The REAL Reason Michael Hates Toby

what are you doing oh come on you're ruining it Toby come on just look look at that that's wrecked ass that was the first time Michael Scott ever told Toby flenderson that he was ruining something but it wouldn't be the last the characters seemed almost scientifically designed to get on each other's nerves and their unending Feud provided the basis for some of the office's funniest moments which is why it may be surprising to learn that this moment from a scene deleted in the show's fourth episode wasn't a part of the Creator's original Vision in fact Michael hating Toby wasn't the Creator's idea at all I hate so much about the things that you choose to be but before we take the exit for Scranton why not take a moment to subscribe to the nerdstock channel on March 24th 2005 the world got its first look at the American version of the hit British sitcom the office the single cam workplace comedy had a mockumentary format which followed the day-to-day lives of the employees in the Scranton Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company the star of the show was its incredible ensemble cast and at the center of that at least for the most successful part of its run was regional manager Michael Scott played by Steve Carell Michael is in many ways the worst kind of boss I think that pretty much sums it up I found it at Spencer Gifts he's a desperately lonely man who treats his office as his home and his employees as his friends and family that's not a great situation in any case but it's especially bad for Dunder Mifflin because Michael lacks any real social skills he's highly prone to embarrassing both himself and his staff in his deeply misguided attempts to Curry their respect happily neglecting the actual business of the office in favor of doing things that are fun and exciting or at least what he thinks is fun and exciting every time I try to do something fun or exciting you make it not that way but we tolerate and even sympathize with Michael because the writing as well as corel's nuanced performance never lets us forget that at heart he's just a sweet albeit deeply inept man who just wants to have people in his life that love and appreciate him of course that doesn't change that he's a nightmare to work for and that is where Toby flenderson enters the picture I need to talk to you in your office it'll just take two seconds oh um literally two seconds an original character invented for the American version of the office topi was played by series writer director producer and future showrunner Paul lieberstein after inviting lieberstein to be a writer on season one series Creator Greg Daniels invented the character for lieberstein to play on account of Daniel's belief that acting made writers better it's the same belief that led him to cast writers BJ Novak as Ryan Howard Mindy Kaling as Kelly Kapoor and co-executive producer Michael sherp as most it's kind of a Troupe of people who understand writing and Performing all at the same time as a Dunder Mifflin Human Resources rep it's Toby's job to enforce the corporate procedures that protect the company's employees from well pretty much every allegedly fun or exciting thing Michael ever says or does my job is to make the office fun your job is make the office lame and Toby does his job about as gently as anyone could possibly ask from a man in his position but from Michael's perspective it makes Toby a Perpetual wet blanket who's constantly preventing Michael from winning the love of his prospective workplace family you still can't make fun of people for race or gender or sexual orientation religion who let who let the Lemonhead into the room you were a waste of life and you should give up exacerbating Michael's contempt for Toby is that the two have conspicuously opposite personalities Michael is loud often brimming with Manic energy and determined to be the center of attention whereas Toby is a soft-spoken Sad Sack he doesn't HR have some rules against talking about this kind of stuff is a joke I can't do anything about anything everything about Toby clashes with everything about Michael and the two can't help but to irritate each other which is ironic because at some level both men just want to be liked by others in fact as different as they may seem on the surface it's actually their deep underlying similarities as middle-aged men who have grown lonely and unhappy working dead-end jobs that scares Michael so thoroughly to see himself as a happy well-liked well-adjusted guy like Jim at the site of Toby just reminds him of who he really is this is the worst this is the worst you were the worst I ate looking at your face I want to smash it the mutually antagonistic relationship is so brilliantly developed it's difficult to believe that the writers didn't design the Toby character with that specific dynamic in mind but the truth is they didn't Toby appears in two of the first three episodes of the series and while he and Michael do have their Infamous confrontation over sitting Indian style hey we're not all gonna sit in circle and then salary get out it was offensive and lame so double offensive there's no evidence that there's any special animosity between the characters that's because though many fans don't realize it the idea wasn't first conceived until the filming of what would eventually become a deleted scene from the fourth episode of Season one The Alliance according to lieberstein we never had this meeting we were like okay what uh what if Michael hates Toby you know that was never it just it just happened in the scene Toby walks into Michael's office to sign a birthday card for Meredith Michael happily obliges and then watches over Toby's shoulder as he proceeds to sign find the card after a few seconds a suddenly pissy Michael who has spent the day trying to come up with a perfect joke for the card stops Toby he objects to the joke he is writing about Meredith's red hair on the grounds that he intended to mention her hair in his own message then he orders Toby to cross the joke off the card even though Michael isn't actually his Superior and can't fire him to be obese but that only seems to make Michael angrier he complains that Toby has now ruined the card and then the scene ends with Michael throwing Toby out of his office to go find some whiteout even though there's already some on his desk that's right ass get some white out this one right there that's my white out get your own white out it looks and feels like a classic Michael Toby moment but in reality Michael's reaction was totally ad-lude by Corel lieberstein would later recall I just go in write something quickly and leave that's the scene but it takes me a while to physically write it and I could just feel Steve Carell watching me and feel that burning Steve told me afterwards that it was that moment that he just decided to hate me so much Alpha Stars Jenna Fisher who played Pam and Angela Kinsey who played Angela discussed lieberstein's Recollections on their podcast office ladies with Fisher adding that was when they ran with it that Paul went to the writers and said Michael hates Toby because you know if Jim took a long time to write a message he would have all the patience in the world the fact that Toby would be an object of contempt and a source of resentment for Michael seems obvious in retrospect but even with a room full of the best comedy writers in the world it took the comedic instincts of a master improviser like Steve Carell to recognize that Toby ruining things for Michael was more than just a one-off gag it was their whole relationship Toby's divorced he uh God recently right you and your wife and you have kids according to lieberstein it's terrifying acting with Steve he misses nothing corel's powerful instincts about how his character should relate to Toby led him to make a choice in the moment and that choice changed the dynamic of the two characters in a way that would continue to pay dividends throughout the entire series if I had a gun with two bullets and I was in a room with Hitler Bin Laden and Toby I would shoot Toby twice the takeaway is that while it's tempting for many to credit writers with everything we see on screen it's important to remember that at its heart television is really an incredibly collaborative medium the characters we love and the stories that keep us tuning in again and again for years at a time aren't just the product of a single Visionary Creator or even a brilliant writer's room they're Composites of the creative talents of everyone involved in bringing the show to the screen creators writers directors and certainly not least the actors they don't hear a line I think you're great you're my best friend so what do you think did you ever wonder why Michael hates Toby so much and do you think actors get enough credit for shaping the roles they play let us know down in the comments below and if you enjoyed this video you'll definitely find others you like if you check out the rest of the channel as always thank you for subscribing to nerdstalgic foreign

Channel: Nerdstalgic

Views: 258,112

Keywords: The Office, The Office Reboot, The Office Michael Scott, The Office Toby Flenderson, The Office Steve Carell, Nerdstalgic, The Office Ladies Podcast, The Office Deleted Scene, The Office Michael Hates Toby, The Office Greg Daniels, The Office Michael Schur, The Office Final Season, The Office Season 1, The Office UK, The Office Paul Lieberstein, The Office Jim and Pam, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine Nine, 30 Rock, Scrubs, New Rockstars, Screen Crush, IGN, Corridor Crew

Id: Sx5VMWX6fEs

Length: 8min 38sec (518 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 27 2023