TRANSCRIPT
Office Ladies | Episode 248 - An Interview with Gene Stupnitsky & Lee Eisenberg
Jenna [00:00:04] I'm Jenna Fischer.
Angela [00:00:04] And I'm Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [00:00:06] We were on The Office together.
Angela [00:00:07] And we're best friends.
Jenna [00:00:09] And now we're doing the ultimate office lovers podcast just for you.
Angela [00:00:13] Each week we will dive deep into the world of The Office with exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes details, and lots of BFF stories.
Jenna [00:00:21] We're the Office Ladies 6.0.
Angela [00:00:26] Hey there.
Jenna [00:00:27] Hi everybody.
Angela [00:00:28] Happy Wednesday.
Jenna [00:00:29] Happy Wednesday!
Angela [00:00:31] How are you today?
Jenna [00:00:34] Yeah, I'm feeling good.
Angela [00:00:37] You know what I'm gonna do later?
Jenna [00:00:39] What?
Angela [00:00:40] I am going to buy cheese at one of my favorite places to get cheese.
Jenna [00:00:45] Of all the things I thought you were going to say, that did not pop in my mind.
Angela [00:00:51] I love a cheese board.
Jenna [00:00:54] Why are you making a cheeseboard?
Angela [00:00:56] Because my sisters are visiting.
Jenna [00:00:58] Oh okay, that's lovely.
Angela [00:01:00] You know, I wanna set out a little something they can nibble on after a travel day.
Jenna [00:01:04] My new favorite snack is slices of brie cheese on these like seeded Trader Joe's crackers.
Angela [00:01:12] I mean, what's not to love?
Jenna [00:01:14] I know, and then I'll put a few berries on the side. This is my go-to snack.
Angela [00:01:18] On the side, why not put it right on top?
Jenna [00:01:20] A berry?
Angela [00:01:21] What was this reaction? A berry on top of some brie? Am I saying something crazy here?
Jenna [00:01:28] An apple slice? Like a green apple slice on top of your brie on top of your cracker? Sure. But a berry!
Angela [00:01:35] Give me a raspberry on there.
Jenna [00:01:37] A raspberry?
Angela [00:01:37] Why not? Maybe a cranberry?
Jenna [00:01:41] Lady!
Angela [00:01:42] Come on, I eat cranberries and cheese all the time. I brought some. Look, right here. Look at that, cranberries and cheese.
Jenna [00:01:52] The sass we have started with this morning from both of us. Let's tell everyone what we're doing today.
Angela [00:01:58] Well, we have a really fun Office Lady 6.0. We have not one, but two really fantastic guests on.
Jenna [00:02:07] We do. We got to catch up with the amazing office writing team of Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg.
Angela [00:02:17] But before we get to those interviews... I was curious. What were we doing, Jenna, in April 2008 on the set of The Office? Because that is around the time when we filmed one of our guest today's most famous episodes. And since I never delete an email, I can tell you.
Jenna [00:02:32] What?
Angela [00:02:34] This all centers around the week we were doing. Can you guess it? What is one of their most famous episode?
Jenna [00:02:39] I mean, their most episode is probably Dinner Party.
Angela [00:02:41] Yes, Dinner Party! First of all, I got an email from Joya at NBC.com. She wrote me and said, hey, Angela, we saw some dailies from Dinner Party. That episode is going to be fantastic, I can tell already. I have some questions for you to answer. Let me know if you can. I responded, hey we're on location the whole time at this condo, so no computer for me. Can I do this next week? Plus we get home most nights at 10 p.m. and I go straight to bed. So we were working some late nights...
Jenna [00:03:13] I remember that.
Angela [00:03:14] Next up in my digital clutter. I got an email from you. You were planning my baby shower. And I guess I had to come to set late because I had a doctor's appointment. And you sent me an email titled tea party exclamation point. And when I opened it up, it said this lady, you get your wish. Your shower is going to be catered by Paddington's.
Jenna [00:03:37] Oh the best tea house in Los Angeles that has now shut down.
Angela [00:03:41] I know.
Jenna [00:03:42] They had the best chicken salad tea sandwiches on this earth.
Angela [00:03:46] It was just a cute little spot, too. And then you ended your email with, how big is the baby now? Oh, next email was from Chris Haston, Kate's boyfriend. He was on the set of the dinner party taking pictures. And he sent me a really funny photo that he took of me and Rainn between scenes and my big preggers belly. He said, here's one. I've got some more. A smiley face. And I have the picture. Okay. And lady, you and I were doing press for the show. We got an email from NBC publicity saying we would like to do a satellite media tour with Jenna and Angela for the return of the show.
Jenna [00:04:26] Oh, because it was the return after the big break of the writer's strike that year, yeah.
Angela [00:04:32] And it was going to be for dinner party.
Jenna [00:04:33] Oh boy.
Angela [00:04:34] You and I were going to start at 7 a.m. And go till 10 a. M. Talking about the show. Okay. Next email was from me to you. I guess your mom had sent me these fuzzy flip-flops. So I sent you a picture and I said, please pass this pic onto your mom. A thank you card is on the way. I love my flips. Oh. I was very pregnant in the picture. Finally, Greg sent out an email to the cast and crew. He said he would like to do farewell for Kent Zbornak. Greg had gotten him a Rolex and had it engraved on the back. Kent, good times. Love, the office.
Jenna [00:05:07] Oh, that's so lovely.
Angela [00:05:09] There's a little picture into our lives the week we filmed Dinner Party.
Jenna [00:05:14] Well, we talked to Gene and Lee a lot about Dinner Party.
Angela [00:05:16] We did.
Jenna [00:05:17] And it's a good convo.
Angela [00:05:19] They are so interesting to talk to their point of views about all of it. Oh my gosh, I loved it. So you guys Gene and Lee joined the office in season two and they wrote the biggest hit episodes of of the show.
Jenna [00:05:31] That's right. They wrote The Fight, The Secret, Michael's Birthday, The Convention, Traveling Salesman, The Return, Women's Appreciation, and Dinner Party.
Angela [00:05:44] Job fair, weight loss, the surplus, new boss, the lover, Scott's totts, and the cover up.
Jenna [00:05:54] They also directed Michael Scott Paper Company and The Lover. And they made cameos as Gino and Leo from Vance Refrigeration. And, you know, in addition to their work on The Office, they also co-created, wrote, and executive produced HBO's Hello Ladies with Stephen Merchant. It's great. Yeah. And they worked on other series like Trophy Wife. They worked on Bad Teacher, both the movie and the television show, and Smilf.
Angela [00:06:23] And look, they've gone on both to be showrunners and written on several TV shows and movies separately, but they reunited in 2023 to co-create Jury Duty.
Jenna [00:06:33] Oh, it's so good.
Angela [00:06:33] It's so good. It's a critically acclaimed miniseries. It won a Peabody Award for its innovative blend of comedy and reality storytelling.
Jenna [00:06:42] Well, listen, we just love this interview. We kind of just went through their episodes and we also got some new insights into how the writing process worked on the show.
Angela [00:06:52] So let's take a quick break and when we come back, it's Gene and Lee. Hello? Gene and Lee? Hey guys!
Gene [00:07:08] Hello?
Angela [00:07:09] Welcome to Office Ladies, we're so thrilled to have you here today. This is so fun. Gene, I haven't seen you in forever. Lee, the last time I saw you, we ran into each other at the same dinner spot.
Angela [00:07:25] I haven't seen you guys in so long. I mean, Lee, I do have a Nuve bed cover on my bed. We'll get to that.
Lee [00:07:30] I'm very excited to discuss.
Angela [00:07:32] That you sent me. And Gene, I said this before we got on the mic. You look exactly the same to me. So I don't know what kind of magic potion. Bless your heart.
Gene [00:07:42] It's called a filter.
Angela [00:07:43] That's my line, it's called the filter. Jenna, why don't you kick us off with the first question.
Jenna [00:07:49] Well, you know, we normally ask people how they got their job on the office, and that is one of our questions, but we wanna back it up and ask, how did you two meet and become writing partners?
Lee [00:08:00] Gene, you wanna take this?
Gene [00:08:01] We met on the, not on the set, but on the office of the film Be Dazzled, Harold Ramis, who was a director, obviously, on the Office as well. And Lee was an Office PA, and I was an intern. I had just moved to LA, and I think we had just moved to L.A. a few months before that. And we became friends, and we didn't immediately start writing together. Uh, but we were friends and, um, and both wanted to be writers. I think you were, you're writing drama at the time, right?
Lee [00:08:31] I was, I was writing very serious drama at the time.
Jenna [00:08:34] Very serious drama. Please elaborate, please.
Lee [00:08:36] There's only one kind of drama and it's very serious.
Jenna [00:08:38] Give us a nugget.
Lee [00:08:40] The first show that I ever got hired on was JAG, the military courtroom drama.
Angela [00:08:45] Yeah. Yeah.
Lee [00:08:46] That's pretty serious drama.
Angela [00:08:47] That is high stakes.
Lee [00:08:49] And then I was fired, I think, like, maybe four weeks in, maybe six weeks in.
Jenna [00:08:57] Were you given a reason for your firing?
Lee [00:09:02] Where to begin? Well, I I was so intimidated by uh, I was like how do these people write like military courtroom stuff? Like so I basically just like googled all like the acronyms so that like my scripts would look like um, You know that I like was in the military and had been a lawyer in the military and then the first note I got was like they couldn't they couldn't follow anything because like I had all these acronyms that they didn't know existed um, it was not a uh respectfully to anyone who worked on that show, I did not find it, now with like the benefit of hindsight, it was not a particularly well-run show. I don't think it really supported or lifted up young voices. And also to be fair to them, I probably was not quite the right fit for it, based on where my career went from there, from that moment.
Jenna [00:09:47] So you guys started writing together and was The Office your first job as writing partners?
Lee [00:09:54] We sold a pilot to Fox a few months before we got on the office. And that became our sample that Greg read and Teri Weinberg and all the folks at Reveille had read. And that was basically, we decided to write a show loosely based on us. And then we decided to not make it characters named Lee and Gene who were losers who lived together who were codependent writers. So we basically took all of that except changed their names to Lonnie and Gordo and made them magicians, but everything else was the same. They were codependent losers who lived together. And that became the sample that got us started on the office.
Angela [00:10:30] And maybe also became Leo and Gino.
Lee [00:10:33] We don't have a lot of range. It goes from Lee and Gene to Lonnie and Gordo to Leo and Gido.
Angela [00:10:39] So when you guys came in to meet on the office, did you meet with Greg? Cause a lot of people have shared with us their first meetings with Greg. And I'm so curious if you had one.
Gene [00:10:48] We met with Teri first, and then we met with Greg, and we met him in Westwood, I think.
Lee [00:10:53] Yeah, like a coffee shop in Westwood.
Gene [00:10:56] And in my mind, I didn't know what he looked like, but I thought he'd be wearing a cowboy hat, I think because of King of the Hill or something. I don't know why. I was like, he doesn't look anything like what I expect him to look like. And our agent told us, it'll probably be a long meeting. He does long meetings. And it was, it was a couple of hours, two to three hours.
Angela [00:11:12] That is what we have heard from folks and that the conversation goes kind of all over the place.
Gene [00:11:18] Yeah. No, he's, I mean, he is very thoughtful. You got a sense of how his brain worked and, you know, nothing gets past him and he has a lot of questions. And he had a notebook with him. Lee said something about us writing from theme. Which wasn't even true. Yeah, it was something we had heard and like, we kind of parroted it, parroted, it and Greg got really excited. And, and he's like, look, I just wrote that in my notebook, right from theme.
Lee [00:11:43] No, no, no. It was actually like his notebook was like, it's what I imagine the Unabomber's notebook would have looked like it was really like every pages is filled and Harold Ramis had always talked about writing from theme Jean and I, I would say, had not up until that point written from theme. And so he's like, What did you learn from Harold Ramis. What did we learn from Harold? Like, and I was like, how to smoke weed? Like, I said, Harold always writes from theme and Greg's eyes lit up. And then he flipped to the page and in all block letters on the top, it said, theme is important. Yeah. Which I think is a very funny thing to see.
Angela [00:12:22] Can you share with our listeners what does it mean to write from theme?
Lee [00:12:26] Writing from theme is like, you want to explore jealousy. You want to a mother-daughter dynamic. You know, it's the haves and the have-nots. It's kind of like writing from an idea. And then writing from character would be like, oh, I think it'd be really funny if there was a character who was the manager of an office. And then, and he could be funny because of X, Y, and Z. I would say Seinfeld has no theme. Seinfeld is just purely character comedy.
Angela [00:12:56] That is so interesting to me, and it made it into Greg's book, the spiral that he carries around. But then you guys actually joined the staff in season two.
Gene [00:13:05] Yeah, I mean, we were, when we were living together, we would first we watched the British office. And we were huge fans of that. And then we saw season one. And we were a huge fans and that we're really impressed and how how you guys pulled it off because we did not like everyone else. We did not have high expectations for the American version because we love the British one so much. And I mean how could it be good? And we saw the pilot actually, right? Yeah, we Highlight and not even like a final cut. We had a friend who worked at NBC who showed us the pilot, I couldn't believe it. And then we watched the first season, you know, every week, it was like six episodes and it was just fantastic. I mean, we couldn't belief it. And then after we met with Greg, we got a call from our agent and we were offered the office with no guarantee that we'd be able to write a script. Just, I think it was eight episodes or something.
Lee [00:13:56] It was six episodes for The Office with like six backup scripts. Like if you counted the number of writers and it felt like pretty, we were gonna be one of the backup scripts.
Gene [00:14:05] And then we're a full season on an animated show on Fox, one of those animations.
Lee [00:14:10] American Dad, which has been on for 30 years.
Angela [00:14:12] So you had to pick American Dad, which had a long, long shelf life possibilities, right? Or kind of take a risk on this show that only had a six episode pick up for the first season.
Lee [00:14:23] And there was one more show in the midst. Do you remember, Gene?
Gene [00:14:27] Was it a John Stamos show?
Lee [00:14:28] Jake in Progress.
Gene [00:14:29] That's right. With John Stamos.
Lee [00:14:32] That's correct.
Gene [00:14:33] Yeah. Real sliding doors moment for us.
Jenna [00:14:36] But guys, you had three offers to choose from. I mean, we know how talented you guys are, but that is not usual for writers to have like three different job offers at the beginning of a new television season.
Gene [00:14:53] This was after five years of abject failure.
Jenna [00:14:57] This was your year!
Lee [00:14:59] The year before we got hired on The Office, and Gene, you can correct me on the number, I don't like to talk about money because it's tacky, but Gene declared, I believe, $8,000 in earnings the year before he was hired on the office.
Gene [00:15:10] Yeah, I think it was like...$7,000. Yeah, but I remember my account was like, okay, let me get your tax returns from last year. It's like taxes. I was like what do you mean? Never paid taxes. And then so, you know, it was not even a question, even though it was going to be a guaranteed full season of this other show that had been running for a long time. We didn't even hesitate. We knew we wanted to be on the office, even if it was only going to be six episodes. It was a no brainer.
Angela [00:15:33] And then your very first episode was the fight. And I was looking up the best Jim Dwight pranks, and this opener is listed in every list where people love this prank where Jim puts Dwight's desk in the bathroom. But it's so funny, fans love it. Time Magazine did a list of all the best Jim pranks that one makes it on there. What a fun episode to have be your first episode.
Lee [00:16:00] It was, I actually just re-watched it, Gene. It's really, I was really proud of it. It was really, it was very, it fun. It was so, you know, we wrote that episode, the entire first season of the, I would say like maybe the first, season two, season three, I was convinced we were gonna get fired, I think like probably until maybe like, maybe until dinner party, I thought, like every, and maybe even past dinner party. I just, I always waiting to be fired, Gene was too. And so when we wrote the fight, Greg had pneumonia. And so, Everyone kind of got sent off to write their scripts and we kind of like, we were sent off with like as little information as like one could be sent off with to write an outline. And certainly for your first episode, it had kind of Jag vibes to it. And so we wrote this outline and we went to Greg's house to get notes. Like, cause Greg couldn't come into the office.
Angela [00:16:50] He was that sick.
Gene [00:16:51] Yeah, pretending to be that sick.
Lee [00:16:53] Yeah, exactly. And so we went to Greg's house and I remember Greg teaching us about subtext because we were like, that like Jim and Pam, like Jim probably said something like, I really like you.
Angela [00:17:06] It was like, Hey, you might want to dial that back.
Lee [00:17:08] Sometimes when someone you know has an interest in someone else they sometimes without saying it you get a sense of how they feel,right? Oh interesting. Okay, that's why we're both single.
Gene [00:17:19] I was like, you can like someone and not tell them?
Lee [00:17:22] And so we ended up doing a rewrite on the outline and ended up writing the first draft. But the entire time I was like, oh, they're setting us up to fail. This is their excuse. We're gonna write a terrible draft of the script and then everyone knows that we don't belong on the show and then we'll get fired. And then it was like of course, that's like where things are headed.
Jenna [00:17:37] That did not happen.
Angela [00:17:38] Did not happen!
Jenna [00:17:39] The fight is awesome.
Angela [00:17:40] And you guys wrote so many great episodes before Dinner Party.
Gene [00:17:43] Telling you, letting you into our mind.
Angela [00:17:45] Yeah.
Gene [00:17:46] I will say, I wasn't as worried that we were gonna get fired, but I do remember we wanted to leave the show early on. We called our agent, we're like, we don't like it here. We wanna go. Everyone was mean to us. And he's like, uh-huh. He's like are you idiots?
Lee [00:18:00] We had been offered a blind script by Fox, we sold that we sold Lonnie and Gordo to Fox, and they offer us a blind script, which means that, you know, they would basically give us money without knowing what the idea was, but we'd have to come up with a story for them and a script. And it was for a lot less money than working on The Office. But yes, people were not nice to us initially. And we were intimidated. We did ask if we could leave.
Jenna [00:18:22] Who wasn't nice to you?
Gene [00:18:23] Well, it's so ironic because the people who weren't nice to me.
Jenna [00:18:26] Name the names or say departments.
Gene [00:18:29] I'm gonna tell you, because there are friends, which is so funny in retrospect, there's BJ and Paul.
Angela [00:18:34] They're your friends now?
Gene [00:18:35] They're my friends now, BJ and Paul, who I talk to all the time and see all the time. But at the time I was, you know how they are. Like if you don't know them, you know, it's kind of, we were the new guys, right? And Jen also started when we did and she's so outgoing and so nice. And, and I mean, she was very nice to us. And uh, but you know kind of like the clicks had formed and we were new kids. And we're just like, you know we don't need this. We can go have a blind script deal with Fox. And so we called, and our agent was like, uh-huh, uh huh. But we're just basically like, you guys are dumb.
Angela [00:19:10] Yeah, go make friends.
Jenna [00:19:13] Can you talk about being on set for that first episode when we were shooting the fight? What do you remember?
Lee [00:19:19] I have two strong memories, well, a few things. The first was we had never been on set before and no one, Greg, I mean, he really empowered writers in an amazing way to produce their own episodes, to be in the production meetings, to be the sound mixes, to be on the edit, all of it. And we learned so much from it and that was like grad school for us. The first day, I don't know what the scene was, but we were shooting and the camera missed something and Gene and I ran in from the little, you know, Greg's office, we ran into set. I went up to the director and said, hey, you missed, the camera missed that thing. And he was, yeah, I saw that too. Okay, great, thanks guys. And then we went back to the office, to our little, video village office. And then the next take, there was something else. We ran back down to set because we, because where are the on-set producers? Because the on set producers like, we have to show our value. So we ran back in and we said, like, hey, you know, can you adjust this or whatever? He said, oh yeah, of course. I was planning on doing that too. Ran back to our thing. And then I think after the third time, someone came to see us. It was Kent Zbornak, who was the producer. He was like, Hey guys, you can't, you can come in on every take. We are seeing what you're seeing. Like when the camera misses the thing, it's not like you guys are eagle-eyed that we didn't see it. So just, you got to let the director have a little, it was also Ken Kwapis who had directed the pilot.
Gene [00:20:37] And he's so sweet and also so good at his job and didn't need us coming in. We just didn't know.
Lee [00:20:43] And so we, so we're kind of instructed that like, give the director, give the actors, like the actors also know that maybe they did, they didn't quite get what they wanted. So like, let everyone have a little bit of space. Let it breathe.
Angela [00:20:51] Let it breathe a little.
Lee [00:20:52] So that was the first thing. And then the other thing was we were shooting the cold open and Dwight's desk is missing and they start kind of rehearsing it. And maybe it's the first take and Greg happens to come down. And he says, why isn't there anything under his desk? There'd be like little, you know, like hole punch, like little-
Angela [00:21:14] Trash, right? Rubber bands, things, yeah.
Lee [00:21:17] And he's like, you guys didn't think of that? And also like, and I was like, oh my God, oh my god, we're like so ill-equipped to do this. How could we not have thought that there'd be like dirt under someone's desk if the desk was moved? So Greg had a set deck, like add stuff. And I was, like, what a genius.
Jenna [00:21:36] That is pretty genius. He thinks of everything!
Gene [00:21:38] In fact, I remember the last time I did see the episode. I remember thinking, oh, look, there's crap underneath his desk. That's good. I don't remember that story. I was like, is that us? That's so funny, that detail.
Jenna [00:21:49] Well, one of my favorite details from that episode is the Ten Rules of Karate that hangs on the wall in the dojo, which I understand you guys wrote that list. And Lee, you have that poster.
Lee [00:22:02] I think it's in my garage. That poster was in our office for a long time. That was a real delight to write. So I did karate growing up, and I was in the Junior Olympics, no big deal. Hey. Hey.
Jenna [00:22:12] You were in the Junior Olympics for karate?
Lee [00:22:14] I was, yeah.
Jenna [00:22:15] Wow!
Lee [00:22:16] I got my ass kicked by an Oklahoman, as I recall. But anyway, so kind of like being in a dojo was a lot of my childhood. And so when Greg said, hey, there's a list of rules, Gene and I had a lot fun with that.
Jenna [00:22:28] Do you guys have any other things that you took as keepsakes from your time on the office?
Lee [00:22:33] Oh, like, hold on one second.
Gene [00:22:36] I wonder what he's going to bring.
Lee [00:22:39] Now, I've said that and now I don't know if I can find it. I have...
Gene [00:22:42] Oh, I know what you're gonna bring.
Lee [00:22:43] I have the mallard.
Angela [00:22:45] You have the mallard?
Lee [00:22:47] Wait, I, like, literally...
Angela [00:22:48] That Dwight used to spy with? Oh, that's a good one.
Lee [00:22:53] Oh, that's so weird. It must have gotten moved.
Angela [00:22:56] You have to promise me you'll find it and take a picture of it, with the mallard, please. That's amazing. What about you, Gene? Did you take any-
Gene [00:23:03] I know I have nothing. I wish I had stolen a bunch of they'll be worth so much now. I have I have nothing. And no, I said my memories and those are fading quickly. So soon I'll have nothing.
Angela [00:23:14] Well, I think NBC is still selling stuff off, so you could probably get something. Greg shared with us that he bought Pam's front reception desk from the NBC auction.
Gene [00:23:24] Oh my god.
Angela [00:23:25] And it's in his production office. It's in production office, yeah.
Gene [00:23:29] That's hilarious.
Angela [00:23:31] I mean. I want to go see it.
Jenna [00:23:33] I do too.
Gene [00:23:33] That's really funny.
Angela [00:23:33] You have to go to see it, that would be wild, Jenna, if you do. So your second episode was The Secret, and it had that famous cold open, the up dog. It's so funny. I just watched it this morning, and when Michael can't deliver, when he goes around trying to do the updog to everybody, and then finally Dwight takes the bait and he can't remember how to finish it. His performance is so great. But Jenna and I were, we found out that that's sort of based on something that happened to you guys.
Gene [00:24:01] Oh, so, um, the year that I made $7,000, I made the money I made. It was from being a nanny and, uh, like going on vacation, you know, with this family that, um that I knew---
Angela [00:24:14] You traveled with them to watch the kids on their vacation.
Gene [00:24:16] Oh, yeah, exactly. I think I'd been fired. I was always getting fired as an assistant. I'd be fired and I went with them somewhere. And one of the kids did it to me. And I was like, oh, and actually that would happen a lot. You know, like one of the other kids, you know, I was complaining about something and they're like, Oh, why don't you go call the Wambulance? And I would just any of those little things would, you know all the times end up in the show. So up dog, they did to me and I was oh, okay, started that away. And that's what it was.
Lee [00:24:45] Just to continue on the theme of me being convinced that we were gonna get fired. So the secret, for whatever reason, we fell behind in the writer's room and we got like, we had to break the secret in like, I remember it was like me and Gene and Mike, Mike Schur and we broke it like in a, like a day or something. And it was a pretty big episode.
Angela [00:25:06] Wow.
Lee [00:25:08] And Gene and I went off to write, I think we wrote it in like three or four days, which was way shorter than, but like we needed a draft because there was a table read and you know, whatever the thing was.
Gene [00:25:16] We always thought we were being set up to fail.
Lee [00:25:19] Yeah, I was like, Oh, of course, like.
Angela [00:25:21] The great writer's room conspiracy.
Lee [00:25:24] I also, now having been a showrunner, the idea that all that Greg was thinking about was how to f*** with these staff writers and make his show worse. What a weird decision. No, but so anyways, we got such a short amount of time to write it that we were like, oh, we're screwed. And I remember calling Mike to say, can we do, like on the board of the writer's room, there are all the kind of the index cards with all the different storylines or potential storylines. And spring cleaning was one of them. And it was gonna be like a big, you know, it could have potentially been its own episode. And I was like, can we take spring cleaning for the secret? We're desperate. And he was like, okay, you can do it. And we're like, oh my God. And so we put spring cleaning into the secret last minute because we just like needed something. We needed a B story.
Angela [00:26:09] You know, a lot more of it's in the super fan episode. It starts with like Dwight, he comes in with all of these different size trash bins and he's just unloading all these trash bins and he is whistling the song Tequila. But when he gets to Tequila, he goes, Spring cleaning! Na na na na, na na. So, it definitely has a bigger presence in that version.
Lee [00:26:32] It's really funny.
Jenna [00:26:32] I have a tangential story about Greg Daniels thinking that I was purposely tanking an episode of The Office. So I don't know. Now when I'm hearing this, I'm like, is this not like a writer thing where like there's some neurosis in writers that makes them think that like people are conspiring to make their work bad, I don't know. So it was that episode, The Delivery, and there was this scene where Pam was supposed to be singing to baby Cece, who wouldn't nurse. And I was supposed to be saying things like, in that way where you're talking to a baby, but you're saying like, you stupid little baby, I can't stand you and why won't you just nurse with your stupid little mouth. And you're dumb crying. It was like something like that, where I was supposed to be like kind of insulting the baby as like a coping mechanism for the fact that I was so tired and I couldn't nurse. And you guys, I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it, like I just did not have it in me to say mean things to this little newborn baby that they handed me on the set. And I tried and tried and tried it. And it was the only time that Greg ever called my manager. My manager agents, they all called me on the phone and they were like, we just received a phone call from Greg Daniels and he's very upset.
Lee [00:28:02] Oh my god.
Jenna [00:28:04] He said that you purposely did a bad job today because you didn't like the scene where Pam is singing to the baby. And I was like, what? I didn't. And basically it was just Greg calling to say that I was horrible. Basically, you were horrible in this scene. You were like so bad that the only thing I can come up with is that you are trying to make this out of the episode. Yes, sabotage. So I had to go to Greg and be like, Greg, honestly, it's just that this is beyond my range as an actor. Like I don't have it, I don't have it in me. And we set it up and he made me reshoot it. And he came to set and was like trying to get me to do it. And then after that, he's like, okay, Jenna, I see you're really trying. We'll just change it, you can't do it, you can't do it! I said, Greg, I can't do it!
Gene [00:29:02] I have to say, it's kind of a compliment to your acting that he thought you could do it and chose not to.
Jenna [00:29:08] I guess I'll take it as a compliment, but it's.
Gene [00:29:11] That's wild.
Jenna [00:29:12] It's so nuts that like...
Lee [00:29:15] Can I say, I remember this so well, so in The Secret, there's a scene with you and John in the kitchen. And he says, I told Michael that I had a crush on you, but I don't anymore. And you say, so you're gonna be weird around me now? And you did this thing with your eyebrows. And I remember, it's like a micro act. It is like, and I remember it like when we, I remember when we shot it, when we were now safely in our video village or we didn't correct everything. That was happening and I was like that's the best acting I'd ever seen like literally it was incredible like it was so small it's so subtle and it like I felt so much from it it was just like again at that point I guess we had learned a little bit of subtext and just the scene of like how much was unspoken between the two of you and what I was feeling from what you're emoting with just with your eyes it was like it took my breath it was the first time it was the first I worked on the show because it was also it wasn't a comedic scene and it was like just being comfortable in a scene that like was just about Jim and Pam and was like a proper romantic scene and the will they won't they of it and I was blown away by your acting. I didn't call your manager at the time and say that you did a great job, but I think I maybe told you at the time. I hope I did.
Jenna [00:30:27] Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Lee [00:30:29] I remember you sobbing, Video Village.
Jenna [00:30:33] I had pulled a clip of my favorite scene from The Secret. It's in the break room. And it's when Michael has just found out that he's the only person who knows that Jim has secret feelings for Pam. And he's trying to talk to Jim about it, even though Jim doesn't wanna talk about it. And then Stanley walks in and everybody listen to it. This is my favorite scene.
CLIP [00:31:00] Michael: Hey, what you getting?Jim: I'm going with grape .Michael: Ah, good stuff. Good stuff. See the game last night? Jim: Which game? Michael: Any of them. So what's 411? Any updates on the P situation? Jim: I don't know any... Michael: P.A.M. No, it's OK. We're talking code. Listen, Stan, you know how long does it take you to pick out a soda? Jim: I'm gonna take off, actually. Michael: Alright, well. Peach iced tea. You're gonna hate it.
Jenna [00:31:43] There's so many things in that and then Michael for the rest of the episode like puts his hair down like Jim drinks grape soda.
Gene [00:31:51] Yeah. I think that was a Steve improv. You're going to hate it. It's so funny just him trying to be cool. Anytime he tried to be cool with Jim or with Ryan, it just makes me laugh.
Angela [00:32:05] It's just very like dude bro, like love. Yeah. I wanted to ask you guys about Michael's birthday because we hardly ever went on location, you know, and then you have like this dojo in the fight and then Michael's Birthday, we go to this ice rink. And I remember it was sort of a big deal. There was a stunt guy that did all these pirouettes and then it would cut to Oscar as if it was Oscar doing all of them. And I remembered he came up to me and. He wanted to teach me a trick. I said, like, this is whatever. This is a random thing that never made it in the episode. But Matt captured all this content of me skating with this guy that's supposed to look like Oscar, who kind of tossed me and like held me in the air up high. It lives somewhere. I don't know where, but that was such a fun episode. And of course, you know, Steve's wife, Nancy is in that one. What memories do you have from that episode?
Lee [00:32:58] I remember the suit that Michael was wearing, like a birthday suit. It's like so it's like shiny.
Angela [00:33:04] It's pinstriped too.
Lee [00:33:05] Yeah, he's like so proud of it and then also he gets lifted up on the chair kind of like horror style. His head goes through the thing and I remember there was actually like, Steve was like, I think they went a little too high and like dust was coming down and stuff that it was like, it was a quote unquote a stunt. I remember seeing Steve ice skate for the first time and be like, oh wow, that's kind of wild. What a cool thing that Michael Scott's great at something.
Jenna [00:33:28] Yeah, there's this great runner of talking heads in the episode where Michael is describing his worst birthdays.
Lee [00:33:36] Amazing.
Jenna [00:33:36] And he's comparing them to this birthday. And there's a third one that made it into the super fan episode. I asked Sam if he would pull these talking heads of Michael's worst birthdays.
CLIP [00:33:50] Michael: When I was seven, my mother hired a pony and a cart to come to my house for all the kids. And I got a really bad rash from the pony. And all the kid got to ride the pony and I had to go inside and my mother was rubbing cream on me for probably three hours and I never came outside. And by the time I got out, the pony was already in the truck and around the corner. So that was my worst birthday. When I was 16, I was supposed to go out on a date with a girl named Julie. But there was another Michael in the class that she apparently thought the date was with. So she went out with him on my birthday. She got him a cake at the restaurant. And it wasn't even his birthday, but I heard about it the next day in school. So that was the worst birthday I think I ever had. On my 20th birthday, my supposed best friend, Sam Ambrose, ditched me for his twin sister's sweet 16 party. And that was my worst birthday. Until today.
Lee [00:35:11] You know, it's so funny, Sam Ambrose. That's our friend, Sam Handel, and Lauren Ambros, the actress, are married, so we named the character Sam Ambrose. But that's one of those examples where we spent probably hours and hours trying to figure out how to do the talking head for Michael's worst birthday, and then Steve Carell improvised those things. We're like, hey Steve, just do your worst birthday and just came up with those things, and those end up in the episode. He's so, he's so incredible.
Gene [00:35:42] These are the moments though, you know, sometimes writers don't like actors and sometimes writers love actors. And this is one of those moments when it's just like, oh, wow, you made it better than we could. We're still gonna get the credit and you made the episode better and it's funnier and you solved it.
Angela [00:36:06] I would love to ask you guys which character on The Office that you found was your favorite to write for. I mean, obviously I know Michael was like such an amazing character, but were there other characters that you would look forward to writing things for?
Lee [00:36:19] There's definitely some, the Toby Pam stuff was small, but I was just rewatching it and like, it's so, Paul, the way you guys both are for it is amazing, but just like a guy who is in love with, it's like the eighth story on the show, but he leaves. He's like, I need to go get a camera and then I want to get a picture of the two of us. And then she's like oh, I don't have a camera. And then he's like. Does anybody have a camera! And then he like runs off, that really made me laugh. I mean, like the bench of actors was so deep. I don't know, I mean there's amazing Ed stuff. I can't think of anyone I wasn't excited to write for. I mean it just really depended, I guess, probably on the story or whatever it was. It was just, it was so fun.
Gene [00:37:06] You don't realize at the time, but you're spoiled. There's so many weapons that you can go to, and that's not normal on a show. So it was endless. It was amazing.
Angela [00:37:19] Was there ever anything that you pitched that never got to see the light of day that you were like, oh, I wish we had gotten to write that one story?
Gene [00:37:27] We, we worked really hard. We called it the premonition. It was with Erin and it was, she had this premonitions that someone from the office on the drive home was going to get in a car accident and die and she wouldn't let anyone leave. And then, uh, we just couldn't break it. We could not figure out like.
Lee [00:37:46] Well, yeah, it was it was basically that but that you know, somebody says that and like most people roll their eyes because it's like, okay, this---
Gene [00:37:52] And you're right, she's been right before this happened before.
Lee [00:37:54] And that she's been right before and so basically the office is split like Jim and Pam, like Pam won't leave and Jim wants to leave and like it basically was that like half the office believes that Erin, what if Erin's telling the truth and that or not telling the truth? But that if she can see the future and then the other half doesn't but it was just it kind of became one of those things were like the premise of it was so fun and we got down the road on it, but we never quite it wasn't a soft slate that we never quit cracked it.
Angela [00:38:19] I love that. And I do think that Pam would want to stay just based on the fact that Pam believes in ghosts. And like Jim's like, why do you believe in ghosts? Who are you?
Lee [00:38:28] Gene and I also, we wrote a ton of talking heads. I get on it, some of them maybe got shot, some of the didn't. I think like all the writers kind of had like different, slightly like for Michael, it's like Michael was a circle and people kind of like had their own little like lanes. It was all kind of still within the character. And I think we wrote kind of like the saddest most pathetic version of him often. And so a lot, we had a lot of stuff with like Michael's like Michael went to his prom, but he was the limo driver. And he was playing cards or dice with the other limo drivers and they convinced him to go in. And then there's another thing with Todd Packard. It was a lot of, just Michael went somewhere and he got beat up and it was in the papers. Remember that one, Gene? Yeah, yeah. Todd Packer convinced him. Yeah. Yeah. But it was like, yeah, we shot it, yeah.
Gene [00:39:13] It's true, though, like different writers wrote different Michael's like Mike Schur is Michael's almost in some ways the most noble version of Michael. Like when you were just hoping he would like pull out a win, you would do the right thing. And then he did in his own weird way. But he did that. I feel like Mike wrote the best version of Mike, the best person. And like Mindy wrote, Michael is kind of like he was in love with Ryan and was trying to I don't know what it just was like very into Ryan or Jim in some ways. But yeah, everyone kind of had a different Michael.
Angela [00:39:45] That is fascinating. Oh, Jinx. You know, you guys wrote something for me that was so much fun to play, and I've never really, I don't really think I've ever told you how much fun I had doing it. It's in New Boss with Idris Elba, and Angela and Kelly clearly thinks, like he's the bee's knees, and it's pouring rain, and I go and get that scarf, and we're fighting to give the scarf, and then I have this talking head, I have all this mascara that's like, streaming down my cheeks, and it was so much fun. I mean, I normally am just sort of the sour gal in the back corner, and to just have that much fun to play in an episode, anyway, I just loved it. I don't know if I ever thanked you guys for that great scene.
Gene [00:40:32] It's really fun when a character is kind of, you think you know who someone is and then you find a new color on that character. It's always the most fun.
Lee [00:40:41] I think like, when we first got to the show, I was so blown away by the way that the room was approaching Dwight. Cause I think Dwight, like on the surface, you think he's like, oh, he's this guy. And he's robotic and he's anal. And he like, all he wants to do is please Michael. And then it's like oh no, like Dwight like the ladies love Dwight a certain type of lady loves Dwight and you know what I mean? And he loves like the music he loves. Like, I don't know, like he was so much rounder as the character in such a great way than I like imagined as a fan of like the first season.
Jenna [00:41:12] You guys wrote two of the cringiest episodes of The Office. One that people love to watch more than any episode and one that sometimes people avoid when they re-watch. We've gotten a lot of mail. There's one people are like, I have to skip it. I have skip it. So of course the first one is Dinner Party. My God, you guys, you wrote Dinner Party?
Angela [00:41:38] People know every line. People know that episode. It is so wild.
Gene [00:41:43] That's an example of finding another color to our character. So the scene where Jim tries to leave Pam at the dinner party, that's like a, cause Jim was always noble and you know, just Jim and Pam, they love each other. But we all know in life, in reality, things don't always go that way. And sometimes you have to be a little bit selfish.
Lee [00:42:03] Mike Schur never would have let Jim leave.
Gene [00:42:05] Yeah. But, Lee, but Lee and Gene...
Lee [00:42:07] Like, all right, we're out. I'm out of here.
Angela [00:42:09] I'm bouncing.
Gene [00:42:11] This is the arc of our not understanding subtext to overusing subtext, where it's like, there won't be another party, you know, there's only, you now, or whatever. So we went the other way with it. But yeah, that's an example of throwing another side of the character.
Jenna [00:42:27] Have you seen the Peacock Superfan of Dinner Party?
Gene [00:42:31] I have not.
Jenna [00:42:32] All of the scenes are just a little bit more.
Angela [00:42:34] It's so fantastic. I mean, you know, I obviously like some of the episodes as they aired originally, that's how I want to remember them. But I think because we love dinner party so much, we went and watched the super fan one and it is, it's delicious.
Gene [00:42:48] I remember the most painful moment maybe of my creative life was trying so hard to show the extended version. Cause remember they were doing those, what were they called? That season.
Angela [00:42:58] Like super-sized episode.
Gene [00:43:00] Super-sized, yeah. And I know it was just the timing wasn't right, but I always thought the best version of Dinner Party was the one that was slightly-.
Lee [00:43:06] Like 27 minutes, yeah?
Gene [00:43:07] Yeah, exactly 27 minutes. And that killed me that we had to cut stuff out.
Angela [00:43:12] Well, you should go watch the super fan just like, you know, just for fun, because I think a lot of those moments that you loved and wanted in are back in.
Lee [00:43:20] Can I tell a dinner party anecdote? So The Secret we wrote in three days or four days and Dinner Party was the opposite. Gene and I were staying in New York together, obviously, and it was kind of like a break. So we had, I think, like a month off from the show between seasons and everyone was assigned a script. And the road was competitive and like, you know, you wanted to kind of have like, you wanted it to have the best episodes. So we worked really, really hard. We had some feature work we were supposed to be doing and we spent, I thinks, three weeks writing Dinner Party and we handed the script and we were really happy with it.
Gene [00:43:53] Hold on, we spent three weeks writing Dinner Party when we should have been working on a movie script. Yeah, people were paying us to write.
Lee [00:43:59] Correct, correct. Yeah, absolutely. So basically, you know, you're sitting in the writer's room and the other writers are reading your script in front of you. And if you like a joke, you check it and if you don't, you kind of like mark an X. And you hear people laugh or not laugh. And so you're just kind of like, you are sitting in a room as all of these people that you really like and respect. At this point, they're our friends, not our enemies. And we're sitting there, and you hear someone go, huh? And you're like, what page are you on? What's that laugh? And You're just desperate to hear what people are responding to.
Jenna [00:44:28] Wait, I have to stop you because I never heard this before. Wait, so you sit around a conference table and you just like read it to yourself though, not out loud. Everyone's just like reading your script in the same room. That would give me heart palpitations.
Lee [00:44:41] It's the worst and so some people go to their office some people would like sit on the couch.
Angela [00:44:45] But you know, it's all happening at the same time. They've all gone off.
Lee [00:44:47] Yeah, because we have to like, hey, everyone read Dinner Party. And then in 45 minutes, let's sit around the table and let's start talking about how we're going to rewrite it or whatever.
Jenna [00:44:56] Oh my gosh, OK, go on, go on. That's so stressful.
Lee [00:44:59] We're getting some laughs, but it's pretty tense. And then we also had sent it into the network. And we get on a call. So the writer's room, I was like, people seem to like it. But I was kind of disappointed by the reaction, because I thought we had done a nice job. So then we get onto the phone with the network, so it's me, Greg, and Gene are in Greg's office. And I can't remember who was on from the network and they say, hey, so we got a chance to read Dinner Party, what a fun script.
Gene [00:45:24] It was Teri.
Lee [00:45:25] It was Teri. What a fun script. And Greg says, oh, thank you. And she goes, it's pretty dark. And Greg goes, yeah. And it doesn't say anything else. And then she goes you know, it's pretty dark, and Greg goes yeah. And then and she goes it's, pretty dark and Greg says yeah. Oh my gosh. And then he goes, okay do you have anything else? And then, she was so flustered and she says no and he goes okay thanks and hung up. And Greg just didn't want, like that was the first indication that Greg really liked the script, that, like, he just didn't give them any...
Angela [00:46:00] He didn't take the bait, no conversation.
Lee [00:46:03] He said, oh, he didn't say, oh let us look at it. We're going to pull back.
Gene [00:46:06] This was at a time also, Greg was arguably the most powerful person at NBC. The office was the biggest show they had. They did not have a lot going on, especially with comedies. Maybe they also had 30 rock, but he also had Parks and Rec. It was about to get going. So no one could really tell him no. Wow. Which was great for us.
Lee [00:46:24] And then the table read of Dinner Party, again, we thought like the script was pretty good and it started and the cold open of Dinner party is, there's some good jokes in it, but like it's a little bit of a slow burn until you get to the actual dinner, to the condo. And I remember sitting there and I was like, oh my God, like I thought this was a good script. And like, there weren't any laughs for the first few minutes. And I was, like, we're gonna get fired. And then, the table we just kept building.
Angela [00:46:47] Yes, that's my memory too.
Lee [00:46:49] And building and it was just like, people couldn't get their lines out. And of course I wasn't able to enjoy it, but I was told afterwards that it went well. Also at the end of it, the table read had gone so well that the rewrite, there was basically no rewrite. So our first draft is essentially what was shot. And also because the table reading had gone so well, we all got to leave early. Usually it's like table read goes poorly and then you're gonna be there until midnight. And it was like, we did a good job and so then everyone got to leave early, which was a good feeling.
Gene [00:47:19] The table read was the, I think my, I don't want to speak for Lee, but for me, it was like my high point in entertainment. That was like the best moment. I remember, I sweated through my entire shirt. I was soaking and by the time in the script, when the cops come and Dwight says something to them and he goes, not now, Dwight. Like they already knew him on a first name basis and the room erupted. I was as happy, definitely the happiest other than, you know, my daughter being born, probably the happiest I've ever been. Oh, and then the nice thing, I remember Greg said to us, I'll never forget, he goes, how did you do that? And coming from Greg.
Lee [00:47:55] Oh, yeah. How did you do that was amazing.
Gene [00:47:56] That was the, we were walking on air and it was, you know, kind of lived off that compliment for months.
Angela [00:48:04] Oh, yeah.
Gene [00:48:05] And then we had to stop. And that was like a big bummer. We're gonna just stop and picket our own set.
Lee [00:48:12] We shot like two talking heads and then went on strike and picketed our own set.
Jenna [00:48:16] Yeah, you did. I remember.
Lee [00:48:18] Insane. Yeah.
Jenna [00:48:19] Okay, so you guys also wrote Scott's Tots. That's the episode people sometimes can't watch again.
Gene [00:48:27] Can I just say something.
Jenna [00:48:28] We must discuss.
Angela [00:48:29] Yes, go, Gene.
Gene [00:48:30] I just want to shift some of the blame to Paul Lieberstein who had the idea, but just blame him also. Because I feel like we get a lot of, a lot, but you know, Paul also had something to do with this. And also BJ directed it. Yes. BJ had something do with it. So I just wanted other people to also share the blame with us.
Jenna [00:48:46] It's so brilliant, and it has one of my favorite Michael talking heads in it, where he says, of all the empty promises I've made in my life, this one is probably the most generous.
Lee [00:48:58] Yeah, yeah.
Jenna [00:49:00] It's so good and it is you know we've rewatched the whole thing and I don't think it's the cringiest episode the one that is hardest for me to watch is prince family paper when dwight and michael destroy that lovely family paper, father and son.
Angela [00:49:16] Father and son. Like his granddaughter is the outgoing message. You reached Prince Family Paper!
Jenna [00:49:23] That one does me in. I just think Scott's Tots is amazing.
Gene [00:49:28] Prince Family Papers based on, that happened to my sister. Yeah, that's based on a true story. My sister was working for, I think for Walgreens. Walgrens, yeah. And she was in New Orleans. I think she was like scouting for a new Walgrems. I don't remember exactly what, but she basically like, that was her job, like figure out like, you know, where are there opportunities to put Walgreens? And there was this other drug store and she's like, oh God, you don't like, this is a place that the Walgreens went there and totally put them out of business. And then her rental car got a flat tire and they helped her change the tire, the family.
Angela [00:50:01] Oh, my gosh.
Gene [00:50:02] Yeah, it's even worse than that. Oh, my God. Yeah. And she was so guilty. She still talks about it. And so, yeah, that was what that episode was about.
Angela [00:50:12] Wow, okay. I also want to talk about Leo and Gino for a second because so not only did you guys write and direct, but now you're actors on the set and you know, there's a deleted scene for the Halloween episode in season two and it's really sort of the first time you see Leo and Gino. It didn't make it into the episode you guys, but I want to set it up for you and I want play the clip. So Michael's getting into the elevator. Leo and Gino are putting a big boxed refrigerator into the elevator and they see the camera and they decide they're gonna interact with the camera and I want you to hear it.
CLIP [00:50:53] Michael: Guys, could you take the freight elevator, please? Leo and Gino: You wanna see a really messy show? Hey, you know what? Follow us around. Come to our office. Ass! Ass! ass! Ass, ass, ass. Ass, ass, ass ass!
Jenna [00:51:06] Well done, guys.
Lee [00:51:06] How did that not end up in the show? That's kind of fucked up.
Gene [00:51:12] In our defense.
Angela [00:51:12] You want a real show? Follow us. Ass, ass, ass.
Gene [00:51:15] In our defense, we never asked for that. We never wanted it. This was forced upon us. We were very much against it. We did not want this.
Angela [00:51:23] But did you have fun?
Gene [00:51:25] No.
Angela [00:51:26] No?!
Gene [00:51:27] No, it's terrifying, are you kidding? Acting with you guys, that's terrifying.
Lee [00:51:35] Every time Leo and Gino would come on set, the look that we would get from I feel like just from John no from from a bunch of the actors I remember John in particular just being like I'm in the background of a scene so that Lee can act? Okay, great.
Gene [00:51:48] Yeah.
Lee [00:51:49] So I always felt bad because I wanted to say, like, we didn't do this. The other writers did this. Like, we're not campaigning to get Leo and Gino more screen time.
Gene [00:51:59] We did not want to be.
Lee [00:52:01] The other thing in that ass-ass-ass scene is, I was so terrified. Gene has the line. All I have to say is ask, because there's no way I could have remembered anything at that point. And so thank God Gene took the line, and so all I had to say was ask, because I could remember that. I've since come into my own as an actor, but like at the time that was really, that was tricky for me.
Jenna [00:52:23] You guys also directed two episodes. In season five, you directed Michael Scott Paper Company. And then in season six, you direct The Lover. Can you talk about moving into directing? And particularly with Michael Scott paper company, you established Michael Scott, Paper Company, so what was it like to shoot in that tiny room? And did you get to be a part of designing that room?
Gene [00:52:51] Yeah. Well, you know, with directing, the writers were on set for their episodes. And sometimes you're on set for other people's episodes as a writer as well. So we knew our way around the set. We felt very comfortable. And you know the show had a set look. It wasn't like we were reinventing. I had occasionally a director would come in and you would get, you would maybe go 10% one way or another. But for the most part, the show had an established look. There wasn't much, you probably want to show off a little bit with shots, but there wasn't much of that.
Lee [00:53:20] But like the Wayne Gretzky quote, you know, you miss 100% of the shots. That's Gene's.
Gene [00:53:25] Oh, sorry. No, it's not mine. That's Justin Spitzer's.
Lee [00:53:29] Yeah, it's amazing. We have to give it credit. That's an amazing joke.
Gene [00:53:34] Yeah.
Lee [00:53:34] But like, but that's a that's a thing where, you know, as you start set designing, like, because I just watched that episode the other night, and like the number of times that you see that in shots, like because the first time you see it, I was like, oh, I've got a lot of people talk about that. You can barely see it. You like you kind of blink and you miss it. It must have been a screen grab. And then it's like, Oh, no, no, that room is so small. You see it a million times. And also like the pipes and you're sitting down by the pipes and like that people are like the bathroom upstairs.
Jenna [00:54:01] Yes.
Lee [00:54:02] That room is brutal and we got to do a new opening title sequence.
Jenna [00:54:06] Yes. Oh, that's right. And I know you were talking about like the fun of Pam and Toby, but my favorite relationship to play, like one of those like deep cut relationships is Pam and Ryan. There's so many good lines in that, there's so many good lines.
Angela [00:54:21] That is one of my absolute favorite runners in our rewatch just how much they hate each other
Gene [00:54:27] Ryan with the blonde hair.
Jenna [00:54:29] Ryan with the blonde hair and when he's on the phone and you can just hear all his conversations and he's like, I don't know, in New York she'd be a six, but here maybe she's a seven and then the other guy is my former boss. Yeah, it's so funny. Right here, clearly about me. And then he also, she doesn't wanna like watch him upload his photos anymore because of the topless women. She's like I don' really wanna look at your friend's boobs and he is like, you know what? You could be hot, too, if you just made a little effort. It's just so good.
Lee [00:55:01] So funny. He says that the blonde hair is natural, it's the sun.
Jenna [00:55:04] Yes. She's like, sure. Sure it is. The sun. Okay. He also has a great line in that one. And I know, I mean, Justin Spitzer wrote this episode, but there's that great line and there where, you know, they need to get rid of a person because it's just, there's not enough room in there. And so Ryan says, why do we get rid the person with the least education?
Lee [00:55:27] Such a dick.
Jenna [00:55:28] Such a dick, and BJ is so funny. But I remember being in that little room and it was really difficult. I mean, there's a whole scene where we have to talk about the four corners of the room. And you managed to show all the corners. It's very impressive.
Lee [00:55:43] There's also that amazing moment, Jenna, when you go up to see Idris, trying to get your job back, and you can't, and then you're like, well, maybe I can come back as a salesperson, I now have experience doing that. And he's like, no.
Angela [00:55:55] He was so good. Oh my gosh. He was really fun.
Gene [00:55:59] Really remember the buzz on the lot when he was coming, when he there. Everyone, all the women were so excited. I'd never seen anything like it. Really made all the men kind of feel like, hey, what the hell? Like, everyone was, all of the women, I mean, everyone, every female who worked on that show.
Jenna [00:56:17] Because he was such a charmer as well, he would give you compliments.
Gene [00:56:23] No, this was even before he came. This was just his arrival before he got there. The idea of the anticipation, the anticipation. Yes.
Angela [00:56:31] Yes. I also loved, though, that his character Charles was not like won over by Jim. That new dynamic was so fun to watch.
Lee [00:56:41] Jim wearing the tuxedo on his first day and trying to explain a prank to a guy who has no sense of humor was so good. And then that's also the, Gene, that's the rundown episode. Ah. Where he's like, and he doesn't know what a rundown is. Yes.
Jenna [00:56:57] That is also the episode where, isn't the episode where Mindy keeps coming into Charles's office and saying, Charles, you wanted me?
Lee [00:57:03] Yes.
Angela [00:57:05] That's also the one where Michael is introducing everyone and gives really personal details, like so embarrassing.
Lee [00:57:13] That was also, that's Ellie Kemper's first episode.
Angela [00:57:16] Yes! Oh yeah!
Lee [00:57:17] And that has Country Road where Dwight and Andy are both, Dwight and Andy have now become friends. That dynamic is so funny, but they're both hitting on her in their own ways. And then they start playing Country Road and they're trying to impress her. The end of the scene is the two of them are now just trying to oppress each other. And so into playing together that they forget that she's there. And she kind of awkwardly like has to get out of the break room. They're just playing to each other, it's so funny.
Gene [00:57:39] Toby knocks on the glass.
Lee [00:57:40] Yeah, Toby knocks on the glass, yeah.
Jenna [00:57:42] Can I play a clip from The Lover? This is my favorite scene in The Lover. And it is not when Pam finds out that Michael is dating her mom. T
Angela [00:57:54] hat's my favorite scene because you're going no, no, no, no, no.
Jenna [00:57:56] I loved doing that scene, but my personal favorite scene is when Jim finds out that Michael is dating Pam's mother. Here it is.
CLIP [00:58:09] Michael: I have recently taken a lover. Jim: Well, that's great. Congratulations. Who's the lucky lady? Michael: Pam's mom. Pam's mom, Helene. Remember from your wedding? Jim: You're messing with me. Michael: About what? Jim: You did not have sex with Pam's mom. What kind of cars does she drive? Michael: She drives a green Camry and the seats go all the way down. Jim: Oh my god. Never tell Pam. Jim: Good, a pact, a pact, although I may have to break it tonight when Helena and I tell Pam over dinner, you all right? Jim: Oh my god. Toby: Hey Jim. Jim: Not now, Toby, my god. Michael: Get the hell out of here, idiot. Jim: Okay, as far as dinner tonight, cancel that. And please, for both of our sakes, never, ever, ever see her again. Michael: I think you're underestimating Pam. I think, more than anything, she wants me to be happy. Jim: No. Not more than anything. Michael: Okay. I have a good thing with the mom. Jim: Don't call her mom. Michael: She's right on my way home from work. Jim: Then take a different way home, man! Michael: I'll take surface streets. The last thing in the world I would want to do is upset Pam. Jim: OK. So we're good.
Jenna [00:59:27] Oh my God, you guys, what's so amazing is that then later, later in season six in the cover-up, which is also your episode that you wrote, it's the last episode you guys wrote for the show, Michael's upset because he thinks that his new girlfriend might be cheating on him and he's sitting in the kitchen and he is eating the mayo and black olives. Then at that point Pam is listening all of the women he's ever dated and she says, Helene, and Michael goes Helene. And she goes, yes, Michael, Helene, my mother, that you dated. And he's like, oh, yes. Of course, Helene, yes loved her. And he kind of rolls his eyes. It's just, it's such an amazing callback that after all that, Michael has now just forgotten Helene.
Gene [01:00:16] It's so funny.
Lee [01:00:18] The Lover is, I really, I'm very, very proud of that. And it's like, I mean, also like the Erin stuff with like a coca leche. Yes. You bring the, what's it called? It's so funny. You bring The Candies back.
Jenna [01:00:34] Yes, and she won't put them out until she gets Michael's permission.
Angela [01:00:37] Right, it's some weird turf war at front reception.
Gene [01:00:40] Yeah, well, you guys, that's you guys coming back from vacation. That's Blind Guy McSqueezy.
Jenna [01:00:47] Blind Guy McSqeezy, exactly. So amazing. So in wrapping up about your experience on The Office, when you look back at that time on your life, do you have like a general takeaway or a most prominent memory or something that you take with you from that time?
Gene [01:01:06] I mean, for us, this was like film school, you know, because Greg gave the writers so much freedom that we really learned every aspect of how to make something, right? From prepping new department heads to like the sound mix. I mean I don't know what it's like in other shows, but I didn't realize how rare that was to be able to learn all that. And you know it's five years, it's longer than college. And we were young and those really formative years for us and I think we became much better writers because of that experience.
Lee [01:01:41] I think for me too, it just felt alive. Every day felt, it always felt big. We're always a little bit behind and so you're just kind of coming together and you're sitting around with, I mean, you think about that writer's room, it's a murderer's row of the best comedy writers of the last 20 years. And just every day, you're telling stories and making each other laugh. And then all of a sudden, like, you'd go off and, you know, everyone would go off to their offices and write talking heads or write a scene. And sometimes you'd read them aloud and you're like, you know you're praying that your thing is gonna be the thing that gets the biggest laugh. And the show was just kind of at a moment. Like, I remember I would take the train from New York to Boston for Thanksgiving and you just like walk, like walk back to my seat and, I don't know, or on a plane. And it was right when like video iPods started. And you just, like saw everyone was watching the office, like. You'd literally do it and you'd see like five people would be watching something that you had written like four weeks earlier. And so it was so immediate and I don't know, it was just, it was fun. I mean, it really, it's really stressful. I think it was an amazing thing that Greg was able to pull off. Like I felt, and I know Gene did and all the writers did, like you felt like the show was yours. The show was Greg's, but it felt like it was all of ours. Like the amount of like dedication and passion that we all felt for it. And how much we wanted to get it right and do right by you guys and by the fans was huge like it felt like oh my god like how are we doing the proposal like what you know all these things, I mean particularly with Jim and Pam there was so much of like we were just like pouring--everyone's just pouring so much themselves into it.
Jenna [01:03:19] Well, I personally think the best seasons of The Office are seasons two through six. They happen to be the seasons that you guys were on the writing staff.
Lee [01:03:30] Do with that what you will, I don't know if you can draw a conclusion.
Jenna [01:03:34] Draw the conclusion that you will draw.
Angela [01:03:39] This was so wonderful catching up with you guys. You know, we also want to talk about the show that is phenomenal that you worked on and you created Jury Duty. It's so great. And it won a Peabody Award and you've got a season two. What can you share? Can you share like anything you want to share about because it is so wonderful.
Jenna [01:04:01] Yeah, so I want to say this show is phenomenal and it's a documentary but it's a fake documentary and there's one real person and everybody else is an actor right and you are documenting a jury duty, a case.
Angela [01:04:14] They're one person on the jury that isn't in on it. You really follow and if you have James Marsden is also you guys I also I just got my jury summons, by the way.
Jenna [01:04:27] So how are you, because the show was such a huge hit and so many people loved it. How do you do a season two of it? That's been my question. How do convince another person that they're part of a documentary on jury duty?
Lee [01:04:43] Uh, the second season will not be, it will not be a jury.
Jenna [01:04:47] Okay.
Lee [01:04:48] So that's how you do it. No, but I think that, you know, with season one, it was a, there were, I think, 4,000 people, you know answered a Craigslist ad.
Angela [01:04:59] That you guys put?
Lee [01:05:02] Yeah. And so it's, you know, it's a really involved process. And, you, Todd Schulman, who's one of the executive producers and Dave Bernat, who is another EP, you know, they've worked a lot in this space. Todd worked for Sasha Baron Cohen for like 15 years. So you know me, Gene, Dave, and Todd were like the ones who kind of, you know, we're the beginning of that show. And those guys really, you know, had a sense of how to pull one of these things off. I mean, it, it it's wild. And the thing that Todd always said was the idea that anyone would imagine that all of this is fake and all of it is for them is too much for the human brain to take. And so there's so much careful preparation and rehearsing and casting that goes into it. And so much of it, too, it's like the idea with that show is that you're never punching down. The joke is never at the expense of Ronald. And I think that, again, a lot of lessons that were taken from the office, you root for those characters in Jury Duty. You like that world. You want to see what they're doing week to week. And at the center of it is a really appealing guy who kind of wants to do the right thing, who doesn't want to get caught up in the gossip and forms real friendships. And those friendships were real. That's kind of the special sauce of the show, I think, is that the dynamics, people are playing characters, but the friendships between the actors and Ronald, that was authentic and those friendships have gone on to this day.
Jenna [01:06:20] You're the actor that you cast as the judge.
Angela [01:06:23] Ike Barinholtz' dad?
Lee [01:06:26] Yeah, Alan.
Jenna [01:06:28] He was a lawyer, so he had like courtroom experience. But like all of it, everybody is so convincing and real. It was so brilliant that you came up with the idea that like, OK, we're only going to be able to pull this off if there's some reason we have to sequester everyone, which is so great, because then we got not just courtroom stuff, but we got like behind the scenes stuff. You guys, it was just a chef's kiss.
Angela [01:06:57] Well, we are so thrilled for you guys. We're huge fans.
Jenna [01:07:00] Will you tell people where they can watch it? Because they can stream it.
Lee [01:07:04] Yeah, you can stream it on Amazon Prime. Just type in Jury Duty into the search.
Angela [01:07:09] And when is season two coming out?
Lee [01:07:13] I think much like season one, it will just kind of, it will appear.
Angela [01:07:16] Okay. Ooh, mystery intrigue. I like it.
Gene [01:07:20] Just just check in on Amazon every day.
Jenna [01:07:23] OK, that's all.
Angela [01:07:25] I will.
Lee [01:07:26] We're deep in the edit on it now and I think I think it's gonna be great. It's really it's different from season one, but it's very exciting.
Jenna [01:07:33] That is so great. I cannot wait. And then, Angela, will you share with everyone why you think of Lee every time you go to bed?
Angela [01:07:42] Well, you know, I got Lee and your wife, you guys designed this duvet cover. And you know when you have to change a duvet, it's like such a pain in the ass to put the comforter back in it. This is brilliant because you just lay it flat and it all zips in. You just zip in the duvet over your comforters. It's so nice and it's made, it's got such nice quality and it has got, mine is white with like the little blue stitching. And Lee, I'm your biggest fan of your duvet.
Lee [01:08:11] I love it. The natural progression from working on The Office, of course, is to start your own bedding company. And so I had an idea too, putting on a duvet cover was so annoying. So I came up with what I thought was a good fix. I got a patent. During COVID, I partnered up with a woman whose family had a manufacturing plant in Pakistan. And we started making samples. And I would go to dinner parties during COVID, mask up and bring four samples and have people touch fabrics and zippers and all that stuff. And then we launched the company, and it's been around for two and a half years now. And go to nuvethome.com and we have a whole thing.
Gene [01:08:50] So that's why you don't get invited to dinner parties anymore.
Lee [01:08:53] Well, I think it's a very attractive proposition to show up at someone's house with bedding. Maybe you leave it. Maybe it just kind of brings a little, you know.
Angela [01:09:02] Yeah, other people were like making bread during the pandemic, but you're like showing up with like a duvet cover.
Lee [01:09:08] I think people thought I completely lost my mind because they're like, what are you working on? I was like, well, it's interesting you ask. Basically, I would show that I would use my hands to demonstrate how the Nuvet works instead of working on my script. So it was a good procrastination.
Jenna [01:09:22] But Lee, the thing is, is like when you have a vision for solving a problem that has gone unsolved, how do you ignore that? You can't ignore that.
Lee [01:09:31] Yeah, I agree.
Jenna [01:09:32] You have to follow that thread!
Lee [01:09:34] Well, I legitimately think that it's all storytelling. And so, yeah, exactly. There was a problem, and here's the solve, and there's a story around it. My wife came up with the tagline, less struggle, more snuggle. I think it's great.
Angela [01:09:46] I love it. And Gene, have you invented anything, Gene?
Gene [01:09:52] Oh, my God. What haven't I invented? Yeah, well, I really feel less than now because I need to come up with some kind of, yeah, it doesn't have to be some kind of industrial masking tape, something that people wouldn't really picture me coming up with.
Angela [01:10:05] Like you're gonna come up with like the new whiteout whatever that is.
Gene [01:10:10] Exactly. Yeah. My god.
Angela [01:10:13] Thank you guys so much for taking the time to talk with us today and for always being so supportive of the podcast. We love your episodes, we love you guys, and we're here for you if you ever need a shout out in any way. Thank you.
Lee [01:10:26] Yeah, this was a blast.
Gene [01:10:26] Thank you guys, this has been great.
Angela [01:10:27] Thank you, guys.
Lee [01:10:28] I totally like going down memory lane.
Jenna [01:10:33] Well, that was a delight.
Angela [01:10:34] They are so fun. I loved catching up with them. You know, after we did our interview, they quickly emailed both of us to thank us for having them on the podcast. They're just classy standup fellas.
Jenna [01:10:44] They really are. I just love them so much and I missed them. Like I realized when we were talking to them how much I missed them. And I have run into Lee Eisenberg several times. We live I think kind of close to each other in the same area of Los Angeles and we hit up some of the same restaurants. But I hadn't seen Gene in so long.
Angela [01:11:06] Same. And you guys, we will put swipe-ups to all their things, including Lee and his wife's amazing Nuvet bed cover. Yeah. And yeah, we hope you have a great week.
Jenna [01:11:16] I just got one.
Angela [01:11:17] It's wonderful.
Jenna [01:11:18] It's wonderful. It is so soft.
Angela [01:11:20] I know, and it's really pretty, and it is easy to use, it's well-made. I love this chapter of his life.
Jenna [01:11:26] I do, too. Alright everyone, thanks for listening and we will talk to you next week. See you then!
Jenna [01:11:40] Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.
Angela [01:11:42] Office Ladies is a presentation of Audacy and is produced by Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey.
Jenna [01:11:49] Our executive producer is Cassi Jerkins, our audio engineer is Sam Kieffer, and our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico.
Angela [01:11:56] Audacy's executive producers are Jenna Weiss-Berman and Leah Reis-Dennis.
Jenna [01:12:00] Office Ladies is mixed and mastered by Chris Basil.
Angela [01:12:03] Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.