaker 1: you have, if at all, with actors about stories. I mean,

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Speaker 1: every so often Jenna would come up to the writer's

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Speaker 1: room and say, hey, I don't know if you guys

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Speaker 1: want to do like there was never never felt I've

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Speaker 1: worked on shows where it feels like the actors are

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Speaker 1: kind of it's a little bit more of an edict or.

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Speaker 1: It's like we've got to indulge them. And with the office,

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Speaker 1: it was a little bit more of Steve would say

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Speaker 1: to Greg or you know, or we'd be on set

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Speaker 1: one day and say like, oh, this thing happened. You know,

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Speaker 1: I was at my hockey league and such and such happened,

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Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, okay, great, and then you would

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Speaker 1: kind of take it the thing we'd always talked about.

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Speaker 1: It was also because there were writers that were actors

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Speaker 1: that were in the writer's room. The coolest thing that

425
00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:01,600
Speaker 1: an actor could ever do is if, like Steve would

426
00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:03,959
Speaker 1: pitch like a Jim and Pam story, He's that's why

427
00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:06,200
Speaker 1: he's like the all time great Number one on the

428
00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:08,480
Speaker 1: call sheet. Is like he just wanted the show to

429
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:10,440
Speaker 1: be great. It wasn't about him, it was about the show.

430
00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:14,240
Speaker 1: We always talked about that. That's amazing. How do you

431
00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:17,320
Speaker 1: think the writer's room specifically was impacted by the fact

432
00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:20,080
Speaker 1: that a number of the writers were actors on the show.

433
00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:23,240
Speaker 1: I think that it all just felt the lines were blurred,

434
00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:24,480
Speaker 1: I guess kind of in a good way, Like the

435
00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 1: fact that you guys were kind of stuck in that bullpen.

436
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:30,080
Speaker 1: You just kind of were interacting with everyone so much

437
00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:32,560
Speaker 1: more than I think on an average show. Like on

438
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:35,120
Speaker 1: a normal show, it might be that Kevin's character would

439
00:22:35,119 --> 00:22:37,119
Speaker 1: be in two days of work, which maybe would have

440
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:39,760
Speaker 1: been nice for you, you'd be a better golfer. But

441
00:22:40,560 --> 00:22:42,879
Speaker 1: but like from the perspective of like interacting with everyone,

442
00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:45,560
Speaker 1: we became friends from the show, and there's just other

443
00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:47,879
Speaker 1: people that just kind of felt that connection with and

444
00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:50,840
Speaker 1: I think b J and Mindy and Paul were also

445
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:52,600
Speaker 1: to say like, hey, it feels like we haven't done

446
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:54,720
Speaker 1: something like this. And the one thing that sucked about

447
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:57,159
Speaker 1: it was they're all credible writers and then they'd be

448
00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:00,639
Speaker 1: on the background of scenes and you wouldn't have them.

449
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:02,880
Speaker 1: You know, something that a lot of people probably don't

450
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:08,159
Speaker 1: realize was it wasn't an accident that Ryan and Kelly

451
00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:12,200
Speaker 1: and Toby were back in the annex, so they didn't

452
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:15,200
Speaker 1: have to be there all the time. They were able

453
00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:17,920
Speaker 1: to do sort of there I guess main job as

454
00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,919
Speaker 1: writers and be up with you guys while we were

455
00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:25,000
Speaker 1: down below. So you talked about showing up every day,

456
00:23:25,040 --> 00:23:27,600
Speaker 1: and it's feeling like it started over you launched it.

457
00:23:28,080 --> 00:23:31,560
Speaker 1: What was your typical day like as you were um

458
00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:34,080
Speaker 1: breaking stories? How did that work? How was the structure

459
00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:36,359
Speaker 1: of your day? So a writer's room is so tricky,

460
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:39,480
Speaker 1: and the office of the same way is there's so

461
00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:42,399
Speaker 1: many things happening at once. So theoretically, there's an episode

462
00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:45,359
Speaker 1: being shot, then there's a new episode that there's gonna

463
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:47,360
Speaker 1: be a table read in five days or four days.

464
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:49,840
Speaker 1: You're probably doing a rewrite for the table read. Then

465
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:52,359
Speaker 1: there's editing happening of an episode or two episodes that

466
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:55,440
Speaker 1: were shot two weeks earlier, and then you need to

467
00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:57,240
Speaker 1: get the next episode because there's a table read the

468
00:23:57,240 --> 00:24:01,520
Speaker 1: following week, or maybe there's a maybe an episode changed,

469
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:04,680
Speaker 1: or you realize that this thing worked really well in editing,

470
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:08,000
Speaker 1: so you're like, you know what, let's really carry that through. Like, Okay,

471
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:10,480
Speaker 1: we're gonna arc out Dwight and Angela because Dwight angel

472
00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 1: is playing so well. I know we've broken that episode already.

473
00:24:13,960 --> 00:24:16,000
Speaker 1: We need a new b story because Dwight and angel

474
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:18,639
Speaker 1: is the thing that people are digging right Well, you

475
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:22,960
Speaker 1: just brought up something. It felt like the writers on

476
00:24:23,080 --> 00:24:28,600
Speaker 1: the office were really keeping their pulse on what people

477
00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 1: were talking about online, what the fans or online forums.

478
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,760
Speaker 1: At the time, or it was so new, like it

479
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:41,719
Speaker 1: wasn't you know, there was office tally And I always

480
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:45,920
Speaker 1: felt like, if these forty people that are commenting on

481
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:49,919
Speaker 1: this office tally thing, if they only knew that as

482
00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:52,840
Speaker 1: soon as the episode dropped, that the entire writing staff

483
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:55,639
Speaker 1: of the office was just crowded around a computer refreshing

484
00:24:55,720 --> 00:24:57,720
Speaker 1: like crazy to see if they liked the b story,

485
00:24:58,320 --> 00:24:59,639
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It was like they had

486
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:01,800
Speaker 1: so much power. I mean, you you have to take

487
00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:03,440
Speaker 1: some of that stuff in stride and know that it's

488
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:05,960
Speaker 1: not your entire audience and that the show is being

489
00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:08,959
Speaker 1: watched by millions of people. That these I literally think

490
00:25:09,000 --> 00:25:11,600
Speaker 1: it was probably forty that they are that they are

491
00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:14,680
Speaker 1: just they're rabid, but you're aware of it, you know

492
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:17,320
Speaker 1: what I mean? And you but I never I never

493
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:19,399
Speaker 1: felt like we were running towards that stuff. I always

494
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:21,840
Speaker 1: felt I always felt like the writer's room kind of

495
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:23,920
Speaker 1: had its own pulse and it's like this was making

496
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:25,800
Speaker 1: us laugh a lot, and so that's kind of what

497
00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:28,680
Speaker 1: we were chasing. And I think also when you look

498
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:31,000
Speaker 1: back and you watch it, it feels like some of

499
00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:34,080
Speaker 1: the choices are so confident and so like inevitable, but

500
00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:37,720
Speaker 1: that inevitability. To make it feel like that takes months

501
00:25:37,760 --> 00:25:40,399
Speaker 1: and months and months of like you go down all

502
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:43,240
Speaker 1: these different avenues and so when you finally make the

503
00:25:43,359 --> 00:25:46,480
Speaker 1: choice and it goes through multiple rewrites and then you

504
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:48,479
Speaker 1: have these actors do it, and you know what I mean,

505
00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:50,680
Speaker 1: everything comes together, it feels like, oh, that was the

506
00:25:50,760 --> 00:25:54,040
Speaker 1: exact right choice. But like we debated Jim and Pam

507
00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:57,600
Speaker 1: in Casino Night for weeks and weeks and weeks. There

508
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,840
Speaker 1: were multiple, you know, drafts of it and different versions

509
00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:02,359
Speaker 1: of it and what does he say and what doesn't

510
00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:04,639
Speaker 1: he say? And what does she you know, and and

511
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:07,520
Speaker 1: whatever choice we made or whatever choice Gregg made at

512
00:26:07,520 --> 00:26:10,200
Speaker 1: the time, that sets off what the next season is,

513
00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:13,160
Speaker 1: you know. And so it's not as simple as like, oh,

514
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:15,600
Speaker 1: we know we're leading to a kiss or we know

515
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:19,400
Speaker 1: we're leading to a slap. It's like you're trying every

516
00:26:20,080 --> 00:26:24,440
Speaker 1: you're going on every path. Right. Something that is interesting

517
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:29,320
Speaker 1: to me was that when people were watching an episode

518
00:26:29,359 --> 00:26:31,320
Speaker 1: of the Office, they were watching it sort of at

519
00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:34,280
Speaker 1: the same time that it was happening, right, So, like

520
00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 1: all networks do this when it's Christmas, you're gonna see

521
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:38,960
Speaker 1: a Christmas episode, right, But Greg sort of took that

522
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:43,240
Speaker 1: further and to extrapolate that out that if the cameras

523
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:46,639
Speaker 1: weren't there, we weren't airing episodes. That means that we

524
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:49,720
Speaker 1: don't get to see that action that happened, and having

525
00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:52,920
Speaker 1: the audience have to work to figure out what happened

526
00:26:53,119 --> 00:26:57,680
Speaker 1: brought a really great active dynamic to the watching. No. Look,

527
00:26:57,680 --> 00:26:59,520
Speaker 1: I think it makes people lean in when you do

528
00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:00,920
Speaker 1: stuff like that because they have to catch up. I

529
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:02,960
Speaker 1: feel like the Sopranos would do that a lot. Yeah,

530
00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:06,520
Speaker 1: it's it's cool storytelling. And I think that, uh, having

531
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:09,800
Speaker 1: a show where the love story was so compelling and

532
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:13,000
Speaker 1: then having a show where the comedy was really high,

533
00:27:13,720 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 1: that's rare, you know, And I think that usually get

534
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:18,840
Speaker 1: one without the other. And I think the fact that

535
00:27:19,240 --> 00:27:20,760
Speaker 1: so many people would watch the show, and some people

536
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:22,240
Speaker 1: would watch it for both of those reasons. And some

537
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:24,600
Speaker 1: people are like obsessed with Jim and Pam, and then

538
00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:26,479
Speaker 1: there's twelve year old boys that don't care about Jim

539
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:28,879
Speaker 1: and Pam at all and are just like Dwit's crazy.

540
00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:31,119
Speaker 1: And I like the way that Kevin talks, you know,

541
00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:34,280
Speaker 1: was there a favorite kind of story that was your

542
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 1: favorite kind of write for for the show. You know,

543
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:42,840
Speaker 1: I think different writers had different ways of approaching the show,

544
00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:46,920
Speaker 1: and I think that Gene and I really liked the

545
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,840
Speaker 1: cringe comedy of the British one. That's a comedy engine

546
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:54,720
Speaker 1: that we really dug and trying to make it as

547
00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:57,800
Speaker 1: grounded as possible, but also just like sitting in the

548
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:00,520
Speaker 1: moments for a really long time as a character just

549
00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:02,479
Speaker 1: says the wrong thing and then just you can't get

550
00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:04,960
Speaker 1: out of it. The other one that we wrote and

551
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:08,200
Speaker 1: we directed was The Lover, which is a real brutal

552
00:28:08,240 --> 00:28:11,760
Speaker 1: half hour, which is just you know, Jimmy, I mean,

553
00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 1: Pam and Michael, and it's like Pam finding out that

554
00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 1: Michael is dating her mom is like just too much

555
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:20,080
Speaker 1: for her to take and it just I mean, it's

556
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:22,480
Speaker 1: that to me is some of Jenna's greatest perform and

557
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:25,480
Speaker 1: John is amazing in that episode. I mean, it's just great. Yeah.

558
00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:27,239
Speaker 1: I watched the one on a plane. Actually, I think

559
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,200
Speaker 1: I was with Jeene years after the office and I

560
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:32,280
Speaker 1: was just laughing the entire time, and she was like,

561
00:28:32,359 --> 00:28:34,359
Speaker 1: you're just watching, like you were like, what is this

562
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:36,520
Speaker 1: guy watching? And then it was our thing. I was

563
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:40,880
Speaker 1: tickled with our words. You you wrote it. Yeah, there's

564
00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:45,640
Speaker 1: maybe this is too like weird and esoteric, but it's

565
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:50,560
Speaker 1: interesting when you start really looking at specific episodes, my

566
00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:54,040
Speaker 1: guess is it wasn't all right, guys, we need something

567
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,480
Speaker 1: really cringe e here, right, But it's more like the

568
00:28:57,600 --> 00:28:59,760
Speaker 1: way that you write it, the way that you approach it,

569
00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:03,040
Speaker 1: it just sort of becomes that that's fascinating to me.

570
00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:06,640
Speaker 1: You start to see your own personalities within it, even

571
00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 1: though it is a collaborative process. Yeah, I think, I mean,

572
00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:11,800
Speaker 1: that's what was so great about the show. And again,

573
00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:14,080
Speaker 1: I think that it wasn't that me or Gene was

574
00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 1: only capable of writing jokes where the audience want to

575
00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:18,280
Speaker 1: cover their eyes, you know what I mean. And I

576
00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:21,360
Speaker 1: don't think that Mike sure only wrote jokes that were

577
00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:23,800
Speaker 1: like this, But I do think that everyone's kind of

578
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:25,520
Speaker 1: coming at it from a different place, and I think that,

579
00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:27,560
Speaker 1: you know, I think that Mike kind of saw the

580
00:29:27,640 --> 00:29:29,719
Speaker 1: best in them, and so a lot of Mike's episodes

581
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,640
Speaker 1: like kind of almost added an optimism to that, yeah,

582
00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:36,680
Speaker 1: which is great. And like, Mike's one of the greatest

583
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 1: comedy writers I've ever worked with. He's amazing. And I'm

584
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 1: not saying one's bad or one's good. I'm just saying that.

585
00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:43,240
Speaker 1: I think everyone kind of just took the same idea

586
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:45,280
Speaker 1: and maybe puts their own little spin on it. And

587
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 1: then a lot of times it goes into a room

588
00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:50,040
Speaker 1: and things get rewritten and reached, and like, we didn't

589
00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:52,280
Speaker 1: come up with Scott's thoughts. I think Paul did, but

590
00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:55,160
Speaker 1: we we have a large hand and what that final

591
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:58,520
Speaker 1: version is and dinner Party was not our idea. God

592
00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:01,520
Speaker 1: bless you, Oh my god, God, I was trying to

593
00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:03,640
Speaker 1: hold that in because you were sounding so good. Should

594
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:06,200
Speaker 1: I come back tomorrow? No? No, But so anyway, so

595
00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:08,360
Speaker 1: I think like Dinner Party, there were a million jokes

596
00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:11,480
Speaker 1: at the room generated and then Gene and I went

597
00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 1: off and added tons and tons of our own stuff,

598
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:16,600
Speaker 1: took things from the room, didn't take things from the room,

599
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 1: put spins on it. We spent usually you get a week,

600
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:23,640
Speaker 1: you know, some episodes three or four days. We spent

601
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,320
Speaker 1: three weeks on Dinner Party. And so like we were

602
00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:29,080
Speaker 1: just determined to make that great. We just loved it,

603
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:33,240
Speaker 1: and we were competitive and petty. We just we you know,

604
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:34,760
Speaker 1: we want to hit it out of the park, and

605
00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:36,880
Speaker 1: so we just spent way more time on it than

606
00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:40,280
Speaker 1: we would have usually how much were you thinking about

607
00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:42,920
Speaker 1: Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf when you were writing it?

608
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:46,120
Speaker 1: That was always the template for it, But I mean,

609
00:30:46,200 --> 00:30:47,640
Speaker 1: you know, from that it was just like, okay, let's

610
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:49,560
Speaker 1: just bring this cast of characters, and also like who

611
00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 1: would Michael bring to the dinner party? And you know,

612
00:30:52,840 --> 00:30:54,400
Speaker 1: how do you kind of keep ratching it up in

613
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:57,880
Speaker 1: in one location that episode unfolds in a way where

614
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:01,480
Speaker 1: you feel like something bad is going to happen, even

615
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:04,480
Speaker 1: when bad things aren't happening. Just it feels uncomfortable. You

616
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:06,680
Speaker 1: just you just know that it's not great. But Michael

617
00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 1: presents very well, like Steve is so handsome, Laura's beautiful,

618
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:13,959
Speaker 1: they look good, the condos like well decorated. And then

619
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:17,160
Speaker 1: it just slowly, slowly, slowly, you start seeing these little

620
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:21,440
Speaker 1: things well and just the time things take it adds

621
00:31:21,480 --> 00:31:23,560
Speaker 1: to what you're taught. You're like, you just it's that,

622
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:27,440
Speaker 1: oh man, the shark is about to bite the ladies

623
00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:30,320
Speaker 1: leg right. There's certain episodes, and comedy in general usually

624
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:31,960
Speaker 1: has a real pace to it. It's like you get

625
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:34,400
Speaker 1: to the jokes and the office existed in the in

626
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:38,600
Speaker 1: the reaction shots like John is a brilliant reactor, and

627
00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:40,640
Speaker 1: that's why Jim gets tons of laughs and why he's

628
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:44,520
Speaker 1: the audience surrogate. But it's not like writing jokes for

629
00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:46,880
Speaker 1: him was not the easiest part of the show in

630
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:49,200
Speaker 1: the way that writing for Dwight or writing for Michael is,

631
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:51,400
Speaker 1: because those characters are more inherently comic, but you can

632
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:53,720
Speaker 1: still get the laugh on the reaction you thought of

633
00:31:53,800 --> 00:31:57,200
Speaker 1: Jim as a surrogate for the show, Well, did you

634
00:31:57,240 --> 00:31:58,880
Speaker 1: think you were this errogate for the show? I didn't.

635
00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:02,400
Speaker 1: You just looked at me. No, I don't think I

636
00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:04,520
Speaker 1: think that whenever. Yeah, I think he was the everyman.

637
00:32:04,640 --> 00:32:06,200
Speaker 1: He had the crush on the girl. So I feel like,

638
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:08,960
Speaker 1: at least as a guy, related to him the most.

639
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:11,680
Speaker 1: And I think John has kind of every man quality.

640
00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 1: It's almost like a little bit of like Lloyd Dobbler

641
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:16,800
Speaker 1: and say Anything or something like that. And when he

642
00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:18,880
Speaker 1: looks to the camera when someone saying when Michael saying

643
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:22,760
Speaker 1: saying inappropriate, you felt like, yes, this is me. No,

644
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:25,360
Speaker 1: it's it's great. I mean, so you're film I have

645
00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:27,840
Speaker 1: an anecdote. Okay, go ahead, we want an anecdote. I

646
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:32,120
Speaker 1: want an anecdote. I love anecdotes. So we wrote Dinner Party.

647
00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:33,880
Speaker 1: I just thought of this when. So we wrote Dinner

648
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: Party and we were proud of it. And I can't

649
00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:39,040
Speaker 1: know if this is before after the right Track. I

650
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:41,920
Speaker 1: think it was before. And Greg pulled us into his

651
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,520
Speaker 1: office because we were getting notes from the network and

652
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:49,120
Speaker 1: they said, hey, so we read the scripts very funny,

653
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 1: and Gregg said thank you, and they said it's it's

654
00:32:52,240 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 1: really dark. And Greg goes yeah, and they you know,

655
00:32:56,680 --> 00:32:59,160
Speaker 1: just the thing about it is it's it's really dark.

656
00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:03,640
Speaker 1: And goes yeah, and they go just it's it's really dark.

657
00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:06,360
Speaker 1: He goes yeah, and then he says is there anything

658
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:07,800
Speaker 1: else and they go no, but he goes, okay, great,

659
00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:10,280
Speaker 1: thanks guys by and hung up and I was like, wow,

660
00:33:10,360 --> 00:33:12,400
Speaker 1: that was fucking cool because it was just they were

661
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:14,720
Speaker 1: basically saying to Greg like, we can't shoot it like this.

662
00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:18,360
Speaker 1: This is way too dark and depressing. And he was

663
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:22,000
Speaker 1: very polite. He said about three words and then that

664
00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:23,520
Speaker 1: was it. And then I mean, Greg had so much

665
00:33:23,560 --> 00:33:25,000
Speaker 1: power at that point with them, and the show was

666
00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:27,320
Speaker 1: successful enough, and I don't think if that was the

667
00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:30,120
Speaker 1: pile of the show that it would have would have passed,

668
00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:33,680
Speaker 1: but at that moment that was it. And then we

669
00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:35,640
Speaker 1: and then we didn't change this. I mean we changed

670
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 1: things out of necessity, but we didn't change anything based

671
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:40,880
Speaker 1: on the network's notes. I always think about that though.

672
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,160
Speaker 1: So he just felt like such a gangster. And if

673
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:46,920
Speaker 1: you know, he's not a gangster. No, not at all,

674
00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:49,320
Speaker 1: not at all, but it was a very gangster move

675
00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:51,800
Speaker 1: and it was just really he had earned, he had

676
00:33:51,840 --> 00:33:53,440
Speaker 1: earned the right to do that. He was he was

677
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:55,600
Speaker 1: totally polite about it, but he just he also backed

678
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:59,560
Speaker 1: us up. That's amazing. He backed up a lot of people. Yeah,

679
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:02,040
Speaker 1: you know, you only know what you know. I've only

680
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:04,440
Speaker 1: worked on one show that wasn't mine. It was The Office.

681
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 1: So the only frame of reference that I have for

682
00:34:07,520 --> 00:34:10,239
Speaker 1: running a show is Greg. So the way that I

683
00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 1: try to run a show is like Greg and you

684
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:16,240
Speaker 1: empower writers and you like is solicit advice from everyone.

685
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:18,120
Speaker 1: And by the way, Greg has really strong opinions. And

686
00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:21,040
Speaker 1: it wasn't like the show was done by committee. But

687
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:23,719
Speaker 1: a lot of people don't give you those responsibilities up

688
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:28,960
Speaker 1: top um. You and Jane wrote the episode that is

689
00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:33,200
Speaker 1: considered the most difficult to watch in the Office, which

690
00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:37,680
Speaker 1: is Scott's Todds. Are you proud of that? Incredibly? Yeah,

691
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:41,280
Speaker 1: nothing makes me happier. I mean other things make me happier,

692
00:34:41,320 --> 00:34:44,400
Speaker 1: but no one wants to watch it. You're really pleased

693
00:34:44,400 --> 00:34:47,360
Speaker 1: about that? Well, I think that it's the comic premise

694
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:50,080
Speaker 1: is so strong, and then it's like, what can you

695
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:52,520
Speaker 1: do just to like keep turning the screw and just

696
00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:55,960
Speaker 1: make it feel worse and worse, like when they start dancing.

697
00:34:56,520 --> 00:34:59,239
Speaker 1: Michael just sitting there and he also loves performance and

698
00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:01,880
Speaker 1: he loves Dan, but he also knows that like he

699
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:03,600
Speaker 1: can't get out of this. I mean, it was just

700
00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:06,120
Speaker 1: it was incredible. There's something else that she and I

701
00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:08,880
Speaker 1: talked about a lot in our writing, which is we

702
00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:12,160
Speaker 1: love jokes where you get an insight into the world,

703
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:14,400
Speaker 1: like that you're creating canon for the show that you

704
00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:17,160
Speaker 1: actually don't see on camera. So the end of that episode,

705
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:19,720
Speaker 1: the kind of book ending of Scott's Taughts is Michael

706
00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:23,120
Speaker 1: doesn't like Aaron. He misses Pamas as assistant and they're

707
00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:26,640
Speaker 1: driving back and he says, you know, you're really good

708
00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:28,680
Speaker 1: at your job or whatever. He says, I have an

709
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:30,279
Speaker 1: instinct about people. I don't if you remember this, and

710
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:33,080
Speaker 1: he says, Kevin, when he first came in, he was

711
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:35,719
Speaker 1: actually applying for a job in the warehouse, and that

712
00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:38,440
Speaker 1: I made him an accountant, and it's just like, you

713
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:41,399
Speaker 1: are a terrible, terrible boss. And he's kind of saying

714
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,360
Speaker 1: in his way where it's like I I see people,

715
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:46,920
Speaker 1: I can kind of tap in, and it's like the

716
00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:49,520
Speaker 1: idea that like, Kevin came in for a different job

717
00:35:49,560 --> 00:35:50,719
Speaker 1: and he was like, you know what, I'm gonna pluck

718
00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:53,520
Speaker 1: you out of the you know, the the warehouse. I

719
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:57,440
Speaker 1: see You're good with numbers, aren't you. And then then

720
00:35:57,440 --> 00:35:59,759
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, Kevin is as happens accounting, Like,

721
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:02,640
Speaker 1: we love moments like that where it just it's just

722
00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:04,959
Speaker 1: like for the audience of the you know, the fans

723
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:07,880
Speaker 1: that watch every episode, it's like, so in the backstory

724
00:36:08,239 --> 00:36:11,200
Speaker 1: of these two guys, there was an interview where he's like, hey,

725
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:12,840
Speaker 1: you know what, what do you stick up here with

726
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:37,719
Speaker 1: the Oh that's so good. While you were writing, you

727
00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:40,200
Speaker 1: mentioned it before there was a writer strike. Yeah, what

728
00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 1: was your relationship to it? Were you in support of

729
00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:46,719
Speaker 1: it or how difficult was it? Well, so we had

730
00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:48,960
Speaker 1: written Dinner Party, we did the table read of it,

731
00:36:49,280 --> 00:36:51,600
Speaker 1: and I mean, gine I talked about it to this day.

732
00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:54,359
Speaker 1: The opening of Dinner Party is is good, it's not great.

733
00:36:54,360 --> 00:36:56,000
Speaker 1: It's basically that Michael tells everyone they have to stay

734
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,080
Speaker 1: at work late, and they've clearly created this thing so

735
00:36:58,160 --> 00:36:59,520
Speaker 1: that Jimmy Pan will have to come to his house

736
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:01,919
Speaker 1: for dinner party. And so the cold opens pretty funny.

737
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:03,320
Speaker 1: And so we're doing the table read and it's just

738
00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:05,319
Speaker 1: like it's a good table where it's not a great

739
00:37:05,320 --> 00:37:07,480
Speaker 1: table where it's good. Then you get to the apartment

740
00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:10,920
Speaker 1: and you start feeling something like it became explosive and

741
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:12,800
Speaker 1: like people are looking at each other and it was

742
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:15,080
Speaker 1: like it was electric in a way that I can't

743
00:37:15,719 --> 00:37:17,600
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about it now and like it makes me

744
00:37:17,680 --> 00:37:22,200
Speaker 1: emotional about being swept through his shirt, and it was

745
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:24,839
Speaker 1: just like it was the greatest moment of our career.

746
00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:28,080
Speaker 1: And then there was this writer's strike and the studios

747
00:37:28,120 --> 00:37:29,920
Speaker 1: have billions of dollars and they're always trying to roll

748
00:37:29,960 --> 00:37:32,239
Speaker 1: back these things, and it can come down to health

749
00:37:32,320 --> 00:37:35,480
Speaker 1: insurance and it can come down to residuals and the

750
00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:37,760
Speaker 1: way that writers are getting paid and things were changing,

751
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:40,160
Speaker 1: and it's like that's all the backstory for it. But

752
00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:44,200
Speaker 1: as a writer, we're there and they started shooting dinner

753
00:37:44,239 --> 00:37:46,080
Speaker 1: Party without us, and the actors didn't know what to do.

754
00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:49,719
Speaker 1: And we're picketing with the other writers outside of the

755
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:52,160
Speaker 1: place that we work, that we spent, We spent all

756
00:37:52,200 --> 00:37:54,520
Speaker 1: our time. You guys are all our friends. We're friends

757
00:37:54,560 --> 00:37:57,440
Speaker 1: with the crew. The crews walking past us, some of

758
00:37:57,480 --> 00:37:59,320
Speaker 1: them are kind of looking at us like fuck you

759
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,000
Speaker 1: because they can't afford you know, the writers are among

760
00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:04,800
Speaker 1: the highest paid people. And all of a sudden someone's

761
00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:07,080
Speaker 1: gonna not work for three months because we're complaining about

762
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:10,359
Speaker 1: our DVD residuals and is the show going to come back?

763
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:13,840
Speaker 1: What's gonna what's gonna happen? And we're literally picketing outside

764
00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:15,879
Speaker 1: of the place where we work. It's a really, really

765
00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:19,360
Speaker 1: weird thing. And so then it was like, is this

766
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:21,680
Speaker 1: episode that we wrote that we're so proud of, is

767
00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:25,120
Speaker 1: it not going to happen? And then and then we

768
00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:26,920
Speaker 1: ended up shooting it and we and we got it

769
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:28,920
Speaker 1: different director and Paul Fiege ended up directing it. He

770
00:38:28,960 --> 00:38:32,360
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna directed initially, and it became what it became.

771
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,759
Speaker 1: But it's a really complicated thing where on one hand,

772
00:38:36,840 --> 00:38:39,160
Speaker 1: it's like the writers look like assholes because they're striking,

773
00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:41,400
Speaker 1: and it's like, well, they're striking against the studio, so

774
00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:43,680
Speaker 1: it's all it's all people that make hundreds of millions

775
00:38:43,719 --> 00:38:46,880
Speaker 1: of dollars, who control billions of dollars, and it's like

776
00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:51,200
Speaker 1: they're crying poverty. And then the writers, who some writers

777
00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:54,000
Speaker 1: make a ton of money and some writers don't. They're

778
00:38:54,040 --> 00:38:56,880
Speaker 1: crying poverty and saying, we want what's fair, you know,

779
00:38:56,960 --> 00:38:59,480
Speaker 1: in the studios are saying we're we're trying to do

780
00:38:59,560 --> 00:39:02,560
Speaker 1: what's fair. Every day there's negotiations. I mean, it's really confusing,

781
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,400
Speaker 1: and it's really hard to say what the gains are

782
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:08,719
Speaker 1: for all these things. Sometimes, do you remember what the

783
00:39:08,760 --> 00:39:11,719
Speaker 1: context was of us stopping production? Oh, well, there were

784
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:13,560
Speaker 1: no writers on set, and so then what happened? I

785
00:39:13,600 --> 00:39:15,960
Speaker 1: think Steve Steve was in the Writer's Guild and then

786
00:39:16,080 --> 00:39:20,040
Speaker 1: Steve started striking, and I think when Steve said he

787
00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:22,600
Speaker 1: wouldn't act, then I think it kind of became okay,

788
00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:24,440
Speaker 1: well Steve's not going to do it. Then John and

789
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:26,080
Speaker 1: Jenna wouldn't do it, then, you know what I mean,

790
00:39:26,120 --> 00:39:28,839
Speaker 1: and everyone just kind of stopped and there wasn't enough

791
00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:30,840
Speaker 1: to do. If Steve didn't act, you could shoot some

792
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:33,080
Speaker 1: talking heads, but you couldn't go to the condo, and

793
00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:37,000
Speaker 1: so then it just went away. Right, Um, talk about

794
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:40,160
Speaker 1: your transition to directing, how was that for you? I mean,

795
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:42,920
Speaker 1: having a new relationship with these people you've known for

796
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 1: so long, right, right? Yeah, I mean we did. The

797
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:49,440
Speaker 1: first thing we did is we did webisodes and Greg

798
00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:50,719
Speaker 1: kind of said like, if you do these and do

799
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:52,759
Speaker 1: a good job with them, then we'll give you the shot.

800
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:55,040
Speaker 1: And and you're just kind of you're just approaching a

801
00:39:55,080 --> 00:39:58,320
Speaker 1: little bit differently, like you're really thinking about composition and

802
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:00,920
Speaker 1: how you're telling jokes. Visually, you're talking to the actors

803
00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:03,040
Speaker 1: in a different way. And I think when you're a

804
00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:06,040
Speaker 1: writer producer on the show, you say something to the

805
00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:08,840
Speaker 1: director and then directors deciding how to convey that to

806
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:11,360
Speaker 1: the actor. And as the show went on, like you know,

807
00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:14,960
Speaker 1: the shorthand between you and me or whoever changed, and

808
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:16,920
Speaker 1: the directors were usually the ones are kind of coming in,

809
00:40:17,400 --> 00:40:19,640
Speaker 1: but the director still had like, Okay, I need to

810
00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:21,040
Speaker 1: pull off this shot. I want to make sure that

811
00:40:21,120 --> 00:40:23,400
Speaker 1: I get this, that we go tight here. And so

812
00:40:23,480 --> 00:40:27,320
Speaker 1: they have an agenda and that agenda does include my notes,

813
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:29,800
Speaker 1: but like they also have their agenda, and as a director,

814
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:32,960
Speaker 1: it's like it's just mine and genes and so it's

815
00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:34,239
Speaker 1: like you could kind of cut through it a little

816
00:40:34,280 --> 00:40:36,480
Speaker 1: bit more. But it's fun I mean, and it's scary

817
00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:39,399
Speaker 1: and you're like, we're like, you can't. The only person

818
00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:41,800
Speaker 1: you can blame is yourself. That's exactly what I was

819
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:44,319
Speaker 1: going to say, because I you know, I directed as well,

820
00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:47,640
Speaker 1: and I remember the feeling of like it's just me

821
00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:51,719
Speaker 1: deciding when we've we've shot enough, and then it's good

822
00:40:51,880 --> 00:40:55,759
Speaker 1: enough and the camera's off, it's like, well, what wait

823
00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:57,919
Speaker 1: a minute, what about no? But at every other time

824
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:00,560
Speaker 1: there's like there's endless possibility right and kind of right

825
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:04,440
Speaker 1: forever kind of or you can edit indefinitely. But shooting

826
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:06,200
Speaker 1: is just kind of like this is what we got.

827
00:41:06,400 --> 00:41:08,719
Speaker 1: Like I don't know why Brian's not funny in this scene.

828
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:10,480
Speaker 1: I thought it was funny on the page, Like what

829
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:12,719
Speaker 1: are we doing wrong to not? You know what I mean?

830
00:41:12,840 --> 00:41:14,560
Speaker 1: And you just and you have to think on the fly,

831
00:41:14,800 --> 00:41:18,879
Speaker 1: and that's scary. I remember also when we first started

832
00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:21,680
Speaker 1: writing on the show and the script was finished and

833
00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:23,560
Speaker 1: it was like, okay, all right, so we're gonna shoot this,

834
00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:25,239
Speaker 1: and there was no fanfare. It was just like, okay.

835
00:41:25,239 --> 00:41:27,719
Speaker 1: The scripts done from the writer's room, and I was

836
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:29,759
Speaker 1: always like, it can't be our script that you're just

837
00:41:30,719 --> 00:41:32,839
Speaker 1: doesn't Greg, like take it for a week and make

838
00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:34,800
Speaker 1: it good, Like what do you mean like that we

839
00:41:35,239 --> 00:41:37,040
Speaker 1: wrote something that now is going to be shot in

840
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:39,320
Speaker 1: air because we've never done it before. It just seemed

841
00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:41,360
Speaker 1: like absurd. It felt like, well, we're the professionals that

842
00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:43,279
Speaker 1: are going to fix it, and then it becomes very

843
00:41:43,280 --> 00:41:47,880
Speaker 1: scary when you realize that you're the professional. Yeah. So

844
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:51,320
Speaker 1: a lot of the writers were actors, but none as famous.

845
00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:54,960
Speaker 1: You're you. You were an actor on the show as well.

846
00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:57,359
Speaker 1: I was what was your character's name because an actor

847
00:41:57,440 --> 00:42:01,680
Speaker 1: near the show? Well, you were a delivery guy. Yeah,

848
00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:05,040
Speaker 1: we worked advance refrigeration. Gine and I obviously had to

849
00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:07,440
Speaker 1: do everything together on the show, and so we were

850
00:42:07,520 --> 00:42:09,800
Speaker 1: Leon Gino. But we thought it would be funny. I

851
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:12,240
Speaker 1: think it was my idea. It was a terrible idea

852
00:42:12,320 --> 00:42:15,080
Speaker 1: that I'd be Gino and that Gene would be Leo,

853
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:19,560
Speaker 1: and so it was incredibly confusing, and I remember me

854
00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 1: Laura hardened, having no idea. She knew that she knew

855
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:26,880
Speaker 1: that we were named Lee and Jean, but couldn't for

856
00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:29,400
Speaker 1: the life of her no which one was which, And

857
00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:32,280
Speaker 1: Jeane kept saying that he was gonna walk past mclaura

858
00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:34,799
Speaker 1: and say, hey, Jean, are you ready? Are you ready

859
00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 1: to go to the writer's room, so that she would

860
00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:40,759
Speaker 1: never know, and then occasionally he would say, Lee, that

861
00:42:40,880 --> 00:42:43,040
Speaker 1: was the thing that we did. Oh my god, yeah,

862
00:42:43,080 --> 00:42:45,239
Speaker 1: but we were in Um. If you talk about cutting

863
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:47,600
Speaker 1: room floor, no characters in the history of the Office

864
00:42:47,640 --> 00:42:49,399
Speaker 1: were more consistently on the cutting room floor than Leo

865
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:52,160
Speaker 1: and Gino. How many episodes did Leo and Gino do?

866
00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:55,799
Speaker 1: I think I was in five? I sold Michael Weed Ginea.

867
00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:59,920
Speaker 1: I saw Michael Weed in whatever that one's called. We're like, Sama,

868
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:03,880
Speaker 1: I can know. Um. Then we're in Cafe Disco. We

869
00:43:04,040 --> 00:43:07,400
Speaker 1: dance in Cafe Disco. I had a real made of

870
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:11,200
Speaker 1: my acting I really needed. I spoke at my college

871
00:43:11,239 --> 00:43:13,640
Speaker 1: and I basically I said, like, my passion is acting,

872
00:43:13,640 --> 00:43:15,680
Speaker 1: and then I write just so I have I can perform,

873
00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:18,600
Speaker 1: which is not at all true. So I cut together

874
00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:22,120
Speaker 1: like my two minute real and it has me. I mean,

875
00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:24,800
Speaker 1: I've acted opposite Jack Black, I've acted opposite Cameron Diaz

876
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:28,640
Speaker 1: and Steve Carrell and then obviously you and me. You

877
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:31,920
Speaker 1: And why did I get mentioned after those three? Um?

878
00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:35,640
Speaker 1: I was doing a reverse alphabetical order. Okay, And no

879
00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 1: that's not true because Jack black Ship he has Correll

880
00:43:39,719 --> 00:43:42,840
Speaker 1: Bomb Gardner. That's very good, almost like on my feet.

881
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:45,279
Speaker 1: But um, yeah, it's about two minutes long. I can

882
00:43:45,360 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 1: only remember about three lines at once, so I can

883
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:52,480
Speaker 1: never do more than that. Yeah. Um, how do you

884
00:43:52,600 --> 00:43:55,879
Speaker 1: think the Office has influenced who you are now as

885
00:43:55,920 --> 00:43:59,759
Speaker 1: a writer? Again, it's just like that's all I know.

886
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:03,400
Speaker 1: It's possible that another you know, had I worked on

887
00:44:03,560 --> 00:44:07,080
Speaker 1: Jake in Progress starring John Stamos. I was on that show.

888
00:44:07,160 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 1: By the way, we would have we would have met

889
00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:13,759
Speaker 1: under different circumstances. We have known each other for a day. Um,

890
00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:18,120
Speaker 1: I can't believe you just pulled Jake in Progress out

891
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:20,080
Speaker 1: of your head. Well, well, the reason I say I'm

892
00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:22,160
Speaker 1: true when Jane and I got hired on the Office,

893
00:44:22,600 --> 00:44:25,920
Speaker 1: no one had any interest in us for years, and

894
00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:28,160
Speaker 1: we got an offer on the Office, We got an

895
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:29,960
Speaker 1: offer on Jake in Progress, and we got an offer

896
00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:34,160
Speaker 1: on American Daday, American Dad was twenty two episodes. Jake

897
00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:36,520
Speaker 1: in Progress I think was thirteen or maybe it was

898
00:44:36,560 --> 00:44:39,520
Speaker 1: twenty two, and the Office was six was seven backup scripts,

899
00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:42,160
Speaker 1: and we chose the Office, and then we ended up

900
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:44,520
Speaker 1: writing the first of the backup scripts. So there was

901
00:44:44,600 --> 00:44:47,360
Speaker 1: a version where they would have shot six episodes and

902
00:44:47,400 --> 00:44:50,080
Speaker 1: then the fight was going to be the seventh one shot,

903
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:53,279
Speaker 1: and if they didn't decide to pick up the seven

904
00:44:53,280 --> 00:44:55,600
Speaker 1: backup scripts and tournament the episodes, then we would just

905
00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:59,880
Speaker 1: would have had like an office spec. Wow, yeah, crazy, No.

906
00:45:00,040 --> 00:45:02,440
Speaker 1: But I think like every writer or every show runner

907
00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:05,439
Speaker 1: has their like their ways of like there's this number

908
00:45:05,480 --> 00:45:08,120
Speaker 1: of scenes in an act, and what every scene needs

909
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:10,759
Speaker 1: to accomplish these three things. And I think the things

910
00:45:10,800 --> 00:45:12,200
Speaker 1: that I think of when I think of greg Or

911
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:15,479
Speaker 1: like comedy engines, and like what makes a character inherently funny?

912
00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:18,160
Speaker 1: And so I what does Michael Scott like at a funeral?

913
00:45:18,239 --> 00:45:20,040
Speaker 1: What does Michael Scott like at a wedding? What does

914
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:23,919
Speaker 1: Michael Scott like at a supermarket? Or Dwight or Kevin?

915
00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:27,000
Speaker 1: And you think about these characters and clear clear comedy engines,

916
00:45:27,520 --> 00:45:29,959
Speaker 1: and when you like you can say what Dwight would

917
00:45:29,960 --> 00:45:32,279
Speaker 1: be like at the supermarket, it's like, because he's a

918
00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:35,080
Speaker 1: fully formed character. And when you start writing your own

919
00:45:35,080 --> 00:45:38,880
Speaker 1: ship and you are like, what is Edward do at

920
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:41,920
Speaker 1: the supermarket? You're like, well, he buys the groceries and

921
00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:44,520
Speaker 1: maybe he argues, and you're like, why does he argue?

922
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:46,000
Speaker 1: Is he loud? You know what I mean? Like you

923
00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:49,000
Speaker 1: start questioning these things, and that's how a character becomes

924
00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:52,040
Speaker 1: a character and not someone who just delivers lines, because

925
00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:55,439
Speaker 1: Edward is the cop that needs to solve the murder,

926
00:45:55,440 --> 00:45:57,640
Speaker 1: you know, any um. And then the other thing you

927
00:45:57,680 --> 00:45:59,960
Speaker 1: used to do is strange pairings, so always thought was

928
00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:01,840
Speaker 1: so fun. So we have all the characters up on

929
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:04,879
Speaker 1: a board and be like, what's a Kevin Creed story?

930
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,400
Speaker 1: What's an Oscar Michael story? And some of those were

931
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:11,200
Speaker 1: great stories that just never went in. But like that's

932
00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:15,320
Speaker 1: how you get weird stuff like Dwight spuying on Oscar

933
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:18,400
Speaker 1: in the secret and they become friends and you know

934
00:46:18,440 --> 00:46:20,520
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like you start thinking about so it's

935
00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:22,560
Speaker 1: not just like if all the stories are just the

936
00:46:22,600 --> 00:46:25,279
Speaker 1: accountants together, then that feels like, oh, I know where

937
00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:28,560
Speaker 1: the office is going. But if Kevin and Dwight form

938
00:46:28,600 --> 00:46:30,960
Speaker 1: a band together, which is something that we talked about

939
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:34,000
Speaker 1: at one point. Then it's like, okay, well now right,

940
00:46:34,160 --> 00:46:36,520
Speaker 1: Kevin's musician and Dwight's musician, and now you have a

941
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:42,040
Speaker 1: different thing going. Oh that's interesting. Was here Is there

942
00:46:42,040 --> 00:46:45,239
Speaker 1: an episode that you were most proud of writing? I mean,

943
00:46:45,680 --> 00:46:47,440
Speaker 1: I probably Dinner Party is the one I'm most proud of.

944
00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:49,160
Speaker 1: I think that's probably the best thing that you and

945
00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:52,640
Speaker 1: I have ever written collectively. We wrote The Secret, and

946
00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:56,000
Speaker 1: that was where Jim tells Michael he told my later

947
00:46:56,040 --> 00:46:59,560
Speaker 1: crush on Pam, but Michael reveals it to everyone, and

948
00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:02,000
Speaker 1: then Jim assatel Pam and that I remember in the

949
00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:05,200
Speaker 1: break room and says, hey, like Michael, I told Michael

950
00:47:05,239 --> 00:47:06,920
Speaker 1: that I said a crush on you, and I don't anymore.

951
00:47:07,480 --> 00:47:09,200
Speaker 1: And I just it was kind of the first time

952
00:47:09,239 --> 00:47:10,879
Speaker 1: as a writer that I've written anything that just didn't

953
00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:12,920
Speaker 1: really have any jokes in it. And it was just

954
00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:16,000
Speaker 1: the way that I think everyone's been in the situation

955
00:47:16,040 --> 00:47:18,640
Speaker 1: where you have a crush on someone and they find out,

956
00:47:18,760 --> 00:47:22,160
Speaker 1: And it was just Jenna and John just acted it

957
00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:26,040
Speaker 1: so so well. There's tiny things like Jenna like her

958
00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:29,200
Speaker 1: eyebrows froud for like a nano second and like every

959
00:47:29,239 --> 00:47:30,920
Speaker 1: time I saw it in editing, I just I got

960
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:33,040
Speaker 1: choked up because he says, I don't like I don't

961
00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:34,439
Speaker 1: have a crush. Don't worry, I don't have a crush

962
00:47:34,440 --> 00:47:37,080
Speaker 1: on you anymore. She's like, oh, okay you, And just

963
00:47:37,640 --> 00:47:39,560
Speaker 1: it felt real in a way, and I think we

964
00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:41,719
Speaker 1: tried writing it that way, and like, I just was

965
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:43,640
Speaker 1: really excited about that, you know, And so I think

966
00:47:44,239 --> 00:47:46,840
Speaker 1: that felt more challenging to get that right than it

967
00:47:46,920 --> 00:47:48,920
Speaker 1: did to get a Dwight talking head about you know

968
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:50,960
Speaker 1: how delicious like the different parts of a possum are,

969
00:47:52,520 --> 00:47:57,320
Speaker 1: which was probably written several times. Um, the show was

970
00:47:57,360 --> 00:48:01,319
Speaker 1: a success, it was a hit. Why, in your mind,

971
00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:05,359
Speaker 1: why has it become the number one show on television now?

972
00:48:05,840 --> 00:48:10,399
Speaker 1: Why have people become so invested in it? I think

973
00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:13,920
Speaker 1: that it feels I think it feels nostalgic. I think

974
00:48:13,960 --> 00:48:18,680
Speaker 1: that the jokes are timeless. I think there's a really

975
00:48:18,719 --> 00:48:21,200
Speaker 1: strong love story. I don't know what that show is

976
00:48:21,320 --> 00:48:24,800
Speaker 1: now that has that compelling love story and has the

977
00:48:24,880 --> 00:48:27,640
Speaker 1: jokes like Friends or The Office. Um, so I don't

978
00:48:27,640 --> 00:48:29,320
Speaker 1: know what would be the equivalent of it. So I

979
00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:31,680
Speaker 1: think if that's the type of thing that that you're

980
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:34,239
Speaker 1: excited about. It's like, where are you going for it?

981
00:48:34,600 --> 00:48:37,399
Speaker 1: And I also think that Netflix is this thing where

982
00:48:37,480 --> 00:48:39,759
Speaker 1: people just have it on NonStop. Now you can watch

983
00:48:39,800 --> 00:48:42,200
Speaker 1: five episodes in a row and you start kind of

984
00:48:42,239 --> 00:48:44,560
Speaker 1: getting addicted in the twenty one minutes long and you're

985
00:48:44,880 --> 00:48:46,960
Speaker 1: not watching with commercials, and it just feels like you

986
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:49,279
Speaker 1: can just devour it. And then the other thing, like

987
00:48:50,200 --> 00:48:52,000
Speaker 1: I did that movie Good Boys. It was three twelve

988
00:48:52,080 --> 00:48:55,000
Speaker 1: year old boys and one of them was obsessed with

989
00:48:55,080 --> 00:48:57,160
Speaker 1: the Office, and I think like they're watching it through

990
00:48:57,160 --> 00:48:59,680
Speaker 1: a totally different prison, and it's like Kevin's your favorite character,

991
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:01,960
Speaker 1: it's their favorite character. And I think all of a sudden,

992
00:49:02,040 --> 00:49:04,800
Speaker 1: there's elements of the show that appeal to an audience

993
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:06,719
Speaker 1: that doesn't really care about Jim and Pam, do you

994
00:49:06,760 --> 00:49:07,840
Speaker 1: know what I mean? And so I think that's the

995
00:49:07,880 --> 00:49:10,640
Speaker 1: type of show also where a family of four can

996
00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:12,680
Speaker 1: watch it and everyone's kind of getting something else out

997
00:49:12,719 --> 00:49:16,080
Speaker 1: of it, but they all love it. And I think

998
00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:18,880
Speaker 1: that the show feels lived in the texture of it.

999
00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:21,320
Speaker 1: The audience appreciates the texture, even if that's not the

1000
00:49:21,320 --> 00:49:24,120
Speaker 1: way they would articulate it. It feels like everyone's been

1001
00:49:24,160 --> 00:49:26,279
Speaker 1: in that office. And then I think the other thing

1002
00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:30,000
Speaker 1: is and this is again the genius of Greg and

1003
00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:35,439
Speaker 1: Alison Jones and everyone is I cannot think of a show,

1004
00:49:36,040 --> 00:49:38,960
Speaker 1: a comedy that has a roster of like I mean,

1005
00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:41,680
Speaker 1: how many actors were there, fourteen or whatever. That's a

1006
00:49:41,760 --> 00:49:45,160
Speaker 1: crazy thing to service that many people. And so it

1007
00:49:45,239 --> 00:49:48,279
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like a sea of extras. It feels like

1008
00:49:48,640 --> 00:49:51,799
Speaker 1: wherever you turn, you're delighted by what you're gonna see.

1009
00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:54,000
Speaker 1: And as a writer, where you're like, oh, great, we're

1010
00:49:54,000 --> 00:49:55,920
Speaker 1: gonna do a Stanley talking he had next perfect, we

1011
00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:58,920
Speaker 1: have b J coming up in a scene with Phyllis Okay, excellent,

1012
00:49:59,080 --> 00:50:00,400
Speaker 1: Like you know what I mean, Like there was no

1013
00:50:00,520 --> 00:50:02,959
Speaker 1: place where it was like, oh ship years a week link,

1014
00:50:03,239 --> 00:50:04,879
Speaker 1: we have to write around this thing, or we can't

1015
00:50:04,880 --> 00:50:08,640
Speaker 1: shoot this way because you know whatever, the ensemble and

1016
00:50:08,680 --> 00:50:11,600
Speaker 1: the specificity of that ensemble in the small moments and

1017
00:50:11,719 --> 00:50:13,920
Speaker 1: in the big moments was what kind of made the

1018
00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:16,840
Speaker 1: show the show too. Like as a writer, that's what

1019
00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:20,960
Speaker 1: I'm delighted about, Like I I don't write political satire.

1020
00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:23,000
Speaker 1: I think like the only thing I'm good at in

1021
00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:26,960
Speaker 1: my life is kind of just watching people at restaurants

1022
00:50:27,120 --> 00:50:30,400
Speaker 1: and at dinner parties and on subways and then like

1023
00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:32,880
Speaker 1: I'm a student enough to like write it down in

1024
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:35,640
Speaker 1: my iPhone in the notes document, and like that's how

1025
00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:38,479
Speaker 1: I have a career. Like I think writers approach things

1026
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:42,400
Speaker 1: and I think you're just delighted by those small moments

1027
00:50:42,520 --> 00:50:45,160
Speaker 1: and it's it's what feels real. And I think if

1028
00:50:45,200 --> 00:50:48,320
Speaker 1: you can write anything where either the joke is resonant

1029
00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:51,080
Speaker 1: as like I've experienced this thing with my friends or

1030
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:54,480
Speaker 1: this lame, this lame thing, like I remember we did

1031
00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:56,840
Speaker 1: the thing where everyone you know, bumps fists and then

1032
00:50:56,920 --> 00:50:59,520
Speaker 1: explodes it and that was based on a friend of

1033
00:50:59,560 --> 00:51:01,160
Speaker 1: mine did and I thought it was the dumbest thing,

1034
00:51:01,239 --> 00:51:04,000
Speaker 1: and then for years like that's just something I did. No,

1035
00:51:04,040 --> 00:51:05,160
Speaker 1: I didn't do it, but I'm saying I brought it

1036
00:51:05,200 --> 00:51:09,520
Speaker 1: to the office the exploding hands did because like my

1037
00:51:09,600 --> 00:51:11,040
Speaker 1: friend did it and I thought it was really lame,

1038
00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:13,000
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, you know, you know you

1039
00:51:13,000 --> 00:51:15,399
Speaker 1: should do it, or the lame characters on my show

1040
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:18,239
Speaker 1: that I work up, and you know that's what she said,

1041
00:51:18,320 --> 00:51:21,600
Speaker 1: is like that, And I think these things like Jeane

1042
00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:24,719
Speaker 1: came up with um Andy goes to Cornell like he

1043
00:51:24,840 --> 00:51:26,960
Speaker 1: was able to tap into this weird insecurity where these

1044
00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:29,759
Speaker 1: really smart people go to a school that is an

1045
00:51:29,800 --> 00:51:32,040
Speaker 1: Ivy League school, but it feels like a less than

1046
00:51:32,160 --> 00:51:35,320
Speaker 1: Ivy League school. And it said everything about a character,

1047
00:51:35,800 --> 00:51:37,560
Speaker 1: And I think when you can come up with those things,

1048
00:51:38,160 --> 00:51:40,600
Speaker 1: you know, interacting with the warehouse guys or anything like that,

1049
00:51:40,640 --> 00:51:43,400
Speaker 1: where it's like these small moments where it's like everyone

1050
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:46,040
Speaker 1: just trying to get by. Everyone wants to fall in love,

1051
00:51:46,160 --> 00:51:48,239
Speaker 1: everyone wants to make more money, everyone wants to get

1052
00:51:48,280 --> 00:51:50,799
Speaker 1: the promotion at work, and everyone just wants to feel

1053
00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:53,080
Speaker 1: like they're connected to something. And in a weird way,

1054
00:51:53,160 --> 00:51:56,800
Speaker 1: all these people that in any other circumstance would not

1055
00:51:56,880 --> 00:51:59,520
Speaker 1: be friends, you end up having to work with them

1056
00:51:59,560 --> 00:52:02,239
Speaker 1: and you create these bonds. That's the beauty of everything, right,

1057
00:52:02,280 --> 00:52:03,719
Speaker 1: It's like when all these people can kind of come

1058
00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:06,320
Speaker 1: together and it's like you spend more time with the

1059
00:52:06,320 --> 00:52:07,880
Speaker 1: people that you work with then you do with your

1060
00:52:07,920 --> 00:52:10,759
Speaker 1: own family. And you know, and again, we did a

1061
00:52:10,800 --> 00:52:13,799
Speaker 1: show about it about the thing that we were right,

1062
00:52:13,920 --> 00:52:16,080
Speaker 1: so you spent more time with Angela than you did

1063
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:19,000
Speaker 1: with your significant other or whatever. And I think that

1064
00:52:19,200 --> 00:52:20,880
Speaker 1: I think that's cool. I think that's really worth exploring.

1065
00:52:20,960 --> 00:52:23,200
Speaker 1: I do think it's beautiful and I'm a great writer.

1066
00:52:26,239 --> 00:52:29,360
Speaker 1: I can't remember who I was talking to somebody associated

1067
00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:32,920
Speaker 1: with the show the other day. Who was it, Oh,

1068
00:52:33,200 --> 00:52:35,960
Speaker 1: you know it was It was Ben Silverman. It controlled

1069
00:52:36,000 --> 00:52:38,040
Speaker 1: me to be on this podcast when I should be

1070
00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:40,800
Speaker 1: working out other things. Um, and he said, you know

1071
00:52:40,880 --> 00:52:42,600
Speaker 1: this is gonna be for all of us. This is

1072
00:52:42,640 --> 00:52:44,800
Speaker 1: the kind of the thing that people will talk about

1073
00:52:44,800 --> 00:52:48,040
Speaker 1: in your career. And it was like, okay, Like that's cool.

1074
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:50,240
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's not doesn't mean I stopped

1075
00:52:50,239 --> 00:52:52,279
Speaker 1: working and I don't want to beat it, but if

1076
00:52:52,400 --> 00:52:55,640
Speaker 1: at the end of my career, for five years, I

1077
00:52:55,760 --> 00:52:57,480
Speaker 1: worked on a show that's considered one of the best

1078
00:52:57,520 --> 00:52:59,560
Speaker 1: comedies of all time, and I feel like I contributed

1079
00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:01,200
Speaker 1: quite a bit too it and I met all these

1080
00:53:01,239 --> 00:53:04,000
Speaker 1: great people, and I remember like summer camp and summer

1081
00:53:04,040 --> 00:53:06,440
Speaker 1: camp you would go back every summer and like you

1082
00:53:06,480 --> 00:53:08,279
Speaker 1: would kind of intend to keep in touch with people

1083
00:53:08,320 --> 00:53:09,680
Speaker 1: over the thing, but then you kind of have your

1084
00:53:09,680 --> 00:53:11,879
Speaker 1: school friends. Then you come back and like for those

1085
00:53:11,920 --> 00:53:14,120
Speaker 1: four weeks you would just be like my best friend

1086
00:53:14,160 --> 00:53:15,839
Speaker 1: Brian and I were doing this and then and then

1087
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:17,120
Speaker 1: like like we have to keep in touch. We have

1088
00:53:17,160 --> 00:53:19,920
Speaker 1: to keep a touch, man, and then you wouldn't, and

1089
00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:21,560
Speaker 1: then you'd see them again the next year. It'd be

1090
00:53:21,560 --> 00:53:23,520
Speaker 1: the same thing. And it's like I see Greg for

1091
00:53:23,719 --> 00:53:26,279
Speaker 1: lunch once or twice a year. It excites me every

1092
00:53:26,320 --> 00:53:28,680
Speaker 1: single time I do it. I see Paul. All the

1093
00:53:28,760 --> 00:53:31,239
Speaker 1: relationships matter to me, and it's like it kind of

1094
00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:34,480
Speaker 1: in a way like transcends frequency of seeing someone. You

1095
00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:36,919
Speaker 1: just I just built. All these connections in my entire

1096
00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:40,920
Speaker 1: career can be traced back to Gregg reading a pilot

1097
00:53:40,920 --> 00:53:44,040
Speaker 1: about two codependent magicians, you know what I mean, and

1098
00:53:44,120 --> 00:53:46,680
Speaker 1: saying like, yeah, I'll pick those guys, and then everything

1099
00:53:46,760 --> 00:53:53,719
Speaker 1: else that's happened came from that awesome Um You're contribution

1100
00:53:53,760 --> 00:53:56,080
Speaker 1: to the show. I mean, I don't have to tell

1101
00:53:56,160 --> 00:53:59,080
Speaker 1: you you know how important it is. But your friendship

1102
00:53:59,239 --> 00:54:02,840
Speaker 1: is so wort to me, and I respect you and

1103
00:54:03,520 --> 00:54:05,399
Speaker 1: I think you're one of the most talented people I've

1104
00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:08,080
Speaker 1: ever worked with. So thank you so much. Thank you, dude.

1105
00:54:08,280 --> 00:54:24,480
Speaker 1: This is so fun. I love that so much. It's

1106
00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:28,080
Speaker 1: I truly learned so much from Lee and I am

1107
00:54:28,680 --> 00:54:31,239
Speaker 1: so glad I got to share it with all of you. Lee,

1108
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:35,920
Speaker 1: my friend, you can buy me breakfast any time, Okay,

1109
00:54:36,719 --> 00:54:40,279
Speaker 1: any time uh. And to all of you listeners, thank you.

1110
00:54:40,800 --> 00:54:45,320
Speaker 1: We will be back next week with another hilarious, strange

1111
00:54:45,719 --> 00:54:50,160
Speaker 1: and brilliant mind from our writer's room. It's gonna be great.

1112
00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:52,400
Speaker 1: I don't know who it's going to be, but it

1113
00:54:52,680 --> 00:54:56,640
Speaker 1: is going to be great. In the meantime, all of

1114
00:54:56,719 --> 00:55:06,680
Speaker 1: you have a fantastic week. The Office. Deep Dive is

1115
00:55:06,760 --> 00:55:10,880
Speaker 1: hosted and executive produced by me Brian bum Gartner, alongside

1116
00:55:10,960 --> 00:55:15,360
Speaker 1: our executive producer, Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Tessa Kramer,

1117
00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:19,239
Speaker 1: our producer is Emily Carr, and our assistant editor is

1118
00:55:19,320 --> 00:55:23,239
Speaker 1: Diego Tapia. My main man in the booth is Alec Moore.

1119
00:55:23,760 --> 00:55:27,160
Speaker 1: Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great

1120
00:55:27,239 --> 00:55:31,120
Speaker 1: friend Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed by seth Olansky.