VIDEO: Scranton’s real mayor and Dunder Mifflin CEO actor chat about census in ‘The Office’ PSA
The fictional world of the hit NBC sitcom “The Office” and the actual city of Scranton it portrays collided today in a new video promoting the U.S. census.
Produced by Electric City Television, it shows Paige Cognetti, the actual mayor of Scranton, and actor Andy Buckley playing David Wallace, the TV show’s CEO of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, in a video chat discussing the 2020 census and how important it is for Scranton residents to participate, as the city is currently six percent below the state average.
“Scranton is my favorite city. It’s certainly where our favorite branch is,” Buckley says in character.
“Scranton does not want to shortchange itself.”
Setting the video in continuity with the series’ nine seasons, they name drop several characters, and Angela asks off-screen if her cats should be counted in the census.
In between references for fans, they emphasize that the questionnaire is quick and easy to fill out and will help the city receive the federal funds it desperately needs for “schools, roads, and other public services. Results from the 2020 census will be used to determine the number of seats each state has in Congress and your political representation at all levels of government,” according to my2020census.gov.
“We’re definitely going to work harder here. We’re definitely going to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to have the residents of Scranton respond,” Cognetti tells Wallace.
Based in the Dunder Mifflin corporate headquarters in New York City, Buckley’s character is introduced in the second season of “The Office” as the CFO of the company who occasionally interacts with the Scranton branch. The likable boss loses his job in the sixth season but ends up becoming the CEO in the eighth season after he sells his toy vacuum invention “Suck It” to the military for $20 million and buys Dunder Mifflin. He appears in 37 of the show’s 201 episodes.
Cognetti, who was sworn in as the first female mayor of Scranton in January, declared a state of emergency on March 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic and has been hosting virtual town hall meetings since the city and state shut down. With 1,374 cases and 127 deaths according to the Pennsylvania National Electronic Disease Surveillance System, Lackawanna County is still considered a “red zone” where only life-sustaining businesses can operate, and Governor Tom Wolf has extended stay-at-home orders through June 4.
The census questionnaire can be accessed now at my2020census.gov, and more information can be found at 2020census.gov.
Learn about The Office Super Fan Festival in downtown Scranton postponing its summer debut this week here and watch the “Best of David Wallace” clip video on the official YouTube channel of “The Office” below:
