Allison Jones

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Listen to Eating While Broke on the I Heart Radio app on Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Alison Jones, casting director from the Office. Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Office Deep Dive. I'm your host, Brian Baumgartner. Today you're going to be hearing my interview with Alison Jones, the casting director of the Office, the the person responsible for putting together the ensemble, our merry band of misfits on the Office. Now, you might think

after casting her job was done, she was gone. That is that is not true. Allison was involved throughout the entire series, right, So every actor that comes on to the Office, even for one episode, she was um responsible working with the directors and the writers casting those roles. So from a guest star spot who just appears in one episodes two people like Rashida Jones, Kathy Bates, Idris Elbam, she works with the writers and the directors every week

um to cast these characters. So Allison has the most amazing stories to tell, not even just about the Office, she has worked on so many incredible shows and movies. She is truly known as the greatest comedy casting director today. UM so enjoy Allison Jones. Bubble and Squeak. I love it. Bubble and Squeaker, Bubble and squeaker Cookie every moment lift over from the natty. Look at you, fancy, Oh my god, how are you. I'm so happy to see you. Look at a second older. I don't know, I really don't.

I look younger. I don't know what that is. I have all my pilot stuff here. If you have any specific research material, I love it is. Yeah, I'm sorry. You're good. Are you good? I'm very well? And you good? Yeah, of course you are. I'm good. Well, I don't know what quite understands what's happened with the Office. It's just going haywire. Well, I know that's kind of what we're trying to figure out. Why, because it's good. I guess, I guess, I guess what is this? I feel like

I'm in good Barning Vietnam. Um, this is good, right, this is so fun. Well, the awesome thing is that. Um I even kept their silly reviews a box of stuff that I still haven't gone through. Yeah, it's all fun. The stuff we keep, um mine is just I printed out some emails and that kind of stuff. I have a message in Phyllis is writing, telling Greg where to meet Steve Carrell at what time at what DELI in Phyllis is writing. That's so crazy. So um, year ago,

probably this month, we were finalizing cast. Yeah yeah, well no exactly because before we filmed in February and we started in two thousand three, because that's when I had to. I just remember that was when we started everything, right, Um, so when did you? Were you aware of the British version of The Office? You were before you were hired on? You you do that show? Okay? And did you like it?

I loved it. I forget where we could see it, but it came on the scene at the same time it did, and it was these two new cutting edge comedy shows. And The Office was such a big thing because people were like, you're not gonna believe the show. You're not going to believe it's an actual show and

not a documentary. So yes, I was aware of it okay, But at that time, there was nothing on American television that looked like that, not even close, you know, um, nothing that looked like because everybody thought it was a documentary. It was so subtly shot, and it was so subtly conceived of the only close thing would have been I guess, um, Larry Sanders, Larry Sanders. Yeah, and so how did you how did you come on board? Probably NBC set me up with a few other casting people to interview with

Greg and Ben and Terry over it. There a little bungalow at Universal. So I went in thrilled, I got it, you know, an interview for this job. And um, I do remember saying to Phillis, this is a huge deal. This could be a huge deal if I get this one. Um. And it was a bunch of them at the table and Greg was Greg quiet, and you know, so you did Freaks and Geeks and we like the fact that you found real people on Freaks and I'm imitating Greg

and Geeks and uh. After then again I had to meet with Ben Silverman in his house up in Mulholland Drive or something, and I remember it was during a playoff game for the Red Sox and I was waiting out. I'm a Red Sox fan, and I was waiting out in my car to see who won the game. And then I went in and realized he was also a Red Sox fan. So we were joyous and I probably got the job because of the Red Sox. Yeah. He

talked about Paul Gi and Madi at the time. For Michael Scott, Yeah, okay, so that was the first name that came up. I probably had more names when I talked to Greg for the actual interview. Um, but I remember Ben mentioning Paul Giamatti, and he may have also mentioned Philip Symore Hoffman, but I for some reason, I specifically remember him saying Paul May at the time when movie stores wouldn't touch television, right, wouldn't touch it the

bottom of the barrel. Yeah, so you come in. So, I mean, your list of stuff that you have worked on is like crazy, um, starting with Family Ties, the Best job Ever, Golden Girls, Fresh Prince Boy meets whirl Um, and then there seemed to be like a shift with Freaks and Geeks. I mean, Freaksing Geeks was kind of the first cool show I worked on and sort of

non networking show, which is probably why it failed. But definitely Judd Apatow and Paul fi changed the whole scene in UM, the style of the comedy, the writing, the not the sitcom rhythm, the reality rhythm, the non beautiful people rhythm. With all due respect to you, Briant, but completely the first time I'd ever done anything like that because all the team shows at the time, the kids

had to be beautiful. Yeah. I had just finished a pilot called Roswell High and every kid had to look like the kids from um Dawson's Creek and it was torture and every kid had to be beautiful and blah blah blah blah. And we tested Heath Ledger and he wasn't even cute enough to be on the show, according to the head of Fox. So all the rejects from that I gladly brought in for Freaks and Geeks because

they were so much more interesting and talented. And it was great that Paul and Judd just wanted real kids, right, But Greg had seen Freaks and Geeks. That was the first thing he brought up. So Paul Feig, in this New Yorker piece, said that you will be recognized as having changed the face of comedy as much as any comedy filmmaker. What what do you think he meant by that? I think just bringing in um, real people who also were talented and funny and unique. Yeah, brought their own

version of comedy too, whatever character it was. Plus, I did start in comedy, and it was you know, the Family, Ties and Benson. They were all sitcoms and you needed I instantly started to learn all the comics out there, and which meant you had to physically do the legwork and go to the comedy store ten nights in a row and go to the improv ten nights in a row. UM comics not necessarily being the most together people, God bless them, but right away hitting the ground running. I

brought in all the stand ups and stuff. For if you watch Golden Girls, Ull occasionally see you know Don Marere is serving Betty White or something. I was always bringing in stand ups. It made sense to me, and for me it was based in SNL Saturday Night Live since the college, appreciating that new version of comedy, the real, smart and still at the same time stupid version of

comedy in Second City SCTV. But stand ups was what we had access to at that time going out and doing the way, and they rarely got hired because their God bless him, not skilled at auditioning. You know, you'd bring a Knie Knee of Ardallos and Steve Carrell and they were usually very over the top. Not until jud and Paul came along did they think that was actually a plus and they were correct interesting, So they would have trouble because of that, oh I think, so yeah,

to get by studios and things. I remember, you know, bringing people in like David's Bad and Rob Schneider and Jim Carey and Dennis Leary and they never got hired.

Adam Sandler once got hired when he was probably twenty first show I was doing, because the executive producer, Richie rosen Stock, understood that his vibe was interesting and not just being able to deliver a joke like um a sitcom guy, right, And then that started to shift that in the office with Judd and Paul in particular, I think, and then your Adam McKay's came in and UM brought in all the Will Ferrells and all that kind of thing.

It definitely was birthed way back when and prior to when I was doing it with Judd too, I think, right, I think that there was also kind of a change, like you said, from sort of that traditional sitcom style to more comedies with heart, I believe. So, yeah, yeah, was there a different type of person you were looking for for that the first sitcom stuff we did, it was mostly finding someone who literally could do it, could do sitcom joke delivery. That was the first thing I

had to say, could they read? Could they do the jokes? But um, the writing I think matured a little bit too. Yeah, but single camera comedy was not around, right, Yeah, so that was part of it. Absolutely. Not having still took a long time to catch on to most of us. It was pretty obvious that's the easiest to write for you don't have to put it into a template of writing a joke. And that was a slow evolution, right.

Sports Night was the first good one and didn't even stay on the air, and it was so much funnier than a sitcom. Great, Yeah, did you work on Sports Night? I did not, but I just remember thinking, wow, this is great. There's no left track, blah blah blah blah. Right, so it became that's so interesting that you were looking for someone who could do it. Just do it. Yeah, deliver the jokes. Deliver that joke so that it hit,

so the laugh track could play. Right. And somebody who wasn't necessarily um you know, Jack Benny, somebody who also could act, not that he couldn't. God bless him, right, so um. Paul Rudd, in the same New Yorker article, said that you have the ability to find people that your heart can break for. Oh, that's very I didn't read the article, believe it. I'm too shy to read that. I get you. I've barely watched any but I am very I I think I'm very empathic when it comes

to actors and comedy and thinking. Look at that kid from Mclub and he'd be awesome. That kid has gotten beat up so much in his life. He'd be awesome. So I think, um, yes, that was a very good way to put it. Very nice. It's a hard time for tiring, so you need a hiring partner built for hard times. That's indeed. If you're hiring, you need indeed because indeed is the hiring partner where you can attract, interview,

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normally assigned to him was called off. They're the ones who would not allow him to stay at any hotel with balconies. That security union was reassigned there. And did you know that on the day Dr King was shot two black firemen stationed across the street and one black police detective who is surveiling King. We're all taken off the job. What was the emergency that caused? Usually moved? She also did you ever asked what this was all about? Yes?

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be eliminated. Listen to Big Brother on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts coming February. So, how did you go about assembling your list for the office? Well, uh, it was mostly leg where auditioning, and well, we first had to go in

with a list. Nancy Perkins was the head of casting at Universal, and we went in with a long list of men and other names to remember and um, all the people at the time, half of them wouldn't do TV and some of them were not people who the network would want. But um, a list of probably thirty five names, and this is for just for Michael Scott or for all the roles kind of kind of the

big ones. But um, those are mostly exercises. Lists are really just exercises because you don't know anything until you get out there and start making offers and start reading people. But um, I I always like to cast non star people. I think it pays off the most in the end in terms of risk reward UM finding a unique voice exactly, yes, and getting the people that I know, have known for years can step it up and be really interesting and

really funny. Yeah. I had cast Rain before, I had cast Jenna, before, i'd read Steve before I had had the pleasure to cast him. But the people that we read for all these roles were groundlings and UCB people that um just did not get a break. So it was really fun to put them together with terrifically beautiful, subtle writing and everybody that was a little a little more well received than some other pilots because it was the Office and all those people were into the Office,

the British version of the Office. Um, everybody's just assumed we'd get crucified. But we had great people coming anyway, just happy to be doing the pilot. Right, So you made your lists? Was there anyone you didn't know it at all from the cast? I didn't know you. I didn't know um Leslie, I didn't know Oscar and I remember I had seen him in an episode of Reno N one one, it was like, who's that freaking guy?

He's hilarious. Um, I didn't know John. I had just met him on a general I did not know John until he read John. Yeah, that's who I wondered me and John. So I've heard And I didn't know this right because I didn't test with the other thing the

testing processes. The uniqueness of Yes that was that the first time you had ever done yes, and it was it was a um sensible choice because normally you would go in and test at a network with a bunch of studio executives in the head of the network sitting in the back of the room and you come in and you're like, okay, be funny. That was the sitcom way to do it. And it didn't matter the level

of subtlety. This one. We said, look at you're not going to get what this person has to offer unless you film it and see it what it's going to look like on screen. So greg I was able to

talk them into that. So we did two days of testing, two long days of mixing and matching actors and Ken directing them and and Yes, it was the first time that has happened, I believe, at least in my experience with testing for a pilot, and that made sense because of the format of the show, which hadn't been done before either the documentary yeah, the documentary style, and I

think yes. Part of the auditions was we had one one or two monologues that we let them pick from that were all of our sides were from, mostly from the pilot of the English Office, without being americanized too much, so a lot of it sounded English coming out of the American actor's mouths. But I remember the Gym side saying do you like a drink? I remember thinking we don't say that. Most of the actors said the same

thing to do you like a drink? Yeah. The process do you remember it taking especially long or it took the fall of two thousand three for casting? It was very time consuming because we had to make DVDs. Sorry, um, not DVDs. We didn't have DVDs then we had VCR. We had half inch tapes that you had to copy in real time to send to England. I remember doing that.

My whole Thanksgiving was making tapes which I still have of the Gym's of the Michael Scott's of the Palms for Ricky Gervais and Um, you know, you pressed tape and you press play and then you had to copy them in real time, so it was more time consuming for everybody having to actually look at all the tapes after getting them FedEx overnight. Um, how much was Ricky You said you made tapes and sent them to London? How much was Ricky did? Very much? So he didn't

win with me, that's for sure. I've never met the guy, though I think he's genius in his golden globe stuff is effing genius. Anyway, Um, I never met him at all, but I know he weighed in heavily with um Greg about casting choices. They wouldn't I'm sure if he didn't like someone, they wouldn't have gone with them. So yes, it took a little bit longer, Um, and we read a lot of people, and I preread a lot of people.

Now pickings are slimmer. You know, there's so many shows out there that you start with a hundred names and ten of them are available. Right then, it was more a little more freedom. Also, everybody is onto now hiring people from the Growlings and UCB and so that's who they bring in first for comedy. You know, one of my shameful things was I pre read Christin Wig and didn't even bring her back for Greg. I'm Kristen. I apologize,

but um, I don't recall why. But that's funny. And then when I went back and looked at our audition, she was terrific. She was Kristin Wig doing it, and she was terrific. She was a groundling at the time, and I didn't. I just for some reason didn't bring her back for Greg. I think maybe Jenna. Jenna was the biggest shoe in. I think from the start of

reading she was the first woman to read PAM. I remember Terry Weinberg saying I could watch you all day, and um, we had you know, we tested other PAMs, but I think Jenna was sort of the high bar that we set. And how much did um the chemistry

between Jenna and John then impact John. I was not in the room at the time when they were reading together, but I assume it completely impacted John because Jenna John was effortless, effortless, and he had mostly just I had seen him in a commercial where he got his eyebrows shape or something, and I remember casting director New York Bonnie Finnigan saying, this kid, John Krasinski is effortlessly funny. You won't believe how he's funny. He just talks, and

he's funny. Jenna, though lower in energy. I'm sure if you asked John that question he would say it hugely impacted his performance because in his first audition he was a little more strident. Jenna was always very low key interesting. Um, what were you looking for between? But we haven't talked about Rain. Oh yeah, yeah, Dwight and and Jim. Yeah, were there specific things that you were looking for? Rain

is so odd that would have been one. Yeah, you knew that Dwight had to be odd, just an oddball and a nerd and sort of annoying. And Jim had to be a little cute, a little appealing. Um, not that Rain is not. He's very appealing. But m Rain just a comedy genius always. He must have loved the first He mean, he first read for Michael Scott, and I think I think he requested that through his agent that could he also read from Michael Scott or maybe I just brought him in for Michael Scott. I don't

recall because he did read for both at the time. Um, he was the first person to read period. But I believe we mostly thought he was going to be Dwight and he also wanted to read for Michael Scott. He probably could have worked as Michael Scott too. God, we read a lot of good people that in some version would have worked. You know, all these people. You know, we rejected a lot of great people for the right. Yeah.

I remember Louis c. K wasn't available at the time, and that was a bummer because he would have been a he had to deal at CBS. He always had a deal at CBS. But of all the people, I wanted to bring it, and Paul Gimaty just said no right off the bat because it was a TV show, I believe. Then we went to Philip Symore Hoffman, the late great Philip sy Moore Hoffman, and he said no as well because it was TV. I'm oh, yeah, And

it's funny because that's all Paul does now, right. And the great thing is I started out I have nothing makes me happier to see that TV is the new film nothing, because so many people rejected all the TV I worked on for twenty years, because it was TV. It was like, I don't want to do TV. And stunt casting, as they call it now, was not really a thing when I started. My boss, Judith Wiener, used to call it love boat casting when they made us put a big name in a role that made no sense.

You know, Stevie Wonders Limo breaks down outside of the Huxtable's house and he he comes in. And so I started without doing that. Um. And also for some reason, I just thought I was supposed to find new people, and maybe that that must have come from Judith. Go out there and find new funny voices. UM. So you like casting unknowns and essentially everybody unknown in this Do you remember was there pushback from the network about that? Uh?

Sometimes push back from the people in the room, Remember Greg and I really Patton Oswalt for Michael Scott and some of the people in the room. No, he gave, of course a fantastic reading, and Patton was a stand up at the time. Um. Mostly before they got to the network, it was pushed packed from various people in the room. The network then was not as intrusive as they are now. They don't see every single goddamn audition before they approve who's going to test? We just told

them who were testing. We made the test option deal and showed them the tests. It wasn't everybody at a certain level getting approval after approval after approval of who can even go near besides, you know that that exist. You can tell him sarcasm that exists? Now, Yeah? Right? How much discussion was there or were you aware of

that writers were going to end up being actors? I think at the beginning, b J came in, Greg said there's a couple of guys I want to bring in to see if they'll work as actors too, And Mandy didn't have to read as far as I know, But b J came in, and BJ was hired as an actor. He was hired as an actor. But also Greg was cognizant effect that he was a writer as well. Greg was up front about that right away. I didn't know

Paul or anything at the time. PAULI burstin or and Greg had us bringing a lot of his friends who wrote for The Simpsons, who were awesomely weird and great, who I didn't know at all. I didn't know. I didn't It was another the first time I realized writers were just as funny as actors when it came to this kind of comedy, if not more. Um, some of those people, god bless him, were too weird for viewing. Um. But um, he totally was upfront about having trying to

get some people who could write end. Now there's a little funky thing about trying to do that. Now there's unions who get find you or something if you do that. But then it was fine. Um. Who was the first person cast? Was it? Jenna? No? I think they all came. I think we all went to the network and looked at tapes, and I think Greg he showed the the cast he wanted and that's who was approved. And that was cool. Kevin Riley really got it. I have to

tell you, he really got it. Yeah, that's not commonly the case. What what did Kevin get? He got the vibe of the office. Kevin Riley really, Uh, you could tell loved the genre and the show and he got it. Yes, he did. He got it right away. And whoever hired Greg Daniels got it too. Who would have that been? Kevin Ben Ben Silverman? Completely? Yeah. Hi, I'm Glory Adam,

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So the rest of the ensemble like Angela. Yes, Angela had had read for Pam, right, Angela read for Pam and then Angela I sort of knew upfront that she was related to Greg somehow, so I said, I remember Phillis and I saying this too, Greg, Okay, what we think we should do is pretend we don't know she's related to you, and we'll say she's our choice. And she was great for that that role. I don't know if that role was based on a person in the British show. I don't think it was Um. So we

had a little plan with Greg. We're gonna push for Angela because we know she's right, but we're going to pretend we don't know she's related to And then when we were in the room, Greg for some reason objected and Phillis and I were like kicking each other under the table. Jesus, but somehow, I don't know what happened there, but we got Angela. So maybe that was his um reverse psychology or something. But we had old Um an Oscar similar. Oh, so you didn't know Oscar before. I

didn't know Oscar. I had seen him like the week before the session one, and he was so good and I was so embarrassed I didn't know him. Most everybody read for Stanley. I think I think there were two parts. Basically, Yes, the genius casting of Greg was seeing how Mulaura would have worked because not necessarily a huge comedy person. That was the year when people um wanted Helen Hunt or somebody like that. So, um, these lovely women who could

also be funny. And did you know m Laura before? Oh? Yes, she was a child actor. Knew her. She was a child actress, right, and gorgeous too. It was like, okay, well we'll still bring her in because he is the thing about that people have to be real and not necessarily high fashion models. But um, what is this? Was this a true? Um? I remember hearing this at some point. Was there Scranton pretty or Scranton Hot? Sorry, Scranton hot.

Scranton Hot sounds more familiar. It's like when we did Veep it was like they have to be Washington d c attractive, not real attractive, and they had to look basically dumpy. Yes, that was definitely a thing. Scranton hot. Yeah. Do you remember the casting process for Amy Adams oh yes, um, Amy Heckerling. Was she the director? Amy Heckerling. Um. I thought she looked too much like Jenna, so we didn't

hire her. We hired somebody else at first, and then um, somebody else in the room wanted to go for stunt casting and I just did not want to do that. I was the whole time. I think I was hated because I would not shut up about how it's a documentary. Suddenly Matt Damon isn't going to show up in Scranton, so that drove me crazy. Um was Greg on board with that? Oh, for the most part, Greg was on

board with it. But as the network started getting more involved with sweep sweak and stuff, they started saying, you have to use Ben affleck or blah blah blah blah, and I was everybody would say that. I was always against that. I never agreed with that at all. It just to me it broke the DNA of the show. So we never did it much at all. Right, the Super Bowl episode that pissed me off, Yes, but they cleverly thought of a little way to put Jack Black

in there. He was on a YouTube thing or something. It was. Um. I never normally would talk back to a studio executive. But I believe I did it on a conference call. I would never normally ever do that and say something was a bad idea because they were mentioning Brad Pitt and George Clooney was like, what are you Evan kidding me? They're going to show up in Scranton. So I was vociferous about not not wanting that right.

So after the pilot, your job gets much easier through that first season, second season, yes, yeah, there weren't that many people that came on. But I wanted to talk just a little bit about how Ed Helms and Rashida were brought in. Where they brought in? Was that through you or no? I think, I think, I don't. I don't know. Fully, you'd have to ask Greg how Ed Helms came into the picture. It may have been through NBC.

Rashida auditioned and we had to audition many, many women for that part, and Rashida got that, Um she's the most gorgeous woman in the world, so she had to play it down. But her chemistry with John was great. They were friends at the time, and we read many other very good women at the time. But that was audition Ed, I think came in through NBC and Greg. I believe that was created for him. He was freaking great.

I mean Ed had just come off The Daily Show, which pretty much produced every jure funny person on the Office and thereafter everything else Yeah except me, except for Brian and Phillis. Yeah. Um, when Steve left. Thoughts, what did you think was the ended? Yes? Totally I thought it should have ended though I had always loved people like Katherine Take these people that Greg was aware of that could do great things on the show. I have

no idea how they came up with James Spader or so. Yes, I thought the show should have ended, except for the actor's sake. I did not want it. Was like, no, we gotta keep Phillis employed. They all have to keep the job. Um, And I thought it made sense it could go on. But I just thought Steve was so great and it was seven years. It would be tough. But it also made sense that Ed was the logical

choice to be bumped up. I think so. Some people who have come in have talked about being disappointed that the network didn't trust the existing ensemble enough and felt like they needed to bring in I'm sure that passed me off to. Yeah, I would not privy to those those things about Spader, and I believe many of us thought, what do you mean you can't make it one of these guys on the show. Yes, I'm sure that was the case. Right. Where do you think the ensemble of

the Office fits in television history? Good? Okay, right up there with Mary Tyler Moore and Lou Grant, which were genius and wonderful right up there, I think, and like news Radio and amazing ensemble, Seinfeld, amazing ensemble. Up there was all of them. Yeah. What do you think made it special? The people? The people and number one the writing, Ricky Gervais, the style. Yeah, you give Ricky credit completely. Yeah,

that was like an Adam bomb of comedy. When the British Office hit the scene, it was like an Adam bomb of comedy. So yes, I would see Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant right where I am today, and my entire life is due to you agreeing to see me. Oh, thank you. I'm sure I looked at your head shot and thought, yeah, he'd be good. He looks like a real dude, right, and Phillis and everybody on the show. How you know who were unknowns. How does that make

you feel? Terrific? Makes me feel happy and it it is the reward I get in this career and why I think why many casting people like what we do because we get to assist people in um getting gigs. But it's more than that. I mean. I remember coming back and after getting the office, saying to feel as this could be the most important job I've ever had. And I'm not kidding. I said that to her, thinking selfishly but having no idea. It's the most important job

I've ever had because Phillis life's changed. It changed her life. What's crazy to me is that you had the same reaction that I had. Oh my god, I got the office. Yeah, oh you had that too, of course, yes, when I got by you, I love that. I remember when Jennet we cast Jenna. I remember calling her agent at the time, Michael Green, and I got emotional because we don't get to tell the actors, but we get to tell the agents.

And I remember saying to Michael exactly this, I'm calling to tell you that Jenna Fisher got the office, and somehow there was silence on the phone. I was about to cry. I think Michael was about to cry. Um, but I was always happy to say. Sometimes business affairs beat you to the punch and they tell the agent. I always say, please, after all this, can we at least tell the agent that they got the job right? Um? Why do you think that? You know? So Rain and I talk and and I said to him, this is

close to a year ago now. I said, I think that the show is bigger now than it was when we were on NBC on Thursday nights. And he said, oh, it's a factor of yeah, by a factor of a hundred. Why why do you think? I don't know. I mean, I think the real people in it, but I think everybody. Everybody can relate to working in an office like that. You can insert yourself into that show very easily. And you love the actors, You love you guys, and the writing is brilliant and it's very subtly funny. But it

must there must be some comfort in the office. See I find comfort in Downtown Abbey. So I watched them a million times, but there must be great comfort. And what I also learned recently, kids love the Office. Now I love it. Kids who were nine or ten, It wasn't a show that was made for them. Really no, oh god no, And they're being probably a little more

sophisticated these days. But I think there must be some measure of comfort, especially in today's world, where, um, things that happened to you happened on the office, same way as in Seinfeld, things that happened to you happened in the office, and you have you had a jerk in your office. And yes, yes, um, I can't rewatch The Office. It makes me too sad because I had so much fun on it. It just makes me too melancholy. I cannot watch it. But then again, I can't even watch

Family Ties. I feel, oh god, that was so much fun. I can't deal with it. But what I'll zoom in on is who came in for certain roles. What does the office mean to you? Just very proud I was able to work on it. That's what it means to me. I mean very proud. I'm proud, proud, proud to say I I oh, I worked on the office. Awesome. Yeah, Alison, thank you so freaking much, thank you, thank you. That's all, folks, Actually that is not all, because you are going to

be hearing some more from Alison next week. When we interview Phillis Smith a k A. Phyllis laughing fans, Allison makes a surprise appearance and I cannot wait for you to hear. It makes me emotional thinking about him until then. Huge thank you to Allison for coming in and chatting with me. Allison, I know you do not love being in the spotlight, but you were amazing to all of you listeners. Have a fantastic week. I will see you

next time on The Office Deep Dive. The Office Deep Dive is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley. Our senior producer is Tessa Kramer, our associate producer is Emily Carr, and our assistant editor is Diego Tapia. My main man in the booth is Alec Moore. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by my great friend Creed Bratton, and the episode was mixed

by seth Olandsky. Hey, it's de Lieva. I'm here to tell you about my brand new podcast, Delifa at your Service. I'll be sitting down with the world's most inspiring minds to uncover what makes them take and what they've learned from the obstacles life has thrown at them, including Sir Elton John. After a lot of upsets, a lot of disappointments, a lot of betrayals, It's turned out to be the most wonderful life right now that I've could ever imagined.

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