50 MORE Facts You Didn't Know About The Office (Part 1)

Hey, what's up everyone, it's Ryan here from The Y, and I am so excited to be bringing you more facts about The Office. First of all, I wouldn't even be making this video without this book written by Andy Green. The Office, the untold story of the greatest sitcom of the 2000s. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of this book, as it is by far the most thorough behind-the-scenes look at The Office ever compiled. It's over 400 pages of exclusive interviews that cover the entirety of the show's 9-season run. So if you're a huge fan of The Office, you won't be disappointed. Having said all that, here's 50 Facts You Didn't Know About The Office, Part 1. The Office continues to be one of the most popular shows out there today. Comcast shelled out $500 million to get it on the streaming service starting in 2021, and the show is consistently at the top of the charts on Netflix. Ben Silverman, the executive producer of the series, laid out three rules that the show had to follow. No laugh tracks, it had to be single camera instead of multi-camera, and he wanted a large portion of the cast to not already be famous. Coupling almost ruined people's perception of The Office before it even came out. The show was another remake of a British sitcom that NBC pulled after just 6 episodes, even though they had already paid for 10. And after a long list of failures in the department of British-to-America crossover sitcoms, many people were pessimistic about The Office. Everyone should be thanking this woman, Alison Jones, the casting director for The Office, because without her, the cast would have looked much different. She's also helped create many other shows like Freaks and Geeks, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and even discovered talent like Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Ploss, Chris Pratt, and Nick Offerman. During the casting process, the actors never once auditioned in front of the executives, something that doesn't happen all too often. Everyone pretty much agreed that because a large part of the show was observational and behavioral jokes, reading live wasn't a good idea. Instead, all the prospective Dunder Mifflin employees were put on camera and told to improvise from character descriptions that have been sent out all over town. I'll be reading off my favorite character descriptions throughout the video because they are just downright hilarious. True, it is in the first aid guidebook from the American Red Cross, so it's totally unfair for me to get in trouble for whizzing in the sink. Michael Scott is the manager of The Office and the boastful, unreliable narrator of the documentary. He is a legend in his own mind, who thinks he is a comic genius, fountain of business wisdom, and his employees' cool friend. He believes in his version of reality with the sincere enthusiasm of a nine-year-old However, the documentary reveals the truth. He is a buffoon, a pathetic, mid-level bureaucrat overdue for a midlife crisis, whom decent people pity as a sad little man when his inappropriate behavior hasn't appalled them into silence. Horribly overconfident, he is a trainwreck of bad leadership characteristics, only redeemed by his childish enthusiasm. Despite continual proofs that he's an ass, he clings shamelessly to his deluded self-image like a shipwreck survivor clinging to a scrap of wood. We need an actor who can play a juicy comic character, someone with an expressive face to get a laugh or a smug look, someone with the heart of a nine-year-old but who plays between 34 and 44, someone whose face and physique do not command natural respect, i.e. not buff and handsome, boyish, not rugged, capable of high-spirited, sunny energy, as well as small, specific acting. Perhaps someone used to creating a character and improv-ing as that character. When Jenna Fisher got the call to come in for the audition, casting director Alison Jones didn't mince words. She told Fisher to be as plain as possible and dare to bore me, and Jenna took that message to heart as in her actual audition, the first question they asked was, do you like working as a receptionist? She waited, took a long pause, and said no. Both parties sat there for a while in silence, and then they began laughing. Fisher committed to the same tactic throughout the audition, giving yes or no answers, and they ended up loving her take on Pam. John Krasinski had an equally funny and strange story about his audition for the role of Jim. There were around 7 actors in front of him, and after they all went into audition, everyone decided to take a lunch break. As John put it, some guy with a salad sat down across from him and asked, are you nervous? And his response was, not so much for the audition, but I'm really nervous for the people who are making this show, because so often, these translations are just garbage, and I really hope they don't screw it up, because so many people are waiting to kill this show. Little did he know, he was talking to Greg Daniels, the executive producer of the show, who responded, I'll try my best, I'm Greg Daniels, this is my show. Krasinski, obviously horrified, called his agent to relay the terrible news, who then told him to go in and give it his best shot. When he went back in for the audition, everyone was laughing at him and making fun of him for making such a fool of himself. But weirdly enough, it created an atmosphere that was warm and ready to go, which might have even helped him land the role of Jim. Phyllis Smith worked as a casting associate for over 20 years before her breakout role on The Office. At first, Phyllis thought she was just doing her job by reading the off-camera lines, but eventually they asked her to play a part in the pilot. She didn't believe any of it was real until they called, asking for her measurements. Kate Flannery, or Meredith, recounted how Steve Carell had done so many failed pilots before The Office. Her boyfriend was a photographer for some of those shows, and apparently there was a joke that if they saw Steve was doing the pilot, they'd go, oh, there goes the show. For the role of Michael Scott, the two people they were really considering were Steve Carell and Bob Odenkirk. Both had a very good take on the part, but the reason they didn't go with Bob Odenkirk is because he played the part with a bit of an edge, and was a little tougher and a little meaner than Steve, which they thought American audiences wouldn't like as much. But it all worked out in the end as Bob Odenkirk became Saul Goodman, a character much more suited to his strengths and one he plays to perfection. Most of the people coming in to audition were strangers to Greg Daniels, but not Angela Kinsey, as she was then married to Warren Lieberstein, his brother-in-law. Allison Jones said that her and Daniels came up with a plan where she was going to vouch for Angela and not him. So as not to run the risk of it looking like nepotism. But Greg Daniels ended up ruining that plan by contradicting Jones' excitement for Angela, trying to employ some form of reverse psychology or something. Luckily, Angela still snagged the role despite the mishap. A lot of time was spent discussing the layout of the desks in Dunder Mifflin because of the implications it could have on certain relationships. For example, Dwight and Jim always being at an angle to each other and not facing one another directly. But more importantly, how Pam is always facing Jim, but his desk is facing away. This enabled cameras to capture interesting shots where they're looking past Jim towards Pam and she's gazing at him. Everything in the show was designed to look very boring, which meant the graphic designer had an unusual job. He couldn't use Photoshop or Illustrator because that would be out of character for the people at Dunder Mifflin, so he used good old Microsoft Paint. For the birthday and holiday banners, he'd just use any basic font and put a bunch of exclamation points at the end. When he worked on the Dunder Mifflin logo, there were eight attempts he had put a ton of effort into, but the ninth, the one where the letters weren't even lined up right, that was the one they picked. Dwight Troop, late 20s to 30ish. Dwight is the team leader and Michael's sidekick. He actually admires Scott, although it is unclear if this is due to Scott's personality or Dwight's officious inclination to look up to whoever is above him in the hierarchy. Dwight is obsessed with survival, personal security tactics, and other grandiose nerd action fantasies, probably because he got his ass kicked a lot as a kid. A volunteer policeman on the weekend, he takes any excuse to go on a power trip in the office. Yet, his survival training appears to be more Gilligan's Island than Green Berets. Although aggressively horny, he has no idea how to behave with women. His unpleasant personal habits and annoying personality suggest an unsocialized loner, a sort of Caliban or Gollum. If stuck in an elevator, he would probably start drinking his own urine after ten minutes. His lack of social skills render him the butt of office jokes and thus bearable. If Scott is redeemed by having the heart of a nine-year-old, then Dwight can perhaps be pitied for his interior teenage geek. We need someone who could look a little grotesque or at least be believable as a geek. Someone who has no desire to be likable or please an audience, except through total identification with his character. Someone who can seem reasonable to himself while saying insane things. Who understands the comedy of playing it straight. On the first day of shooting for The Office, Ken Kwapis, the cinematographer, had the cast just work at their desks for about an hour. By doing this, everyone felt a little more relaxed in their space and he was also able to capture shots for cutaways. Another crucial way Ken helped set the tone was by clearing the set of everyone except himself, the cameraman, the soundman, and of course the cast. During the talking head interviews, Ken Kwapis would be very hesitant to talk to any of the cast out of character. Rainn Wilson described how Ken would never say action because he didn't want it to seem like a set. So we just say, okay, let's go ahead. Reviews of the pilot episode were really bad. The LA Times wrote, There's a menace to Carell's character that I didn't want to feel, a sociopathic, beady-eyed quality that's too cartoon and that gives the show a colder edge. This Office will have to rely less on him as a guiding voice than The Office relied on Gervais. While USA Today said, The insurmountable problem for this version may prove to be Carell himself. He's an amusing sketch comic but he comes across as an actor doing a bit, not a person running an office. Worse, he makes the character too one-dimensionally unsympathetic. He captures Michael's delusions of grandeur but misses the poignancy in his mad dash for popularity. But then, that's what happens with copies. Inevitably, something great gets lost. For the second episode, instead of copying the British version to a tee, they knew they had to come up with a topic that hit home for all American offices. And from that thought, the episode Diversity Day was born. The premise was still basically the same as the British version with Michael doing something humiliating, but the topic was different from anything done on the original show. In the first script for the diversity training seminar, people were floating all around the office instead of just being in the conference room. Ken Kwapis thought the whole scene would be a lot funnier if everyone was crammed in there, so he made it happen. If you think about it, there is something to be said about small spaces adding to the comedy of a scene, especially with the backdrop of the poorly conceived diversity training seminar they were all in. Mr. Brown. Ah, alright, okay, first test. I will not call you that. Greg Daniels had an expression for scenes like the diversity training seminar. He called it a killing field, because the scene would be so charged that everyone had some sort of opinion or comment on the situation. Going back to the diversity training seminar, putting cards on people's foreheads was a real thing that had happened to one of the assistants at the time, so they thought what better to use than a real experience. At the end of diversity training, Pam falls asleep on Jim's shoulder, one of the first signs of the budding romance between the two. Ken Kwapis described how there were many takes just to get the right shot, because the writers didn't know exactly how to play it. They settled on a mix of Jim being both happy and a bit surprised, and his interview was the perfect way to end one of the landmark episodes. Here are some more character descriptions that I found just great. Ryan, the 20-something college boy temp. Stanley, the lifer at the office, a worn out cart horse. Big Keith, a stolid accountant with no affect, but an odd mind. This eventually became Kevin, and two characters who never made it. Kristen, an irritatingly bland, stupid nice girl with no depth, and Anton, a little person. Before they eliminated this role, there was talk of having Peter Dinklage come in to read for the part. During the entirety of the first season, there were no trailers at all, meaning the cast walked onto the office set and stayed there the whole day. This might have even added to the setting, because they had to sit there looking bored all day, just like a real office. Two former executive producers on The Office are coming together to create a new kind of workplace comedy series called Remote. Paul Lieberstein and Ben Silverman have taken inspiration from these COVID times that we're all living in, and are basing a show around people working virtually from home. That's all the details they've given for now, but the premise is definitely something we haven't seen before, so it'll be interesting to see how they go about it. If you made it all the way through the video, thank you so much for watching, it really means a lot. I'm currently working on part 2, so keep an eye out for that in the near future. Alright, till next time you guys, peace!