John Krasinski: Oh, my God.
Jennie Tan: Remember you and your roommate…
John Krasinski: Oh, I know it very well.
Jennie Tan: …trying to one up each other?
John Krasinski: Yeah.
Jennie Tan: You ended up with a shaved eyebrow or something. Anyway, that was…
John Krasinski: I ended up with a fauxhawk, which is a reverse Mohawk, and the other guy had to shave his eyebrow. And weirdly, I remember the night before I got cast calling my dad, who’s a doctor, and just saying, “Eyebrows grow back, right?” And he’s like, “There’s no way to tell, so hopefully you’re the Fauxhawk guy.” And so, I was terrified until I got the Mohawk.
Jennie Tan: Oh, that was great! But anyway, my question is now you’re both going to be attending The Office Wrap Party in Scranton this weekend, which…
Greg Daniels: Yes.
Jennie Tan: …I’m very excited about, and I was wondering if you could talk about your thoughts about The Office fan base in general, and what it’s meant to you over the years?
John Krasinski: Well, I can jump in on that one. I think there’s a lot of shows that say they owe it all to their fans. But we actually technically can say that we owe everything to the fans, because I think that our show is so fan-driven in such a specific way, as evidenced by iTunes. When we first came out the only reason, in my opinion, that we made it past these pickups that Greg and I were talking about is because people actually decided they liked the show so much, and it was such a small group at the beginning, that they would pay money to see the show, rather than just wait for it on Tuesday or Thursday, whatever time it was back then.
And I remember that was life-changing for me to see, because to be part of something like that was incredible. I was walking down the streets of New York and someone would just stop on their way to work and say, “Oh, my God, you’re on my iPod.” And I was like two things, “What’s an iPod? Also, what are you talking about?” And they just held up this thing.
I also think that during the early speculation of what our show would be when people were being really hard on the show without seeing it, because everybody thought that it was going to be terrible because the English one was so good, I remember Diversity Day hitting and just every other person on the street would come up to me and say, “The show is awesome.” You had this group of people who almost started a grass roots political campaign for our show. And so, I don’t know how Greg feels, but I think we owe absolutely everything to the fans.
Greg Daniels: Yeah, I mean, I completely agree with that. And by the way, your website, OfficeTally, is such an amazing treat for all of us to have, and it’s so well done, and it’s been so well done for years.
Jennie Tan: Thank you so much!
This was great. Thank you! Going home to watch some old eps after work now!
Awesome! Thanks!
Ah, that 27 seconds of silence felt ground-breaking to me. Too much good stuff from this show.
Great great stuff! I feel however that I should curl into the fetal position on the floor imagining the empty office! :(
[from tanster: yeah. that was heartbreaking to hear.]
Great stuff! I always love cast/writer/director interviews! I’ve blocked out my entire day on May 16th! ;) haha!
Seeing their favorite episodes mentioned you can tell how magical Season 2 was. To this day I go back and watch chunks of it at a time.
The show had such a great knack for laugh-out-loud silliness grounded with legitimate drama – which it sorely misses these days.
One of the greatest seasons of scripted comedy tv ever.
Any hope for audio?
What a bummer to think the office is now empty :(
They should totally auction off some of the set props like they did after Seinfeld ended!!
I don’t know how to describe this feeling. Many shows of GREAT quality, greater quality, have come and gone with sadness at the departure.
This however, is truly a hollow feeling. I feel like the beat of my heart is echoing inside me because truly the one thing that my wife and I have shared from our first date till now, is over.
I feel the loss so potently. I’m your average white collar corporate type. 28yrs old. Would never know me as some kind of TV guy. Not like Stanley and his “mystery stories” or Kelly and her “Glee”
The office wasn’t my Seinfeld or sopranos, it was my date night. My dinner infront of the TV night. My cuddle with my wife and laugh night. The office is my funny bone and much like a funny bone, when it hurts, it’s not funny. I’m pained by the loss but appreciative. I only wish NBC would have given the office the lifespan of Law and Order SVU. Alas, I guess America likes Rape and pedophiles more than Oscar and the Senator or Angela and her Cats.
Goodbye my lover, goodbye my friend, you have been the one, you have been the one for me..
Oh gosh. Yeah, that last part was heartbreaking.
I realize this is an entirely unrelated thing to post, but now that I know Greg is so fond of lurking and reading the comments, I’m going for it:
Mr. Daniels, I was going through a box of old college paperwork a couple weeks ago and found one of my annual financial aid statements from a certain women’s college in the Pioneer Valley. I noticed a line item I’d never seen before and did some research on the name. And long story short, tell your parents thanks from a random fangirl for helping to make me the first out of seven kids to go to college. I’ll try to keep repaying the debt by buying DVD sets or something. :)
Now, the relevant stuff:
I really want to know where the Homer doll and Pam’s drawing of the building went! When I watch re-runs now, I keep finding myself wondering where certain things ended up. Like, there’s this sad little part of me that really wants Brian Baumgartner to have that blown-up photo of Michael and Jan at Sandals in a basement rec room.
See you all in Scranton this weekend. :)
I think a small piece of me died when I read that the set is already torn down. :(
The Office and its fantastic characters will live forever in my heart (and on my dvd shelf).
Nicely said gentleman.