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An Oral History of The Office

Propagate Content

Tv & Film, Film History, Comedy, Documentary, Comedy Interviews, Society & Culture

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2020

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A chance discovery on a trip to London sends a producer on the hunt to secure the rights - and a TV network - to produce a series with the potential to redefine comedy in the US. Hosted and Executive Produced by Brian Baumgartner. Executive Producer/Showrunner: Linh Le. Executive Producers for Propagate: Ben Silverman, Howard Owens and Drew Buckley. Senior Producers: Joanna Sokolowski and Julia Smith. Written & Produced by: Tessa Kramer and Alyssa Edes. Writer/Story Producer: Benny Spiewak. Assistant Editors: Russell Wijaya and Diego Tapia. Technical Director: Seth Olansky. Theme Song: Story Mechanics. Additional music & original score: Joe Berry. Consultant: Rich Boerner Special thanks to Margaret Borchert, Christian Bonaventura, Matthew Rosenfield, Alex Mauboussin, Lucy Savage, Emily Carr and Syeda Lee for production support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why do you think that the office has become now the most watch show in television five six years after we've shot anything?
0:09.8	Is that true the most? Yeah, wow. Why is it connecting with people maybe even more so now today?
0:17.0	Well, let me think about this. But why is it become such a phenomena?
0:21.0	I don't know. Something's just defy the boundaries of when they were made.
0:26.2	My name is Brian Baumgartner, but most of you know me as the guy who played Kevin Malone on the office.
0:33.4	I just want to lie on the beach and eat hot dogs.
0:36.0	I know. I know. On the show, I sounded a bit different and at times it seemed like there wasn't much going on in my head.
0:44.2	In general, they do not give me much responsibility.
0:47.8	But from my little corner in the accounting department, I actually was paying attention and I had a front row seat to it all.
0:55.8	Yes, that's what I'm talking about.
0:58.4	And over the years, I've been asked a million times. Why?
1:03.0	Why did a show that never should have happened?
1:05.6	I mean, we teetered on the brink of cancellation so many times.
1:09.6	Become one of the biggest shows in television history.
1:13.2	The Emmy goes to the office.
1:17.8	Last year, the office accounted for 52 billion. Yes, billion minutes of viewing on Netflix.
1:26.0	But the truth is, the answers lie far deeper than I ever could have imagined.
1:32.6	There's something really soothing about showing up, hearing that theme song.
1:37.8	You're in that office with these characters that you love.
1:40.6	The Nermis one is this pamph.
1:42.0	It's enormously complex and beautiful and familiar all at once.
1:46.8	You see people's fears and their wishes and their dreams and their hearts.
	...

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