UPDATE: This video is available on the DVD set for Season Nine's Special Features.
We stumbled on this hidden YouTube gem (linked at the bottom of this post) with the taped final table reading of The Office. It's over an hour long so while we hope you'll take the time to watch it, we understand if you can't and have therefore provided the highlights of everything that didn't make it into the aired episode.
We stumbled on this hidden YouTube gem (linked at the bottom of this post) with the taped final table reading of The Office. It's over an hour long so while we hope you'll take the time to watch it, we understand if you can't and have therefore provided the highlights of everything that didn't make it into the aired episode.
The video opens with executive producer and The Office U.S. creator Greg Daniels seated at the center of the table with John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer sitting to his right and left. The rest of the main cast sits around the U-shaped table, with Director Ken Kwapis sitting to the far left side of the screen, while supporting cast members and various crew members sit in rows of chairs ahead of them.
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| It's an emotional scene as Daniels announces it is their last table read. |
"I want to make some final remarks." Daniels opens, "Ten years ago, my agent gave me a tape to watch, a VHS tape, of the British Office, I showed to to my wife and said 'Do you think I should adapt this for the US?' She said 'Absolutely not.' But lucky for me I didn't listen. I've done not much else for ten years, this show has been my passion and my family. Literally in many cases. And it's been a privilege to be a part of it. Sad to see it end. The best part of it all was that it brought me together with the most passionate, talented, funny, dedicated, wonderful group of people."
When the script opens, Daniels points out that the first page includes a photo of the first table read for the Pilot episode back in 2004.
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Daniels begins to list the cast and their roles for the last time and it is emotional as Jenna comforts a crying Angela Kinsey and Oscar Nunez cheers for Craig Robinson.
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| Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey: Finale Table Read |
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| Oscar Nunez and Craig Robinson: Finale Table Read |
After all introductions are made, the cast begins reading the original finale script. It was meant to be a cold open, with one amazing final prank on Dwight from Jim. This time, Jim's enlisted Pam's help in training a cat, costumed Hank the security guard, and broken into Dwight's computer all with the intent of making Dwight believe he is in The Matrix.
Here's our favorite moment when Hank acts as Dorpheus (Morpheus' brother) reenacting an iconic scene from the film series, while Jim and Pam watch on from a hidden location:
HANK (As Dorpheus): If you take the blue pill, you stay in the matrix and remember none of this. Life will go one as it is for you. If you take the red pill, I open your eyes and show you just how deep the rabbit hole goes.
DWIGHT: I'll take the blue pill.
HANK (As Dorpheus): Uh...but the blue is the one that keeps you in the program. The red's the cool one.
DWIGHT: No, I understand. And I will take the blue pill please.
HANK (As Dorpheus): Uh, maybe I didn't explain this well enough...
DWIGHT: Hey, hey, look, Dorpheus. You have to believe me. I really respect the work you and your brother are doing. And I would like to help. But the timing is terrible. I'm manager now, I own this building, I run a very substantial farm...plus I'm about to marry the woman I love. Maybe that love is just a series of zeroes and ones, but I don't want to give it up. Look, no one hates machines more than me, it's just- I'm happy! I'm truly happy.
PAM: Aww.
JIM: Are you kidding me?! I hired thirty people!
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| Such a shame we didn't get to see this epic prank. |
The read continues with the scene that replaced the original cold open, Dwight updating us all on the goings-on of Dunder Mifflin Scranton in the months since the Documentary aired. But extended. For instance, Jim jokes about Pam leaving him before saying he's kidding and they're doing fine. Clark explains that local high school kids copied Jim's pranks from the show, forcing him to make appearances at the schools and that Phyllis and Bob appeared on The Today Show. Meredith announces she's become a vegan, after attending a dog fight over the summer. There's also a sweet and funny wedding talk exchange between Dwight and Angela.
Jim and Pam, as well as Darryl, all discuss Andy's unfortunate events since his embarrassing singing audition that went viral. The script basically returns to the aired version for a while, but then we hear some dialogue from the girls about plans for Angela's bachelorette party. Then Pam has a surprising encounter with a fan who acts as though she knows her personally. The script again returns to what was aired.
At the bachelorette party, we get an extended scene with the girls playing a game: Boink, Marry or Kill. Erin claims she would kill Kevin but when Angela suggests she would kill Toby, Erin changes her answer to killing Toby as well. Then they play a version of the Newlywed Game asking Angela questions about Dwight while Phyllis shows his answers prerecorded on her cellphone's video camera. There's also a mild unexplained suggestion that Meredith has been sober before she joins the party by drinking a cocktail. Dwight misunderstanding his stripper for a waitress and the reveal of Meredith's son Jake as Angela's stripper, get huge laughs from the room. Later on, Kevin explains that he acquired his bar by gaining a $16,000 credit at the bar from people who'd seen him in the documentary wanting to buy him drinks. "It was cheaper to make me a partner." he says.
Stanley's return is also longer than originally aired, and he explains his interest in carving birds is better than doing crossword puzzles because it takes longer and you can do it in the rain. Kevin uses orange juice as a comparison in answering the question posed to him about how weird it was to have their lives filmed. "It's just smushed up oranges. How weird is that?" Oscar and Darryl both get propositioned about being single. Also in the original script, Jenny Tan of OfficeTally is named and it's said she runs a fansite for the documentary. (In case you didn't know, the "Harry Potter" woman is the blogger behind OfficeTally.com, the most successful Office fansite on the web, partly responsible for The Office remaining on the air as long as it did.)
Toby muses about how a homeless man came up to him telling him not to worry, "it gets better." which gets a big laugh from everyone. As they leave the Q&A meeting, more fans try to get Pam to reveal what Jim had written her in the note, but Jim steps in and takes her away to a private location.
Once at the wedding, Oscar explains that Dwight took some convincing to baby-proof the farm. Daniels' narrates a B-roll that would have been shown with Dwight placing corks on the end of pitch fork tongs and even on the horns of his bull. Then this sweet and funny interaction takes place between Dwight and Oscar:
DWIGHT: I'd like you to be Phillip's gay father.
OSCAR: You mean Godfather.
DWIGHT: That's what I said.
OSCAR: Wow. I would be honored.
DWIGHT: I'm envious, you get to buy him his first horse.
The table read does not involve Michael Scott at all, the scene in which he appears when it aired, is skipped over nonchalantly as if no one is the wiser. One can't help but wonder if this was to avoid spoilers or if at the time, they didn't know he would return for a cameo. Mindy Kaling and BJ Novak are also not present at the table read, although their lines are spoken by an unknown woman and man in the front row for the sake of the read.
A big difference from the aired episode is Dwight and Angela's first dance being set to Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" (rather than Motley Crue's "Angela" which made the final cut) which would have included a funny talking head of Dwight saying: "I just started listening to Bruce Springsteen. He's really good!" Which gets a big laugh from the room.
And it is Creed who gets one of Michael's few lines from the final episode "I feel like my kids all grew up and married each other. It's every parent's dream." in the table read. Phyllis also was supposed to give a toast at the wedding, saying she'd known about their romance ever since she'd walked in on them having sex years earlier, and quips that even though they acted mad, they liked it.
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| "And if I'm being honest, I guess I liked it too." |
During Andy's toast, he also mentions having a fiance and that he'll be getting married the next year in Nantucket. Erin's parents also explain their reason for giving her up for adoption: They were traveling puppeteers. Ravi also catches Ryan and Kelly making out, and Kelly gets after him for bringing the baby "to watch two people trying to get it on. God, could you be any more in appropriate?" Ravi gives the baby back and leaves and as Kelly holds the baby, Ryan starts freaking out about her trying to wrangle him into a commitment again. He asks her to raise the baby saying he needs to focus on himself for once and leaves. "Thanks Kell, love you!" he says, leaving his infant son in her arms.
Nellie's story closes up with the news that she's traveling back to England to interview for another job in the paper business at a firm called Wernham Hogg (The Dunder Mifflin of The Office U.K.) When Jenna says her lines answering the Dunder Mifflin phone and looking over at Jim sitting at his desk in the classic Jim-Pam shot, her voice breaks as she says "No, Jim Halpert doesn't work here anymore." The cast laughs as they speak lines reminiscing about major moments from the series. Ed Truck's decapitation, Michael hitting Meredith with his car, and Andy and Erin in Florida. When Creed picks up his guitar and starts singing a small part of his song "All the Faces," (which did make it into the final episode) the camera meaningfully pans across the main cast members reactions. Ed and John smile, while Jenna and Angela tear up.
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| "I saw a friend today. It had been a while. And we forgot each others names. But it didn’t matter. ‘Cause deep inside the feeling still remained the same." |
The cast then starts talking about who's worked there the longest. Phyllis explains that it's her now since she started two days after Stanley, but it used to be him. Jim jokes that the plant has been there the longest and they all decide to take the plant outside to plant it near the entrance to the office bulding, while Erin chants: "Office plant! Office plant!" The script returns to the office as the now famous talking heads make their closing remarks. Here are the ones that didn't make the final cut:
TOBY: I realized something watching the documentary. Just making an honest living, doing your best, trying to find some love and something to smile about, that's heroic. That's why in my new Chad Flenderson novel.. (group laughs through tears)...Chad's just a day to day office worker like the rest of us. Until a mysterious letter arrives....
ANGELA: This documentary should have been called "Dwight & Angela: A Love Story." Wouldn't that have been better than just a show about an office?
PETE: "I always knew looking back on the tears would make me laugh, but I never knew looking back on the laughs would make me cry." -Unknown. That's my yearbook quote.
And Jim's is different...
JIM: When people ask me what it was like to work for a paper supply company for nine years, they always assume I'll say it was ordinary, or mind-numbingly boring. But you know what? They haven't been in the room when Kevin Malone played the bongos, or been surprised by the wrath of Angela Martin, or the warmth of Angela Martin. Or had dirt thrown in their face by Dwight Schrute, or celebrated Christmas with Meredith Palmer. So no. My answer is: It wasn't boring. It was a three-ring circus for twelve years and I loved every second of it. (continues after other talking heads) Regrets? I regret letting Michael fall into that koi pond. I regret taking so long to tell Pam how I felt. The way I treated Dwight was....correct. Love the guy, but he deserved all of that.
Jenna's last iconic line of "Isn't that kind of the point?" makes her lose her composure.
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| Truth and beauty in the most ordinary things. |
Daniels says that's the end of the show and the cast and crew all clap for more than a minute, while the camera pans around the room showing the cast crying and embracing while John gives the camera a classic look.
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| T-Shirt idea: Goodbyes Stink. |
As Ed, Brian and Angela all wipe their eyes and the room dulls to a silence, Rainn breaks the tension by declaring. "Ok here's my notes." The room laughs and the video comes to an end.