Now that the strike is over all of your favorite “scripted” shows will be back on your TV with new episodes sometime in April, more than likely. Perhaps one of the most anticipated comedies that will return on April 10 is The Office on NBC. It may not be the most highly-rated show on television, but it is one of the funniest and one of the most critically-acclaimed comedies on television today.
To help promote the return of The Office, the creator of the show, Greg Daniels, and one of the stars of the show, Rainn Wilson, participated in a conference call with members of the media last week. If you don’t know, Rainn Wilson plays the hilarious character of Dwight Schrute. But you might be surprised to find out that Rainn is really nothing like Dwight.
Here are the highlights of what Rainn Wilson and Greg Daniels said in this conference call for The Office…
With the sitcom sort of becoming a lost art, what is the key to making a good one like you’ve done with The Office?
Greg Daniels: Well, there’s the flip answer and the real answer, I guess. But, you know, I think it’s a lot about trying to be original and trying to be funny, and not being scared of also, you know, having some emotion in it or being real and taking the characters seriously. And developing a hit that was a hit in another country already.
Rainn Wilson: I can’t top that, but I will say that I think the multi-camera sitcom format, as it kind of petered out over the last couple of years, may just – we’re sticking to a – kind of tried and true formula. And then the shows became more about the formula than about what the show was trying to say or trying to do. So it was more about a group of characters sitting in a common area. Kind of – we’ve set up some punchlines and kind of making fun of each other. And it just got tired and worn out. And it just is – it’s the genre right now that needs some reinvention.
If you could just continue on that for a minute because you were talking about how you want to be unique and different, and yet you also want to be funny? I mean, you really did make something just as interesting as the British version with the very slow, dry humor, that wouldn’t have worked, right? I mean, you found an American version which is a little sharper in the humor, a little quicker with the humor. Could you kind of talk about how you find that line?
GD: Yeah, sure. Well I think the British version is really, really great and I actually love the British version. And they intentionally – when you look at the scripts for the British version, it’s – you know, they – I think they resemble the scripts for the American version. But they made some decisions to really go very bleak with the production of it and it matched what they were trying to do which was to be very satiric and, you know, paint a very bleak picture of what this world was like. And, you know, we had an aim to be more of a character comedy that was less satiric and more about the, you know, the ups and downs of the characters. And knowing that we were going to be on for a lot longer, you know, we wanted to see positive sides to the characters, too. And I don’t think we really got it 100% right until the second season in terms of the mix and the tone, although I really like our first season. I think it’s really funny.
But, you know, once we started to have moments, you know, where – for example where, you know, Dwight is crushed at leaving his work or stuff like that, it kind of opens the characters up in a way where you feel a little bit more for them and you’re also, I think, uncertain as to what’s going to happen next because he might have a moment where you feel for them and then on the other hand, you might have a moment where they’re really just being played for laughs.
Rainn, have you ever worked in an office – even if only as a temp when the the acting work got thin? And if so, what kind of office worker were you? Were you a Dwight or a Jim, or a Ryan, or what?
RW: Well I was kind of – I’ve worked in many offices before in my New York days of being a starving actor. I worked in a major New York charity as Assistant Office Manager and Special Events Coordinator. And I was also…
GD: Assistant to the Officer Manager and Special Events Coordinator or Assistant Office Manager?
RW: I was Assistant to the Office Manager and Assistant Special Events Coordinator. Thank you. You got it? And then I was also a Receptionist from the Pam Beesly mold at Kirshenbaum, Bond & Partners, an advertising agency in New York. So I’ve done a lot of those things. I would – I guess, who was I closest to? I guess I was most like a Jim because my heart really wasn’t into it. So – but I was also very capable which is a lot like Jim, too. I think Jim is very capable. So – but I don’t think they missed me. And then…
But I guess I’m proud of the fact that in my past I was actually a really good waiter. I was an excellent waiter. Like I could have really gone somewhere as a waiter. And I was pretty decent in my office work, too. I was not very good at Marine Supply delivery which I did for about eight months at (Ballard Marine Supply & Hardware). I got in a couple car accidents and kept losing stuff.
Usually creative people go slightly mad when they’re in office or corporate jobs. What is your opinion about that or from your own personal experiences?
RW: This is Greg Daniels. I’m Greg Daniels. I created The Office. I’m so cool. This is Rainn Wilson. That’s a great question. Yeah. You know, we all go a little bit mad even in the office setting, about eight hours into sitting under those fluorescent lights on the set of The Office. And surfing the web, and there’s only so many times you can check CNN.com to see if a bomb has gone off somewhere. We start to go a little bit stir crazy and things start to get out of hand. So I think that is true. But recently we’ve kept ourselves entertained by doing Brian Baumgartner imitations and coaxing Ed Helms to do all of his imitations. He does an incredible Tom Brokaw and we love to have him say albondigas – the soup albondigas as Tom Brokaw and here’s my imitation of Ed Helms saying albondigas as Tom Brokaw.
Meanwhile, albondigas…
GD: I think his Tom Brokaw is better than his Greg Daniels. I was going to say…
RW: Does he have a Greg Daniels?
GD: No, you.
RW: Oh. And this is Greg.
GD: This is Rainn – duh. I’m dumb. There you go. Hey we’re at each other’s throats now. It’s a good thing that we’re not in the same physical location.
RW: I know. I’d be pummeling him.
Is there going to be any love interest for Dwight that will be introduced right now? You know, Angela has kind of moved on and – or she’s trying to move on, and it looks like it’s just breaking Dwight’s heart. Do you think that he’ll have a love interest come in and try to make Angela jealous?
RW: I don’t know, Greg. That gets into some dangerous territory there. What do you think we can say about that?
GD: Well, do you remember in your audition when you improv’d his – some of his ex-girlfriends?
RW: Yes.
GD: Because I’ve always – we’ve always had that on the board and that, I think, you know, it’s part of his character that he has some exes out there. So…
RW: Yes. Dwight – I improvised in the audition for the pilot which Greg — by the way — thanks for casting me.
GD: Oh, just wanted to bring that up again, yeah.
RW: Thanks for casting me because…
GD: No problem.
RW: I have a career now. So thanks for that. And yeah, I had a – we had an improvisation of me and Jenna, and I told her that I had an ex-girlfriend who was stationed in Kuwait City, you know, as a Reservist. So I don’t know if that is coming into play, but ex-girlfriends – yeah. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more sides – a lot more facets of Dwight when it comes to dating and women.
I want to say that this is something that I love about this show is that, you know, every season, every – even every episode – every couple of episodes, there’s always some new aspect of Dwight that Greg and the writers want to explore. And that’s such a rare thing, you know. So many shows have their comic sidekick character and this is – they do XY and Z. But I get emotional stories and comedic stories, and family stories – and lots of different textures. And I really appreciate getting to do that as an actor.
Greg, are there any signs that Stephen and Ricky will write more episodes for the show or make a cameo, do you think?
GD: I don’t know. It’s a really good question. Stephen was going to direct one in December and, you know, we’re hoping to get him back next year. And, you know, as to cameos, we haven’t written any in. We – at one point, we had written in one for the character that played Gareth a couple of years ago. But we couldn’t get him on because he was doing Pirates of the Caribbean or something. But it’s a possibility. But we don’t have any plans right now.
Can you talk a little bit about how you spent the break and what the first day back was like?
GD: Well mine was very boring. I just walked in circles a lot waving the placard and didn’t, you know, travel anywhere or do anything. But the first day that we came back was very good for the writing staff because this was the longest break that we had had since the show started and people, you know, had time to kind of recharge their batteries in a good way. So we had a lot of fun tossing out ideas on our first day back.
RW: I did a little bit of picketing. I played a lot with my three and a half year old son, which was good. I think the strike was terribly painful for the families of Los Angeles – the working families of Los Angeles, but it was also great for the families of Los Angeles. And I went to Israel and I did some writing. And I worked on my backhand with my Zen tennis coach.
Rainn, what was the first day back like? You go through it every summer, but is it tough after a break like that to get back into being Dwight?
RW: You know, it’s been – it has been a huge love fest. It’s like – it’s kind of crazy. It doesn’t make for great print journalism, but I will say that everyone – it’s like our other family and we – our other family got together. And – like at a big family reunion and it’s been really, really fun. And we’ve had a blast these first two weeks. It is great to see everyone again and batteries were definitely recharged. There’s like ten minutes when it’s like okay, wait, who is this guy again, right? And then, you know, I just put on the calculator watch and the glasses, and just be all, you know, inappropriate. And then it just works out fine.
How did the strike affect any of the larger story arcs for the season?
GD: Well, you know, we had some stuff that we were planning for the end of the year and we didn’t end up having enough time to do what we had planned. But we came up with some other alternatives – things which we really like a lot and it’s probably good that way for the creative process.
So I mean, you know, there – we didn’t have a lot of stuff that we scrapped because we only had the one episode, you know, ready to be shot and that’s the one we came back with where they’re, you know, invited out to the dinner party. And…
RW: I heard there were plans for a Christmas episode…
GD: You know what, we did? We had a whole Christmas episode.
It wasn’t 100% finished, the script. But we’re going – you know, we’ll cannibalize it and use pieces of it, and stuff.
You talked a little bit about the three camera sitcom formulas and Rainn talked a little bit about how Dwight is not just kind of the standard foil, the wacky neighbor that you see on a lot of sitcoms. Greg, it seems that the natural tendency where you have some sort of breakout characters, a lot of shows tend to gravitate towards where that sort of attention is going very much. The public reaction sort of shapes how the stories get played out. But it seems like these guys…
GD: Well the problem is that we started off, you know, with Phyllis just being one of the salespeople and we’ve kind of peaked too early by marrying her off to Bob Vance. And so it’s hard to capitalize on the breakout. But that’s part of trying to, you know, kind of keep people off balance. You know what I mean? It’s like you, you know, obviously it’s – Dwight is super funny and people love Dwight. And they buy Dwight dolls and stuff like that. But if it just became the Dwight Show, you know…
RW: There would be nothing wrong with that.
Are there any plans or at least any intention to have the characters see the documentary that’s been filming in their office for the last three years and what kind of reactions you think that would have?
GD: I think – I mean, it’s great. We have talked about it. I don’t think we’re there yet, but I definitely love it as a big, kind of game-changing story move. But, you know, hopefully when we do press that nuclear button, you know, it’ll be prepared for and everybody will be – you know, people will think it’s worth it.
RW: I think it’s hard. Once they see the documentary – I’m just speculating here because I know nothing about those conversations. But I think once they see the documentary and you kind of deal with the fallout of that, I don’t know how much longer you can then continue storylines, you know, with all the characters kind of living in the – being in the public eye and stuff like that.
GD: Well there’s certain things that we have, like in our back pockets and I feel like if we ever got to a place where we were discussing storylines and we just had nothing, you know, then we would say all right, time to scramble the …scramble the world and see what comes out of that. You know, time to shake the Boggle set.
Dwight, your former lady love, Angela, is now pregnant and very much showing. A question for both of you and more so, probably for Greg. How are we going to deal with that when the show returns? Is that something that is going to be written into the show? And could that possibly be a little Schrute or maybe an Andy Bernard?
GD: Well it’s possibly in real life a little Schrute or Andy Bernard. I’m not sure. But the actual – the character of Angela is different from the, you know, the human being Angela, even though they have the same name. But I think it’s confusing on our show because there’s a lot of people with the same name. You know, Oscar is an actor and then there’s also Oscar the person. And of course, the real confusing part is that Creed is the person. There is only Creed. He’s not aware he’s in a show.
RW: There is no separation between Creed the person and Creed the actor.
GD: No, not at all.
RW: And Creed the character – whatsoever. Angela is like – it’s like a little person swallowed a watermelon. And everything about her looks exactly the same except she has this enormous tummy. And I think all of her scenes from here on out are going to be staged with her behind the copy machine.
GD: I think it’s going to be a nice drinking game for people to see if they can see the belly.
RW: Spot the fetus.
GD: Yeah.
CBS seems to be having quite a bit of success with their Monday night lineup following the more traditional format. Do you guys feel like you’re in competition – kind of an informal competition? You know, Thursday night on NBC was King of Comedy for so long. Do you feel like you’re in a competition between CBS’s Monday lineup and NBC’s Thursday lineup?
GD: I feel intensely competitive with the Girls Gone Wild series of videotapes, myself – not so much the CBS lineup. But I don’t know. If you were to look at the numbers and stuff, there – we might have different demographics. I’m only guessing on that a little bit, just anecdotally speaking, from the people who I know that like our show and what they – what else they watch on the air. But no, I think it’s great. You know, if they can get that genre back, it’s all good for comedy writers.
RW: I think yeah, the more comedy the better, you know. The more quality comedy, the better and, you know…
GD: I actually don’t watch that much other comedy shows. You know, I watch some of the stuff that’s on our night. I like 30 Rock and My Name is Earl, and stuff like that. But I actually don’t watch a lot of other – I’m usually – when I’m watching other TV, it’s like weird, you know, shows about meerkats or something.
Look at the tradition of Thursday night NBC comedy? Do you always feel like you’re being compared to that and you want to make sure that, you know
GD: We’re really in that tradition. I mean, I love that stuff. I loved Seinfeld. I, you know, loved Cheers. And I feel like our show is in that tradition and I’m sort of proud to be on NBC Thursday. It’s like the best place, I think, to be, you know.
What do all those shows have in common – those shows and the shows that are on now?
GD: I don’t know. Rainn, what do you think?
RW: Well I think they got really strong ensembles of really well-defined characters. And I think that’s important in a comedy. You can’t just have one funny person, you know, the great comedies you always remember everyone from Mary Tyler Moore, you know, not just Mary. And I think that’s one thing that’s in common.
GD: Yeah and they’re – I think they’re – also they’re kind of adult in the sense that they’re not family shows – all those, usually except for Cosby Show. And, you know, they’re kind of – I don’t know…
RW: And you cared about them. I mean, you…
GD: Yeah, you cared about them.
RW: Yeah. And you heard about the characters. You wanted to see them do well. I don’t know about Seinfeld, but…
GD: I think, you know, there – they didn’t do anything to make you care about them, but you did care about them.
RW: Yeah.
GD: Because they did stuff that you did secretly in your own home and they were so appealing. I don’t know. I love those shows. I mean, I also liked Roseanne which was on ABC. You know, and – what are some of the great CBS shows?
RW: Well I think All in the Family, which was a British…
GD: Yeah, All in the Family was awesome.
RW: That was a British import as well.
GD: Magnum P.I., I think, was CBS.
Rainn, I know that earlier you mentioned your three and a half year old son, and I was actually wondering what he thinks of The Office, if he’s ever watched it or if he, you know, gets confused because dad’s on TV or anything like that?
RW: Yeah, you know, he’s – occasionally I’ll be up on the TV screen for whatever reason – if I’m like watching myself from some talk show appearance or an episode of The Office is playing, or something like that. And he says, that’s dada. And then he goes back to whatever it was that he was doing, that a train or a ball – or, you know, or hitting one of our dogs with a golf club. But yes, it seems – it’s pretty normal for him. There’s also a Dwight bobblehead up on the shelf, which he used to really be into. Now he just – he couldn’t care less about it.
Rainn, what about your wife? Does she like your persona as Dwight or does she kind of, you know, tell you please don’t bring it home? I don’t want to see Dwight when you come home after work or anything like that?
RW: We actually play funny sex games of Dwight and she will pretend to be, you know, anyone else in The Office pretty much, you know, depending – we have outfits for all of the different characters. No – this is going to be all over the media. Probably the worst thing I could have said. But yeah – I don’t really tend to bring Dwight home with me so much because I would say we’re not too much alike. I don’t know, Greg, what your – what you feel about that? But…
GD: Yeah, I’m not going to touch that one.
RW: You know, she’s – my wife has a great, absurd sense of humor and she really appreciates me, you know, playing weirdoes and oddballs and she is…
GD: An accomplished novelist, I may add.
RW: Yes. And she is a novelist.
Greg, were you able to kind of recapture that at all when you guys got back? Is there anything from the convention, from being in Scranton that you’re going to add? And maybe Rainn, you could talk, too – were the people who were at the convention – what kind of stories have you heard? Those kinds of things – if you guys could talk about that for a couple minutes?
GD: Sure. The convention was very fun and, you know, it was a real wonderful experience to see how many thousands of fans came from all over the world and there were people from Ireland and Oregon. And, you know, all – really people came from a really great distance. And, you know, and this was my first time in Scranton although we’ve done so much research on the Internet. And I was really struck by how beautiful Scranton is, which is not what we really have been portraying in here from our (unintelligible). And the street here in California. But we saw some of the sights like Nay Aug Park and the Treehouse, which is this amazing wheelchair accessible treehouse that they’ve built over this gorge. And there’s a lot of weird kind of Scranton-specific things that we saw, that, you know, will I’m sure come into different episodes. And the entire writing staff was there and they all had different experiences at, you know, driving around and going to Scranton bars, and meeting the policewomen. And, you know, stuff like that. So I think it was very good for the creativity of everybody here.
RW: Really it’s a lovely town. Like there are big old buildings, 100 years old, all over the downtown – big brick buildings that have a really cool industrial look, and a lot of iron work. And stuff like that. And there’s beautiful hills all around Scranton. It’s like down in this little valley and there’s lovely trees and hills all over the place. A very green city.
Greg, do you have a favorite Office character that you like to write stories for? And I know it’s kind of awkward with Rainn right here, but you can be candid. Is there anybody that you really enjoy writing stories for?
GD: Well I do love the Dwight character, I have to say – and especially writing the Talking Heads, you know, the interview segments with Dwight. You know, when I was – when that book – I think I – you know, that book about how – what’s that survival guide book? Basically I look at every survival guide as it’s published. I, you know, I get multiple copies because my friends all go – oh, Greg would be great for this. He’d love this, you know. And my, you know, wife just got me, you know, what would MacGyver do – some book about that.
So there is something of that character that I really respond to that, you know – the thing about like – there was this special on the Discovery Channel, I think, a couple of weeks ago which I spent, you know, an hour taking notes on and being really fascinated by which was the ten greatest threats to the world, you know, from robots that come alive to the mega volcano, to, you know, new diseases and everything. And it was so great. And eventually this will filter its way into Dwight’s brain, I think.
Are those talking heads segments mostly scripted or is it kind of half scripted, half improvised?
GD: There’s usually a script, you know, to start from. And then the directors ask questions. And some of the actors – like Rainn, for example, will sometimes write stuff on his own and come in with them.
RW: Mostly it’s, you know, it’s this great – you know, it’s just a wealth of riches and the writing is so good and so funny. There’s so many times I go in and I can’t imagine doing – even changing a word. I mean, it’s just, you know, perfect…
GD: And yet you do.
RW: Recently I’ve just been taking to saying them because they’re just so spot on and you can’t really improve on it.
GD: There’s probably the same amount of improv.
RW: I think the writers would like to write for Creed a lot more. I think – my sense is that, you know, Creed works best in some little doses here and there. But I think the writers really get off on how crazy that man’s brain is.
GD: Yeah. That’s definitely a thing about comedy writers – it’s like, you know, if you were to see breakdancers and then they all take turns, you know, spinning more wildly or something. And like what the comedy writers try to do is say the weirdest thing that they possibly can, that makes any sense.
You both mentioned “The Dwight Show” as a horrible spin-off of The Office. I was just wondering, you know, Joey moved from Friends to LA. How would you guys imagine a Dwight spin-off? Would he be on a beet farm? Would it all be in second life? Any ideas?
GD: Well we just joke around upstairs. We talk about the detective agency. Have you heard that, Rainn?
RW: No.
GD: Yeah.
RW: I think it would be like – in the Seventies, what was the one that was at – Dennis Weaver was on a horse and something…
GD: McCloud.
RW: McCloud.
GD: That’s great, I love it.
RW: Yeah. McCloud was a fish-out-of-water cop in New York City and there’s something appealing about that.
GD: I like that. That’s perfect.
RW: There’s something appealing about just watching Dwight going in an opposite direction, not having it be a comedy or a sitcom – but just having it be a reality show about a beet farmer. Kind of like Axe Man – it’s this new hit reality show about lumberjacks. You could just watch a beet farmer.
Rainn, if Dunder Mifflin went on strike what would Dwight do? What would Dwight be doing all this time that Dunder Mifflin was on strike? And when they came back, what would life be like for him again?
RW: Boy, that’s a good question.
GD: Yeah.
RW: If Dunder Mifflin went on strike – you know what Dwight would do? Dwight would join the Pinkertons and he would immediately try and bust the strike. And he’d work for management. He’d go to corporate headquarters and figure out a way to bust up the union – maybe kind of join as a secret – under a different identity and rabble rouse, and be a counteragent. But he would love to join the Pinkertons, wear one of those hats, maybe carry a derringer and be a badass.
Rainn, a quick question about the movie, “The Rocker”. Can you tell us about it? And also, do you have a musical background yourself?
RW: Oh, gosh. Well thanks for asking about my movie. The Rocker stars George Clooney as a heavy metal singer. No it doesn’t. I don’t have George Clooney in my movie. The Rocker is a very funny movie. I saw it and it’s where I play a former heavy metal drummer from an up and coming heavy metal band. And I get kicked out of the heavy metal band right before they make it really big. And then 20 years later, my life has kind of gone nowhere and I get a second shot at fame by joining my high school nephew’s garage rock band. So I wear a nice heavy metal wig and I reveal a lot of my butt crack and my torso. And we rock out and I actually learned to play the drums for the movie. I do have a musical background. I played a lot of musical instruments in high school and in college – and still do. And – but I really enjoyed learning and playing the drums. And it’s a really sweet – if there’s such a thing as a sweet family rock and roll comedy, this is it. It’s kind of like School of Rock with teenagers. But it’s a good deal of fun.
What were those instruments that you grew up playing?
RW: Well I started on piano and then clarinet. And then saxophone and bassoon. And then xylophone or bells and baritone in the pep band. And then guitar.
GD: No tuba?
RW: I played a little bit of tuba. We played baritone. But it was – tuba was too hard.
GD: Like every comedy instrument there is.
RW: Pretty much – yeah, every comic – every clown instrument, I learned – anything having to do with getting a laugh. And then the recorder, oddly enough, for the show The Office where Dwight is – plays recorder and guitar whenever they need some musical accompaniment.
Rainn, what research you did to prepare for your role in The Rocker and how much hair metal was actually in your collection before you took on the role?
RW: Well I – you know, I had a lot of hair metal, you know, growing up in the Eighties. It was kind of inescapable, although I was more of a – kind of punk and new wave fan than a hair metal. But I went to high school at a hair metal high school in Shorecrest – suburban Seattle, and I heard a lot of Rat and Cinderella, and Whitesnake. And, you know, my research was – we had a drum coach who had been in a hair metal band. And this guy – fantastic guy. Stuart Johnson is his name. And when we played the drums, he really had me play in a metal way. He didn’t just teach me the – kind of the, you know, time structures. It was about how a metal drummer sits behind the kit on the throne and how they interact with the crowd, and get the crowd going. And kind of how they used the double bass drum – and, you know, a lot of specifics of – that speak to, you know, a metal drummer. And then I got to go – I went and saw Rush. They’re not really a hair metal band, but I got to see them on their warm-up for their tour and got to meet Neil Peart and – who is probably the greatest drummer of all time. And he let me sit behind his kit and play it. So I was initiated in the world of drumming.
In regards to a couple of your other roles, how do you go from a very quiet mortician to an Eighties metal drummer in The Rocker with Christina Applegate as your love interest?
RW: Yeah. You know, it’s the power of acting. All I’ll say is that, you know, I went to theater acting school where one day you’re playing Hamlet, and then the next day you’re doing a very serious contemporary drama – and then you’re, you know, doing improv. And, you know, I just come from a – you know, I come from a – well just a school of thought that, you know, part of what acting is, is transformation. And you always use yourself – draw on yourself. But, you know, you have the ability to transform into characters and that’s what acting has always been about. And, you know, I’d like – I like playing extreme characters but I like to think that I could also play a more normal guy if I had to. And, you know, that’s how you explain going from a – I mean, if you look at my – just my TV and film stuff that I’ve done, it’s been a lot of, you know, just psychos and superheroes and, you know, uptight guys. And crazy guys.
A little bit more about writing the blogs. Rainn, how did you find writing them?
RW: I loved writing them. As I said, I kind of passed the torch off to one of the writers this year. I just was getting too busy and too much on my plate. And, you know, there’s a lot more press obligations and I’m working on some screenplays and stuff like that. But it was really fun. I – what I would love to find out is I remember Greg, when we were doing that pilot I was kind of writing a Dwight blog on the set and that was a long time ago now – 2004.
GD: Didn’t that become the first Schrute space?
RW: I think it did become the Schrute – first Schrute space. And I think I was the first person to ever do a blog in character from a TV show. I could be wrong. I don’t want to take credit for something that I don’t deserve. But it was very – it was interesting. I think the blog was the perfect outlet for Dwight because blogs are – is probably the – it’s the first terrible creation of the 21st Century. You know, as people write about what movies they rented and what happened when they went to the drycleaners. And I think Dwight would – just loves to hold forth with a captive audience. So blogging was a perfect extension of the character.
GD: I remember before the writers’ strike, the Writers Guild was, you know, doing some kind of outreach to the members and they were saying, you know, one of the things that we should ask for is that all the character blogs need to be written by the writers. And I was like no thank you. You know, please continue to let the actors do their character blogs. But I don’t – I think it is a very rare thing to have the actors do their own blogs. And, you know, it – you can’t do that on every show. And this – one of the things about this show is hiring, you know, very multitalented actors who can improv and can write, and can play seven different comedy clown instruments. And that’s how you get somebody who can, you know, who you – who — me as a show runner — would be very comfortable off on his own blogging in character without me really looking at it.
Rainn, all of the characters in The Office are ridiculous in their own way and yet the setting is very, very real. And the audience has to accept, somehow, that all of these characters could be employed because otherwise the comedy just kind of falls apart without that base. I’m wondering is that a fine line for you to walk because if you make Dwight too ridiculous, then the comedy kind of falls apart? We have to believe that he is employable, too.
RW: Yeah, I was – just the other day I was shooting a scene with Steve and I just had – Greg, you saw part of that scene. You were watching it for a different reason. But all I had to do was like run into Steve’s office and then I ran into Steve’s office – into Michael Scott’s office as Dwight. And I turned to Steve and I was like wow, I just ran into your office like I was a cartoon character. And I was like why am I doing that? This is a documentary about a guy who works in an office, you know, there’s a lot of people working in an office.
GD: I was in the other room listening with all the writers and I don’t know exactly at which run, but Jen Salata said, “Oh my god, just – Rainn just did the funniest run.” And she was saying that was her favorite part of the whole scene.
RW: …run and that’s probably the one you’ll use. But it’s – yeah, you always have to – I always have to – we always do that. We kind of check in with each other and we’ll go oh right, we’re not doing a comedy. Like we can’t – let’s tone down the broadness here and make it more real. And of course, the editors always use the broadest takes that we ever do.
GD: Well the thing is – I also think when you look at the show, you know, when you look at a real office, once you get to know the people who are in the office, you realize how, you know, bizarre they can be. You know, people can be very bizarre. And, you know, and I think that it certainly has been my experience – like I hear, you know – I don’t know, I probably shouldn’t say this. But I remember finding out just about these women that used to work with my mom who were also bikers. And you just – you’re like – you couldn’t write some of the stuff that they were doing because it would just seem too implausible.
RW: Yeah. There was a businessman who came in to watch The Office being filmed and I think he had won it at some auction. It was a friend of a friend of Steve’s or something like that. And this guy was like, he – it’s like Michael Scott came in to watch Michael Scott being filmed. And he was like – he was giving Steve notes. He was giving Steve acting notes. He was giving Steve Carell acting notes. This was guy was like an investment banker who works in an office. And he’s like hey, really great to meet you. I heard you had some stuff – hey, I really liked the take when you did blah, blah. That was funnier than the other take.And it was like right – that’s a “normal” guy who works in an office.
GD: Yeah and when John Krasinski – the very, very beginning of the show to do a little method acting research, he took some friends to Scranton and they filmed the footage that was in – is in our opening sequence and they also filmed a lot of interviews. He went to paper companies. And one of the salesmen at one of the paper companies just started doing some of his voices, his impressions for John. And he had…
RW: And we have it on videotape.
GD: Yeah, and he had like the most politically incorrect impressions. He was just doing, you know, for this videotape. And when we saw that, we were like oh, okay, so this is very, very real, you know.
Greg, you made a couple of interesting tweaks for this season – one, putting Jim and Pam back together. Did you know that that was what you were going to do all along when you broke them up? And the other one is – is bringing in Ryan as – it’s not a villain, at least a new irritant. Were those also looking to the long haul?
GD: Well I don’t really see much more than about a half a season ahead. That’s how far the headlights go on this bus. And so when, you know – Jim and Pam never were together before. This is the first time that they’ve gotten together. They were almost together. And, you know, I don’t – certainly we didn’t have it planned in Season One, what was going to happen to them. And, you know, I know what’s going to happen to them for the next, you know, maybe ten episodes. But that’s about as far as I can see.
And what about Ryan?
GD: Yeah. Well, you know, that’s – I thought of that, you know, some time in Season Three. He seems like a funny statement about corporate America – just how the guy with a business school degree manages to rise.
Will Karen be making any upcoming appearances in the next six episodes or beyond that?
RW: Well I think that she’s – yes, she’s coming back as Dwight’s love interest for the finale, right? Yeah. Please write that in. Thank you.
GD: I think she’s fantastic, too. And we’ll see what happens. We had a nice deal with the people that did the show that she’s currently on to use her in the beginning of this season. And I think we have one more ability to use her as part of this arrangement that they made.
because the season was short, and how did that – how did you guys shorten the storylines to fit into the six remaining episodes? And were some of the stuff – maybe, do you ever carry it on to next season?
GD: Well, you know, like we did – in the very first season, we did six episodes but they ordered seven scripts. So I had written an episode called Pet Day that never aired. And what generally happens is whatever was good from Pet Day got chopped up and used in other episodes just because the ideas were there. And there’s – we have a really fun Christmas episode that we wrote that, you know, is fun right now. But by the time, you know, a year from now if you look back on it, you’ll realize that pieces of it are going to be used, I’m sure. And that’s okay. The process is like very creative and kind of churns, and bubbles and everything until it actually hits the air. And then that’s what happened to this group of people. But there’s, you know, a lot of other footage that the documentary shot that they just threw out for one reason or another.
So The Office and now 30 Rock have these really rabid fan bases yet I can’t really find anybody, with the exception of How I Met Your Mother, who watches the CBS comedies on Monday. And so I was wondering, obviously you need ratings to keep the whole thing going. But what’s sort of more important to you – the loyalty and the buzz or the actual numbers? Or do you just need to find a balance there?
GD: Well, you know, let me – I’m looking now – I’m going to look in my email because somebody sent me an email recently about a new form of ratings called like the content power ratings or something that the…
RW: Yeah, it includes like digital downloads and lots of different aspects of shows. Besides the Nielsen number of eyeballs.
GD: Yeah. We were number six in – of all TV shows in this form of looking at TV shows.
RW: I know like we’re – in the Nielsen’s were like number 30 or 35, or something. We’re pretty far down the list and – but, you know, we’re in the top – I think we’re the number one or number two most TiVo’d show.
And then we’re in the top ten for like advertising rates or something like that, I heard, to buy an ad – in case you were wanting buy an ad for Comcast. So…
GD: Or, you know, just a friend’s birthday – you want to do a shout out or something.
RW: So it’s a different TV landscape. I think that with the Internet and iTunes and digital video recording, and stuff like that – like it just – a show’s impact isn’t just the number of people watching it on the night.
GD: Do you want me to just give you this thing? It’s called – it was a thing called Beyond Nielsen – a New Rating for TV shows – MediaWorks Viewpoint: Optimedia Ranks Programs Based on Audience Involvement. And there’s a guy named Antony Young and he is the President of Optimedia. And this is just an article that somebody forwarded to me. But it said that there’s a new rating system that they’re using called the Content Power Rating and saying that the show’s true market values in terms of audience size, but buzz and appeal, and PR, and involvement, and blogging and stuff. And we were the first comedy on that in the number six thing.
People seem to be more passionate, more involved with your show and it sounds to me like the answer is that that probably means more to you than the raw numbers.
GD: Well certainly if the advertisers start going for this Optimedia rating system, we’re going to be, you know, in like Flynn. But even if they still use the same rating system, I think that the – you know, I think that there is just – it’s like – it’s kind of like college campuses, sort of. You know, it’s like they don’t necessarily count all those people, but, you know, you can find out just anecdotally what they’re watching and they seem to be watching our show a lot. And…
Steve has a notoriously busy schedule. How did the strike affect his availability or did you have to work around anything huge, or anything like that?
GD: Well, you know, I think he was committed to this show for the time that we were supposed to be shooting the show and the strike came out of that time. You know, so we would have had another, you know, maybe eight episodes – or seven or eight episodes if there hadn’t been a strike. But he didn’t – I don’t think he had to cancel any movies or anything.
What would you say to people, who haven’t watched the show or who aren’t sure they’re going to get back in, to entice them to start watching on April 10?
GD: Well I think that you don’t have to have seen the beginning because it’s really about life in an office, and the characters are pretty much based on, you know, real kinds of people. And, you know, and if they tried it in the very beginning and found it too cold or something, you know, that problem has been addressed. You know, and I think that, you know – I don’t know. What do you think, Rainn?
RW: I would say just buy the – the Season One DVD is really cheap because it was only six episodes. I would say go ahead and buy that.
GD: Also, it’s a character comedy and usually to really appreciate a character comedy, you have to know who the characters are. So you really – most people have to watch it one or two – you know, a couple of times before they go oh, that guy is not, you know, supposed to be the normal guy. That guy is saying these weird things because he’s the weird guy, or, you know, whatever it is. You know, you have to kind of figure out where the…
RW: Dwight may look totally normal, but he really is an oddball.
GD: Yeah.
But the rumor of the Dwight spin-off, did you say whether there was any truth to that?
RW: The rumor of the Dwight spin-off was like some – I was at the Tony’s, I think, because I was presenting. And some guy from New York – I think it was like the New York Post. He’s like hey, Rainn, Ben Silverman is in charge at NBC now so what’s next for Dwight. And I – as I walked by I was like I don’t know, I smell a Dwight spin-off. And he goes, can I quote you on that? Can I quote you on that? And I just walked away and then it was like all over TV as this – it’s preposterous.
Can you give us any clues to anything, Greg or Rainn, that’s coming up in the next episode or going forward? Anything?
GD: Well I mean, that’s a very – kind of a charged situation where Michael has been asking Pam and Jim to come have dinner with him and Jan over and over, and over again. And he finally manages this – through this kind of scam, to destroy all their excuses. And it just happens to be after the previous episode which is when he went to New York to try and help Jan with her deposition and he kind of blew her sort of wrongful termination lawsuit. So there’s a lot of tension between them in that episode. And, you know, then, you know, coming up we have some episodes that, you know, follow off on that. Some of them involve the character of Ryan whose website initiative started the season off and is kind of crumbling underneath him and has gotten – for some reason has become like infested with sexual predators. And – which is just one of the problems his website has. And we have episodes coming up where Dwight and Michael are going to have joined Ryan in some of his club-hopping New York partying and, you know, try to – I think get involved in his life a little bit more.
But there’s some cool, weird things happening that I can’t talk about and, you know, you’ll just have to see it to truly enjoy all the twists and turns.
Rainn, what do you think about your own bobblehead? Is it great, is it surreal, what?
RW: I walked by the NBC store in New York and there’s a wall of Dwight bobbleheads in the windows. It’s the number one selling thing in the history of NBC Universal merchandising. And it’s pretty crazy. I feel like Mr. Potato Head, you know. I think in the future the – I will be known not for the character of Dwight, but just for the bobblehead. And I think, you know, after, you know, in the far future humanity — like ten thousand years from now — will like uncover Dwight bobbleheads and think that I was a great leader of men.
GD: Yeah, we’ve actually made them out of a special titanium alloy. It’s more expensive, but we want them to last so that aliens…
RW: Going to last for any kind of apocalypse or anything like that.
Greg, is there another British project or series that you might have your eye on that’s right for adaptation for American audiences?
RW: East Enders, right Greg?
GD: Yeah, Footballer’s Wives. You know, I think it’s probably not for me to do just in terms of my growth as a person. But when Extras came out, I thought that was such a brilliant concept for a show. And, you know, it was very, you know, big here on HBO and everything. So I don’t think they – anyone needs to do an adaptation of it. But what a good follow-up, I though. But I don’t know, you know. I mean, I haven’t heard any great shows from England that are – I’ve heard some great – I’ve heard about some great sketch comedy shows, but I haven’t – I don’t know what the next big English half hour is.
And Rainn, your director Peter for “The Rocker” is British. Did you ever have any conversations with him about particular shows that would be really cool to adapt or work on?
RW: No, I didn’t really talk to him about English comedies. I’ve heard some – god, I’m forgetting the name of one, recently someone told me that I had to watch, that’s really great.
GD: Was it sketch or was it a half hour?
RW: I think it was a half hour on BBC America, but I’m forgetting the name of it. But I’m sure they’re all gobbled up. People, you know, with the success of The Office there’s like anything on the England, you know, airwaves – international air scoured now. I mean, Reveille just bought a show from Peru for god’s sake. You know, they just were like hey, here’s a great idea out of Peruvian television.
GD: Have you seen the Japanese show where it’s the human Tetris?
RW: No, I’ve heard about that.
GD: It’s really funny. You got to go on YouTube and look up human Tetris.
RW: Oh, we got to do an American adaptation because…
GD: Yes, that would be a real fun one to do and I think they did sell the rights already.
– The Office airs on NBC in the U.S. on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
– The Office airs on the GLOBAL network in Canada on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Sir Linksalot: The Office
