How did last years writers strike affect the last season?
Lieberstein: I think it affected it really positively. I think it let us do two groups of 12, instead of this giant block where we have to kind of guess how things are going to come out. It let us do a reasonable group in the fall and then take a break, see how those episodes came out, edit them and really respond. And I think in the spring came a group of our strongest episodes. So, you know, I think they’re like kind of the model of how HBO and The Wire will do 12 or 13 in a row, and then they’ll come out so strong. Some of the deleted scenes are priceless — does it break your heart when so many great scenes wind up on the cutting room floor? Lieberstein: Yeah, it’s awful. They’re often our favorite scenes, because they’re maybe pure comedy scenes and they’re not quite on-story. And that’s why they got in there, and we’ve just played with them. And then we forget what’s in and not — you know, we’ll think everybody knows, “Creed [plays with] the band” and then someone will say, “No,
