Speaker 1: What girls in the forest, our imagination and our family bonds.
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Speaker 1: Waiting on Reparations would beat the illes podcast. Tune in
Speaker 1: every Thursday politics and wordplay. We fight for the people
Speaker 1: because they got us in the worst way. From the
Speaker 1: Hill Cooper, the Bombay to Kanya, from the left enclave
Speaker 1: to what the neo Kanzi. Every Thursday cop the heavy
Speaker 1: conversation and to break us off with some bread because
Speaker 1: we're waiting RepA. Listen to Waiting on Reparations on I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: The art world it is essentially a money laundering business.
Speaker 1: The best fakes are still hanging on people's walls. You
Speaker 1: know they don't even know or suspect that their fakes.
Speaker 1: I'm out like Baldwin, and this is a podcast about deception,
Speaker 1: greed and forgery in the art world. I just walked
Speaker 1: in and saw this bright red painting, presuming to be
Speaker 1: a Rothko. Of course, art forgeries only happen because there's
Speaker 1: money to be made, a lot of money. I'm listening
Speaker 1: to what they're paying for these things. It was an
Speaker 1: incredible mans of money. You knew the painting was fake. Um,
Speaker 1: listen to Art Fraud on the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello everyone,
Speaker 1: and welcome back to the Office Deep Dive. I am
Speaker 1: your host, as always, Brian Baumgartner. So as this podcast
Speaker 1: begins to take on well a new look, to take
Speaker 1: new wings, and launch into version two point oh, which
Speaker 1: I can't wait to share with you, I have to
Speaker 1: admit I've been thinking a lot about how extraordinarily lucky
Speaker 1: I have been to to get to create all of
Speaker 1: this and to have so many of you respond so
Speaker 1: well to it. You guys, it means so much to me.
Speaker 1: So for a special treat, I am compiling the best
Speaker 1: of the best from the Office Deep Dive into a
Speaker 1: two part episode release. I couldn't include everyone, of course,
Speaker 1: and I truly do love my entire office family, So
Speaker 1: go back and listen to any of the episodes you
Speaker 1: might have missed. But today we're gonna start where it
Speaker 1: all started, across the pond in jolly old England, in
Speaker 1: actually in the land that may the very dish that
Speaker 1: inspired our own Creed Bratton to write this podcast theme song,
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak. That is, we are going to begin
Speaker 1: inside the beautiful mind of Ricky Gervais Bubble and Squeak.
Speaker 1: I love it. Bubble and Squeaker, Bubble and Squeaker Cookie
Speaker 1: every month left over from the nat before. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the first time you met Ben Silverman. Yes, I do.
Speaker 1: I was walking down the street in London. I think
Speaker 1: I was going to see my agent and the phone
Speaker 1: run um and he said, Hi, it's Ben Silverman. You
Speaker 1: don't know me. I wanna I want to remake the
Speaker 1: Office for America. And I went okay, all right. He said,
Speaker 1: can we meet up? He said, I'm in town. I
Speaker 1: went right. He said where are you. I'll come to you.
Speaker 1: I've jumped the cab. I went okay, and I looked
Speaker 1: up and I said, right, I'm right outside Starbucks in
Speaker 1: ward Or Street and he went, wait there, I'll be
Speaker 1: there in fifteen minutes, and he jumped in a cab.
Speaker 1: He got I've never met anyone like him. He came
Speaker 1: and found me because obviously knew what he looked like
Speaker 1: because he'd watched the Office and he talked to me
Speaker 1: and I said, well, listen, let me introduce you to
Speaker 1: my agent to get the ball rolling. And I took
Speaker 1: him in to see Duncan Hayes as my UK still
Speaker 1: is my UK agent, and that and that was the
Speaker 1: beginning of it. And then I can't remember all the
Speaker 1: details or all the phone calls, but I think the
Speaker 1: next big step was we sort of auditions show runners
Speaker 1: and we saw some amazing ones from my favorite programs
Speaker 1: of all time. We we chose Greg. And I think
Speaker 1: we chose Greg not just because of his body's work,
Speaker 1: which was as good as anyone's and he was a
Speaker 1: nice chat but I think I think it was because
Speaker 1: he was the only one that brought up that he
Speaker 1: thought it was a love story. That was very important
Speaker 1: for me. That the love story. So you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't want to say I never thought of it was,
Speaker 1: you know, just the sitcom. You know, you traditionally sitcoms were,
Speaker 1: as I say, an ordinary guy getting into Caper's and
Speaker 1: then you know, back at Square one and there wasn't
Speaker 1: there wasn't really romance, but you know, we stole that
Speaker 1: from America because you know, and movies, because you know,
Speaker 1: there was always a love interest in movies and a
Speaker 1: lot of Americans shows had more romance and love interests
Speaker 1: than than ours. That was usually about a grumpy middle
Speaker 1: aged man, so we we like that. And then I
Speaker 1: can't remember what all of this this was in, but
Speaker 1: I think it was the Golden Globes where we won
Speaker 1: for the Office and I won Best Comedy Actor. I
Speaker 1: think that was the same week the we went to
Speaker 1: Ben Silverman's office, and I don't know it before and after,
Speaker 1: but then Ben and Greg came to London. At that
Speaker 1: I think that was nearer the time when we were
Speaker 1: very getting very close to actually start in production, and
Speaker 1: we worked out the translation, what was slow in America,
Speaker 1: you know, what was the equivalent of this, and what
Speaker 1: was the equivalent of that, and do we have this
Speaker 1: and what we almost did like a blueprint to you know,
Speaker 1: just americanizing stuff, and then we started. Then we started
Speaker 1: auditions and and that was it. I do remember at
Speaker 1: one point, I think before or auditions, or when we
Speaker 1: were thinking of looking for you know, that David Brent
Speaker 1: and I think Ben Silverman called me and said, why
Speaker 1: don't you plane, and I said, well, what were the
Speaker 1: point of that? I did my best. Now I want
Speaker 1: to rest. Now I want some I want some other
Speaker 1: schmuck to do a two episodes. But mainly my real
Speaker 1: apart from the fact that I was lazy and I
Speaker 1: was terrified of being working hard for seven years, I said, no,
Speaker 1: this should be this should be made by Americans for Americans.
Speaker 1: And I was flattered that they even let us being
Speaker 1: involved as we were. But you know, it really took
Speaker 1: off when they started making their own show. Is the
Speaker 1: first episode was basically a remake, but then it just
Speaker 1: got further and further away, and you know, by the end,
Speaker 1: it yeah, it was it was his own show. And
Speaker 1: I remember that people were scared because The Office was
Speaker 1: such a media darling, you know, to a few Americans,
Speaker 1: even it's peak. I remember the Office in America, the
Speaker 1: our version. I remember it was the biggest show on
Speaker 1: BBC America and it had something like one point one million, right,
Speaker 1: and Ben Selden was saying, listen, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people that haven't seen this that won't be prejudiced. But
Speaker 1: of course I remember he was worried about the press,
Speaker 1: saying this is a you know this, we love the original. Um,
Speaker 1: and he came up with a really good thing. When
Speaker 1: they were saying, why would you do a remake of
Speaker 1: this that the original was perfect, he said, well, why
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I wouldn't make the film of a shitty novel.
Speaker 1: I'd make a film of the best novel I could find.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was such a clever counter. But
Speaker 1: of course we want to remake of something that's really
Speaker 1: good at what, we don't remake of something that looks terrible? Right,
Speaker 1: And then soon you know, people forgot that there was original.
Speaker 1: Some people don't even know there's an original. To most
Speaker 1: Americans that they have no idea that this is a remake,
Speaker 1: and they don't care. And you know, and I imagine
Speaker 1: most people who love the American Office they prefer it
Speaker 1: to the British version. So, and which is a great
Speaker 1: position to be in for me. I remember once it
Speaker 1: was after syndication and someone, someone on Twitter sent me
Speaker 1: a tweet that said, the American version of the Office
Speaker 1: is so much bigger and better than yours? How does
Speaker 1: that make you feel? And I sent back, fucking rich, Well,
Speaker 1: there are certainly worse things to feel. So Ricky was
Speaker 1: in England more than happy to let The Office take
Speaker 1: off in a brand new direction. Meanwhile, back in the States,
Speaker 1: some of our cast was still keeping a close eye
Speaker 1: on Ricky's work. Rain Wilson in particular, had his eye
Speaker 1: on the prize. Were you aware of the British version
Speaker 1: of The Office? I was. I was so my friend
Speaker 1: Sam Catlin, he had heard about it, and he had
Speaker 1: seen a couple episodes and somehow gotten some like British
Speaker 1: DVD or something like that, and had like even like
Speaker 1: an English DVD player or something, somehow had advanced copies,
Speaker 1: and like, you've got to see it. Groundbreaking, amazing, And
Speaker 1: so we went over like on a special occasional We've
Speaker 1: got to watch The Office, and we were blown away.
Speaker 1: So I was really truly one of the first people
Speaker 1: to see it in the United States. It might have
Speaker 1: been one of the first couple of thousand people to
Speaker 1: see it in the United States, and just we loved it.
Speaker 1: And then he would get his hands on a couple
Speaker 1: more episodes and we'd go back and have dinner and
Speaker 1: watched like two or three more episodes. So I loved it.
Speaker 1: And what happened was I got cast in a pilot
Speaker 1: with Jeanine Garofalo for ABC. Mark Marin was in it
Speaker 1: and Bob oden Kirk was in it. And this was
Speaker 1: this infamous pilot that we did the table read and
Speaker 1: they pulled the plug after the table read. So they
Speaker 1: had sets built, we had locations, we had cast, we
Speaker 1: had plane tickets. We were flying out the next day,
Speaker 1: literally the next morning after the table read, starts shooting
Speaker 1: and uh did the table read and went terribly, but
Speaker 1: I guess what, I still got paid. And that was
Speaker 1: the same pilot season as The Office. Kind of the
Speaker 1: Office didn't really follow a pilot season when it was
Speaker 1: first casting, right, So what happened was Vernon Sanders, who's
Speaker 1: one of the executives and NBC executives, right, And I
Speaker 1: ran into him in the parking lot on the way
Speaker 1: to this infamous table read and he's like, hey, we
Speaker 1: got good news and I was like, what's that is? Like,
Speaker 1: we got the rights to make the American version of
Speaker 1: the Office, and I was like, outside, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh great, and inside I was like, motherfucker, God, damn it.
Speaker 1: That's fucking sucks. Because I love the British Office so much.
Speaker 1: I didn't have an idea of like even what the
Speaker 1: American Office would be or what role I would play
Speaker 1: or anything like that. But I was just like inside,
Speaker 1: I was just kicking myself. And then the plug gets
Speaker 1: pulled on that. And then I called my people and
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, I hear about this office, and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: well there was a few months to go on that.
Speaker 1: So fortunately that the space was opened and the door
Speaker 1: was opened. The universe works in mysterious ways, Brian, That's right,
Speaker 1: it does, and so you eventually get a call to
Speaker 1: go in and meet correct. I was the first audition
Speaker 1: for the office. I have in my office at home,
Speaker 1: framed the audition sheet of Alison Jones the first day
Speaker 1: of the auditions for the office, and I was number
Speaker 1: one on that list. So other people on the list,
Speaker 1: or Jenna Fisher you can find. It's on my Instagram somewhere.
Speaker 1: It might even be in my book in the in
Speaker 1: the photos included in my books, so you guys can
Speaker 1: find it. But uh, I think Adam Scott audition. I
Speaker 1: think there were, um, there was a lot of great
Speaker 1: talent that auditions. My story about that I'll share with
Speaker 1: you really quick was when Steve left Alison Jones came
Speaker 1: to me where he had a little party, a little reception.
Speaker 1: She came and she goes, I was looking for stuff
Speaker 1: for Steve that I thought might be cool. She probably
Speaker 1: gave that to you, like when she was searching around
Speaker 1: and she hands me a sheet and it says Kevin
Speaker 1: and it says Brian baum Gartner, Eric stone Street, and
Speaker 1: Jorge Garcia. No kidding. So that was like the final three.
Speaker 1: But oh fantastic. So you although Eric stone Street is
Speaker 1: way richer than you, he is now he sorry shoot sorry.
Speaker 1: So yeah, So on that first audition, I auditioned for
Speaker 1: both Michael and Dwight, and my Michael was just terrible.
Speaker 1: It was just simply a Ricky gervaisin p nation. And
Speaker 1: I knew that I had more of an affinity for
Speaker 1: the Dwight role. Uh, and I knew that I could
Speaker 1: really deliver on that. I just felt it in my bones.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, this is me, this is that's exactly
Speaker 1: my kind of weird. Yeah, well that I mean, you're
Speaker 1: but you were so different also than Gareth in a
Speaker 1: British version. I mean he was much crook, yeah weasily
Speaker 1: and and Dwight way more authoritarian and trying to derive power,
Speaker 1: whereas Gareth seemed more backstabby. Yeah, we're different in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways and similar in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1: And it was this incredible luxury to go, Okay, here's
Speaker 1: Mackenzie Crook, brilliant actor, really strange looking dude, and he
Speaker 1: killed as Gareth and was so interesting and I get
Speaker 1: to steal all of his best stuff, and then there's
Speaker 1: maybe stuff that I can add that's more of my own,
Speaker 1: so it's win win all around. So one of the
Speaker 1: things that do It is most known for is saying
Speaker 1: absolutely ludicrous, preposterous stuff with a total straight face and
Speaker 1: a dead pan, without any knowledge that what he's saying
Speaker 1: is ridiculous. And really, Mackenzie did that so beautifully and
Speaker 1: I really just frankly stole that from him. Another thing
Speaker 1: I stole from him was the haircut. Um. I read
Speaker 1: an interview with him where he said he went to
Speaker 1: like just a local barber shop out in like Slough
Speaker 1: or some you know, suburb of London, and he kind
Speaker 1: of got the haircut that would be the least flattering
Speaker 1: for his head and the most ridiculous haircut. And I
Speaker 1: read that I was like, oh, I want to do that.
Speaker 1: So I spent time in the mirror figuring out what
Speaker 1: the haircut that is going to make me look the
Speaker 1: most ridiculous. I have a huge forehead, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm going to frame my forehead perfectly with these little
Speaker 1: draperies of hair that will highlight the enormity of my carapace.
Speaker 1: Is that a word? I think it is a word.
Speaker 1: These guys aren't even listening. Um, and then like really
Speaker 1: short on the sides, and then in intense, and then
Speaker 1: it evolved over time. Yes, the office did have some
Speaker 1: pretty bad haircuts. Glad to know that dwighte style was
Speaker 1: on purpose. I wonder what Jim's excuse was. Anyways, now
Speaker 1: reins on board the office crew. But what about the
Speaker 1: rest of the team. Ken Kappas, one of our amazing directors,
Speaker 1: told us about how another very important saleswoman came to
Speaker 1: be a part of the show. Tell me about what's
Speaker 1: true and what's what's lore or fairy tale? How did
Speaker 1: Phillis get cast in the show? I well, I will
Speaker 1: tell you what happened. Okay, So, um, we were doing
Speaker 1: uh probably you know, kind of more traditional auditions and
Speaker 1: in the room, Greg myself Phillis Allison. And the setup
Speaker 1: was is that I sat next to a video camera
Speaker 1: and on the other side of the video camera, Phillis
Speaker 1: was sitting and Phillis was reading off and Phillis was
Speaker 1: her casting associate. And I hadn't met Phyllis. All I
Speaker 1: knew is I was sitting next to her, and there
Speaker 1: was a camera between us and the actors who were
Speaker 1: auditioning were some of them were kind of playing it
Speaker 1: to the hilt and kind of working a little too hard. Phillis, meanwhile,
Speaker 1: was reading her lines in in this very kind of
Speaker 1: monotonal way, sometimes not even looking up at the actors,
Speaker 1: just looking down at the sheet of paper. And I
Speaker 1: just became fascinated with her and started looking at her.
Speaker 1: And there was a couple of actors whose auditions I
Speaker 1: kind of missed because I kept throwing Phyllis these glances.
Speaker 1: And I finally, during a break, I took Greg aside
Speaker 1: and I said, this woman really belongs in a paper company.
Speaker 1: And so we Greg thought about it and he said sure,
Speaker 1: And now there's there is there is one additional detail
Speaker 1: that's so wonderful, and that is that after Greg said sure,
Speaker 1: let's ask her to be in the bullpen, and she
Speaker 1: agreed to do it. That Greg and I had a
Speaker 1: discussion and Greg said, do you know if she can act?
Speaker 1: And I took Phillis aside, and I said, do you
Speaker 1: have a lot of acting experience? And she said not
Speaker 1: not really. But she said that some years earlier that
Speaker 1: she had, you know, worked in burlesque in Branson, Missouri.
Speaker 1: And I said, stop it. And she then later that
Speaker 1: week brought in a photo of herself into like a
Speaker 1: very you know, wonderfully old fashioned burlescout. It was on
Speaker 1: her desk for ten years, nine seasons and the So
Speaker 1: that is the Phillis story and and I couldn't be
Speaker 1: happier that she became such a beloved member of the ensemble.
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Speaker 1: So now the crew had come together and the office
Speaker 1: was starting to air, but we were still very uncertain
Speaker 1: about what are few sure would be. Every day I
Speaker 1: felt like we were on borrowed time, and then lightning struck.
Speaker 1: Steve landed a massive role. Here's Angela Kenzie to tell
Speaker 1: us all about it. Forty year old virgin, right year
Speaker 1: old virgin. That was the game changer for Steve. And
Speaker 1: Jenna and I have talked about this where we had
Speaker 1: this moment where we're like, oh my god, our friends
Speaker 1: Steve is gonna be like real famous, like real deal famous.
Speaker 1: I really felt like they were banking on Steve, and
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, I will attach myself to the
Speaker 1: Steve wagon. I'm banking on him too. I thought that
Speaker 1: that was a really good sign, but I still wasn't confident.
Speaker 1: I mean I still was like when we finished those
Speaker 1: first six because season one was just six, they printed
Speaker 1: our names on pieces of paper and then laminated them
Speaker 1: and put a piece of velcrow on the back and
Speaker 1: that's what stuck to your door of your trailer. And
Speaker 1: I went up to my ripped that, ripped it off
Speaker 1: and said, I'm gonna save that. That was fun because
Speaker 1: you were sure it was done. I just didn't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, they were putting so much. At the time.
Speaker 1: NBC had the show that was like our rival sort
Speaker 1: of show that was this couple, and they were on
Speaker 1: every bus everywhere. We weren't on any buses, we weren't anywhere,
Speaker 1: And I was like, Wow, I've putting a lot of
Speaker 1: money on those guys. Yes, there was not a whole
Speaker 1: lot of confidence, but Kevin Riley, I was about to say,
Speaker 1: I knew Kevin Riley was fighting for us, and I
Speaker 1: know that's why when we ultimately won an Emmy, all
Speaker 1: you guys lifted him in the air and that's the
Speaker 1: photo that made the l a times because we all
Speaker 1: knew as a cast we stayed on the air because
Speaker 1: Kevin Riley put his neck on the line for us.
Speaker 1: Right when did you feel like we actually had security?
Speaker 1: I know distinctly. Well. I remember getting an email that
Speaker 1: our first Christmas episode had become the number one download
Speaker 1: on iTunes and I was like what and I said, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's it. Mom was getting rid of for Chevy Blazer
Speaker 1: and then I got a Honda. Um yeah that that
Speaker 1: That was a huge moment. And it's funny. Before that aired,
Speaker 1: there was a moment that was very significant for you
Speaker 1: and I, which was boost crews. Yes, when we finally
Speaker 1: became series regulars. Yep, I found out I was going
Speaker 1: to be a series regular. And there's a photo that, um,
Speaker 1: I think Oscar took of Jenna and I when I
Speaker 1: found out, We're jumping up in the air holding hands,
Speaker 1: and I mean up until then, we were basically like
Speaker 1: week to week. Like I remember in Halloween episode when
Speaker 1: they were like, yeah, we're gonna actually fire one person.
Speaker 1: We're all like, okay, Hi, how's it going. I petitioned
Speaker 1: for it to be you. I want you to know.
Speaker 1: I remember saying to my mom, I'm like, Mom, you
Speaker 1: know pretty much anyone can go really and she was like, well,
Speaker 1: every office needs a bitch, That's what she said to you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: She's like, every office needs the bitch. I'm like, your
Speaker 1: mom was confident that it wouldn't be you. My mom
Speaker 1: was you haven't you know Bertie Kinzie. She's like, don't
Speaker 1: speak it, don't speak it put out the positive. Oh
Speaker 1: so at this time, So this happens, Um, we shoot
Speaker 1: Booze Cruise. It airs after Christmas. Christmas episode happens on TV.
Speaker 1: It's our largest audience ever ever. Then iTunes streaming. We
Speaker 1: become number one in that and then Steve wins the
Speaker 1: Golden Globes. What do you remember about that night of
Speaker 1: us at the Golden Globes? Um? I remember I got
Speaker 1: a spray tan because I thought I was really white,
Speaker 1: like too white in my dress, and so people were like,
Speaker 1: get a spray tan. And then Rain made fun of
Speaker 1: me so much. He was like how what what? So
Speaker 1: one day on the Office, Angela Martin is like pale,
Speaker 1: and the next day you look like orange. He was like, Angela,
Speaker 1: I was like, I don't know, rad And then um,
Speaker 1: we weren't allowed to sit in the main room. Only
Speaker 1: Steve got invited into the main room where the fancy
Speaker 1: people were. We were in the annex and we watched
Speaker 1: him win like on TV, and we were we we
Speaker 1: about like fill out of our chairs. Literally, we fell
Speaker 1: out of this it. We made such a scene that
Speaker 1: other fancy people were like, oh are those guys. We
Speaker 1: were screaming, We're so excited. And when the party lets out,
Speaker 1: it lets out into the room we were in, and
Speaker 1: we like we tackled Steve. We're so excited. We were
Speaker 1: all so excited. It's hard to put into words how
Speaker 1: special it was for our little show to finally start
Speaker 1: taking off and for Steve, our our show dad, to
Speaker 1: start turning into such a massive star. You know, these days,
Speaker 1: with how popular the Office has become, it almost feels
Speaker 1: like it's always been that way. But it hasn't. And
Speaker 1: I think having our own special way of doing things
Speaker 1: really helped to make that happen. A big part of
Speaker 1: that was having so many of our writers double as
Speaker 1: our ensemble cast. So here's mos Mike. Sure, when was
Speaker 1: the decision made for writers to start acting in the show?
Speaker 1: From the before the before the pilot? I mean Greg
Speaker 1: coming from SNL, Greg wanted SNL is very um. The
Speaker 1: membrane between writers and actors is very thin, and all
Speaker 1: the actors write stuff, and a lot of the writers
Speaker 1: are in sketches and stuff. And almost everyone there's a
Speaker 1: writer performer, even if he or she is only on
Speaker 1: staff as a writer or something. And he liked that,
Speaker 1: and he wanted to get rid of the false dichotomy
Speaker 1: of writers and actors. So he hired Mindy specifically because
Speaker 1: she was a performer. She was in a play called
Speaker 1: mattin Band that she had written in New York. He
Speaker 1: hired b J because BJ was a stand up and
Speaker 1: a writer. He and then like we made Paul against
Speaker 1: his will play Toby in the first season, like we
Speaker 1: forced it. He did not want to do it. He
Speaker 1: hated it, he hated acting, but we forced him to
Speaker 1: do it because it was so funny to have him
Speaker 1: be the guy that Michael Scott hates more than anybody.
Speaker 1: But it was that was always the design. I think
Speaker 1: he wanted everybody to to write and perform ideally, except
Speaker 1: for me, because he made me a freak. Most famously
Speaker 1: and most annoyingly to me, played the character Most Shrewd.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. We never talked about most. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: I assumed it was gonna be your first question. I
Speaker 1: I know I have a whole section on it. But
Speaker 1: you were so great, Um, all right, well then just
Speaker 1: very quickly, sure you were cast as most I was,
Speaker 1: and you're happy about that. Now. I hated it. I
Speaker 1: hated every second of it. Why did you hate it?
Speaker 1: Because I was wearing wool clothes and had a neck
Speaker 1: beard and it was always really hot and I didn't
Speaker 1: The joke was I didn't talk, and that's not a
Speaker 1: funny joke. And it was always like I had to
Speaker 1: get up at four thirty in the morning and drive
Speaker 1: to the middle of nowhere and wear wool clothes and
Speaker 1: it was. And then the joke became with the writers
Speaker 1: because they knew how much I hated it, they loved like,
Speaker 1: what if your shirtless. What if you're on a seesaw,
Speaker 1: What if you're on a trampoline. What if you're running
Speaker 1: as fast as you can alongside a car like a dog.
Speaker 1: I was at Parks and wreck and they would call
Speaker 1: me and they like, we need mos and I was like,
Speaker 1: I have a job, I have a life, I have
Speaker 1: young children. And they would just make me do it.
Speaker 1: They would compete with each other to see what was
Speaker 1: the most humiliating possible thing they could have me do.
Speaker 1: But that that episode Paul So Paul wrote that episode
Speaker 1: where they where Jim and Pam go to shoot farms,
Speaker 1: and he wrote in the in the script, it literally
Speaker 1: says Mose appears out of nowhere and runs along the
Speaker 1: side of the car like a dog. That's what it says.
Speaker 1: That's I'm a human being. And so we did that scene.
Speaker 1: It was a hundred and forty degrees. I was in
Speaker 1: woolf clothes and and old work boots that like didn't
Speaker 1: fit properly, and that sprint is probably a hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty yards down that dirt road from the time I
Speaker 1: come out to the time I had to run all
Speaker 1: the way up into shrewt farms. It of course cuts
Speaker 1: off long before I ever get there, of course, but
Speaker 1: they were like, you got it. Paul was directing, was
Speaker 1: like you get a run all the way there. So
Speaker 1: I did over and over and over again, probably twelve
Speaker 1: or fourteen takes because Paul delighted in it so much.
Speaker 1: And then later in that episode, I'm in Jurassic Park
Speaker 1: pajamas that don't fit me properly. And then Greg pitched
Speaker 1: the thing where he was like, what if there's a
Speaker 1: loud noise and Pam goes to the window and looks
Speaker 1: at it, and Moses in the outhouse with his pants
Speaker 1: down and the doors flapping clothes. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: like it was aggressive. It was They knew I never
Speaker 1: should have been. If I had said, like, I love
Speaker 1: doing this, they never would have put me in the
Speaker 1: show again. But because I hated it so much and
Speaker 1: was so vocal about hating it, well, you have confirmed something.
Speaker 1: Moses a is a fan favorite. You hear about people
Speaker 1: loving most Okay, let me tell you something. What I
Speaker 1: have always said is I think Moses a writer's room joke. Oh,
Speaker 1: you have now confirmed without a doubt that it was
Speaker 1: literally a writer's room meant to torture you meant specifically
Speaker 1: to make me miserable. Yes, yes, I was in a coffin.
Speaker 1: I was like hanging upside down somewhere like. There were
Speaker 1: a bunch of things that we did that were then
Speaker 1: just cut out of the show. I was riding a
Speaker 1: moped over like trying to jump a bunch of cars.
Speaker 1: They made me do that moped thing. I don't know
Speaker 1: how to drive a moped. I don't know how to
Speaker 1: drive a moped. No one taught me how to drive.
Speaker 1: They were like, just get on and just rev the thing,
Speaker 1: because the point was if I wipe out, it'll be
Speaker 1: really fun now, and then run across the roofs of
Speaker 1: these cars again, if you slip and fall and break
Speaker 1: your pelvis, it'll be really funny. Like there was the
Speaker 1: subtext was always the worst this goes the fun year
Speaker 1: it will be when it happens. Well. I this was
Speaker 1: after you left. I mean sort of from the beginning,
Speaker 1: but then more and more Kevin started having a lot
Speaker 1: of physical comedy type stuff. And there would be times
Speaker 1: where I would go to the writer's room and say,
Speaker 1: I don't remember if you were ever there, but I
Speaker 1: would say, you guys are writing for Homer Simpson right now,
Speaker 1: and a cartoon you can force to do whatever you'd
Speaker 1: like him to do. He can do whatever, right, But
Speaker 1: I can't. My body doesn't work that way. No one's does, right.
Speaker 1: Like the most painful. I feel like I still have
Speaker 1: pain from it is the most innocuous. You would never
Speaker 1: ever ever know. The office workers have to go to
Speaker 1: the warehouse and move boxes, so they decide they're gonna
Speaker 1: put remember that episode, yeah, oiled down so they could
Speaker 1: move boxes to get to the troll, and everyone thought
Speaker 1: the big guy falling is really funny. So I just
Speaker 1: kept falling slipping, and which means on a concrete surface
Speaker 1: with oil, kneecap on concrete over and it's like, guys,
Speaker 1: I can't keep You've gotta like, yeah, yeah, there has
Speaker 1: to be some other solution. We had a We had
Speaker 1: a similar thing on Parson Wreck where Nick Offerman's character
Speaker 1: Ron Swanson was a sort of he was a little
Speaker 1: cartoonish in his abilities to do various things, and we
Speaker 1: wrote this joke where he wanted to get he was
Speaker 1: eating a he got lunch and he was eating as hamburger,
Speaker 1: and and the joke was he wanted to get out
Speaker 1: of the lunch as quickly as possible. So in the
Speaker 1: script he shoved the entire hamburger into his mouth and
Speaker 1: ate it in one bite. So they Dean Holland was
Speaker 1: directing it and he was like, okay action and Nick
Speaker 1: did his best, but then Dean was like, you you
Speaker 1: really need to eat the whole thing in one bite.
Speaker 1: And he was like this is a like a half
Speaker 1: pound hamburger. Okay, Like I maybe the character can do this,
Speaker 1: but a human can. Yeah, all right, yeah right, sorry, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not your character, right, Okay, I I almost wiped
Speaker 1: out super hard on that moped. Like well, first of all,
Speaker 1: the joke was someone pulls up in the car. It
Speaker 1: was the Garden Party episode. Someone pulls up in the
Speaker 1: car night and I'm the valve mos the valet, and
Speaker 1: I get in and they're like, just get in and
Speaker 1: tear off down this road, right, And the joke at
Speaker 1: the time is why is most driving so fast and
Speaker 1: so insistent? And so I did, and like, I tore
Speaker 1: off down the road and I'm not a stunt driver.
Speaker 1: I don't know, like and suddenly I'm going sixty five
Speaker 1: miles an hour on a dirt road and on a
Speaker 1: set and the back tires fish tailed because it's a
Speaker 1: dirt road, and I like slowed down and was like,
Speaker 1: oh right, I'm not This isn't a no one's gonna
Speaker 1: like save me. If I crashed this car, I'll die.
Speaker 1: Because I also got in and didn't put my seatbelt
Speaker 1: on because the joke was you get in and take off,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my god, I just I
Speaker 1: forgot for a second that I'm not fictional. I'm make
Speaker 1: sure I'm not fictional. I'm a human could suffer consequences. Mine.
Speaker 1: Very similar to that was I think it was when
Speaker 1: there's the storyline of Dwight telling Holly that that Kevin
Speaker 1: is slow, and there was a scene we did a
Speaker 1: number of different ways. This didn't end up in but
Speaker 1: where I'm driving and she's like you're driving. You have
Speaker 1: a car and I'm like, yeah, I have a car.
Speaker 1: And at one point they were like okay, so do that,
Speaker 1: but then get out of the car, but leave it running,
Speaker 1: like leave it leave it like leaving leave it in gear.
Speaker 1: So like as you step out, the car is gonna
Speaker 1: move forward and then we'll have somebody else who can
Speaker 1: jump in and stop it. Yeah. I didn't ideas like profound. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: it's vedas Car, right, like her real Car. I Uh
Speaker 1: that joke that they did with Kevin in the later
Speaker 1: years where he didn't know the alphabet elemento. Paul pished
Speaker 1: that in season two and we were like, Paul, that's insane, Like,
Speaker 1: you can't say that he doesn't know that he's an accountant.
Speaker 1: He's a working accountant. Like he might not be the
Speaker 1: best accountant, he's an accountant. It made Paul laugh so hard,
Speaker 1: and the second that Paul took over the show, that
Speaker 1: joke aired, and I was like, well, that's what he got,
Speaker 1: what he wanted. Six years later, Well, at least someone
Speaker 1: was having fun. But look, we all have a part
Speaker 1: to play, am I right, even if our parts happened
Speaker 1: to be more dangerous than others Like Oscar. I don't
Speaker 1: remember Oscar doing any crazy stunts or being turned into
Speaker 1: an indestructible office cartoon. Right. He had the honor of
Speaker 1: being the one who always got to keep his composure. You,
Speaker 1: and certainly over in accounting, you were really the straight man.
Speaker 1: Like you had your idiosyncrasies, yes I think so, but
Speaker 1: in the office you were you were the barometer of reason.
Speaker 1: Very often Jim and myself. Yes, which is what they're
Speaker 1: talking about in the Coalition of Reason. That's it? Are
Speaker 1: you you know, if you're if you're looking at sort
Speaker 1: of the history of comedy in a way, how does
Speaker 1: what is? Oh? Come on, you can do it, Brian,
Speaker 1: I believe in you asked you a question the archetype
Speaker 1: of the straight man sort of in the history of comedy.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about that a little bit? Is that?
Speaker 1: Is that easier for you to do or is that harder? Oh?
Speaker 1: They're both good. It's apples and oranges. It's lovely. It
Speaker 1: was a lovely character because he's he's a straight man,
Speaker 1: but he still has a little bit delusions of grandeur,
Speaker 1: which you need because that you need that right right
Speaker 1: that Well, nobody's perfect or nobody totally straight exactly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because Angela was a little off too. She was almost there,
Speaker 1: but then she was a little off. Everybody was a
Speaker 1: little off, right, Toby, every single even Jim. He was
Speaker 1: too much of a prankster. He didn't take the job seriously.
Speaker 1: He was a little too right, juvenile, right, But you
Speaker 1: you know, I think so many of the scenes between
Speaker 1: you and Steve were so special because you know, you
Speaker 1: had to be a straight man in those Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: did just sit there and stare at him? Just stare
Speaker 1: at him? Well, and you would do that. Well he
Speaker 1: said things. You would get the laugh because you did that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all you had to do. Stare at him. And
Speaker 1: people at home we'll go, what is he thinking? He
Speaker 1: can't say anything. It's his job. He's being good and
Speaker 1: now he's excusing himself. Thank you and just get up
Speaker 1: and leave right because he's like Oscar and it's the
Speaker 1: build up, the fucking Correll build up. Oscar, Can I
Speaker 1: see you for a moment? Sit down? Um, I ask
Speaker 1: you something. Um, I'm gonna go in for a colonoscope?
Speaker 1: And I was, what can I do to make it
Speaker 1: more comfortable for him or me? And he just trails
Speaker 1: it off and just leaves it like it's like it's
Speaker 1: a solid, like a reasonable question to ask me. And
Speaker 1: I'm supposed what am I supposed to tell him? I
Speaker 1: think I think I just excuse myself. I'm like, okay, Michael,
Speaker 1: I just got up and laugh. Give us the attention.
Speaker 1: We need everything you've got Fast Waiting on Reparations would
Speaker 1: be the podcast. Tune in every Thursday Politics and wordplay.
Speaker 1: We fight for the people because they got us in
Speaker 1: the worst way, from the Hill Cooper, the bomb bay Ton,
Speaker 1: from the left on Clave to what the neo kanz
Speaker 1: every Thursday conversation and to break us off with some
Speaker 1: break because we wait in the reparation. Listen to Waiting
Speaker 1: on Reparations on my Heart Radio, app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. From the creator of The
Speaker 1: Bright Sessions, comes a new fiction podcast for all ages.
Speaker 1: Jump back to and follow maxim Miles as she starts
Speaker 1: high school in the pictress town of Hastings, New Hampshire.
Speaker 1: Fall is the season in which this small town shines
Speaker 1: apple cider, pumpkin patches farmers markets. It's idyllic for adults
Speaker 1: and boring for Max. But suddenly Max's school year starts
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Speaker 1: vanishes with the help of her miss and throw up
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Speaker 1: Miles and the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your favorite shows. Did you know that
Speaker 1: on the day Doctor King was shot, the all black
Speaker 1: security detail normally assigned to him was called off. They're
Speaker 1: the ones who would not allow him to stay at
Speaker 1: any hotel with balconies. That security union was reassigned. That
Speaker 1: was a man there, Lume. And did you know that
Speaker 1: on the day Doctor King was shot, two black firemen
Speaker 1: stationed across the street and one black p least detective
Speaker 1: who is surveiling King. We're all taken off the job.
Speaker 1: What was the emergency that caused? Usually moved there emergency?
Speaker 1: Did you ever ask what this was all about? And
Speaker 1: then this is the MLK tapes. The first episodes are
Speaker 1: available now listen on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
Speaker 1: podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. So we're making
Speaker 1: the office right, and we're starting to get some fans,
Speaker 1: but then it turns out that some of our fans
Speaker 1: will actually be joining our motley crew, like the Wonderful
Speaker 1: Ellie Kemper. Did you watch The Office? Brian? Did I
Speaker 1: watch The Office? I devoured The Office. I was an
Speaker 1: enormous Office fan. You don't know what this is like
Speaker 1: because obviously you were on it from the start. But
Speaker 1: I loved The Office. I watched it every week. It's
Speaker 1: very strange to go from watching a television show that
Speaker 1: you happen to love and then being in the room
Speaker 1: with everybody. I actually the first day, of course, felt
Speaker 1: surreal for many reasons, but it's it's weird when you
Speaker 1: I think maybe anyone has had this experience. If you
Speaker 1: watch someone on a screen and then you see them
Speaker 1: in person, it feels otherworldly. And particularly because I already
Speaker 1: loved everyone on it and admired them so much, it
Speaker 1: felt even stranger because yeah, I was a huge fan.
Speaker 1: It's very weird. I really tried to play it cool. Well,
Speaker 1: so wait, literally, you watched it Thursday night? Yes, yes
Speaker 1: I did. I lived in New York at the time,
Speaker 1: and we always my my whole family was a fan
Speaker 1: of the Office. Have I told you that? Mos make
Speaker 1: sure reminded us of my older brother John college, like
Speaker 1: when John was in college. So we had like a
Speaker 1: big joke about that. But yeah, I lived in New
Speaker 1: York and I watched The Office every Thursday, and had
Speaker 1: you met Alison Jones before? No, So, I met with
Speaker 1: Greg and Mike, Greg Daniels and Mike Sure. I think
Speaker 1: I was meeting with them for Parks and Recreation. This
Speaker 1: was before Parks and Recreation was had aired, and I
Speaker 1: think that's what it was about. I really don't know.
Speaker 1: It was sort of just a general hello. And after
Speaker 1: that I met Alison when I actually read for Parks
Speaker 1: and Recreation, which it wasn't called Parks and Recreation. It
Speaker 1: was like untitled make Sure Project. And then I didn't
Speaker 1: get a part on Parks and Recreation. But then they
Speaker 1: called me back later for the Office and your first
Speaker 1: day on set? Were you nervous? I was so nervous.
Speaker 1: I first, okay, I can't remember the actual very first
Speaker 1: person I met. I remember telling John Krasinski, who I
Speaker 1: had read was an intern at Conan and I have
Speaker 1: been an Internet Conan because my first scene, John is
Speaker 1: making a Jim Jim excuse me is making a copy
Speaker 1: at the copy machine, and I'm like sitting there and
Speaker 1: I was like like, in between takes, I was like, so, um, yeah, um,
Speaker 1: you in turned to Conan? Right? Why did I feel
Speaker 1: they need to strike up conversation? I am the new person.
Speaker 1: I think I should stay quiet until spoken to. But
Speaker 1: I was unusually bold and he said, oh, yeah, you
Speaker 1: know Conan And I said I had turned there too.
Speaker 1: What was it? I don't know if somebody walked away,
Speaker 1: somebody saved me, because I wouldn't have I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: kept that conversation going very well. And then and then
Speaker 1: the big news, Brian, I had to dye my hair
Speaker 1: that day. I have red hair, and as soon as
Speaker 1: I got there, they were like, you have to dye
Speaker 1: your hair brown. And I remember, Mindy, I saw in
Speaker 1: the morning and I saw in the afternoon, and I
Speaker 1: had brown hair in the afternoon, and she said, why
Speaker 1: did you let them do that? I would never let
Speaker 1: anyone dye my hair like uh, because in my first
Speaker 1: jobs ever, they can do whatever they want. Anyway, why
Speaker 1: did they dye your hair? Well, I still don't know.
Speaker 1: I think the reason was they said it looked that
Speaker 1: this new character's hair looked too close to Pam's color.
Speaker 1: But I Pam never Jenna, but I mean the character Pam.
Speaker 1: Pam didn't have red hair. Did she know? Was it
Speaker 1: chest study? Yeah, I guess I'm not real good at hair.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you, honestly, apparently neither of mind.
Speaker 1: But anyway, Yeah, first day memories are sort of blurry
Speaker 1: because I was so I don't know. I don't think
Speaker 1: you can relate to this feeling, because, like I said,
Speaker 1: you were there from the start, but it was just
Speaker 1: so it was first day of school, but to the
Speaker 1: millions of degree because it was like I already I'm
Speaker 1: like in awe of all these people, and I'm the
Speaker 1: new girl. Don't mess anything up, And of course she didn't.
Speaker 1: But there was another new girl, well woman who came
Speaker 1: into the office family a little later on Amy Ryan
Speaker 1: and You. Our fans welcomed her with such open arms.
Speaker 1: I think maybe that was because she did the one
Speaker 1: thing no one thought could be done. She completed Michael.
Speaker 1: But come on, don't we all kind of wish she'd
Speaker 1: completed Kevin instead. You came in ultimately to be a
Speaker 1: love interest for Michael. But I have to tell you
Speaker 1: the storyline between you and I on the show, Um
Speaker 1: gets talked about a lot, and I think in the
Speaker 1: history of table reads that we had on the show.
Speaker 1: It was never more laughed because of the how long
Speaker 1: that joke and then he used to set up And
Speaker 1: you know when I get asked now about moments in
Speaker 1: the entire show where I could not stop laughing, was
Speaker 1: Hugh and the button is literally if you with the change, Nickel,
Speaker 1: this is this is a ut And there was something
Speaker 1: about the sweetness on your face and you just very
Speaker 1: genuinely explaining to Kevin that this was a button made
Speaker 1: me smile every single time. And I was like, I
Speaker 1: can't do it, and they're right there with the cap.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't do it, and basically then just
Speaker 1: turned it into a grin to say I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna bang you. But that yeah, do you think that
Speaker 1: story could play now? I mean, there's so much of
Speaker 1: The Office that I don't know if it could play now. Um,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. So I just happened to watch that episode
Speaker 1: because my ten year old daughter and all her friends
Speaker 1: at school are really into the Office. And my daughter
Speaker 1: is a little behind the rest of her friends because
Speaker 1: I think it's weird for her. But but anyway, so
Speaker 1: that my husband Eric and I like we're just out
Speaker 1: of her eyeline. But here comes your line like I'm
Speaker 1: totally going to bang her, and you know, I'm like,
Speaker 1: we look at each other, like and then you look
Speaker 1: over to her face. Does she register that, you know?
Speaker 1: Because somehow it's going right over their head, I think,
Speaker 1: or she maybe shouldn't you know? Um, I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think I hope a lot of it
Speaker 1: still plays because I think it's well intentioned. I don't
Speaker 1: think we were cruel statistic people on this show. I mean,
Speaker 1: but the stuff that doesn't play, it's interesting to think
Speaker 1: about as we all think we're like well intentioned, liberal minded,
Speaker 1: caring people, and the stuff that we didn't pay attention to.
Speaker 1: And so you know, you're asking me, is it okay
Speaker 1: to make fun of a person who we think is
Speaker 1: mentally handicapped? Probably not, but it was really funny then,
Speaker 1: so what do we do with it? Like, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know where that lives. Um, I certainly don't
Speaker 1: want to offend anybody. I mean, I think the joke
Speaker 1: is a on the person who made the mistake, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like it's how could Holly be
Speaker 1: that thick head or or that well white? Really, I
Speaker 1: mean that it's really that it's Dwight who But I'm
Speaker 1: I'm in the middle there of not using my own
Speaker 1: good judgment or maybe asking for a second opinion or
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, we all we're all judgmental. We
Speaker 1: say we don't, but we judge everybody that walks down
Speaker 1: the block, you know, in our heads, in a little
Speaker 1: private tapes in our Okay, she's right, of course we
Speaker 1: judge people. We try not to, right, I mean what
Speaker 1: we try to do is something very different. We try
Speaker 1: to find truth and beauty in every single part of
Speaker 1: our lives. And why well, that goes back to the
Speaker 1: captain of our ship, the man we put all our
Speaker 1: faith in. Our showrunner and creator, Greg Daniels. A few
Speaker 1: people have talked to you about one of your core ideas,
Speaker 1: which is the idea of truth and beauty. Yeah. That
Speaker 1: was my thing with Randall, the truth and beauty, Truth
Speaker 1: and beauty. Yeah. And what does that? What does that
Speaker 1: mean to you? Um? Well, you know to me, that
Speaker 1: was I think that's some romantic poet. I'm not sure
Speaker 1: where that came from, somebody like John Keats or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know, and I don't even know what he
Speaker 1: meant by it. But the way I used to use
Speaker 1: it with Randall was that's what we're going for in
Speaker 1: the camera, right, Let the camera seek out truth. That's
Speaker 1: what it's trying to find. That's the point of a documentary.
Speaker 1: What's the truth? And also not like a cynical negative truth,
Speaker 1: like also where where's the beauty? It's like another principle
Speaker 1: of photography of like a good photograph is, you know,
Speaker 1: a little sprig of weed coming through the cracked concrete
Speaker 1: or whatever. You know what I mean. It's like, where
Speaker 1: are you gonna do something that's a little bit inspiring
Speaker 1: but find it in a truthful way out of real world? Right? Well,
Speaker 1: Mike sure talked about it, and you told a story
Speaker 1: about a parking lot, an endless parking lot with lines
Speaker 1: and parking spaces, and in one crack there's a little flower,
Speaker 1: a little dandelion. He said that it's funny. I just
Speaker 1: made the same. Yeah, yes, I think that that, you know.
Speaker 1: I like the notion of aesthetic, like what are you
Speaker 1: searching for in art? And the Japanese have interesting aesthetics
Speaker 1: with a cracked pot. Did you mention that to use
Speaker 1: that a lot? So? I think it's called woo I'm
Speaker 1: not sure but it's the notion of a perfect pot
Speaker 1: is okay, you know, and we in the West probably
Speaker 1: value a perfect pot, but a cracked pot where the
Speaker 1: crack suddenly makes you feel the history of the pot
Speaker 1: and the people who have used it in their family
Speaker 1: and have treasured it and kept it even with the
Speaker 1: crack in it, like it suddenly cracks through you know it,
Speaker 1: suddenly we'll we'll touch you. It's those little details often
Speaker 1: of imperfections that's like a it's just a cool sort
Speaker 1: of philosophy. Yes, yeah, I have this so far off topic,
Speaker 1: but a number of years ago, my parents were moving
Speaker 1: out of their house and I went for a week
Speaker 1: and I was like helping them and throwing out all
Speaker 1: of this trash and we go into like the corner
Speaker 1: of the closet and a guest room that no one
Speaker 1: ever slept in, and in the closet there was a
Speaker 1: big piece of paper that was folded up and I
Speaker 1: I unfolded it and it was a Kennedy poster that
Speaker 1: my dad had like handed out or seen or collected
Speaker 1: or whatever. And I remember saying to him, can I
Speaker 1: have this? And he's like, yeah, it's like all torn
Speaker 1: or whatever. And I took it and I framed it
Speaker 1: and I took it to this place and they were like, oh,
Speaker 1: we can you know, do this or that, and I
Speaker 1: was like, no, no, no, the crack has to stay
Speaker 1: there and the wrinkle, the folded marks just as lightly
Speaker 1: as you can matt this on something and enclose it,
Speaker 1: because I want that history of it. I don't know
Speaker 1: that idea. Well, also, like I mean, you know, they
Speaker 1: don't get too psychological, but you know when you think
Speaker 1: about your dad, right, you're so the relationship that you
Speaker 1: have with your father, the fact how old that they are,
Speaker 1: and just the sense of like passage of time being
Speaker 1: important to that relationship and fragility of it and knowing
Speaker 1: that it may not be around forever, and that I
Speaker 1: can completely see why a tear in your dad's poster
Speaker 1: adds to the emotion of it. Yeah, right, yeah, totally. Um, well,
Speaker 1: there's a lot about writing that isn't necessarily only about
Speaker 1: the office. But you know, like when you have a
Speaker 1: set of principles that you're trying to do for the show, right,
Speaker 1: if you're going to say, all right, I want to
Speaker 1: be realistic, I want to be relatable. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to be observational. If you're going to follow
Speaker 1: those principles, you're gonna end up commenting on what's around you.
Speaker 1: And this to me goes back a long way. It
Speaker 1: isn't unique to the show necessarily, but like when I
Speaker 1: was on The Simpsons, which is this is you know,
Speaker 1: complete cartoon, but the way that one Simpsons writer one
Speaker 1: respect from another Simpsons writer when I was there, was
Speaker 1: you did something super real. You had a line that
Speaker 1: just found like it just came out of a teenager
Speaker 1: and it was just perfectly you know, real to the situation.
Speaker 1: And somehow, in contrast to the cartooning nous of it,
Speaker 1: that always seemed to be like a cool thing. And
Speaker 1: then when I got to King of the Hell, we
Speaker 1: used to do a lot of research. We would go
Speaker 1: to Texas. I'd take the writers to Texas every season
Speaker 1: and we'd fan out with our reporters notebooks, and we
Speaker 1: you know, we'd try and dig up unique stories because
Speaker 1: I always felt like the shows that I really liked,
Speaker 1: the stories were original, like something had happened to one
Speaker 1: of the writers or you know, they weren't just going like, well,
Speaker 1: what did what did Cheers do? Let's do a version
Speaker 1: of that or something. You had to go out and
Speaker 1: do your own work and dig up your own stories. Well, Greg,
Speaker 1: I for one, I am so grateful for the stories
Speaker 1: you dug up, and I know that I'm not alone.
Speaker 1: Thank you to everyone who was a part of this
Speaker 1: episode and to all of you out there listening. Join
Speaker 1: us next week for another stroll down memory Lane with
Speaker 1: some more of our favorite episodes and guests. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: all of you have a fantastic week. The Office. Deep
Speaker 1: Dive is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
Speaker 1: alongside our executive producer, Langlee. Our senior producer is Tessa Kramer.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Liz Hayes and Diego Topi. My main
Speaker 1: man in the booth is Alec Moore. Our theme song
Speaker 1: Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great friend Creed Bratton,
Speaker 1: and the episode was mixed by seth Olandsky. Hello, and
Speaker 1: welcome to our show. I'm Zoe de Chanelle and I'm
Speaker 1: so excited to be joined by my friends and cast
Speaker 1: mates Hannah Simone and Lamar and Morris to recap our
Speaker 1: hit television series New Girl. Join us every Monday on
Speaker 1: the Welcome to our Show podcast, where we'll share behind
Speaker 1: the scenes stories of your favorite New Girl episodes. Each
Speaker 1: week we answer all your burning questions like is there
Speaker 1: really a bear in every episode of New Girl. Plus,
Speaker 1: you'll hear hilarious stories like this that was one of
Speaker 1: your thanks you from Yeah, I brought back whole professional
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Speaker 1: Katie and the people who made her memoir Going There possible.
Speaker 1: Katie is a pack rat and she has basically her
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Speaker 1: decades and the people behind them, like Anita Hill. I
Speaker 1: thought I could just get back to my life, and
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Speaker 1: There's plenty of Katie's signature curiosity and no holds barred interviews,
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