Stairmageddon with Leslie David Baker
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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. Hi, everybody. Well, hello, hello. What is this energy? I don't know.

I brought my roller skates today. Oh, this is roller skate energy. You said you were going to do this. I'm skating through the new office. I want to show it to you guys. You might remember Angela skated through Earwolf. And when we came in here for a meeting, she noticed the floors were good for roller skating again. So like any 53-year-old, I brought my roller skates.

And you're going to roll her skates today. Just a middle-aged lady skating through her office. Well, this is what you're bringing today, and I like it. I'm here for it. Well, thank you.

Guess what we're talking about today? Stairmageddon. It's season nine, episode 20, written by Dan Sterling and directed by Matt Sohn. Matt Sohn sent in some wonderful director's perspective audio clips on this. He's just the best. I know we've said this, but the other day I was at the grocery store and I ran into him and I was getting takeout and I had all these bags and Matt was like, Angela, what are you doing? And he walked across the parking lot, scooped up my bags and walked me to my car.

You know, we describe every person as the best, but it's because they are. I know. We were so fortunate. We were. All right, everyone, here's your summary for Stairmageddon. The building's elevator is being repaired, and Stanley is not pleased. He refuses to use the stairs. It's a whole thing. Dwight has to use some unconventional tactics to force Stanley to join him on a sales call.

And the first newspaper review of the documentary is published. Yeah. This is going to lead to a lot of things, including Angela having to publicly defend Senator Lipton. Meanwhile, Toby and Nellie act as sort of sounding boards, surrogate therapists for Jim and Pam's relationship. Yeah. Sort of relationship guides. These two, Nellie and Toby. Yeah. Interesting choice. Mm-hmm. And yet...

worked out. Yeah, like some real nuggets there. Yeah. All right, everyone, for today's top of show, I'm going to kick things off with a fan question from Caitlin G. in Milton, Florida. Caitlin said, I have been waiting over four years to send this note.

Stairmageddon is my favorite episode of The Office and possibly my favorite episode of television of all time. Caitlin, you love this one. Loves it. Caitlin says,

It has been a bright spot through my PPD, my husband's military deployments, and a cross-country move with two toddlers during the pandemic. Kaitlin, my goodness. I know. Kaitlin said, I truly can't explain what a gift this particular episode has been to my life and how excited I am to hear y'all break it down. You two and your team are a joy to listen to. Thanks for putting such a positive, cozy thing out into the world. Well, I'm so glad that this...

Episode has brought you so much joy, and I hope that our breakdown of it will bring you more joy. Same. I mean, Caitlin, you drove cross-country with two toddlers. I know. And to have your husband deployed? Yeah. That's a lot to hold. Yeah. We got another fan question about this episode from Kindle W in Phoenix, Arizona, who said, Please tell me Leslie David Baker will be a guest for this episode. I loved his storyline.

Well, Kendall, I am very excited because I have been holding on to this for months. For months. Okay. So a while back, me and Leslie and Phyllis did a Cheerios commercial. We did a few. You're probably seeing them now. They were directed by Zach Woods, phenomenal director, and he's so smart and funny. But the four of us on set together, it was like old times. We were laughing so hard. I have all these pictures of us just cracking up between scenes. And I'm like,

And we had lunch together on set, Jenna. Oh my gosh, it was so crazy because you were doing like a mini office reunion commercial. And then I was doing a mini office reunion commercial at the same time. We were in two different cities and it was so crazy. Yes. And Jenna, while you were doing your commercial-

I was actually in St. Louis, which made me think of you even more because not only am I with the castmates, but anyway, we were at lunch one day and it was me and Leslie and Phyllis. And I turned to Leslie and I'm like, Leslie, we have got to hear from you on Office Ladies about your time on The Office. And he was like, let's do it now. And I was like, right now? And I was like, okay.

I grabbed my phone and he specifically talked about this episode. So here is my lunch break interview on my cell phone with Leslie David Baker. It is delightful.

Hello, Office Ladies listeners. I am sitting here on the set of our new Cheerios commercial with Phyllis and Leslie. And Leslie's right here next to me. Yay! I'm here. Hi. How's everybody? Right now, Leslie's eating a really cute sugar cookie with a bumblebee on it. And we just had lunch. And Leslie, here are my Office Ladies questions for you. All right. Shoot.

How did you get your job on The Office? I got my job on The Office. Alison Jones called me in and said that she wanted me to audition for a show called The Office based upon the British version.

I had never watched it, but heard it was successful. Went to the first audition, had on a very nice press shirt, suit, tie, was looking very elegant and dapper. Did the audition. She told me, said, okay, I want you to go to the callback, but when you go to the callback, don't go in looking as crisp and pressed as you are. You want to come in looking kind of schlumpy and kind of, you know, shirt wrinkled, disheveled, because you are at this paper company and you've been there for years.

quite a time and you really don't want to be there. So I went to the audition, got to the callback audition. I had another audition that day for another project. And when I got to the office audition, there were about 50, 75 people there. It's a very crowded room. And I looked and I thought, so wait a minute, all these people are ahead of me. I have time to go to my other audition.

Hopped in the car, left, went to the other audition. On the way back, ran into a lot of traffic and ambulances and school buses and every senior citizen in the free world out driving.

So when I got back, I got to sit down and do my reading with Phyllis Smith. Allison Jones said, oh, Leslie, thank you so much for being patient and waiting. They said you were in the restroom. And I just went, oh, yeah, okay. No, my pleasure. I didn't mind waiting at all.

And sat down, read with Phyllis. Greg Daniels told us, when you finish the scene on the paper, just keep going. He wanted us to do some improv. So I did. So I incorporated what I had just gone through driving through rush hour traffic with Phyllis. And Phyllis was feeding me all the, you know, good vibes that she was feeding me. And we bantered back and forth. And we looked up and the people at the casting table were laughing and

cut me off and said, okay, thank you. And I went outside, Allison gave me two thumbs up.

And I thought, you know, okay, she's just a sweet, loving, positive person. And I probably won't hear anything. A few weeks later, I got a call. And next thing I knew, they said, you booked it. So getting stuck in traffic kind of helped your audition. It helped a lot. And then after I booked it, then my agent announced to me that he was retiring from show business and turning his agency over to his best friend.

And I went, oh, okay, no problem. And then while I was waiting to hear what happens with the office, the agency switched over to his best friend who had a heart attack and died. Oh, my gosh. A week later, I got a call from NBC saying that they were picking the show up. And then SAG called me and said that I didn't have to pay an agent 10% because there was no agent to pay. And...

We did, I think, six more episodes and then kept going and voila. Wow. I've never heard that story before. Mm-hmm.

Okay, let's see. Next question. Do you have a favorite episode from your time on the show? The favorite one was, I think, when Dwight Rainn Wilson, you know, shoots me with the blow dart. And then he and Clark, they roll me up in bubble wrap and slide me down the stairs and roll me across the parking lot to go to a staff meeting. That was a fun one. Yeah.

That wasn't really me sliding down the stairs. They had this mannequin made and I figured if I was going to look that bad dead, I probably would be cremated. Um,

But that was a fun episode. So if anybody ever offers to wrap you in bubble wrap and roll you across the pavement, let them. It's very comfortable. Oh, we had a fan ask, did you ever actually do a crossword? I started many, many crossword puzzles and everybody in the office would come by and scribble in my crossword puzzle book a few lines. I never got through a single solitary crossword puzzle book the entire nine year run.

because the paper gets flimsy after a while. So they replaced those books and then auctioned them, raffled them off, gave them away to charity. Do you have one? Were you able to keep one? I've got one. Yeah, well, one, I think one or two. But the whole concept of Stanley doing the crossword puzzle, I came up with that when Greg Daniels said, you're going into a staff meeting. What could you do in that meeting to...

to show that you were in the meeting, but not at the meeting. And I looked around in the drawers of, you know, we had a bunch of stuff from the prop house and I came across this old crossword puzzle book and it was already filled out, but on camera, it didn't matter. So I did that. And I said,

I'm going to deliver my line. I had a couple of lines to Steve Carell. Instead of speaking directly to him, I just delivered the lines but didn't look up from the crossword puzzle book. I figured if they didn't like it, then I think Greg was directing that episode. I said, if he doesn't like that idea, then he'll change it. He loved it. And Stanley and the crossword puzzle was born. I love that. I love it. Okay, last question. When the show wrapped...

Did you take anything from the set? Oh, my gosh. I have my original wedding band. I have my Thunder Mifflin thermos bottle. I've got a couple of mugs. I've got a couple of sports cars off of the desk. Oh, all your little cars? All my little cars. I've got, I think, a nameplate.

And some other little odds and ends. You know, didn't take the clothes because, you know, they're not. Yeah, I didn't take any clothes either. The clothes were not anything that I would wear in real life. But yeah, that was it. All right. Thank you so much, Leslie. You're welcome. Talking to me on our lunch break. You're welcome. Anytime.

Angela, I loved it. I was so excited. You texted me and you said, "Leslie said I can interview him right now." And I was like, "Do it! Do it! I don't care that I'm not there. Just do it!" And it was—I couldn't believe he brought up Stairmageddon. I know. Which we hadn't gotten to yet, and I was so excited. Yes, and I knew when we got to this episode, it would be the perfect time to play his interview. Oh, well, I think now we've interviewed all of the main cast members.

How fitting. I love that. Oh, and Leslie, thanks so much for on your lunch break chatting with me. Well, once again, I have to say he's the best. He is the best. All right. Well, let's take a break. And when we come back, we'll break down Stairmageddon along with those great audio clips from director Matt Zone.

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This episode is going to start with Stanley. He's arriving to work and he realizes the elevators are out of order. He is not happy about it.

Erin's going to arrive and she's real peppy. She's like, come on, Stanley. This is Starmageddon. You got this. Yeah, she kind of reminds him Dwight has been prepping us for this for a while. He's had signs. He put like a wooden staircase at reception for people to practice. Yeah. Erin has this hilarious talking head to me where she says Dwight really wanted everyone to prepare mentally and physically for a day that hopefully will only come once every hundred years.

Because it's a Mageddon. Yeah. The elevator is only going to need maintenance once every 100 years. But also, Erin is suggesting that the word Armageddon means every 100 years. Yes, I know. You know, Angela, I appreciated Dwight's prepping.

for this Stairmageddon. You know I love prepping. You really do. And in particular, you love prepping for worst case scenarios. Well, I have a story. My sister came out recently with her kids. And while all the cousins were playing together, my sister and I did some like deep cleaning organization of my stuff. You sent me pictures. I saw the pictures. You guys did some deep

Deep organization and cleaning. Okay, well, I helped her with her house last time I was there, and so she was returning the favor. This is one of my new favorite sister bonding things we do. I was going to say, this is true sister stuff. It's like when my sister flew out here and helped me pack my house when I moved. Yes. Yes. Yes. Right? Okay, so this one cabinet that we were going through, it's a giant cabinet, and it's full of all of my extra Office Ladies merch, office merch, and

It's things that if someone's having a charity event or there's someone special I need to send something to, I go to this cabinet. Sure. Well, my sister was like, let's organize this. Like, let's put all the shirts together and all the mugs together and the signed things together. I'm like, this is really helpful. But then she was like, what are these backpacks in here?

And I was like, oh, I'm like, those are my worst case scenario backpacks, you know, like for the zombie apocalypse or a natural disaster or whatever. Mixed in with your office merch. That was your zombie apocalypse kit. She was like, why are there so many? Can't we, can we consolidate them? And I'm like, Emily, no.

No, you can't consolidate them because they have to be light enough that you can grab and run. You have to run with these things on your back. And if one pack is way too heavy, it's like they all have to be light enough that each member of the family can grab one and then bolt. Okay? She was like, okay, okay.

And she's like, but this one you're barely using. I'm like, that one has a solar panel in it for charging things. It's very important. She's like, this one is what's this one? I'm like, that's food. How many do you have? Four. Four.

Would you like more? Be honest. Well, I would. But honestly, like I said, you've got to be able to grab and carry it. Travel light. And here's the other thing. They have to be packed in such a way that if you lose one, it's not like one bag is all medical supplies. Because what if you lose that one? You're out all your medical. You have to spread it out. Right. So all of that to say was that this was really my sister's first time

Being confronted with this part of me was this discussion and reveal of these backpacks. Your preparedness kits? Yeah, that I'm proud of. And I asked Lee once, I said, do you think I'm crazy? And he said, time will tell. Well, he loves your kind of crazy, so it doesn't matter. Can I ask what's in the kits?

Oh, gosh, of course, Sam. Yes. As someone who doesn't have one. I know. I know. Sam, I have one earthquake kit, but I don't know where it is. OK, so you don't have one. So I don't have one. Also, if you haven't updated it lately, you don't have one. OK, so what you need is was that preparedness sass? It might be a little bit of preparedness sass. Here's what's in them.

So you're going to need food. Okay. Okay. Like space food, though. Like in little packets that you don't need to heat up. Right. Yeah. Space food. Next. Then you're going to need a way to create clean water. Oh. Okay. Okay. You're going to need goggles, masks, those like silver blankets that keep you warm. Like after I run a marathon? Yes. Right. You need all these things. Okay.

You're going to want extra pair of underwear, extra pair of socks. You're going to need medicines. You're going to want some pet food if you plan on fleeing with your animals. Why do I have the feeling Angela's is all roller skates and snacks? You're not wrong. Throw in a little bit of rosé. I think that's two solid approaches. Yeah, me too. Okay. I'll skate over to you for medicine and you can have some of my rosé. I love this. I didn't pack any rosé. I'll need it.

All right, well, listen, back to this episode. Aaron is trying to coach Stanley to get up the stairs. He really, it's like he's never seen a stair in his life. I loved the scene description for this episode because it said, quote, a couple of people from other offices and a sparklets guy with a bottle on his shoulder passed Stanley on their way up. Stanley tries to grab their coattails, but they shrug him off.

Well, now Andy is going to burst into the bullpen. It's a red alert because his brother texted him that the ScrantonTimesTribune.com had released a review of the documentary. I needed to check the script on this one. I wanted to know if it was scripted for Andy to come from the bathroom with his red alert. Did you notice he comes out of the men's room? Yeah. It was actually scripted for him to just come out of the kitchen.

It's funnier that he came out of the men's room. I agree. He was like checking his phone in the bathroom. I loved that detail. Well, now everyone is going to start to read the review. It starts with Oscar, then goes to Nellie and Aaron, and I felt like we should read it. Okay, great. Oscar says, The Office, an American workplace airing on PBS next month, is a documentary following the employees of Scranton's own Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

Nellie goes on to say, in this series, which will air starting in May, we get an in-depth look at many interesting local people. There's Kevin Malone, the Falstaffian accountant. Dwight Schrute, the head salesman forever chasing a manager position he will never get. Andy Bernard, the rudderless trust fund child slash middle manager whose incompetence is emblematic of a declining American economy.

A possible explanation for his lack of career focus is his surprising musical talent. Oh, Andy loves that. He did. He's like, I'm going to need a copy of that. Aaron finishes with, though it mostly focuses on the daily realities of office life, a lurid subplot reveals the hypocrisy of a local public figure embroiled in a gay affair while preaching family values. Dun, dun, dun.

Well, they say that this review was written by Josh McAuliffe. He was a real writer at the Scranton Times. And Steve Burgess said, we had a really good relationship with the Scranton Times and with Mary Potts at the Chamber of Commerce. And Steve said we had had some contact with Josh about the show over the years. So that's the name that they used for the article to make it more, I guess, authentic. Yeah. But he said, I don't think Josh knew about it beforehand. Oh, okay.

Well, everyone in the bullpen isn't quite sure how to react to these reviews. Some people are offended, like Dwight. That one stung for him. Yeah. Andy at first was offended, but then became happy when they said he was talented. And then, of course, now Angela and Oscar are a little bit nervous.

And Stanley's going to finally arrive. He missed this whole thing. He's out of breath. He's mad at Dwight. And Dwight says, listen, I wish you would have just called me from downstairs because we have to go out on a sail now. And Stanley's like, hell no. I am not going anywhere. I'm not climbing those stairs again. Exactly. And then he demands from Pete. He says, Pete, iced tea, three sugars, five creams. Pete says, your morning three by five coming up. Well, we had some folks write in about this, Jenna.

What? Allie P. from Rexburg, Idaho said, can you please try Stanley's 3x5s? Are we going to try it? We are. Lady, I saw that fan question and I wanted to make that happen today and I couldn't make it happen and now you've made it happen. Well, don't get too excited. It's a lot of sugar and a lot of cream. But are you ready? I'm ready to try it. Okay, I'm going to go get it. Just a warning, it looks really gross.

All right, Cassie. I'm sorry. All right. All right. Sam's filming. Apologize in advance. Cheers. Cheers, Sam. Cheers. Ready? One, two, three. Oh, God. That's horrible. Oh, God. That is horrible. There's so much sugar. So much sugar. Oh, God. I mean, I... What is that taste? I would like... Oh, I'm having a... I know. Me too. I'm having a need to expel that. Nope. Huh.

That's so bad. Oh my God. That's so bad. Sorry, family. Oh my God. That's worse than, do you, oh God. Do you remember when I made the, um, the creamy orange juice? Oh, that was better than this. Everyone's left. I'm the last person in the studio. They're dumping it down the drain and I'm so grateful that cleared the room that fully cleared the room.

If you ever want to get rid of someone at a party, just give them that drink. How long have you been talking alone? I'm still... I just kept... You guys... You just... It was like just... I've never seen anything like it. It just emptied the whole... I was like, well, I guess... No one even said goodbye. I didn't want to leave... You didn't even say goodbye? I just took your drink and left. I was like, well, I didn't want to leave our listeners. So I stayed. Oh, that was disgusting. Oh, I wish we hadn't done that so early. Yeah.

In the podcast. I'm really sorry. I thought it'd be fun to try. Allie, I hope that was everything you hoped for. It's disgusting. Do not recommend. Well, moving on with a quiver in my voice.

Pam is going to get off the phone with her mom, who is going to be babysitting the kids tonight. Nellie assumes this is because Jim and Pam are going to go have a, I guess, a hot night at a hotel or something. Pam just kind of smiles like, oh, sure. I just burped that stuff. Lady, I'm so uncomfortable. The aftertaste is so hideous. I'm struggling. It's just hideous, the aftertaste. I am struggling. Wow. That's a real...

Kicking the nuts. It was one sip. I took one sip. I know. That's it. That's it. I really think that if I'm ever in a film. And you feel you have to pretend to be nauseous. And I have to play nausea. Yeah. If I just took that one sip. Yeah. Of that. I mean, I feel unsteady now. It's gross. Imagine if you had to take more than one sip. Oh, God. Yeah.

And he drinks that every morning? That's his 3x5. Sorry. Okay. Well, let's go outside because Pam and Nellie are now going to sit on a bench and they're going to have a real heart-to-heart. Yeah. Pam reveals that her and Jim are going to go to marriage counseling tonight. It's the first time they're doing this. Nellie says, "Oh, that's the only kind of counseling I've never had." Pam says, "Well, Jim is nervous, but she thinks it could help."

Meanwhile, Jim has now gone over and approached Toby and asked him about his divorce. You guys, I want you to know, for my folks that love bloopers, there are some funny bloopers of this because Paul's reaction as Toby when Jim says, can I ask you about your divorce, is really hilarious. And they broke a few times. I feel like I'm going to have to watch this.

I feel like I'm never going to be the same. I know. I'm sorry. That drink is really, it really lingers, you guys. I mean, it really stays with you. It's like one of the worst things that's happened to me all year. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I have another thing to point out about this scene. What is it?

When Toby goes, Kelly called it 2013, and then Clark enters, and he's like, hey, hey, hey, get out of here, get out of here. And Clark says, my mistake. The scene ended there. But then Paul improvised this. Yes, it is your mistake. He's lingering, so annoying. I'm going to kill him. How can I help you? I'm here to help. So Paul improvised a little bit about I'm going to kill him.

Well, we got some mail. People thought maybe that that was an indication that Toby does have the potential to be the Scranton Strangler because he was so quick. So quick to turn on someone. Yes.

All right, next up, we're going to reveal Andy's obsession in this episode, which is getting an agent. Yeah, well, he has heard now in this review that people think he's talented musically, and he's like, this is my moment. I'm going to be famous. Yes, he calls the William Morris Agency, that's a real agency in Hollywood, and asks to speak with their best agent.

You know, I remember when I first came to Hollywood, I tried Andy's method. I tried calling just like one of the top agencies and the receptionist answered and I went on like a long spiel about how I was new in town, but I was really dedicated. Yeah.

They were like, that's great. Yeah. Goodbye. I did the same thing with a really small agency. I didn't even shoot big. And I chatted up the receptionist. I heard they were great for comedic actors. I probably basically called the Carla Ferns of LA. And then I was like, tell you what, I'll just drop off a headshot. And she was like, okay, bye. And she hung up. So then I went and I dropped off my headshot. Did anything happen? And I popped my head and I was like, hey, we spoke earlier on the phone. That's good.

I was like, how are you? And she was like, just leave it there. Listen, that's the mix of like delusion and ambition you need to have when you're trying to make it in this business. Truly. Absolutely. Because for every story that someone has where that didn't work, someone's got a story where it did. Yeah. You don't know which one you're going to be.

Well, Robert Lipton, the state senator, has now pulled into the parking lot in his fancy car with his driver. Angela rushes to his car and gets back in and says, look, I am just so ready for our life to go back to normal. Ribbon cuttings, charity balls. And Robert's like, don't worry. I've scheduled a press conference for later today. We just need to face the camera together, a beloved public servant and his devoted wife.

And Angela's like, fine, I will be the best damn wife. I'm correction, best darn wife. I'm sorry. I'm a better wife than that. She's going to stand by her man. I had an observation about this scene. What was that? Y'all look very dewy, very...

Well. In this scene, was it hot in the car? It was super hot and they had to turn the air off whenever we started rolling because you could hear it. And not only that, but I remember they had a little light that they stuck to the window on me. Yeah.

You know what I mean? It was like a little light that they'd put batteries in and suction cups, and it was shining into us in a hot car. So that dew is sweat. Well, I asked Matt Sohn about this. Oh, yeah? About this dewiness, and here is what he had to say. When we shoot in a car, we have to turn the air conditioning off so that we don't have any issues with sound and we can get clear dialogue.

So the air conditioning could have been off. It was probably hot out in Panorama City when we did it. But I also believe that the windows were a little tinted in this town car and we had to blast some light in to bring up our levels inside. So that might have given them a stronger edge of a sidelight, but also might have made it even more hot in the car.

That's exactly right. That's how I remember it. Angela, my curiosity about the temperature of the car

was not satiated by this explanation from Matt. You had to dig deeper about why we looked moist? I did. Okay. Where did that lead you? Well, first it led me to the call sheet. Okay. Where I discovered that it was 64 degrees on that day that you were shooting, but full sun. Okay. Then I found an online car temperature calculator.

Oh my word. It tells you the temperature inside a car sitting in the full sun based on the temperature outside and how long you've been in the car. So I calculated 64 degrees full sun for 45 minutes because I thought probably takes about 45 minutes to shoot that scene. Yeah. The car temperature calculator said that after 45 minutes, it could be as high as 101 degrees in the car.

Yeah, it's not good to be in a car without air. Now, I know that you guys were in and out and they would blast the air, so it probably never got up to 101 degrees. But cars heat up 20 degrees every 10 minutes. We know this on WorkBus. Surely there was a take where you guys were in there.

And you know, if something heats up, we know, we know from hot flashes, if something heats up kind of quickly like that, you get real moist. So even if it was 64 degrees and then 10 minutes later, it was 74 or 84, you're going to be moist. So...

Yeah. And not to mention, he's in a full suit. I'm in a coat. We're dressed for winter. Yep. Because it's winter in Scranton. Yeah. So we had all those layers on. But wow, that is just such interesting to learn the ratio because it is so dangerous. It's so dangerous, even in cooler temperatures. Yes. To leave your pet or a sleeping child or yourself in a car without any ventilation. Yeah.

For any period of time, truly. Well, thank you for doing that research, lady. You are welcome. I have something to add about this scene. You had a dewy slash moist observation. I did. I have a bull card to play. What is it? It's about Robert Lipton. He knew in that car right at that moment that he was going to have a lot more to say at that press conference that Angela doesn't know about. Yeah. Yeah.

And he didn't tell her. She's going into this press conference and she's going to be completely blindsided. Yeah. So just calling bullshit on Robert Lipton right there. Oh, okay. That's all. Yeah. Well, he's not a great person. No. Well, after this scene in the shooting draft and it's in deleted scenes, Andy would have gone into Daryl's office and asked Daryl if Athlead could rep his new TV career.

Yeah. And he also talks about his special skills on his resume. Jenna, we have talked about how we padded our special skills section of our resume. So I wanted you to hear what Andy says are his special skills. Daryl. Hey. I want to cut your firm end on the Andy Bernard business. I want to be repped by athlete. I'm sorry, man. We only represent athletes. That's what the F stands for.

So you just get more fame and wealth for people who already have it? That's the idea. Well, it's a little like shooting fish in a barrel, don't you think? You know, we have a board meeting tomorrow. I can't make any promises, but I'm pretty sure I won't bring it up. But you can't make any promises? Can't make any promises.

I'm just going to say this. You can do with it whatever you want. Of course. On my acting resume under special skills, fencing and tetherball. Those are sports. So just think about it. Okay. I'm going to write that down. Cool. Fencing. Oh, my gosh. I enjoyed that so much. I just love that he put tetherball as a special skill. Do kids today even play tetherball?

They're at a few parks. I've seen them here or there. Yeah? Yeah. Okay. That was like very exciting if the park had a tetherball when I was a kid. I was always absolutely destroyed in tetherball because I'm short. Well, because you're tiny. I'm short. Yeah. I once got hit in the face with a tetherball. Oh, no. I don't have good memories of tetherball. It doesn't sound like it.

Well, now Andy's on hold with another talent agent and Dwight enters. He's complaining about Stanley. And basically in this scene, Andy is going to give Dwight permission to get Stanley to this sales call by any means possible.

Yeah, and, you know, Dwight's going to have a talking head that says for five years that he's held his instincts in check because he wanted to be manager. But now it's time for him to just let that go, and it's really freeing. He's going to follow his instincts now, which basically involves getting a bull tranquilizer and drugging Stanley to get him to this meeting. Yeah, Dwight walks into the break room. Clark is standing there. Clark has one of my favorite lines in the episode, in this scene. What? What?

When Dwight says, Stanley, one way or another, you're going to come with me to make this sale. Stanley goes past and then Clark says, hey, can you just let me out of here before whatever comes next? Yeah, because Dwight's got this ridiculously long tranquilizer gun and he shoots Stanley three times. With little red dart things. And then Stanley collapses. And Dwight says to Clark, don't worry, Andy approved this.

Well, we got a lot of mail about this, as you can imagine. David H. from England said, how did you create the illusion of Stanley being shot with darts? And Lily BG from Canada said, what was used for the bull tranquilizers when Dwight shoots Stanley? Well, Steve Burgess said it was visual effects. We did not actually shoot anything at Leslie David Baker.

We filmed the dart. We filmed Stanley. We attached the dart to his clothes. And then in post-production, it looks like the darts going into him. Oh, yeah. It was all visual effects. As far as the moment when Leslie is tranquilized, Matt Sohn said the first thing they had to figure out was this dart gun. Here's what he said.

We had a lot of conversations about the dart gun to make it feel as much of a benign weapon as possible. We didn't want a real gun or a rifle for Dwight to have. So we sort of concocted this version of what this dart gun was, and that was what we came up with.

Yeah, Steve said we went through a few different dart gun options. The network had given a note that they didn't want this to look like an actual weapon. Right. And so Phil Shea found this one that we used. It looked kind of like a dart shooter. It had that really long kind of like skinny barrel. It was very cartoonish. Yeah, exactly. Matt Sohn also talked about how Leslie really sold this moment. I thought he did fantastic. Let's hear what Matt said.

Leslie did an amazing collapse and fall into a pad that we had set up. And we did it a couple times, but he really enjoyed the moment and had fun with it. I feel like for this episode, this was something that was very different for Leslie. And again, it gave us a fun moment to see...

Rain and Clark Duke have another buddy moment like they did in Suit Warehouse. I think that Clark's reaction in the break room as all this is going down was great.

Well, I agree that Leslie was excellent in the scene. I mean, when he falls forward, you don't see him, like, brace himself with his hands or anything. I mean, that is hard to do. This is now going to set off a dilemma for Dwight, which is how does he get Stanley from the break room on the floor all the way down to the car and into a meeting?

So maybe we should describe how he does that. Mm-hmm. He starts by somehow getting Clark to help him. Yeah, Clark witnessed this. He's in it now. Yeah. They're trying to move him by hand, and it is not working. Mm-mm. So they get a rolly office chair. I also want to give props to Leslie David Baker for his acting in the rolly chair. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

All of it. He had to just be out of it while they're tugging him and having dialogue around him. I thought he did fantastic. The rolly chair works, but remember, the elevator's broken. How are they going to get him down the stairs? Yeah. What happens is, I guess, Dwight makes a cardboard ramp.

And now they need to wrap Stanley in bubble wrap, and they're going to strap a helmet onto his head. This looks like something out of that movie Jackass. It really does. And while they're discussing the best way to kind of slide him down the stairs, Stanley slides down the stairs on his own. By accident. And his head goes into the wall. And leaves a divot. Eventually, they get him down to the parking lot and into the car.

we had a fan mail flurry. I bet. Basically, people said, please give us all the details on the Stanley stunts. What stunts did Leslie David Baker do versus the ones a stunt double did? Well, lucky for us, Matt Stone broke it all down. And here's what he had to say.

We have moments where we use the real Stanley, but we also had a stuntman playing Stanley. And it was the stuntman whose head we sort of ran into the wall in the break room. But Leslie did all of his own stuff when they were dropping him into the chair and pushing him down the hall.

When it came to the stairwell slide, we had discussed many different options on how to do this.

We had the stuntman, so we talked about using the stuntman to slide down. But the problem was that it was too dangerous of a slide because whoever was going to do it, their arms were trapped in the bubble wrap by their side. So we ultimately figured it was the safest to build a dummy to slide down the ramp and hit the wall.

which is ultimately what we did and managed to hide Stanley's face. And then we have the cutaway after the fact of Leslie wrapped up in the helmet by the hole that we punched in the wall. Now, getting Stanley into the car, Leslie played great at being passed out. And, you know, it was a challenge for both Clark and Rain because...

Leslie didn't have a lot of control because he was in the bubble wrap and his arms were by his side. And they had to sort of maneuver him around and attempt to get him into the car. We did that in a lot of edits as well, which kind of sold the moment. I have to say I thought it was seamless. Yeah. I mean...

It was a dummy, a stunt double, and Leslie. They did a great job putting that together. And I could never tell. Yeah. Steve said Leslie's stunt double was Buddy Sawstand. Brett Jones was our stunt coordinator for this episode. I got a little curious about the Stanley dummy that Matt talked about. So I reached out to Steve Burgess.

I was like, did Leslie have to do that thing where you get like a face cast made or, you know, you've seen that before, right? Steve Burgess said Phil actually used a dummy that he already had. And since it was wrapped up in bubble wrap and wearing a helmet, it kind of worked. It sold it. So, no, Leslie did not have to sit through some 12-hour molding of his face.

Obviously, all the shots where we see a face are Leslie. The slide down the stairs is the dummy. But then when we cut back to the dummy at the end of the stairs, that was Leslie again. It was just amazing. We did get another fan question about this sequence, Angela, from Jenna F. in Los Angeles. She writes in a lot. Yeah. She noticed that rain slid down the cardboard wall.

And really felt like this was something Rain might have done on the fly that made everyone freak out. I asked Matt Sohn about it and here's what he said. Are you the Jenna F in Los Angeles? It's a coincidence. Rain really wanted to slide down the stairs and I feel like production told him not to.

But he did it anyway. And it was sort of within the scene. It was very funny. But again, production wants to keep the actor safe. And it was a long slide. Rain did the slide. I think he enjoyed it. I think he did it maybe twice. But I'm not sure it could have also been our last take because I feel like we had discussed him sliding down and he was told not to.

But he did it anyway. And it made the cut. And it was very funny and felt realistic. Yeah. Steve Burgess also confirmed that Rain did it on the fly. Well, I was filming over on that side, you know, with the senator in the parking lot. And I distinctly remember our crew guys sliding down it. Steve Burgess said that that was why they weren't that concerned when Rain did it, because the crew had been doing it all day. Yep. Right.

Well, why don't we take a break, and when we come back, we're going to get some real therapy session for Jim and Pam. Yeah, couples therapy when we're back. Angela, I know in the office you are the cat lady. Angela Martin is the cat lady. But in real life, I am the cat lady. You are a cat lady, although I do have two cats. True.

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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, a family of five,

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.

All right, we're back. I'd like to start by saying I finally feel normal again from that three by five that we drank. And I know we said it last week. I love our space. When I was coming in today from the car...

I had an encounter, and it was so charming, and it just made me love our new studio even more. What was it? Okay, so, you know, we're located in a little bit of a touristy area. We are. And there was a family on the street, and they were looking at their phone, and they look like tourists to me. Right. And I thought...

oh, I'm going to say hi to them. I'm going to ask them if they need directions. Because they looked a little lost. A little bit. So I said, are you traveling? Are you tourists? And they looked at me for a second. They kind of paused. And then they explained that they were French, that they didn't really speak English. And I said, oh. Bonjour. I said, bonjour. Did all of a sudden your French come back to you like it did in that market in France? I was hoping. And

And I said, "Je parle un peu de français." And she said, "I speak a little English." And then I said, "Très un peu de français." Very little French. And the man said, "Un petit de français." And I said, "Oui, petit de français." Not "très un peu." But anyway, we had a moment. They were looking for the Walk of Fame. I was able to give them directions using "à gauche" and "à droite." I was very proud of myself.

I did a crazy thing, lady. Is this crazy? I said, do y'all watch The Office in France? You did not. I did. This is not like you. You are Miss Fly under the radar. I know. But I'm like, if you're a tourist and you've come from France and you're walking to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and you've run into an actor or an actress, don't you want a picture with that person?

person? Maybe so. What happened? They don't watch The Office, seem to have never heard of it. They think you work in an office. So I kid you not, I doubled down and I Googled myself and I showed my phone to them. Jenna Fisher. I said, this is me.

you right now?" And they said, "Jenna Fisher." And I said, "Yes, that's me. I'm Jenna Fisher." And then they got all excited and the two girls, they were like kind of teen girls. They wanted a picture and we took a picture. And I could tell as they were walking away that they were like making a note to themselves, "We've met Jenna Fisher. We don't know who she is. We've never seen her TV show." She might be a famous receptionist. We don't know.

little encounter on the way in. That's so charming. I don't know. I can't believe you did that. Well, one of my favorite things to do is when we're driving somewhere and one of those like tour buses, those like open air vans of tourists drive by and you're kind of at a stoplight together. I always like to roll down my window and be like, hey, welcome to LA.

Well, what I like to do is when I'm on vacation and I see a couple and they're also on vacation and they're trying to do that thing that couples do where you take a selfie in front of some beautiful thing, but you don't have someone to take it for you and you don't want to ask someone maybe. Yeah.

I go up to that couple or family and I say, do you guys want a group picture? I'll take it for you. And that's my favorite thing to do. And sometimes people recognize me and sometimes they don't, but I don't ever say anything. You don't get out your phone and Google yourself and explain who you are? I don't. But it's always fun when that moment happens.

I just remember coming to L.A. for the first time with my family and my sister. And I think I just saw myself in this family. Right. You know. Sweet family. And how much I just wanted to run into some person from film and television. If Julia Roberts had been like, do you need help with directions? Well, you know who we ran into? Diane Keaton. You and your family. We passed her on the street. And my mom is convinced to this day that Diane Keaton admired her hat.

Family story. It's legend. Yeah. Remember that time Diane Keaton did a double take? Loved my hat because she loved my hat. She saw my hat. Where should we go? This very intense conversation is happening between Pam and Nellie and Jim and Toby. We're cutting back and forth. They're really sharing a lot of stuff, too. Like, I'm just like, wow, this therapy session is going to be a big one. Yeah. I mean, Pam kind of says...

Okay, Jim did this without asking me, this without asking me. At what point does he stop getting rewarded for making big life decisions without me? And then Jim says, you know what? If I didn't usher in these life moments, Pam would still be married to Roy.

There's someone who has a real issue with that statement from Jim. Oh. And it is Tanisha T. from the UK. Tanisha, let's hear it. Tanisha says, I have a small rant and I've been waiting to get to this episode because it has always made me so mad when Jim suggests that if he didn't do things without telling Pam, she'd be married to Roy. I need to share how upset this has always made me. Tanisha goes on to say, Pam chose to break up with Roy.

Jim had already left Scranton to work at the Stanford branch. Pam broke off the engagement with Roy because she realized it wasn't what she wanted.

Then she got a new apartment. She started art classes. Her art was included in an art exhibition. She did the coal walk in the Beach Games episode and so much more character growth throughout the series, all of which she did without Jim, all at a time when Jim wasn't even being friendly with her anymore. So I just think that Jim saying that Pam would be married to Roy completely disregards all of Pam's accomplishments, and it felt like a very un-Jim thing for him to have said.

I liked it. I liked that. That is fantastic. I love that observation. Well, ultimately, Jim tells Toby, you know, if Pam could just hold on a little bit longer, this would be huge for our family. And then Toby says, well, what does a little while mean? Because, you know, for Pam to sign on to something that makes her unhappy, she's going to need to know, is there an end date?

And Jim says, well, that's a pretty impossible question. So after the table read of this episode, when we were doing our kind of notes session, Greg explained his goal for these scenes. He said that he wanted them to be shot and cut in such a way that it would look like Jim and Pam were talking to each other.

Since we couldn't actually have cameras go into their couples counseling, this was our version of being able to see what they might say there. Right, a sneak peek into what's going on. Greg said it was also really important that Toby take this seriously and that Nellie take it seriously. And John Krasinski also gave the note,

that Toby and Nellie should challenge us in some way. Because originally, those kind of challenges from Nellie and Toby, they weren't in the table draft. So those got added. I thought that was a really good thing. John had pitched that Toby should say something like, how do you think this makes Pam feel? And maybe Nellie should say, I don't understand why you don't just go. Just go.

So that they're kind of being forced to address these things that are stopping them from getting through this rough patch. Yeah. And I really liked this. I liked this beat for their relationship. I did too. I did read in the shooting draft that it said Nellie is so invested that when Pam is saying all these things that she wants to change...

Nellie loses herself in Pam's speech and then just says, I will change, Pam. And then she's like, oh, wait. Yeah. Well, now Erin is going to call everyone over to watch Senator Lipton's press conference on her computer.

Angela's on the TV and she looks real good. They say she looks like a movie star. This, of course, pisses Andy off because he thinks Angela's having her big TV moment that he should be having. But this press conference is not going to go the way Angela had hoped. No, not at all. Robert starts off by saying, I would just like to start by saying there have been some rumors about my personal life that I would like to settle once and for all. As my long-suffering wife can attest, I am gay.

The crowd reacts surprised, and a reporter says, "Senator, were you always gay or did your wife turn you gay?" And then the next reporter says, "Question for the senator's beard."

Pete's like, poor Angela. Phyllis is sort of enjoying this moment. She's like, yeah, poor Angela. The senator is not done. He's going to double down and say, I once believed that a gay person could be somewhat straight. It wasn't until my marriage to Angela that I realized how charmless I find the female body. Meredith says, oof, always hurts to hear that one. Mm-hmm.

Robert is then going to go on to thank Oscar. Oh, Oscar lights up. He's so delighted. And that's when the bullpen finds out that Oscar was also seeing the senator. Let me tell you, Brian's performance as Kevin in this moment is absolutely amazing. And I think we should hear it. Yes. And I knew it the whole time.

I kept a secret. I kept a secret so good. You didn't know. You didn't know. You didn't freaking know. But I knew. He knew. Yes. We did it. You did it, Kevin. Yes. Oh, I did it. Oh, I did it.

That is one of my best, like, slow play jokes. He has known for so long. So long. And he did it. He did it. He kept that secret so good. Well, this press conference scene was much longer. Robert's going to go on to say that

Oscar is who really opened up his eyes to his true love, Wesley. Yes, his amazing chief of staff who he is in love with. Yes, and they kiss. There was even more. It's in the deleted scenes. Angela is still going to try to salvage her marriage, but the senator has more surprises in store for her. You got to hear this.

Senator Lipton, what effect will this have on your family arrangement? Will you and Mrs. Lipton continue living together? Of course. As you know, Robert and I have a young child. I'll be moving in with Wesley. What? We need to know who we are as a couple. Robert, we never discussed this. Will you take this opportunity to promote change in the Republican Party with respect to their stance on gay marriage? No, I'll just be switching to the Democratic Party.

Angela is so mortified at the end. And I remember talking to Matt Stone at the end of the scene because they had me just standing there through the whole thing as the senator just keeps dropping one bomb after another. And I said, Matt, she's got to have a breaking point at some point. Like she wouldn't just keep standing there. So at the end, when he says he's going to switch to the Democratic Party.

Matt said, do whatever you think Angela would do in this moment. Okay. I shoved the microphone stand over and I stormed off the stage. That was the last straw. Yeah. All this other stuff. Right. But not that. Not that.

Well, you guys, Wesley Silver was played by Fred Cross. He's a comedian and improv actor and graduate of the Second City. And we've heard about him for a while now. But boy, this was a shocker. Yeah. All of this betrayal of both Angela and Oscar is going to lead to some pretty fun stuff coming up in these next few episodes. Yes, because they used to have a common love, but now they're going to have a common enemy. Up next is such a hilarious scene.

Andy has found what he hopes to be his new agent. It's Carla Fern. This is how the scene is described in the shooting draft. It says, Andy sits in a very narrow, bare-bones waiting room. Some chairs, a dingy-looking water cooler, and a very plastic plant. A mom reads a magazine as her freckled-faced redhead son, dressed in a jacket and tie, plays with her phone. Andy's

Andy looks across the waiting room where a clean-cut man sits next to a live dog with a live cat on top, and the cat has an alive mouse on top of it. Yes. Andy is going to spot this man and say, are you an actor? And he says, I'm not an actor, but I have an act. It's dog-cat-mouse. Andy says, is it hard to train them to do that?

And the man says, well, I've gone through a lot of mice. We got a fan question from Abilene R. in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who said, oh, my God, is that Paul Feig at the casting office with the dog, cat, and mouse? He's so funny. His talking head delivery was amazing. How did this come about? Yes, Abilene, this was Paul Feig. Greg wanted Paul to play this role.

And he is so, so funny. He's so funny. I thought we could hear his talking head and then I would share the candy bag alts. I love it. Is it hard to train them to do that? You go through a lot of mice. It started by accident, actually, as these things tend to do. I was setting it on my cat and I accidentally put her on top of my dog and I was so mad at myself at first. And I was like, wait, wait a second.

So that talking head was actually the candy bag alt. Yes. And he would have gone on to say, my ex-wife tells everyone the mouse was her idea, but I don't have any recollection of that. Anyway, I would have thought of it myself. And here were the other talking head options.

I've done birthdays, retirement parties. I did a shoe store opening once. I still try to live off just the money I get from performing in parking lots behind CVS. And then everything beyond that is bonus because you don't know when this could all go away. Here's another one. I guess my realistic dream is to do a horse, dog, cat, mouse, all four in a column, you know?

And then sometimes, and I know how this sounds, but I imagine doing all four of those with like a piece of cheese on top of the mouse's hat. You wouldn't think the cheese is the hardest part, but all of them love cheese. Well, Andy does ask, does anything go on top of the mouse? And he says, yes, a little hat.

And then Andy asks if the mouse has a name, and the man says it doesn't make sense to name the mice. That's right. And then Paul Feig improvised this line. They're kind of like cannon fodder, you know? You're not one of those PETA guys, are you? And then the cat jumps off the dog, and he's like, ah, great. We got a fan question from Karen T. in North Carolina who said, I need to know everything about the mouse, the cat, and the dog. How? How?

And Lily B. from Canada said, did the animals come from Bob Dunn's animal rentals and did they already know how to do that or were they specifically trained to do it for this episode? Well, everyone, I'll have you know, I went deep on this. I found out everything about how they stacked these animals. I personally love animals.

animal stacking. Yeah, I feel like you should share about this. Like how I love when animals are dressed as other animals. Like if you dress your dog to look like a bunny, like for Halloween, I love that. I love pictures of animals stacked on other animals, paintings. And oddly, I have a painting of animals stacked on each other. I know. My friend Alex and I

We both love animal stacking. We send each other pictures of different stacks of animals. You know what? I love any video of like a cat on top of a goat or like a dog on top of a cow. I don't know. I just like it when they ride on one another. I don't know. What's your favorite animal stacking that you've seen?

Oh, that's a good question. There was this video I saw of this cat that used to love to go out into this herd of sheep and just ride around on their backs. Oh, that's cute. And it loved them. But sometimes it would just take a nap on top of a sheep and clean itself. I love it when animals are friends with each other. Right. We should say you like it when animals choose to be stacked. Oh, yes. Right? Right. Yeah.

Not forced stacking. I don't love forced stacking, no. For the fan questions, yes, the dog-cat-mouse came from Bob Dunn's animals, and yes, they were specifically trained for this episode. Here's how it happened. When Steve Burgess got this script, he reached out to Bob Dunn's, and he sent them a video of a real dog-cat-mouse that the writers had seen.

I Googled it. There is a very famous dog cat mouse man from Bisbee, Arizona. Oh. His name is Greg Pike.

And he will set up on a sidewalk with his dog cat mouse, and he'll accept donations from anyone who wants to take a picture with them. His dog's name is Booger. His cat's name is Kitty. And his mouse's name is Mousy. And they all stand together. So this might have been the inspiration. Got it. And the town loves him. The town loves Greg and his animal stack. Steve said that Bob Dunn's initially offered a stack of dog cat rat animals.

Rats are very smart, and they're very easy to train. They sent over a picture of what a dog-cat-rat might look like, and the writers really wanted a mouse.

Yeah. I don't know. Like a mouse is so tiny. It kind of like- And then the little top hat's even tinier. It's even so smaller. Yeah. Well, Steve wrote to them and said, hey, we would really like to try for a mouse on top of the cat. The rat could be a backup, but our first choice is mouse. These are the emails Steve Burgess writes. Bob Dunn wrote back, Steve, mouse's first choice, we'll let the mouse know. That's what he wrote back. Yeah.

Well, Ange, I have even more information to share because remember when I did that AT&T commercial and there was that pug from Bob Dunn's? I told them, I am going to reach out to you for this podcast. Well, I reached out. I said, how did you stack these animals? Well, Mike Morris, the head animal trainer at Bob Dunn's, wrote me back and said this.

Hello. Even though I didn't do this job myself, I remember it vividly because it was such a funny scene and it was really fun for the trainers to prep and I was around while they were prepping for the shoot day.

He said, "Many times productions come up with an idea that requires a specific look or an exact animal type, and other times they have specific action requirements." He said, "We did not have animals who were ready to be stacked, but what we did have were animals that were continually being trained to learn new behaviors as needed."

And a lot of the basics are the same. So in order to do this particular scene, he said we would have looked for a veteran animal cat and dog, really well-trained, calm animals. He said it took about three days to prep. He said the mice, they had to start from scratch.

And it would start with a group of mice and people would just handle them and get them really comfortable around people. And they would prep multiple mice. And ultimately, they selected the one that was the most comfortable on the shoot day.

He said they prepped them in groups. They did a mouse-cat prep and a cat-dog prep, and then they would bring them all together. Steve Burgess added that they specifically chose animals with contrasting fur colors so that they would show up more. I guess the original video that they had sent, the animals were kind of the same color, so they were harder to distinguish. They got a pop on TV. Yeah, that's right.

They also put a harness on the dog so that when the cat sat on top of the dog, the cat's claws wouldn't dig into the dog in any way. Yeah, that's smart. He said you couldn't see the harness because the dog's fur covered it up. Steve said the hardest part was getting the mouse to stay on top of the cat.

as you could imagine. And the total cost for this animal training and this shoot day was around $10,000. Well, they pulled it off. I mean, it's hilarious. And we asked Matt Stone about all of this, about getting to work with Paul Feig, and then about the whole stacking scene. Here's what he had to say. I was very excited to get to direct Paul. It was also really fun because we got to pick out this suit for him.

And for those who don't know, Paul always wears the most fashionable suits.

And it was fun to find this corduroy suit that our wardrobe department found and put him in. He looked great. So he had his act, the dog-cat-mouse. I know that Paul had a lot of fun with the scene. And it took us a little while to shoot because we had to get the right angle that sold all of these moments.

because the mouse was so small, the dog was so big, of course the cat was right there in between.

But it all ultimately worked out well and was very funny. And the final moment with the cat was sort of a happy accident. You know, we were shooting every bit of the moment of the mouse staying on top of the cat on top of the dog so we could have as many options to choose from in the edit.

And, you know, it truly was that happy accident that the cat jumped off of the dog and the mouse stayed on the cat's back. And then I think the end of the episode is also very funny in that the cat is just chewing on the mouse hat, which quietly leads us to believe that the cat has yet again eaten another mouse.

I thought it was amazing that the mouse stayed on the cat when the cat jumped off. I know. Well done, mouse actor. Yes. Way to roll with some improv there. Should we check on the guys on their sales call? Yeah, well, they've arrived at their destination and Stanley is starting to wake up. Dwight's trying to explain what we're about to do, but Stanley is very, very loopy.

This is when Dwight says, Clark, I guess you have to be Stanley today. And then Clark is like, can I remind you that Stanley's sister is best friends with this client? I can't say I'm Stanley. Yeah. And then Dwight's like, back to the old plan. We've got to get Stanley some coffee. Yeah.

Now, during this whole scene, there's a moment where Stanley looks over in the parking lot and he goes, pigeons. He like sees some pigeons. That was scripted. We brought in those pigeons and they required two animal wranglers. Imagine those emails. I know. I know. Please keep the pigeons away from the cat. Dog and mouse. That are also working today. No kidding. Okay.

Well, back in the couples counseling, Pam is going to tell Nellie that she just doesn't want Jim to do athlete anymore. She doesn't want to give him an ultimatum, but she doesn't want to move her family to Philly. And Jim says they're going to need a lot more than counseling if Pam won't move to Philly. We then see a scene of Jim and Pam. They're walking to their car, and Jim kind of strokes Pam's back, and they get in.

And this is really somber for the Jim and Pam fandom. Nellie and Toby have now done being couples counselors, and I think it bonded them. They're both like, oh, those two are made for each other, blah, blah, blah. I know. They're definitely bonding. Yeah. It's a snarky bond. Now we're going to go into this meeting, and you wouldn't believe it, but Stanley is going to manage to make this sale.

Well, he's happy. He's commenting on how cute this woman's grandchildren are. They talk about how if you push the nose, it goes beep. And Stanley is just really having a great time. Yes. I thought the woman who played Mrs. Davis, her name is Deborah Lee, was just so real and so believable because it's going to be a stretch for you to believe that Stanley's going to pull this off. And she was so genuinely delighted by him. It totally worked. I loved it.

And the three guys are going to leave this meeting and they are high-fiving. Yeah. Dwight says, I may never be manager, but I may have just managed to get their most stubborn salesperson to close a sale with one of their biggest clients.

Andy's big moment is about to happen. He's going to meet for the first time with a TV and film agent, Carla. And I need us to go over Carla's office. Okay. 18 minutes, 39 seconds. Our set designers knocked it out of the park. Carla loves some knickknacks. Here are things I spotted on her desk. Did anyone else catch the magic eight ball? No. Yes. No.

We have a magic eight ball on every desk almost. She also has a bowl of mints, some type of like fancy bowl with a lid, some crystals, a lot of scripts.

A pottery thing holding her pins. Behind her, it looks like she has maybe like a bottle of scotch with a fancy glass. A basket of fake flowers. Binders, and they're titled, The Talent Agent's Categories of Character Actors. Oh. Mm-hmm. Then she's got some bedazzled sunglasses, a tiara, a gold elephant statue that is holding a clock.

She also has on her other bookshelf a sculpture, a framed dollar bill, a white roller skate, some stacking dolls, a lot of books, and a whole wall of photos of some of her clients. And there was so much more that I didn't even capture, but...

This office really paints a picture. I believed it. I did too. Andy's going to begin his interview with Carla by speaking in a British accent. But he's clearly trying to figure out all of these sort of sayings. Like he's like, ain't it? I know. He's sort of like, she asked him to list his talents and he's sort of like...

And one of my talents is that I can speak in a British accent and he switches to American accent. My favorite moment of the scene is that Carla's response to this accent reveal is to simply say, can you drive a car? She'd come no way on his accent doing. And then she says, I mean, can you like juggle and crap? I know.

know why, but her saying, can you drive a car? It made me laugh for so long I had to pause. We should say, of course, that Carla Fern was played by Roseanne. Matt Sohn said that she came in very prepared and it was a really fun day working with her. She's going to appear in one more episode. She's going to go on to ask Andy, would he be willing to dress as a clown for a kid's birthday party and have pies thrown at him?

He says yes. And then he thinks he didn't get an agent. But she says, oh, no, we're going to sign you. Yeah. She says, pay Todd on the way out. Oh, you guys. Yes. You do not pay for representation. You do not. Acting 101. No. No. But the way Carla Fern's agency works is that Carla takes a flat rate of $5,000 up front. That does not include headshots. It does not. It does not.

I wanted to let you know that Todd, the man collecting the check, was played by Ben Harris, who was Allison Jones' casting associate. That's right. We knew Ben, and this was a really fun way to get him in the show. And we got a fan question from Brooke S. in Utah who said, I listened to Jenna's book for aspiring actors, even though it's not my goal in life. And Andy's process of getting an agent seems super different. Seems like there's a ton of red flags. Yeah.

Can you ladies share your experiences with getting an agent and any similarities or differences with Andy as he pursues stardom? I just want to hear all about what you ladies think of Andy and his experiences with this agent and starting out. Well, obviously, you know, agents represent you to help you get jobs. You don't pay them. They get a percentage of your income if they book you the job.

Yes, and that is a pretty standard amount. It's 10%. So if you ever meet with an agent who wants 25%, 35%, you're going to want to look elsewhere.

But the hustle after they get you the appointment is up to you. You've got to do your homework. You've got to learn your lines. You've got to go in like a pro because ultimately they might get you in the door, but you have to get the job. You know, when I was looking for an agent, I ran into a few kind of scammy situations and I wrote about them in my book.

What I would do is I would send my headshot and resume out to different agencies. Sure. You know, mostly small and medium-sized agencies since I was starting out. And you hope to get called in. And I got called into one place, and they said, oh, we want to represent you. But the first thing you're going to need to do is get new headshots. And we recommend you use this photographer. Okay.

And it's the only photographer we used. And I realized that really what this was was just a way for them to make actors get photographs. So it was like they wouldn't represent you unless you got new photos and unless you used their photographer. And it was really just a photographer and a person who were kind of in cahoots taking money from actors. Yeah.

And then in another instance, I had a meeting with a, I'm putting these in quotes, agent who presented me with a contract, which is not unusual, totally cool to sign a contract.

But there was a clause, because you know I read it. Good for you. The whole thing. There was a clause that said that there was like every year there was an option to renew the contract. It would automatically renew, but it was on their end only. And so it could become like this never-ending contract, which is also illegal. And the cool thing is that the Screen Actors Guild –

has a department that will review agent contracts for you and help you. And so I sent that contract to one of those representatives at the Screen Actors Guild, and they said, no, no, no, no, no. Do not sign that contract. That's great. I didn't know that. Yeah. So they were awesome, and they were a great resource. But yeah, I mean, coming up, I had a lot of sketchy

things that I had to kind of work out. And you so want that agent, just like Andy. You so want that. And people will try to take advantage of that. And so you have to be really smart and savvy and thoughtful. And you know what? It will eventually happen. It will. Yeah. And have good friends and people you can bounce the stuff off of.

So if your excitement makes you blind to some red flags, your support group will catch them. - Yes, 100%. - Yeah. My favorite thing is one of the first agents I met with was this older guy and he looked at me and he said, "You are not Hollywood glamorous." And I said, "That's not what I'm going for." He was like, "Good that you know that." - Did he end up representing you? - Yes. - How'd that go?

Well, now Dwight and Clark are sort of filling Stanley in about this big sale that they made and that Stanley crushed it. And he's really happy about it. So now it's time for them to go back upstairs. And Stanley's like, no, no, no.

I'm going to go up the same way I came down. And he took the tranquilizer dart and put it in his thigh. Yeah. Down he went. Well, Matt Stone talked about this final moment. Let's hear what he had to say. The episode ends with Stanley tranquilizing himself and then collapsing to the floor. I think originally in the script, it called for him truly falling forward or falling back. And, you know, we definitely wanted to sell...

doing this gag. We figured that the safest and easiest way was just to have him sort of collapse back on the wall and slide down to end the episode. I think it all came out well. I think Leslie did a great job and it was all very funny. This was a

a great episode for Leslie David Baker. He absolutely crushed it. It's a great, great episode. I'm really enjoying this last run of episodes. Me too. I'm trying not to get emotional about what's ahead. So this one was really fun. Well, a big thank you to Steve Burgess and to Mike over at Bob Dunn's. Thank you so, so much.

And to Matt Sohn for those awesome audio clips. And to the hilarious Leslie David Baker. Thanks for letting me interview you on our lunch break. And thanks to all of you for sending in your questions and comments. Although Allie P. from Idaho, I don't know if I can thank you for requesting that we try Stanley's Morning 3x5.

but you did help to create one of the more memorable experiences of this podcast. All right, you guys have a great week. See you next time. Bye.

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-Furman and Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies is mixed and mastered by Chris Basil. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. Music