Deleted scenes work overtime on The Office” DVD”
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: