Office Ladies - An Interview with Dave Rogers

Episode Date: January 15, 2025

This week the ladies sit down with Dave Rogers! Dave was an editor for “The Office” as well as he directed a few episodes, and now he is the person behind editing the Peacock Super Fan episodes. The ladies walk through with Dave how he extends and edits original "Office" episodes into Super Fan episodes. They also discuss what it was like from his perspective working on the show and Jenna gets his thoughts on the Dunder Mifflin hallways. Angela also shares a video of her interviewing Dave in his editing bay during the run of "The Office" in “Adventures with Angela”. This is a great episode for Office fans and learning more about how the show was made. Enjoy! Check out Office Ladies Merch at Podswag: https://www.podswag.com/collections/office-ladies  Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I am 50 years old and do you know what I don't want to do on my vacations anymore? Oh probably a few things. I don't want to cram my family into the same one bedroom room and bathroom. I don't want to. No. I don't want us all on top of each other. I want my own bedroom separate from the children, which is why I prefer Airbnb. Because we can all have our space, and then it's like, makes the whole vacation more relaxing. We can go to bed at different times. You know, I can stay up and read,

or more likely these days, I go to bed before everybody else. You know what I love about Airbnb? What? Snacks. You have what I love about Airbnb? What? Snacks. You have a fridge, you have a kitchen. So I'm not calling up room service constantly and having to pay that fee.

I'm just like, hey, we pack snacks, they're in the fridge, go get them. Well, everyone, consider Airbnb for your next adventure. You won't regret making the switch from a traditional hotel. I'm Jenna Fischer. and I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together and we're best friends. And now we're doing the ultimate office lovers podcast just for you.

Each week we will dive deeper into the world of The Office with exclusive interviews, behind the scenes details and lots of VFF stories. We're the Office Ladies 6.0. Hi there. Hello. Hey, so today on Office Ladies, we have a very special interview

with the person I call the architect of the office. It is our editor and director, Dave Rogers. I like how you just jumped right in with it today, Ange. What is happening in the new year? Are you becoming me? I think so. Because look, I'm taking us on a tangent. Should I read my diary, my journal?

And I'm just like, let's get to it. I feel like I want to. I want to. What's happened this year? I don't know. I feel like my 2025 mantra is let's get to it. Okay. Well, let's get to it. Okay. Well, let's get to it then.

Dave Rogers worked on The Office from 2005 to 2013. He started as our editor, but then, as you all know, he started directing in season five. In total, Dave edited 95 of the original broadcast episodes and he directed eight of them. He knows the show better than anyone. Well, Angela, I guess you are going to share some digital clutter with us now.

So you are staying in your wheelhouse in a way. I'm a combo. Oh, it's combo gear. It's combo gear. Yeah, I'm a combo platter. 2025 is let's get to it, but also let's chat a little bit. I'm really liking this. So I did share with Jenna

that I found something pretty fun in my digital clutter, and I'm excited to share it with you all. So I have talked about this before on the podcast. Years ago, when the show was on the air, I teamed up with the NBC digital folks with Joya and Scott and Carol, all those folks, they're awesome. And we did a little series for the website called Adventures with Angela.

They were so cute. They are all these videos. If you kind of showing different aspects of the show, you would introduce different actors or different crew members. And you sent me this one, Angela. It's cute, Patoot. Galore. I had so much fun doing these. They're just little behind the scenes of life on the set of The Office. Well, the one I sent Jenna was the week I went into Dave's editing bay. We found the footage. I thought it would be so fun to hear it.

I'm going to share it in stories as well. And it just took us right back. Hello NBC.com. We have a behind the scenes exclusive with Dave Rogers, one of our fabulous editors on the show. That's Dave. It's also Donut Cart Day. Mini donuts! It's ridiculous. Did you get any? I did not. Not yet. You want one?

Yeah. They're so good. I'll take one. Dave Rogers worked on The Single Guy, Seinfeld, wow, news radio, Entourage. Wow, I got a whole file over here. Do you have any Entourage stories? Come on, those guys, they're wild, they're crazy, right? I was in an edit bag far away from all the locations that they shoot on the show. He's in line, editors know everything.

I'm absolutely sure. You hear everything. They hear everyone's conversations. Okay. You've been with the office since the pilot. I came on right after the pilot. I tweaked a little bit in the pilot. This isn't right. You gave me the wrong thing. Before we broadcast. Dave was a first time director this season, you guys. It was really awesome. Thank you. Thanks.

You know the show so well. I have to say, I'm pretty blown away by it. I mean, because he sort of sits here and watches take after take after take. I do. One thing I'm learning right here and now is that the editor's room? Little toasty. Yeah. Little toasty. Can we talk about your desk for a second?

Yeah. Yeah, let's talk about my desk. Who's this guy? That's Bryce. Bryce! Yeah. He's so cute. Sometimes he comes in.

I almost brought him in today because I knew you were coming in and as a tribute to you in the Super Bowl episode Having your little cat bandit. You're gonna have Bryce in the drawer. Well Bryce here, you can swing this way. This is where Bryce Oh my god. He does hang out in the closet. He's got a little bed and I've got stuff food and toys. I wonder if you were the inspiration for that high-tech stuff here. I want to touch all the knobs. Yes. No product placement.

What are we talking about here? Do we have dry skin? Yes. You can feel how warm and dry this room is. It is very warm in here. So I try to keep moisture up. You try to keep moisture up. Yes.

I never used to, but then the ladies are always like, your hand feels like an alligator. So much information. I don't want to know what the ladies say. What does this mean right here? What's this? but then the ladies are always like, your hand feels like an alligator, so. Too much information. I don't want to know what the ladies say. What does this mean right here? What's this?

Those are technical things. Can I tell you, this looks like something that would be in Lost, and that they would show for like a whole season and then say it means nothing. That picture of Dean, that's our other editor, Dean Holland. Yes. And Dave, and they won an Emmy for our show, which was amazing. It was the episode, The Job.

Jenna and I presented at the Eddie Awards, when you guys won. Right. For the Academy of Cinema Editors. Yes. And we got a big laugh, because Jenna talked about, like, an editor's room being dark and sweaty. And I said that it's the place where this noise comes from. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry's the place where this noise comes from.

Thank you. Oh, big laughs. The editors were going crazy. Here, I'll show you what that sounds like. I should be on Saturday night live. I can do my rewind, girl. Angela, we can't write a skit for that. Really? Because it's gold. Angela, these are amazing. You are an amazing interviewer.

You discussed mini donuts, moisturizing his hands, the knobs in the room. I just went through his office and pointed out everything on his desk. Poor Dave, he's such a good sport. He did show me the closet where his dog Bryce would hang out. I loved Bryce. Bryce had a bed, a blanket, a toy, he had a water bowl, food. He was very cozy in Dave's office. And then I didn't realize that while talking to Dave, I threw shade at Entourage and lost. I loved it.

I thought it was a great interview. It's a horrible interview, but it was really fun hanging out with Dave in his editing bay. I miss those days. Well, you definitely have to post that video on our stories because it's really fun to see as well. I feel like I was there because he was editing Pam during this interview so I'm up on the screen it was really cool. I mean I do have a really good rewind voice I really do. You do? The first time you hear it that's me not

the computer. Yeah and the second time is the computer. I know. It's like which one's which. You don't know should I do it right now? Please of course. It's like which one's which? You don't know, should I do it right now? Please, of course. Okay. It's so good. That was Angela, that wasn't Sam. Mm-hmm. No. That was me. Okay, well one thing is for sure, Dave is the Office Encyclopedia,

and he is here with us today in studio to talk about how he has taken on the very big task of assembling all of the Office super fan episodes on Peacock. I loved our conversation with him because you can really hear how much he cares about the legacy of the Office. Yeah. Dave, along with his team of editors,

are being so thoughtful about these super fan episodes. Yeah, I mean, he shares how they decide what footage to add. And he also, I mean, my gosh, he told us so many treasures that he found while putting these together. It's such a great conversation. Yeah. Dave has been working on these superfan episodes for years. He is now all the way up to season eight and you can find them on Peacock. Oh, and one last thing. We also talked with Dave just a little bit

about the new spinoff show, The Paper. He is working on that as well. So that was fun. Yeah, I know. I can't wait till he can share more about it. I know, and we can share more about it. Our visit. All right, well, we hope you enjoyed this as much as we did.

We're gonna take a quick break and be back with our interview with Dave Rogers. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Every January is a time when I feel like we all reflect. You know, you can really do it any time of the year, but I think, you know, you do feel that reset. You do. It's like you have 365 blank pages ahead of you just waiting to be filled and you can

decide how to do that. I'm so poetic, Angela. Oh, really? Thanks. 365 blank pages. Well, I might have had some help. All right. Well, I'm going with your book metaphor.

Okay. You could think of therapy with your book metaphor. Okay. You could think of therapy as your editorial partner, helping you to write these new chapters and create the meaningful story that you deserve to live. How do you like that? I really like it a lot. BetterHelp is fully online and making therapy affordable and convenient, serving over 5 million people worldwide. It has a diverse network of more than 30,000 credentialed therapists with a wide range of specialties. And you can switch therapists at any time at no extra cost.

Write your story with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com slash office ladies today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash office ladies. Hey, I'm Ben Stiller. I'm Adam Scott. And we make a TV show called Severance. On January 17th, Severance is back for season two on Apple TV Plus. And we can't wait for you guys to see it. And before the premiere, Ben and I are going to be binging season one and putting out daily recap podcasts.

Yep, each weekday beginning January 7th, we'll be dropping an episode featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes tidbits and brilliant insights from our cast and crew and us. Patricia Arquette, Britt Lauer, Zach Cherry, John Totoro, the list goes on. All your favorite Lumen employees, their friends, families, enemies in your feed every single weekday. And here's the best part, after that we're going to keep going. Tune in weekly as we recap every episode of season two. The podcast drops on the same day the episode comes out. It's the Severance podcast with Ben and Adam on Apple podcasts, the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, Dave Rogers. Hello. How are you guys doing?

It is so fun to have you in our studio. I'm just doing like this air hug across the table because I'm so happy to see your face. You have contributed so much to Office Ladies, but like now here you are in person. It's such a treat. Thank you. It's great to be here. It's great to see both of you.

Yeah, listen, I love the office. I love the office ladies. So. Yay. Dave listens to the podcast, and he will email us the most lovely email saying, hey, you guys really crushed that one or great details. It really means a lot to us, Dave, because no one knows the show better than you.

That's the truth. Thank you. That's high praise. A lot of pressure. But I do feel like I'm still living the show. And these super fan episodes have brought it all back where I'm back into my original projects, editing projects, and watching all the old cuts and putting some deleted scenes in and some new material that no one's ever seen before. Yeah.

I mean, how did this come to be? Like, when did they first approach you about creating these superfan episodes? Do you remember that conversation? Yeah, I was on a phone call with Greg Daniels, and I think Howard Klein was on the call, and some of the NBC Peacock executives. And I think, I'm not sure if it tied in exactly when Peacock executives. And I think, I'm not sure if it tied in exactly when Peacock, the streaming site, was starting or if it was just something that they had bought the office

and then that was gonna launch. And so we were discussing all the goodies that we could give them. And I mean just like, we used to pack our DVDs with so many things. We had behind the scenes videos. We had like Jenna's Booze Cruise video. We had bloopers, webisodes, the accountants.

You know, I mean like just, you know, we had all this great material. A lot of times, you know, people like they're just discovering it now. Like they never, they didn't watch the DVDs or they were, you know, kind of got onto the show after the DVDs were a thing and only watched it on streaming, on Netflix or on, you know, cable. And so, you know, I said, oh, this would be great to have a place to put all of this stuff. Like to, you know, just, we've shot promos

that were like full scenes. We would do for the Olympics, you know? We would do stuff for just various like the Super Bowl and even the more you know parodies that we did. Yes. That were, that these were great. And these aired on NBC during the day when the show was on.

But it's nice for people just to be able to have this kind of collection and be able to just access it. That was kind of my dream was to have like a whole office portal that people could just access this stuff. And not have to go to Best Buy and buy a DVD player like I did. Which by the way, I have played my DVDs so much in the last five years. Jenna, I haven't even shared this with you. My DVD player is malfunctioning. It's starting to make a like a Vee-vee-vee-vee-vee-vee-vee-vee-vee-vee-vee-vee-vee

noise and then sometimes I have to hit stop and eject and then like kind of reboot it to get it to work. Anyway, sorry, didn't mean to go off on the DVD. I love the DVDs because we spend a lot of time even just doing the artwork and the, you know, the menus and things like that. Yeah. And we did, we, you know, again, our show, spent a lot of time even just doing the artwork and the menus and things like that. And we did, again, our show, we'll get into it, but as you know, the style of our show,

because we were handheld in a 360 environment, we didn't have so much downtime with lighting and things like that. It was like, hey, we're pretty much lit, small adjustments. So we could, and because of the handheld nature of the show, we could shoot faster. So then they would write longer scripts. So we did have a lot of things that were left on the cutting room floor. I mean, just, you know, just a lot of stuff. And some of it was, was a level material.

But because the, the episodes on TV were, you know, the time was 21 minutes and 35 seconds to fit a half hour slot, including the main title. So much stuff got cut out. Yeah, I mean, it sounds like at first, you were just like, hey, let's just make a compilation of like bonus material that people can find on Peacock. So they don't have to go to the DVDs and it will be this amazing office portal.

Right. We did that and we gave them all of this great extra material, behind the scenes stuff, loopers, all of that. And then Greg said, hey, we have all of this material, all of these deleted scenes. Is there a way we can, you know, re-edit the shows and make- So this is Greg Daniel's idea. This is Greg Daniel's idea. Okay. And he said, you know, and make kind of a, he's like, I don't want to call it like a

quintessential, you know, cut because it's the broadcast episodes we originally put on the air were pretty good. Yeah, yeah. But still he said like, you know, maybe we could do something and really this is for the fans. And that's kind of how the super fan title came about, you know, super fan episodes. And he also, this is very sweet. Part of it was with the

pandemic going on, there was not a lot of work. This was like, you know, he's like, oh, this will keep Dave busy. So that was, you know, part of the thing because we had worked, you know, right before that I had done Upload season one, and we went right into Space Force, you know, so I was working on these two shows. It was great, you know. We had great casts on Upload. Space Force was amazing. We had Steve Carell again. And then that was it. It was winding down in March. We were at home at that point, editing remotely, doing visual effects as the pandemic hit.

So it was a few months later. I think it was June of 2020 when Greg first talked about it and Peacock was like, yep, go ahead, let's go, do whatever you need. And so we got together with, I got Rob Burnett, who was one of my assistant editors on The Office, and he's become an editor unto himself now. I mean, he's great. He did the Mindy Project, AP Bio, Upload, Space Force. And so he works with me on these episodes. And he preps the stuff, but also cuts. And we send stuff back and forth just as editors.

Like I say, hey, what do you think of this? And he'll say, yeah, this, this, this. And then he'll send stuff to me. And I'm like, yeah, this is good. I would tweak this a little, things like that. But we've got all the old projects. So we're back into the, I don't know, I'm just excited. But is this really just like a,

it's like a two man operation. Is it mostly just you and Rob? It's me and Rob, and then we have a couple of assistant editors, Dan Ross and Josh Toomey. And then on the post side, like we have Britt Irwin, who was one of our post supervisors on the office, and Eric Coljens involved. So he's kind of nebulous.

He started with us and then he kind of floats around every now and then. I see like a bill that he paid for or something like that. But it's just us and then Greg checks in and Howard Klein checks in. But they just trust us at this point. It's like to go through the material. And I can tell you more about that process. But it is a skeleton crew putting the stuff together. And then, and we can talk about the finishing though,

because we have, you know, we online these shows, so they look, we want them to look seamless from the original ones. And we have sound mixes and VFX, and it's our same sound mix team, John Cook at Blue Wave, it's who did the office. It's, you know, the same guys, Bobby Maxton from The Office, same guys working on the show.

So, Dave, this is fascinating to me. And as Jenna and I have started watching the super fan episodes, we're picking them here and there, sort of seeing which ones are the fan favorites. And I watched the original airing. I had it on my TV with my DVD player, and then I had the Superfan on Peacock and I watched them at the same time. I synced up the beginning and then I had a notepad and when one would diverge, right, I would make a note, I'd get the time code, and then I'd go to

the shooting draft, I'd see what was new, what was a deleted scene, I would go to the shooting draft, I'd see what was new, what was a deleted, I would go to the DVDs, to the deleted scenes and see like, oh, that's not in deleted scenes, but it's in the shooting draft, I guess we shot it, maybe that's new. So anyway, Jenna and I have been trading crazy convoluted messages to one another, kind of sounds like what you and Rob are doing a little bit.

And I'm so curious to know what your process is about how do you pick what goes in like you must have all this extra footage that isn't in the deleted scenes yeah the first thing I do is watch the show I take the episode I watched the broadcast version right and then I watched the deleted scenes and I watch and again even that we had we had deleted scenes that were on the deleted scenes and I watch, and again, even that, we had deleted scenes that were on the DVDs and even we had deleted scenes that were on NBC. So even just searching.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. And most of the time they overlapped, but NBC always had, the website always had less than the DVD, that's where we would put more stuff. So I'll watch the DVDs. But then I'll go into the assembly and I'll watch the first cut of the assembly and the director's cut

And what I'll do is I have a dupe detector so I can throw the assembly in in the timeline Let me know if I'm getting too technical, but no, but I want this I want the dupe detector. That's amazing So I throw the cut in and we have the you know, we have the online master Which is the you know the picture and then I have all of the tracks underneath, all the original dailies and the audio tracks that we did. The audio is like temp. This isn't the mix track. We have that also.

Right. And the dailies, there's so much. There's so many but we had them all backed up. So I mean that's the thing. We're back in our old projects. I was cursing, I was like, damn it, Dean Holland didn't label this episode like the scenes. You can see mine are all clean and we started having some uniformity early on. I was like, look, we

got to, because if we're jumping into each other's projects, I got to be able to see what scene is this and you got to know what scene. Right, right. We would laugh. We have to have the same system system so you have the dupe so I'll lay in the cut the master and then I'll lay in the assembly and I can see what shots are the same the dupe detector will show me what shots are the same and then what's new so I can go to areas and see oh look here's a couplet as we call it it's like a joke back and

forth that was cut out and I'll watch it and I'll say, oh, this is actually pretty good. So I'll weave it back into the show. Well, that's what's interesting to me. Because sometimes when I'm watching the super fan episodes, I'll notice, well, this scene is all new. Or this talking head is all new. But then I'll be watching a scene like how we watched Hot Girl. And there's the scene where Michael is in the conference

room with Katie, and he's just watching her unpack. And I notice, wait, this scene is in the original, but I think this has like four seconds of extra creeper stare from Michael. And so, yeah, like this would just be like an example of a couplet that gets added back, not a whole scene. Yeah, and that's the thing, because there's a lot of stuff that never could make it

into the deleted scenes, because it's like a joke. Yes, it's like a one-off little thing. Just a comment or something. I noticed one that I thought was so interesting, and I wondered how you did it, Dave, but now that I know about the dupe detector. So Michael has a talking head about how charming he is, but then he's yelling at Ryan, what'd you do to my desktop? Where's my

maps? Where are my maps? But then he goes back to the talking head, but it's overlaid over each other and I was like, how did they do that? But this is how. Well, this is, but some of that, I mean, the dupe detector just helps us to say hey is there stuff that was You know from the assembly that was cut out. That's the first thing that we do but stuff like that then it's editing again It's like oh we have other footage that stuff may have been in the assembly like him yelling at Ryan It may not be that just might be in dailies I mean, it's a so we'll go through look through but we'll through the assembly, and then I'll see also if scenes, I mean, that's the thing even,

I like to say if there's a scene that's in the assembly, a lot of times a scene that was deleted is the same as the deleted scene on the DVDs, but that means it wasn't really polished, like it was taken out in the assembly stage. Like we lost it when we were doing the director's cut. So we've thrown it on the DVD and maybe we've polished it a little bit for the, you know,

to go with the DVDs. But now I have the freedom to kind of go in and clean stuff up. We'll add music if we need to, like where we didn't have the budget for it on the DVDs. I mean, sometimes I've watched some of the deleted scenes and like I can hear the director, you know, things like that. Like so things can get cleaned up, you know, which is nice. I have a couple of rules. Oh, let's hear them.

So I never change a take of the show. Like, I feel that this is the documentary crew have come in and they've gotten more time to make these episodes longer. So they're just adding in more stuff that they've shot. So I'll never change a performance, or very, very rarely. There might be something where I'm like, oh, I need, you know, I'll change a camera angle occasionally, but I'll never, you won't see a different take. If Michael says something this

way, I'm not going to, you know, go to a different take of him saying the same line. I will only add, you know, and that's for all of you. I don't want any kind of parallel universes or anything out there. Yes. I appreciate that. That's like the integrity of the show. So as you're making these super fan episodes, you are doing it as if you are the documentary filmmaker. Yeah. And what has already aired is like, yeah, is sacred.

Yes. I mean, every once in a while, like a reaction shot might come out because we've added more dialogue or something like that, and that was used to cover a gap, let's say. But generally, like, no performance changes. The other thing is that there's no alternate things, like, for example, season three, The Job finale.

We have footage of Karen sitting at a fountain outside the building crying, and she gets a phone call and she accepts the job. So this was like we shot that because we didn't, I guess we weren't sure which way we were going to go. Yeah, you didn't know who's going to get the job. So we shot, that's not going back into a show because it doesn't track with everything we've seen. But I do see there are things like that that pop up and I'm like, no, we can't use that.

That's a different path. We really do our best not to contradict things and not to have continuity errors, things like that. Right, keep the purity of the story art as it was intended. I remember doing every once in a while those alternate versions of scenes and I think there's an alternate version of Jim and Pam walking out of the elevator at the end of the job

or something or Jim walking out or me walking out. I remember we were trying to figure out that moment. Right, we did that. We did shoot that alternate version of you guys in the elevator. I don't know if you're in it and he comes in. That's what I couldn't remember either. I feel like I sent it to you at the elevator. I don't know if you're in it and he comes in. That's what I couldn't remember either. I feel like I sent it to you at the time.

I think you did. You were like, do you remember how we did these alternates? Yeah. You were probably doing your super fan episode. Yeah, but that was the best, you know, I mean, what we got with the job, that moment is just great when he comes in, when you're like, yeah, and then he's like,

hey, are you free for dinner? And you're like, yeah. Yeah, your look is so, so beautiful. What was I saying? And it's just, there's so many little gems like that. Although I did find the rehearsal for the proposal that we shot on the backlot very far away, but we have on our backlot by the trailers,

the post trailer in the back, I guess Paul Feig, it's weight loss. It was Paul Feig who directed weight loss. And it was his idea to do this big rehearsal. Yeah, but we shot like, you know, Jim proposing to Pam. We wanted to see how it would look just being so far away. I remember that now that you say it. It was so trippy.

And I remember now that I was a little bit like, can't you do this with stand-ins? Because when Jim goes down on one knee for Pam, like that's such a big moment for our characters. And I don't wanna like do it here in the parking lot as a screen test or a camera test. I wanna live it the first time. I wanna save it.

And I want there to be cars whizzing by and I want there to be rain. We got all that. But somehow you guys convinced me and I do remember going out in the parking lot that day. Well, I didn't even know this existed though until I found it. Well, I guess those guys convinced me. Yeah, I never, because Dean and I- I didn't know that. There are things like that that I've never seen before,

you know, because I didn't edit all the episodes. So when I'm working on an episode that I didn't originally cut, there are things that I find where I'm like, oh my gosh, like this is amazing. I can't imagine how much amazing sort of like reliving a chapter of our lives that you get to do because I know just for us when I find a deleted scene or a blooper I haven't seen, it just warms my heart and just immediately makes me happy just remembering that time. Is that part of this job for you Dave? Is you open up all these old folders of our lives? Like do you have moments of nostalgia? Oh always. Yeah. But I've just been so involved with the show

for so long it's not like it really went away. And especially since people are always, I guess my algorithm, my social media, everything. The office. Yeah. But even just my nephews, they reached a certain age, then they became huge fans. I'm constantly just meeting people who are,

they just love the show and they're discovering it. And it's easy to see why it's really funny and enjoyable. And just there's so many things that happen throughout the course of the series. Yeah. You know, so I mean, like, I could pontificate about that for, you know, hours, but it's, you know, I'll sit there and stop and watch and laugh. And, you know, I still enjoy it, you know. I mean, that says a lot because you've had to watch so much of The Office, but you still enjoy it, I think is pretty great. Yeah. Are there any things that you found that are like your favorite finds?

All right. So the thing that's really amazing is the, and you guys are partially responsible for this. So I'm editing season, I think it was season six. OK, do you hear the papers rustling? Everyone listening is because Dave has this document of all the episodes. And it is it is like a worn document with like writing and checkmarks.

Like it's got a lot of love on it. What is this, Dave? Is this your list? It's just my episode title list. Like this. this was it. And I had this on the show. We made this on the show. Because a lot of times all I need to do is just see the episode name

and then it'll jog whatever information I need. I'm gonna take a picture of you with it because this is a loved one document. It is. It definitely is. You printed that when the show was on the air? Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And it's got food stains on it. And I could when the show was on the air? Yeah. Oh my gosh.

Yeah, and it's got food stains on it. And I could print a new one. But why? You can see like even the hole punches are on the other side and stuff like that. Like whatever, you know. But I don't know, I just like it. I'm, you know, and it's got marks all over it.

It's got notes. I love it. And things like that. I love it. So job fair, season four, we had a ton of deleted scenes and new material that were not used, season four, we had a ton of deleted scenes and new material that were not used, you know, that were just cut out from this episode.

And one of the things was a cold open. And I'm looking at, and it's a complete cold open. And it's Michael Scott with his toilet buddy. Yes, yes. So it's his invention. Yes, toilet buddy. Yes, yes. So it's his invention? Yes, toilet buddy, toilet guard, where he comes out of the bathroom and he's angry and Dwight goes to help him and it turns out

all of his stuff fell into the toilet and then a couple things he threw in anger. That's my favorite part. So I'm like, oh, okay. I mean, I remember this cold open, but I'm looking, did we put it on another episode? It's like, no. I'm like, okay, it's not on the DVDs, Deleted Scenes, so we must have saved it. But what happened was is that by the time we started season five, everything had changed.

I'm turning the pages again. Yeah, because Toby was gone and Holly came in. So it was like a whole new thing going on. So it just was lost. Yeah, you couldn't plug it in an episode now because there would be the wrong people in the background. Right, right. So that was the thing.

So I'm looking like, wait, did we not put this anywhere? So I go to search on Google like for this, an article comes up from you guys. From Office Ladies? ladies yeah and it says office ladies talk about a scene that was never aired and it was this and in reading that you had a comment though about something where it was oh I love this thing where he throws his keys in anger or something like that would literally that was the there was an extra thing and that wasn't in the assembly version and I put that in.

Oh! That was my favorite part! I mean when I went through to do a polish and it turns out we had so much stuff. We found that in the script. Yes and we reached out to Gene and Lee about it. Again I was looking to see you know is this anywhere I'm checking all these episodes towards the end of season four and then I'm looking at the beginning of season five and then I was like this is weird and? I'm checking all these episodes towards the end of season four, and then I'm looking at the beginning of season five, and then I was like, this is weird. And then I Googled, and then your thing came up. That it said that, you know, there was some news story about you guys talking about this scene. And I think I reached out to you guys and said, hey,

we have it. I found it, you know, and it was never a deleted scene or anything. So that's great when you have a full, a fully fledged scene like that. That's just so funny. And again, I get to tweak stuff. So I love the shot with the tennis racket and Pam's face is behind it, like the way that's framed. And there was just other things where, there were other versions even of the scene. And it was like really carving, what's the best version?

Michael's asking everyone who wants to try? You want to try Kevin? And then, coming back to like Creed or Hymn Say, that'll make a great tennis racket. And then there was Kevin and then, you know, coming back to like Creed of him saying, that'll make a great tennis racket. And then there was an extra piece I think that's in the show in the tag. It's like later Toby goes to his desk and he pulls out his tennis racket and he swings it and it's all bent and broken. That's what Michael did. He used Toby's tennis racket. He just taped it up. And Toby goes like that and he's like, hey, you know, he reacts to his broken tennis racket. Oh, amazing. He just taped it up. And Toby goes like this, and he's like, hey, you know, he reacts to his broken tennis racket. So that was a great find.

That's a pretty good treasure. Yeah. I can't wait now to go watch it. I want to see it in the super fan episode. We found another complete cold open for the Christmas Wishes episode. What is it? Andy leads everybody singing Christmas carols outside. Do you guys remember that? I think we discussed that this was deleted.

Yeah. It was not a deleted scene. No, it was in the shooting draft. It's in the shooting draft. I don't want to say too much but it's pretty funny and he has a couple talking heads and you guys are singing and he's trying to, he's like you guys start doing the echoes like you're singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer like you know, had a very shiny nose like a light bulb. Yeah, yeah. And he's trying to, he's like, you guys start doing the echoes, like you're singing Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer, like, you know, had a very shiny nose like a light bulb. And he's like, guys, no, no, no. And he's trying to convince you that it's really a poignant song. And you know, it's, it's very, I think it's a very funny cold open.

Yeah, one of the things we've loved is having the shooting drafts because we read them and I'm like, okay, the scene isn't deleted scenes. We both remember shooting it. It lives somewhere, it's out there somewhere, but it's with you, Dave. Yeah. ["The Last Supper"] Was there ever a storyline in one of the episodes you edited that you didn't get to include? And so now that you're going back, do you remember those and you're like, I want one

of those in? I mean, I don't know if there's an entire storyline. It's more just scenes. Like a runner. Yeah, I guess that's a better word for it. Because I know sometimes I'll look in the shooting draft and there'll be like a runner with Ryan. There was a runner where he did like a treasure hunt

in performance review. But it's not. It's all in the super fan. That's right. Yeah. And at the end even you discover that it. It was Ryan. It was Ryan himself who gave himself the other thing to do.

Yeah. There's a bunch of runners. I couldn't tell you specifically which ones. But even Meredith, in weight loss is another great example, just because we had stuff going on every week. You know, Meredith gets sunburned. Yes. And she's got the blisters on her face.

Yes. And in the final episode, you kind of see it, but there's no explanation. Yeah. And people wrote in. They're like, what is up with Meredith's face? Yeah. So that stuff gets restored. Those moments that are really kind of funny that we just didn't have time for it. Well, and something that's really nice about that example is that, you know, because the Meredith storyline of her getting sunburned had to be cut out for time, that also meant, like, you couldn't even go to her for reactions because she would have had this sunburn on her face that made no sense.

So then she kind of ends up not existing in those episodes as much as she would have if she didn't have this sunburn on her face that made no sense. So then she kind of ends up not existing in those episodes as much as she would have if she didn't have this sunburn. So now it's like this whole character gets to come back. Yeah, I mean, they happen. It's not too often, but sometimes there is something that it's such a key thing that you're like, we can't even explain this. We don't have the time,

so we just have to kind of cut around it. Yeah, yeah. There's some stuff, like the time, so we just have to kind of cut around it. Yeah. There's some stuff, like I said, where we've added, like even parkour. We've added a bunch of shots into the parkour. We did a bunch of things like they're outside, they're spinning this giant wheel, and one of them jumps on it and then hurts their crotch and things like that. There's just lots of little things that pepper in.

Another great example is business school. Michael is, you know, he's talking to the students at the school. And I didn't, again, I didn't edit the episode originally, but there's two takes of Michael where he's ad-libbing. And not a lot of this made it in because the written stuff was great. But like he's got two takes. Steve Carell is ad-libbing with the students. Oh, fun. And it was just, you know, and so that stuff made it into the show. I'll give you another example of something.

In Michael's last Dundee's, everybody's coming in and they're, again, I didn't edit this episode. I didn't see this footage. Everybody's coming in at the beginning and Dwight is kind of judging everyone. He's like, strangely appropriate, like adequate. Oh, everyone's outfits. I remember. Everyone's outfits. So I'm watching and then there's a take and Ryan comes in. He's like

the last one. But there's a take where someone comes in after Ryan and it's Stephen Merchant. What? Stephen Merchant walks in and Dwight's like, Oh God. And I'm like, this is great. And he starts laughing and I'm like, this is great. We're putting this in the show. Like this can live in the show. So I guess Stephen was probably just like hanging out. He was visiting. I remember that he was there that week. Oh my gosh. And they just threw him in that, that line up. So he came in and nobody was expecting, like Rain was not expecting it. It just was this thing.

And you could see them laughing, but like we clip it right before it becomes a blooper. So it's just like, just one other person comes in and it's like, this is like a real super fan thing. Cause if they recognize him, they're like, Oh, look at that's Steven, you know, co-creator of the original office, you know, coming in. Well, and of course we have Ricky Gervais

in a cameo on the show. And now I love that in the super fan episode, Stephen is represented too. That's cool. So whenever I find stuff like that, I get very excited. And I'm like, oh my god. And I was messaging Claire, because Claire Scanlon cut the episode originally.

I'm like, Claire, there's a shot of Stephen Merchant. And maybe, like, I don't even know if it was in the bloopers. Do you know what I mean? Like, I didn't even, I had no recollection of it. And so that's why I was like, so I was just very excited. I was like, oh, this is great. We're going to work this into the show. And, you know, so.

But what happens when you get to an episode and I'm thinking of like moving on? There's no deleted scenes for that. That to an episode, and I'm thinking of like moving on. Mm-hmm. There's no deleted scenes for that. That was an episode, that was Jon Favreau's episode, that was one episode, that got turned into two episodes. We even had to shoot an extra storyline to fill it out. And that had to be added in. So like, is there anything extra for that?

What do you do? I'm not there yet, so we'll see. Have you had any episodes yet where there's just like, I got nothing? So we started, I didn't know how it was going to work if we were going to do for every episode or just certain ones. And then Peacock was like, can you do for all of them? I was like, yeah. So we started doing that. There were a few episodes. Sometimes it was even just, there just wasn't a ton of stuff. We may have shot an episode in four days, you know, like sometimes we would do that. So one of them was the negotiation, which is a favorite of mine. Mike Schur wrote this one.

It's so good. That's the one Michael wears a ladies suit. Ladies suit, yes. And I honestly, I... Mysterious. Mysterious. Which it has shoulder, and it has shoulder pads. And no pockets. And no pockets.

So don't get us started. And that upset, I also, I tell people like, if you want a great writing, just an exercise, it's just watching that and seeing what a great script it is and how the turns come and how like the act one is one thing and act two goes to another place and act three. I mean, it's just so good and such a good use of the ensemble, like just a, like a perfect episode. Yeah. And there were not deleted scenes.

There were not deleted scenes for that. I don't think there were any, but I found one thing that was like a Michael talking head. And so that made it in and that made it a super fan episode. Oh my gosh. And it was him talking about shopping and like, it was just enough that it wouldn't ruin the episode in any sense. But it was still just something new. So that made it a superfan episode. We have other episodes that are, you know, we did producers

cuts on the DVDs. So I know like maybe starting in season six or seven or eight, we started doing like longer cuts. And it's still like, oh, it's tough then to find it. You know, I still want to give the fans even something more. So it is tricky sometimes just finding, is there anything else? Can we get anything else that's great, that's worth putting in? And even though fans, a lot of them haven't seen these producers' cuts, again, they're on the DVDs. Right.

But, you know, they haven't been on streaming or anything, but still I do, we look hard and we do. Every episode has at least something new that hasn't been seen before. Okay, well this brings me to this question. So, and I know you haven't done season nine yet, but do you have your favorite super fan episodes? If we're gonna go and watch some of these do you

have like your top five that you think are a must watch? You know I love them all. It sounds like Business School maybe. Business School has some great stuff I mean I'm writing that down. Job Fair has a ton of stuff I mean there was a whole storyline and again sometimes it's I have to check my notes to see what's we send a list of the new stuff so it have to check my notes to see what's, we send a list of the new stuff. So it'll say what was deleted scenes and what's new material. We'll send it to Peacock. Like just as we go through and they can even time how much is new material and how much has been seen before in some way. But there's a whole, I mean, there's so much stuff with,

like job fair has like 20 minutes of extra footage. I mean, that's really a big one. There's a lot of stuff. Basketball has a lot of stuff. And Boys and Girls has a lot of stuff. There's a lot of stuff with Lonnie. It's great seeing Lonnie and Madge. Madge has this whole thing where she's wanted in like three states and stuff like that, you know. She doesn't want the camera on her. And there's just more stuff like with Michael, like he goes down there and right away he's fiddling with the boom box and he breaks the antenna and then he tries to like stick it back on. I mean there's, I love that episode.

There's a lot of extra comedy in there. Yeah, I mean so many of these have great stuff. I could do a little more research and message you, like what really are my top five or what I think are worthwhile. I can do that. We will break down Dave's super fan list. Yeah, Dave's top five.

Yeah, I'll do that for you. I'll do that. And if it's more than top five, let us know. But you can start with top five. I'll start with top five. Well, we often debate on the podcast, does a deleted scene count toward the universe of the office or a character?

And we sort of came to the conclusion that no, that if it's said in a deleted scene, it didn't count. So for example, in the episode Baby Shower, there is this deleted scene about where it implies that Kevin might be the father of Jan's baby. Right. And then also in the shooting draft it says maybe it was Andy Roddick. So she got her sperm from Andy Roddick. So what is the true canon of the show? Is it now the superfan episodes or is it the original

airing? You know this is a this is a deep question. We talked to Greg about it too. Yeah, this is my take on it. Like I don't look at deleted scenes as canon. Okay. Okay, because they've been, you know, that's not to say that some of them aren't, but as they're just deleted scenes, I don't look at them as canon.

Okay. As I've gone through and restored stuff to the show, I do look at them as canon. Okay. As I've gone through and restored stuff to the show, I do look at it as canon, because now I see it as like a fully finished episode. I think fans can go back and forth. I think it's really up to the individual, but I look at them as like, now that these things have been put into a show

that's a finished product, so to speak, I can look at them as canon. Well, you've put so much thought into it and you've been really, you know, careful to protect the integrity of the show. So I could see that your locked superfan episode for you is now canon. So here's something. This was a deleted scene originally. Okay.

So this was, this was an episode I directed. Um, I believe it was mafia scene originally. Okay. So this was an episode I directed. I believe it was Mafia. Okay. This is one of my favorites. We love Mafia. In our re-watch. Did you re-watch the Superfan version? No, not yet.

Oh, should we put that on our list? We're writing it down. In Mafia, you know what the deleted scenes are in that episode. Very controversial. Erin is cleaning and she destroys... Oh, she destroys Pam's watercolor. Not in the superfan episode. So in the superfan episode, she doesn't clean, but we still have

her storyline. We've restored enough of her storyline where she's just kind of... She's trying to impress Pam. She's trying to impress. She's trying to impress, everybody's kind of giving her crap and they're like, you'll never be Pam and all this. So I feel like the best elements of that story and even at the, where she calls, we still have her calling and Pam's like, please don't call me again.

Cause that was the runner with Pam and Jim is everyone's calling them. But even at the end of the episode where originally you saw the painting was gone on the wall, we digitally put the painting back in the last two shots. No. Now, in a few other episodes after that, it'll be- It's not there. It's not there.

Whatever. They were cleaning the frame or whatever, the glass or whatever. Did you put it in digitally now? In those later episodes? No. It's gone. It'll be- But I'm saying the end of this episode, there's shots with her and the painting is there. There's never any destruction to the painting. Pam's painting. Yeah. Still.

Still. So I will just buy that they, whatever, they had to clean the frames or whatever they, I don't know, they had to re-flatten the paint, I don't know. Whatever was, that's why it's missing for a few episodes and it's back. But it was never destroyed. It's just one of those things, just like Karen getting the job offer, it never happened. There are some things that we cannot bring back or reinsert into the show. It's like the Voldemort. These things are not spoken, they did not happen.

That's right. But I liked, I appreciated Erin's, you know, it was a shame, but I was like, you know, if we get rid of this beat and we get rid of like the, you know, there's a scene with her and Kelly that we had with Kelly working on the, I was like, you get rid of that, the rest of the stuff is actually very funny and that she's trying so hard. And she even has a moment where she's on the phone with you. She's like, you know, where she's, you know, she's kind of passive aggressive towards you. Like I'll never be as good as you. And it's,

it's just, I thought all that stuff was really funny and worth keeping, a painting still there at the end. Dave, how lucky are fans to have you making these? I know. Because the thoughtfulness with which, and the care that you put into each one of these episodes, just talking about how much time it must have taken you to be like, okay, I want to preserve this very funny Aaron storyline, but I know I can't ever destroy the painting.

And then, but you figured it out. And I know you have taken that same love and care with every single episode, which, and it's just what you put into your work. It's just such a beautiful thing to see. And we're so lucky. Well, thank you. I mean, I appreciate that. It's just such a beautiful thing to see. And we're so lucky. Well, thank you. I mean, I appreciate that.

But I just, I don't know, I just love the show. I mean, it's given me so much. Yeah. But I just, I do, I just love and I care about the show so much. That shows through though, Dave. It really does. Even, you know, we're just entering the world of the superfan episodes and just watching them them I can see how

thoughtful and what butter hands for them to be in. I want to watch them all now. I really do. I mean and thank God it's you. Yeah. Really thank God this wasn't just footage that you just turned over to Peacock and then someone who was never part of the show started tinkering with it. Yeah. When I heard that they were gonna do these super fan episodes, I panicked a little bit. I was a little worried because I didn't know if it was gonna be someone who didn't know the world the way you know it. Yeah, and then when I heard it was you

and it was Rob Burnett and then it was Greg and was overseeing it, I was like, okay, good. And that's the thing, yeah, I didn't want anybody else to, I mean, unless it was Dean or Claire. Sure, sure. I have sent cuts to Claire where I've sent stuff for her to weigh in on like, hey, I didn't want anybody else to, I mean, unless it was Dean or Claire. Sure, sure. I have sent cuts to Claire where I've sent stuff for her to weigh in on like, hey, what do you think of this and stuff. But these are the original editors of the show.

Yeah, and Dean I trust, you know, with things. But I was like, yeah, I couldn't handle anybody else, you know, like doing that stuff. And that's why I mean, like, it's a small group, it's just us. I mean, you know, Rob is amazing and he knows the show so well too. The other thing that I get to do when I'm looking at all the dailies is that I get to revisit the talking heads. And a lot of times we have, you know, different texts for talking heads. The candy bag alts. There were so many. The candy bag alts and things like that. And sometimes they're different enough that it'd be

great to get this other talking head in. In the original show it was like, you picked one for this moment. But now let's say if I have Pam commenting on something and then Angela comments on something, I can go back to Pam again and put another Pam talking head or a Phyllis talking head. So that's been great that I can add these things back in,

these talking heads that were, you know, that are awesome and just, you know, there was no place for them. And you wouldn't put them on a DVD necessarily either because it's like, it's tied to a scene or it's just, you know, I call them like orphans, you know? I think I noticed something like that in this Hot Girl super fan episode.

There are so many talking heads of Michael talking about why he's so attractive to women or why he's handsome or why he's a catch and they're kind of sprinkled throughout the episode and I didn't notice them in the script either I feel like these were some Steve improvs but they're candy bag all yeah there's like three and you even have one that's like as the tag and I was like oh my gosh I bet you must have one that's like as the tag and I was like oh my gosh I bet you must have just unlocked all of these amazing bits of Steve explaining why Michael is such a ladies man. Yeah and and what's really great is

like even with the tags and stuff like that you can we can jump cut now you know what I mean I can for a tag especially you can jump we never would do that in the show but now I feel like it might even be possible in the show I've jump cut some stuff. But in the tag, I can just get you like his best bits. And he goes off on a lot of things. Like basketball, he talks about, he compares basketball to sharks and he's saying how sharks are such, you know, they just want to play. And he goes off on this whole tangent and there's all this B-roll that we plugged in. And actually, Steve Carell actually

directed Secretary's Day. And at the end, when he was doing talking heads with the cast, he would have them do impressions of other cast members. Uh-huh. What? Of other characters. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. So like, Pam does an impression of Jim. Dwight does an impression of Jim. Jim does an impression of Angela. Brian does an impression of Jim, Dwight does an impression of Jim, Jim does an impression of Angela, Brian does an impression of Chandler which I thought was funny and then he's like oh that's Chandler. And are these in the super fan? These are in the super fan. And is this like as a jump cut tag? It's not even I mean it's just one after another they're all just yeah but it's like a

montage of people doing impressions. I wanted to ask you about this because I always felt like when we did Talking Heads and we were handed sheets of these candy bag alts, that was where you could really play around. The writers got to play around, the actors got to play around, and it didn't affect the story that much. So when I thought about you assembling

these super fan episodes, I was like, oh, I bet there's a treasure trove of Talking Heads. Even in the deleted scenes, some episodes are just a list of talking heads that didn't make it in. So I love hearing that because that is just so fun to me. I'm going to look for those. Yeah, there's a lot of great talking heads from you guys. Oh, yeah, some existed as deleted scenes, you know, but like, but maybe only maybe only one. So if there would have been one deleted talking head of like, let's say Creed, you probably have 15 that he did that day.

Yeah, like even early on Pam talks about her house and like she talks about her, I think her dream house, but also about Roy and the family. The family really likes Roy. Like, you know. That was based on my document that I wrote about Pam. Yeah. I was like, why is she still with him?

Cause there's such a mismatch. And I was like, you know what I think it is? I think it's that her family loves this guy, you know? And when your family likes your boyfriend and the families like each other and she likes his family. It's sort of like you're so enmeshed. And I remember like somebody can co-op this

or someone asking me questions and I weaved that into a talking head. The whole thing is, yeah, it's there. Did that make it in somewhere? Yeah, that's in the super fan episode. I think it's season one or season two. Yeah, it must be. But you talk about like the jet skis that he spent the money on, the jet skis, all the stuff

that you came up with, that was recorded. And then, so it's in the episode. Oh my gosh, that means so much to me. So it is a treasure trove of things like that. So I did want to say with the talking heads, it's almost its own animal that these can like now live and we can have more than one where it doesn't feel like, you know, we had the time constraints before and we can only pick one.

I love that, especially as supporting cast. I feel like a lot of times our talking heads were cut for time. So I'm gonna look for all of them. I just, I'm delighted by that. Well, I wonder how many subscriptions to Peacock we just sold in this podcast today. I would think a lot.

And I would think, Dave, it's all because of you. And we wanted to have you on today because you were doing a beautiful thing for the show. And we're so appreciative as fans of The Office. We're both fans. And we, this is not a sponsored episode. We don't get anything for this. I mean, we don't get money for this. I mean we don't

get money for the episodes that air on Peacock. But what you have done here is a gift. It is a gift to fans. It is a beautiful thing. And it's just we're so excited that we get to talk about it and highlight it for that reason. Thank you. I'm excited for you guys to watch them. Like I am like just to see you know to discover. Applause to Dave and Rob and everyone editing the Superfans and putting them together and Claire and Dean. But Dave, before we say goodbye to you, we need to talk about something which we can't talk about. So I don't know how we're going to talk about it except that we got to go to the set of the paper. You were directing. You were directing. We can't say anything else really, but how fun to see you directing and we can't wait to have you on to talk about the paper for reals.

Yes, I'm excited to talk about it. Can't say too much now. It was great seeing you guys. We have a lot of crew that carried over from the office. And Greg was so gracious to have us on set. That was crazy, though, just pulling up. And then the first person we see is Sergio. And then we walk a few steps. Then we walk a few steps, and then there's Kasha. Then we see Kelly Cantley in the hallway. And then there you are. I Then we see Kelly Cantley in the hallway. And then there you are.

I mean, it just was, it was so special. Yeah. Yeah, it is really nice to see familiar faces. I mean, Veda. Yes, Veda. Samarney is there. Rusty. Rusty Mahmood.

Mahmood is there. So there are a lot of familiar faces. And that's, it's always nice. We had such a great, great group of people on the show. We really did. Such a great crew. So it's nice. And there's a lot of great new people that I've been working with too.

So it's, you know. That you will tell us about at some point. That's right. So we can bug them when the paper comes out for all the details on how they designed that set and did those props. Yeah. I will say it was really nice seeing you guys come in on the set. And just like, oh, and everybody, I mean, you guys got a huge round of applause

and everything. Everybody was just very, you know, just they know what you guys have done and what you guys have brought to, you know, television and this universe, this office universe. And, you know, it means a lot. You guys are royalty. Aw. Really. That's so nice.

I was afraid, honestly I knew you guys were coming I was like oh is it the cast is going to be intimidated like are they going to be you know I hope they're not like all super nervous you know. Aw. But they're pros everybody. They're lovely. I feel like I can reveal this one thing because I found it really charming, which is that we also got to tour the writer's space, which was really neat.

When I went into the writer's room and they had all the cards on the board, just like we had cards on the board. But then I looked over at the episode that you were shooting, and there were three photographs from the office, and they were shots of us in cars driving. And I asked about it, and Kelly said, oh yeah, that's because we have some driving shots coming up, and we were just looking at for research, how do you shoot in a car?

Yeah, and Greg was saying the lipstick cameras and you... Yeah, I'm the one who provided the pictures. Oh, of course. And I was, yeah. I took a picture of them. I did too. I was there. I was in one of them.

Well, yeah, because we should, I think yours was probably Andy's Ancestry. Yes, it was me and Nellie. You and Nellie, and I had directed that one. So I had that one. And there was one of Michael and Daryl. Yeah, and that was another one I did. That was Employee Transfer. Those were ones I directed because I had, I remember just struggling,

like how are we going to do the camera angles? Like what do we, you know, because you have to choose. You don't, you know, when you're shooting an interior car scene and you have the, what we call the lipstick cams, you can only get so many cameras in there. Yep. Right. So it's like, do you want the, you know, a raking shot? Do you want a single? What, you know, so this, we were just looking at these kinds of frames and to say like, hey, this is, you know, what we're going for. And I had a conversation with the DP afterwards

because she wanted to show like the camera. She's like, well, we should see the cameras, you know, when we're outside the car. I'm like, nope. I's like, well, we should see the cameras, when we're outside the car. I'm like, nope. I'm like, whenever we did this on the show, we would not, that's the precedent. Whenever we, we would have these lipstick cams, but sometimes we would have, we would go film the actual car and you wouldn't see them.

We didn't want to obscure the actor's faces. We just buy that these are very, very tiny cameras that are in there. And then we'd take, yeah. That's such a good point. So this is so interesting then because you are now on the paper preserving the look of the office because it's the documentary crew. It's the same documentary crew. So they will have shot it the same way.

There's still some new things that they can do. But yes, there are certain things that, you know, like this is the point is that it exists in this universe. We're not doing like enough. I mean, there are so many mockumentary shows out there right now. And, you know, that's one thing I'll say, Greg, you know, he kind of wanted to get back to basics with, you know, the style of the office and like, I don't want to have and feel like there's 15 cameras around, Yeah, right. And so, you know, and there have been a lot of, I think, important creative decisions on just, you know, everything from the casting to the set to the, you know, style of the show and what we're doing. So yeah.

Well, we're excited. We're excited to see it. Last question for you, Dave, before you leave. You had mentioned that you still have a bottle of champagne in your fridge from Aaron Sorkin. Yes. Will you tell that story? Oh my gosh. Well, one day we got a, Greg shared an email with us.

I guess Aaron Sorkin had written, Aaron Sorkin, you know, the great writer who's done, I mean, just a few good men, The West Wing, one of my favorite shows. He did The Newsroom, another amazing show. He had written Greg a letter and he just said how much he loved The Office, the writing, the cast, the editing. Do you remember? Greg printed it out and put it up at craft services.

That wall that we had to walk past to get on the soundstage had, you know, people's wedding announcements, a baby photo of whoever had just had a baby photo of the, whoever had just had a baby and then this big, this letter from Aaron Sorkin in the middle. Yeah. So there's, and he had given Greg like a case of a Don Perignon. So I got a bottle and it's still in my fridge. How many years have you had that? I mean, how many years, 15 years? When did we get it?

When did they get it? I don't know. A long time ago. When are you going to open it? I don't know. There were times where I wanted to and then other people are like, oh, no, no, no, you want to save that. It's so good.

Like, you don't want to just drink it on New Year's or do you? And I'm like, all right, just live it in the fridge. Maybe this year or next year. I'll make sure I drink it. Does anybody want to share? Yes. Come over. We'll come over for some Aaron Sorkin champagne.

Let's have some. We'll watch a super fan episode. How's that? Oh, yes. I love that. I love that. All right. Well, Dave, we love you so much.

Thank you for being here today. I love you guys. Love you, Dave. Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's really, it's, I love your show. We're going to talk more about the Star Wars holiday special. No.

No. Oh man. But I love you guys. I love what you're doing. And yeah, I'm a fan. I'm a fan. Aw, thanks Dave. Thank you.

Dave Rogers is the best. The best. Dave, thank you so much for being in studio with us today. We just love you. And we want to say thank you to Dave and his whole team for treating our show with such love and care. You can check out all of the Superfan episodes on Peacock. And we can't wait to get Dave's must watch list. I know.

Thanks, everyone. We'll see you next week. Have a great one. Have a great one. Have a good one. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins, our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbaco. Odyssey's executive producers are Jenna Weiss-Berman and Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies is mixed and mastered by Chris Basil. Our theme song is Ruppertree by Creed Bratton.