Best Of - Pt. 1

This week, we take a walk down memory lane with Brian as he revisits the best of the best from his deep dive interviews. From the inspiration behind the Dwight Schrute hair to the actress who would have changed her hair to anything to be a part of the Office family, we hear from some of the amazing cast and crew that helped make the show what it is today. Hear from: Ricky Gervais, Rainn Wilson, Ken Kwapis, Angela Kinsey, Mike Schur, Oscar Nunez, Ellie Kemper, Amy Ryan, and Greg Daniels.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What girls in the forest, our imagination and our family bonds.
The forest is closer than you think. Find a forest
near you and discover the forest dot Org brought to
you by the United States Forest Service and the AD Council.
Give us over attention. We need everything you've got fast.
Waiting on Reparations would beat the illes podcast. Tune in

(00:21):
every Thursday politics and wordplay. We fight for the people
because they got us in the worst way. From the
Hill Cooper, the Bombay to Kanya, from the left enclave
to what the neo Kanzi. Every Thursday cop the heavy
conversation and to break us off with some bread because
we're waiting RepA. Listen to Waiting on Reparations on I
Heart Radio, app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

(00:47):
The art world it is essentially a money laundering business.
The best fakes are still hanging on people's walls. You
know they don't even know or suspect that their fakes.
I'm out like Baldwin, and this is a podcast about deception,
greed and forgery in the art world. I just walked
in and saw this bright red painting, presuming to be

(01:10):
a Rothko. Of course, art forgeries only happen because there's
money to be made, a lot of money. I'm listening
to what they're paying for these things. It was an
incredible mans of money. You knew the painting was fake. Um,
listen to Art Fraud on the I Heart Radio app,

(01:32):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello everyone,

(01:56):
and welcome back to the Office Deep Dive. I am
your host, as always, Brian Baumgartner. So as this podcast
begins to take on well a new look, to take
new wings, and launch into version two point oh, which
I can't wait to share with you, I have to
admit I've been thinking a lot about how extraordinarily lucky

(02:20):
I have been to to get to create all of
this and to have so many of you respond so
well to it. You guys, it means so much to me.
So for a special treat, I am compiling the best
of the best from the Office Deep Dive into a
two part episode release. I couldn't include everyone, of course,

(02:42):
and I truly do love my entire office family, So
go back and listen to any of the episodes you
might have missed. But today we're gonna start where it
all started, across the pond in jolly old England, in
actually in the land that may the very dish that
inspired our own Creed Bratton to write this podcast theme song,

(03:05):
Bubble and Squeak. That is, we are going to begin
inside the beautiful mind of Ricky Gervais Bubble and Squeak.
I love it. Bubble and Squeaker, Bubble and Squeaker Cookie

(03:26):
every month left over from the nat before. Do you
remember the first time you met Ben Silverman. Yes, I do.

(03:47):
I was walking down the street in London. I think
I was going to see my agent and the phone
run um and he said, Hi, it's Ben Silverman. You
don't know me. I wanna I want to remake the
Office for America. And I went okay, all right. He said,
can we meet up? He said, I'm in town. I

(04:08):
went right. He said where are you. I'll come to you.
I've jumped the cab. I went okay, and I looked
up and I said, right, I'm right outside Starbucks in
ward Or Street and he went, wait there, I'll be
there in fifteen minutes, and he jumped in a cab.
He got I've never met anyone like him. He came
and found me because obviously knew what he looked like

(04:29):
because he'd watched the Office and he talked to me
and I said, well, listen, let me introduce you to
my agent to get the ball rolling. And I took
him in to see Duncan Hayes as my UK still
is my UK agent, and that and that was the
beginning of it. And then I can't remember all the

(04:50):
details or all the phone calls, but I think the
next big step was we sort of auditions show runners
and we saw some amazing ones from my favorite programs
of all time. We we chose Greg. And I think
we chose Greg not just because of his body's work,

(05:11):
which was as good as anyone's and he was a
nice chat but I think I think it was because
he was the only one that brought up that he
thought it was a love story. That was very important
for me. That the love story. So you know, I
didn't want to say I never thought of it was,
you know, just the sitcom. You know, you traditionally sitcoms were,

(05:34):
as I say, an ordinary guy getting into Caper's and
then you know, back at Square one and there wasn't
there wasn't really romance, but you know, we stole that
from America because you know, and movies, because you know,
there was always a love interest in movies and a
lot of Americans shows had more romance and love interests
than than ours. That was usually about a grumpy middle

(05:57):
aged man, so we we like that. And then I
can't remember what all of this this was in, but
I think it was the Golden Globes where we won
for the Office and I won Best Comedy Actor. I
think that was the same week the we went to
Ben Silverman's office, and I don't know it before and after,

(06:21):
but then Ben and Greg came to London. At that
I think that was nearer the time when we were
very getting very close to actually start in production, and
we worked out the translation, what was slow in America,
you know, what was the equivalent of this, and what
was the equivalent of that, and do we have this

(06:41):
and what we almost did like a blueprint to you know,
just americanizing stuff, and then we started. Then we started
auditions and and that was it. I do remember at
one point, I think before or auditions, or when we
were thinking of looking for you know, that David Brent

(07:05):
and I think Ben Silverman called me and said, why
don't you plane, and I said, well, what were the
point of that? I did my best. Now I want
to rest. Now I want some I want some other
schmuck to do a two episodes. But mainly my real
apart from the fact that I was lazy and I
was terrified of being working hard for seven years, I said, no,

(07:29):
this should be this should be made by Americans for Americans.
And I was flattered that they even let us being
involved as we were. But you know, it really took
off when they started making their own show. Is the
first episode was basically a remake, but then it just
got further and further away, and you know, by the end,

(07:51):
it yeah, it was it was his own show. And
I remember that people were scared because The Office was
such a media darling, you know, to a few Americans,
even it's peak. I remember the Office in America, the
our version. I remember it was the biggest show on

(08:12):
BBC America and it had something like one point one million, right,
and Ben Selden was saying, listen, there's a lot of
people that haven't seen this that won't be prejudiced. But
of course I remember he was worried about the press,
saying this is a you know this, we love the original. Um,

(08:32):
and he came up with a really good thing. When
they were saying, why would you do a remake of
this that the original was perfect, he said, well, why
I wouldn't. I wouldn't make the film of a shitty novel.
I'd make a film of the best novel I could find.
And I thought that was such a clever counter. But

(08:53):
of course we want to remake of something that's really
good at what, we don't remake of something that looks terrible? Right,
And then soon you know, people forgot that there was original.
Some people don't even know there's an original. To most
Americans that they have no idea that this is a remake,

(09:13):
and they don't care. And you know, and I imagine
most people who love the American Office they prefer it
to the British version. So, and which is a great
position to be in for me. I remember once it
was after syndication and someone, someone on Twitter sent me
a tweet that said, the American version of the Office

(09:36):
is so much bigger and better than yours? How does
that make you feel? And I sent back, fucking rich, Well,
there are certainly worse things to feel. So Ricky was
in England more than happy to let The Office take

(09:59):
off in a brand new direction. Meanwhile, back in the States,
some of our cast was still keeping a close eye
on Ricky's work. Rain Wilson in particular, had his eye
on the prize. Were you aware of the British version
of The Office? I was. I was so my friend
Sam Catlin, he had heard about it, and he had

(10:20):
seen a couple episodes and somehow gotten some like British
DVD or something like that, and had like even like
an English DVD player or something, somehow had advanced copies,
and like, you've got to see it. Groundbreaking, amazing, And
so we went over like on a special occasional We've
got to watch The Office, and we were blown away.
So I was really truly one of the first people

(10:43):
to see it in the United States. It might have
been one of the first couple of thousand people to
see it in the United States, and just we loved it.
And then he would get his hands on a couple
more episodes and we'd go back and have dinner and
watched like two or three more episodes. So I loved it.
And what happened was I got cast in a pilot
with Jeanine Garofalo for ABC. Mark Marin was in it

(11:05):
and Bob oden Kirk was in it. And this was
this infamous pilot that we did the table read and
they pulled the plug after the table read. So they
had sets built, we had locations, we had cast, we
had plane tickets. We were flying out the next day,
literally the next morning after the table read, starts shooting

(11:25):
and uh did the table read and went terribly, but
I guess what, I still got paid. And that was
the same pilot season as The Office. Kind of the
Office didn't really follow a pilot season when it was
first casting, right, So what happened was Vernon Sanders, who's
one of the executives and NBC executives, right, And I

(11:46):
ran into him in the parking lot on the way
to this infamous table read and he's like, hey, we
got good news and I was like, what's that is? Like,
we got the rights to make the American version of
the Office, and I was like, outside, I was like,
oh great, and inside I was like, motherfucker, God, damn it.
That's fucking sucks. Because I love the British Office so much.
I didn't have an idea of like even what the

(12:08):
American Office would be or what role I would play
or anything like that. But I was just like inside,
I was just kicking myself. And then the plug gets
pulled on that. And then I called my people and
I'm like, hey, I hear about this office, and they're like, yeah,
well there was a few months to go on that.
So fortunately that the space was opened and the door
was opened. The universe works in mysterious ways, Brian, That's right,

(12:31):
it does, and so you eventually get a call to
go in and meet correct. I was the first audition
for the office. I have in my office at home,
framed the audition sheet of Alison Jones the first day
of the auditions for the office, and I was number

(12:52):
one on that list. So other people on the list,
or Jenna Fisher you can find. It's on my Instagram somewhere.
It might even be in my book in the in
the photos included in my books, so you guys can
find it. But uh, I think Adam Scott audition. I
think there were, um, there was a lot of great
talent that auditions. My story about that I'll share with

(13:13):
you really quick was when Steve left Alison Jones came
to me where he had a little party, a little reception.
She came and she goes, I was looking for stuff
for Steve that I thought might be cool. She probably
gave that to you, like when she was searching around
and she hands me a sheet and it says Kevin
and it says Brian baum Gartner, Eric stone Street, and

(13:35):
Jorge Garcia. No kidding. So that was like the final three.
But oh fantastic. So you although Eric stone Street is
way richer than you, he is now he sorry shoot sorry.
So yeah, So on that first audition, I auditioned for
both Michael and Dwight, and my Michael was just terrible.

(13:57):
It was just simply a Ricky gervaisin p nation. And
I knew that I had more of an affinity for
the Dwight role. Uh, and I knew that I could
really deliver on that. I just felt it in my bones.
I'm like, oh, this is me, this is that's exactly
my kind of weird. Yeah, well that I mean, you're
but you were so different also than Gareth in a

(14:18):
British version. I mean he was much crook, yeah weasily
and and Dwight way more authoritarian and trying to derive power,
whereas Gareth seemed more backstabby. Yeah, we're different in a
lot of ways and similar in a lot of ways.
And it was this incredible luxury to go, Okay, here's

(14:40):
Mackenzie Crook, brilliant actor, really strange looking dude, and he
killed as Gareth and was so interesting and I get
to steal all of his best stuff, and then there's
maybe stuff that I can add that's more of my own,
so it's win win all around. So one of the
things that do It is most known for is saying

(15:02):
absolutely ludicrous, preposterous stuff with a total straight face and
a dead pan, without any knowledge that what he's saying
is ridiculous. And really, Mackenzie did that so beautifully and
I really just frankly stole that from him. Another thing
I stole from him was the haircut. Um. I read
an interview with him where he said he went to

(15:23):
like just a local barber shop out in like Slough
or some you know, suburb of London, and he kind
of got the haircut that would be the least flattering
for his head and the most ridiculous haircut. And I
read that I was like, oh, I want to do that.
So I spent time in the mirror figuring out what
the haircut that is going to make me look the
most ridiculous. I have a huge forehead, and I was like,

(15:46):
I'm going to frame my forehead perfectly with these little
draperies of hair that will highlight the enormity of my carapace.
Is that a word? I think it is a word.
These guys aren't even listening. Um, and then like really
short on the sides, and then in intense, and then
it evolved over time. Yes, the office did have some

(16:08):
pretty bad haircuts. Glad to know that dwighte style was
on purpose. I wonder what Jim's excuse was. Anyways, now
reins on board the office crew. But what about the
rest of the team. Ken Kappas, one of our amazing directors,
told us about how another very important saleswoman came to

(16:30):
be a part of the show. Tell me about what's
true and what's what's lore or fairy tale? How did
Phillis get cast in the show? I well, I will
tell you what happened. Okay, So, um, we were doing
uh probably you know, kind of more traditional auditions and

(16:52):
in the room, Greg myself Phillis Allison. And the setup
was is that I sat next to a video camera
and on the other side of the video camera, Phillis
was sitting and Phillis was reading off and Phillis was
her casting associate. And I hadn't met Phyllis. All I
knew is I was sitting next to her, and there
was a camera between us and the actors who were

(17:15):
auditioning were some of them were kind of playing it
to the hilt and kind of working a little too hard. Phillis, meanwhile,
was reading her lines in in this very kind of
monotonal way, sometimes not even looking up at the actors,
just looking down at the sheet of paper. And I
just became fascinated with her and started looking at her.

(17:37):
And there was a couple of actors whose auditions I
kind of missed because I kept throwing Phyllis these glances.
And I finally, during a break, I took Greg aside
and I said, this woman really belongs in a paper company.
And so we Greg thought about it and he said sure,
And now there's there is there is one additional detail

(18:00):
that's so wonderful, and that is that after Greg said sure,
let's ask her to be in the bullpen, and she
agreed to do it. That Greg and I had a
discussion and Greg said, do you know if she can act?
And I took Phillis aside, and I said, do you
have a lot of acting experience? And she said not

(18:22):
not really. But she said that some years earlier that
she had, you know, worked in burlesque in Branson, Missouri.
And I said, stop it. And she then later that
week brought in a photo of herself into like a
very you know, wonderfully old fashioned burlescout. It was on

(18:42):
her desk for ten years, nine seasons and the So
that is the Phillis story and and I couldn't be
happier that she became such a beloved member of the ensemble.

(19:03):
It's a hard time for hiring, so you need a
hiring partner built for hard times. That's Indeed. If you're hiring,
you need Indeed because Indeed is the hiring partner where
you can attract, interview, and hire all in one place.
And indeed is the only job site where you're guaranteed
to find quality applications that meet your must have requirements

(19:26):
or else you don't pay. Instead of spending hours on
multiple job sites. Hoping to find candidates with the right skills,
you need one hiring partner that can help you do
it all. Indeed partners with you on every step of
the hiring process. Find great talent through time saving tools
like Indeed, instant Match, assessments and virtual interviews. With instant Match,

(19:49):
as soon as you sponsor a post, you get a
short list of quality candidates with resumes on Indeed that
match your job description and you can invite them to
apply right away. Plus, you only pay for quality applications
that meet your must have requirements. Join more than three
million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast.

(20:13):
Start hiring right now with a seventy five dollar sponsored
job credit to upgrade your job post at indeed dot
com slash office Deep Dive offer valid through March thirty one.
Go to Indeed dot com slash office deep Dive to
claim your seventy five dollar credit before March one. Indeed
dot Com slash office Deep Dive terms and conditions apply.

(20:36):
Need to hire you need Indeed. On the latest season
of the Next Question with Katie Correct podcast, Katie dives
into Well Katie Here exclusive podcast only conversations between Katie
and the people who made her memoir Going There Possible.
We spent a lot of time together around a dining
room table here and in the city, and you know,

(20:58):
it was a very tense experienced. All episodes of Next
Question with Katie Couric are available now. Listen on the
I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts. Look for your children's eyes to see the
true magic of a forest. It's a storybook world for them.
You look and see a tree, They see the wrinkled

(21:19):
face of a wizard with arms outstretched to the sky.
They see treasureing pebbles, They see a windy path that
could lead to adventure, and they see you. They're fearless. Guide.
Is this fascinating world? Find a forest near you and
start exploring and discover the forest dot org brought to
you by the United States Forest Service and the ad Council.

(21:50):
So now the crew had come together and the office
was starting to air, but we were still very uncertain
about what are few sure would be. Every day I
felt like we were on borrowed time, and then lightning struck.
Steve landed a massive role. Here's Angela Kenzie to tell

(22:11):
us all about it. Forty year old virgin, right year
old virgin. That was the game changer for Steve. And
Jenna and I have talked about this where we had
this moment where we're like, oh my god, our friends
Steve is gonna be like real famous, like real deal famous.
I really felt like they were banking on Steve, and
I was like, Okay, I will attach myself to the

(22:32):
Steve wagon. I'm banking on him too. I thought that
that was a really good sign, but I still wasn't confident.
I mean I still was like when we finished those
first six because season one was just six, they printed
our names on pieces of paper and then laminated them
and put a piece of velcrow on the back and
that's what stuck to your door of your trailer. And

(22:54):
I went up to my ripped that, ripped it off
and said, I'm gonna save that. That was fun because
you were sure it was done. I just didn't know.
I mean, they were putting so much. At the time.
NBC had the show that was like our rival sort
of show that was this couple, and they were on
every bus everywhere. We weren't on any buses, we weren't anywhere,

(23:15):
And I was like, Wow, I've putting a lot of
money on those guys. Yes, there was not a whole
lot of confidence, but Kevin Riley, I was about to say,
I knew Kevin Riley was fighting for us, and I
know that's why when we ultimately won an Emmy, all
you guys lifted him in the air and that's the
photo that made the l a times because we all
knew as a cast we stayed on the air because
Kevin Riley put his neck on the line for us.

(23:37):
Right when did you feel like we actually had security?
I know distinctly. Well. I remember getting an email that
our first Christmas episode had become the number one download
on iTunes and I was like what and I said, Oh,
that's it. Mom was getting rid of for Chevy Blazer

(23:58):
and then I got a Honda. Um yeah that that
That was a huge moment. And it's funny. Before that aired,
there was a moment that was very significant for you
and I, which was boost crews. Yes, when we finally
became series regulars. Yep, I found out I was going
to be a series regular. And there's a photo that, um,

(24:19):
I think Oscar took of Jenna and I when I
found out, We're jumping up in the air holding hands,
and I mean up until then, we were basically like
week to week. Like I remember in Halloween episode when
they were like, yeah, we're gonna actually fire one person.
We're all like, okay, Hi, how's it going. I petitioned
for it to be you. I want you to know.

(24:40):
I remember saying to my mom, I'm like, Mom, you
know pretty much anyone can go really and she was like, well,
every office needs a bitch, That's what she said to you. Yeah,
She's like, every office needs the bitch. I'm like, your
mom was confident that it wouldn't be you. My mom
was you haven't you know Bertie Kinzie. She's like, don't
speak it, don't speak it put out the positive. Oh

(25:07):
so at this time, So this happens, Um, we shoot
Booze Cruise. It airs after Christmas. Christmas episode happens on TV.
It's our largest audience ever ever. Then iTunes streaming. We
become number one in that and then Steve wins the
Golden Globes. What do you remember about that night of

(25:28):
us at the Golden Globes? Um? I remember I got
a spray tan because I thought I was really white,
like too white in my dress, and so people were like,
get a spray tan. And then Rain made fun of
me so much. He was like how what what? So
one day on the Office, Angela Martin is like pale,
and the next day you look like orange. He was like, Angela,
I was like, I don't know, rad And then um,

(25:49):
we weren't allowed to sit in the main room. Only
Steve got invited into the main room where the fancy
people were. We were in the annex and we watched
him win like on TV, and we were we we
about like fill out of our chairs. Literally, we fell
out of this it. We made such a scene that
other fancy people were like, oh are those guys. We

(26:10):
were screaming, We're so excited. And when the party lets out,
it lets out into the room we were in, and
we like we tackled Steve. We're so excited. We were
all so excited. It's hard to put into words how
special it was for our little show to finally start
taking off and for Steve, our our show dad, to

(26:31):
start turning into such a massive star. You know, these days,
with how popular the Office has become, it almost feels
like it's always been that way. But it hasn't. And
I think having our own special way of doing things
really helped to make that happen. A big part of

(26:51):
that was having so many of our writers double as
our ensemble cast. So here's mos Mike. Sure, when was
the decision made for writers to start acting in the show?
From the before the before the pilot? I mean Greg
coming from SNL, Greg wanted SNL is very um. The

(27:12):
membrane between writers and actors is very thin, and all
the actors write stuff, and a lot of the writers
are in sketches and stuff. And almost everyone there's a
writer performer, even if he or she is only on
staff as a writer or something. And he liked that,
and he wanted to get rid of the false dichotomy
of writers and actors. So he hired Mindy specifically because

(27:34):
she was a performer. She was in a play called
mattin Band that she had written in New York. He
hired b J because BJ was a stand up and
a writer. He and then like we made Paul against
his will play Toby in the first season, like we
forced it. He did not want to do it. He
hated it, he hated acting, but we forced him to
do it because it was so funny to have him

(27:55):
be the guy that Michael Scott hates more than anybody.
But it was that was always the design. I think
he wanted everybody to to write and perform ideally, except
for me, because he made me a freak. Most famously
and most annoyingly to me, played the character Most Shrewd.
Oh my god. We never talked about most. Oh my god.

(28:19):
I assumed it was gonna be your first question. I
I know I have a whole section on it. But
you were so great, Um, all right, well then just
very quickly, sure you were cast as most I was,
and you're happy about that. Now. I hated it. I
hated every second of it. Why did you hate it?
Because I was wearing wool clothes and had a neck

(28:39):
beard and it was always really hot and I didn't
The joke was I didn't talk, and that's not a
funny joke. And it was always like I had to
get up at four thirty in the morning and drive
to the middle of nowhere and wear wool clothes and
it was. And then the joke became with the writers
because they knew how much I hated it, they loved like,
what if your shirtless. What if you're on a seesaw,

(29:00):
What if you're on a trampoline. What if you're running
as fast as you can alongside a car like a dog.
I was at Parks and wreck and they would call
me and they like, we need mos and I was like,
I have a job, I have a life, I have
young children. And they would just make me do it.
They would compete with each other to see what was
the most humiliating possible thing they could have me do.
But that that episode Paul So Paul wrote that episode

(29:22):
where they where Jim and Pam go to shoot farms,
and he wrote in the in the script, it literally
says Mose appears out of nowhere and runs along the
side of the car like a dog. That's what it says.
That's I'm a human being. And so we did that scene.
It was a hundred and forty degrees. I was in
woolf clothes and and old work boots that like didn't
fit properly, and that sprint is probably a hundred and

(29:45):
fifty yards down that dirt road from the time I
come out to the time I had to run all
the way up into shrewt farms. It of course cuts
off long before I ever get there, of course, but
they were like, you got it. Paul was directing, was
like you get a run all the way there. So
I did over and over and over again, probably twelve
or fourteen takes because Paul delighted in it so much.
And then later in that episode, I'm in Jurassic Park

(30:08):
pajamas that don't fit me properly. And then Greg pitched
the thing where he was like, what if there's a
loud noise and Pam goes to the window and looks
at it, and Moses in the outhouse with his pants
down and the doors flapping clothes. I mean, it was
like it was aggressive. It was They knew I never
should have been. If I had said, like, I love
doing this, they never would have put me in the
show again. But because I hated it so much and

(30:28):
was so vocal about hating it, well, you have confirmed something.
Moses a is a fan favorite. You hear about people
loving most Okay, let me tell you something. What I
have always said is I think Moses a writer's room joke. Oh,
you have now confirmed without a doubt that it was

(30:49):
literally a writer's room meant to torture you meant specifically
to make me miserable. Yes, yes, I was in a coffin.
I was like hanging upside down somewhere like. There were
a bunch of things that we did that were then
just cut out of the show. I was riding a
moped over like trying to jump a bunch of cars.

(31:09):
They made me do that moped thing. I don't know
how to drive a moped. I don't know how to
drive a moped. No one taught me how to drive.
They were like, just get on and just rev the thing,
because the point was if I wipe out, it'll be
really fun now, and then run across the roofs of
these cars again, if you slip and fall and break
your pelvis, it'll be really funny. Like there was the
subtext was always the worst this goes the fun year

(31:32):
it will be when it happens. Well. I this was
after you left. I mean sort of from the beginning,
but then more and more Kevin started having a lot
of physical comedy type stuff. And there would be times
where I would go to the writer's room and say,
I don't remember if you were ever there, but I
would say, you guys are writing for Homer Simpson right now,

(31:56):
and a cartoon you can force to do whatever you'd
like him to do. He can do whatever, right, But
I can't. My body doesn't work that way. No one's does, right.
Like the most painful. I feel like I still have
pain from it is the most innocuous. You would never
ever ever know. The office workers have to go to

(32:16):
the warehouse and move boxes, so they decide they're gonna
put remember that episode, yeah, oiled down so they could
move boxes to get to the troll, and everyone thought
the big guy falling is really funny. So I just
kept falling slipping, and which means on a concrete surface
with oil, kneecap on concrete over and it's like, guys,

(32:40):
I can't keep You've gotta like, yeah, yeah, there has
to be some other solution. We had a We had
a similar thing on Parson Wreck where Nick Offerman's character
Ron Swanson was a sort of he was a little
cartoonish in his abilities to do various things, and we
wrote this joke where he wanted to get he was
eating a he got lunch and he was eating as hamburger,

(33:02):
and and the joke was he wanted to get out
of the lunch as quickly as possible. So in the
script he shoved the entire hamburger into his mouth and
ate it in one bite. So they Dean Holland was
directing it and he was like, okay action and Nick
did his best, but then Dean was like, you you
really need to eat the whole thing in one bite.
And he was like this is a like a half
pound hamburger. Okay, Like I maybe the character can do this,

(33:25):
but a human can. Yeah, all right, yeah right, sorry, yeah,
you're not your character, right, Okay, I I almost wiped
out super hard on that moped. Like well, first of all,
the joke was someone pulls up in the car. It
was the Garden Party episode. Someone pulls up in the
car night and I'm the valve mos the valet, and
I get in and they're like, just get in and

(33:45):
tear off down this road, right, And the joke at
the time is why is most driving so fast and
so insistent? And so I did, and like, I tore
off down the road and I'm not a stunt driver.
I don't know, like and suddenly I'm going sixty five
miles an hour on a dirt road and on a
set and the back tires fish tailed because it's a
dirt road, and I like slowed down and was like,

(34:09):
oh right, I'm not This isn't a no one's gonna
like save me. If I crashed this car, I'll die.
Because I also got in and didn't put my seatbelt
on because the joke was you get in and take off,
and I was like, oh my god, I just I
forgot for a second that I'm not fictional. I'm make
sure I'm not fictional. I'm a human could suffer consequences. Mine.

(34:30):
Very similar to that was I think it was when
there's the storyline of Dwight telling Holly that that Kevin
is slow, and there was a scene we did a
number of different ways. This didn't end up in but
where I'm driving and she's like you're driving. You have
a car and I'm like, yeah, I have a car.
And at one point they were like okay, so do that,

(34:54):
but then get out of the car, but leave it running,
like leave it leave it like leaving leave it in gear.
So like as you step out, the car is gonna
move forward and then we'll have somebody else who can
jump in and stop it. Yeah. I didn't ideas like profound. Meanwhile,

(35:15):
it's vedas Car, right, like her real Car. I Uh
that joke that they did with Kevin in the later
years where he didn't know the alphabet elemento. Paul pished
that in season two and we were like, Paul, that's insane, Like,
you can't say that he doesn't know that he's an accountant.
He's a working accountant. Like he might not be the

(35:37):
best accountant, he's an accountant. It made Paul laugh so hard,
and the second that Paul took over the show, that
joke aired, and I was like, well, that's what he got,
what he wanted. Six years later, Well, at least someone
was having fun. But look, we all have a part
to play, am I right, even if our parts happened

(36:00):
to be more dangerous than others Like Oscar. I don't
remember Oscar doing any crazy stunts or being turned into
an indestructible office cartoon. Right. He had the honor of
being the one who always got to keep his composure. You,
and certainly over in accounting, you were really the straight man.

(36:25):
Like you had your idiosyncrasies, yes I think so, but
in the office you were you were the barometer of reason.
Very often Jim and myself. Yes, which is what they're
talking about in the Coalition of Reason. That's it? Are
you you know, if you're if you're looking at sort

(36:45):
of the history of comedy in a way, how does
what is? Oh? Come on, you can do it, Brian,
I believe in you asked you a question the archetype
of the straight man sort of in the history of comedy.
Can you talk about that a little bit? Is that?
Is that easier for you to do or is that harder? Oh?

(37:06):
They're both good. It's apples and oranges. It's lovely. It
was a lovely character because he's he's a straight man,
but he still has a little bit delusions of grandeur,
which you need because that you need that right right
that Well, nobody's perfect or nobody totally straight exactly, Yeah,

(37:26):
because Angela was a little off too. She was almost there,
but then she was a little off. Everybody was a
little off, right, Toby, every single even Jim. He was
too much of a prankster. He didn't take the job seriously.
He was a little too right, juvenile, right, But you
you know, I think so many of the scenes between
you and Steve were so special because you know, you

(37:50):
had to be a straight man in those Yeah. Yeah,
did just sit there and stare at him? Just stare
at him? Well, and you would do that. Well he
said things. You would get the laugh because you did that. Yeah,
that's all you had to do. Stare at him. And
people at home we'll go, what is he thinking? He
can't say anything. It's his job. He's being good and
now he's excusing himself. Thank you and just get up

(38:11):
and leave right because he's like Oscar and it's the
build up, the fucking Correll build up. Oscar, Can I
see you for a moment? Sit down? Um, I ask
you something. Um, I'm gonna go in for a colonoscope?
And I was, what can I do to make it
more comfortable for him or me? And he just trails

(38:33):
it off and just leaves it like it's like it's
a solid, like a reasonable question to ask me. And
I'm supposed what am I supposed to tell him? I
think I think I just excuse myself. I'm like, okay, Michael,
I just got up and laugh. Give us the attention.

(38:57):
We need everything you've got Fast Waiting on Reparations would
be the podcast. Tune in every Thursday Politics and wordplay.
We fight for the people because they got us in
the worst way, from the Hill Cooper, the bomb bay Ton,
from the left on Clave to what the neo kanz
every Thursday conversation and to break us off with some
break because we wait in the reparation. Listen to Waiting

(39:20):
on Reparations on my Heart Radio, app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts. From the creator of The
Bright Sessions, comes a new fiction podcast for all ages.
Jump back to and follow maxim Miles as she starts
high school in the pictress town of Hastings, New Hampshire.
Fall is the season in which this small town shines

(39:43):
apple cider, pumpkin patches farmers markets. It's idyllic for adults
and boring for Max. But suddenly Max's school year starts
to look a bit more interesting when a fellow student
vanishes with the help of her miss and throw up
the classmate Ross. Max starts to look into the disappearance
her and instigation dropser deep into the dark woods around Hastings,
and even deeper into the secrets and lies the course

(40:05):
of the veins of the sleepy town. This New y
a mystery from writer director Lorn Shippen is an audio
drama with heart and wit that involves the audience in
a way no fiction podcast ever has. Listen to Maxi
Miles and the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts or
wherever you get your favorite shows. Did you know that

(40:29):
on the day Doctor King was shot, the all black
security detail normally assigned to him was called off. They're
the ones who would not allow him to stay at
any hotel with balconies. That security union was reassigned. That
was a man there, Lume. And did you know that

(40:55):
on the day Doctor King was shot, two black firemen
stationed across the street and one black p least detective
who is surveiling King. We're all taken off the job.
What was the emergency that caused? Usually moved there emergency?
Did you ever ask what this was all about? And
then this is the MLK tapes. The first episodes are

(41:21):
available now listen on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. So we're making
the office right, and we're starting to get some fans,

(41:44):
but then it turns out that some of our fans
will actually be joining our motley crew, like the Wonderful
Ellie Kemper. Did you watch The Office? Brian? Did I
watch The Office? I devoured The Office. I was an
enormous Office fan. You don't know what this is like
because obviously you were on it from the start. But

(42:06):
I loved The Office. I watched it every week. It's
very strange to go from watching a television show that
you happen to love and then being in the room
with everybody. I actually the first day, of course, felt
surreal for many reasons, but it's it's weird when you
I think maybe anyone has had this experience. If you
watch someone on a screen and then you see them

(42:27):
in person, it feels otherworldly. And particularly because I already
loved everyone on it and admired them so much, it
felt even stranger because yeah, I was a huge fan.
It's very weird. I really tried to play it cool. Well,
so wait, literally, you watched it Thursday night? Yes, yes
I did. I lived in New York at the time,

(42:47):
and we always my my whole family was a fan
of the Office. Have I told you that? Mos make
sure reminded us of my older brother John college, like
when John was in college. So we had like a
big joke about that. But yeah, I lived in New
York and I watched The Office every Thursday, and had
you met Alison Jones before? No, So, I met with

(43:10):
Greg and Mike, Greg Daniels and Mike Sure. I think
I was meeting with them for Parks and Recreation. This
was before Parks and Recreation was had aired, and I
think that's what it was about. I really don't know.
It was sort of just a general hello. And after
that I met Alison when I actually read for Parks
and Recreation, which it wasn't called Parks and Recreation. It

(43:30):
was like untitled make Sure Project. And then I didn't
get a part on Parks and Recreation. But then they
called me back later for the Office and your first
day on set? Were you nervous? I was so nervous.
I first, okay, I can't remember the actual very first
person I met. I remember telling John Krasinski, who I

(43:50):
had read was an intern at Conan and I have
been an Internet Conan because my first scene, John is
making a Jim Jim excuse me is making a copy
at the copy machine, and I'm like sitting there and
I was like like, in between takes, I was like, so, um, yeah, um,
you in turned to Conan? Right? Why did I feel

(44:12):
they need to strike up conversation? I am the new person.
I think I should stay quiet until spoken to. But
I was unusually bold and he said, oh, yeah, you
know Conan And I said I had turned there too.
What was it? I don't know if somebody walked away,
somebody saved me, because I wouldn't have I wouldn't have
kept that conversation going very well. And then and then

(44:33):
the big news, Brian, I had to dye my hair
that day. I have red hair, and as soon as
I got there, they were like, you have to dye
your hair brown. And I remember, Mindy, I saw in
the morning and I saw in the afternoon, and I
had brown hair in the afternoon, and she said, why
did you let them do that? I would never let
anyone dye my hair like uh, because in my first

(44:53):
jobs ever, they can do whatever they want. Anyway, why
did they dye your hair? Well, I still don't know.
I think the reason was they said it looked that
this new character's hair looked too close to Pam's color.
But I Pam never Jenna, but I mean the character Pam.
Pam didn't have red hair. Did she know? Was it
chest study? Yeah, I guess I'm not real good at hair.

(45:18):
I'll be honest with you, honestly, apparently neither of mind.
But anyway, Yeah, first day memories are sort of blurry
because I was so I don't know. I don't think
you can relate to this feeling, because, like I said,
you were there from the start, but it was just
so it was first day of school, but to the
millions of degree because it was like I already I'm
like in awe of all these people, and I'm the

(45:40):
new girl. Don't mess anything up, And of course she didn't.
But there was another new girl, well woman who came
into the office family a little later on Amy Ryan
and You. Our fans welcomed her with such open arms.

(46:00):
I think maybe that was because she did the one
thing no one thought could be done. She completed Michael.
But come on, don't we all kind of wish she'd
completed Kevin instead. You came in ultimately to be a
love interest for Michael. But I have to tell you

(46:21):
the storyline between you and I on the show, Um
gets talked about a lot, and I think in the
history of table reads that we had on the show.
It was never more laughed because of the how long
that joke and then he used to set up And

(46:41):
you know when I get asked now about moments in
the entire show where I could not stop laughing, was
Hugh and the button is literally if you with the change, Nickel,
this is this is a ut And there was something
about the sweetness on your face and you just very

(47:05):
genuinely explaining to Kevin that this was a button made
me smile every single time. And I was like, I
can't do it, and they're right there with the cap.
I'm like, I can't do it, and basically then just
turned it into a grin to say I'm gonna I'm
gonna bang you. But that yeah, do you think that

(47:25):
story could play now? I mean, there's so much of
The Office that I don't know if it could play now. Um,
it's interesting. So I just happened to watch that episode
because my ten year old daughter and all her friends
at school are really into the Office. And my daughter
is a little behind the rest of her friends because
I think it's weird for her. But but anyway, so

(47:47):
that my husband Eric and I like we're just out
of her eyeline. But here comes your line like I'm
totally going to bang her, and you know, I'm like,
we look at each other, like and then you look
over to her face. Does she register that, you know?
Because somehow it's going right over their head, I think,
or she maybe shouldn't you know? Um, I mean, I

(48:12):
don't know. I think I hope a lot of it
still plays because I think it's well intentioned. I don't
think we were cruel statistic people on this show. I mean,
but the stuff that doesn't play, it's interesting to think
about as we all think we're like well intentioned, liberal minded,
caring people, and the stuff that we didn't pay attention to.

(48:37):
And so you know, you're asking me, is it okay
to make fun of a person who we think is
mentally handicapped? Probably not, but it was really funny then,
so what do we do with it? Like, you know,
I don't know where that lives. Um, I certainly don't
want to offend anybody. I mean, I think the joke

(48:59):
is a on the person who made the mistake, you
know what I mean, Like it's how could Holly be
that thick head or or that well white? Really, I
mean that it's really that it's Dwight who But I'm
I'm in the middle there of not using my own
good judgment or maybe asking for a second opinion or

(49:20):
you know, I mean, we all we're all judgmental. We
say we don't, but we judge everybody that walks down
the block, you know, in our heads, in a little
private tapes in our Okay, she's right, of course we
judge people. We try not to, right, I mean what
we try to do is something very different. We try

(49:43):
to find truth and beauty in every single part of
our lives. And why well, that goes back to the
captain of our ship, the man we put all our
faith in. Our showrunner and creator, Greg Daniels. A few
people have talked to you about one of your core ideas,

(50:04):
which is the idea of truth and beauty. Yeah. That
was my thing with Randall, the truth and beauty, Truth
and beauty. Yeah. And what does that? What does that
mean to you? Um? Well, you know to me, that
was I think that's some romantic poet. I'm not sure
where that came from, somebody like John Keats or something.
I don't know, and I don't even know what he

(50:25):
meant by it. But the way I used to use
it with Randall was that's what we're going for in
the camera, right, Let the camera seek out truth. That's
what it's trying to find. That's the point of a documentary.
What's the truth? And also not like a cynical negative truth,
like also where where's the beauty? It's like another principle

(50:45):
of photography of like a good photograph is, you know,
a little sprig of weed coming through the cracked concrete
or whatever. You know what I mean. It's like, where
are you gonna do something that's a little bit inspiring
but find it in a truthful way out of real world? Right? Well,
Mike sure talked about it, and you told a story
about a parking lot, an endless parking lot with lines

(51:09):
and parking spaces, and in one crack there's a little flower,
a little dandelion. He said that it's funny. I just
made the same. Yeah, yes, I think that that, you know.
I like the notion of aesthetic, like what are you
searching for in art? And the Japanese have interesting aesthetics

(51:33):
with a cracked pot. Did you mention that to use
that a lot? So? I think it's called woo I'm
not sure but it's the notion of a perfect pot
is okay, you know, and we in the West probably
value a perfect pot, but a cracked pot where the

(51:56):
crack suddenly makes you feel the history of the pot
and the people who have used it in their family
and have treasured it and kept it even with the
crack in it, like it suddenly cracks through you know it,
suddenly we'll we'll touch you. It's those little details often
of imperfections that's like a it's just a cool sort

(52:16):
of philosophy. Yes, yeah, I have this so far off topic,
but a number of years ago, my parents were moving
out of their house and I went for a week
and I was like helping them and throwing out all
of this trash and we go into like the corner
of the closet and a guest room that no one
ever slept in, and in the closet there was a

(52:36):
big piece of paper that was folded up and I
I unfolded it and it was a Kennedy poster that
my dad had like handed out or seen or collected
or whatever. And I remember saying to him, can I
have this? And he's like, yeah, it's like all torn
or whatever. And I took it and I framed it

(52:59):
and I took it to this place and they were like, oh,
we can you know, do this or that, and I
was like, no, no, no, the crack has to stay
there and the wrinkle, the folded marks just as lightly
as you can matt this on something and enclose it,
because I want that history of it. I don't know
that idea. Well, also, like I mean, you know, they
don't get too psychological, but you know when you think

(53:19):
about your dad, right, you're so the relationship that you
have with your father, the fact how old that they are,
and just the sense of like passage of time being
important to that relationship and fragility of it and knowing
that it may not be around forever, and that I
can completely see why a tear in your dad's poster

(53:42):
adds to the emotion of it. Yeah, right, yeah, totally. Um, well,
there's a lot about writing that isn't necessarily only about
the office. But you know, like when you have a
set of principles that you're trying to do for the show, right,
if you're going to say, all right, I want to
be realistic, I want to be relatable. Uh, you know,

(54:06):
I want to be observational. If you're going to follow
those principles, you're gonna end up commenting on what's around you.
And this to me goes back a long way. It
isn't unique to the show necessarily, but like when I
was on The Simpsons, which is this is you know,
complete cartoon, but the way that one Simpsons writer one
respect from another Simpsons writer when I was there, was

(54:29):
you did something super real. You had a line that
just found like it just came out of a teenager
and it was just perfectly you know, real to the situation.
And somehow, in contrast to the cartooning nous of it,
that always seemed to be like a cool thing. And
then when I got to King of the Hell, we
used to do a lot of research. We would go

(54:50):
to Texas. I'd take the writers to Texas every season
and we'd fan out with our reporters notebooks, and we
you know, we'd try and dig up unique stories because
I always felt like the shows that I really liked,
the stories were original, like something had happened to one
of the writers or you know, they weren't just going like, well,
what did what did Cheers do? Let's do a version

(55:13):
of that or something. You had to go out and
do your own work and dig up your own stories. Well, Greg,
I for one, I am so grateful for the stories

(55:33):
you dug up, and I know that I'm not alone.
Thank you to everyone who was a part of this
episode and to all of you out there listening. Join
us next week for another stroll down memory Lane with
some more of our favorite episodes and guests. In the meantime,
all of you have a fantastic week. The Office. Deep

(56:01):
Dive is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
alongside our executive producer, Langlee. Our senior producer is Tessa Kramer.
Our producers are Liz Hayes and Diego Topi. My main
man in the booth is Alec Moore. Our theme song
Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great friend Creed Bratton,

(56:22):
and the episode was mixed by seth Olandsky. Hello, and

(56:47):
welcome to our show. I'm Zoe de Chanelle and I'm
so excited to be joined by my friends and cast
mates Hannah Simone and Lamar and Morris to recap our
hit television series New Girl. Join us every Monday on
the Welcome to our Show podcast, where we'll share behind
the scenes stories of your favorite New Girl episodes. Each
week we answer all your burning questions like is there
really a bear in every episode of New Girl. Plus,

(57:10):
you'll hear hilarious stories like this that was one of
your thanks you from Yeah, I brought back whole professional
basketball players. Yeah. Listen to the Welcome to Our Show
podcast on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or
wherever you get your podcasts. Look for your children's eyes

(57:32):
and you will discover the true magic of a forest.
Find a forest near you and start exploring it. Discover
the forest dot Org, brought to you by the United
States Forest Service and the AD Council. On the latest
season of The Next Question with Katie Correct podcast, Katie
dives into Well Katie Here, exclusive podcast only conversations between

(57:54):
Katie and the people who made her memoir Going There possible.
Katie is a pack rat and she has basically her
own archive of sorts in her basements. Plus, Katie explores
some of the big news stories she's covered over the
decades and the people behind them, like Anita Hill. I
thought I could just get back to my life, and

(58:15):
that was impossible. It was not going to be the same.
There's plenty of Katie's signature curiosity and no holds barred interviews,
along with some of her own revealing answers. We spent
a lot of time together around a dining room table
here and in the city, and you know, it was
a very intense experience. All episodes of Next Question with

(58:37):
Katie Curic are available now. Listen on the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.