The Office .. questions

[Peelee]

Tim does. Now. One consequence of joining in series 1. We follow his struggle to go legit over series 2 and on.

Well that's the argument I've seen presented. They may depict actual moonshining, but authorities cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt that they are faking it. It's clearly not fabricated wholecloth though. The surrounding details work too well. They do lean towards heavy dramatic editing, if someone gets pulled over by cops it's always a cliffhanger. Even though they have no moonshine in the car what so ever. Also I doubt the Virginia Alcohol and Tobacco enforcement would agree to be included in a fake show.

Whether or not they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt is a question for the jury. Plus, moonshine is usually illegal because they aren't paying taxes on it, and the IRS is rather famous for getting their cut. That's the biggest evidence that it's staged, really.

It's been serveral years since I watched the series, so I had forgotten about several of those.
The main thing that I recall setting off my "this isn't really a documentary even in-universe" buzzer was the time that Oscar gave a talking-head interview about the extramarital affair Angela's husband was having with him. Kevin walks in on the interview and finds out, but Oscar convinces him to keep it a secret from the rest of the office. It's clear that Oscar wants to keep it a secret, yet he is willing to tell the documentary crew.

Spoiler

Show

Kevin saw Oscar kissing the senator (well, the state senator). Oscar saw Kevin, and then saw the cameras, and only then confided in them.

[snowblizz]

Whether or not they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt is a question for the jury. Plus, moonshine is usually illegal because they aren't paying taxes on it, and the IRS is rather famous for getting their cut. That's the biggest evidence that it's staged, really.

The people showing up are clearly not actors. They are real people who are known in their community. It made the local papers when Tickle got arrested e.g.

I know I asked a guy I know in Illinois who is a police officer and he said be problems proving the illegal activities. And that is also the reply someone got to asking essentially the same question on an IMDB discussion thread. Also, am now almost 100% certain they (producer and participants) answer the question of how they can show illegal activites on tv in a Q&A session on the show.

Presumably they remove stuff that'd be problematic if they'd show it on tv. It's not raw footage by any means we see, it's edited to be dramatic. Totally unnecessarily for me ofc. It's the people in it that makes the show, not the "dramatic tension".

Obviously one can always claim everything is faked even the real world pieces that shows up. To me there's just too many small details that gets it right. Am sure one could verify the existence of many of the people in the show, and that this could not have gone on for 8 season without someone proving it was totally fake, if it was. Because the way the Internet is, if it could be done someone would have.

[Peelee]

The people showing up are clearly not actors.

I never once claimed they were. I'm fairly sure they were, at some point, moonshiners. I'm equally sure that the show features approximately zero moonshining.

[Kyberwulf]

So, did it seem to you that they tried to make Andy more like Michael after he left? I mean it was a little jarring when Andy would go from having his characteristics to Michaels.

[Peelee]

So, did it seem to you that they tried to make Andy more like Michael after he left? I mean it was a little jarring when Andy would go from having his characteristics to Michaels.

I actually never got that impression; he was already largely incompetent, and personality mirroring was something he actively engaged in, along with not really seeing Michael as incompetent (due to his own incompetence), so it weird make sense for Andy to use managerial tactics he learned from Michael, no matter how poorly conceived or executed. The writers got frustrated with him constantly leaving to film movies, though, which is most obvious in season 9 when they completely demolish his character.