Promos
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That's ladies 15. Make the switch to non-toxic Boca for the whole family. We are getting ready to plan some travel for the holidays. And so we've started to look on Airbnb. We love to stay at an Airbnb because when you travel with children and your family, it is nice to have a kitchen. It's nice to have you all in one area. You know, I've talked about this before. Family of five is

It's a little tougher. Like we can't all pile in one hotel room. Yeah. So it's nice to have some space. And we love an Airbnb. We found an Airbnb that was literally down the block from Lee's brother's house. Yeah. It was amazing. We could walk in between the two houses, but then we all had our own space.

I really like being able to get up in the morning and have a cup of coffee and eat breakfast, and I'm not in a public space. I don't have to go get fully dressed to go down to breakfast. Right, yes. Or find breakfast. Airbnb offers the perfect accommodation whether you're traveling with friends, family, or on your own. Consider Airbnb for your next adventure.

I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together. And we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Rewatch Podcast just for you. Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. We're The Office Ladies.

Hello. Hey there. Oh my goodness. We are sitting in such a cool space. This is our brand new recording studio thanks to Odyssey. It's so fancy. It has natural light. We've never had a recording space. We've never had a window. With windows to the outside world. I can see the sky and I'm talking to you. This is crazy.

It's crazy. We're not in a box. Do you know what, though? Remember on The Office when Randall Einhorn told us that if like a character had something like a future that they were going toward? You're pulling out the window in the conference room? Yes. Oh, Jenna. Because they would be by a window. We have a future.

Yeah, we're moving kind of in a new direction soon. Yeah, and we're looking out. We're looking out at our future. Like Jim and Pam. Yes. It's all happening. Did you know you were going to bring that up? No, it occurred to me just now. You know, guys, I love it when the office just creeps right into your real life. All the time. All the time. All right. Well, today we are talking about promos.

It is season nine, episode 19, written by Tim McAuliffe and directed by Jen Salata. And Jen sent in some really great audio clips. Jen is the best. I mean, I know we've said this before, but I love it whenever she talks about an episode she directed and you guys are going to enjoy these clips. Well, to kick things off, here is your summary. The documentary promo is officially out and everyone is very excited at first.

At first. Soon, they realize that they have been being filmed more often than they thought. In all the nooks and crannies, they thought they were hidden. Dwight's new relationship with Esther sparks jealousy in Angela. Clark is convinced that Esther is only dating Dwight so her dad can get a tractor. Oscar and Angela have to confess a few things to the senator. And Pam visits with Brian, the boom guy. Oh, boy.

I've got a lot to say about that. Meanwhile, Jim and Daryl's meeting with MLB player Ryan Howard gets awkward.

Well, that leads me very well into fast fact number one, guest star Ryan Howard. Yeah. All right. His nickname is The Big Piece, and he was the first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies from 2004 to 2016. So he was the current first baseman for the Phillies and a World Series champion when he shot this episode.

Crazy. Crazy. Steve Burgess said everybody enjoyed having him on set. He was fantastic. And Jen Salata said the same thing. Let's listen.

It was such a treat having Ryan Howard in the office. I am not a huge baseball fan, but I definitely knew who he was and people were telling his stats leading up to the filming. And he just, it was fun. It was fun to have him around. I thought he did such a good job. John and Craig were really excited to have him on set and they made him feel really welcome. And it seemed like he was having a fun time. Well, let me tell you something. I did something crazy. I know what you're talking about.

I slid into Ryan Howard's DMs on Instagram. You told me you were going to, and I was like, okay. Well... Every time we do that with someone that we don't know as well, I'm always like... I know. Well, we didn't have any scenes with him. We didn't. So...

I was like, well, it's worth a shot. By the way, he is from my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. So I tried to pull out some good Emo's Pizza toasted ravioli references in my DM to butter him up. And guess what? He is, just as you suspected, the nicest guy. He wrote me back and he sent in audio clips about his time on The Office on the set. He's wonderful. Wonderful.

So the first thing we asked was, what was it like shooting The Office from his perspective? And here's what he had to say. Jenna, Angela, thank you guys so, so much. Love what you guys are doing with the podcast. I'm glad that I can have an opportunity to partake. So question one was, how was my experience shooting The Office?

Absolutely amazing. The cast, everyone, John and Craig were outstanding. Everybody made it so fluid and so easy for me. They just told me to just be myself, just relax and have fun and just made it very, very loose and easy for me to be able to enjoy myself doing it. So really, really made it seamless and I really had fun doing it. Loved every moment of it. All right, so then I had to ask him,

Was he a fan of the show when he got the job? And here's what he had to say. You know, to start, I never I heard a little bit about it at the time I was in AAA, which took place in Scranton. And a couple of people had actually come up to me and told me about the show and that there was a character named Ryan Howard on the show. So I never really knew about it at the start. And I was like, oh, man, that seems really cool. And then, you know, kind of fast forward, you

through my career and the opportunity to be able to get on the show, ultimately became a fan, the more I started to learn more about the show and be able to watch the show. And so having the opportunity to hop on there was something that was really, really cool and unique. The way that I came about it was, you know, my agent at the time, I guess, you know, had some connections over there and obviously with

the character of Ryan Howard on the show and myself, I think it only made sense. It really only made sense to do it. And like I said, for me, it was something that's, you know, outside of my usual comfort zone and wanted to kind of challenge myself. And like I said before, just absolutely loved every bit of

of it and being able to be a part of the show. I cannot believe he said it was outside of his comfort zone. He looked like such a natural. I agree. I was going to say the same thing. And the first time when he was like, hi, nice to meet you, eat fresh. I know. I was like, this guy is hilarious. All right. Well, fast fact number two, Ange, is we had another guest star in this episode and it was Subway.

Yeah, we did. Like you said, Ryan Howard keeps saying the Subway catchphrase, eat fresh, in this episode. Well, Steve Burgess said that this was one of the ways that we got Ryan Howard on the show, that Subway had been trying to get some sort of product placement or integration into the office. Ryan Howard was already their spokesperson at the time, so this kind of worked out perfectly. Yeah.

A lot of the times Greg was pretty opposed to any kind of product placement deals, but since this fit our storyline, he approved it. It totally worked. And Steve Burgess did say that we had to have Subway representatives on set to supervise. This is one of the reasons why it's not fun to have product placement.

because the star of the commercial is the product. It's not the star of the commercial. I will never forget when we were doing our Chili's commercial together, there was a tray of appetizers and that tray of appetizers sitting in front of us got its own like lighting effect.

Yeah, it had its own like person. Like making sure it looked good on camera. Yeah. And if you do a take and it's like super funny, but they don't like how the light was hitting the chicken popper, you have to do it again. Right. So that's why we would not really want to have to have like some product in an episode. But this worked great because Subway got in the episode through Ryan Howard, through the catchphrase.

Steve said the Subway people were very laid back, they were happy with everything. And this actually turned into a multi-episode deal with Subway. We should be on the lookout. Steve Burgess says you're going to see Subway stuff in the background of a few scenes in some upcoming episodes.

No way. Track it. I did not know that. Me either. Well, now it's time for my favorite thing. It's when Angela takes Fast Fact number three. I understand you've got a DVD update for us today. I sure do. You all that have the box set, we're on disc four of season nine. It's the second to last disc.

I have feelings about it. Here are the episodes and the features on this disc. The episodes are promos, Stairmageddon, Paper Airplane, and Live in the Dream. And the bonus features are deleted scenes and, quote, a look back, the cast farewells.

Oh, I remember when we did those. Yeah, we all say our goodbyes to the show while we're filming the last episode. John talked about that in his interview because he was the one who really spearheaded that. He wanted to document that. Well, I was crying as I watched them all.

It just, oh man, I want to share some of it when we get to the finale. Please do. It's really, oh, it's emotional. Well, listen, lady, that's all I've got. Should we take a break? And then when we get back, we start breaking down this episode? Yes. Before we take a break, I just have to share with you guys, you know, I'm like a visual person, which is hilarious that I podcast.

But the room we're in is so nice. Odyssey has set us up so lovely. Our table has an outlet in the middle. I could charge my phone if I needed to. Yeah. And there's no shower curtain between us and Sam and Cassie. There's a wall with a window. We can see them. We can see them. Again. Anyway, this is so nice. I want to give a video tour of where we are now. Definitely go to our Instagram, officeladiespod.com.

Angela is going to give you a visual documentation. I need you to see where we are because it's so flippin' nice. Okay, now we can go to break. I remember going to the bank with my dad when I was

16 years old and setting up my very first checking and savings account. And I remember writing my first check. And from the time I was able to earn a paycheck, my dad really wanted to teach me about managing my money. Well, today's episode is sponsored by Acorn's.

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View important disclosures at acorns.com slash officeladies. I think we're all driven by a search for better, right? What is the best thing? But when it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. You don't need to search. Just match with Indeed. I remember once I was working in an office when I worked in a real office and I had to hire my replacement.

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Indeed.com slash office ladies, terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. Well, this episode starts with Phyllis at her desk. She's got headphones in and she is listening to something that's making her really happy. She's kind of rocking back and forth in her chair. Kevin announces she's doing it again.

Yes. Then we cut to a talking head between Pam and Clark. Pam and Clark. Did you notice it as well? Yes. I want you to know I went to the shooting draft because I was very curious about this combination of talking head. And later in the script, Clark talks a little bit about Pam and I'm going to share it. But I wonder if there was a little bit more of a theme of seeing how the two of them are deskmates.

Well, the idea was to draw attention to the fact that Jim is not there. Yes. That having Pam alone wouldn't have the same effect as having her paired with someone. So that was the idea behind this Pam-Clark pairing. Yes. And you're going to see them interact more in this episode than you ever have. As I read the shooting draft again and saw the other moments that didn't make it into the episode between Pam and Clark...

It really just made me realize how creative our writers were at planting these subtle themes of Pam missing Jim and Jim's absence, her partner being gone. Yeah. Well, Pam and Clark are going to explain that Phyllis has gotten into audiobooks and she's currently listening to Fifty Shades of Grey, which is...

porn. That's what Clark says. Yeah, exactly. And I guess as Phyllis is kind of rocking back and forth, she's scooching over towards Dwight's desk area and she's hitting the back of his chair in the process.

And the whole bullpen has had it. Yeah, everyone marches into Andy's office to complain. But Toby says that Phyllis is not technically in violation of any, I guess, rules of the office unless she acts on her feelings of being aroused. If she's just being aroused, it's okay. Yeah, this gets a collective moan. I want you guys to know this scene was a historic moment on the set of The Office.

because oscar nunez only broke twice on camera like really broke and this was the second time it made it into the bloopers i want you to hear it it's a complete exaggeration phyllis is not masturbating she's just in an extreme state

We all lost it. It's so funny because there is a scene that Oscar is in in this episode that I would have predicted is the one that he broke in. Nope. Coming up later. It was this one. Wow. Well, Dwight is going to have to take matters into his own hands. And that means he's going to dump a bucket of water onto Phyllis's head. Poor Phyllis. I know.

Andy takes her phone and says she can have it back at the end of the day, but then he goes in his office and listens to the audiobook. And then he starts kind of rocking back and forth. And then Andy gets pummeled with water. Mm-hmm. Well, you guys might remember when we interviewed Phyllis. It's a fantastic interview. If you haven't heard it, go listen to it. But we had to ask her about this scene, and she had a lot to say about it. Yes, she mentioned that there was a take.

where Rain basically like almost drowned her in water because they did more than one. Yeah, and I guess on one particular take, she wasn't really thinking and she left her mouth wide open and she like swallowed all this water. Well, our director Jen Salata remembered this moment too. And here's what she had to say about it.

All I remembered about the Phyllis getting water dumped on her is that there was one take with an enormous amount of water. And I actually got to rewatch that take because I reached out to Dave Rogers, our editor extraordinaire, and he showed me a couple of takes. And the one where Rain just...

dumped water. I think it was the first take on Phyllis. She was such a pro. She was trying to keep going and say her line, but she was coughing and she was laughing and she was putting her hand up to try to disguise the fact that she was laughing because she really wanted to keep going. But I ended up calling

cut after we got through a version of the scene with some coughs and some covered laughs and you could hear Ed as soon as I yelled cut say like Jesus Dwight you waterboarded her so we ended up doing another take of the scene after lunch Phyllis was dry and her hair and wardrobe were dry so we had another go at it and it ended up being really funny

Oh, my gosh. Well, like Jen said, they had to do several takes of Phyllis and also Ed getting water thrown on them. And this requires some really special scheduling for production. I bet, because then they have to reset. They have to get new clothes. They have to blow dry their hair. So the way Steve Burgess scheduled this, like Jen mentioned, was we did Phyllis, we doused her with water, and then we had a lunch break.

So she could get dry and ready again, and we would dump water on her again after lunch. But the other thing that they did was they set up the conference room to shoot talking heads.

So while those guys were resetting, we would just pop in and do a few talking heads. So there was no downtime. Yeah, no time was wasted. You can't waste any time on a shooting day. And also, since you don't see the person dumping water on Andy, I mean, it's meant to be Dwight. Yeah, you just see hands, but they could be any man hands. We used a crew member for that. Right. Because then Rain could be doing other stuff, too.

I don't know. I find like that, you know.

I know that there was a first AD that had the idea for the first time to be like, wait, I bet we could shoot something while that person's drying off. Yeah. And it just revolutionized the AD structure. And I'd love to know who it was. This is your next job. You're going to be documenting the first director history in cinema. I might.

All right. Well, we've got our credits and now we're going to get into the meat of this episode. It opens with Dwight asking Clark for some dating advice. Yeah. And Angela is sort of hovering over Dwight's shoulder. She's doing some business at Phyllis's desk. And she's eavesdropping. She is. The script actually said you were listening with interest, which I thought you played perfectly. Clark is going to ask Dwight who he's dating.

And Dwight says, Esther Bruger. Angela. When he says, Esther, your face is amazing. I checked the script and here was your direction. It says, quote, Angela looks to camera. Ugly name.

I had so much fun in this episode. I mean, this was just one of the moments I enjoyed, but this episode was a blast for my character. And yeah, Angela's already making assumptions about Esther. And Clark is trying to get more information from Dwight. He finds out that Esther has like

A neighboring farm, 85 acres. Clark's like, oh, yeah, keep talking. Dwight says, we've been out three times and there has been physicality. Now, in the script, there were two candy bag alts for this moment. OK. That they shot. They didn't air. But I wanted to share them with you.

That's funny. I know.

And then the scene would have continued. Yeah. Dwight explains that Esther's father wants him to enter into a tractor lease. A long-term tractor lease. But he's afraid that's going to put pressure on the relationship. Yeah. Clark's like, wow, you know, one of my buddies is going through the same thing right now. Something's in the air. Yeah. Well, there would have been a Clark talking head that would have come right after this.

I just loved it. I'm going to read you what was in the shooting draft and the candy bag alt. He would have said this. I actually enjoy talking to Dwight about dating. It's either that or ask Pam if I can bring her anything back from the kitchen. It's always tea. I weirdly remember that. And here was one of his candy bag alts.

I actually enjoy talking to Dwight about dating. It's either that or talk to Pam about what kind of plastics is safe for her kids to drink from. Trick question, it's none.

Well, Angela does have a talking head that's in the episode, and she's very condescending toward this new relationship. She's like, ugh, Dwight is dating a Brussels sprout farmer named Esther. She explains she's coming into the office today with her father. The whole thing is just Angela cannot wait to gloat about how inferior this woman is. Yeah. Well, if anyone is tracking how many times Angela laughs in the entire run of the show, add this one to the list. This is a big hearty laugh.

at the end of her talking head. Actually, if anyone is out there tracking, I'd love to know how many times Angela actually laughs in the entire run. If anyone is, I mean, surely Dr. Thibodeau will get on that. Dr. Thibodeau, how many times does Angela laugh? I'm going to guess 11. Is that too many? I think it might be a few more. Okay. I do. I think she laughs on average three to four times per season. I think that's too much. Oh, okay.

Well, maybe I'm thinking of smiles. Those don't count, right? It has to be an actual laugh. An actual, like, goof-off. Oh, then maybe you're right. I think you could title this next scene Awkward in the Bullpen. Oh, this phone call is so cringy and so real. So sad. It's between Pam and Jim, and they're just trying so hard to have a lighthearted conversation.

And you can imagine that this conversation where Pam is like, ah, Cece started calling me Pamela.

You know, watch out. She might start calling you Jim. And then they have nothing else to say. It's like there was a time when that little tidbit would have delighted them, you know, and would have just led to a natural, easy conversation. I thought the scene was so well written. It really shows how disconnected Jim and Pam are.

And I thought you guys played it perfect. And I had to ask Jen about it. Here's what she had to say. We ended up shooting the phone call between Pam and Jim with John and Jenna on the set. And we shot it with them talking into the cell phone. And I think I was on set with Jenna. And then I was able to give notes over to John and

And I love that scene. I mean, love's a weird word because it's just awkward and a bit sad and distant, but I like that it felt very real as opposed to, I feel like we talked about versions or things where what they were talking about was more...

more, a little bit more of a disjointed thing or a disconnection. But what I kind of love is that it's just the silence, the space between the pauses, the looks, all the things that were my favorite in terms of digging into things at the office. And I just thought that they performed it so well, the feeling of...

disconnect and Pam a bit yearning and wanting for it to be made better and Jim being uncomfortable and not being sure how to fix it. Well, I remember shooting this scene and, you know, there's this moment where Pam is like, hey, your assistant said that

Ryan Howard is coming into the office. What's that about? And Jim's like, no, no, no, Ryan Howard, the first baseman for the Phillies. And she's like, oh, yeah, I thought that would have been weird. And

You know, this is obviously a big meeting for Jim. Why is Pam hearing about it from his assistant? Why haven't they talked the night before? And he says, hey, I have a big day tomorrow. Here's what's going on. Yeah, it's a little confusing. And actually, Pam would have gotten kind of snarky with him at the end of this phone call. We shot it. They cut it. But Pam was going to say, well, I hope it was worth leaving early yesterday for this. Oh.

And Jim was supposed to say, do you really hope that or is it more fun for you to be mad at me? Oh, my gosh. Mm hmm. Yeah. Well, John and I did not love that ending, especially since we knew that Pam was going to end up seeing Brian later. We didn't love the idea that Jim and Pam would be kind of like in a fight. Yeah. Yeah. When she goes to see Brian, we thought, fine, if there's like that distance, they're not connecting. Yeah.

So we took that out. This scene of them so disconnected was enough. Enough. It's Jim and Pam. Yeah. It's scary enough. And they have nothing to talk about. Yeah. Yeah. Bad. Bad. Before we move on to the next scene, I so apologize, but I need to ask you, do I just look younger today? Yeah.

Because I tried new makeup, a tutorial on Instagram. Apparently, I've been putting my makeup on wrong. I've been weighing down my face with my contour and highlight positioning. And so I put it in different places to try to lift. Do you need to not watch Instagram tutorials? I know. I think...

you look great, but I feel like this is a slippery slope. I feel like the next thing is going to be like, so here's the thing I discovered about my eyebrows. I'm going to be like, no, no, no, don't mess with your eyebrows. I feel like I look either the same, maybe worse, but maybe it's just different. I would like to say this. Sam's shaking his head. He's like, I see. I can't tell the difference. I'm sorry. That's better than worse. Well,

It's difficult for me because we have such beautiful natural light that you look so lovely because these windows are just – we're sitting in front of windows, people. This is a wonderful thing. And if I'm going to be real honest, the natural light, you look fabulous. Okay. But you also don't really look like you have a lot of makeup on. Is that the idea? I don't know. Well? I don't know. Okay.

I braided my hair in the elevator. Can you tell? No, it looks real cute. Thank you. Didn't need a video for that. I am so suggestible to the Instagram videos. I know, honey. I know. I saw this woman. She told me I was doing my contour wrong. I'm like, I got to fix that. You and Oscar.

Oscar the character. I know. You buy what you see online. I do. I really, really do. All right. Well, speaking of Oscar and his computer, how about that for a segue? Love it. The trailer for the documentary has been released, everyone. Everyone gathers around Oscar's computer. They're going to watch it together. Which is so special. It's art imitating life because we would gather around Oscar's computer in real life.

Because it was the only one that had sound. Yes, that's true. Well, in this promo, there are a few things. WVIA are the real call letters for the Scranton PBS affiliate. So this is going to run on PBS. Love it. We asked Jen Salata if she picked the clips for the promo, and she said no, that it had already been put together.

And I did notice that some shots were specifically called out in the script. Here's how it was described. Quote, we see a promo for The Office colon An American Workplace, which incidentally was the name of our show the first season. Then in season two, we changed it to just The Office.

The script went on to say, it is a montage of scenes favoring the first years of the documentary, including Andy playing Rainbow Connection and Pam and Jim on the roof in The Client. All of the dialogue for the promo voiceover was scripted. Steve Burgess believes that it was voiced by Peter Coyote, and he is a very famous narrator. He did narration for the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator in 2015 for his work on the Ken Burns documentary miniseries The Roosevelts and Intimate History. We also got a fan question about this promo. It might be a fan soapbox. Oh! It's from JRP in Schlomp? Schlomp?

You cannot say shit to me about art imitating life because every time it gets to a city, you're like, how do you say this? Schomburg, Illinois. Are you sure it's not Schlongberg? It's not Schlongberg. Why did I put the L? It's hard to say. Okay. Don't you want to add the L?

"Schomburg, Illinois." JR says, "In this episode, when we see the go-to box screen for the documentary on Oscar's computer, it says 'The Office: An American Workplace, Nine Nights in May.'" But then we see Andy playing the banjo for Pam, which is season three, which means this promo video is promoting quite a bit of filming that the documentary crew did. And when Pam talks to Brian at his apartment, she says, "So we basically had no privacy for 10 years?"

And then in all caps, all caps, it says, I have never understood how 10 years of filming was aired in nine episodes on PBS. Please explain. Seriously, how long are these episodes? Well, that's, I guess, the question. Maybe each one is two hours. I don't know. But it seems like 10 years of footage cut down in...

to like an hour or two hours? Nine times. I feel bad for that editor. It was like every season had to be one episode if it was nine episodes and we did nine seasons. So they paid for these guys, this crew, to be there for 10 years and they only got nine hours of footage out of it? Yeah. That doesn't make any sense. It's not worth it.

JR, we hear you. We really do. Well, I guess Kevin has missed all this because he was in the bathroom. And when he comes out, he's like, wow, so much has changed during 45 minutes that I was in the bathroom. That's when Kevin realizes that they're in a documentary. He thought they were specimens in a human zoo. What is happening with Kevin? I don't know.

In the shooting draft, there was an alt talking head for this. Kevin would have said, "I'm going to be in a documentary on TV. This could be great for my band. We love watching TV." Oh, so it'd just be something for the band to do. Not exposure for their band. Right. Then there was a series of talking heads where the Dunder Mifflin group realized they might become famous.

I want you to hear Meredith's, then Angela's, and then Toby's. If you're watching the documentary, you know my deal. Hit me up at [email protected] or just come over and show a little class. Bring some Pringles. Oh, more celebrity. As if being the widely recognized wife of a senator isn't limelight enough. The other day at the grocery store, they opened up another register for me. It is embarrassing.

Hi, Sasha. Look, your daddy's on TV. Your real daddy, not your mommy's boyfriend. Please go back to calling him Jamie. Toby. I know, Toby. And of course, Meredith hopes she can get a date out of this. And then Angela's like, oh my gosh, even more celebrity. How will she handle it? But the last one was of Creed.

It's in deleted scenes. I'm going to share it in stories because it is hilarious. There is no audio. It's a sight gag, but basically, crazy.

Creed is in the talking head chair and he just starts looking at the camera as if he's realized for the first time that there's been a camera. And he walks up to it and he comes. This is how it's described in the shooting draft. Creed curiously gets out of his chair and comes really close to the camera lens with his head cocked like a bear in a nature show.

Do you remember the first time after The Office started airing where you felt like people were noticing you? This idea of like, okay, now you've been on TV for a little bit and maybe...

Yeah, I actually remember the first time, I think because I was with a group of friends and they all teased me about it. But we were going to see a Sunday matinee at the Arclight. Uh-huh. You know, I was with my friends, Michael and Tobias. This was their tradition. And you could eat lunch at the Arclight, you know, and then go in for your movie. I got recognized waiting in line to get our tickets. And they were like, what? And I was like, that was so weird. Oh, my God. Yeah.

This is so crazy, Angela. The first time I got recognized for the office was also at the Arclight. Stop it! You know why? I think the people who worked there, they

They were our demographic. Yes. Because we didn't have huge ratings, but these were people who loved film and television. Right. And they were watching all the newest stuff. And they were kind of interested in this show, this version of the British show. And I was buying popcorn at the Arclight. And the person recognized me. And then all the people kind of recognized me. And this is like the OG Arclight with the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. Yeah. Same. That's great.

Isn't it sad that that's closed down now? Yeah, I think about it a lot, actually. It was a special place. It was. And then, of course, it's kind of special that years later, that's where the premiere for The 40-Year-Old Virgin was. Yes. Where I showed my underwear on the red carpet. Where you showed your underwear and I couldn't find the bathroom and I missed the red carpet. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I did find the bathroom, I would say. You know what I mean. You know what? I'm going to share a picture of it. Do. Yeah. Yeah.

Where are we? Well, everyone now is watching the footage on their own computers. And Angela realizes they grabbed some stuff, like Dwight smacking her on the butt. Kevin sees it too. He tries to show it to Angela, but he unplugs his whole computer. And Pam is watching her and Jim's courtship. Yeah, she's watching that scene of them up on the roof having the grilled cheese sandwiches. I loved that they picked that scene.

because that was one of my favorite scenes to shoot on the whole series. I've talked about it before.

It was a warm summer evening. You had a grilled cheese sandwich. It was delicious. It was so wonderful. And I was coming toward the end of this series. And for me, seeing that footage of how far we had come brought up real feelings of nostalgia. Yeah. Well, Clark is going to tease Pam. He says, you fell in love with that hair. Yeah. And Pam's like, it wasn't so bad. Yeah. Yeah.

Andy, oh poor Andy, he is thrilled at his little piece of fame that's happening. He said someone named Chobble Gobbler really liked his banjo playing, said it was aight. Yeah, as you can imagine, there were lots of Andy alts. But also in the shooting draft, Andy would have gotten a text from Broccoli Rob. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. Here's how it was scripted, and then I'll read you an alt.

Andy reads, congrats, Hollywood. Can't wait to see you on the small screen. FML. What's FML mean? F*** my life. That's what it means? Yes. I did not know that. How did you know that? I don't know. I know these things. I'm hip. I am hip. I didn't know hot to trot.

And I didn't know that other thing, which I'm so embarrassed still about, which I still am not ready to talk about on the podcast. I know. Someday I'll share. It's okay. Okay. Do you want to hear the other broccoli Rob alt? Here's the alt. Congrats, big man. That small screen is perfect for your tiny ween. Baby brocks.

Baby Brock's is his nickname for himself. Yeah. I wish we would have seen a little bit of Broccoli Rob's, what should we say, jealousy over Andy's fame. I love their rivalry. It just delights me. So I'm sad that got cut out. Well, Ryan Howard is now going to arrive at the athlete office. Well, I loved his entrance. I thought it was so funny and set up who this

version of himself was going to be. We asked Jen about shooting this and here's what she had to say. I remember talking to him about camera awareness when he first gets off the elevator. He sees the documentary crew and has like a little bit of a reaction there. And at first he was saying to Jim and then to Daryl, eat fresh. But we said, oh, hey, like, you know, maybe throw one to the camera because you're really trying to support Subway and eat fresh and promote them. And

And so he did it just like so naturally and did a wink to the camera. It was, it was fantastic. I thought he was so much fun and, uh, it was really neat having him around.

Well, back at Dunder Mifflin in the kitchen, Dwight is looking for food for Esther. And of course, Angela has to make a joke at Esther's expense. And then Aaron says, Dwight, your guests have arrived. They look like they're from the forest or where they harvest paper or something. Angela is delighted. She's like, woo-hoo-hoo, I can't wait to see. Did you notice that if you look over Ellie's shoulder into the bullpen, you can't see any guests? There's no one standing at reception. What?

But then when you and Dwight walk into the bullpen, suddenly there's like five people standing there. Dwight goes up and he greets the Brugger family. He gives Esther a kiss on her forehead. And Angela is taken aback. She was not expecting Esther to be so beautiful. And it's going to set up a whole storyline. Angela is jealous.

Well, like we mentioned last week, Esther was played by Nora Kirkpatrick. And, you know, we reached out to her and she talked to us a little bit about her time on The Office. And one of the things we were curious about was when exactly did she find out that her role would be recurring? Because originally she was going to be a regular character on the farm if that had gone.

So Nora said that shortly after hearing that the farm was not getting picked up, they pitched the idea of bringing Esther into the later episodes of The Office season as kind of a detour for the Angela Dwight storyline. By this time, they had decided that Angela and Dwight would eventually end up together, but they wanted to pump the brakes on that.

Nora said she was thrilled to do it and also very happy that in the end, Dwight got to end up with his one true love, Angela. She's so nice. I know. I love that she's rooting for Dwight and Angela, even though she's playing the foil character. Well, why don't we take a break? Because when we come back, the Dunder Mifflin crew discovers more footage is online. In Danish. Yeah. Yeah.

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All right, we are back. And Pam is in the kitchen. So is Stanley. Pam says, isn't it crazy? The promo really made her realize how some of us have changed over the years. I mean, she's talking about Jim, I think. But, you know, according to Stanley, they've all changed. Yeah. We got a fan question from Taryn G. in Abilene, Kansas, who said, I have been waiting since the podcast started to ask this question. Wow.

When Pam is talking to Stanley, he is eating a pretzel. Did we miss out on a deleted scene or a storyline about it being pretzel day? Well, Taryn, I looked this up. I was curious as well. And this scene was performed exactly as it's scripted. This is what it said. Interior kitchen. Pam ventures to share with Stanley he is lost in his crossword eating a pretzel.

That's it. I think it's meant to show that Stanley hasn't changed at all. That's what I thought. And it's interesting that it was scripted for him to have the pretzel because I thought it was that visual button to him saying, we've all changed. But really, he kind of hasn't.

Not at all. He really hasn't. He really hasn't. He's been very consistent. And I think it just only highlights the way that Jim has changed for Pam. Well, speaking of Jim, we're back at Athlete now. And Ryan Howard tells Jim and Daryl about his aspirations post-baseball. He has big plans. Well, and that's what their company is about. Their company is about helping sports celebrities segue into, right, like...

promotions and what is his business? I don't know any more than Pam does. I really don't. I think that's what it is. All they seem like to me is like agents for athletes to do things outside of their sport. Right. Yes. And something though that I have wondered is why their sports agent

can't handle them for that. Is that not a thing? They just handle your sports contracts, and so you need a type of branding agent or a film appearances agent. Okay, we have that. So I guess that makes sense. Ryan Howard says he would love to be an actor, and he's actually written a screenplay. It's half biopic, half superhero movie, and he brought scripts so they could all read through it together. Very professional looking scripts.

I thought so too. I'll have you know that in real life, Ryan Howard, along with his wife Crystal Howard, has written five children's books. Aw. They are called Little Rhino. It's a series, and they are for kids aged 7 to 10 years old, and they're about a little boy who loves baseball.

Cute. I read the foreword to one of those books, and Ryan Howard wrote this, quote, And the books are really cool because...

That's sort of the theme. It's about a little kid who has to juggle schoolwork and friends and all that kind of stuff so he can play baseball, which is his one true love. And there's even one where he has to spend a night away from home because he's going to his first out-of-town baseball tournament. So he's dealing with nerves and homesickness. Sure.

The series looks so sweet. Little Rhino. You guys, if you have kids 7 to 10, check it out. We'll put it in stories. Yes. Well, Andy is just living his best life with his new celebrity. And of course, he wants to have a conference room meeting so everyone can learn media training. My favorite thing in this scene is when Toby says, you know, I find it ironic that I'm going to be a TV star because my last Toby Flindersen novel was about a murdered TV star. And everyone's like, uh, yeah.

Well, while they're talking about their life now that the promo has come out, guess what? Oscar runs in. He's found another promo, and it's in Danish. Danish. Everyone is so tickled. Everyone gathers around Oscar's computer again. They're so delighted. There's new footage, and they can't understand what's being said, but they're watching it all. Yeah. They start translating it.

And we find out that Kevin is referred to as Dumpster Man. Yeah. And Angela is 3 p.m. girl. And she's like, why would they say 3 p.m. girl? And then she sees why. I mean, she knew why. But then she's like, oh, my God. They were filming then? They show footage of her and Dwight leaving their secret place.

make out space in the warehouse. Yeah, their hookup closet. This is when everyone realizes that the crew has been filming even when they didn't know it and they all turn and look into the camera. I remembered that moment. There are so many moments when we do this rewatch where I just remember exactly doing

That scene and that moment. And I remembered that. I remember how they yelled for us to look at the same time. Anyway, it just, I was like, oh my gosh, I remember that. Well, there was a fan mail flurry about this Danish promo, which I guess...

Oh no, it wasn't accurate? Oh no.

Emily A. and Mads T. from Denmark both agree that the language spoken in the Danish promo was more like a Swedish-Norwegian gibberish. Gibberish. With a touch of Danish. Sasha C. from Denmark said the translations are funny but incorrect. For example... You got this. Skarlsdaprand actually means trash can, not dumpster man.

So I don't know. Gosh, I feel like our writers were so good about details, but maybe somehow this one fell through the cracks. Well, I think it did, according to all of these people from Denmark. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, now everyone is freaking out about all this extra footage, except for Meredith. She's just pissed off. She's like, you know what? If I want to show them, I show them when I want to show them, like right now. And she flashes everyone. Aaron wonders if they film them at night when they're sleeping. And Oscar kind of snaps at her. Yeah. Then he apologizes and he has a talking head.

He says, you know what? I've been very honest in ways that could jeopardize the political career of someone close to me. And you guys wouldn't do that, right? He's looking right at camera. Well, there were some candy bag alts for this talking head. One was...

He says, I've been very honest with you guys in a way that might seriously impact the political career of a very good friend of mine. You're not going to use any of that, are you? You're not planning on destroying our lives after all this time. Please don't make me the Camilla Parker Bowles of Scranton. Here's my question. Oscar, what did you think was going to happen? You say, I've been sharing with you. What? Come on now. I know. And then the other candy bag alt just cracked me up because...

This is that part of Oscar that delights in all this. He goes, why does my life have to be so juicy? Well, we got a fan question from Jordan in San Antonio, Texas, who said, when everyone is watching the promo of the documentary at Oscar's desk, there's a lot of footage that hasn't been seen before in any of the previous episodes. Are these clips from previous episodes or did we have to come in and shoot new snippets dressed in our old clothing?

I thought that was a really good question. Jordan, we did not shoot anything new for those promos. That was all old footage. And you know they have a lot of extra footage. They do. And I asked Steve Burgess, how did we clear that? Remember when we did that episode, gosh, what season is it, where we do all the flashbacks? And we found out that every time you used a clip from an old episode, you had to pay

the director who shot that footage of me, I was like, how did we put this little promo together? It must have been so expensive. So Steve Burgess said, because the clips were from the office airing on the office, we didn't have to get any special clearance from anyone, but we did have to pay anyone who was not in the episode, mostly Steve, a SAG scale payment.

And the DGA, which is the Directors Guild, and the WGA, the Writers Guild, have a formula for how they would pay each of the writers or directors to use their clip. And he said he doesn't know how much it cost ultimately, but it was a lot of paperwork. I bet. Mm-hmm. Andy seems to be the only one that is just giddy that all this footage is going online. He says we're killing it on the internet. Yeah.

Angela needs to go for a walk. She needs to think about things. Everyone else agrees. And they sneak away to discuss. I also remember doing this scene. In the warehouse? Yeah, I so remember it. I do too. They all turn off their mics and they're like, okay, what exactly do we think the crew got on tape? And Pete suggests, you know what, Pam, you should reach out to Brian to find out.

I mean, she knows Brian. Maybe she could get some information for them. Yeah, they want to know exactly how much of our private lives are going to be exposed when this documentary airs. Well, there are two people who are not in this meeting in the warehouse, and they are Clark and Dwight. And that is because they're out in the parking lot along with a giant tractor. And Mr. Brugger is trying to propose a 60-40 split. Dwight wants a 50-50 split.

Some of Esther's sisters are flirting with Clark. I should let you know that Mr. Brugger was played by Alan Harvey. He has had recurring roles on Billions, The Man in the High Castle, and Mad Men. He is a stand-up comedian who was, incidentally, born in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. So there were two St. Louisans in this episode. Alan and Ryan Howard, I guess, and me. Three. And Phyllis. Four. And Ellie. Five. Oh, my goodness. Yeah.

anymore. And if Ken Quapus directed any of those promo spots, he's sort of represented as well. Wow. St. Louis coming hard for this episode. I got curious. What is the cost of a new tractor? What are we talking about here? What is this contract that Dwight is entering into? What's he going to be in for if he signs this deal? They're very expensive. I figured. I went to an article from Victoria Farm Equipment.

It's called "The Ultimate Guide to Understanding How Much Does a Tractor Cost?"

I wanted to know. It said that the cost of a new tractor can vary greatly based on its size, power, and features. Am I telling you things you already know, Angela? Well, I would go with my dad. One of his favorite things to do was to go see what new tractors were out there. He had two. One was a really, really big Case International tractor. And the other one was a smaller blue Ford tractor. And then he had a Baylor, a Hay Baylor.

And he had a front end loader.

Now, when you say he liked to see the new tractors, is this sort of like how maybe you see like an open house sign in your neighborhood and you just want to go looky-loo? You're not going to go buy it. You just want to see what's the, you know, latest. What are people doing? What are the new gadgets? Well, I guess larger tractors with an engine capacity greater than 100 horsepower can range between $50,000 and $80,000. Midsize tractors are more like $25,000 to $50,000.

But then, like you said, there's all these attachments. So to really utilize a tractor's potential, you're going to want to equip it with different attachments. And each one of those attachments is more money. So all of this is to say, yeah, this is a big purchase. Yeah. Not only money-wise, but like in the future, maintaining the tractor and everything. Yeah.

Well, Esther's sisters have kind of all gathered around Clark, and he's really enjoying the attention. And then one of them says, you know, you would be a great one to buy an auger with. And the wheels start turning for Clark. Yeah. He goes over and interrupts Dwight, and he's like, dude, we're being conned. Yep.

No one this hot would date us. They want something. Yeah. And Dwight's like, no, I don't think so. And then he says, she just said that I should buy an auger with her. And he doesn't even know what an auger is. And Dwight is like, oh, my gosh, no woman would want a man who doesn't know what an auger is.

Yeah, and he tells Esther's dad, I'm going to need a minute to think about this. Well, let me give you a quick guest star breakdown. Esther's sister Bertha was played by Kelly Daly. Her sister Edna was played by Kamala Jones. And then there was a nameless sister played by Wendy McComb. And the tractor seller was Richard Augustine. Well, back in the offices...

Stanley's doing damage control. He calls his wife and says, "Hey, you know what the TV repairman said? We need to keep our TV off for a couple of months. There's a wiring issue." That's the best excuse he could come up with? It's not great. No. Andy is becoming obsessed with the comment section and some of the comments are snarky and he starts responding. Yes. This is a slippery slope, Andy. Be careful.

Meanwhile, in the secret stairwell... The super secret stairwell. Angela asked Oscar, how much does the documentary crew know about you and the senator? This scene was so much fun to film, you guys.

We improvised the whole second half of it. The part we did as scripted was Oscar says, well, they caught us kissing on Halloween. And Angela goes, he was dressed as Reagan. And she slaps him. And then Oscar says, well, he kissed like Jack Kennedy. And she's like, and then she slaps him again. I improvised that next slap.

And then he's like, stop slapping me. And I'm like, stop kissing him. All of that we started improvising. And basically, we didn't get back on script till the part where I say, well, you call him. No, you call him. Now everyone has this awareness that the documentary crew could be filming or listening in at any time. So during this whole exchange, Angela, you are playing Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA on an old boombox. That was scripted. Yes. Yes.

I asked Steve Burgess about it. He said it was one of our more expensive music purchases. Oh, wow. $35,000. Wow. Mm-hmm. Well, Pam has decided she will, for the sake of everyone at the office, go and find out from Brian what footage they have. Yes.

You see her walking down the street and she's kind of looking around like, did I sneak away? Did I get away? And she doesn't see a camera. She gets to Brian's house and it is a mess. He's a bachelor now. He's such a mess. You see moving boxes. And he's embarrassed. He's like, sorry. He's like, let's go out to the balcony. He's going to get them some beers.

Well, I remember this location. It was a real apartment complex in Woodland Hills. And all of this thing about them sitting on the balcony and his place being a mess, that was so that we could draw them outside. So that the audio could pick them up hypothetically. Right. That the documentary crew could capture this. Yeah. And they're going to have this really intimate conversation. And I remember shooting it and it felt really intimate because...

We couldn't see the cameras like we usually do. You know, it felt like two people just having a conversation. I did find it very interesting that he went and got them beers. I'm like, all right, she's got to go back to work. This is day drinking. What is happening at this man's home? I was like, wait, what? I kind of got the sense that's all there was. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's what's in the fridge at this guy's place. Right.

But Pam kind of ends up blurting out, do you think Jim has changed? Am I crazy? And he says, no, you're not crazy. There's a line we took out here where Brian was going to say, I mean, if you want, I can show you Jim's theme sheet. Yeah. Yeah.

And Pam's like, what's a theme sheet? He's like, well, we kind of pick a theme for each person in the office. And then we are kind of told to try and capture that because that's what they're tending to do. And she's like, oh, what's Jim's theme? And he's like, Jim's theme right now is selfish.

So the documentary crew would then try to capture any moment where they thought Jim was being selfish. Yeah. And tell that side of the story. Right. We ended up taking that out. We felt like that made the documentary crew seem a little bit less like a documentary crew and actually more like a reality TV crew. Yeah. Yeah. That's not really documentary. Yeah.

But anyway, he does say, no, Pam, you're not crazy. And that kind of makes her feel better. And then she asks him. Makes her feel better, but doesn't. Yeah, that's true. Then she starts saying, OK, well, the reason I'm here is because of this promo footage and people really are freaking out. How did that work? Like, how much stuff did you really get? And this is when Brian says to her, you know what? We pretty much got everything.

And she's like, well, what if we turned our mic packs off? And he says, well, the parabolic mics can pick up sound 100 yards away. So yeah, they got everything. And this really upsets Pam. She feels betrayed and she leaves. She's upset. Yeah, Jen Salata sent in an amazing audio clip breaking down this whole scene from a director's perspective. And we want you to hear it.

I definitely remember there were a lot of discussions about the Pam Bryant scene. From a directing point of view, what I remember is a lot of thinking went into making it very clear that it was a spy shot and there was foliage featured in the foreground of the shot just to make it extra clear for two reasons. One, that I don't think that Pam would have been that vulnerable, surely, if she knew that there was any chance of a camera being there. And two, this was an episode where everybody was like hyper-focused on

that the camera crew caught things on camera that they didn't realize were on camera. So it was really important to shoot it from further away. And what that meant was sacrificing a few things like his look at the door, uh, when she comes to see him and, uh, uh,

We ended up not seeing Brian's side for the stuff at the door, but we were able to focus and highlight Pam walking behind him, being out there on the balcony for a second by herself, and really chose to focus on Pam throughout that scene, not using the two-shot as much as the shot on Pam. Those little flips, like,

the vulnerability and the feeling like I want to ask this guy if he noticed anything. I usually talk to Jim about things and I'm feeling distant from Jim right now and I just impulsively want to ask and then sort of realizing that she asked and pulling back a little and feeling a little bit exposed and then on top of that asking the question about the cameras and the privacy and how much they got on tape and that

feeling of now on top of feeling a little bit exposed hearing that news. I just, I just love that scene and how it builds. And I love Jenna's performance. And I just thought they did such a great job with that, with that scene. Oh, that's so nice. I know. I was so glad that Jen was our director because I just trusted her so much. She handled relationships so

for the character so well. We got a fan question from Maddie S. in Russellville, Arkansas, who said, Jenna, how did you feel about Pam revisiting Brian the Boom Guy in this episode while her and Jim's relationship was still in such a tense stage? Do you think Pam told Jim she went to Brian's house that day? Please tell us your Pam and Jenna thoughts. I don't think she told Jim she went to his house.

I don't either. Not because she felt like she did something wrong, but I feel like Jim isn't the person she talks to right now. Yeah. I think I'm just remembering when they were at lunch and Jim found out that Pam and Brian had been talking more than he understood and it caused tension. And I think Pam is avoiding all tension right now.

So she just doesn't want to bring it up. It's like the last thing they need. Yeah. Well, I think that's Pam's perspective. As Jenna, I will say that this Pam Bryan story went through many, many iterations, as they always did, as they had been. In the table draft for this, the script we read at the table read,

Brian hit on Pam when she went to the apartment. Oh, no. Mm-hmm. How did he hit on her? Well, they start by discussing the promos. So she gets all her promo questions out of the way first. And then he was going to say, how are you doing? And Pam was going to say, oh, fine. Kids are fine. Jim's fine. I'm fine. I think we're fine. She sort of repeats the word fine. Mm-hmm. And then Brian was going to say, OK, fine.

So things are fine, but are they good? And then Pam was going to be like, well, what do you mean? And he says, are you happy? And then it was scripted that he was going to brush some of her hair away from her face and say that maybe it's not his place to say it, but he thinks she deserves better.

that she's an amazing woman and she should be with someone who tells her how amazing she is all the time. And then Pam was going to get really angry and say, never call me again. Well, how do you think that went down?

Not great because it was only in the table read. I did not reread the table read for this. I just read the shooting draft in Candy Bag Alts. Wow. I forgot about that. Yeah. I remembered it so clearly because, you know, after the table reads, John and I would stay after and we would give our notes. And we were like, you know, record scratch on the old Brian hits on Pam. Yeah. Brian's not touching her face or her hair. Mm-mm. Mm-mm.

What they ended up doing is they kind of flipped it. So now she has this weird kind of confession to Brian that she gets out, but he doesn't take the ball and run with it. He doesn't hit on her as a result.

And then she switches gears and talks about the promos. And then she storms out because she feels like he didn't protect her as a friend because she felt betrayed. Right. Not because he hit on her. Right. It's a betrayal of friendship. These were her good friends. I mean, they would have dinner with him and his wife. Like, she trusted him. Yes. And I get it. I mean...

All this time, he's been hiding this information. He's been putting this job ahead of their friendship. And he didn't want to be like, hey, warning. Yeah. Don't go to the stairwell. Never have all of those conversations in the stairwell. We're filming them. Exactly. I know. And now also the fact that these promos have come out, you didn't want to...

Take some initiative and be like, hey, you might be wondering. Here's the deal. Yeah. So that's how that all went down. But I will tell you this. Unlike some of our other days where we were really finding the storyline in the moment, this was set and ready to go for when we shot. And it was my favorite day of shooting with Chris Diamantopoulos.

It was just he is such a beautiful actor. And this was my favorite day. And I got them all to myself. It was a two-person scene. Two-person scenes are so fun because you really get to play. That's how I felt about my scenes with Oscar. You have a real partner. Yes. And the way this was set up, it really just felt like this private moment. And I loved it.

Let's go check in over at Athlete because Jim and Daryl and Ryan are now in the middle of reading Ryan's screenplay. And, you know, Jim is trying to wrap this up. He's like, you know what? Maybe we should finish the rest of this later because this is a big script. And Ryan's like, no, no, no. Let's keep reading. Also, I'm going to need you to get the rights to Darth Vader. Yeah. I felt like Jim's obvious disdain for this screenplay and for –

any of Ryan Howard's ideas.

Made him a very, very bad agent? Yeah. The whole point of being an agent is to blow smoke up people's asses. I mean, this is like agent thing number one is to make your client feel like the most talented, beautiful, wonderful idea person. Right? Like, that's it. Like, whatever ridiculous thing you say, they're like, oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, 100%. I'm right on it. Like, they should be a yes man? 100%.

They're your main hype man. You know what I mean? And I just felt like Jim's disdain was so obvious. I actually, I really liked it how Craig was playing Daryl. It was really funny to me because I felt like Daryl was clearly...

uncomfortable, but he was also going along with it in a way that was more believable. He was like, this probably will never get made, but I'm going to hear this guy out. Yeah. Well, one of the things we asked Ryan was if he had any observations from his time on set, and here is what he had to say. I mean, really and truthfully, I think the biggest observation for me was just

seeing you guys as the actors in your niche. You know, I was always so used to people seeing me in my comfort zone, you know, playing baseball and being able to watch other people like in their comfort zone and their niche of what they do. I always think it's very, very cool and very exciting to be able to do. So, I mean, my biggest observation was just kind of watching and how, you

how good, how fast, how professional everybody was and just how much fun everybody got to have with the show. I'm like, honestly, I don't know how, you know, you guys make it through half of the half of the takes, you know, with just all the funny stuff. You really got to kind of keep it, keep it together. But, you know, I think that was one of the biggest things was just the professionalism that everybody had and the food.

The food behind the scenes, I don't know what it is, but you guys somehow, y'all might have, I mean, I guess, obviously, having a show like The Office, I mean, you get hooked up with some pretty good food, production food back there. So the food was really, really good as well. So love that. We did have good food. We did. It's the one thing my dad said when he left the set. So many people comment on it. Mm-hmm.

Well, finally, we had to ask Ryan Howard what it was like having his name as a character's name on The Office.

Actually, it's been really, really cool. It's funny because I would go to places, whether I'm going to get coffee or, you know, just some other stores or things of that sort. And, you know, some people are able to kind of tie it back together. But even more importantly, it's like some people would look at me and like, man, you look familiar. And I would say, oh, yeah, you know, I get that every once and again. It's like,

you know, Hey, I know what it is. You were in the office. And it's like, Oh yeah, yeah. It's like some people may have known me more from the office than actually as a baseball player. So that was always something that I would, you know, get a good laugh at and must've tried to do something right. So to be able to have that. So I think it's pretty cool that people could recognize me from the office and more so than that from baseball. But yeah,

Yeah, again, loved my time there. And just want to thank you guys for this opportunity to be able to hop on and be a part of the podcast. And I wish you guys the best of luck and look to hear from you guys in the future. Amazing. Such a nice guy. I know. Thank you so much, Ryan, for being on the podcast. Yes. Thank you for answering my DM. I know. So generous of you.

Now we're going to find out that Esther actually really likes Dwight. She comes up to him and Clark and says, listen, I think my father is planning a scheme in which he's going to put more miles on the tractor while pocketing the profit behind Dwight's back. She says, you need to go ask him for a deal based on miles. Yeah. She said, right now you're dividing it by days, but he's planning to rent it out to a neighboring farm on the weekends.

And Dwight looks at her and says, wait, you'd be okay if I don't buy this tractor? And she's like, what, did you just think I was tractor bait? Yeah. Yeah.

We got a soapbox about this scene. It is from Laugh A in Minnesota. I loved the soapbox and I'm so glad they wrote in. Well, here's what they said. Ladies, I have been waiting for this question since you have started the podcast. I even had a reminder in my phone every week to check when I could submit a question for this.

That is commitment. When Esther tells Dwight that her father plans to rent out the tractor to the Vendorkirk brothers on the weekends, she says that they will have the tractor for the same amount of work days, but that her father will be putting on 10 times the miles.

In farming equipment, you do not record the miles, but rather the hours something is in operation. This is because tractors do more than just drive. That's right. They often have hydraulic lifts and power going to a secondary machine that can be operational while the tractor is standing still. It killed me when Esther said miles. I knew that any good farmer would know that you got to watch the hours on an engine. Mm-hmm.

Good catch. I loved that catch. And I just appreciate you setting that timer on your phone. I know, all this time. I would not have known this. Angela, you knew this. I did know this. You know, I'd sort of forgotten it. So I think when I watched the episode, it didn't register to me for a second. But as soon as I read the soapbox, I was like, oh my God, yes. Yeah. Yes. All right. I am going to now move us to...

What might be one of my favorite scenes of the whole series? I mean, it is one of my favorite scenes. I'm almost declaring it my favorite scene. Well, that's high praise. It was definitely one of my favorite scenes to be a part of in the whole series. I'm not the only person who loved this scene. Jen Salata also talked about it. Let's hear what she had to say.

I remember how much fun it was to shoot the scene where Angela and Oscar called the senator. You guys were killing it from the jump. And I remember laughing throughout that entire scene. And I'm sure I ruined a bunch of takes. I remember once we felt like we had it, we played even more with

kind of keeping those feelings inside of like the horrible things that you're actually saying and just kind of getting it out like you're just making a phone call and then being able to pop it a little bit once you end what you have to say. And then Angela, you just like collapse on the desk. I just love that. I just thought that was such a fun scene. Angela, we also got a fan question from Ryan S. in Massachusetts. I would love to know the answer to this question.

Ryan said the scene where Oscar and Angela left that voicemail is one of the funniest in the series, in my opinion. Also, in my opinion, Ryan. How many times did Oscar and Angela break filming this scene? Well, thank you guys all so much. I just loved, loved doing the scene with Oscar. And Ryan, to answer your question, we did not break once.

That is so impressive. Yeah. I reached out to Dave Rogers and I said, Dave, how many takes did we do of this scene? What do you have that you can share with me? He sent me 14 minutes every single take we did. Oh, my gosh. Oscar and I were so excited to do this scene. We wanted to crush it. And we were just like focused, focused.

And you can hear Jen Salata cracking up. She's in the room next to us. She's in Andy's office. And she would run in after each take. And we did pretty much get it. And like the second take, she was like, I mean, that's great. And then she was like, do you guys want to play around? And the scene was a little bit longer, but we also got to play around. And I thought I would share with you all one of the extended versions of the scene. Great.

Hi honey! Hi sweetheart! It's Angela and Oscar and we just have a quick couple of things for you. Um, the documentary is going to air soon and in the promos you look great. You look so handsome, so presidential. Oh very much so, absolutely. Yes. Um, I get the sense that you're going to be outed as being gay.

And I cheated on you with Dwight and it looks like they filmed it. That is on me. Here's Oscar! Hey, I was caught on camera saying that I thought your hair was too thin. And I was in a mood when I said that I really don't believe it. If anything, I think my hair is too thick. Yes, it is so thick. God, gross. Listen, Pam says it's probably likely they caught you kissing Oscar on film. And I also hired someone to kill Oscar. I was in a mood.

She was in a mood. Yeah. So. I think that's everything. I think we're good. Okay. Love you. Bye. Bye. Hang it up. Oh my gosh. Amazing. Amazing. I love the part when Oscar was like, they got me on camera saying your hair is thin. Yeah. These are his confessions. I was in a mood. If anything, my hair is too thick. And then Angela also adds, I also hired someone to kill Oscar. And

And they got that. Yes. So we got to play around a little bit. I loved the take they used for the actual episode, but I thought it would be fun to share with you this extended scene. I have to say my favorite part of this whole scene is how you lead with how great the senator looks. We saw some, first of all, you look amazing. Very presidential. Yeah, you're going to butter him up. Yeah. And then horrible news is about to be delivered. All horrible news. Yeah.

Well, we need to check back in on Andy because he's really starting to spiral. He's getting way too into the comments section. He's now posted a video of himself playing the banjo. He's really excited because he's getting a lot of positive comments. But then some negative ones start trickling in. First from Texas Poon Tappa, which we find out is Nellie. Yes. Yes.

She's making him crazy in the comment section and he has no idea it's the person three deaths away. It's such wonderful comeuppance for her, isn't it? So, you know, Jen sent us in an audio clip where she shares what might have influenced the storyline of Andy having this online feud. You got to hear it.

So I'm not sure that this will be worthy of inclusion because I really can't remember some very key details. However, I remember feeling very passionately about some tiny detail in the office and I think it had played out over a couple of episodes. And I also remember that we would look at office tally comments and somehow after a number of

where I was strongly on one side of something. I saw a comment on Office Tally after an episode of a fan just taking the opposite point of view like really strong. And again, it was a tiny little thing, but I thought, oh, the fans are even disagreeing with me now. So yeah,

yeah, I don't know. Maybe I'll just kind of back down a little bit here. And then I remember finding out like a year later that one of the writers did a fake name and was pretending to be a fan from Office Tally and debating me through the comment section. So I'm not sure that that had anything to do to inspire the Nelly thing.

Andy story in this episode, but I found it very funny that you never know who is commenting and who you are disagreeing with. Just wanted to share that. Bye. Oh my gosh. Isn't that so funny? So funny. I want to know who the other writer was. I kind of do too. Wow. Now I've heard of actors creating fake accounts to defend themselves in comments. Oh gosh.

But I've not ever heard of someone. I guess this would be like a type of trolling, right? Like a little bit. Is that what trolling is? It's kind of like trying to get your goat, right? Yeah. Trying to get your goat. Is that it? Or trolling? Goating someone? Yes to trolling, no to goating. What does get your goat mean? Like you get someone riled up. Yeah, I think I've heard that. I wonder where that expression comes from. I don't know.

Goats can be feisty. I know that. So you're going to get their feistiness going. I'm sure it's wrong. I'm sure I've got it wrong. It feels right. Sam says it's wrong. Well, we'll get... Cassie, will you Google it real quick? What does get your goat mean?

It's right. It's to make you annoyed or angry. Hold on, hold on. Suck it, Sam. Suck it. You said goading. Right. To goat someone. Look up to goat someone. Okay. No, here's like, I think, yeah, I know to goat someone. To like into an argument. Is it goad or goat? G-O-A-T. But are you goading someone or goating someone? I said goating. The sentence example is, when I park in her space, it really gets her goat.

Yeah, it gets her goat. Yeah. But then what's goading? Goading is to provoke or annoy someone. All right. It goaded him.

titited or did it okay is that what you meant by goading yes okay i thought you meant g-o-a-t no but goading is with a d yes yes not goading you're not goating someone yes you're goading okay or you're getting their goat okay wait wait you if you get their goat it's g-o-a-t yes but if you're

Goating someone. You're goating. Goating. You know what? I got it half right. I'll take half answers here. We'll accept it. Watch yourself, counselor. Thank you. Okay, well, listen. When I saw that Nellie's screen name that she was using to goad Andy was Texas Poon Tappa, I was like...

What did standards and practices have to say about this? What about Chobble Goppler? I know. All of it. What about Fifty Shades of Grey? The opening. So I asked Steve Burgess and he looked in his notes and he said, okay, they had no notes on the Fifty Shades of Grey cold open. No notes. Okay. There was a note on the Danish promo. It needed to be accurate. What?

Um, Stieber just said, note, accurate, not perfect. So I guess that was considered accurate. Oh, gosh. They needed to make sure that any email addresses that we saw were fictional. Finally, Standards and Practices had some concerns about the screen name, You Suck My Nuts, but we got away with it. He said we even had to shoot an alt, but they let us use the original. I'm telling you, they got way more lax.

They liked Steve. They must have. Poor Randy Cordray would have gotten an as-previously-stated email. Well, Pam is now watching some old footage of her and Jim. They're standing outside the office building. They're sharing headphones and listening to a song on Jim's iPod. This is early Jim and Pam. It is.

She has a talking head where she says, oh, I hope they got sound on everything. I'd actually love a DVD of that moment. She then types the word in Danish that's being used to describe her and Jim. It means lovers. And she smiles. Now, there would have been an extra beat here.

It got cut out, but we shot it. A delivery person was going to bring some flowers into the office. Yeah, I remember us filming this. I do too. Well, everyone assumes that the flowers are for Phyllis. Yes.

So they're delivered to Aaron and Phyllis kind of like perks up and Meredith is like, maybe they're for me. And Angela even pops her head around. Yeah. And Aaron reads the card and says they're for Pam. And then she says, oh, Jim wrote a card. And Pam's face just lights up. Aaron reads, quote, Pam, I'm really sorry. Oh. And then Aaron continues. Hope you're OK, Brian.

And then Aaron says, Pam, they accidentally spelled Jim's name Brian. Man, what a day. Yeah, I know. Well, this was another one of those scenes after we read it at the table read.

We were like, "Brian cannot send Pam flowers." Yeah. They kind of agreed, "Okay, fine. He won't hit on Pam at their meeting." But they wanted to keep this possibility of Brian in the picture. The producers and network? Yeah. But by the time we got to when this episode was gonna air,

They had decided that Pam walking out on Brian was going to be the goodbye to Brian. That's it. That there was going to be no coming back from it. And so they ultimately ended up cutting this scene because it sort of then reopens the door. I agree with that. Yeah. So instead, this episode is going to end with Dwight riding his new tractor down the street with Esther by his side. Yeah. Traffic's piling up behind him and they're honking, but Dwight and Esther don't care. They're just

so happy. Listen, everyone, that is rain really driving that tractor.

Steve Burgess said that Rain had to practice along with Nora next to him. They did their practice on Saticoy Street right in front of our stages. But when we shot this, they were out on Burbank Boulevard during magic hour, which is that beautiful sunset hour. And that's how we end the episode. Well, I really loved rewatching this episode. We are in a little phase of episodes right now where...

They're kind of picking up. I'm really delighted by them. I've already watched Stairmageddon, which is next week's episode, and it is so good as well. Well, a big thank you to Dave Rogers for getting all of those extra takes of the Angela and Oscar scene for me, and to Jen Salata for sending in audio clips.

Jen is currently directing episodes of Abbott Elementary and Cobra Kai, and it's actually the final season of Cobra Kai. Jen's last episode airs in November, so you guys do have to check it out. And also, I want to say thank you again to Nora Kirkpatrick for sharing about shooting this episode and to Ryan Howard. Thank you for sending in those audio clips. Yeah. And as always, Steve Burgess and all of you for sending in your questions and comments.

We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. And thank you so much to Odyssey. We love our new recording studio. It's pretty sweet. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer. And our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbico. Odyssey's executive producers are Jenna Weiss-Berman and Leah Reese-Dennis.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

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