Oh my god, that's it right there, scrant the Electric City. It's been seven years since The Office finale aired and we had the Scranton Rat Party here. I haven't been back since. Really, in exploring anything about the Office, I felt like it was important to come back here to Scranton. It's not really where it all started, but it somehow feels like it's where it all started.
My name is Michelle Dempsey and I'm a co chair of the Office Convention in the Office Rat Party.
My name is Tim Holmes. I'm a co chair of the Office Convention in the Office Rat Party.
Hello everybody, Bonus episode alert. That's right. You thought you were done with me for twenty twenty three, but guess what. I'm back baby. Off the beat, of course, this is Brian Baumgartner. Now, I told you I get sentimental around the holidays, and I meant it. I got so sentimental that I decided to bring an episode back. I mean way back, an episode I recorded a long time ago, one of my favorite episodes from one of my favorite places ever, Scranton, Pennsylvania. Now, if you know me, you
know how much I love it there. One of the reasons is that every time I visit, I'm welcomed not only by the city, not only by its incredible residents and the students there at the University of Scritton, but by my dear friends Michelle Dempsey and Tim Holmes. I call them the Ambassadors to Scranton because one, they love Scrinton, but two they also are some of the biggest Office fans around. They organize the very first Office convention and the rap party for the show that we did back
in twenty thirteen. They've helped me with various book tours. In fact, pretty much every time I go back to Scranton, they are my wingman and my wing woman for whatever it is that I'm doing there. Going back to Scranton always feels like home. I know many of you have returned home during this holiday season, so for my last episode of twenty twenty three, I wanted you to enjoy my little trip back home. Here's Tim and.
Michelle Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and Squeak, A Bubble and Squeaker cooking at every mole lift over from the nine before.
I was driving down the highway here and we got off and there was the mural there. I started no joke. I started getting emotional when I just like, I just saw the sign.
Honest to God, when Scranton heard you were coming, you felt the electricity search through the city.
I'm not kidding, are you?
Every my phone hasn't suffering. I'm sure Tim has been the same way it has been everybody and anybody who thinks they might be you know they it has just been on fire. And since your since your tweet, Yeah, we were trying to keep it under.
Let's love them, yeah.
And then your treat went out, We're like, okay.
It's on Well. John just kind of he was because I talked to him yesterday and then he was like, will you send me a photo? You send me a photo? And I sent John the picture. And the true story is I like put my phone in my pocket and then it like buzz is what seems like fourteen seconds later and it's I don't know if you guys remember Steve Socks. I think he was here at the rap party. He was like the long time stand in, like like he was like Steve stand In or am I anyone
stand in on the show? And I look at my phone, I'm like Steve Socks and he goes, hey, if you're with Krazinsky telling me owes one hundred dollars for the fantasy football buy end this year, because he's like the commissioner. And I'm like, how does he know it with Krazinski? And then suddenly my phone went like, you're with John tell him this you're blah blah blah, And I was like, oh my god. He posted it like so quickly after
he got his hands pretty nimble. I guess, yeah, Now, how did you first find out about the Office?
Well?
I was a huge fan of the British version of the Office. Okay, so when I heard that the Office was coming to America, yay. And then when I heard with Scranton, I actually panick. I paniced. I was I went, I didn't know the mayor well, but I like, like march to city Hall, Like, this is not a good thing.
This is not a good thing because Slow they are not kind to slough in that show, and the mayor was trying to turn Scranton around and we were on this up swing and and so I thought, you know, do Slow was really the road to nowhere in that show. And Chris Doherty, who's the mayor at the time, he's like, well, I talked to Greg Daniels and who's the creator of the American version, and he said, he's you know, it's gonna be different, like he's going to be good to
the city. And I took a deep breath, like, Okay, that sounds good, and I hope this Greg Daniels is everything he told you he is, And like, could I think higher of Greg Daniels, I don't think so. Like he he meets Granton like another quirky, lovable character on the show. Right, he captured the essence of who we are and that, you know, to me is important because
it's forever changed the perception on the outside. It finally let people like the perception wasn't what the reality was to us and now they match, right, Like the perception is the reality. And the Office was the springboard for that.
Like it really had an impact on Scranton, like huge, And I know we'll talk about that a little bit, but there's the before the Office and after the Office for Scranton and for when you leave Scranton and tell people where you're from, Right, what used to happen is like I'd say I'm from Scranton, people be like oh, I'm sorry, right, right, right, like really right. And I always I never knew what they were sorry about, because I always loved to hear and thought it was a
great place. But now it's I'm from Scranton. It's like, I love the office and it's your instant bond across the world with everybody, and you'll hear from all these people the connections and the love and the interesting moments that they've had outside of the area telling people that they're from Scranton. Right, And I think there's a cool story about how Greg picked Scranton too that folds into pain.
Yeah, go ahead.
So actually Tim tells this better than I do. So, so this is.
Greg's words, not ours, and we're obviously paraphrasing, but it is our understanding that he chose, you know, basically, when he's looking where he's going to do. Philosophically speaking, it's a it's a satellite branch, so it's got to be a kind of a smaller city. He felt that it had East Coast sensibility, so he was kind of looking at the East Coast. When he decided the home office would be in New York City. He began to look at cities with which in might be a two hour
driving distance. So he looks at Strand, Pennsylvania, Stanford, Connecticut, Utica, New York, Nashua, New Hampshire. These may all sound familiar because they all wind up being the branches and so, and that's when he sends out these teams to go check out, and Johnny Ka happens to be one of them coming into Scranton. So, you know, from what we understand, there was a lot of little happy circumstances because it
wasn't only penn Paper. There was another place here called paper Magic, which is also a place that John visited. And paper Magic is the one that had a greg members getting a greeting card that had paper Yeah, a
paper Magic Scranton, PA. So he kind of had that in mind, you know, and he's he he did say, you know, he might have just been being nice to us, but he felt Scranton was kind of the one to beat because he felt it was a big enough name just because of how big we were during the Industrial Revolution and a bunch of things, you know, for a little town, we have a big name, you know. And ultimately everything fell into place and it and it worked out wonderfully for the show, for us, for everybody.
Involved, from Magic makes all those valentines that used to give out.
In Great School and.
Paper Magic, scrant Pa on the back of all of them, and he remembered that. So it was a confluence of things, right, and that was one of them.
Yes, And he also thought the name Scranton was a funny thing to say, and it is. There's a lot of consonants all in a row, but it works around in your mouth a little bit. And so that's that was the one thing.
And if you're from here, you don't pronounce the tea.
Right, scr scrit right, So so you you were born here.
I was born here. Yeah, So that was how I heard about the office. And then probably a few years into the show, I have an architecture firm, and I was at work and I opened up my web browser and there was just an article. You know, they'll populate. There was an article about Preston, Idaho getting this little economic boom from people who were fans of the cult classic, the cult movie Napoleon Dynamite going there to see all the sites. I'm like, we're the fictional home of Don
tre Mifflin that seems like cooler. We should invite everybody to come here and like have like invite the actors to come here and see the city and show people what it's like here, and they'd have a great time. They'd meet with the fans, the city, you know, would be on display. Be a win win win, which is what we ultimately that's that's what we ultimately pitched, right win when right. But that's where the idea came from, and it literally went nowhere, and this is where Tim
comes and went nowhere. I met with like three groups of people until somebody was finally like, I have to introduce you to Tim Holmes, right. I didn't know you at We didn't know each other at all, which is crazy to think of a time I didn't know Tim and the Homes family right right right, And so we were introduced and Tim instantly saw the you know, he got it, yep, all right, here's what we're gonna do. And then he went to Tim mode right.
Right right now? Did you know the show? Were you watching the show?
So I was definitely familiar with it, but I wasn't as immersed in it as Michelle was. Right, So I certainly saw the value in it, but it was definitely something that we were all beginning to see license plates from Ontario and South Carolina and everything driving through town that doesn't happen in Scranton, right, but it began to happen, and we're all like, yeah, I guess what you're saying. Michelle Is made an awful lot of sense.
So and like we were doing things. Just to be clear, Tim worked for the local newspaper and I was an architect. We had no background and anything, okay, Like like Tim did planning events locally, right, so he knew how to put an event together. But this was going to be bigger than anything I think you'd ever for sure. And so here I am an architect, he's his marketing. We come up with this big idea. We got all these
partners on board, I remember at one point. Then then we had to go through everybody's act like agents and managers, right, Like everybody I'm calling I'm like, hello, Hi, I'm representing office convention, right, I'm I'm putting together contracts. I'm like I'm like, I'm like what am I doing?
Staring at a white piece of.
Paper and I'm like negotiating? Like this was crazy. We had to do it all right.
It was like Tim and I had to do all of that, which is exactly why I think Greg liked it because he could see it wasn't like some outside group that was coming in and trying to monetize this thing. It was not set up to be a you know, a for profit thing, which is why you guys gave us a break on talent fees and you know, and they helped travel and all this other kind of stuff. They could see right from the get go that it
was it was a partnership. The partnership was with the Cetius Grant, and it was with the County, it was with the Visitors Bureau. We weren't selling you know, sponsorships where you had to put a shirt on that said somebody Sonoko Like, we weren't going to you know, we knew enough not to do any of that stuff. And I think, you know, we would have conversations with Jowayne Park and the NBC Universal folks, and and truly they were kind of put they were put on the screen cheapers.
Yeah, they didn't open the door to the producers of the show and to Greg until they realized we really had something that they're like, Okay, I think these guys have their stuff together, right, so we're going to now make this connection because we had to dream up the entire like all of the Office Olympic Games, the Writer's block, like that just came out of our heads, right. That was like sitting around.
It was maybe about seven or eight of us that did it. Tuck our house, Matt Smith, you know, Eric Dove and all these guys are building our websites and everything. All of that stuff was critical because they all played a certain role in it. And then all the partners, the University of Scranton and all these guys tapping into all that. But once we had it all, yeah, one
of these conference calls. We had already had a number of them, but I later found out that at one of the big ones when they were deciding whether we're in or out, Kense Borneck had told me when he came to Scranton that he was listening in on the one and he just truly was looking to hear if we're just a bunch of fangirls we're gonna lose their minds when you guys get to town, or if we're actually going to hold this together and keep you guys safe and have it lined up with the University of
Scrand police and you know in the Scrand Police and the State Police and the Marshall's office. Like Michelle's brother in law is a he's an faag and it works here in downtown Runner. We had all of that, but it's such a small town you can do something. And our whole pitch to Greg was, you know, office fans are unique. They need to come together like a La Star Trek convention. But it can't be done in LA. It cannot be done in New York. It has to be done in Scranton.
Because it was such a part of the charts and interesting afterwards became a more a part of the show, which I thought was was interesting because Greg had the foresight to bring the writers here too. But but I think, but not to get ahead. I think, so here we have we've like sort of put this this agenda together.
We have this thing. The only thing we didn't have for the actors mh you and Angela had come in like that may to to say, hey, we're gonna there's gonna be the Office convention, like you sort of generously because at the all this could have backfired, right, like kind of put yourselves out in front, but come like a month before still there was nobody officially signed up to come.
One month of the day that we got our first actual country.
We were panicking. They're like, we're gonna have a party no matter what. And I remember you called me. You did, right, and you called me one night You're like, how's it going? And I was like, well, you know, it's going pretty well. I'm trying to like keep up the front, like, yeah, it's going pretty well. You know, all the planning seems to be happening. You know, we got this, that got that, and yeah, we just uh, we don't have any of the actors yet. And you said something that made my
stomach drop. First. You said, I just want to start by apologizing. I'm just so sorry. And I was like and I'm like, okay, it's cool. Trying to keep up, you know, the front again, and you're like, I've talked to my people and I can I could only convince thirteen of them. I think I'm pretty sure. I started crying when I ran on the phone, right, I was like so emotional, I don't even know what I said. After that, I just lost it and I was like, cause that was then I knew it was going to happen.
It was going to be this thing and it was going to be unprecedented, and you know that was everything that moment to me with you on the phone. It was just too much. It was awesome.
So just to put a timeline on this, So this is two thousand and six, so you're already in season three at this point. We hosted it in October, late October, but that was we all remember that day when you're like, we got twelve now the beauty of that. So you may remember that none of the Fab four could make it that year, right, so Steve, John, Jenna and uh and Rain could not make it, you know, just conflicts
and all that other kind of stuff. What we felt from the very beginning is the actually convention was so special because it celebrated the ensemble cast. Everybody else was there, all the writers were there, so it really you know, we you know, we're glad that we didn't want Jenny to be distracted. Jenny Tan was there, like Dancer was there. But we you know, we were able to build it and get our hands around it, you know, and the people who were there were truly office fans, you know.
They weren't four year old virgin fans. They were office fans, right, And that was why that the first one was so special and it was packed.
It was packed. I was actually there, yeah, and I.
Thought like it was one of the moments to me because I was up in the balcony kind of looking down and just enjoying it so much. And each writer told episode that they wrote, and people were like cheering for the episodes, like I, you know, I did the Baconator with the folk George Forman girl. That was selling. But the cool moment too, was at the end. First everybody was so into it, but then at the end they did a little clip of a piece of a show that hadn't been seen yet, and the crowd got
to watch it live. And the actor or the writers later told us they'd never like they'd never gotten to see the fans watch the show and get the reaction in real time, and that that was like a really cool moment for them to hear them laughing where they hoped they would get a laugh and like just so appreciating the beauty and the joy of it.
You know, well, I remember, great, Yeah, I remember I mean from my side, and I don't even think that I was aware that it was like a tryout, but I remember coming there was this brunch and I remember Tim saying, yeah, you know, this was like for VIP things, and you know, I'm not sure how many people are going to be there, but you know, then we've got this, this, this, and Angela and I show up and I don't know if you remember this, but like something happened and we
were walking into a room that was way over fire code capacity of people and us walking in and like you just like you feel a wave of heat from bodies just walking into this room, and I like I remember like my breath like being taken away, and like where the fuck am I. I could say whatever we want, I can say whatever I want and I and I I mean, I will never I will never forget. I mean,
I will tell you right now. There was a plan in place of the VIP and they were gonna be able to have a picture with us, and then so many people came in. You were like, okay, so here's the plan. You're going to go around to each table and they were like banquet tables of like ten or twelve people you're going to go around to each table and you're gonna say hi to each table, and then they'll take a picture with you, and then you'll move
around to the next table. And what happened was there were so many people that you you began I mean, this is one hundred percent what happened. People started thinking they're not going to get to us, like they're going to leave before it's our turn. And so then the plan went awry and everybody stood up and started just like descending into this corner. And I had Jen Garrety police officers. Police officer Jen Garrety's four foot ten and I was told could take me over her back if
she needed to, like body slam me. And I remember I was taking napkins off the table because it was so hot and there were so many people, and I was like wiping sweat on my face and she's like her eyes are big, like whoa. And I turned around her at one point and I said, okay, and I I mean, you have to understand, I'm just a theater guy from Atlanta, Georgia, Like this is I was like,
what is going on? I turned her at one point, I looked I looked in her eyes and I said, Okay, I just I need I need to make sure you know you're watching my back because I feel like I'm going to die. I feel like I'm not going to make it out of here. If I know you got my back, we're good. And just that whole trip, the you know, the roof party and everything. So when we came, you had this idea to do the convention, and then we came and it was clearly I mean, I feel
feel like even then it was surpassing your expectation. Were you so prized by people's reaction or was that had you come to know that this was how it was going to be.
I think from your visits, we knew if everybody came it would be something epic. It was even more epic. It was just beyond like you can't imagine those things, right, Like even when you try, it's like it just because there are so many stories from that visit. So the Today Show came right and they filmed live at the University of Scranton, and then we're realizing that everybody thinks actors or like other worldly and kind of whatever. And because we had this Tim and I had this sort
of backstage access. We're realizing, my god, they're just people who and this is kind of new to them too, right. So Phyllis was getting ready with Stanley to go out and be interviewed by by Al Broker and on the when she came out on the crowd went insane, insane, insane, and she got very emotional because she never felt any like that. Like, wasn't she one of the people who helped casting?
Yes, she yeah, she she started out in casting, wasn't an actor, and Ken Kwappas and Greg Daniels and everybody just thought, well, this is what we're looking for. We're looking for real people. And yeah, she got cast. So she was here since she was feeling this reaction, right.
She was one of the first famous faces the kids saw. So like that was you guys had come on a Thursday night, Friday night, we're about to go live. It's a three day convention. And again this is October two thousand and six, season three, so we have we all stay out way too late Thursday night, so you guys all come to town birthday. It was Craig Robinson's so we you know, we say, ad what was Whistles Pub back in the day and we're doing karaoke it which
just want to be in a wild night. So now it's we've got to be here at like six in the morning because we're going live with local TV stations. So the students at the University of Scranton, about four thousand of them, camped outside, so they are waiting all night long for this and they are losing their minds. And so it's when we're pulling, you know, out of the out of kind of the staging area. We're pulling fill us out of there. She is like, if you remember,
she had like a cane. She had hurt her ankle that week, so she has like this cane, and she has her purse on her arm, like she's just like going to the store. And as we're walking up a door, it's like, go time. We're gonna be live in about fifteen seconds, she starts reaching in her purse to get out a camera to take a picture for her mom. Again, that's that's the part that she's a regular person, you know, and so I like grab the camera and I'm like,
I'll take pictures for your mom. You gotta get on national TV. So it's just those experiences, but everyone you know, every one of the folks. Ed Helms is a young guy. He never been in the hangover, Like people don't know who he is, right, and we have him playing a banjo at the Bog, which is legitimately about three hundred square feet.
Right right right.
So many things that happened, but I remember we were actually in this room I think or no was another building at you and we had fireworks going off and it was another really nice event. But a gentleman came over to me and he said, are you Michelle Dempsey And I said yes, and he's like, I'm like, who are you? And it was Greg Daniel's dad. And I was like and he told me that he knows name.
Was like catching my breath, right, and he's like, he's like, I just want to let you know that I've been to an oscars and I've been to an Emmy's and I you know, been to a super Bowl. He's like, he's like, and this is the best party I've ever been to this this weekend is no. It was in his son's honor, and like you maybe a little biased in that, right, but but like for us, I think that moment was like wow, like this did happen and
it came together and people are enjoying it. And then the letters we got afterwards from the fans who came that would just melt your heart about how it was the best weekend of their lives or you know, people who came here who you know, were special needs who got to meet their their heroes, right like it. It really was for some people they had the best day, weekend of their lives in Scranton because.
Of the office.
The press was also a great thing. So you talked about the letters we received and everything you know, we got. We were in the China Dimes like it got on the ap wire. It was a sweetheart of a story. So it was in every newspaper in the nation, you know, back when people read newspapers. It was in I forget what paper, but one of them said that it was like a Star Trek convention with girls. But it just it was just great group of people. Everybody was happy.
Now fast forward to twenty thirteen with the wrap party. That was bananas.
That was it. Everybody came for that. How did you feel when you found out the show was?
Of course bittersweet, right, it felt like it had this amazing like you can if you go on too long. It's like knowing when to and I guess is as important as anything else. Right, So it was like sad, but oh my god, the way the show ended was so there's not a show in anywhere in TV history that ended more beautifully in my personal opinion, then.
The big endings that you can talk about, but this was this was fantastic, awesome.
So it was so we just I think I texted it's time and you were like, let's go or something. It was like a real nice little we were both almost like Kis met like the same moment saying we've got it. Take a deep breath, We're going to do it again.
Right.
So, just so you know, it didn't that didn't just come out of thin air. So as we were wrapping up the Sunday, Greg Daniels, you know, everybody had already gotten off. Greg was on one little flights out of Scranton. You know, we got to have a moment with him where we just said, you know, hey, this was awesome. You're welcome to do this anytime you want, come on back.
If we can't do something like this every year every year, just at least consider doing a wrap party here, you know, and just instead of going wherever you would normally go, just get on an airplane party at thirty thousand feet and let's just do it here. And instead of this crazy three day thing, let's cram it into one super awesome day, because we already knew once it had started that was way too big and unwieldy. You know.
Just when I went out and I met with Steve Carrel, He's like, I'd love to be in a parade and scrint here. You have a big parade, right and you wanted to be in a coffee cup World's best Boss Coffee. I like, Stee Carl, you want a parade and scrin you've got a pray to say the word.
And we did.
We had a parade.
We had it all mapped out. It was a perfect, like four block parade to this awesome thing we had set up right at Courthouse Square. And everybody is off on the streets easily twenty thousand people on the streets and just a very small area. And so everything is looking good. I take a nice little picture of the parade route. We've got everybody in these beautiful open cars and everything. First, guy, we have going down is Craig Rabbinson, and he is on you know, on the back of
his pickup truck, and he just starts dancing. He's got his arms with it, and he starts waving the crowd to command you're too far away, come on. That's how it happened. And then the whole the entire length of the parade route all collapsed on the parade, so we were literally elbowing eighteen year old girls away from Steve Garrel. We could have never protected him.
It was just again the whole thing that that evening, and just the the genuine smiles on the faces of everybody. Yes, the fans could not I mean I think they lost their mind, like they couldn't have if you that is what happiness looks like. That's what joy looks like. That stadium is like what joy looks like if you get to see it right, And everybody's faces were just lit up like and including Steve's. He came out and hit the He just you could tell, even at that level
of fame, he genuinely appreciates. Yeah, that those people were there, you know, to to to appreciate the body of work that was created, you know, and and and you guys as individual actors and your extreme and massive talent that brings. I was thinking about the other night because I went home and I was you know, it doesn't matter how your day is, you put The Office on and you're gonna smile and you're gonna laugh, you know. For me, I adopted two boys three years ago from Kyrgyzstan, so
they came over. They spoke Russian on a order of English, and we were still using translators. And my older son started watching The Office, probably because it was in my saved programs, right, and he just started binging it. And I'm like, well, maybe there's a little inappropriate here and there, but what's he gonna know?
Right?
I let him watch it, right, And one day I'm sort of sitting there watching it with him, and he's laughing at the jokes. He's laughing at all the right not just the slapstick, He's laughing at all the right spots. And I'm like, he can't talk to me yet, but he knows what's happening here right right. I'm like, so he probably knows when I say clean your room too, But like, you know, but it was the appeal was
so uniqu like, what is that? I don't know. I can't see it ever ending because it just it's timeless. It is timeless.
Well, Ken today was talking about I said, what is the office done for Scranton or why is the office so special? Or why is that bond there? And he just very plain spoken, said well, what is your life and your career since the office? And I said, well, it's completely in total changed me and people's perception of me. And he said, yeah, that's that's the town too. And I can't explain it is it makes no sense to me.
I'm a guy from Georgia that now lives in California, but the bond that I feel to this place, it doesn't make any sense.
I am telling you. I said this, when you got hered like you are, your love is so it's so real, it's so felt by us. And I think maybe you're feeling that genuine love that people have for you here because it is it's as real as as it gets for someone that you didn't grow up with, who wasn't
your family, do you know what I mean? But they feel your your love, We feel your love for us a town that wasn't loved for a long time, right, and you came here and you're like, I this is this is part of me now, you know, and we get it and we love it.
Yeah. But the two of you and the initiative you showed, and how respectful you were of the show as we tried to be of Scranton, your love of the place, and how hard I know you were. The show was a little engine that could terrible ratings. We were trying to do something new and different. And you know, my my last impression or memory from the office convention was you know, they said yes, but did they think it
was going to be a success. And all I remember is we had a three day convention, an NBC sent only one semi truck of merchandise down and by halfway through the first day everything was gone. And I think we were underestimated. You guys were underestimated, and our fans were underestimated in a way. And you guys will always have huge love in my heart and appreciation for the two of you and what you did for us. I just want to thank you.
That is wonderful. Well, we certainly appreciate it. And as we said, without your connection, it never happens. And we all pass this way but once and at the you know, my parents are in a nursing home right now and they look back and look at the fun times in their lives. We'll all be doing that soon enough. And those real connections that you create is all that matters, you know, And this has been wonderful.
I said to to Greg after after I think after the originally convention said, I said, thank you for the rocking chair stories. You know, these are experiences and memories when I'm an old lady on the rocking chair in the old folks home, I'll still be telling people about until they don't want to hear it anymore. I'm like, it's still good though, And so we have these rocking chair stories now, thanks to the office, thanks to Greg's
risk taking belief in us. And we always tell people who ask us, like, these characters you love, they deserve your love because it's people. They're the exact same. It's like you were just sall to the earth, amazing wonderful people too. And so where maybe I'll end it is sort of what I heard Steve Carell say to a little group of people at the wrap party. He said, don't be sad it's over. Be happy it happened, and
I'm a rocking chair. I'm gonna feel about my life too, right, And this is something I always these these events and even these conversations like the office gave us this and you just that's priceless.
Well, thank you guys so much. No, and thank you for coming and talking to me and being so open and letting me, letting me come back again.
I so so appreciate it as always welcome.
All right, makes me want to fly to Scranton right now. Everybody, thanks for coming along with me the nostalgia trip. It's officially over done. I'm going to be back next week or well next year, with brand new guests, brand new episodes for you. Let me tell you this. I've recorded a few and I'm not going to give anything away, but let's just say it's going to be hard hitting and wishful. Have a safe and celebratory New Year, and I'm going to see all of you in twenty twenty four.
Off the Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer lingg 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 Saheed. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Bratton. Where are you guys from here?
I wrote a texitd in the video Texas. Yeah, I literally watched your show at least twenty times, really dared.
I'm about to cry right now, just because I love.
You so much.
I drove all the way from Shilling to meet you. I have an interview in the morning. Got to get back to it.
My brother got.
Married at the Radison when the convention was on, and you and Andrew came downstairs and you took a picture with him and his wife her wedding.
We actually walked into the Office theme song I.
Have a tattoo of Jim Helper when he addresses this twice.
My mom would not believe this because she thinks the Office is as stupid at show of all time.
Please cut that part.
I love you