Hello, everybody, Guess what it's me, Brian Baumgartner here, welcoming you very warmly to a very special episode of Off the Beat. What a year it's been, am I Right? Where did the year go? I can't believe we're already
to the end of twenty twenty three. I don't know about you, guys, but I tend to get a little nostalgic at the end of the year, and I can't help but reflect on everything that's happened this year, the memories made, all of the fascinating people that I have had the great good fortune and pleasure of meeting and speaking to, and most of all, getting to share so many of those conversations with all of you, my truly
amazing listeners making this podcast. This is a highlight for me every single week, and I want to thank all of you for allowing me to keep doing it for another year. And since I'm being sentimental, guess what We're going to take a look back on this year of Off the Beat. Listen back to a few of the many insightful, informative, and at times extremely funny moments that have happened on the show. Now, this isn't a ranked list,
or even moments in any particular order. In fact, there are so many more moments I wish I could have included. But if I truly wanted to put in all of my favorite moments, well then you would just have to listen back to every single episode this year. So I thought i'd save you a little time pick out just a few fantastic clips that I love, and I hope that you will too. Let's die, shall we? To start us off, let's listen to this story from the legendary
Angela Gibbs sharing how she started off. And well, it wasn't as Angela Gibbs per se. You'll hear what I mean.
I was very political. I was a hippie slash revolutionary. Remember my name is Angela. They were looking for Angela Davis.
You know.
I thought it was it was on me to carry on, you know, And so I went to Africa, changed my name Totamu. Don't tease me, and you know it was Tamu. Yes.
And why why wait, I'm not hening to just let it go?
Oh come on now?
Why?
Well you know what back then?
Does that mean something?
Yeah?
Well yeah, well here's okay. This is where it gets worse. The story starts to go downhill because my name was Utamu, and that was, you know, taking on my African culture and heritage. And I wanted a new name to kind of, you know, express my connection to Africa. The problem was the friend who gave me the name. The problem was this, people would say, oh, Tamil, what does that mean right? And I said, sweetness, can you imagine I'm a young woman, not bad looking. The guys are like, yeah.
I bet you are.
I'm like, this has nothing to do with the revolution. I want a new names. So my son teases me, I got a name changed to Aoka, and then they call me a Yoka for a while that meant light, she comes with light. Turns out my middle name, Elaine, means the same thing. So I eventually just trapped it off. My mother knew what she was doing because I came from Africa and I said my name was Utamo, and she said I named I said, well, I'm not answering anything but Utami, and I'm a vegan terry. My mother
says she has lost her mind. But I digressed. I digressed, so I came back and back then there weren't a lot of roles that we could play as black women. So I decided to go away to college, and she teases me because she's still knocking down doors. I've worked with John Foresight, I've had a pilot, I've had some things. I've been on Samford and Son, I've done the film.
And I left.
I left, you know, and I kind of looking back now, I used to regret it. I used to think it was a mistake because when I came back, my mother was Florence. But like, maybe I made a mistake, Maybe I should have stayed in La But I'm glad because I wanted to have a purpose even as a young woman. I wanted my life to matter. I wanted to be involved in things that made a difference in the community and ended up coming back and opening up a theater. So it was meant to be. Not Brian, I didn't
know it was gonna take you this long. Didn't take a long time.
You wanted to take a short break and a little bit locker.
That's right, that's right. So you know, Shirley Ralph, she's singing my song when she said don't give up. You know, my saying is if you stay in line, your turn will come. So when I came back, I realized I loved this so much that hey, whether I make it or not, and you know, make it meaning and whether I make a living at it or not, I got to keep back it. And I think when I finally got there, things started to change. You know. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Well, I for one, am very glad that she came back stateside and did what she did here. And I'm glad she's stuck with the name Angela too. In fact, there might be something special about that name, because I spoke to another extremely successful, brilliant and hilarious Angela this year, Angela Johnson Reyes. Here she is describing how she weaseled her way into a very fortuitous gig on a little
show you might have heard of. You start in Los Angeles, you move, your friend is helping you, and fairly quickly you get to do that thing, which is stand by a car, and you're on friends. Is this right as a regular extra for a couple of seasons. Yes, I don't remember you, but I believe you were there.
Listen.
I people will screenshot me and tag me on social media. Sometimes they'll be like, is this you and I'm like, yeah, girl, believe it. And my hair was so long, it was like down to my waist, like I was like young and vibrant. But yes, I remember, I thought I had made it. I was like, this is it. I'm here and living in my dreams and even the story of
how that happened. I remember going to Central Casting, where you know, they cast all the extras for TV shows and movies, and my friend who said she was going to help me get started, she kept her word and she told me exactly what to do. She was like, this is what I want you to do. I want you to go to Central Casting. There's going to be a line of people waiting out the door, but don't
wait in line. I want you to come with a tray of cookies and your radar at headshot, and I want you to just go to the front window and ask for Sam and then give him your head shot and the cookies. Tell him you're new to town and you want to be an extra. And I was like, this sounds real sleazy. It's just I don't know what
cookies mean in Hollywood, but you listen. And so I show up to Central Casting and sure enough, there's a line of people outside waiting to sign up to be an extra on TV, and I'm like passing all these people with my sleezy cookies, like they know exactly what I'm doing. And this is probably, like I don't know, a month after the Super Bowl. This is after the readers were just in the Super Bowl. I show up
and I'm waiting for this guy Sam. He comes walking out from the back offices and he's wearing a Raiders hat and I was like, oh my god, no way. He's like, hey, what's up. And I give him the cookies and my Raider at headshot and I was like, this is for you. And he sees my radar at headshot and he's like what, no way. Like clearly he's just like the biggest Raiders fan. We just came off the Super Bowl, like no freaking away Raider at Oh my gosh whatever. And he's like, yeah, here, give me
your name and number. I'll call you blah blah blah whatever. So I do that and I leave. I don't even sign up, and he calls me like two days later and he's like, hey, do you want to be an extra?
Friends?
And I was like, you mean, like my favorite show of all time. Yes, I do want to be an extro. Friends, And so he signs me up in the system, and I don't know what I'm doing, but he gives me all my instructions. Park in this parking lot, walk to this stage, blah blah blah blah blah. And I remember my first time walking on the Warner Brothers lot and
it was just magical. It was like butterflies and just goosebumps and walking by the sound stage and then you know the smell of a sound stage, like it's that paint and wood and there's just something about it. And it's just like all the things are like this is wow, this is movies, this is TV, this is I'm doing it.
And I remember walking into the stage at the big door was open, and I just walk right in and you see like here's the guy's apartment, here's the girl's apartment, here's central perk, and here's you know, the studio audience where the audience sits. And I just remember walking in and being like a kid in a candy store, could not believe I was living my dream, like I was just here to be an extra, but that was not even what was on What I was on. My mind was like I cannot believe I made it, Like I
am here. This is wild. And I ended up making friends with the ad who was very funny and I was funny, so we would just make each other laugh. And so he'd be like, Okay, I'm going to bring you back tomorrow, and I'm like, okay, cool, i'come back tomorrow. And then he's like, okay, I'll bring you back next week.
And next thing you know, I'm an extra for season nine and ten, like a regular, just in the coffeehouse, and they end up inviting me to their Christmas party and I was able to have a conversation with every single one of the cast members without me being that weird extra who's just trying to talk to them.
You know.
Yeah, it was just an incredible experience that's still until this day, twenty years later. It's my favorite job I've ever had.
Now, coming from a woman who was a former Raiderret went on to be on Mad Team and had a hugely successful stand up career, it is pretty high praise that being an extra on Friends is still her favorite job. My next guest also had a stint on Friends, well not on the show itself, but Kevin Riley was an executive at NBC during its run. There, let's hear him discuss how another enormous primetime hit came to be and
one that didn't do so great. You also during that time developed Er the network, and you supervised the first season of Law and Order. I mean, these are legendary primetime television shows, both going over twenty seasons. So I guess they let you off of the Saturday morning events.
They did they Yeah, then I kind of came back and did that again. Crazy. You know, the success squeaks its three through in weird ways, you know, like we went through in the office, where you know, a super impactful generational show barely squeaked its way through life. I mean that was my experience more often than not. I mean Law and Order, which is now thought of as like this insane institution. You know, for a lot of listeners were probably like, yeah, my mother's watched it forever.
But at the time it was this very novel thing. Dramas were not selling into syndication because nobody wanted to buy one hour shows, so Dick Wolf literally designed it as two half hour shows originally that we're going to do the Law and the Order, but then they could be joined on the first run on television, but then
they would be syndicated separately. NBC bought the show not because they wanted this this was Dick's like big show, but they wanted his hit show, which was going to be a thing called Nasty Boys, which was these guys with a souped up boat and they were a squad that came in in mass and they seized your property for drug raids and things, and when they did, they got to keep it. So they had super cool motorcycles
and boats. And it was not a good show. And I'm working on I'm, you know, now, only a couple of years into my career, and they kind of gave them to me in this and I oversaw them. Everybody's like, how's Nasty Boys going. I was like, you know this thing Law and Order is like really, oh yeah, that's
talk about Nasty Boys. So Nasty Boys aired, I think it like came and went in less than one season, and Law and Order was not a huge hit at the gate, but was always a very kind of groundbreaking show at the time in terms of its rhythms and
the kind of the dour. It was one of the early shows that talked took policing as police was kind of talking about a job, you know, like guys would be there like, you know, talking about their donuts and sort of stepping over the body, not like the old cops who were like we just saw this case, you know, which was like the old school way, like they're like, yeah, look, we see a lot of this stuff. And you know, witnesses weren't cooperative and lawyers had to make deals and
those were like kind of a step forward. And then you know, that was an institution. And then Er was a similar kind of thing where it was when it was screened. It was in the screening room from the powers. It'd be were like, we don't get it.
Right. Talk to me a little bit. Because those two shows I consider at least differently what people refer to as procedurals. Yeah, and then there's what's the opposite of.
That, Well, there were serialized shows, so two different things. So the procedural means a closed ended thing, you know, And that's one of the reasons that Law and Order had such incredible staying power. You didn't need to see season one, you didn't need to bring season five to catch up. You just you could drop into any episode a body dropped in the beginning, and the crime was solved.
At the end, case closed, and they've done. I don't know at this point between the franchise of all the different iterations, I don't know how many hundreds of episodes, thousands maybe at this point. But Serial Eye show, which ER was, and many other great shows and many of the biggest shows today are you know, it's an ongoing storyline.
Now.
You had procedural elements in ER, which is you know, the the medical cases would close, you know, come on, stat get on the thing coming away. Somebody's gonna lose she's gonna lose the baby. You know, oh great, at the end of the thing they saved the baby, like so all right, so that's closed. But the ongoing soap opera part of it, if you will, would go on sometimes the whole season, right, and then you had to kind of catch up, and you know, it was really weird.
You know, it was a very sticky way of watching television. But you think about it now, there was no catch up or binge device. You had to just kind of watch to stay.
You had to watch next time you're watching Law and Order late at night, maybe in a hotel room or wherever you happen to be flipping through the channels, be sure to thank Kevin and the Nasty Boys, of course for putting it there for you.
We'll be right back.
We're back, just like I told you. And our next clip comes from the brilliant actor and comedian Maz Jobrani, who was born in Iran and raised in California. Let's hear him talk about some well shall we say, cultural differences he had to bridge between his Iranian upbringing and his American dreams coming to America.
I mean, you know, as a six year old and then seven and all those young ages, you don't want to be different, you know what I'm saying. It's like the last thing you want is to be different. And first coming over from Iran to America, Iran I think had some European influence, so my mom would dress me up a little more Europeany, and already in America they're like, you know, what's wrong with you? Why are you wearing those clothes? And then and then there was times when
like just little minor things became big things in our grade. Right, so we had a day called Pizza Day, and Pizza Day was where every kid was going to bring some ingredient to the school. We're going to cook pizza together. This is I think third grade. And so I was in charge of sausages. So I go grocery shopping with my mom and my aunt and in Persian the word for hot dog is so cise, sausage so cise. So
we're there, I go, I need sausages. I go, oh, you need so cise, So give me a pack of hot dogs, which really is like, I mean, it's a small sausage. Really, I mean sausages are it is. So I show up with a city, you know, pack of hot dogs, and of course all the kids.
Ah, he brought hot dogs.
I go, no, these are sausages.
Those are hot dogs.
You know.
It's like ruin my my, my whole life. And I go home and tell my mom these are not this is hot dogs, like this is so cis. Now that story comes full circle when years later I went to study abroad in Italy. When I was in college, I'd go to Pizzaiha and they have pizza with hot dogs on it.
I'm like, you bastards. I was right all along. So Yeah, so I was just trying to blend in. Man, I just wanted to be American. I mean I played baseball, I you know, American culture. Like that's probably where I discovered listen.
By the way.
Also, my dad and I think this was just parenting of the time. I didn't play catch with me or any of that. I mean, he was a great father. He was very generous, he was giving, right, he wasn't like, let's go outside and play catch, you know. So because of that, like I was learning a lot of stuff from American television. So I'd sit there and watch hours. I'd watch Woody Woodpecker, Popeye, Leave It to Beaver, all
these reruns. That's how I think I came upon comedy my first you know, like finding Eddie Murphy when I was ten years old and going, what's Saturday Night Live?
I want to do this?
You know.
So, yeah, I was trying to blend in.
Yeah I read Eddie Murphy was one of your first loves. That sounds weird, but yeah, one of your heroes, one of your first heroes. There you go in comedy. When did you start performing? Were you in school plays or Yeah?
It was basically so in the seventh grade, they had a musical. I went to Delmar Middle School in northern California and Tibron. They were doing The Boyfriend and I don't know why we all decided to do but as a handful of guys decided to do it, some girls and I go, let's try this. So I go and I auditioned, and again it was seventh and eighth, so most of the leads went to the eighth graders. Seventh graders were just background dancers. And there was a lady
named Shirley Bombright. She was our director. And Shirley Bombright said, when you're doing a musical, when you're on stage, you always need to be smiling, when you're dancing, smiling and singing and radiating.
Oh and she said.
The other thing she said is you're part of an ensemble, so you better be here. So one day I go to the rehearsal. I go, Miss Bombright. I just got to let you know I'm a little under the weather. I got a cold, but you told me I got to be here, so I came. I'm here, and then we start the rehearsal and I'm up there, I'm singing, I'm dancing. I'm smiling, and then she stops.
The whole rehearsal. Everybody stops stop.
She goes look at him, look at him. You see him. He's sick. He's here, he's singing, he's smiling. You got to learn from him. And I was like, oh, that's me. So it was a moment of like positive reinforcement made me feel I can do this. And then the year later, eighth grade, I come back and I get the lead. I'm little Abner and Little Abner, and you know, I've been bitten. I loved it and I just wanted to
do it. And every time I tell I tell a story how like throughout my schooling, they would always be like, oh, you've got what it takes to do this. So my parents would come to the shows and the director or the teacher would say, you know, your kids got the thing for this, and my parents, oh, thank you. Thinking we get in the car, my dad would be like, that bitch is crazy. Don't listen to her. You're going to be a doctor or a lawyer.
You know.
So they didn't see the spark inside you. They were not interested in you pursuing this as a career.
Yeah, that they didn't see the spark is that. I think, you know again, immigrant parents, that's all they knew, and it was a previous generation. I was just talking to somebody about how my daughter's twelve now and I'm encouraging her to become a DJ okay, and I was like, if I went to my Irani dad back then I want.
To be a DJ, I'd be like a D what you know, You'd be like, what are you talking about it?
But you know, we live in a different world where people are making millions on TikTok or whatever, and so back then I don't think they understood at all what this meant or how it went.
I think you turned out all right, mos, and I know your daughter will make a fantastic DJ. My final guest for today is my dear old friend Rain Wilson. You know him, of course as mister Dwight k Shrewd from the office, but maybe he kind of sort of wishes you knew him for some of his other stuff too.
But now my son is going off to college, can you leave it now? Walter was born Walter was born during the Hot Girl, Perse Girl episode of season one, right in a really traumatic.
Berth yes you ran from set to go to the hospital because there was a medical issue. Yes, I know.
And now he's going off to college, so I'm going to have more time to do theater.
He he's the physical embodiment of how long we all were together. Just as he grew it was like, oh wow, we've been together a long time. And now he's going off to college, which is nuts.
Nuts yeah, just not nuts.
Yeah.
But once he's gone, he's our only kid, and then.
I've got a little more freedom, so i can go do theater for very little money for six months here or five months there. So I'm very excited about about doing that because for me, you know, I always have a little bit of the mystical, spiritual nature in me, and for me, acting is about there is a magic about transforming into characters.
Yes, and people.
Always are like, you know, Dwight gets so much attention and focus about who I am as an actor and as a person, and that's great.
I'm so grateful.
Those nine years were magical, amazing, what a great character. The writing, the cast, the thought, the you know, the producers, everything like that, the fans, the support, it's it's it's been incredible. But people don't realize this, and a lot of people aren't. In the acting world, like, I played dozens of characters before I played Dwight, and since I've finished Dwight, I've played another couple dozen characters. So for me,
it's about transforming into characters and telling stories. I played Hamlet in school. I did Eugene O'Neil at the Arena stage. I did Philadelphia Here I come at the Guthrie.
I did you know?
I did Shakespeare tours. I've done lots of little I played the guy in Supermarket and CSI.
But they're all characters. They're just like you know.
I hope that when I die, people will yes, I look at DWIGHTE but be like, wow, look at all crazy different characters this guy played, like right, this was a panopoly of a very different characters, dozens and dozens and dozens over his life.
And I love that act of transformation.
It's so satisfying to me to just to build and develop and play a character and then play a completely different character, you know, than the month after.
Yeah, I feel I really feel this way that for you and I I think we have a unique bond and excitement about what you just talked about like actually creating the physicality, the inner life, the external differences from ourselves and melding that with who we are. That that for me as well, that is really my favorite thing in the world.
Yeah, like just it's I keep using the word transformation.
Yes, you walk different, you speak different, you think different, you see the world different, you have a different kind of energy. All of these things need to transform to create a character. Now, of course, I'm it's the basic building blocks are Rain Wilson. So I'm going to be using this big, weird, ungainly body and I'm going to always see things through a certain lens, so you're always going to see Rain Wilson in those characters. And that's
also a magical thing. But that's what I love about the theater, and I think why you know, people have always loved the theater and they love to see their favorite actors transform.
Do you resent that people only want to see you be Dwight?
Sometimes I do, to be really honest, you know, to be perfectly frank, It's just like I'll do an independent film that I worked my ass off on and play a villain or you know, played something completely different than me, you know, unhinged, person or something you know, really funny or whatever, and I'll promote it on like social media. They'll be like, hey Dwight, yeah, yeah, right and exactly, and it's and it's it's like, guys, I get it, I got it.
You love the show. I do too.
It's beautiful, but also can you respect me as an artist and that I'm trying to do some other things here too. But at the end of the day, I've been really lucky because I even think, like the last ten years since I got out of the office, I've done a lot of really cool stuff. I did this show Backstrom, no one really watched it. I did the show Utopia.
Backstrom is the role you stole from me.
That is God.
I wanted to play that role so bad and they just really wanted you. I wanted to play that role. We've discussed this. It's not in a long time, but literally, when I look at your at your at your when I looked at your sheet and I see Backstrom, I'm like, motherfucker that one. That one's still yeah.
Yeah, there's another version of Backstrom.
There's another in a lot of maybe it would have worked and been better and stayed on the air with you as.
The no as the cop. No, that's true.
Well, but the point I'm making is that you know this show Utopia and Amazon, I did Harry Mudd on Star Trek and a bunch of independent films and some theater, and like, I really love the actor's life that.
I've had post office. Yeah, people haven't given a ship about any of it.
Like, no one is like what, but it's been really Uh, it's been fun for me. And these have been some really great, satisfying characters. And then part of me has thought recently like, oh, this is the life I always wanted.
Like I'm living the life I always wanted. I'm getting to play all of these cool roles. People haven't really vibed with them.
That's okay, damn it.
Rain. He always has something so deep and consequential to say. It's a great lesson to do what makes you happy, even if it's not always someone else's thing. I hope the upcoming new year brings all of you at least a little closer to the life you always wanted. And I'll be back next week or some more of my favorite memories from our year here at Off the Beat. Until then, happiest of holidays and have a great week off. The Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
alongside our executive producer Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris and Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is Ali Amir Sahed. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton