1
00:00:16,079 --> 00:00:20,000
Speaker 1: Well, hello there, friends, and welcome to a very special

2
00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:25,440
Speaker 1: episode of Off the Beat. I am your host, Brian Baumgartner.

3
00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:28,160
Speaker 1: Today we're going to take a little trip, a trip

4
00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:31,680
Speaker 1: to a place that I like to call memory Lane.

5
00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:35,960
Speaker 1: Believe it or not, I have now been podcasting for

6
00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:41,280
Speaker 1: over three years, and it all started out with me

7
00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:44,919
Speaker 1: talking to some of my old co workers on the office,

8
00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:49,640
Speaker 1: the actors, directors, makeup artists, camera operators, anyone I could

9
00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:53,600
Speaker 1: find basically to help me understand what made that show

10
00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:57,280
Speaker 1: so special. Well, the first line of attack in that

11
00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:02,440
Speaker 1: specialness was, of course, the writers. So today I wanted

12
00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:08,520
Speaker 1: to highlight some of the brilliant, hilarious minds who shaped

13
00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:12,280
Speaker 1: the stories and crafted the jokes that well that you love.

14
00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:17,399
Speaker 1: I'm calling this my WGA episode. Seems fitting at this

15
00:01:17,480 --> 00:01:20,480
Speaker 1: point in time, am I right? But you can think

16
00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:24,080
Speaker 1: of this as a best of some of my favorite

17
00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:27,759
Speaker 1: snippets from my conversations with some of my favorite people

18
00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:30,760
Speaker 1: on the planet. Whether you're a longtime listener to the

19
00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:33,800
Speaker 1: podcast or this is your first time hearing these, I

20
00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:39,040
Speaker 1: hope that you'll enjoy these stories about the inner workings

21
00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:42,880
Speaker 1: of the writer's room and the magical place that was

22
00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:49,200
Speaker 1: and still is the office.

23
00:01:49,680 --> 00:01:55,320
Speaker 2: Bubble and Squeak, I love it, Bubble and Squeakna.

24
00:01:56,840 --> 00:01:57,800
Speaker 3: Bubble and Squeak.

25
00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:02,480
Speaker 4: I cook it every month. Oh from the Nah people.

26
00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:15,680
Speaker 1: Let's start it off with this clip from my conversation

27
00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:21,000
Speaker 1: with Jeane Stupnitsky talking about how he and his writing

28
00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:24,440
Speaker 1: partner Lei Eisenberg, got to be in that room in

29
00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:25,280
Speaker 1: the first place.

30
00:02:25,800 --> 00:02:27,799
Speaker 5: So one of the things that separated Lee and I

31
00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:29,600
Speaker 5: from everyone everyone, like a lot of those a lot

32
00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:32,160
Speaker 5: of the stuff went to Harvard. They were all kind

33
00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:35,440
Speaker 5: of like it was almost their birthright to write the sitcoms.

34
00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:36,320
Speaker 3: Okay, you know.

35
00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:39,360
Speaker 5: I was from Chicago. He was from Boston, and I

36
00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,880
Speaker 5: had just five years of just nothing. I was, like

37
00:02:42,919 --> 00:02:44,959
Speaker 5: I said, I'm just getting fired a lot. I was

38
00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:49,240
Speaker 5: terrible at everything. So not a good assistant, not a

39
00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:53,239
Speaker 5: good PA, just a huge fuck up. Really just a

40
00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:57,080
Speaker 5: history of failure in many ways. So there was no

41
00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:00,400
Speaker 5: like we didn't expect anything, We weren't didn't feel like

42
00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:03,160
Speaker 5: we should be there. But yes we got. I think

43
00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:07,279
Speaker 5: I was maybe twenty six or twenty seven, Yeah, started.

44
00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:11,800
Speaker 1: What do you think you and Lee, both of you,

45
00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:16,160
Speaker 1: what do you think your greatest contribution to the show

46
00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:19,280
Speaker 1: was or how do you feel like you helped?

47
00:03:19,760 --> 00:03:21,760
Speaker 3: Oh wow, what are you most proud of?

48
00:03:22,639 --> 00:03:25,079
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, there are certain jokes that I'm really

49
00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:28,720
Speaker 5: proud of that I remember writing. That feeling you get

50
00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:32,000
Speaker 5: when you just you're like this is this is this

51
00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:34,840
Speaker 5: feels like it could be really good. So I have

52
00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:37,840
Speaker 5: those moments in my mind of just remember writing certain

53
00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:39,880
Speaker 5: jokes and they were weren't even always from my episodes,

54
00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:42,680
Speaker 5: but like they're just jokes that I'm proud of.

55
00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:44,360
Speaker 3: It feels so weird.

56
00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:47,720
Speaker 5: This when the imposter syndrome really kicks in when you

57
00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:51,160
Speaker 5: start talking about stuff like this. But I think maybe

58
00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:53,920
Speaker 5: we kind of subverted. I think we like, you know,

59
00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:56,560
Speaker 5: we did things like when Jim kind of became like

60
00:03:56,760 --> 00:03:58,400
Speaker 5: not the greatest partner every She's like, oh, I gotta

61
00:03:58,480 --> 00:03:59,920
Speaker 5: I gotta leave. I gotta go to the houses on

62
00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:02,680
Speaker 5: fire or flood and you know, trying to leave camp

63
00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:04,440
Speaker 5: like you would really piss Officer and a segment of

64
00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:07,360
Speaker 5: the audience. But just things like that, I don't know.

65
00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:09,880
Speaker 5: I think we probably wrote. Everyone had their own, Like

66
00:04:10,040 --> 00:04:11,680
Speaker 5: I feel like Mike Sure wrote like Michael it is

67
00:04:11,720 --> 00:04:14,720
Speaker 5: almost most noble in a way, like the best version

68
00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:17,880
Speaker 5: of Michael version. Personally I like a lot, and like

69
00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:19,640
Speaker 5: everyone had like a different version. But I think we

70
00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:23,200
Speaker 5: probably wrote like the the most biggest British version of

71
00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:25,800
Speaker 5: the show in a way. Okay, maybe some of the

72
00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:26,560
Speaker 5: darker stuff.

73
00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:29,320
Speaker 1: Well that that was sort of where I was going.

74
00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:32,320
Speaker 1: I mean, the two episodes that you guys were responsible for,

75
00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:39,640
Speaker 1: Scott's Todd's and Dinner Party unquestionably considered the most cringiest

76
00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:43,120
Speaker 1: of episodes in the history of the show. Were those

77
00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:46,120
Speaker 1: your ideas or did you execute them? And what I

78
00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:47,880
Speaker 1: mean by that for those of you listening who don't know.

79
00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:53,040
Speaker 1: Sometimes there are stories that are decided collectively in the

80
00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:56,640
Speaker 1: writer's room and then you're assigned a script to write.

81
00:04:56,880 --> 00:04:59,680
Speaker 1: I'm curious about sort of the genesis for either one

82
00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:00,960
Speaker 1: or to those episodes.

83
00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:03,600
Speaker 5: Yeah, so yeah, it's true. Some like writers will come

84
00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:06,360
Speaker 5: in with ideas after we'll have like time off in

85
00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:08,520
Speaker 5: between seasons. We're coming with new ideas, and the ideas

86
00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:10,080
Speaker 5: who come in come in with aren't always the ones

87
00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:12,000
Speaker 5: that you end up writing. Sometimes other writers write them

88
00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:15,480
Speaker 5: and you write other writers ideas. Neither one was our

89
00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:21,839
Speaker 5: idea Dinner Party. It might have been Greg's idea I

90
00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:25,520
Speaker 5: don't actually remember whose idea that was, but I remember

91
00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:28,560
Speaker 5: feeling very I knew how to write that episode, and

92
00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:31,240
Speaker 5: I remember Greg assigned it to Mindy, who like wasn't

93
00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:33,520
Speaker 5: that I don't think she she want to write a

94
00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:35,400
Speaker 5: different episode. I think at the time it was called

95
00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:39,520
Speaker 5: like Who's Afraid of John Levinson Gold? But Scott's Tots

96
00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:42,160
Speaker 5: was a Paul Lieberstein original that we were assigned.

97
00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:47,920
Speaker 1: Ok, you make your acting debut in the office correct

98
00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:49,000
Speaker 1: on television?

99
00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:49,680
Speaker 5: On television?

100
00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:51,839
Speaker 3: Yes, Yes, on television.

101
00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:55,719
Speaker 1: Leo and Gino the delivery guys, was this something you

102
00:05:55,760 --> 00:05:59,080
Speaker 1: were excited about doing or was this just fun for the.

103
00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:01,200
Speaker 5: Right I did not enjoy at all, and it was

104
00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:03,520
Speaker 5: really the other writers kind of. I think Greg thought

105
00:06:03,520 --> 00:06:06,159
Speaker 5: it was funny, and the other writers, like I thought

106
00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:08,520
Speaker 5: it would be funny to force us to act. I

107
00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:11,400
Speaker 5: hated it, didn't want to do it, fought against it.

108
00:06:11,600 --> 00:06:13,640
Speaker 5: But if we were going to do it, we did

109
00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:15,400
Speaker 5: Lee and I did think it was funny for him

110
00:06:15,440 --> 00:06:17,080
Speaker 5: to play Geno and me to play Leo, which was

111
00:06:17,080 --> 00:06:18,919
Speaker 5: just really confused when the people work on the show,

112
00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:22,320
Speaker 5: you know what our names was? What our names were? Anyway,

113
00:06:22,360 --> 00:06:25,080
Speaker 5: at the beginning, I think by the end, we're really confused.

114
00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:28,680
Speaker 5: And sometimes if I felt someone didn't like, if I

115
00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:31,280
Speaker 5: knew someone wasn't sure, if I was leader Gene and

116
00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:33,920
Speaker 5: Lee would walk by and be like, hey Gene to Lee,

117
00:06:34,040 --> 00:06:36,440
Speaker 5: I would call him Gene, which would just doubly confuse

118
00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:39,200
Speaker 5: them and they think they finally have to haven't figured out,

119
00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:42,120
Speaker 5: and then I would just continue confusing.

120
00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:45,240
Speaker 1: That's so good. I mean, look the show. The show

121
00:06:45,279 --> 00:06:48,039
Speaker 1: gave all of us so much. I mean, for you,

122
00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:51,120
Speaker 1: your first job in a writer's room, your acting career

123
00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:54,640
Speaker 1: on Delvion, whether you liked it or not, your directorial debut,

124
00:06:54,920 --> 00:06:59,240
Speaker 1: when you look back on that time, what feelings do

125
00:06:59,279 --> 00:06:59,560
Speaker 1: you have.

126
00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,200
Speaker 5: I mean, I owe so much. It was my film school,

127
00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:04,719
Speaker 5: you know, I owe so much to the show. It

128
00:07:05,320 --> 00:07:07,760
Speaker 5: because you know easily you can easily get on a

129
00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:09,680
Speaker 5: show that last six episodes, and then you get on

130
00:07:09,720 --> 00:07:12,800
Speaker 5: another show and it kind of you know, gets canceled

131
00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:17,520
Speaker 5: or it's I mean, we got so lucky being hired

132
00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:19,280
Speaker 5: on the show, to be on a show that went

133
00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:20,960
Speaker 5: as long as it did, and we didn't stay the

134
00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:23,560
Speaker 5: whole time, but it changed our lives, met a lot

135
00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:24,400
Speaker 5: of amazing people.

136
00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:25,360
Speaker 3: We learned so much.

137
00:07:25,840 --> 00:07:28,600
Speaker 5: We learned how to become showrunners and how to write

138
00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:30,880
Speaker 5: and how to run a room and kind of one

139
00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:34,040
Speaker 5: of the things in the Writer's Strike that we talk

140
00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:36,800
Speaker 5: about is just and I know Mike Scohn record talking

141
00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:38,480
Speaker 5: about this just true. It was like, you know, for

142
00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:41,920
Speaker 5: the next genreal. You know, we learned from Greg how

143
00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:43,680
Speaker 5: to do these things, and a lot a lot of

144
00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:48,840
Speaker 5: people are aren't learning that anymore. But we just completely

145
00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:52,000
Speaker 5: change our lives, can change the trajectory of our careers.

146
00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:55,560
Speaker 5: I remember thinking before it became preessional writer, I thought, oh,

147
00:07:55,600 --> 00:07:58,760
Speaker 5: these writers are They're so lucky. They're so lucky that

148
00:07:58,800 --> 00:08:00,440
Speaker 5: they get to do this. And then when I became

149
00:08:00,440 --> 00:08:02,120
Speaker 5: one and I was like, it's all talent, lucky, has

150
00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:04,640
Speaker 5: nothing new with it. I'm just that talented. Now I

151
00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:08,160
Speaker 5: realized I'm back to the lucky part. There's talent, for sure,

152
00:08:08,400 --> 00:08:11,640
Speaker 5: but there's so much luck involved. There's just things you

153
00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:14,040
Speaker 5: can't control that we got on the show that it

154
00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:15,840
Speaker 5: went as long as it did, that we met these

155
00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:18,760
Speaker 5: made these connections and met these people. It just it's

156
00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:20,880
Speaker 5: you know, things are lot of our hands and I

157
00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:23,040
Speaker 5: feel so lucky. I feel so lucky.

158
00:08:23,680 --> 00:08:26,559
Speaker 3: Well, I think we were all pretty lucky to be there. Jean.

159
00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:30,880
Speaker 1: However, Lee remembers their early days on the staff as

160
00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:35,960
Speaker 1: a little less nostalgic. In fact, I think neurotic is

161
00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:39,239
Speaker 1: a better word for it. Here's Lee Eisenberg.

162
00:08:39,760 --> 00:08:42,120
Speaker 6: We had never been in a writer's room before, so

163
00:08:43,280 --> 00:08:45,000
Speaker 6: we didn't know anything. And so in a writer's room,

164
00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:47,080
Speaker 6: if you pitch a joke and people don't like it,

165
00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:48,680
Speaker 6: they don't tell you they don't like it. It just

166
00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:52,080
Speaker 6: you're met with silence, and then you extrapolate the silence to.

167
00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:53,120
Speaker 3: Mean move on.

168
00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:55,000
Speaker 6: But we didn't know that, so we thought that maybe

169
00:08:55,000 --> 00:08:58,120
Speaker 6: like people couldn't hear and so like I remember Jean

170
00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:00,600
Speaker 6: saying to Paul once, like did you hear what I said?

171
00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:03,240
Speaker 6: And that like stuff like that would happen a lot.

172
00:09:03,320 --> 00:09:06,199
Speaker 6: And then I pitch, I pitched something and.

173
00:09:06,240 --> 00:09:08,120
Speaker 3: Because you thought they were being rude, well I didn't

174
00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:09,120
Speaker 3: sea it was just like bond.

175
00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:11,040
Speaker 6: Well, it's just not the way that people interact with

176
00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:13,520
Speaker 6: each other. You don't you acknowledge someone you say like, oh,

177
00:09:13,559 --> 00:09:15,160
Speaker 6: I'm not sure that's right for me, But like if

178
00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:17,480
Speaker 6: you did, you know you're generating thousands of jokes a day,

179
00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:19,319
Speaker 6: Like if you have every single joke and explain why

180
00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:20,960
Speaker 6: it's not right. You would get anything done.

181
00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:23,520
Speaker 1: That's funny, Lee, I don't think it's works for this moment, right,

182
00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:24,200
Speaker 1: should we think of it?

183
00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:26,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, no one does that. We keep going, right.

184
00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:28,000
Speaker 6: It was just weird, and we didn't know what we were doing.

185
00:09:28,040 --> 00:09:30,960
Speaker 6: And then everyone will go out to lunch together. They

186
00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:33,560
Speaker 6: would all kind of like run to their cars and

187
00:09:33,640 --> 00:09:35,440
Speaker 6: like five people pile into a car, and then Gene

188
00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:38,560
Speaker 6: and I would like get into like our camera. It

189
00:09:38,679 --> 00:09:40,160
Speaker 6: just we felt like we were the new kids and

190
00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:43,640
Speaker 6: we didn't fit in. And so I think our contract

191
00:09:43,760 --> 00:09:45,920
Speaker 6: was like twenty weeks. It was ten weeks with an

192
00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:48,080
Speaker 6: option for another ten weeks or something like that. And

193
00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:50,160
Speaker 6: we were ten. We're getting close to ten weeks, and

194
00:09:50,160 --> 00:09:53,800
Speaker 6: we're we were nervous, but we also kind of felt like,

195
00:09:54,679 --> 00:09:56,920
Speaker 6: no one's that nice to us. I think we're gonna

196
00:09:56,920 --> 00:10:01,280
Speaker 6: get fired anyways, can we can we quit? And we

197
00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:04,319
Speaker 6: called our agent and we said, he's like, hey, so

198
00:10:04,360 --> 00:10:05,760
Speaker 6: you're you're almost up. You know you're going to you

199
00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:07,640
Speaker 6: know we're gonna try getting you those other ten weeks.

200
00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:10,160
Speaker 6: We said, well, what if we want to quit? He said, well,

201
00:10:10,200 --> 00:10:12,600
Speaker 6: I don't stand why you're asking and we said, well, like,

202
00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:14,720
Speaker 6: you know, people aren't that nice to us, like we're

203
00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:17,240
Speaker 6: fourth graders at the New School. And he was like,

204
00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:20,000
Speaker 6: this is the stupidest question anyone's ever asked me. And

205
00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:22,720
Speaker 6: he just was Mark Provozero, who represented me and Bean

206
00:10:22,840 --> 00:10:25,880
Speaker 6: and Mindy and BJ and he was like, dumbest question

207
00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:28,400
Speaker 6: I've ever been asked. And he hung up on us, right,

208
00:10:28,440 --> 00:10:31,800
Speaker 6: and then we stayed on the show for five more years.

209
00:10:32,760 --> 00:10:34,720
Speaker 3: Were you close to being fired? Do you think? Or

210
00:10:34,760 --> 00:10:37,560
Speaker 3: do you Was that just your perception because people didn't

211
00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:38,199
Speaker 3: seem nice.

212
00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:40,480
Speaker 6: I think that when you say people didn't seem nice,

213
00:10:40,480 --> 00:10:43,319
Speaker 6: I really feel young. I think that the you know,

214
00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:45,280
Speaker 6: when you're acting and when you first start acting and

215
00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:47,520
Speaker 6: you're like, the scene isn't about you, and you're like

216
00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:48,520
Speaker 6: you want to go up to the director and.

217
00:10:48,520 --> 00:10:50,440
Speaker 3: Be like, hey, did you like what I was doing? Right?

218
00:10:50,520 --> 00:10:52,320
Speaker 6: And you think the scene's about you even though no

219
00:10:52,360 --> 00:10:54,400
Speaker 6: one cares about you because the scene isn't about you.

220
00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:56,920
Speaker 6: That's the way I felt about the writer's room was

221
00:10:56,960 --> 00:10:59,760
Speaker 6: I was like, they're scrutinizing us every moment, and they

222
00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:02,680
Speaker 6: were Greg had eighty five thousand other things to worry

223
00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:07,720
Speaker 6: about than the staff writer's happiness or our contributions. We

224
00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:09,800
Speaker 6: were contributing, but I think for us it was like

225
00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:12,120
Speaker 6: Gene I would drive back and forth. We live together,

226
00:11:12,559 --> 00:11:14,200
Speaker 6: and we'd have like a forty five minute commute every

227
00:11:14,280 --> 00:11:18,160
Speaker 6: day each way, and all we would do is just say, like, hey,

228
00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:20,280
Speaker 6: Paul laughed a little bit at that joke I said

229
00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:23,280
Speaker 6: in the small room, how did it go with Mike

230
00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:26,360
Speaker 6: and Jen in the other room? Did bj acknowledge you today?

231
00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:28,200
Speaker 6: I mean, it was like we were parsing out the

232
00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:32,920
Speaker 6: smallest little things, and then Greg got pneumonia season two

233
00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:35,400
Speaker 6: while we were breaking the fight, so we had to

234
00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:38,400
Speaker 6: outline the fight. Everyone else got to outline the episode's

235
00:11:38,679 --> 00:11:40,160
Speaker 6: kind of more as a group, and for us it

236
00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:42,559
Speaker 6: was like me and Jean and Paul and everyone else

237
00:11:42,640 --> 00:11:45,040
Speaker 6: was off on script. And then we had to go

238
00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:47,959
Speaker 6: meet Greg at his house because he had walking pneumonia,

239
00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:49,439
Speaker 6: and it was like, Oh, they're setting us.

240
00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:49,880
Speaker 3: Up to fail.

241
00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:53,319
Speaker 6: They gave us this episode that's like goofy and different

242
00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:54,720
Speaker 6: from the rest of the show. There's like a fight

243
00:11:54,760 --> 00:11:57,320
Speaker 6: in a dojo, like they don't want us to do well,

244
00:11:57,720 --> 00:11:59,800
Speaker 6: and then when we handed a bad script, they'll fire

245
00:11:59,880 --> 00:12:01,959
Speaker 6: up us. This is what we were convinced of. I

246
00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:04,760
Speaker 6: think we didn't. I think we didn't feel confident that

247
00:12:04,760 --> 00:12:07,520
Speaker 6: we weren't going to be fired until three years in.

248
00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:10,640
Speaker 6: I'm not kidding. Every single time, Like when we wrote

249
00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:12,520
Speaker 6: the Secret, we were like, they gave us the secret

250
00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:14,840
Speaker 6: because there's not a lot of time, and then we

251
00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:17,679
Speaker 6: won't deliver and then they'll fire us. That's all we

252
00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:20,079
Speaker 6: went through the first few years. What Wait, We liked

253
00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:23,480
Speaker 6: everyone eventually, but we were terrified. It wasn't like a

254
00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:26,240
Speaker 6: culture of fear. It was just two insecure guys.

255
00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:31,880
Speaker 3: You were just worried about yourself. Oh, we were terrified. Yeah. Wow, Yeah,

256
00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:35,400
Speaker 3: I'm really sorry to hear that. Thanks. I mean, it

257
00:12:35,440 --> 00:12:36,240
Speaker 3: doesn't surprise me.

258
00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:39,600
Speaker 6: You're a bit neurotic, but I've monetized the neuroses.

259
00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:40,680
Speaker 3: That's all that matters.

260
00:12:40,800 --> 00:12:41,640
Speaker 2: Yeah.

261
00:12:41,720 --> 00:12:47,199
Speaker 1: Well, sure, I'm glad that they didn't quit or get fired,

262
00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:52,280
Speaker 1: because without them we wouldn't have had such delectable masterpieces

263
00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:57,880
Speaker 1: of cringe as Scott's Tots or even Dinner Party. In fact,

264
00:12:58,440 --> 00:13:03,040
Speaker 1: every writer contributed their own special element to the show.

265
00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:06,200
Speaker 1: But I wasn't there, at least not for that part.

266
00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:10,600
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna let Moe's shrewt. I mean, Mike, sure,

267
00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:14,400
Speaker 1: tell you all about it. So Lee talked about this.

268
00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,240
Speaker 1: I was talking to him about if there were specific

269
00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:23,400
Speaker 1: strengths because the episodes were different, were there ways that

270
00:13:23,679 --> 00:13:26,080
Speaker 1: either interested people or that they were better at And

271
00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:28,760
Speaker 1: what he said was that he felt like he and

272
00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:34,600
Speaker 1: Gene were much more in the sort of cringe comedy. Yeah, yeah,

273
00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:36,800
Speaker 1: which you know, if you look at Dinner Party, that

274
00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:40,839
Speaker 1: certainly fits that bill. And what they said about you

275
00:13:40,960 --> 00:13:44,120
Speaker 1: was that you were much more optimistic. Do you feel

276
00:13:44,120 --> 00:13:44,800
Speaker 1: like that's true?

277
00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:45,440
Speaker 5: Yeah?

278
00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:45,839
Speaker 3: I do.

279
00:13:48,120 --> 00:13:52,840
Speaker 4: I feel like my sweet spot on the show was, well,

280
00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:57,880
Speaker 4: Christmas Party's pretty optimistic episode. But like the episode Branch

281
00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:03,440
Speaker 4: Closing that I wrote that story because Jan walks in

282
00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:06,319
Speaker 4: on the first page of the episode and says, we're

283
00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:10,240
Speaker 4: shutting a branch down, and Michael has a complete collapse

284
00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:13,760
Speaker 4: and then he says, no, I'm not letting this happen.

285
00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:15,800
Speaker 4: I'm going to do something about this, and he and

286
00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:18,880
Speaker 4: Dwight head off and they go to David Wallace's house

287
00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:21,160
Speaker 4: in Connecticut and they're just like, I'm going to confront

288
00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:23,360
Speaker 4: him and I'm going to make him see that this

289
00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:27,000
Speaker 4: is not the right decision. It is utterly ineffectual Wallace

290
00:14:27,040 --> 00:14:30,160
Speaker 4: Network shows up. They just end up sitting there and

291
00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:34,200
Speaker 4: are miserable and completely unbeknownst to them, through a variety

292
00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:37,640
Speaker 4: of other machiness, the branch ends up getting saved. But

293
00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:40,240
Speaker 4: there's a scene in the end where Michael and Dwight

294
00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:42,760
Speaker 4: are sitting in the car and that all hope is lost,

295
00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:46,560
Speaker 4: and Michael says, okay, top three favorite moments ever at

296
00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:49,280
Speaker 4: the office, and Dwight says, like my first day when

297
00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:52,480
Speaker 4: you sprayed me with the fire extinguisher, and when yeah,

298
00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:55,400
Speaker 4: I got sick and you came into the MRI, you know,

299
00:14:55,440 --> 00:14:58,640
Speaker 4: I got a concussion or whatever. And then Dwight says,

300
00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:01,880
Speaker 4: what about you? What are your favorite moments? And Michael

301
00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:04,960
Speaker 4: says all of them, every single one, And then Dwight says, well,

302
00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:06,600
Speaker 4: what about when Jan showed up and said the branch

303
00:15:06,680 --> 00:15:09,680
Speaker 4: was closing? And He's like, come on, man, But that

304
00:15:09,760 --> 00:15:12,800
Speaker 4: I remember just thinking like this, and that scene wasn't

305
00:15:12,920 --> 00:15:15,240
Speaker 4: in the outline, and I remember writing that scene and

306
00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:17,320
Speaker 4: thinking like that that this is like I locked into

307
00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:20,520
Speaker 4: that idea. And I think it's just because it was

308
00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:22,920
Speaker 4: like a moment of humanity between the two of them,

309
00:15:22,920 --> 00:15:26,120
Speaker 4: where like the office is very meaningful. It's all Michael

310
00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:29,040
Speaker 4: has and him being able to just sort of express

311
00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:32,160
Speaker 4: in a sincere and human way what he loved about

312
00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:34,880
Speaker 4: the place, like that kind of thing. I really felt

313
00:15:34,920 --> 00:15:39,760
Speaker 4: like that was my jam. But yeah, I mean those guys,

314
00:15:39,800 --> 00:15:43,120
Speaker 4: like Greg's theory was that writing staff should be like

315
00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:46,280
Speaker 4: The X Men, where he's like, if you have all

316
00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:48,600
Speaker 4: people who are the same and have the same like

317
00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:53,320
Speaker 4: comedic power, you're gonna have one awesome thing about the show.

318
00:15:53,360 --> 00:15:56,240
Speaker 4: But if if everybody has his or her own comedic power,

319
00:15:56,280 --> 00:15:59,040
Speaker 4: then you get everything. And so yeah, I think Lee

320
00:15:59,080 --> 00:16:01,320
Speaker 4: and Jean were really into the like super I mean,

321
00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:03,800
Speaker 4: those guys are so funny, Like Scott's Tots was an

322
00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:06,760
Speaker 4: episode they pitched very early on that Greg was like,

323
00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:09,640
Speaker 4: we're never doing this, and then long after I left,

324
00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:11,720
Speaker 4: I was watching him like, oh, I guess Greg gave in.

325
00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:16,600
Speaker 4: But yeah, they love that. Jen Solata was her superpower

326
00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:22,640
Speaker 4: is just this incredible connection to Pam. She's also hilarious,

327
00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:24,440
Speaker 4: but like she was like the beating heart of the show.

328
00:16:24,520 --> 00:16:26,960
Speaker 4: I would say, not just through Pam, through all the characters,

329
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,680
Speaker 4: but like the episode where the bird dies and Michael

330
00:16:29,680 --> 00:16:31,600
Speaker 4: has the funeral for the bird. That was Jen from

331
00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:35,120
Speaker 4: beginning to end, and we kept like tinkering and tinkering

332
00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:37,160
Speaker 4: and tickering, and she eventually was like, I think I

333
00:16:37,320 --> 00:16:38,960
Speaker 4: just understand this and I just want to write it,

334
00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:41,440
Speaker 4: and we were like, great, and then it's amazing. And

335
00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:44,040
Speaker 4: the part of it that she really liked into was

336
00:16:44,200 --> 00:16:48,640
Speaker 4: Pam Pam understanding what Michael was going through and giving

337
00:16:48,680 --> 00:16:51,320
Speaker 4: the eulogy and trying to make Michael feel better by

338
00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:55,360
Speaker 4: talking about this dead bird. It's a really complicated emotional moment.

339
00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:58,320
Speaker 4: But Jen just like understood it at some fundamental level.

340
00:16:59,200 --> 00:17:02,680
Speaker 4: And you know, Paul was really into Michael's when Michael

341
00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:05,479
Speaker 4: was at his absolute worst. Like Paul was super into

342
00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:12,840
Speaker 4: the Michael's worst instincts, right right, Mindy was Mindy's superpower

343
00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:17,640
Speaker 4: was always the super absurdist stuff, the really like crazy

344
00:17:17,680 --> 00:17:21,880
Speaker 4: flights of fancy. You know, famously in the episode where

345
00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:24,840
Speaker 4: Michael burns his foot on the George Foreman grill, when

346
00:17:24,840 --> 00:17:28,520
Speaker 4: Michael burns his foot. I mean again, every episode that

347
00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:33,359
Speaker 4: everybody wrote was always rewritten a tremendous amount. But I

348
00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:36,560
Speaker 4: will say that that first monologue Michael has where he's

349
00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:39,480
Speaker 4: explained to the camera how he burned his foot. I

350
00:17:39,480 --> 00:17:41,240
Speaker 4: don't think we changed a word of it. Like Mindy

351
00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:43,320
Speaker 4: turned in her script and that speech was in there

352
00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:46,800
Speaker 4: and it was really long and it's really complicated and

353
00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:48,880
Speaker 4: it has it's a crazy roller coaster, and I don't

354
00:17:48,880 --> 00:17:51,080
Speaker 4: think we changed a single word because she just like

355
00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:55,200
Speaker 4: she would lock into just the the super absurdist stuff

356
00:17:55,359 --> 00:17:59,680
Speaker 4: presented very straightforwardly, like yeah, I mean, everyone everybody had

357
00:17:59,720 --> 00:18:01,639
Speaker 4: something they were good at. That staff is incredible.

358
00:18:02,119 --> 00:18:04,960
Speaker 3: They sure, or we'll be right back.

359
00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:26,080
Speaker 1: One thing I heard from basically all of the writers

360
00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:31,480
Speaker 1: was that Greg Daniels, our showrunner, producer, mastermind, fearless leader,

361
00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:33,280
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call him, he had a lot

362
00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:37,400
Speaker 1: of games or exercises or theories as he called them

363
00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:40,800
Speaker 1: that he instilled in the writer's room and used to

364
00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:42,280
Speaker 1: help shape the stories.

365
00:18:42,560 --> 00:18:46,119
Speaker 3: Characters are the whole world of the office.

366
00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:49,159
Speaker 1: I'm not a writer, but from what I learned, this

367
00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:54,040
Speaker 1: is different from how your average sitcom writer's room is run.

368
00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:58,200
Speaker 1: Our writer Brent Forrester had also worked with him years

369
00:18:58,240 --> 00:19:01,199
Speaker 1: before on The Simpsons and King of the Hill, so

370
00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:05,280
Speaker 1: he knew Greg's weighs very very well.

371
00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:08,240
Speaker 3: Here's Brent, do you consider Greg a teacher?

372
00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:12,040
Speaker 7: Oh for sure. Yeah, he's a friend of mine forever now.

373
00:19:12,280 --> 00:19:14,680
Speaker 7: And we were in the trenches at the Simpsons ten

374
00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:17,840
Speaker 7: am to ten pm every single day, so you know

375
00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:20,560
Speaker 7: we're allD buddies, but for sure big time.

376
00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:26,800
Speaker 1: Someone told us this exercise that he had something that

377
00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:29,520
Speaker 1: if you were having trouble breaking stories, and he called

378
00:19:29,560 --> 00:19:33,560
Speaker 1: it unlikely duos, And there were note cards on the

379
00:19:33,560 --> 00:19:36,520
Speaker 1: wall with all the character's names, and the idea was

380
00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:40,600
Speaker 1: to pick two characters that you would not necessarily associate

381
00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:43,400
Speaker 1: with each other together and then write a story on that.

382
00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:44,320
Speaker 3: I think that's.

383
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:48,639
Speaker 7: Always a great method. Early on, back on nurses for me,

384
00:19:48,760 --> 00:19:51,879
Speaker 7: I asked one of the senior writers there what makes

385
00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:54,840
Speaker 7: a story? And the guy called me into his office.

386
00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:56,159
Speaker 3: His name was Bruce Ferber.

387
00:19:56,400 --> 00:19:58,720
Speaker 7: He closed the blind, shut the door, locked it, and

388
00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:04,240
Speaker 7: he said, is usually about two people, and then he

389
00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:08,239
Speaker 7: unlocked the door and made me leave. It sounds so

390
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:10,800
Speaker 7: a commonplace, but it's actually the key.

391
00:20:10,960 --> 00:20:11,120
Speaker 3: Right.

392
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:13,199
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's what's great is what's an unusual pairing. That's

393
00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:15,240
Speaker 7: how I got my first Simpsons episode was I paired

394
00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:18,080
Speaker 7: Homer versus Patty and Selma. It had never been done before,

395
00:20:18,119 --> 00:20:20,320
Speaker 7: so I got an episode, right but for sure, on

396
00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:22,840
Speaker 7: any show, you know what, two characters have never been

397
00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:23,080
Speaker 7: in a.

398
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:24,680
Speaker 3: Story together, do that right?

399
00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:30,680
Speaker 1: Oh, that's genius. It's the small attention to details. When

400
00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:33,760
Speaker 1: you know the characters and how the characters would behave,

401
00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:36,760
Speaker 1: you almost don't need anything more than this. I was

402
00:20:36,800 --> 00:20:40,399
Speaker 1: told that during the testing of the show with the

403
00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:45,000
Speaker 1: Gym's and the Dwights, the direction from Greg to the

404
00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:52,160
Speaker 1: actors was very simply, Jim, bring Dwight a glass of water, right,

405
00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:53,480
Speaker 1: and then what happens?

406
00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:53,800
Speaker 3: Right?

407
00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:57,040
Speaker 1: You know Dwight is going to be skeptical, right, right,

408
00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:00,560
Speaker 1: because you know, you know he's afraid the gym has

409
00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:02,840
Speaker 1: done something to the water. Yeah, And I thought, like,

410
00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:05,960
Speaker 1: you guys did such a great job of that, of

411
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:10,200
Speaker 1: studying the character's behavior and how each character.

412
00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:11,480
Speaker 3: Would behave in a given situation.

413
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:15,720
Speaker 7: No, you've hit it on the head. And if you notice,

414
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:18,880
Speaker 7: ask Greg what his favorite television show is of all time.

415
00:21:19,119 --> 00:21:21,199
Speaker 7: I remember he was being interviewed and he sat there

416
00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:22,880
Speaker 7: for an hour trying to think, you know, and asking

417
00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:25,680
Speaker 7: the writers what they thought it was. Larry Sanders and

418
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:28,480
Speaker 7: Judd Apatow. If you ask him, he'll give you the

419
00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:31,640
Speaker 7: same answer. I worked with jud on a show called

420
00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:33,800
Speaker 7: Love we did for Netflix. I was the head writer

421
00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:37,480
Speaker 7: there and I remember we delivered scripts to jud the

422
00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:39,679
Speaker 7: first four scripts. I thought they were good. They were real,

423
00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:42,920
Speaker 7: clever and funny, and he was so bummed and as

424
00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:44,960
Speaker 7: he tried to articulate what it was, he said, watch.

425
00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:45,680
Speaker 3: The Larry Sanders Show.

426
00:21:45,760 --> 00:21:49,879
Speaker 7: And by the end we had a phrase, a motto,

427
00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:54,719
Speaker 7: and it was behavior over banter. I never forgot it.

428
00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:54,920
Speaker 3: Man.

429
00:21:55,080 --> 00:21:57,520
Speaker 7: You know, you don't have to have clever word play

430
00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:01,320
Speaker 7: if the characters are in an interesting behavior. Now, I

431
00:22:01,359 --> 00:22:03,520
Speaker 7: can tell you two behaviors that are funny for actress.

432
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:07,160
Speaker 7: One is lying, always funny. The other generally is seduction.

433
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:10,000
Speaker 7: Unless the first that I suppose is really hot, it's

434
00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:10,920
Speaker 7: gonna be kind of funny.

435
00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:11,239
Speaker 3: Right.

436
00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:13,760
Speaker 7: So I wonder for you as a comic performer. You know,

437
00:22:14,119 --> 00:22:16,159
Speaker 7: you're talking about the glass of water thing, which is

438
00:22:16,320 --> 00:22:19,679
Speaker 7: complex behavior. Are there other categories of behavior that are

439
00:22:19,680 --> 00:22:20,879
Speaker 7: funny for you to perform?

440
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:27,399
Speaker 1: Oh, that's a very interesting question for me. The biggest

441
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:34,440
Speaker 1: laughs that I ever remember was when Holly was told

442
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:39,639
Speaker 1: that Kevin was slow. That was my recollection and people

443
00:22:39,680 --> 00:22:42,119
Speaker 1: went sort of bonkers about it. And I think the

444
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:46,160
Speaker 1: reason why is because it was a very simple joke

445
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:51,240
Speaker 1: that is set up by years of history and knowing

446
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,120
Speaker 1: the character, and as soon as you hear the setup

447
00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:57,440
Speaker 1: of that, you know instantly that she will believe it

448
00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:00,000
Speaker 1: and that there will be confusion between her and Kevin,

449
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,800
Speaker 1: and that could play out as long as we wanted

450
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:05,760
Speaker 1: it to. I think that when you truly, when you

451
00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:09,680
Speaker 1: have the time to create a character and there's an

452
00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:13,960
Speaker 1: expectation from an audience on how that character would respond,

453
00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:20,560
Speaker 1: the anticipation of that and delivering that or the opposite

454
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:23,480
Speaker 1: of what the expectation is to me, those things.

455
00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:25,240
Speaker 3: Are very funny. Wow, that's gold.

456
00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:29,479
Speaker 1: At one point said this. It has been said by

457
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,440
Speaker 1: wiser artists than me that the more personal you make

458
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:37,520
Speaker 1: your writing, the more personal it will become. Do you

459
00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:39,240
Speaker 1: feel like you write personally?

460
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:41,800
Speaker 3: I aspire to, for sure.

461
00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:45,520
Speaker 7: Our medium is very interesting because it's collaborative and I

462
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:49,159
Speaker 7: am hired to execute the vision of somebody above me.

463
00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:52,600
Speaker 7: And you know, I've come to think of the writer's

464
00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:58,560
Speaker 7: room as an art project. The showrunner is.

465
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:00,000
Speaker 3: The artist of the show.

466
00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:02,600
Speaker 7: That's the Picasso, and we're all there to sort of

467
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:06,479
Speaker 7: make his or her vision come to life. Having said that,

468
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:08,520
Speaker 7: when you get an individual episode. At a certain point

469
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:11,280
Speaker 7: they send you off, and that's when the art form

470
00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:14,560
Speaker 7: becomes yours and you really try to pour yourself into it.

471
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:16,240
Speaker 3: So on The Office, I.

472
00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:20,720
Speaker 7: Always did try to find what was personal about it

473
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:21,680
Speaker 7: for me in that episode.

474
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:22,680
Speaker 3: Yeah.

475
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:27,200
Speaker 1: Another really unique thing about the Office was how fluid

476
00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:30,840
Speaker 1: the dynamic was between the writing staff and the actors.

477
00:24:31,160 --> 00:24:34,159
Speaker 1: Usually this is not the case the writers write a

478
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:38,160
Speaker 1: script and the actors acted. But on our show, not

479
00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:41,720
Speaker 1: only were the lines of communication very open, but a

480
00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:44,720
Speaker 1: lot of our writers were very much a part of

481
00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:49,240
Speaker 1: the cast, obviously Mindy Kayling, bj Novak, and of course

482
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:54,480
Speaker 1: Paul Lieberstein, who played dunder Mifflin's beloved behted.

483
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:56,240
Speaker 3: No, No, it is that a thing.

484
00:24:56,640 --> 00:25:02,160
Speaker 1: Controversial, let's say controversial. HR Rep. Toby Flanderson. You said

485
00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:05,760
Speaker 1: it's not traditional and there's this huge wall typically between

486
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,879
Speaker 1: the writing staff, yeah, and the actors. How do you

487
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:13,280
Speaker 1: think that that difference in our show changed the dynamic.

488
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:14,920
Speaker 2: It would have been. I don't think our show would

489
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:18,240
Speaker 2: have come out that way if if there was a

490
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:21,720
Speaker 2: strict wall. We were all on the same page with

491
00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:27,400
Speaker 2: the show writers and actors, and we became so close

492
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:31,240
Speaker 2: with each character an actor and liked them and liked

493
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:35,040
Speaker 2: writing for them. And that often doesn't happen when they're

494
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:37,359
Speaker 2: so separate. The writers have one idea what the show

495
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:39,119
Speaker 2: is that they want to create, and the actors have

496
00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,360
Speaker 2: a different and so they're fighting each other on set

497
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:45,480
Speaker 2: just create without ever talking. They're fighting each other. Yeah, right,

498
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:48,720
Speaker 2: so I think, yeah, it was such a it was

499
00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 2: such a good thing to do. Often that wall is

500
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:56,480
Speaker 2: there because of the producers and the director. Now, the

501
00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:59,480
Speaker 2: director typically, you know, you're not supposed to have any

502
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:03,560
Speaker 2: just supposed to be the only person talking to you

503
00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:09,560
Speaker 2: about your performance, right, And I get that, But at

504
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:15,640
Speaker 2: the same time, if you have, you know, the show

505
00:26:15,680 --> 00:26:18,200
Speaker 2: goes for a little while. Actors know their roles better

506
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:20,240
Speaker 2: than the director, the writers know the characters better than

507
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:24,600
Speaker 2: the director, The DP knows the show better than the director.

508
00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:27,320
Speaker 2: The director's coming in knowing the least about the show

509
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:32,160
Speaker 2: of anybody, and we're all supposed to like not make

510
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:35,240
Speaker 2: the show better and just wait for the director to

511
00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:40,159
Speaker 2: catch it. It doesn't really work completely, right. It's the

512
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 2: thing about TV. I mean, it's a great rule for

513
00:26:43,359 --> 00:26:46,199
Speaker 2: a great rule for a movie, and you know, you

514
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:49,040
Speaker 2: can see, like as a director too, and we all

515
00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:52,400
Speaker 2: became directors. You know that building someone's performance, you want

516
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:54,400
Speaker 2: to tell them just a couple of things, you can

517
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:58,199
Speaker 2: slowly try to push them in a direction, and you know,

518
00:26:58,240 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 2: it matters how you say things. And I think we

519
00:27:01,520 --> 00:27:05,840
Speaker 2: all generally respected that right boundary while we were building

520
00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:09,440
Speaker 2: a scene, but we all talked about the scenes beforehand

521
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:12,000
Speaker 2: and afterwards what was going to come up, the stories,

522
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:14,960
Speaker 2: and when things weren't working, we just stopped and we

523
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:16,000
Speaker 2: just talked to each other.

524
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've taken that with me into the future.

525
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:23,840
Speaker 1: Like I always will show respect to a director, but

526
00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:26,159
Speaker 1: I will walk over to video village and have a

527
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:29,679
Speaker 1: conversation with the writer or the creators on set just about.

528
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:31,720
Speaker 3: The character or what we're going for.

529
00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:34,080
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm able to have a conversation with

530
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:39,800
Speaker 1: them and get to the core of actually what it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

531
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 1: which is that a director is just more skilled at

532
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:44,080
Speaker 1: having that conversation correct.

533
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:49,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, I've really I'm really big with intention.

534
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:49,960
Speaker 3: Now.

535
00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:54,520
Speaker 2: I'm working on the Space Force with Greg now, so

536
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:58,000
Speaker 2: we were doing scenes with Steve and I tell him

537
00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:01,480
Speaker 2: to say whatever he wants and just tell him the intention, right,

538
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:04,080
Speaker 2: I mean, he's gonna say whatever he wants anyway.

539
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 1: But right, did you feel like you had because of

540
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:16,520
Speaker 1: your relationship with Greg did you feel like you had

541
00:28:16,960 --> 00:28:20,520
Speaker 1: a greater accountability to him when you started working Like

542
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:21,920
Speaker 1: did you feel yeah?

543
00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:22,720
Speaker 3: Big time?

544
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:26,200
Speaker 2: I think, you know, there's always this this I when

545
00:28:26,200 --> 00:28:29,920
Speaker 2: two people are working together and related that there's there's

546
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:34,280
Speaker 2: this sense of nepotism, you know, And I felt like

547
00:28:34,359 --> 00:28:38,160
Speaker 2: I had more to prove and I wanted to, for

548
00:28:38,280 --> 00:28:41,880
Speaker 2: both of our sakes, defend against that by just doing

549
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:44,200
Speaker 2: more and being better, you know.

550
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:49,760
Speaker 1: Right, I just want to talk a little bit about

551
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:54,120
Speaker 1: the form of the show. We began over time to

552
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:57,640
Speaker 1: find elements that we felt like worked that was going

553
00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:01,560
Speaker 1: to create you know, the best half hour television meaning

554
00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:05,520
Speaker 1: in diversity day for example, like setting that episode in

555
00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:08,240
Speaker 1: one day, having you know, having.

556
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:11,479
Speaker 2: All episodes were one day, right the most Yes, as

557
00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:14,920
Speaker 2: a rule. As a rule, yeah, yeah, which I think

558
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 2: that's something we broke a handful of times in two

559
00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:18,000
Speaker 2: hundred episodes.

560
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 3: And why was that important?

561
00:29:21,200 --> 00:29:23,200
Speaker 2: When we were talking about the concept of the show.

562
00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:26,760
Speaker 2: A documentary crew had come there that day for some

563
00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:31,320
Speaker 2: reason and everything was shot was contained in like their

564
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 2: intention and the I know at least the first few

565
00:29:36,120 --> 00:29:38,719
Speaker 2: times we broke that rule, it was because a story

566
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 2: lingered to the next day, so they followed it. But

567
00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:46,360
Speaker 2: it was our feeling that they weren't there every day

568
00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:50,160
Speaker 2: catching everything, whereas I think towards the end of the

569
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 2: show we'd said, no, maybe they just are there every day.

570
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:57,600
Speaker 1: I have never heard this before. Swear to God, really,

571
00:29:57,840 --> 00:29:59,280
Speaker 1: I've never heard this before.

572
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, why did they come? Because they came because they

573
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:09,480
Speaker 2: knew this person was coming to talk to Michael about

574
00:30:09,680 --> 00:30:13,600
Speaker 2: you know, a problem they received, you know, the Larry movement, diversity.

575
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:17,840
Speaker 2: But there was always that hook, right were they there

576
00:30:18,040 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 2: even if it was never stated.

577
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:23,600
Speaker 3: Or so like, oh, today it's the Christmas party? Yeah, exactly.

578
00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:25,880
Speaker 2: You can imagine some days where nothing happened and they

579
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 2: just didn't come, right.

580
00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:30,920
Speaker 1: I mean, I love this so much. It makes total

581
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:34,320
Speaker 1: sense that the camera crew wasn't at this paper company

582
00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:37,880
Speaker 1: five days a week forever, And that level of thought

583
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,160
Speaker 1: and detail in the world building of this thing, it

584
00:30:41,320 --> 00:30:44,680
Speaker 1: just it never ceases to amaze me. And as you've heard,

585
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:48,640
Speaker 1: so much of that was the brainchild of Greg Daniels,

586
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:52,200
Speaker 1: who I truly I consider him a genius, mad genius,

587
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:56,600
Speaker 1: but a genius. He gave the show real values, a

588
00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:01,160
Speaker 1: real heart. So here's the man himself telling me about

589
00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:03,760
Speaker 1: one of his biggest principles on the show.

590
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:05,520
Speaker 3: A few people talk.

591
00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:09,400
Speaker 1: To you about one of your core ideas, which is

592
00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:11,160
Speaker 1: the idea of truth and beauty.

593
00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:14,479
Speaker 8: Yeah, that was my thing with Randall, truth and beauty,

594
00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 8: Truth and beauty.

595
00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:17,560
Speaker 3: Yeah. And what did that mean to you?

596
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:23,760
Speaker 8: Well, you know, to me, that was I think that's

597
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:26,080
Speaker 8: some romantic poet. I'm not sure where that came from,

598
00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:29,080
Speaker 8: somebody like John Keats or something. I don't know, and

599
00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:29,760
Speaker 8: I don't even know.

600
00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 3: What he meant by it.

601
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:32,280
Speaker 8: But the way I used to use it with Randall

602
00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:35,840
Speaker 8: was that's what we're going for in the camera, right,

603
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:39,040
Speaker 8: Let the camera seek out truth. That's what it's trying

604
00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:40,920
Speaker 8: to find. That's the point of a documentary.

605
00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:42,080
Speaker 3: What's the truth?

606
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 8: And also not like a cynical negative truth, like also

607
00:31:47,040 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 8: where's the beauty. It's like another principle of photography of

608
00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:55,080
Speaker 8: like a good photograph is, you know, a little sprig

609
00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:58,240
Speaker 8: of weed coming through the cracked concrete or whatever, you

610
00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:00,480
Speaker 8: know what I mean. It's like, where are you gonna

611
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:03,040
Speaker 8: do something that's a little bit inspiring but find it

612
00:32:03,080 --> 00:32:05,240
Speaker 8: in a truthful way out in the real world.

613
00:32:05,720 --> 00:32:05,920
Speaker 3: Right.

614
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:09,280
Speaker 1: Well, Mike sure talked about it, and you told a

615
00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:13,280
Speaker 1: story about a parking lot, an endless parking lot with

616
00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:17,960
Speaker 1: lines and parking spaces, and in one crack there's a

617
00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:20,560
Speaker 1: little flower, a little dandelion.

618
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:23,760
Speaker 8: He said that it's funny. I just made the same. Yeah, yes,

619
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:27,600
Speaker 8: I think that that, you know. I'm I like the

620
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:31,400
Speaker 8: notion of esthetic, like what are you searching for in art?

621
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:39,720
Speaker 8: And the Japanese have interesting aesthetics with a cracked pot?

622
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:42,080
Speaker 3: Did he mention that to use that a lot?

623
00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:46,200
Speaker 8: So I think it's called wu I'm not sure, but

624
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 8: it's the notion of a perfect pot is okay, you know,

625
00:32:53,760 --> 00:32:57,840
Speaker 8: and we in the West probably value a perfect pot.

626
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:03,800
Speaker 8: But a cracked pot where the crack suddenly makes you

627
00:33:03,920 --> 00:33:06,760
Speaker 8: feel the history of the pot and the people who've

628
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:09,120
Speaker 8: used it in their family and have treasured it and

629
00:33:09,360 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 8: kept it even with the crack in it, like it

630
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:15,200
Speaker 8: suddenly cracks through you know, it suddenly will touch you.

631
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:19,680
Speaker 8: It's those little details often of imperfections, that's like a

632
00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:21,600
Speaker 8: it's just a cool sort of philosophy.

633
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:26,440
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, I have this so far off topic, but

634
00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:29,360
Speaker 1: a number of years ago, my parents were moving out

635
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:31,520
Speaker 1: of their house and I went for a week and

636
00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:33,520
Speaker 1: I was like helping them and throwing out all of

637
00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:36,240
Speaker 1: this trash. And we go into like the corner of

638
00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:38,400
Speaker 1: the closet and a guest room that no one ever

639
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:41,160
Speaker 1: slept in. And in the closet there was a big

640
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:44,080
Speaker 1: piece of paper that was folded up and I unfolded

641
00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:48,560
Speaker 1: it and it was a Kennedy poster that my dad

642
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 1: had like handed out or seen or collected or whatever.

643
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:54,400
Speaker 3: And I remember.

644
00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:58,200
Speaker 1: Saying to him, can I have this? And he's like, yeah,

645
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,640
Speaker 1: it's like all torn or whatever. And I took it

646
00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:05,080
Speaker 1: and I framed it and I took it to this

647
00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:06,560
Speaker 1: play and they were like, oh, we can you know,

648
00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:08,440
Speaker 1: do this or that, And I was like no, no, no,

649
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:11,200
Speaker 1: the crack has to stay there and the wrinkle, the

650
00:34:11,239 --> 00:34:14,560
Speaker 1: folded marks just as lightly as you can matt this

651
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:18,040
Speaker 1: on something and enclose it because I want that history

652
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:18,239
Speaker 1: of it.

653
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:19,479
Speaker 3: I don't know that idea. Yeah.

654
00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:22,520
Speaker 8: Well, also, like I mean, you know, they don't get

655
00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:26,040
Speaker 8: too psychological, but you know, when you think about your dad, right,

656
00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:30,040
Speaker 8: you're so the relationship that you have with your father,

657
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:33,279
Speaker 8: the fact how old that they are, and just the

658
00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:36,680
Speaker 8: sense of like passage of time being important to that

659
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:40,879
Speaker 8: relationship and fragility of it and knowing that it may

660
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:42,080
Speaker 8: not be around forever.

661
00:34:42,640 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 3: And I can.

662
00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:47,680
Speaker 8: Completely see why a tear in your dad's poster adds

663
00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:49,440
Speaker 8: to the emotion of it.

664
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:53,319
Speaker 1: Yeah right, yeah, totally. I love that so much. The

665
00:34:53,560 --> 00:35:00,319
Speaker 1: imperfections really are what make the Office so perfect. More

666
00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:20,799
Speaker 1: after the break, So, as you probably heard from the

667
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:25,840
Speaker 1: news or heard from this podcast, many of your favorite

668
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:29,279
Speaker 1: shows have been ground to a halt the last few months.

669
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:33,800
Speaker 1: The Writer's Guild of America is deep in a strike now.

670
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,440
Speaker 1: Back in two thousand and seven, when The Office was

671
00:35:36,480 --> 00:35:38,920
Speaker 1: on the air, there was a major writer strike that

672
00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:41,200
Speaker 1: lasted ninety nine days.

673
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:42,120
Speaker 3: Wow.

674
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:45,960
Speaker 1: Well, as of today, the current strike has reached one

675
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:49,919
Speaker 1: hundred and forty days without an end in sight. We're

676
00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:53,279
Speaker 1: really in it now for the long haul. I love

677
00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:57,640
Speaker 1: how Mike Sure talked about the last strike, which had

678
00:35:57,640 --> 00:35:59,759
Speaker 1: a lot to do with the start of streaming and

679
00:35:59,800 --> 00:36:04,120
Speaker 1: online videos and how those were paid or not paid for.

680
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:07,960
Speaker 1: And I'd like to share that with you now. The

681
00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:14,360
Speaker 1: account's significant because I have an Emmy congratulation, an actual Emmy,

682
00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:17,479
Speaker 1: but you also won an Emmy. But we were never

683
00:36:17,560 --> 00:36:20,360
Speaker 1: paid for it, and it led to the writers strike.

684
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:24,799
Speaker 1: I watched a video.

685
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:27,120
Speaker 4: Of you yesterday from when we were on strike.

686
00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:30,640
Speaker 1: When you were on strike, Yeah, you guys produced a video. Yeah,

687
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:33,000
Speaker 1: and you said a number of things in the video.

688
00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:34,439
Speaker 4: Okay, I don't remember any of them.

689
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:36,239
Speaker 1: But I saw it and I was like, oh my god.

690
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:38,520
Speaker 1: And then we were joking that you guys were coming

691
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:41,120
Speaker 1: up with bits as you were walking the picket line

692
00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:46,279
Speaker 1: and making the video. Kind of funny anyway, but you

693
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:49,840
Speaker 1: said in part that you're watching this on the internet,

694
00:36:50,280 --> 00:36:53,319
Speaker 1: a thing that pays us zero dollars. They were put

695
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:57,279
Speaker 1: on NBC dot com and they sold ads and we

696
00:36:57,320 --> 00:37:01,799
Speaker 1: won a Daytime Emmy and didn't make any money. The

697
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:04,880
Speaker 1: writer strike was a really big deal. Yeah, I don't know,

698
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:06,680
Speaker 1: just talk to me about that time of what you

699
00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:11,200
Speaker 1: remember of Greg saying no, we're not going to produce

700
00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:12,239
Speaker 1: material for free.

701
00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:16,360
Speaker 4: There It was a very inspiring moment for me personally,

702
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:19,759
Speaker 4: because this central issue at the time. This is two

703
00:37:19,800 --> 00:37:22,080
Speaker 4: thousand and seven. The central issue at the time was

704
00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:26,760
Speaker 4: jurisdiction over the internet because Netflix hadn't started making original

705
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:29,440
Speaker 4: shows yet, but people felt like they were going in

706
00:37:29,480 --> 00:37:33,320
Speaker 4: that direction and NBC and every network had a website

707
00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:36,640
Speaker 4: and they were starting to like stream in primitive fashion,

708
00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:39,920
Speaker 4: the stream things on the over the internet, and suddenly

709
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:41,360
Speaker 4: it was like, well, if this is the future. It

710
00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:43,200
Speaker 4: didn't take a genius to think like, well, this is

711
00:37:43,239 --> 00:37:46,840
Speaker 4: the future, Like, who cares whether it's a television screen

712
00:37:46,880 --> 00:37:49,320
Speaker 4: you hang on your wall or sit on a platform,

713
00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:52,880
Speaker 4: or whether it's your computer screen. This is how people

714
00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:55,279
Speaker 4: are consuming the work we do, and we ought to

715
00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:58,840
Speaker 4: get paid for them. So so those webisodes were like

716
00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:01,920
Speaker 4: a big part of that because they were shot with

717
00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:05,520
Speaker 4: a union labor and no one got paid. So that

718
00:38:05,719 --> 00:38:08,080
Speaker 4: was like the you know, it wasn't like because of

719
00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:10,919
Speaker 4: those episodes that the writers could want on strike. Those

720
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:12,719
Speaker 4: webisodes were an example of the kind of thing that

721
00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:14,239
Speaker 4: we were trying. We were saying, like, if this is

722
00:38:14,239 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 4: the way things are going, we got to do some

723
00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:19,160
Speaker 4: about this, right. So, because the companies at the time

724
00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:21,240
Speaker 4: were saying like, you know what, we don't have enough information.

725
00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:24,319
Speaker 4: Let's just let's just let's just wait three years from now,

726
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:26,520
Speaker 4: we'll have more information and then we'll know what the

727
00:38:26,560 --> 00:38:28,640
Speaker 4: future of this is. And we were like, no, you're

728
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:32,600
Speaker 4: trying to you're basically trying to grandfather in the internet

729
00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:35,200
Speaker 4: as like a thing that you don't pay for. So

730
00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:40,800
Speaker 4: we went on strike and it was a huge deal

731
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:44,200
Speaker 4: and it was very scary. It was like unclear what

732
00:38:44,280 --> 00:38:48,680
Speaker 4: was going on. The communication wasn't sublime. And Greg was like, well,

733
00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:50,759
Speaker 4: we're going to pick at our own show. And the

734
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:52,600
Speaker 4: reason we're going to pick out our own show isn't

735
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:55,759
Speaker 4: a show of solidarity. Isn't a saying like this is

736
00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:57,440
Speaker 4: the thing we care about the most in the world.

737
00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:00,120
Speaker 4: And we were in that little Chandler Studios in the

738
00:39:00,120 --> 00:39:02,239
Speaker 4: middle of Van Eyes and it was not on a

739
00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:05,120
Speaker 4: major studio lot, and so we all showed up to

740
00:39:05,160 --> 00:39:06,880
Speaker 4: work at six in the morning and we pick it

741
00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:09,240
Speaker 4: at our own show. And we were in the middle

742
00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:11,720
Speaker 4: of season four. We were about to shoot the Dinner

743
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:13,960
Speaker 4: Party episode, one of the most famous episodes of the

744
00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:16,920
Speaker 4: show of all time, the best read through I think

745
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:19,120
Speaker 4: we ever had. Do you remember that read through? That

746
00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:23,600
Speaker 4: read through was like it was like a rock concert.

747
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:26,359
Speaker 4: And we had finished that script. That script was ready

748
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,640
Speaker 4: to go, and that script could have been shot. The

749
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:30,800
Speaker 4: actors could have just executed the script, and the directors

750
00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:33,480
Speaker 4: were on strike, and the crew wasn't on strike, but

751
00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:37,600
Speaker 4: Steve Carrell said, no, I'm not. This is the way

752
00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:41,040
Speaker 4: we make this show is collaborative, and there's writers on

753
00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:42,800
Speaker 4: the set and there's producers on the set, and we

754
00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:45,239
Speaker 4: changed things and we work out new little moments and

755
00:39:45,320 --> 00:39:47,400
Speaker 4: pitch new jokes, and I don't think I'm going to

756
00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 4: make the show without the writers. And he didn't show up,

757
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:54,640
Speaker 4: and so they shot a couple scenes from the episode

758
00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:57,720
Speaker 4: that Michael Scott wasn't in, and then there was nothing

759
00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:00,799
Speaker 4: else to do and the show shut down, and that

760
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:03,560
Speaker 4: was such a heroic thing. He just stayed home and

761
00:40:04,280 --> 00:40:07,200
Speaker 4: he got calls from a lot of lawyers and a

762
00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:10,640
Speaker 4: lot of studio executives, from really really powerful people saying

763
00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:12,160
Speaker 4: you have to do this, and he was like, no,

764
00:40:12,160 --> 00:40:17,319
Speaker 4: I don't watch me. And Greg called him and he

765
00:40:17,440 --> 00:40:19,600
Speaker 4: was home and Greg was like, hey, I know that

766
00:40:19,640 --> 00:40:21,600
Speaker 4: you've had a lot of pressure coming at you. Are

767
00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:23,160
Speaker 4: you okay And he was like, yeah, I'm home, I'm

768
00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:25,880
Speaker 4: playing with my kids, and was totally unfazed by it

769
00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:28,800
Speaker 4: and had the attitude of like, this is a collaborative effort.

770
00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:31,720
Speaker 4: This is a thing that we do together. We don't

771
00:40:31,719 --> 00:40:34,920
Speaker 4: do this, this isn't without writers on the set. We

772
00:40:34,920 --> 00:40:36,680
Speaker 4: don't make the same show, and I'm not going to

773
00:40:36,719 --> 00:40:40,280
Speaker 4: make that show fire me basically was what he was saying.

774
00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:43,239
Speaker 4: He called their bluff and the show shut down and

775
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:45,759
Speaker 4: writers run strike for four months, and then they gave

776
00:40:45,840 --> 00:40:47,680
Speaker 4: up jurisdiction of the internet and we went back to work,

777
00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:49,600
Speaker 4: and then we made the Dinner Party, which is amazing,

778
00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:52,960
Speaker 4: and it was truly the story of what he did

779
00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:56,640
Speaker 4: spread like wildfire. He did not have to do that.

780
00:40:57,239 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 4: There were very few people who were in the position

781
00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:04,640
Speaker 4: he was in, obviously as the star of a very popular, successful, gigantic,

782
00:41:04,719 --> 00:41:08,359
Speaker 4: monolithic hit show. But still he didn't have to do that.

783
00:41:08,520 --> 00:41:08,960
Speaker 3: He could have.

784
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:11,120
Speaker 4: No one would have been mad at him. He wasn't

785
00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:12,600
Speaker 4: on the actors right, and.

786
00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:15,360
Speaker 1: I was, you know, I remember having a huge, long

787
00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:19,160
Speaker 1: conversation with my representations, saying like, how can I walk

788
00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:22,400
Speaker 1: past them? How can I cross how can I cross

789
00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:24,360
Speaker 1: the line? And he said that that you know, you

790
00:41:24,480 --> 00:41:27,080
Speaker 1: have no choice, Yeah, you have to show.

791
00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:28,680
Speaker 4: Up, and we knew that, and Ed, I remember Ed

792
00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:30,480
Speaker 4: came out and was like, hey guys, and he hung

793
00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:33,840
Speaker 4: out with us, and I remember Ed going, I'm really sorry,

794
00:41:33,920 --> 00:41:35,279
Speaker 4: but I have and we were like no, no, no, we

795
00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:37,360
Speaker 4: get it. Your union is not on strike here, like

796
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:39,759
Speaker 4: you're not. We get it. It's fine. No one's bad

797
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:42,040
Speaker 4: at you, Like no one had any animosity towards any

798
00:41:42,080 --> 00:41:44,960
Speaker 4: of the actors because you were in breach of contract

799
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:47,480
Speaker 4: if you didn't show up. Steve was in breach of contract.

800
00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:51,319
Speaker 4: He just said, I don't care. Fire me. And it's

801
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:53,279
Speaker 4: easier for the star of the show to do that

802
00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:56,360
Speaker 4: right than it is for anyone else. But the story

803
00:41:56,400 --> 00:42:01,440
Speaker 4: spread like wildfire, and Mindy wrote a sign in He

804
00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:03,560
Speaker 4: hung it on his trailer that said like Steve Carrell

805
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:05,920
Speaker 4: American hero or something and took a picture of it,

806
00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 4: and it spread very quickly around the town, and it

807
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:12,160
Speaker 4: was a real wind beneath the wings of the Guild

808
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:12,720
Speaker 4: at the time.

809
00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:14,200
Speaker 3: It's amazing.

810
00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:19,960
Speaker 1: I mean, he you can't sort of overstate just what

811
00:42:20,560 --> 00:42:24,600
Speaker 1: an amazing guy he is. Yeah, and person to work with.

812
00:42:25,640 --> 00:42:29,759
Speaker 1: I get a little choked up when I remember what

813
00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:34,239
Speaker 1: an amazing leader he was during that time and always,

814
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:38,600
Speaker 1: but during the strike especially. And I want to close

815
00:42:38,600 --> 00:42:41,040
Speaker 1: out with one of my favorite tidbits I learn while

816
00:42:41,040 --> 00:42:44,760
Speaker 1: collecting these stories about the office. The next clip release

817
00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:49,200
Speaker 1: sums up the care that the writers took in every

818
00:42:49,239 --> 00:42:53,080
Speaker 1: single decision. But I'm going to let the brilliant writer

819
00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:56,440
Speaker 1: and later co show runner of the show, Jen Salada

820
00:42:57,080 --> 00:43:00,520
Speaker 1: tell you about this. Was there anything else that specific

821
00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:04,360
Speaker 1: or unique? Do you remember about this writing room? Writer's room?

822
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:06,920
Speaker 9: It was the best writer's room I've ever been in,

823
00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:09,440
Speaker 9: and I feel like it will be the best writer's

824
00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:14,000
Speaker 9: room I'm ever in. I think the writers were exceptionally talented,

825
00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:18,640
Speaker 9: and Greg was saying that everybody had their own super strengths,

826
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:23,640
Speaker 9: but everybody was good at story and comedy and emotion.

827
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:28,759
Speaker 9: I felt that certain people, yeah, were more gift, more

828
00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:31,760
Speaker 9: gifted in certain areas. But I've worked on staffs where

829
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:34,600
Speaker 9: one person was story, one person was comedy. There was

830
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:36,120
Speaker 9: a little bit more like that, and I felt like

831
00:43:36,239 --> 00:43:40,200
Speaker 9: this staff, everybody had the ability to do everything, and

832
00:43:40,239 --> 00:43:43,600
Speaker 9: the fact that everybody cared so much. There was an

833
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:46,319
Speaker 9: enormous discussion I don't know if anybody talked about it

834
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:48,959
Speaker 9: between whether the proposal should have sound or no sound.

835
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:52,320
Speaker 9: There were people on both sides. It was about fifty

836
00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:57,040
Speaker 9: to fifty. It was the craziest discussion. It was whether

837
00:43:57,120 --> 00:43:59,480
Speaker 9: or not when we saw Jim proposed to Pam we

838
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:02,440
Speaker 9: should have have sound. And hear what he's saying, or

839
00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:05,960
Speaker 9: just see the visual of him in the rain getting

840
00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:11,759
Speaker 9: on one knee. And I found that that really explained

841
00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:15,080
Speaker 9: the writer's room. Everybody cared so much. There was one

842
00:44:15,120 --> 00:44:17,520
Speaker 9: moment where Greg was getting into his car, you know,

843
00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:20,719
Speaker 9: after the discussion had gone on for a month and

844
00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:23,319
Speaker 9: we were about to, you know, have to settle on it,

845
00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:25,200
Speaker 9: where I was coming from a trailer and he was

846
00:44:25,200 --> 00:44:27,160
Speaker 9: getting into his car and I said Greg, and he

847
00:44:27,239 --> 00:44:29,720
Speaker 9: like turned and he was like kind of trapped between

848
00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:31,880
Speaker 9: his car door and his car and I was like,

849
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:33,560
Speaker 9: did you make did you decide yet it was sound

850
00:44:33,600 --> 00:44:35,200
Speaker 9: or no sound? And he's like, no, no, I haven't,

851
00:44:35,239 --> 00:44:37,640
Speaker 9: I haven't. It was literally like a horror film. I

852
00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:40,320
Speaker 9: was like was stalking him to find out if the

853
00:44:40,360 --> 00:44:44,719
Speaker 9: decision had been made. We argued passionately, and it was

854
00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:48,040
Speaker 9: just because everybody cared, And I think that a lot

855
00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:50,080
Speaker 9: of it was just for the passion with which the

856
00:44:50,120 --> 00:44:52,640
Speaker 9: passion everybody had for telling the story. I can talk

857
00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:54,160
Speaker 9: a little bit about the sound no sound if you

858
00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:56,080
Speaker 9: want to hear it, but you might hear it from everybody.

859
00:44:55,760 --> 00:44:56,920
Speaker 3: Else to oh, go ahead.

860
00:44:59,000 --> 00:45:03,360
Speaker 9: So that was actually a decision a little bit that

861
00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:06,480
Speaker 9: I feel like came down to another discussion that we

862
00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:08,480
Speaker 9: had a lot of times in the room, which was

863
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:11,879
Speaker 9: kind of being more documentary and a little bit more

864
00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:14,319
Speaker 9: real and a little bit more subtle and being a

865
00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:20,480
Speaker 9: little bit more like a comedy or a show. So basically,

866
00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:22,719
Speaker 9: the side that wanted to hear Jim's words were like,

867
00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:25,720
Speaker 9: you've been waiting forever to hear him propose to Pam.

868
00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:28,719
Speaker 9: Why would you take that moment away from people and

869
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:31,880
Speaker 9: not hear his actual words. It's like they've been waiting

870
00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:33,480
Speaker 9: for it. You want to give them what they've been

871
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:36,960
Speaker 9: waiting for. Just might be slightly more of a comedy

872
00:45:37,040 --> 00:45:40,880
Speaker 9: show kind of thing with a documentary documentary thing. It

873
00:45:40,920 --> 00:45:44,000
Speaker 9: was a little bit more of like God, it's so

874
00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:48,680
Speaker 9: beautiful and subtle, and to be across the street and

875
00:45:48,719 --> 00:45:51,960
Speaker 9: to have to reach for it because he would turn

876
00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:54,200
Speaker 9: his mic off in this moment. It's a big moment,

877
00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:56,480
Speaker 9: and once you see him down on one knee, we

878
00:45:56,600 --> 00:45:58,800
Speaker 9: know what he's saying, and then actually filling in the

879
00:45:58,840 --> 00:46:01,640
Speaker 9: blank is more beautiful. We went back and forth about

880
00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:04,799
Speaker 9: this for so long. At one point Greg asked me

881
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:07,600
Speaker 9: to send in my pros and CON's list, like sound

882
00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:10,480
Speaker 9: and no sound. And then I remember I was in

883
00:46:10,560 --> 00:46:12,719
Speaker 9: his office a little bit later. We didn't still hadn't

884
00:46:12,719 --> 00:46:14,879
Speaker 9: made a decision, and I saw a list of people

885
00:46:14,920 --> 00:46:16,800
Speaker 9: who wanted sound and a list of people who wanted

886
00:46:16,840 --> 00:46:19,480
Speaker 9: no sound, and his wife and two kids was on

887
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:21,560
Speaker 9: one side of the list, and two other kids or

888
00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:23,759
Speaker 9: white one kid. Once I listened to other kids. His

889
00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:26,680
Speaker 9: family was split down the middle. So he was interviewing

890
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:29,279
Speaker 9: everybody and saying what should we do? What should we do?

891
00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:32,240
Speaker 9: So there was a moment he was at the sound

892
00:46:32,280 --> 00:46:34,600
Speaker 9: mix we were he had to make the decision, like

893
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:36,400
Speaker 9: this is the moment, and he's like, is there anybody

894
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:38,480
Speaker 9: we haven't asked? Is there anybody we haven't asked? And

895
00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:40,560
Speaker 9: I said, oh, yeah, the security guard is there, you know,

896
00:46:40,719 --> 00:46:43,080
Speaker 9: security guard whose name I can't quite remember him. Sorry,

897
00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:46,360
Speaker 9: But I go and I get the security guard. And

898
00:46:46,719 --> 00:46:48,239
Speaker 9: it occurs to me during my walk to the office

899
00:46:48,280 --> 00:46:51,520
Speaker 9: that he's never seen the office. The lovely, lovely man

900
00:46:51,719 --> 00:46:56,440
Speaker 9: protected us, all right. So I'm like, okay, cool, So

901
00:46:56,520 --> 00:46:59,279
Speaker 9: now we've just got a very objective person. So I

902
00:46:59,280 --> 00:47:02,359
Speaker 9: show him the scene without sound, and then I show

903
00:47:02,440 --> 00:47:04,640
Speaker 9: him the scene with sound, and I say, what did

904
00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:07,120
Speaker 9: you prefer, and he said I liked the second one

905
00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:08,920
Speaker 9: and I said why he said, oh, because I could

906
00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:14,680
Speaker 9: hear it. Okay, Greg, he said he like the second

907
00:47:14,680 --> 00:47:18,480
Speaker 9: one because you could hear it. So that was it. Anyway,

908
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:21,520
Speaker 9: That wasn't how the decision was made, but that was

909
00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:24,279
Speaker 9: our last person weighing in, and then you know, it

910
00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:28,080
Speaker 9: ended up airing with sound. But it was the debate

911
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:30,120
Speaker 9: about whether or not it should be sound or no

912
00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:32,480
Speaker 9: sound was the writer's room. To me, it was everybody

913
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:36,800
Speaker 9: incredibly passionate about something that we had worked towards and

914
00:47:37,680 --> 00:47:41,760
Speaker 9: just we really cared.

915
00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:57,080
Speaker 1: Thanks for caring, Jen and Greg, Mike, Paul, Brent, Lee

916
00:47:57,360 --> 00:48:02,120
Speaker 1: Jean and everyone who worked on and rode on the show.

917
00:48:02,600 --> 00:48:07,680
Speaker 1: These people mean so much to me, and I support

918
00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:10,960
Speaker 1: what they are fighting for. I support what the actors

919
00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:15,200
Speaker 1: the Screen Actors Guild is fighting for. But I hope

920
00:48:15,239 --> 00:48:18,600
Speaker 1: for the sake of everyone that we get back to

921
00:48:18,680 --> 00:48:23,319
Speaker 1: work very soon. I'll be back next week with a

922
00:48:23,360 --> 00:48:29,080
Speaker 1: new and of course exciting guest. Until then, please everyone

923
00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:33,120
Speaker 1: keep the writers and the actors and all of the

924
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:36,280
Speaker 1: crew across the entertainment industry in your.

925
00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:39,440
Speaker 3: Mind this week, and we'll see you next week.

926
00:48:50,280 --> 00:48:53,160
Speaker 1: Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me

927
00:48:53,560 --> 00:48:58,080
Speaker 1: Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Lang Lee. Our senior

928
00:48:58,080 --> 00:49:02,759
Speaker 1: producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris,

929
00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:07,000
Speaker 1: and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary,

930
00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:11,040
Speaker 1: and our intern is Ali Amir Sahi. Our theme song

931
00:49:11,200 --> 00:49:15,640
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton,