Brian Baumgartner is reflecting on his time in <em>The Office</em>!

The 53-year-old actor portrayed Kevin Malone throughout all nine seasons of the NBC mockumentary comedy series.

In a recent interview, Brian recalled a joke from season five that his character made, which was cut from the original airing but later reinstated for streaming.

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“What I remember as being unique about the show from beginning to end was that we were able to provide input — pitch stories and discuss with the writers what we wanted to see in certain episodes or story arcs,” he shared with Entertainment Weekly. “There were definitely some ideas I had that they incorporated, and some that they did not.”

“One time I got really upset with the editors. There was a joke — and now they have put it back in, so most people have seen it,” he continued. “I just thought it was an incredible joke. It was a great joke, and they cut it.”

The joke appeared in the episode “Baby Shower,” where Michael prepares for Jan to give birth to her first child, and it was made after she brings the baby into the office.

“Kevin starts asking her about where she got the sperm donated for the baby. She responds with something like, ‘Oh, you know, it’s a very exclusive place,’ and Kevin knowingly says, ‘The place behind the IHOP?’” Brian explained.

The actor clarified that the joke stemmed from “the look on [Melora Hardin‘s] face thinking that possibly the donated sperm came from Kevin, and what that would imply for Michael.”

“When it first aired on NBC, they approached me and said, ‘Sorry.’ I was confused and asked, ‘What are you talking about?’” he said, adding they told him, “‘We don’t really have a storyline about this, or we don’t want to confuse people into thinking it might set something up with Kevin’s baby.’”

“I responded, ‘No, you’re overthinking this. This is just a great joke. Yes, this is a great joke. It doesn’t need to lead anywhere.’”

Now that the joke is back in the episode on streaming, Brian feels vindicated.

“I was really upset about that one, and I lost the argument, but now they have put it back in,” he said. “It’s interesting; you can’t watch that episode now without noticing that moment. So it’s a bit of vindication for me.”

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