Fresh Loaf

Deleted or unused scenes can be the primary selling points as value-adding extras on DVDs. Frequently, however, scenes were deleted for good reason: they’re inessential or not as good as the “keepers” that made the final cut. Sometimes they get restored for longer versions of movies on disc, but the “director’s cut” is seldom better than the original cut (with rare exceptions including James Cameron’s The Abyss).

Perhaps the gold standard for deleted material belongs to the “The Office,” NBC’s hit version of the British workplace sitcom. The newly released DVD set for “The Office’s” fourth season boasts two hours of deleted scenes, and they make even weak episodes worth revisiting. The “Arrested Development” discs also have good ones, but not in the quantity as “The Office.” Every episode seems to have around five minutes of unused comedy (up to twice that for the show’s hour-long or “supersized” installments), conveniently packaged alongside the installments in question. Here’s a little bit from the “Fun Run” episode that’s probably superfluous, but still amusing:

Given “The Office’s” faux-documentary premise and large cast of funny performers, the extras literally look like footage of what was “really” happening at the other desks at Dunder-Mifflin’s Scranton branch, while that week’s comic plot was going on. Funny supporting players given short shrift on a given week — like Mindy Kaling or Creed Bratton — frequently provide amusing little gems that didn’t see the light of day. Check out this Creed-oriented clip from the “Booze Cruise” episode of the show’s second season:

At times whole subplots ended up on the cutting room floor. The episode “The Dinner Party” featured Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and his ex-boss girlfriend Jan (Melora Hardin) hosting a get-together that essentially turns into <I>Who’s Afriad of Virginia Woolf</I>, only with paper-company employees. Something we learn during the deleted scenes is that Jan is having friction with the local neighborhood watch group, who blame her for falling asleep during her shift, and allowing a stranger to spray-paint “a swear-word” on a neighbor’s dog. During the dinner, Jan reveals, apropos of nothing, that she spray-painted the dog herself in a fit of pique and personal frustration. Later, when the characters argue in front of the house, we see some neighbors come out, along with a dog whose fur is “blurred” to censor the swear word in a funny sight gag.

“The Office” Season IV DVD reveals a little more of the show’s creative process by offering the script for “The Dinner Party” episode, conveniently reduced to DVD-slipcase size. It includes a “cold open” that finds Michael getting gum in his hair, a scene unused for “The Dinner Party” but recycled for a subsequent episode, although a gag involving Creed’s long fingernails (”Let me get in there, boss”) doesn’t turn on film. In this draft of the episode, Jan didn’t spray-paint a dog, but accidentally ran over one with her car, and during the dinner she reveals that was deliberate. It’s ironic that “The Office’s” creators rewrote and shot a much funnier version of the story, but didn’t have the chance to include it in the final product.

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Tags: The Office.