The Farm
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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.

Hello! Hi there! It's nice to be back after kind of a long break, our biggest break we've ever taken. Yes, thanks for coming back with us, you guys. We're back with The Farm. It is Season 9, Episode 18, written by Paul Lieberstein and directed by Paul Lieberstein. But before we start breaking down The Farm, we have to make some Office Ladies announcements.

In fact, all of our Fast Facts today are Office Ladies News. That's how much there is to tell you coming back from this break. Oh, my goodness. I titled two of our announcements. Of course. You're like, of course, Angela, you would do that. The first one I'm calling a whopper. Okay. It's a whopper announcement. I don't know if that's an expression, but guess what? Jenna, let's say it at the same time. Okay. One, two, three. We have...

podcasting partner. That's right. The Office Ladies Network is now going to be released by Odyssey. We are so excited about this new partnership. You know, we said we did not want to stop podcasting when this rewatch is over, and Odyssey is so excited to help us craft the next phase of Office Ladies. They are also releasing The Lazy Genius. Yes.

And hopefully we're going to be able to develop even more awesome podcasts for the Office Ladies Network. It was a big decision. It was a huge decision. For me?

I just think sometimes change is good because it infuses you with a new energy. We are coming up on our five-year anniversary of podcasting. Five years. Yes. Holy moly. Sometimes it's good to shake things up a little to keep it fresh. Well, lady, you know, change normally scares the bejesus out of me, but this all just felt right. You know those moments in life when you have a big decision to make, but somehow it's

It felt easy because everything you were feeling just felt so natural. That's really how I felt. I feel like this is our next organic step for office ladies. And I have to say, I was really thankful to have you during all those conversations, Jenna, because you're the person who I bounce life off of. You're the person who, this is like my biggest like career adventure, this whole podcast with you. And we talked it out. We talked it out.

out. I said to Lee, I was so glad that you were my partner in all of it, too. We can do anything when we do it together, ladies. We really can. That's how I feel. And now I just feel so excited. And honestly, I'm kind of giddy about the next chapter. And I just feel so thankful that I get to keep doing this podcast, this thing that I love, with my best friend. And now we have this awesome team at Odyssey.

Everyone there is so nice and enthusiastic, and I'm excited. Well, I think one of the funny things is that our new, I guess, boss, you would call her...

She's the executive vice president of podcasts at Odyssey. Her name is also Jenna. Yeah, we have two Jennas spelled the same way. Yes. And so now when we do Zooms, I never know if a question is for me or if it's for the other Jenna. Like recently we were doing that Zoom and someone was like, Jenna, would you like to weigh in on the marketing outline?

And I was like, oh, I didn't know I was going to have to talk about that. Yeah, you look like a deer in headlights. You're like, what? And we're like, no, that's Jenna Weiss Berman. Yes. We've started calling her JWB. Yeah. JWB. And she's awesome. She is so awesome. Well, I think for our second piece of news, I'm going to call this announcement Tickled Pink. Okay. Because I am just tickled pink because...

Cassie Jerkins, our fantastic lead producer, is coming with us to Odyssey. Yes, Cassie. Hi to everybody. Hi. Woo!

You know what? I'm so excited. This is making me so happy. I think I need to hear my happy song. Okay. You remember in season seven, Ultimatum, Michael finds out that Holly is not engaged. Yeah. And so him and Aaron go in his office and he watches that video of himself and he plays this happy song. You love the whole concept of a happy song. Lady, I have a new happy song. I have a new happy musical group. Oh. It's ABBA. Yes, you said it right. I know. I

saying it to you wrong. I know. Jenna sometimes says Abba. I don't know why. It's Abba, and I love them, and you know I love them so much. I'm trying to get Angela to dress up for Halloween as the two ladies from Abba with me. I know. This is my quest. It's ever since I watched Muriel's Wedding. Okay, this is a long explanation, but my new happy song is Gimme Gimme Gimme by Abba.

Sam, can you play it? That's right, everybody. You heard. Hi, everyone. Oh, my gosh. Hi. That's right, everyone. Odyssey helped us bring Sam back to finish the rewatch. And now our OG Office Ladies team is together. Yay. Thank you for having me back. This is the best. I like it. I like it. Yeah, I like it. Okay. All right. Finally.

Office Ladies News number three. I don't have a title for this, but I do have an audio clip to kick it off. I don't know what it is. I know you don't. Sam, will you play my special audio clip? And Cassie, come on in here. Oh, my gosh. Angela Kinsey!

You've got a birthday coming up, my friend. Oh my God, there's balloons. You guys, where did you hide those? They're enormous. Yay.

Yay! It is your birthday, Angela. It is my birthday! I am 53! Holy cow! Woo! And listen, because this episode has a cupcake theme, I brought you cupcakes as your sweet treat. Oh my gosh! I am so excited! I know. I sent the team an email asking everyone their favorite cupcake flavor, and they said,

And it was all a ruse to find out what cupcake you like for your birthday lady. Aw. You guys, I'm so excited. And a birthday surprise. Did we get you? You totally.

Not me. I had no idea. Well played. Well played. I mean, I think next to a donut, I love a cupcake so much because it's a cake that you can hold in your hand, you guys. I know. It's everything you love in a cake, but you can just carry it with you. How wonderful is that? Do you want to open up your gift? Yes. Okay. Oh, my gosh. You really surprised me. Okay. Okay.

Oh my God, there's so many things in here. Well, you only have to open up one of them because they're all the same. Okay. There's four things. They're wrapped in paper. Oh my gosh! It's beautiful! With hand-painted, it looks like hand-painted, hummingbirds on them and flowers and bumblebees. And I am so happy! It's for your home office!

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Please, please take a picture of me. Of course I will. Cassie, did you see these? Sam, it's a hummingbird. Oh, hummingbird and flowers. You know, when someone just really gets you and they bring you cake you can hold in your hand.

And a glass with all the things you love on it. Yes. Lady, thank you so much. Well, that is our top of show, which is basically just a bunch of celebration. And we're going to take that energy into our breakdown of the farm. We'll take a break. We'll be right back. We'll be right 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. I guess I'm saying I'm a cat lady because I've worked in cat rescue extensively for like 15 years. I fostered many cats. And the one thing that is a real bummer about cats, because there's only one thing truly, is scooping that litter box. Oh, man. Well, I have a solution. It is the Litter Robot by Whisker. It is the solution to all your litter box problems. It's just simply the best and only automatic litter box ever.

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View important disclosures at acorns.com slash office ladies. All right, we are back. We are breaking down the farm and I'm going to start off with a summary. Okay. Dwight's aunt Shirley has died.

And Oscar is the only co-worker invited to attend the funeral. Yeah. We will discuss. We learn that Dwight has a brother and a sister, and that the three siblings have inherited Aunt Shirley's farm. Meanwhile, Todd Packer visits the Scranton branch to make amends for his past bad deeds by handing out special cupcakes in exchange for forgiveness.

So I think we should start by reminding people that when season nine started, we all knew that Rainn Wilson was originally only contracted to do 13 episodes of The Office. And this was because he was developing a new show, an office spinoff called The Farm, which was being written by Paul Lieberstein.

This is that episode, sort of. They shot this episode in August, right before Labor Day. And the plan was that if the show got picked up, then it would start running in January as a mid-season show. And it would kind of overlap with The Office. Like, The Office would air as a lead-in, and then The Farm would air after. So you'd get, like, a few months of both shows before The Office was over. But by, like, November, December, they found out that Farm was not going to get picked up.

And the writers had to kind of scramble to fit Dwight back into the greater story of The Office starting in January. And then they also decided to, like, air this pilot episode as an episode of The Office. Yeah. You know, Rain did an interview with Larry King where he talked about the farm and what happened with it. And we thought we'd play it. Here's what he had to say.

You filmed a spin-off of The Office focused on Dwight's life on his beet farm. NBC passed on it. Will we ever see it?

You are going to see it. It's called The Farm. And we shot it as, they call it a backdoor pilot. So it stands as an episode of The Office where there's a funeral on Dwight's farm. And you get to meet other members of Dwight's family. When will we see it? I don't know when the air date is, but there's going to be an episode of The Office called The Farm that's going to contain a good chunk. Most of the material that we shot for The Pilot will be seen just as a regular office episode. You wanted it to be a series, right?

- I wanted it to be a series, but I was in this great situation too because I wanted it to be a series. I thought it was a really fun idea to be out on Dwight's crazy beet farm.

But I'm also equally happy to be hanging up my terrible haircut and my terrible glasses in mid-March and be done with Dwight and put him to bed. And it's been a great run. So that's kind of how it went down. But the other thing is that they only ended up using 12 minutes of the farm pilot. Yeah.

I read the whole thing. Mm-hmm. I had the shooting draft. You know, we both have it. And it's a whole full episode. Yeah. Rain also did an interview with Office Tally where he said scenes had to be trimmed, like we're talking about, and removed because they included plot points that pointed to Dwight leaving Dunder Mifflin and moving to the farm full time. So...

It kind of resulted in a little bit of a clunky episode, right? Yeah, I read some reviews and people said they could tell that you weren't really getting the full farm pilot experience, that it felt a little, one place called it like a Frankenstein episode. Yeah. Like we added this whole cupcake storyline later. Yeah.

Because originally, the folks back at the office only appeared in the cold open. Yeah. We weren't in the rest of the episode. Yeah. You know, Steve Burgess sends us the call sheets. We love Steve and photos of his yard every week. I love it so much. And we saw they filmed the farm end of August, early September of 2012. And we saw that the farm was in the cold open.

But those scenes you're talking about, lady, with the cupcakes and all that, we filmed in February of 2013. Mm-hmm. It was a long time later. Well, speaking of the scenes we were in, one of the ones that was in the shooting draft from the very beginning was this cold open. Yeah. Dwight arrives to work. He is in a suit and a top hat. Creed says, nice glasses. Yeah. Yeah.

Erin says he looks like a fancy clown. Yes. And this is when Dwight informs her he is dressed according to the shrewd codes of mourning because his aunt Shirley has died and she was the closest thing he had to a mother. And then he has a talking head where he says, actually, his mother was cold and distant and was the closest thing he had to an aunt. Yes. Dwight is carrying two tiny buckets. We learn that they are filled with soil and he will either...

throw red fertile dirt in your face, which means you are invited to the funeral, or he's going to throw black, slightly acidic soil on your face, and that means you are not invited to the funeral. I was very curious about this because my dad used to always say black soil is the richest soil. Oh. And that red dirt is not as great at growing things.

And I looked it up, and there's a lot of information about soil out there. I thought I would share it, but that's a whole other podcast called Soil. Well, did you find out if the color of the soil points to its fertility? Acidity?

No. Oh. I don't know. Maybe this is my dad as a farmer. He's just like, you know how farmers have their little sayings like, oh, when a storm's coming, the cows go and line up by the fence. You know what I mean? Those kind of sayings. I have not ever heard that saying, but I also did not grow up on a farm, but I like it. My dad would say things like this. Yeah. Okay.

Well, Dwight is now going to walk around and start throwing soil on people. He starts with Erin. She gets black soil. So does Phyllis. So does Kevin. Then he gets to Oscar and he reaches into the black soil bucket and Oscar is like, oh, thank God. He's so relieved.

I have an improv moment by Oscar. Oh, please. So it was scripted where Oscar would say, I'm so sorry, Dwight. If you want me to be there, of course I will go. And then Oscar improvised this. I just, I have a personal training session. That was an improv. I also have something to point out at one minute, 16 seconds. Is it your insane hair? My amazing braid catch. Yes. Big shout out to Kim Ferry for creating this very intricate...

Angela Martin braid, that is all of my actual hair. I don't know how she got it to look like that. Well, this is something that is true of you and Kim in later seasons, which is that if the cold open was set on a different day than the rest of the episode, you and Kim would do an elaborate braid. Yes. Because you only had to wear it for a few hours. Exactly. So I noticed it. I was like, oh, there it is. That's a cold open braid. Sure is.

Well, guess what? Dwight changes his mind and he throws red soil in Oscar's face, which means Oscar is now going to the funeral. He has the best talking head. He really does. Oscar says, I get red dirt. Nobody is getting red dirt. I should have kept my mouth shut. We're not even that close. I've only known Dwight 12 years. 12 years. Time is a son of a bitch.

So the last person to get dirt is Jim, and Dwight is going to pack it very tightly into a dirt snowball, Jim says. But before he throws it in Jim's face, we cut to the credits. We got a full-on fan mail flurry. People really want to know, did Dwight actually throw dirt in our faces, and what was the dirt made of?

I asked Steve Burgess, and he said it was dirt. It was specifically Fuller's Earth. What is Fuller's Earth? I guess it's a type of dirt. Okay. I have such a strong memory that they threw crushed up Oreos on our faces. I had the same memory. Especially when Kevin licks a little off his lip. I thought it was crushed up Oreo. Did we do it in a rehearsal? No.

Well, we did have a dirt test where they tested throwing dirt. And I know that while they would normally test this sort of stuff on our stand-ins, I was part of the test throw, and you and Ellie were as well. That's right. And so maybe they threw Oreos at us during the test, and maybe they didn't stick or something. Yeah.

Well, it's interesting you say that about me, you, and Ellie because I found something in my digital clutter. September 12th, 1148 a.m., Rainn Wilson emailed me, you, and Ellie, and the subject was titled Dirt Girls, and it's a photo he took of the three of us with the fakie dirt on our faces. Yes, I love that picture. I know. We'll share it. Did we put that in our book? We might have. We put like 400 photos in our book. I know. I think it might be one of them. Okay. Okay.

Well, we got some more fan questions from Elizabeth P. in Toronto, Canada, who said, did Dwight actually throw the dirt ball in Jim's face before the scene cuts out? And Brittany Y. from Dana Point, California said, I have a prediction. I think in the cold open, Dwight throws the ceremonial dirt into Jim's face, but the reason it gets cut off at the end is because they couldn't get through it and started laughing immediately after.

Well, Brittany, that's a very good theory. Yeah. I will say I went to the script and it was scripted that Dwight, quote, nails Jim in the face. And you know Rain would have done it. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I don't remember what happened.

I don't either. And I was sitting right there. I know. There was also originally a talking head at the end of this cold open. Dwight heads to his car. He's tossing the pills of dirt aside and ripping off his tux. And he looks to Cameron and says, not a bad custom. I should tell the other shrews something like this could really catch on. And then he kind of looks at the camera crew and goes, what? Oh, give me a break. My aunt just died.

So it wasn't a custom at all for his family. Oh, my gosh. He's such a shit. Is that the best prank Dwight has ever pulled? Maybe. That's gym level. That is gym level. He had to buy the suit, the top hat, although maybe he already owned that, actually. I don't know. What?

Well, I have a fun final tidbit about this cold open. Like you said, we shot this cold open back in September, and it was during the same week that we were shooting Here Comes Trouble. And you know, Here Comes Trouble was our Halloween episode that year. So Steve Burgess said that we shot this on a Wednesday. So on Tuesday night after work, the crew had to take down all of the Halloween decorations on the set that were there for Here Comes Trouble and then had to put them back up after we finished this cold open. Yeah.

They had to de-Halloween and re-Halloween. Oh, my gosh. In one night. In one night. I don't know if anyone made a dirt-in-the-face breakdown.

Oh. Anyone out there who watched it. But we listed off who got the dirt, but one person who I never saw get dirt was Nellie. Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah. I have one last thing to say about this scene. I don't know if you noticed that everyone that got dirt in their face at the top of the scene had to keep the dirt on their face for the entire rest of the scene.

So if you go to one minute and 53 seconds, you will see Brian Baumgartner and I standing in the background with dirt on our faces while there's a scene going on with Jim and Pam and Dwight.

However, in that scene with Jim, Pam, and Dwight, Dwight throws a little dirt in Pam's face. But then when they cut back later to that same angle, I don't really have any on my face. Do you not? I think he would. Sometimes there would be a take where he would hit me. And sometimes there would be a take where he missed me. So I think they use different takes in their cut. But I go from having dirt to no dirt. Well, Brian and I got direct hits. Yeah.

All right, well, now this episode is going to begin. Dwight and Mose are on the front porch as Mose plays guitar. He's playing Oklahoma. Mm-hmm. I have how it was described in the shooting draft. Would you like to hear it? I would. What if you said no? Then you would not be able to read it. Why do we ask? I know. We do it all the time. You're like, do you want to hear a summary? Yeah. Okay. Sure. Okay.

Here's what it said. Dwight, wearing funeral clothes, paces nervously on the front porch, checking his watch. Mose, on the bench swing, plays guitar, slowly picking out Oh, What a Beautiful Morning from Oklahoma. Zeke rides up on a 1940s German motorcycle with a sidecar. Well, I should let everybody know that while Mike Schur, as Mose, makes a brief appearance in this episode, he would not have been a regular character on the spinoff of The Farm. You know, it's interesting because in the script...

They found a creative way to make sure he didn't have to be on any other day but this day. Really? Yeah. So this is how it read in the shooting draft. Dwight walks to the motorcycle. Moe stays put, and Dwight notices. Dwight says, you coming? Moe says, will there be ghosts there? Dwight says, you know, I can't say for sure. Moe says, I better not risk it. Mm.

So he doesn't go. Well, Zeke, who was played by Matt Jones, would have been a regular character on the show. You know, we originally introduced him in the Junior Salesman episode. That's when Dwight is trying to hire one of his friends to work in the office. We filmed Junior Salesman after the farm. Oh. Mm-hmm. And we will also see the character of Zeke in the finale.

I thought maybe you would want a location breakdown. I always want a location breakdown. Yes. So, you know, as Dwight and Zeke are bickering over who's going to sit in the sidecar, I noticed they were squinting quite a bit from the blazing sun that was beating down on them.

So I thought maybe I would give you all a location breakdown. We filmed the farm at the Disney Ranch. This is the same place as Shroop Farms. Like you said before, Angela, we filmed this at the end of August, beginning of September. And Steve Burgess said he remembered it was very hot. We also shot this episode for seven days.

A normal office episode, we would only get five days. But they usually give you more time to shoot a pilot episode because creatively, you want that extra time so you can do more takes. You can figure things out, maybe rewrite things in the moment because you're kind of still getting your bearings. Yeah. Well, Steve also shared with us a memo that he sent out to the cast and crew. Oh, my gosh. I saw this. This is so great. I'm going to read it.

Some things to remember when on location for episode 9005, The Farm. We will be working in desert-like conditions. During the day, we expect temperatures to exceed 90 degrees. Please stay hydrated. Electrolytes and sunscreen will be available with the medic. Buckets of ice water will be available around set. At night and next week in the early morning hours, we will have cooler temperatures, so please bring layers so you can stay warm. This next paragraph.

Critters have been found in high volume around location. We have a full-time critter wrangler working with us. If you suspect there are critters in your area you are heading to are currently working in, please notify the wrangler and have him inspect the area. Despite the high temperatures, we encourage you to wear long pants and closed-toed protective shoes.

This area has been known to have bees. Please alert the medic. Oh, my gosh. Critters and now bees. Please alert the medic if you are allergic. Be prepared and bring your EpiPen with you every day in case of an emergency. This is the same location where John bit into his scrambled eggs and bit into a bee. Remember? Yes, during garden party. Yes. Lady, I'll have you know, I've started reading the back of the call sheets. Oh, they're delicious. Yes.

It's a list of every crew member and what time they needed to arrive on set. By Wednesday, we had two critter wranglers. Oh, gosh. Not one. They had to add an extra critter wrangler. Because they probably found more. I know. All right. Everyone has arrived at the burial site, including Oscar, who Dwight forgot he had invited. Yeah. This is when Dwight's brother Jeb arrives.

In a red sports car, which he sort of drives into the grave. Yeah. It was described like this in the shooting draft. Okay. A rented Mustang drives up way too fast. The driver, Jeb, is excited to see Dwight and is waving and honking and not paying attention to where he's going. He drives right into the grave, getting the front corner wheel stuck. He smiles.

And then gets out of the car. And they hug. Yeah. Jeb and Dwight seem very happy to see one another. Yeah, they start wrestling and almost shoving each other into the gravesite. Mm-hmm. Lady? Yes? I have five bullsh** cards to play for this episode. Oh my goodness. I was not expecting you to say that. I probably could have more, but I narrowed it down to five. And I even made my own bullsh** cards. What? Josh, help me. Let me grab my deck.

Oh, it's a deck of cards. This is like a magic trick now. Well, there are five cards in here. I don't want to reveal. Let me make sure I have my right one. Okay. One second. This is also a royal flush. Oh, yes, I did that.

Thank you for noticing. I have a royal flush of bull cards. I was going to say that. But you're such a good card player. You beat me to it. Okay. I have my first bull card I'm going to play. It's the queen of hearts, everyone. The queen of hearts. Here it is.

Jenna, I want you to describe my bullsh** card. Oh my God, this is amazing. Everyone, I wish now our podcast was on video just for this one moment. Please go to Office Ladies Pod. I'll share. She will share these bullsh** cards. It says, bullsh**.

Where's Angela? And it's a picture of Aunt Shirley and Angela together. Smiling at one another at the meal Angela cooked for her after she had bathed her in Moving On Part 2. This is really, really incredible. You know, you aren't the only person who would like to play this card. This was a fan mail flurry.

Starting with Ludovico from Zurich. Oh, Ludovico, thank you. I'm surprised that Dwight didn't invite Pam or even Angela, who helped in his aunt's last moment. Thank you! Can you explain why so little of the cast goes to the funeral? And then we have Nick N. from Minnesota. My big question here is how was Angela meant to fit into this backdoor pilot? If it had been picked up, would Angela have been part of that show? No.

I'm very interested to know what Dwight and Angela's future on the office would have looked like if the farm had been picked up. Oh, Nick. And then Jessica V. from England said, I read that the farm was going to be a spinoff show for Dwight and his family on the farm. Angela, would you have been on this series too as Dwight obviously eventually married Angela? Were you contacted about signing on for this series?

I love this fan mail flurry. I have some answers for you all. Yes. So, Jessica, I wasn't contacted about the series, but one day Rain reached out to me. He said, Angela, I'd love to talk to you about The Farm. And I went to his trailer on my lunch break, and he said, listen, he said, Ang, I'm going to do this show. And he said, you know, I sort of saw your character like Lilith.

for the Frasier spinoff, you know, where Lilith is the mother of Frasier's child and she pops in every once in a while. But really, the show is about this new journey that Frasier's on. And that's how Rain told me he envisioned the show. They ended up not going that way. They ended up wanting to have a clean break, that Dwight would be part of a whole new world, his family on the farm, and they really didn't want my character kind of

bogging down Dwight's future. So my character did not go to the funeral and was not included in the farm pilot. And here's what I think. I think that if this episode and this story of Aunt Shirley's funeral was just an office episode from the beginning, I think Pam and Angela would have been invited to this funeral. Right. You would have seen more office people at this funeral. Exactly. If it wasn't written to be a spinoff. Exactly. Exactly.

There was actually a lot of the first half of season nine, particularly with the character of Dwight, that was written with the idea that his character would be leaving in the middle of the season. And all of that had to be changed when the farm didn't move forward. Like, for example, the fact that the DNA test came back saying that Dwight was not Philip's father. That was done only because they were sort of already writing toward this idea that

that there was going to be this spinoff. Right, and Dwight and Angela needed a clean break. Exactly. You know, there was also that plot line, remember when Dwight finds the pills and he starts taking them? He was depressed at work. Yes, he was looking for a change. All of that was going to support him leaving Dunder Mifflin. And remember, everybody, moving on, that was written after the farm, and it was sort of to help give a lead-in to this story

And that's when your relationship with Aunt Shirley forms. But they had already filmed the farm. Yeah. So it's a little clunky. Yeah. And it opens a lot of questions. Yeah. I get it. Well, I have a second bull card to play now. Oh, my gosh. So quickly. I'm so sorry. I love the cards so much. And I can't wait to see this one. Okay. Here is my second bull card. Jenna, I'm going to give it to you. Okay. It just says...

Bullshit, brother? Two question marks. And it's a picture of Jeb, Dwight's brother. Even Oscar is like, you have a brother? What? Yeah. Yeah. Apparently the farm was not subject to the office show Bible. No. We got to sort of just rewrite some history.

I also have two more things from my digital clutter. My first one was the email from Rain. Here's my second one. I emailed you, Jenna, and I titled it, Question About Our Schedule. And I said, hey, I'm trying to plan a quick Thursday-Sunday trip home to Texas with Isabel. I'm looking at our schedule. What is the deal with the farm pilot episode anyway? Are we all in that episode? Do we work one day and then it's all Dwight? Jenna, you wrote back, they won't confirm. I was told...

Very funny. I've already researched this. I was told I'm only in the cold open and would only shoot one day and then have like five days off. But I was also told a couple of characters go to the farm for a couple of scenes. I don't know who.

So I love how you check in with me about the schedule. But I also would know that you had already looked into it. I'd already looked into it. Well, we clearly did get that time off. And my third digital clutter email explains what we were doing. I'll share that later. I love it. Well, now we're going to go back to Dunder Mifflin. And this will start the added storyline of Todd Packer coming in with his cupcakes. This scene has two of my favorite Pam moments in the episode.

The first one, when Clark asks who Todd is and Pam just goes, bad. Jenna, you're so funny. Thank you. And then Todd addresses the bullpen. He says, you know what? I'm working through the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. He's there to make amends. He goes around the room and he starts apologizing to everyone, but actually insulting everyone. And this is my second favorite moment from Pam. She goes, Todd...

You're just saying insults in the form of an apology. Yes, this was really fun to shoot. I always enjoyed Todd Packer, even though none of our characters enjoyed Todd Packer. He definitely shakes everything up. He does. It's such a fun energy. This is when Todd Packer is going to announce that he has brought cupcakes for everyone from Nipples. I mean, Nibbles at the Steamtown Mall.

But Pam thinks everybody should have a private conversation before they accept this apology and eat their cupcake. I do love that Pam is the one that says, it's nibbles. Yeah, exactly. Well, back at the farm, the funeral has begun, the graveside service. And we have a guest star callback. Michael Tuba Heatherton is back.

Tuba just cracks me up how many times we kept bringing him back. In different roles. Yes. He's now a minister. Season seven, he was in Andy's play as part of the cast for Sweeney Todd. Possible that he was a minister. Maybe so. You're right. Possible. And then in the seminar, he played the golf supply guy.

Maybe his side hustle. Maybe he's still a minister. Perhaps. And now in season nine, he is the minister for Aunt Shirley's funeral. And then eventually, he marries Dwight and Angela. Wow. So he does play a minister twice. He does. Well, during this sermon, Jeb reaches down and he tastes the soil. I guess he wants to know if it's worth anything. I googled it. Mm-hmm.

Tasting soil is a real thing. Yeah. According to an article from KTOO Garden Talk, quote, you can sometimes determine if the soil is too acidic or alkaline just by taste. But they say, unlike Jeb, just chew it, don't swallow. You want to spit it out.

They said kind of like a wine tasting. When Somalias taste wine, they like sniff it, and then they put it in their mouth and they swish it around. They actually spit it out. That's how you should taste your soil. Right. Well, apparently whatever Jeb tastes, he says is crap. He said nothing's going to grow there. And Dwight's like, nothing needs to grow here. It's a cemetery. We're not growing zombies. Right.

I just love that zombies made it in. I know. I thought it would make you happy. I do love zombies. I know. I really do. I thought of you. Thank you. I just think they're so scary and amazing, but also you can survive them if you're crafty enough. You know what I mean? It's like they are slow. Well, the original zombie as crafted was slow, lumbering, but consistent, but

Nowadays, all the movies, oh, the zombies are fast all of a sudden. You can probably tell from the tone of my voice how I feel about that development. You like OG zombies. I do. I like a slow, lumbering, relentless, determined zombie. But if I have my wits about me, I can hunker down in a mall.

Or somewhere else. Right. You might just have to get used to like the constant thud of them smashing their face against the door. Right. Repeatedly. Yes. But you can still live a life. They're dumb and slow, but always there. Right. I find that scarier personally. Yeah. Relentless. Yes. Yes.

Anyway, that's my zombie soapbox, everyone. Do you have a guest star breakdown? I do, actually, because we haven't done a guest star breakdown yet of Dwight's brother Jeb Schrute, played by Thomas Middleditch.

You know, he went on to become the star of Silicon Valley. He is also the voice of Harold in the Captain Underpants movie. He has appeared in a gazillion Verizon commercials. And according to the trivia on IMDb, he is a licensed pilot. Oh. And in a moment, Dwight's sister Fanny is going to arrive with her son Cameron.

She's beautiful. Oscar also didn't realize he had a sister. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought maybe you're reaching for your deck. I have a third bullsh** card. Here it is. Bullsh** sister? Question mark, question mark. With a photo of Fanny. Correct. Gotta play that one. I'm sorry, but at the same time, I have to play this one. Another one so quickly? Yep. What does it say? Bullsh** nephew? Question mark, question mark.

In the hell, in the world of Dwight, who loves family so much, would we not know that he had a brother, a sister, and a nephew? These are big bullshit cards. They are. They are. Well, we also had some bullshit cards from a fan mail flurry about Dwight's nephew, who was played by Blake Garrett Rosenthal. Because, for example, Louise A. from Ireland pointed out, I have been waiting patiently to ask about this since the first time I ever watched The Office.

Dwight's nephew in this episode is the same boy who appears in Season 7, Episode 9. Luis is with us because Luis pointed out this happens at 9 minutes and 50 seconds when he pays Dwight three extra bucks to go on the hayride again.

He's a kid at the hayride. And Dwight doesn't even, like, acknowledge him in any way. It's his own nephew. Nick N. from Minnesota pointed out that he also goes on to play the son of Matt Jones' character on the sitcom Mom. Matt Jones played Zeke, Dwight's other cousin. Okay. So this kid is working a lot. Yeah.

But I guess I should also do a guest star alert for Fanny Schrute, who was played by Mahandra Delfino. You probably recognize her as Maria from Roswell. She danced with the Miami Ballet from age 4 to 13 and also studied classical piano. Wow. Very multi-talented. Yeah. Well, why don't we take a break? Yeah, let's take a break because when we come back, we're going to meet Dwight's new love interest.

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We are back, and Dwight's neighbor, Henry, pulls up in his pickup truck, and it's just full of ladies in the back. They're his daughters, and one of them is Esther. Yeah, Henry was played by Tom Bauer. He's a longtime character actor. He has appeared in Die Hard 2, Iron Eagle 3, Lucky Hank, Bosh, Grey's Anatomy, and Monk. Oh, okay.

And Nora Kirkpatrick plays Esther. She's so beautiful. Oh, my gosh. She's so beautiful. She's so talented. Dwight is going to flirt with her. Fanny's like, hey, it's a funeral. Table that. Yeah. We got a ton of fan mail about Esther.

For example, from Lindsay P. in Fargo, North Dakota, who said, This is a Nora Kirkpatrick appreciation post. I love so much about her. I love that she was a member of Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros. I love that she plays accordion in real life. And what I love most about her is what I love about you two, Mindy, and other awesome women out there. She's a creative. In this case, a writer specifically.

I am an aspiring television show writer myself, and I'd love to know everything about her, what it was like working with her, and more. Well, yes. Lindsay, Nora is crazy talented. She is an accomplished actress, writer, also a director, also a musician. In fact, she was the first woman to direct a campaign for Bud Light. I did not know that. Yeah, she's directed a bunch of commercials. She's also won a Grammy as a member of Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros.

I really love this group. You probably recognize their song Home, which was a huge hit. They were on all the talk shows. You want to hear it? I've got an audio clip. Okay, so this is the song. It opens with all the whistling. Okay, here's the whistling. I remember the whistling. Yes, it just makes you happy right away. It really does. And then here's like the chorus that you will remember as well. And in the streets you run afree like it's

All right, so that song got stuck in my head for about three days after I pulled that clip. It's just so catchy. It's so catchy.

Well, everyone, we reached out to Nora. We traded emails with her about her time on the show. Of course, we had to ask how she got her job on The Office, and she said that she originally auditioned for Fanny, Dwight's sister. She said she remembers coming in a few times, and in one of the sessions, her and Rain improvised a bit about various family-related matters.

But after the audition, she heard they were thinking of her for something else and was eventually told that she would be a potential love interest for Dwight on the farm. Yeah. Maybe they had a little bit too much...

Chemistry. Yeah. Nora also said she was a diehard fan of The Office and getting cast was a dream come true. She also shared that it felt very fitting for it to be farm-related as she grew up in Iowa and her dad was at one time in his life a corn farmer. So she felt very at home with the storyline. I

that. I know. Aw. Well, back at the grave site, Dwight shares that they've had some incidents of accidental live burials and grave robbers found scratch marks inside the coffins. So now out of kindness, they take matters into their own hands and

That's when the minister tosses him a shotgun to make sure Aunt Shirley really is dead. This is the breaking point for Oscar. He's like, I'm out. Yeah, Oscar's seen enough. Steve Burgess said that Rain had to do a test firing of the shotgun using blanks.

And he had to go through safety training. He said we had our stunt coordinator, Brett Jones, on set. And, of course, Kelly, who he called the queen of safety meetings, held a giant safety meeting with the cast and crew before we shot that scene. Kelly Cantlie. Mm-hmm. I love her safety meetings. This was a real safety meeting. This was a real deal one. This was not lit candle. This was not. We have three paper clips that have been taken apart. They are pointy. They are pointy.

I think the most dangerous thing that we had on our set of anything we had was the Death Star. Of course it was. That giant, giant metal-pronged star that hung from the ceiling in Morocco. So low. So low in Moroccan Christmas. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know why? Because it was a sneaky danger. We didn't see that one coming. Sneaky danger. Yeah. Snakes up on you. You walk into it. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Okay, we are back in the conference room. Pam is really insisting to everyone that they cannot eat these cupcakes. Packer cannot buy their forgiveness. This is when we learned that Creed is really great with numbers. I mean, he forgets literally everything else, but he has a gift with numbers. And that's why he's an accountant, which he is not. That's right. None of us really know what Creed does, and clearly Creed does not either.

Clark and Todd Packer, who are sitting out at the desks, they're not in the conference room, are going to have a moment. Todd's going to apologize to Clark for calling him a fat little runt. Clark tells Todd, you did not call me that. And Todd Packer says, well, I'm just in the habit of apologizing for thoughts I had in my head. He gives Clark a cupcake. Stanley really wants to eat the cupcakes.

He's really making a case for it. Yeah, he said, you know, we've done some stuff to Packer. Like, we sent him to Florida on a prank. Nellie's like, that's true, and I fired him. They're all trying to justify eating these cupcakes. Well, people...

Well, people like cupcakes, Ange, and that's why I brought them in for your birthday. I know. I really want to have some. They're sitting right in front of me. Well, now would be a good time because I also asked you your favorite cupcake flavors for another reason, not just for your birthday. Does this say something about you? Or am I now going to find out that I'm just basic? Yes, Ange. You've ruined the surprise. I'm sorry. I found an article on spoonuniversity.com.

What does your favorite cupcake flavor say about you? Oh, no. All right. Are you ready? Angela, when I asked you what kind of cupcake you like, you said vanilla. And that means you are, quote, the boring friend who doesn't know how to text. You spoonuniversity.com. But not wrong. I know how to text.

What is wrong with my texting? And I am anything but boring. Well, this is true, but it goes on to say, unfortunately, Angela, you're unoriginal, but it's okay. It says it's okay. We're a little unoriginal and like to stick to the basics sometimes.

If this is your classic cupcake order, you just like simplicity. I wish my life was as easy as this cupcake, is what you're saying. You crave simplicity, so you keep it simple with your cupcakes. I'm sorry, but unoriginal sounds like someone's throwing shade.

I'm sorry. This is just what it said. Cassie, you said in your email that you do not love cupcakes, which is very on brand for you. But when forced to choose, you chose red velvet. This means that you are, quote, the one who's going to grow up to be a surgeon. What? Spoon University is full of shit. Those are so different. I know. It's so different.

Red velvet cupcakes mean business. You're slick and smooth and well-dressed. That moist cupcake and cream cheese frosting mesh together so well, just like your life seems to. Wait, can we, Cassie, will you just say what you're wearing today? Yeah, I'm wearing slides and basketball shorts. I am like the worst dressed one today. Not according to your cupcake. All right.

Sam and I both chose chocolate with vanilla frosting. Sam, you and I are, quote, the fake hipster. Okay. Damn. Spoon University hates all of us. Who runs this site?

Jenna, do you run Spoon? No, I do not. I do not. But here's what it says. It says, if a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting is a regular in your diet, you're probably pretty basic too. You just get the chocolate cupcake to pretend you're more edgy. Who hurt this person? I don't know. I think whoever wrote this doesn't like anyone. Yeah. All right.

Now, Sam, in your email, you were trying to decide between chocolate with vanilla frosting and Oreo. Yeah, that's right. Angela, is there any chance you would go Oreo? No. Okay. Oreo. Oreo is, quote, the one who writes in a diary. Okay. Oh, Sam, how's your diary? Honestly, good. Well, here's the way. If you choose Oreo, it says you're a bit of a piece of work.

From the outside, you're sweet. I mean, who wouldn't be? But once people dig deep enough, they'll find out you've got some very profound secrets. Are any of these good? Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what. I'm going to end with this one because... Is it lemon? Because I also love lemon. It's lemon! Oh, that was the one. I didn't say that one because I love lemon. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh.

picked lemon. If the bakery where I got our cupcakes would have had lemon, I would have gotten lemon. I love lemon. But it didn't, so I had to go with the chocolate with vanilla frosting. Yeah, vanilla's like, I'll take vanilla, but if there's lemon, I'll almost always pick it. But there's usually not. Okay, well. Uh-oh. Lemon is, quote, the one who hates 90% of the friend group but pretends to love all of them. This is like,

like take on cupcakes. Someone was dumped by a cupcake or someone was broken up with by a cupcake. Here's what it says. If you're eating a lemon cupcake, it says you've got an attitude no one can quite understand. Everyone loves you, but you're a little bit less sweet and loving than everyone else is. It's okay. Sometimes it's hard to love crazy bitches. So what am I? Am I unoriginal or am I a crazy bitch? Maybe.

a little about... A little column A, a little column B. Well, there you have it. That's what your cupcake choice says about you. Spoon University is a harsh place. Damn. Can I have my cupcake now? Sure. Dig in, everybody. Well, lady, I will say you and I both love lemon cupcakes. So what does that say? I guess we're a couple of crazy bitches. I guess so.

All right, well, now we're going to go back to Aunt Shirley's house. Her family has gathered to watch a farewell video. It's like her will. Yes, I wrote this. I did not play a bullshit card here, but I would like to say that this video lays a lot of pipe.

Well, we also had to reshoot this video. We mentioned this during Moving On. There was originally a different woman cast as Aunt Shirley in the pilot of The Farm. And this was the only thing that that actress had to do was just read this will. But when they wrote Moving On and they expanded the role, they cast just legendary character actress Mary Gillis in the role. Well, this video sets up the whole entire series.

if it would have gone. Listen to this. Aunt Shirley on the video says, "Thank you for coming to my funeral. As I gaze at life's big sunset, I can't help but wonder where it all went wrong. You've all disappointed me greatly. Fanny, a single mama in the city."

Jeb a street pusher. And so we find out that Jeb has a nine acre worm farm, which turns out worm means marijuana. And then Aunt Shirley ends it with, we can't just sit by and watch our family farm disappear. So here are my terms. Dwight, Fannie and Jeb, if you come back home, I will leave you my farm. So there you have it. So in this one video,

We learn what the whole entire premise of the series is going to be. Yes. We also learned earlier that Aunt Shirley's farm is, I guess, adjacent to Dwight's farm. So they would have Dwight's farm and this farm, and they'd have all that land. We now have two talking heads. Jeb has a talking head and then Dwight. There are two talking head locations on the farm. You're either in the porch swing or you're in the rocking chair on the porch. Oh.

Oh, nice catch. If you watch the Talking Heads in the Rocking Chair, Dwight has one and Zeke has one later, you will see a blue Weber grill in the background. Oh. Isn't that so random? Like a Weber grill, you know, with the lid that you lift up? Yeah. Yeah, just there. Are you feeling like Aunt Shirley wouldn't have had a Weber grill? I don't know. It just seems like such random placement.

I wonder if there was like a little Weber grill deal or something. It's not on a porch. It's not anywhere where it looks like you would use it. It's just tucked on the side of the wall of like a shed. I don't know. I just, every time I watched The Talking Heads, all I could think about was the Weber grill. The Weber grill is really near and dear to my heart. My dad grills on a Weber grill. My dad had one for years. Well, this is, I think now clear why you spotted it. Maybe so. I missed it. Well, Dwight is going to tell Fannie and Jeb, you know what?

We should do this. We should. And Fannie's like, I'm sorry, Dwight, but, you know, a farm wife lacks the sophistication that she's used to. Yeah. She says there's a sort of willing ignorance to the men.

And then she has a talking head. She's on the porch swing. It was very funny to me because she's like, I have written some poetry. Thanks for asking. Yeah. I actually had a poem recently published. Oh, do I have it? Yes, I do. Here it is. It's from the HartfordWomensLitQuarterly.com, and it is titled A Willing Ignorance by Fanny Schrute.

lady. I paused on it and I tried to, what do you call that, make it bigger? Yes. I took a picture. Same. I looked. Same. I really wanted to read her poem. I really did too. And so I went to the writer's notes for this episode and I found it. You did not. I did. We're going to hear Fanny's poem right now. We sure are. Okay. I can't wait. Here it is. A Willing Ignorance by Fanny Schrute. The

The men I meet are nearly completely ignorant of all things worthwhile. Whether current events or the classics, these gents think well-read is a lipstick shade for a lady's smile. Their libraries consist of the Bible, of course, but it doesn't avert them from sin. The only way I'd describe them as holy is if they flashed me their toothless grin. The men I meet are so patriotic, their minds are like the national debt.

But if what they say about ignorance is true, they are as blissful as one can get. Wow. Fannie was holding on to it a lot. This does not sound like a woman who's going to want to come back to this farm. Does not.

Well, listen, Jeb also doesn't want to come back to the farm. He says people here are like a fart, which I guess is another way to put it. Then he makes a fart noise in case you're not sure what a fart is. Dwight says, you know what? Why don't you guys stay for a few nights and then decide? Zeke is in. Zeke is like, I'll do it.

He has a talking head where he said, you know, it really wasn't easy growing up with Dwight and Mose because Dwight is obviously the cool one. And Mose was the visionary. And that left him to be the comedian. 13 minutes, 21 seconds, Blue Weber Grill. There it is. There it is. Somehow Dwight is going to charm Fanny into agreeing to stay a few days. By counting incorrectly in French.

Yeah. Yeah. But they have a laugh and like a little Russell sibling thing on the couch. And she's like, okay, fine. Yeah.

Well, lady, you know, I told you I had a few things from my digital clutter. Yeah. I've shared two. Here's my last one. Okay. We know that you and I were trying to figure out what we were going to do with this time off. Yeah. I'm trying to get to Texas with Isabel. Yep. And I got there. Oh, nice. And you emailed me, here's what I'm doing. What did I do? You titled the email puttering. And you said...

What? You do?

Oh, I'm going to cry. I know. It is the sweetest thing, lady. You were so happy. Well, this kid's about to turn 13, so. Oh, this is just going to cue the waterworks. Ready? Let me see. This is precious. Stop it now. Yep. Oh, my gosh. All right. You know I don't often share pictures of my kiddos. I know. But you can put this one on Office Lady's pod. I'll put it in stories. That's what you were doing with your day off during the farm.

I love to putter. I know. So sometimes, folks, it's a good thing that you don't clean out your email inbox for years. I am so grateful you don't clean out your email inbox. So now we are on the back porch. Esther, Zeke, and others are performing the song Sons and Daughters by The Decembrists.

We had a fan question from Grace F. in Belfast, Northern Ireland, who said, Please tell me everything about how the song Sons and Daughters by The Decembrists came to be picked. I absolutely love this and often listen to it on YouTube. I think the rendition that Dwight and his family do on the steps is just perfect. It's just a pity that it doesn't go on longer. Well, Grace, this song was in the original script. It was Paul's idea. He loves this song.

And crazy enough, Rainn Wilson knew Colin Malloy from having done a promotional video for a book that Colin wrote, and they had become friends. I texted Rainn about this, and he actually said Colin is, quote, my brother from another mother. And he asked Colin if we could use the song on the show. Steve Burgess said it cost $15,000. And I thought maybe we'd like to hear. Lady, I love it too, and I also wanted to play it. All right, here it is. When we

Sons and daughters We'll make our homes On the water We'll build our walls For room Build our mouths The city of our Homes are pursuing us

Well, I have to say this. Paul Lieberstein has really good taste in music. He does. Because I'm definitely liking, like, the musicality of this pilot. The soundtrack. Yes, exactly. Well, you guys all saw Nora playing the accordion in this scene, and she plays the accordion in real life. We mentioned that earlier. Yeah.

And we asked her about playing it in this episode. She said it was a very last minute addition. She said Paul only realized that she was in Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros and that she played accordion the night before they shot this scene.

He called her up and asked her if she would play a song with some of the other farm castmates. She also said she'd been playing music with Matt Jones for years already, so it was just a real joy to work out the song in their trailers before they shot. She said she remembers going back and forth with him about which key to do it in. One was better for her, one was better for him, and she said he won. That's very funny. I think they sound fantastic. I do, too. I think we should hear them sing it at the end. Oh, yes! Yes!

I love that idea. Well, as this jam session continues, Dwight is going to lay two little black things in front of Esther. Fanny notices this and she says, oh, yes, I forgot about this old custom. If a man wants to court a woman, he'll throw the beaks of a crow at her. And if she's interested, she must destroy the beaks. Yes. I would like to point out

that during all of this sort of front porch time, Dwight looks like an Eddie Bauer catalog model. Did you think so? I did think so. In fact, during his talking head at 13 minutes 58 seconds, he has on a flannel shirt, a sort of like a fashion puffer vest. This isn't like a puffer vest that is like one you would work in. It's like a fashion puffer vest. And his hair is especially shellacked. I love it.

I love your distinction of the work puffer vest and the fashion puffer vest. This is a fashion puffer vest. Okay. And also his hair. Did you see his hair? No. Like he got spiffy for this porch sing-along. Oh. Well, maybe because he knew he was going to present the beaks. Oh, yeah. By the way, Esther does crush the beaks. Yes. So it means it's on.

It is on. You know, this scene was originally the tag for the farm, and they moved it up. So this scene was going to originally end the farm. And either way, though, even though they decided not to pick up the farm, they did like this idea of having this new romantic story for Dwight. They thought, oh...

This is going to up the stakes for Dwight and Angela. So we are going to see more of Nora Kirkpatrick in some upcoming episodes. We sure are. We also asked Nora if she ever gets recognized for the role, and she said she does sometimes in very certain circles, and it's always a joy. She said being on the show feels like a lifetime ago, but she's proud to be even the smallest part of such an incredible show. She added that you can tell how happy the show makes people by the look in their eyes when they come over to say hello.

That is so true. Yeah, it is. You know, I got curious. I don't know why. I mean, I should have known this is not a real mating custom. Did you hook up the crow bee? I did. And it kind of led me down a road. I bet it did. I couldn't find any evidence of this being real. But I did get into mating customs, particularly within animals. Jenna. And... Jenna. What? Jenna. Jenna.

What? Your search history? I know.

Are you going to share some? I'm going to share one. Because most of them, if you've watched any nature documentary, is to be expected. You know, spiders that do funny dances for each other. Sure, sure, sure. Birds that like fan out their feathers. Yes, exactly. There was this one bird that builds elaborate like structures out of like sculptures almost out of twigs and things they find. I found a picture. It was really interesting. But the one that

Really was, I'm going to say, most interesting was the giraffe. Don't they whack their necks around or something? Well, I don't know about that, but a male giraffe tastes the urine of the female giraffe before mating. They like nudge her and then she pees in their mouth. Stop it.

And they do this so they can tell if certain pheromones are present, signaling that she is fertile before mating. But get this. There's more? On average, a male giraffe has to approach 150 females before finding one that is ready to mate. They just have to drink piss, like, for weeks. 150 different times. They're drinking pee for weeks. Yeah. A little tinkle.

I'm going to say this with love. What is it? I don't need to hear about that. I don't need to have a visual of how this happens in my brain now. There are going to be times when I need you to put the Google down. Put it down. I mean, it was...

I don't know. You had to share it. Yeah. It sat with you and you needed someone else to experience this moment with you. I mean, yeah. I mean, okay. Well? At first I was like, oh, that's weird. But then I was like 150. No, let that hit you. Yeah. It's a lot of tinkles. Maybe they also whip their necks around. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if they do. I don't know if they do. Oh, my Lord. Well? Well?

Back at Dunder Mifflin, Packer leaves, and Kevin is really struggling not to eat his cupcake. Angela and Pam are trying to distract him. 15 minutes, 35 seconds, Pam and Angela are on the same team. Wow. This never happens. It has to be pointed out. We're going to cut to Todd Packer in the parking lot, and he says, yeah, I'm going through a 12-step program. I'm currently on step zero. Have a bleep load of fun.

He said he actually spent six hours very carefully removing the frosting from every cupcake and then layering in a variety of drugs, some legal, some not. And he says you don't fire the Pac-Man and expect to get away with it. Wow. So now these cupcakes, if you eat them, what will happen? We don't know. Nothing good. Right. Well, Pam is really proud of everyone. They did it. Mm-hmm.

No one's eating their cupcakes. Well, one person is. Brian Baumgartner should win an Emmy just for this moment. Oh, you're not the only person who thinks so. I literally thought he was choking and I was there and I knew he wasn't.

Well, Christopher T. from Louisville, Kentucky says, one of the things I love most about this podcast is hearing about everyone's singular favorite moment of The Office, and we finally reached mine. When Kevin chokes on his cupcake, I feel it in my soul. The nasal noises, the facial expressions, the struggling to swallow. This is the most perfect scene in all of cinema.

And I couldn't remember. Well, he was not choking? This was scripted, this choking bit? It was completely scripted. I went to the reshoots shooting draft, and here's how it was described.

Kevin makes a grunting sound and we pan over. He hits his desk. He is choking. Andy says, my God, he's choking. Meredith goes over to hit him on the back and Kevin blocks her hand. He motions, uh-uh. Then with great effort, he swallows and he says, fantastic. Kevin then gasps for air. Pam shakes her head.

Incredible, incredible interpretation of that moment, Brian Baumgartner. I mean, when I watched it, I, like, panicked for him. Yeah, I legitimately thought he had started choking, and we went with it. Some good acting, Brian. Also good acting from Kate when she comes over, because I felt like we were really concerned for him. Wow. Well, we also had a fan catch from Becca G. in Morgansfield, Kentucky, who said...

Think that when Kevin is choking, I can see his mic in his tie. Oh, yeah?

Guess what? Becca, you're right. Did you screen grab it? 16 minutes, 51 seconds. You can see his mic inside his little tie knot. That's where they would put the guy's mics. That's right. Dwight is now going to take his little nephew, who we never knew existed. Yes, Cameron. Cameron, to the chicken coop. They're going to gather eggs, and he's teaching him how to milk a goat. It's a very sort of sweet moment between uncle and nephew. Yes.

Steve Burgess says he remembered that the snake wrangler found many snakes in the barn. Oh, gosh. Where they shot this scene. I thought it really looked like Rain was milking this goat. I don't know. I was very impressed. If you watch his hands on the teat, he's doing a really great job. And you can hear it going in the bucket. It's like, ching. Yeah, I heard that. I figured they just added it in. But Rain...

Would probably know how because he has farm animals. Well, I asked Steve Burgess and he said Rain really milked the goat. That they had wranglers there to help him learn. And he said he does think that the sound was enhanced in post. I reached out to Rain and he said he doesn't remember. Rain. I know. How can you not remember milking a goat, Rain? He said his memory is mush.

I also found out from Steve Burgess that all the animals and wranglers came through Bob Dunn. We had special wranglers for the goats, and we had other wranglers for the chickens. The total for the animals, the wranglers, was about $20,000. It was a lot of animals and wranglers. A lot of animals. Steve said. Well, we learned an important piece of information in this scene. Cam is going to share that he doesn't know many of these things because he's never met his dad.

Mm-hmm. And this is setting up why Fanny is going to eventually agree to stay at this farm with her son. It's because she's going to see this bond. And you would have seen more of that in the pilot. You would have seen her seeing it. You would have seen more of a need for it. Yes. And we had to, like, kind of crunch it all into this one scene. Well, now it's the next day. Yes. And a very chipper Pam arrives to the office. Yes.

But everyone seems like they are wrecked. Yeah. Like really hung over. I really like that Pam said that she's thought it over. She talked to Jim and her sister, and she's going to eat her cupcake now. So much deliberation. This is you in real life. That's why it was amusing to me. Yeah.

You would have to talk to three people before you could say, okay, I'm going to eat that cupcake. Yeah, I would probably talk to you, my sister, and Lee. Yes. And then I might Google some stuff. You would. And then you would make your decision. And I'd feel very good about my decision. Well, Phyllis just wants Pam to stop making noise. And Clark tells Pam that Packer laced the cupcakes.

Some people got stoned. Some people got diarrhea. Angela says some people got both. We learned that Phyllis played with her old dolls on the floor and then ordered 10 American Girl doll outfits online. Thousands of dollars. Yes. Nellie and Stanley got the toilet. Clark went Christmas caroling in March. Andy fertilized some bushes along the way. And then Phyllis says, Andy, what did you do?

Well, Andy and Kevin look at each other. They say they don't remember, but we've got some footage of them at Dunder Mifflin having a night. They had quite the night. I was very curious. Was that montage, was that scripted, or was that improvised? Well, here's what I found in the shooting draft. It says, a series of quick cuts. Flashback to last night.

On their way out, Andy and Kevin realize there are six leftover cupcakes in one of the boxes. They look at each other. They eat all six. Oh, boy. After eating all of them, they look at each other with satisfied faces, and then we see the first signs of the drugs kicking in. Kevin's smile gets weird, and Andy tries to figure out what's going on in his stomach.

In the next scene, Andy and Kevin are arm wrestling. In the next scene, Kevin dances around the room while Andy DJs at a computer. The music we hear is Let Her Cry by Hootie and the Blowfish. Then in the conference room, Andy and Kevin sit cross-legged on the conference room table, touching each other's faces. Next scene, Kevin and Andy trade clothes.

Next scene is in the men's restroom. Kevin and Andy sit side by side in the bathroom stalls. We just see their feet. Andy says, I cannot believe what is coming out of me. It's beautiful. My gosh, that's so disgusting. Kevin says, you're beautiful. Oh, boy. Andy says, life is beautiful. Kevin says, it really is. Cut back to present day.

So not all of that made it in, but quite a bit of it did. But it was scripted. Pam is like, this confirms that Todd Packer is the worst person. She's throwing her cupcake away, but Kevin eats it. I know. He eats another one of these laced cupcakes. Come on, Kevin. And then over in Philly, Todd Packer is doing his whole spiel to Daryl and Jim. He gives them each a cupcake. Todd.

Talk about someone who wants revenge. No one was going to get skipped, even if he had to drive to a whole other town. I know. Packer can drive all the way to Philly just to give Jim and Daryl a cupcake. But Jim can't drive home to have dinner with his family. Because it's too far. Oh, no. Well, now we're going to have the final scene of the farm. This is where Fanny is going to decide to stay.

She sees this handshake, this bond that has started between Dwight and Cameron. And she's like, you know what? I need to stay. Bullshit card number five is out, folks. Here it is. This is my final bullshit card. This might be a bit nitpicky, I'm going to admit. I don't know why I couldn't let this one go, lady. Here it is. Bullshit overalls, question mark.

Please, please look at Dwight's overalls in this scene when he's standing next to Fanny's car. These have never been worn before. Not for a hot second. These are brand new, shiny denim, stiff overalls. They have never seen a day's work on the farm. This is my overalls bulls**t card. Played like a true farm girl. Thank you. Just get a pair of old overalls already.

Guess what? Dwight, Fannie, and Jeb, they're standing together. They're looking at their new farm. It's going to take a lot of work to man this land, but they're up for it. Dwight says, I'll do it. Yep. And that's the end of the episode. A big thank you to Steve Burgess, Rainn Wilson, and of course, Nora Kirkpatrick.

Everyone, Nora just made her first feature that she wrote and directed starring Alexandra Daddario, Josh Gad, David Diggs, and Ashley Park that should be coming out soon, she says. It's called A Tree Fell in the Woods, and she just finished writing on a new show for Amazon called The Runarounds. It'll be out early next year. It's about a young rock band, and she said she thinks the show is going to be very special.

You know, she was one of the writers of the show Daisy Jones and the Six. She's so talented. I know. Nora, thank you so much. Yes, Nora, thank you so much. And thank you guys for sending in your questions and your comments. We love doing this podcast. We're so thrilled that Sam and Cassie are back. Sam, any words before we sign off? Yes, I do. One, Angela, you have to stop saying laying pipe. That's not what that means. It is what it is.

Sam, it's a writer's term. No, it's not. It is. It's both. We looked it up, Sam. We had to look it up, Sam. Because I said the same thing and we did look it up and it is something that writers use for script. We did Google it. But it does also mean something else. Thank you, Sam, for reminding us. Don't Google it, everybody. Yes.

I just want to give a massive thanks to the fans of the show who reached out with support when I was laid off. It got back to me, the amount of support you sent, and it really, really meant a lot. I feel like I was able to attend my own funeral.

you mean yeah i just want to say this i highly recommend to anybody out there who's working get fired have a going away party have all your co-workers cry get a severance package go to europe for a couple weeks and just when you're thinking about how you're going to be able to pay rent go back to work it's the ideal the ideal career path and i just want to say thanks to everyone oh

Well, I am just so excited about this new chapter. A big thank you to Odyssey for being our new partner. Yes. We are thrilled. We are so happy, and we hope you guys have a great week. We are going to see you next week, and I think we got to hear Nora and the cast singing Sons and Daughters. I like that idea. Sons and Daughters

We'll build our walls aluminum. We'll fill our mouths with cinnamon. We don't write.

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. Music

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