Turf War
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As school messes return, rest easy. Clorox has got your back to school. Oh, no! I'm back. That messy science experiment. And I brought baking soda, cornstarch. And you're due tomorrow, right? Well, at least I stocked up on Clorox disinfecting wipes. Because you're not messing up my kitchen counters like last time. Ooh, smart. Got any food coloring? And off to the store we go. Stock up on Clorox disinfecting wipes that clean three times better. The wet paper towels and kitchen grease and soaps come use as directed.

Pulling up to Mickey D's just for drinks. Oh, yeah, that's me. Nothing extra, just perfection and a straw. Coming in hot for the coldest cups on the block. Because there are drinks. Then there are drinks from McDonald's. Mix things up with any size lemonade or sweet tea for $1.49. Perfect with our classic fries. Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

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.

We're recording from our closets again. This is a real throwback today. A little bit, right? Well, it's that time of year. Things are going around. We're just trying to keep everyone healthy going into the holidays. Don't bring me that flu bug. So we're recording from home today. We don't need it.

We don't need your flu, cold, COVID business. We don't need it. We are here today to discuss Turf War. It is season eight, episode 23. We are really getting to the end of the line here. I know, lady. I know. Yeah. I'm on the last disc, you know, of season eight, DVD, last disc. You're going to be opening up a whole new DVD set soon. I know. The last one.

Oh my gosh, I'm not ready. I'm not ready. I'm not ready to say goodbye to the office. Me either. I see why people start over. We might have to. We might. Well, Turf War was written by Warren Lieberstein and Halstead Sullivan and directed by Danny Chun. Here's your summary. In this episode, we find out that Robert California got really drunk the night before and decided to close the Binghamton branch.

Jim and Dwight start poaching their clients, which angers a salesman from the Syracuse branch. And the three fight for Syracuse's biggest client, Prestige Direct Mail Solutions. This also sparks an idea in Andy, who is still hanging around the Dunder Mifflin offices despite no longer working there.

And finally, Robert asks Pam and Angela to find out what was in his drunken voicemail to Nellie from the night before. I loved that storyline. I loved girl talk in the break room.

Robert brought Angela in as a backup because he just did not trust Pam to get this job done. I have a little tidbit, lady. What's your tidbit? This episode's original air date was May 3rd, 2012, which happened to be my daughter's fourth birthday. Oh, happy birthday episode. Yeah. And of course, it made me go back in my digital clutter of all these adorable photos of her when she was four. Oh, my gosh. That's a cute age. Oh, cute.

Are you ready for Fast Fact number one? So ready. Our writer, Danny Chun, directed this episode. It was his directing debut. And we reached out to Danny about this episode. He sent in some really fun tidbits for us to share. He sure did. Danny, thank you so much.

We started by asking him what it was like to move from writer to director. And he said it was so much fun, but it really misled him for future directing jobs because every other directing experience he's had since The Office has been way harder and way less fun. Sorry, Danny. He also said that The Office cast was so good, he never really had to stress out about performances, and the crew could basically shoot an episode in their sleep.

But Danny really wanted to give a special shout out to our script supervisor, Veda, who he said saved him from embarrassment about, quote, 500 times by reminding him what shots we still needed. He said she was so meticulous and thank God we had her. Veda was the best.

She really was the best. So in addition to tracking all the continuity, she also kept track of the director's shot list and made sure that the director got every angle and everything that he would need to turn over to the editor. She was a tracker, a major tracker. She was a major tracker and hyper-focused. Like her little podium, I mean, she was so focused. I don't think there was anyone as focused all day as Veda. Yeah. Dani also shared...

that in terms of directing, he was most intimidated whenever he had to give James Spader a note. Oh, I would be too. Forget it. I know. He said that he would give him a little note, like an example would be, hey, why don't you try to play this next one with a little more confusion? And that James would just pause and stare at him and say, why?

Oh, no. And Danny said, quote, it was so withering. He said he would try to scramble and kind of articulate his reasoning in some long-winded way, even though the real answer was just because it's funnier. And he said James Spader would just stare at him and he wouldn't give any reaction, but then he would always take the direction and it would be great because he's such an incredible actor. I imagine it's got to be really intimidating to give

anyone a note. You know, it's just got to be, ah, ah. Well, in his description of giving James Spader a note reminded me of every theater actor getting a note.

Because theater actors, we need to know why. What are you thinking? What's my motivation? I can't just be confused. I have to know why I am confused. What has confused me? How long have I been confused for? Am I a person that gets confused easily? Yes, exactly. You got it, Anne. Where is like, I feel like I have both brains because I can overanalyze a note, but I can also understand things.

I don't need to know why. It's just funnier if I act confused. So I'll just do it. That, I feel like, is a real, like, comedic sketch comics approach to a note like that. Got it. Funnier. Do it. Yeah. Next. Move on. Yeah. Yeah. Are you ready for fast fact number two? Yes. Fast fact number two. We got a ton of mail.

notably from Zach M. in Venice Center, New York, and Tom C. from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who would like to know, how did you guys get Dan Castellaneta as a guest star? I grew up watching The Simpsons, so it always makes me smile to get to actually see the voice actors in another show, especially Dan Castellaneta. Well, guys, if you didn't know, Dan is the voice of Homer Simpson.

And in this episode, he played Mr. Ramesh, the CEO of Prestige Direct Mail Solutions.

Danny Chun had been a writer on The Simpsons before joining The Office, and Danny said he couldn't remember if Allison Jones suggested Dan for the role or if Danny Chun had thought of it. But he said Dan is, quote, literally one of the funniest people in TV history, and nobody knows it because he's a cartoon. So I was incredibly excited to get him on camera because he's a really good actor in live action as well.

He was fantastic. I imagine Greg was really excited about this as well, since Greg had written some Simpsons episodes. Yeah. And we had, remember, we had the Homer doll on set the whole time. Yeah, we got some fan mail from people asking if Dan knew about that or if he saw it, but he never came to our stages. That's true. We didn't get to meet him. I'll get to it, but all of the prestige stuff was shot on location. Oh, yeah, that's right.

All right, moving right along, Fast Fact number three is another guest star in this episode, Chris Bauer as Harry Janorone. You might recognize Chris from The Wire, Third Watch, and True Blood. He has also appeared in Law & Order three different times, playing three different people. That's the Law & Order way. They bring you back. It's like a soap opera. Weren't you the mailman? No, now I'm a detective.

Well, in 1992, he played Homeless David. In 1993, he played Mickey Scott. And by 2002, he made his way up to Sergeant. There you go. So he went from Homeless David to Sergeant. Good job. He's also been in Law & Order Criminal Intent and Law & Order Special Victims Unit. He's really mostly done dramas, not comedies.

And Danny Chun said casting Chris Bauer is an example of something they did a lot. They would cast actors from dramas that the writers loved. And The Wire was a writer favorite. That's how they thought of Chris for this role. He was from The Wire season two. Danny said the actors from dramas would always come to set and be really nervous on the first day. And they would say things like, I'm just, I'm not funny. I don't know what to do. And that we would just say, play it straight and you will be funny.

And, of course, he was. He's so good in this episode. And then, you know, we also talked to Warren and Halstead about this episode, and they said that Chris was one of their favorite guest actors ever. And they added what a great all-around guy he was to work with. I was so excited when he was cast because I was watching True Blood at the time, and I was like, oh, my gosh.

Oh, that's right. You had a big true blood phase. I remember this. And I wanted like all the details, but I didn't bug him. You should have bugged him. I know. Now this version of me, 52-year-old me would be like, okay, let's talk for a second. I'm going to be 50 next year. And I really feel that, Angela. I feel like

50 is an opening of a sort of floodgate. It is, yeah. Of confidence and not giving a shit about a lot of things that used to make me anxious. Yeah. I don't fix the back of my hair anymore. That's what you can do in your 50s because you don't give a shit. It's so freeing. I'm really excited to cross this line. Yeah. And I would say this also.

There's something about the 50s for me that is just a world of new curiosities. I get very curious about things that I think in the past I was like too busy to look at, you know, too busy to give time to. And now I'm like, hey, you know what? I don't know. I'm halfway to the end here. Maybe I'll start looking up more stuff. Yeah. Maybe I'll learn all of the different varieties of roses and when they bloom best and in what condition. Sure. Now.

Now you know that. Mm-hmm. You didn't care about that when you were 26. I didn't. Or all my hummingbirds. I mean, the 50s are very, it's a wild time, you guys. Yeah.

Well, that's all I have for Fast Facts. Let's take a break. And when we come back, I have a coffee mug callback. Oh, I like it. You didn't see that coming, did you? I didn't. I saw the expression on your face. You're like, what? I love my coffee mugs. So I love tracking coffee mugs on this show. You know my feelings about a mug. I do. I do. Oh, my gosh. We are everyone's old aunt. All right. We'll be right back.

Pulling up to Mickey D's just for drinks. Oh yeah, that's me. Nothing extra, just perfection and a straw. Coming in hot for the coldest cups on the block. Because there are drinks. Then there are drinks from McDonald's. Mix things up with any size lemonade or sweet tea for $1.49. Perfect with our classic fries. Price and participation may vary. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Ba-da-ba-ba-ba.

Well, we are back and I can't wait any longer. Angela, please. Oh, it's right away at 0.01 seconds. We have a coffee mug callback sitting on top of the toaster oven in the kitchen in this opening shot is the Coney Island, Texas lunch mug from that eatery in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

You did a whole deep dive on their hot dogs. I sure did. And their rivalry with the other place. There's two. It's a long story. But when we go to Scranton, they're on my list. This first scene is so hilarious in this episode. We have Gabe and Dwight in the kitchen and Jim is sort of reluctantly caught in the middle. They're sort of having one of those...

Jim bro dude doodoffs. I don't know. Is a doodoff a word? You know what I mean? It should be. If it isn't, it should be. Okay. Gabe is saying, oh man, my delts are blasted. I wish they had a chart for how much protein powder to scoop for a 180 pound man with no fat. Dwight says, protein powder, huh? You cut it with water and then he just takes a whole spoonful of dry protein powder and puts it in his mouth and basically puts

chokes on it and blows a whole bunch of it onto Jim's side of his face. As the scene continues, Dwight is, you know, showing his biceps. Gabe starts talking about his core. He said, there's four tenets of Pilates that I live my life by. One, lengthen. I want you to know right on that word lengthen, you can see John trying not to laugh.

They had a really, really difficult time not laughing in this scene. There's a whole bunch of bloopers about it. They are hilarious.

Ultimately, what's going to happen, Jim's going to say, listen, guys, I think we all want to know the same thing, right? Who's the strongest? Well, there's only one way to solve this, and that's a thigh curl contest. We got so much mail about this cold open, Angela. I bet. Allison F. from Seattle, Washington said, this is my favorite cold open ever. How much of this scene was scripted and how much was improvised? Zach and Rain seem like they are having a blast. Tell me everything.

Well, Allison, I traded some texts about this cold open with Rainn Wilson and Zach Woods. I can tell you they did have a blast. We had a pretty fun text chain about it. We also talked to Warren and Halstead about this cold open. First of all, Rainn said that Dwight choking on the dry powder and spitting it all over Jim was

was a conceit that was very important to Greg. Rain said that Greg always wanted Dwight to do something to annoy Jim first, so that when Jim did a prank on Dwight, like in this cold open, that it was payback rather than just have Jim prank Dwight for no reason. So you will notice that a lot in the show. Warren and Halstead shared with us that they did tons of takes of this scene in the kitchen. And while they were filming...

Zach Woods, who they called, quote, a master of improv, kept coming up with all sorts of improvised lines about muscles and manliness. And then Rain would feed off of it and send zingers back. They said the three of them could not stop laughing and that Rain had to eat so much of that powder. It was real protein powder. I mean, what else would it be, right? I don't know how much protein Rain had that day. Lady, if you watch the bloopers...

Because they do so many cuts of it, you see like more and more protein powder on his face, in his teeth, in his gums. It was like so all over his face. And you know what? A lot of what happens in the bloopers is so physical, but I definitely feel like you should hear it too. Here they are. I am all about Pilates, okay? There are four tenets I live by. One, lengthen.

Two, elongate. I can do that. All right, guys, I think we all... Oh, I'll tell you what. It's not even just about strength. It's not about strength. It's about skill. I'm taking karate classes online. My sense is just... I'll tell you this, Dwight, but big biceps are considered womanish. They're basically just arm tits. Oh, really? Yeah, it's like two boobs. Why don't you tell that to the great apes? Have you seen their biceps? Yeah, you're talking... Silverback. I'm the silverback.

You're just a little chimp throwing feces at himself. Look at your face. You're a disgrace. Really? Yeah, I remember when biceps were all the rage. Dukakis had just announced his candidacy for governor. Oh, man. Note to self. Remember to reference Dukakis anytime I need a good button for a scene. That is funny. When he ran for governor, though.

He just announced his candidacy for governor. The thing that really cracks me up, too, is you can't hear John at all in those bloopers. It's because the guy was noodle laughing, shaking, crying, where you make no noise because you could not keep it together. I believe it. Well, after this scene in the kitchen, they move to the gym. And there is going to be a hamstring curl contest. Yes.

They are just like pumping, pumping their legs on these machines that Jim has placed side by side. Yeah, they're the ones where you lay face down and then you pull the weights up with your legs. Yeah. And Jim's going to run over and give them each a pillow. And then he's going to run over and give them each a telephone. And Pam takes a picture. And this gets turned into a little sleepover party. We gossiped all night meme. Yeah, it was a prank.

And then, of course, later when Robert California arrives and calls everyone in the conference room, Dwight and Gabe can barely walk because they have blown out their hamstrings. They did too much.

Well, we talked to Warren and Halstead about this scene, and they shared with us their inspiration for this cold open. They said they had always thought guys in battles of strength and manliness was a really fun area. When they worked on the TV show Carpoolers, they had written a scene where two guys challenged each other to see who could chug a large cup of steaming hot coffee the fastest.

And they also shared with us in the writers' room, they had a few pieces of random exercise equipment, and the writers would challenge each other to see who could do what. And that's how this inspiration for this cold open came about. They said Brent Forrester would actually encourage the writers to do what he called the, quote,

Sadekoy Mile, which was a mile-long course that Brent Forster created around the studio. And I guess he would challenge people to do it. So there was a lot of this kind of physical competition energy in the writer's room. Well, I remember this. I sort of vaguely remember this Sadekoy Mile. Same. And I asked Halstead if he remembered who had the fastest time

And he said he couldn't remember, but that they definitely had a bulletin board where they ranked people. And that's what I remember being in the writer's room and seeing this like ranking thing.

Halstead said he knows that Brent got Ellie Kemper to do it and that she was pretty high up there. But Brent definitely celebrated anybody who did it. I never did it. Did you do it? I never did it. I remember when Ellie did it, and I remember Brent being like, Ange, you got to do it. And I was like, no, I don't, you know, I don't run, okay? I fast walk. I roller skate. You would power walk this sort of similar route with Oscar. I would. I'm not running the Sataquay mile.

No, you are not. I was also curious why the competition they picked was thigh curls. I know that's kind of what Jim put out there. Sure. But Halstead said one of the reasons they picked thigh curls is they thought it would look ridiculous. And it did. It did. They're just kind of clenching their butts and kicking their feet in the air. Halstead said he's pretty sure the weights were fake because they did multiple takes. And Rain and Zach really would have had sore thighs.

And, you know, I love the part where at the end, like they try to walk in the conference room, like you mentioned, and they can't they can't really do it. Yeah. Halstead said when he went to law school in Boston, some of his classmates ran the Boston Marathon and the ones that hadn't trained properly really afterwards hobbled around for days because they were in so much pain. Well, listen, I asked Zach and Rain about doing those leg curls.

And Rain confirmed they were fake weights. However, they were still so sore. Rain said he loved shooting this cold open. He loved working with Zach, but he was sore for days after shooting this.

And Zach said, quote, doing the weight scene was literal hell. Oh, no. He said he once broke his foot doing a vocal warm-up. He said that is not a joke. He really did. So if that is any indication to how his body responds to any kind of physical activity, even a vocal warm-up destroyed him. He would like you to know. Where he was just standing and doing vocal exercises? Yes. Oh, my gosh.

But I guess those guys were really sore because they were really clenching. Even if you clench without a weight, you're working out those muscles. Yeah, you're doing that repetitive motion. I have a shout out to Kate Flannery in this scene as well. I mean, talk about a lady that knows Meredith, knows her character so well. If you go to one minute and 34 seconds, the person laughing the hardest when everyone gets the photo emailed to them.

is Meredith. She is in the background cackling. I am talking about throwing her head back, the big laugh. I love that. So did I. Well, now the episode is going to start, and it begins with Andy arriving to the office. He still doesn't work there, everyone, but he's coming in. He's really just there to give Erin her socks back.

But he announces he's going to prepare a feast for everyone while he's there. Yeah. And Aaron says, that's great, but I just need you to sign in first. Can you sign this guest list? And then she gives him a lanyard. It's a new rule. And if she makes an exception for him, she'd have to make an exception for everyone. Yeah, the water guy. You know, it's just a domino effect. Yeah.

Well, you know, we always ask Warren and Halstead what their real-life inspiration was for different scenes. They shared with us for the cold open. They also had one for this scene. Halstead said when Andy is signing in at the beginning of the show, it was inspired by the fact that whenever anyone goes on a meeting at a studio, you have to sign in and they give you a visitor badge to wear around. And so, I think it's a really good idea to have that.

No one ever checks the badge or if you don't wear it, but they stop you and they make you sign in and they make you wear this lanyard around your neck.

And they just love that idea for Andy for two reasons. One, he has to wear this big lanyard around, but also to sort of really make him feel like an outsider, the character. And this was tricky because they needed Andy there. Andy needed to be in the office so he could overhear what was happening with the Binghamton branch closing. And so this was all part of a way of keeping him in the office. Yeah, I thought it was really creative. I loved...

later when Andy is at the sink washing dishes and Harry Janarone is going to confront Dwight and Jim. Very funny. We'll get to it. But like you said, Angela, something crazy has happened. The Binghamton branch closed overnight and all their clients are up for grabs. Jim and Dwight are just on the phone. They're closing sales. There's a lot of hubbub. A lot of hubbub.

Here is my favorite couplet of dialogue from this episode. Jim says, Binghamton branch closed last night and their clients are up for grabs. Andy says, that was a fine branch. Things are really bad under Robert California, I guess. It's like a festival of poo. Jim says, hey, hey, come on, language. Dwight says, yeah, and we're not interested in your sour grapes, okay? Jim, tell him where he can stick his grapes. And Jim goes, in the fridge.

And it's like, no, no, Jim, the butt. It's in the butt. But Jim, he can't focus on zingers right now because there's too many clients up for grabs. Lady, I'm going to tell you that Kimber P. from Virginia Beach is so happy that you just read that dialogue because Kimber wrote in to say, tell

Tell him where he can put his sour grapes, Jim. In the fridge. This is my favorite line in the entire series. My husband and I quote this day in and day out. It's that good. In the fridge. I also just love Festival of Poo. There's some very clever dialogue in this episode overall, I have to say. For example...

Robert is now going to enter. He shushes everyone, and then he vomits violently into Jim's trash can. Oh, yeah. It's super gross. We had a fan mail flurry about it. Caleb in Omaha, Nebraska, and many others wrote, I have waited so long to send this in.

In season six, episode four, Niagara, the cold open shows Pam vomiting just a little tiny bit and then everyone loses it and everyone's vomiting everywhere. But in this episode, Robert full-on gross vomits and everyone acts like nothing happened. I hear you, Caleb. In addition to no one vomiting, no one even acknowledges it. After he vomits, Oscar just says, why did Binghamton close?

What's that about? You know what? I was curious about this scene, too. I have a few things to point out. First of all, Angela Martin is grossed out. She has a face of like, ugh, gross. True. She doesn't get sick. I also want you to know I found in my digital clutter that I had had a costume fitting, and that was a new outfit Angela Martin is wearing. So...

Just a new snazzy Angela Martin outfit. But yes, I was very curious about this scene too. Oscar's reaction didn't seem like it came in the right place. We also got a question about this scene from Peter F. in New Hampshire. Peter wanted to know if in the shooting draft, was it scripted for someone to ask if Robert was okay and that line was just cut for time or if this was an apparent lack of care of his well-being, which made me laugh.

Okay, so Peter, was it scripted? Let me tell you. Here's what I found out when I went to the shooting draft. All of those lines were there, but they were in a different order because the scene was bigger. So it would have actually made more sense. This is how it read in the shooting draft. Robert comes in and he says, if the content of your cries have no merit, please adjust the volume accordingly. Okay.

Pam puts down her phone. Pam says, sounds like somebody had a wild night. Robert panics and throws up into a trash can. Robert says, oh God, Pam, quit shrieking. Oscar says,

Robert, can you tell us why Binghamton closed? Robert puts his hand to his head with pain. Can everyone just please? I had a one-man Saturnalia last night. I celebrated the finalization of my divorce by getting into a case of Australian Reds and how should I say this, Colombian Whites. It was an outrageous night. Meredith says, sure was. You and me did it. What? Robert looks at her wondering. He picks a reaction and then says, ha ha.

Then says, okay, what is this about Binghamton? Kevin said, the branch closed forever. Oscar told me it went to heaven. Then I said, I'm not sure that makes sense, Oscar. I'm not sure it does. Then Angela would have said, you knew about Binghamton, right? And Robert would say, Angela, I'm the CEO. I know everything. And Kevin, corporations can't go to heaven because they aren't people.

So that was the full scene. Oscar's question still does come a little abruptly, but there were more lines before it. Interesting. Very interesting. Was anyone else curious what a satronella was? Because I didn't know what it was. Did you know what it was? I mean, I deduced what it was, I guess. A big old party? Yeah, but I was like, why is it called that? So, lady...

I'm like, I'm such an old lady that Googles. I'm like, so lady, lay it on me. Look what I found when I Googled. It's an ancient Roman festival and holiday in honor of the god Saturn. It was held on December 17th in the Julian calendar, and later the festivities expanded all the way until December 23rd. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn.

And then a public banquet followed by private gift giving and lots and lots of partying, a very carnival atmosphere that overturned even Roman social norms. And it said they had a gift exchange that were usually gag gifts or small figurines made of wax or pottery. It kind of sounds like it was a huge party and then a little Yankee swap.

That's what I thought. It sounds a little bit like a Yankee swap holiday party slash... Slash on the level that the Romans could party. Right. And then plus the sacrifice of some kind at the beginning. Well, there's that. Wow. But there you go. That's what Robert had all by himself. Those Romans, they really, really lived a life, didn't they? You're so ready to be 50. I just want you to know.

Right. You don't say that in your 20s.

Nothing that comes out of your mouth in your 20s. I tell you what. I tell you what. Those Romans. They lived a life. The Romans did. They knew how to plan a party. Something we haven't mentioned in all of this is that Phyllis and Stanley warn everybody, hey, you're going after these Binghamton clients, but I don't think the Syracuse branch is going to like this very much because they're going to say, these are New York clients. Stay out of New York.

We got a very passionate fan question from Rob L. in Syracuse, New York about this. Rob said, where the hell is the Syracuse branch been all these years? It's never been mentioned once. Not once.

It is not represented in company picnic, and don't get me started on the decision to give Buffalo orange shirts, all caps. Seriously, who made that call? Rob would like to know. Rob goes on to say, frankly, to us Syracuse fans, the exclusion of Syracuse up to this point has made a little sense.

In New York, we are one of the Thruway Four. That is the biggest cities along the Thruway, which from west to east are as follows. Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, in all caps, and Albany. All of which had branches except Syracuse. Oh, but yet there was a Utica branch? Four question marks?

Little Utica, which is almost like one of our suburbs, had a branch and representation, and yet Syracuse didn't exist until this episode. Come on. Then Rob says, sorry for my angry typing. It's just something that's bothered Syracuse office fans for years, and I think we deserve some answers. P.S. Jen and Angela, we are not angry with you for this snub. Please know that you are still cordially invited to an amazing dinner at Postabilities when you come to town, my treat. Ha ha ha.

I want to go to possibilities so bad. Rob, I loved your letter. I really loved it. I loved the multiple question marks and the all caps and the multiple parentheses.

It stole my heart. Thank you for your letter, your angry letter about Syracuse. Yes, Rob, I was right there with you. I actually wrote in my document, if you could see it, Rob, I put Syracuse branch? Two question marks, one exclamation point. Oh, you and Rob are friends. We're friends. So I got to digging because I was curious, what are all the Dunder Mifflin branches that have ever been mentioned on the show? Here's what I found. If I missed one, please let me know. Okay, we have...

Akron, Albany, Nashua, New York, which was the corporate office, Rochester, Utica, Binghamton, Buffalo, Camden, Pittsfield, Stanford, Yonkers, and of course, Scranton. And then I think there was, was there a time when they were going to combine Scranton and Stanford and call it the Northeastern branch? I kind of vaguely remember that as well. But did I miss any? I think those are all of them. I don't even know.

It sounded good. Okay. Well, Rob, thank you for writing in. I was thrown as well. You know, Angela, Rob was not the only person from Syracuse that wrote us about this episode. We also got mail from Kim M. in Syracuse, New York, who said, quote, Oh, okay.

Most people I've met in the area pronounce it Syracuse, which is the same way that Harry Gennarone from Syracuse pronounces it at 6 minutes and 1 second and 15 minutes and 33 seconds. But one of the biggest indicators that someone is not a local is when they use the pronunciation Syracuse, which is what Dwight says, at 16 minutes and 9 seconds.

And then Phyllis, at three minutes and four seconds, calls it Syracuse, which is accepted by locals. Kim just wanted to say she really appreciated this tiny detail in pronunciation throughout the episode and also said props to everyone for saying Binghamton correctly. Oh, I say Syracuse like Phyllis. I guess people from St. Louis say Syracuse.

Syracuse. But Syracuse is correct. Like the name Sarah. Syracuse. Syracuse. Noted. Thank you, Ken. Well, Robert is now going to have a talking head. He says closing the Binghamton branch never occurred to him before, or I guess last night, but in vino veritas, as they say. So I'm not going to start doubting my drunken self now. I didn't know what in vino veritas meant, so I looked it up. Did you know?

I had an idea. It probably meant with wine comes truth or something like that. That is it. Oh, really? It's Latin. Yeah, it's Latin for in wine there is truth. Oh, I was so close with my guess. And there's also an extended saying, in vino veritas, in aqua sanitas, which means in wine there is truth, in water there is good sense. That's smart. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. It is true.

Speaking of water, Robert is chugging water in the kitchen when Nellie approaches him. She wants him to know that she got his voicemail last night, and her answer is yes, yes, yes, yes, and never. I thought the way Catherine Tate delivered that was so rich. Like...

I don't know what she was thinking of, but you saw her brain go through it. And I just thought it was such a great moment the way she delivered it. The specificity. Yeah. Made it very funny. It made me really curious. Yeah. We had a fan question from Tally S in Austin, Texas, who wanted to know if there were any deleted scenes or script notes that tell us exactly what Robert left on Nellie's voicemail. Ange?

Okay, Tali, I was super curious too, and I went through the shooting draft. I couldn't find it anywhere. They never share. It's up to our imagination, which is probably how it should be, right? Yeah. So nothing in the shooting draft. Well, after Nellie leaves the kitchen, Robert is going to ask Pam, when did you live so intensely that your brain couldn't hold the memories?

And Pam starts to share. And basically, Robert's just like, I need you to find out what's on Nellie's voicemail. Okay? Yes. And Pam says, I'm kind of busy. Yeah. And I want you to know this scene was longer and it was very hard to get through. I did not have a lot of one-on-one scenes with James Spader. This is one of the only ones.

And I was so delighted to get to do it. But he is a very intense person. As an actor, especially, he can zone in on you. And it was very funny to me because, you know, Pam says, oh, I just have a lot of things to do. And he says, why don't you make a list? Yeah. And

And then in the episode, she just says, you know what? Why don't I find out? He's like, yeah, that's great. But there would have been a little bit more where she starts trying to list things. She's like, well, I have some voicemails and I have some emails. And she's really trying and he's just staring at her. And it was so funny to me. I kept breaking. Probably that's why it's not in there because we probably never got a take that was usable. But anyway. Yeah.

I would have been so intimidated and just probably forgotten my lines when he locked that intense gaze like at you, you know? It was one of my favorite shoot days because I got him one-on-one and he was an actor that I admired so much. Oh, yeah. I mean, anytime Angela Martin even had a line exchange with him from across the room, I was excited that I got to briefly act with him. Mm-hmm. Well,

Well, up next, a very angry man is about to storm into the office. But before this scene starts with Harry...

There was a little couplet of dialogue that got deleted. It's in the shooting draft. Jenna, it just cracked me up. I wanted to share it, okay? Yes. It says, Kevin says,

Isn't that funny? Well, when Harry storms into the office, he says,

Who the hell are Jim Halpert and Dwight Schrute? And Aaron says, Jim, Dwight, what are your last names? And then we have this great detail that I just loved. At five minutes and 55 seconds, Dwight is reaching into his desk drawer and he says, and you are? For one of his like nunchucks or something. Yes. Yes. I had to go to the script to see if this was scripted. And it was.

also found a very fun couplet of dialogue that got cut out. So after Aaron would have said, Jim, Dwight, what are your last names? Jim was going to turn to Stanley and say, Jim, run.

And then Stanley would have pointed to Jim and said, that's Halpert, pointed to Dwight and said, that's Schrute. Then he was going to point to Phyllis and say, she's got money. And then he points to Angela and says, and that one is married to a senator. And Angela was going to shout, state senator. And then the scene would have continued.

That was very funny to me. Yeah, I love it. And I feel like I remember that moment, Angela, of shooting, of you shouting, state senator. It's like the one time. Not that big of a deal. Exactly. You don't claim him as a full senator. Don't come for me. Exactly. All the while this is going on, Andy is still making his cherries jubilee right by front reception.

Yes, and there actually was a giant flame in the scene. We got a fan question from Victoria K. in Wisconsin who said, was the fire real? And if so, I need details on that safety meeting. Victoria, yes, the fire was real. But Steve Burgess says we did not use booze to make the flame like you would in a traditional Cherries Jubilee. Our special effects team wanted a more controlled fire.

So they used something similar to the lighter fluid you might use for a barbecue grill that burns off, but it was kind of more of a gel. There was a huge safety meeting with the crew and actors before we shot. And they also took Ed aside separately and did some training for him so that he didn't hurt himself with the fire and using the gel and all that stuff.

So, yes, there was a very big safety meeting. Safety meeting. Open flame by front reception. That's right. And, you know, this scene is going to end with Harry saying, I want to talk with Jim and Dwight O and Lloyd Gross right now. Where's Lloyd Gross? Who is Lloyd Gross? Just...

one of my absolute favorite details of this whole episode. I know you loved Lloyd. I loved Lloyd. So Jim and Dwight are going to have a joint talking head and they're going to share that they figured out a way around the commission cap imposed on salesmen at Dunder Mifflin. They invented a fake salesman to steal money from the company. Basically, they're kind of embezzling. It sounds a little sketchy, but they said it helps them get more money. And Pam,

made a drawing of Lloyd. He's a combination of all the salesmen. I would like to point out two things here. What is it? Number one, Pam once again has drawn someone in the office. This just further proves my theory that she has a drawer full of sketches of everyone in the office. So strange. Number two, reigns bangs are so long.

They are the longest I have seen them this whole season. I think he's due for a haircut. You know, the guy's always got a haircut at the beginning of the season. And we're coming to the end of season eight. Those bangs are long, folks. Just wanted to call it out.

I always have to wonder if he was growing them out for some project that was coming up on our summer break. I'm going to look into it. Look into it. I need to say something about this information in the Jim and Dwight talking head where they reveal that they have invented a whole person to which they are funneling sales to get around a commission cap. And then I guess they're cashing these checks and splitting the money. You know what?

When people come for Pam, and you know there's a group of people who come for Pam a lot, one of their big complaints is that she invented a job for herself. You know, that wasn't reception and that wasn't sales. She's like this administrative coordinator. And people are just like, she is a liar. She is a cheat. I hate her.

I'm sorry, she is at least working a job. She comes in every day and works a job, and she contributes to the function of Dunder Mifflin. Maybe she lied her way into the job, sure. But these same people who come for Pam, I do not see them posting endlessly about this embezzlement scheme from Jim and Dwight. I wonder why.

Someone's hot to trot over this topic. I can tell. I am hot to trot over the men who come for Pam with their laundry list of ways that she is not an obedient woman working as they want her to. But then it's crickets when Jim and Dwight steal money from the company. Mm hmm. I'm done. Do you feel better?

A little. Okay, it's the beginning. We'll wait till season nine. Oh my gosh, I've been thinking about it. Listen, I think we should take a break because when we come back, I've got some stuff to share about Lloyd Gross. Yeah, we've got a big conference room meeting and it's delicious. We'll be back and I need to calm down.

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Well, we are back and we are going to find out who the heck Lloyd Gross is. Dwight points to Toby and says, that's Lloyd. Well, this is going to lead to a conference room scene and Harry is upset. He is saying that Binghamton...

Those clients should go to Syracuse because that's more in their sort of district or region. Well, he says they shouldn't be crossing the state lines. But then Lloyd points out that Scranton is actually closer to Binghamton than Syracuse is. Yeah. Toby's going to have a talking head now where he says, I like to think Lloyd Gross is a no-nonsense guy who doesn't back down from anybody. Well, I loved the storyline of Toby as Lloyd saying,

I saw in deleted scenes, he even took it one step further. Toby has a full-length leather coat made with the initials LG monogrammed on the lapel.

I asked Warren and Halstead about this. They said they don't remember exactly where Lloyd Gross came from, but since Toby was this closet novelist, they thought it would be funny if he really took the character seriously and tried to give him a backstory. In their minds, they said Toby getting to take the role of LG was one of the most exciting things to happen to Toby, probably since getting to be on the jury for The Scranton Strangler.

Well, I have a lot of questions about how and when Toby got this jacket made. I'm assuming that he just ran with this new character after today. Or possibly Lloyd, you know, this sort of scam of how they make money has been around for a while, but they're just now sharing it. Hmm.

True. He might have had a long time to get that jacket ordered and made. Well, this conference room gets very heated, but I have to say, Toby is far more confident as Lloyd than he is as Toby. I know. I know. It's so hilarious. He pretends to get a text from the wife. He's got to take that. Yeah. I love Toby as Lloyd.

I could have used a webisode all about his alter ego, Lloyd. Yeah. Mm-hmm. True. Like, did he have to go to the DMV? Does he have a Lloyd gross driver's license? Like, how far did this go? You know what? There's a lot of things we don't know about Toby, I think. Oh, yeah. He might be actually more mysterious than Creed.

You know, because Creed really lays it all out there. But Toby has some secret identities, I think. Yeah, he's got some secrets. Well, ultimately, in this conference room scene, they're going to decide, you know what, let's let Robert settle this. Harry said he didn't realize Robert was there. Yeah, it made me think, like, why only Scranton? Why does Robert only camp out at Scranton, at the Scranton branch? Why does he own a home in Scranton?

I'm so baffled by that. My voice went into seven different octaves to say that sentence. Why does he have a home in Scranton? I mean, I would say he likes the Scranton branch because Nellie's there. But I kind of think Robert probably has someone in every port, right? The sailor. What's that phrase? I don't know. Is that that song? Brandy, you're a fine girl. What a good girl.

If you would be. No, I know. OK. It's some Nellie is not Robert Brandy. Yes. But I thought you were asking me if there was a song about having a ship in every port. You know, the sailor has a place. He has a lady and every stop of the ship. Yes. Right.

Where are we? I don't know. We don't know. Here we go. Listen, here's where we are. Andy is at the sink and he's washing dishes. I don't know why I loved that so much, but it was very funny to me. I thought Ed was very funny.

And he's going to be caught in the middle of this conversation between Harry and Robert, where Harry says, listen, Binghamton is closed and I want Prestige Direct Mail Solutions. They're a big client. But Dwight says he already put a call into them. And they say, Robert, you have to decide who gets this client, who gets this client.

This is going to give Andy an idea, and he is going to run out of the office straight to the elevator. I have to tell you, my favorite line in this scene, though, was when he went to stop washing the dishes, maybe to get out of the way. And Harry goes, no, buddy, you finished your dishes. I loved it, too. Well, you know what? Robert is not even going to make a decision. He said nobody can have that client. He needs a second. He has to think about it.

But you're right. Andy is going to make a move. They're a huge client. He takes off his visitor badge. He's off. Yep.

Harry's going to have the same idea. He's going to say, you know, Robert's kind of a weirdo. I'm going to go outside and get some air. That's when Jim realizes, uh-oh, he goes to the window. Now Harry's peeling out of the parking lot. Dwight and him are like, damn it. So now they join the chase. I had to ask Steve Burgess, where did we do these driving scenes?

And Steve said we did them on Chandler Boulevard, which is very close to our studio. He said we started with these scenes on a Friday morning, and then after they were done, we moved back to the stages. We talked to Danny about doing these driving scenes, about directing them, and he said they can always be a bit stressful and the resets take a long time, but that our crew was so amazing, they made it easy and allowed him to really focus on the creative.

And then he did share one thing. He said also sometimes as we would be filming these scenes, a random person would drive by, look over, and realize it was Jim and Dwight in the car, and then they'd freak out. I remember that happening when we would do driving scenes. Yeah. And you can't have people being like, oh, my God, in the scene. Totally. We had a fan catch from this scene, Ange.

own catch. What do you got? Well, Taylor R. from Sioux Falls, South Dakota said, when Jim jumps out of his car and opens up Harry Janeron's car door to slow him down, the car Harry is driving looks like a 2012 Cadillac CTS-V.

And its doors should automatically lock when Harry drives over eight miles per hour. So unless Harry was driving really slowly, his door should have been locked. That's such a good catch. Yeah. That's a car catch. So what was your catch, Angela?

Well, mine happens at 11 minutes and 30 seconds. I'm going to call bulls**t here, guys. I'm playing a card. I'm leaning forward. What is it? Okay. Jim looks directly to camera and gives one of his Jim quote looks. You know the look that Jim gives to camera. We know it. Right after he hits the gnaws.

You know, Dwight's like, can you put this into overdrive here? He's like, oh, yeah, I'll put it in the NAS. The windshield wipers are going. Jim looks right to the camera and gives a look like, I'm sorry. Does Jim know that the camera crew is in front of him with like maybe a camera on the dash or the hood or like he's a follow car? I thought this broke the fourth wall.

I don't think it does. I think it does beg the question, what is the budget for this documentary film crew? And how are they gathering this footage, this sudden car chase race to this client's office? They were not expecting to hop in a car and film this sequence today for this documentary. No. So they had to have a crew at Dunder Mifflin Scranton that catches the

Jim's reaction to Harry pulling out of the parking lot and then they had to have a crew already on the road. But I thought Jim looking at camera in this moment kind of broke the fourth wall. I don't think it breaks the fourth wall because we know that they are camera aware. We know that they know they're being filmed. But I think it does...

make you think too hard about the documentary crew. That's what it did. Okay, fine. It made me think too hard. We did get some mail from people that's been stuck in my head where they pointed out, does this documentary still have a budget after all of these eight years that they've been filming? Because they haven't aired a single piece of footage. Like, who is funding this? Yeah.

PBS? Yeah, I don't know. They are so committed to something happening at this paper company of value.

There must be an annual meeting where they're like, what do we think? Do we keep filming them? They're like, yes, but I'm going to need to add to the budget. I need to have a flatbed on call in case one of them jumps in their car. Yeah. Because we're going to want to get that. And they're like, that's fine. Also, I need a whole bunch of lipstick cameras and I need someone that can install them inside the dash of their vehicles. Yeah.

Correct. All right. Maybe I rescind my bullshit card, but it did make me think real hard. It was a hard thinking card. It was a hard thinking card. Well, Andy is now going to arrive at Prestige. He asked to see the CEO, even though he doesn't have an appointment. He definitely doesn't think he's going to be able to see the CEO that easily. And the receptionist is like, no problem. Not a problem. I loved her. I loved her. She was played by Amy Shin.

Her credits include Arrested Development, Hello Ladies, and Just Add Magic. Danny said that Amy Shin was a suggestion from Alison Jones and they just loved her. He said she just had this really funny attitude and she was able to take a role that could have just been played straightforward.

somewhat forgettable, maybe. She gave it a weird flavor, which really brought the character to life. It made you want to know more about this oddball receptionist. Yes. Danny said that they always sparked those kinds of auditions, the ones that really surprised them. And he said this was hard to do by the time you got to season eight of a show. So he really, really loved her. I loved her, too. I was curious. I wanted to know more about her.

By the way, she has a nameplate on her desk. I could only make out the last name of Fogarty. I couldn't see the first name. It's not in the shooting draft either. So if anyone else was able to screen grab that nameplate and make out the first name, let us know. Well, you know, the CEO is going to walk out of his office and he's going to be like, yeah, happy to see you right now.

Danny said that Dan Castellaneta has this same sort of unbothered, kind of blissful energy that the character of Mr. Ramesh has, you know, in the way that he's just totally happy to meet with Andy on a whim. Danny said that that is Dan's real-life energy. He is just the most laid-back, content person in the world. I wanted to work at Prestige. Everyone there is so chill. Shame!

Up next, we have some girl talk in the break room. Oh, that's a song. That is a song. Girl talk in the break room. Pam is chatting up Nellie, trying to get her to spill the tea about Robert's voicemails. And Nellie is about to tell her when Angela interrupts. She comes in the break room saying, hello, my clucking hens. Got room for another in the roost? Don't worry, I won't lay an egg.

In the script, it said, Pam looks to Angela with the expression, what are you doing? Angela smirks. And then that's when it would cut to Angela's talking head, where she says, Robert sent me to take over if Pam fails. If. Then in the shooting draft, it goes back to the break room. And lady, I remember this note that they gave me, which was that Angela Martin is terrible at girl talk. Yeah.

And it was written like this. I have been crunching numbers all day. Math is for boys! I! Need! Girl talk!

So just really clunky and forced. I loved coming in and saying all of that. And then, of course, Gabe overhears and says, did someone say girl talk? And then, you know, Gabe has a talking head that comes right after that. Yes. Well, I think Zach did some improv here because it was scripted in the shooting draft and there were no candy bag alts for it that Gabe said, I am great at girl talk, period. But.

But it aired with Gabe saying, sometimes I wonder if I have ovaries in my scrotum because I'm great at girl talk. That sounds like Zach to me. Doesn't it? It really does. Yes. That's my theory is that he improvised the top part. My question is, did he improvise anything about Korean soap operas? No, that was all scripted. Wow. Yeah. Well, none of this girl talk is helping Pam get to the bottom of things. No. It's been completely derailed.

This girl talk in the break room scene actually was extended. It had a whole second beat. It's in the shooting draft. It's also in deleted scenes. Daryl is going to join the party, but it's not why you think. We find out that he has a little friend that lives in the break room. I want you to hear it. I keep asking myself, what is my skinny girl margarita?

I think we should all go around in a circle and each tell one secret except for Gabe. Let's go around here. What, is everyone just hanging out? No, we're letting it all hang out. Nellie was gonna tell a story. Oh, great. Sounds good. Break room's busy today. Nobody knows. There's a mouse who lives in the wall behind the vending machine. I feed him. Now he comes out every day at the same time. If people find Squeaker, he's toast. I just want to give him his food.

And try one more time with the top hat. He's trying to put a top hat on a little mouse named Squeaker? Yes, and he holds up the top hat. And you know, Craig Robinson has big hands and he holds up a tiny...

Top hat. It's so cute. A tiny top hat for a little mouse. Yes. And then there was a whole other scene where we find out that Erin has also been feeding a mouse in the break room. She doesn't call it squeaker. She says it's like multiple generations in a family she's been feeding for a while. And then Daryl's like, how many of these mice are there? And she's like, oh, hundreds. And now Daryl's like, oh, no. Oh, no. Pump the brakes. What's happening?

But I did love this callback. I pointed it out to Warren and Halstead that Daryl has a soft spot for little creatures. Remember in Fun Run where he's feeding the squirrel in the parking lot? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Well, speaking of creatures, we're heading... What is this segue? Yeah, well, we're heading back to Prestige because Andy is speaking to Mr. Romish. Oh, yeah. And I realized I have not done a location breakdown of Prestige Direct Mail Solutions. Oh.

How does a creature come into this location breakdown? I will tell you. Danny shared that they did a big location scout for this episode because they wanted to find one location that could be used for the interior offices of Prestige, but also for the lobby and elevator scenes and the exterior scenes, including the coffee cart. All of that is coming up. He said they had to look at a few different office buildings. One of them was a vacant office in the valley.

But in the middle of the lobby, there was this big sort of seemingly abandoned fish tank in there. It was really super cloudy and the glass had algae on it. But inside the tank, there was an arowana fish. I guess it's a pretty large fish that lives in the Amazon. And Danny said it was just in there and it was alone.

I feel bad for it. I know. You know, Danny wondered, like, who was caring for this? Was anyone caring for it? Ultimately, they didn't pick that location. Incidentally, the United States banned the ownership of arowanas because they're an endangered species. Yeah, I was going to say, is that even legal? I don't think so. What does an arowana look like? They're very big.

Okay, big, check. They're sort of, some of them, when I looked at pictures, they have like, they can have sort of like an orangey glow. Others are kind of a yellowy glow. God, what do they look like? They have sort of like a mouth that... Does it come up from under? It comes up. Is that why you're doing that? Yes.

It comes up from under, like a big old mouth. I couldn't see your face just in that one moment because I was Googling what they look like. But I could tell from your character what you were doing. Yeah.

And then their eyes look kind of... Okay, listen, we don't have to describe this fish anymore. We can let it go. But we'll put a picture and stories. Sure. So anyway, that was my segue about strange creatures.

Steve Burgess told me that ultimately we filmed at the Borax building in Valencia. Minus the fish. Yeah, there was no fish at this location. And they spent all day shooting at this location, which, Angela, means we had a day off. Hope.

Andy's about to win a big old client for his new company, Big Red. He tells Mr. Romesh that Prestige will get 100% of his attention. He can save him 25% on his costs. He's going to give him his personal phone number and a key to his house. Yeah. And his internet password, which is eat, pray, love. Where's Andy getting this paper from?

that he's now going to give to him. He's going to figure that out later. He's faking it till he can make it. Right. But he wins over Mr. Romish. Well, meanwhile, Jim and Dwight arrive at the Prestige headquarters. They run in. They try to lock the door. Yeah, they don't want Harry to come in. Dwight takes off his belt. You know, he's thinking in the moment and kind of makes some kind of knot, ties the door shut. But now his pants won't stay up. I

I made a mental note of this moment because I thought if I'm ever being chased or maybe during the zombie apocalypse that I prep for all the time. Sure, sure. That the belt around the door, it was smart. Right.

I mean, I know that they can smash the glass and get the belt off, but it's definitely going to slow them down. But then the big problem I had was I don't ever wear a belt. Yeah, well, there's the problem. And it made me wonder if I should be wearing... Take your bra off. Oh! Take your bra off. Yes. Tie that sucker around there a few times. Yes.

When am I going to see that in a zombie movie? That's brilliant. And you know what? Gals, we can take that off so fast through the armpit of your shirt. We've all done it. Don't even have to take your shirt off. No. That's so smart. Someone please file that away as a plot point in a future film or for your real life. So anyway, Dwight's pants are falling down. He runs into the elevator.

But guess what? Clearly, there are other doors to this building because Harry runs into the elevator with them.

But as the doors are closing, Dwight presses a different floor. He forces Jim out. He's like, meet me upstairs. Run upstairs. Run. Jim's like, what? And he's like, take the stairs. And Jim's like, I don't even know where the stairs are. And Dwight starts jumping up and down as hard as he can in the elevator to what? Maybe make it not go? He wants to activate the seismic fail safe. There it is.

Well, we asked our director, Danny, which scenes from this episode were special to him, and this was one of them. Here's what he said. The sequence where they are racing up to the prestige office was the most fun to shoot. It was as close as the office gets to an action sequence.

Rain and John crushed it as always. The stuff with Dwight tying the door shut with his belt and then having his pants sag then fully fall down while trying to trigger the elevator failsafe was just sublime physical comedy that totally served the story.

Oh, and he said, also, I remembered BJ's one piece of directing advice was to have one shot that was ambitious or special. And this scene was mine. And it was so much fun. Yeah. Warren and Halstead also shared about this elevator scene. You know, Warren pointed out that the camera goes into the elevator and then it stays with Dwight and Harry. Yeah, it's in the corner. Warren

Warren said this was one continuous shot in a real elevator. There was no fakie elevator here that John really did have to run up a flight of stairs in order to be at the elevator doors when they opened again. There was no special timing to that. Oh my gosh. He said the stairs were not close either. He said John had to sprint and run up a flight of stairs numerous times. But Warren said John never complained, but...

All that sweat and him being out of breath, he said that was real. It seemed very real. When Warren and Halstead shared that with us, I was like, oh my gosh, I had no idea. This is the thing, when you don't work on the same day as your fellow actors, I had no idea this whole time that John was running up a flight of stairs for every take. I know.

Well, Dwight, Jim, and Harry are all going to stumble into the prestige offices, and they're going to find out it's too late. Mr. Romesh has already signed with Big Red, a paper company. We got a really fun piece of fan mail about this scene. It's from Stacy B. in Wisconsin, who says...

My 11-year-old daughter has been waiting to submit a fan catch. When Jim and Dwight get to the prestige offices, Mr. Romesh is holding an orange ball, but later in the scene, it's blue.

My 14-year-old son thinks that the ball has two different sides, one of each color. Well, Stacey, first of all, big props to your daughter because I went back and rewatched the scene and I saw exactly what she saw. In one shot, he's holding an orange ball and then he's holding a blue ball. And shout out to your son who is right. It is a two-sided ball.

You can see both sides very briefly at 15 minutes and 19 seconds. The side facing Mr. Romish is orange and the side facing Jim and Dwight and Harry is blue. Great catch. Great catch. I would like to throw this out there. Yeah. Syracuse University, their colors are orange and blue.

Hey. Hey. It looked like a ball, but it also looked like maybe a little football. It didn't look spherical to me. It looked whatever the shape of a football is. That shape, a football shape. It looked sporty to me, and I think it's a little nod to Syracuse University. Probably was.

Back at Dunder Mifflin Scranton, Pam is going to go in the conference room and tell Robert that she stole Nellie's phone. And they're going to listen to the messages together. Yes. And they don't paint a great picture of Nellie's life. It really starts to affect Pam. Yeah, there's a message from her mom who's just trying to cheer her up. The credit card company says she's over her limit. Her brother asks if her boss is still hitting on her.

And then there's a call from an adoption agency rejecting her application to adopt a child. Pam's heard enough. She deletes all the messages. Robert's like, ah, you just messed it all up. I know. Pam's like, ah. That was very funny. Fan question from Charlotte H. in England. Charlotte would like to know who plays Nellie's mom and brother on her voicemail and are they actually British?

Well, Charlotte, Nellie's mom's voice was played by our stand-in, Laurie Sox, who is not British, but who did a very good job on this phone call. And I wasn't able to figure out whose voices were on the rest of the messages. Steve Burgess said we hired voice performers, but he didn't have any details on who they were anymore.

Yeah. And I asked Danny about the voice of the brother because I saw an online theory that it was Mackenzie Crook who played Gareth in the BBC version of The Office. But Danny said, no, he didn't think so. He said if that was the case, they feel like they would have made it more of a thing. For sure. He debunked that theory.

Well, Pam is now going to go into Nellie's office and return her cell phone. And Nellie is shopping. She's looking at some sandals. She wants to buy Pam a pair. And they have this really sweet moment.

Yeah. Nellie sort of seems like she's going to finally share the details of this message. And Pam is almost stopping her. Like, I don't want to know. You don't have to talk about it. And they do end up bonding sort of sweetly. And Nellie has a talking head where she says things are really looking up. You know, she might be a mother soon. And she has MasterCard just where she wants them. And now she has a new friend at work.

You know, Warren and Halstead said that being able to listen to Nellie's messages gave them an opportunity to add layers to her character. They said it was always really fun to explore what characters were like outside of the office, what their aspirations were, what their life was about.

And learning about Nellie's desire to adopt a baby, it really grounded her, gave her some depth. And at this point, we knew that Catherine Tate would be returning next year. And they were planting seeds for her storyline in season nine. Yeah. I like seeing this side of Nellie. I feel like I needed to see it.

Yeah, me too. And she's so good when she has these moments, when she talked about her magician ex-boyfriend. Yeah. Like, Catherine Tate can do it all. Mm-hmm. Aaron is now going to tell Robert that he has a phone call, someone named Salvation, no last name.

Robert answers, and it's Andy. He has called to taunt him. Andy says, hey, the biggest loser in the office just signed the biggest client, so you can either hire me back and get Prestige's business back or he'll find another buyer. Oh, this does not sit well with Robert. Robert does not care for this.

He goes on the offensive. He says if Andy wants a street fight, he has no idea how ugly it can get. He says, you don't even know my real name. I'm the f***ing Lizard King. What? Oh, boy.

This was a fan mail flurry, lady. Anna W. from South Carolina said, I've been waiting to ask this question. I am 32 years old and everywhere I see people quoting this line, I'm the f***ing lizard king. I don't get it. I don't understand it. Please help. Gabe S. from San Francisco said, this is one of the most underrated office quotes, but one of my favorites. Please give more details on how this quote came to be.

And Andrea B. from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada said, Do you know why the writers had Robert California call himself the f***ing Lizard King? Is this a reference to the Doors song, I Am the Lizard King, or to Jim Morrison's same nickname? Well, everyone, we asked Warren and Halstead about this.

And Angela, this was just a small amount of the mail that we got on this subject. Oh, yeah. Warren and Halstead said there was no deep thinking about this in the writer's room. It was just a room pitch that made everyone laugh. You know, sometimes the writers would do what's called a punch-up pass on a script. It's where they sit around the conference room table and they read through the script all together as a group. And people can just shout out extra jokes as they go along.

And so this was just a shout out, room pitch, and everybody laughed at this idea and it made it in. Well, to all the folks that wrote in about this line, I was super curious about it too. I was wondering as well if maybe Robert California was referencing the song Celebration of the Lizard. The lyrics were by Jim Morrison, the music by The Doors. I have a clip of it if you'd like to hear it. Please.

Here it is. It's a very long song. I think it's 17 minutes and 10 seconds. The doors. What are you doing? But at the end, Jim Morrison just sort of starts talking. Here it is. I am the Lizard King. Retire now to your tents and to your dreams. Tomorrow we enter the town of my birth. I want to be ready.

So, I mean, kind of tracks with Robert. Sounds like Robert maybe has listened to this, in my opinion. Is it true that Jim Morrison claimed that he could talk to lizards and control them with his mind, and that's why he called himself the Lizard King? Is this maybe Robert California's belief that he can control others with his mind? Is that what we're getting at here? Maybe.

I don't know any of that. I will say I think Robert California is probably someone who has researched the reptilian brain, what that brings out in men, etc. I'm also pretty sure that Robert California is someone who has listened to an entire 17-minute Doors song. 17 minutes and 10 seconds. I think that if you want to persuade someone to stay off drugs...

You could maybe play the end of this song for them because it sounds like a person who has done too many drugs to me.

Don't do drugs, everyone. Don't vape. Stop the vaping. It's not good for you. Vaping is smoking, right? It's worse. It creates crystals on your lungs. It really destroys your lungs. It was like, you know, the idea was that it was better, but it's not better. It's awful. It can lead to strokes at a very young age. People are terribly sick from it. Stop it. Stop with the vaping. Also, it's like it comes in like...

flavors and stuff. It just don't do it. Stop doing it, everyone. You know what I mean? I'm going to put this in my diet book. Oh, your diet book that I've titled Don't Be an Idiot? Yeah. And it's going to have a section on don't vape either. You are ready for your 50s. I really am. No nonsense. I don't have time for the nonsense. Okay.

No time. Hey, we also got a fan catch from Olivia S. in Seattle, Washington, who had a lip flap catch. Olivia said, is it just me or does Robert California say I am the mother effing lizard king? And not only does it show a lip flap, but it is not bleeped. How did this slip through standards and practices?

Olivia, I don't know what version you were watching, but mine is fully blurred and fully bleeped. Steve Burgess said, the only note from Standards and Practices was this. As previously noted, please blur Robert's lip flap when he says, quote, f***ing to Andy on the phone. So no reference in the script or from Standards and Practices for mother effing. And my lip flap was blurred and bleeped.

Olivia, what version of this episode do you have? Well, I will also share that in the shooting draft, it is just I'm the f***ing Lizard King. So there's no mother. No mother. No mother.

Mm-mm. We're going to have a big twist now. Andy gets out of his car. He walks up to a very famous green door, knocks on it. Guess who's inside? It's David Wallace's house. Yes. I love that this is who Andy went to. I felt like they had planted that seed in fundraiser when the two of them had their conversation outside of the bathroom. Mm.

Mm-hmm. David Wallace answers the door, and Andy says, would you like to invest in a fledgling paper company? Under the right management, it could be worth twice than what he would pay for it today. David Wallace says, come on inside. Dun, dun, dun.

We had a fan question from Jessica N. in Rochester, New York, who said at the end of this episode, it doesn't look like David Wallace's house is the same house from the previous seasons. Yes, it has a green door, but it looks like it's sitting on a corner lot. There seems like there's a lot more open space to the left of this house.

Jessica said, I didn't have time to look back at the previous season episodes, but when I searched it online, I discovered that the actual house was for sale a few years ago and there was quite a bidding war over it. Well, good catch, Jessica. Yeah, you totally mom detective this. She has some great theories. She's done a little bit of digging, but we don't have a real answer. Well, she got me started.

Jessica, the first house we used for David Wallace's house was in Pasadena. This house was in Encino. They are two different houses. And like you said, the original Pasadena house went on the market in 2021. It did spark a huge bidding war. The house eventually sold for over its $6 million asking price. Cha-ching.

I found a blogger by the name of Rob on Location. He has an extensive breakdown of all of our locations, and he has visited both of David Wallace's homes. And guess what?

When he visited the original Pasadena house in June of 2023, it had been completely gutted. Completely, lady. Like, the whole facade. Saved the framing? Yes. Also, that means that they paid over $6 million for it and then basically tore it down. I don't get it. I don't get it. Bonkers.

And then he had visited the Encino house in 2022, and it was also under renovation. He has photos. Angela, I'll give you the website for Office Lady Stories. Okay. Rob on location. But anyway, Jessica, you were right. It's not the same house. Two different houses.

Well, this episode is going to end with our three failed salesmen, Harry, Jim, and Dwight. They've gotten coffee, and now they're just kind of hanging out and talking. Harry's going to ask the guys what they would do if they weren't paper salesmen. He says that he would like to sell one big thing, one huge sale, like an airplane. And then he's out. And he also tells them he thinks Robert is going to run Dunder Mifflin into the ground. And

And they won't even be doing this in six months anyway. Yeah, he sort of implies you better be thinking about what you're going to do if you weren't a paper salesman because you probably aren't going to be one for long. Well, you know, I love a callback and Jim has one in this scene. He says he'd like to own a bike shop. Yeah.

And this reminded me of the episode Lotto, where Jim says he'd probably buy a big piece of land in Maine, build a house, work in town, somewhere I could bike to or kayak to. I'd either bike to my job at the kayak shop or kayak to my job at the bike shop. I asked Warren if this callback was intentional, and here's what they had to say. They said they didn't want the conversation to be too serious, which is why they start with a joke from Jim at Dwight's expense.

But Jim's bike shop idea was definitely intentional and something they talked a lot about in the writer's room. Well, Danny Chun said he especially loved this scene at the end of the episode out on the grass outside the office building. He said it felt very grounded and real. And a lot of that was because of Chris Bauer playing it so real. Well, Warren and Halstead said they also just loved having plot lines in general with Rain and John together, similar to their script After Hours with the bedbugs.

Warren said that he and Halstead would often approach Jim Dwight scenes as if they were a buddy cop movie where both cops want the same goal, but their methods to achieving that goal are always fraught with squabbling and misunderstandings. But in the end, they have a bit of a friendship. And I thought that was just such a fun way to explain Jim and Dwight, especially in this episode. Yeah.

Yeah, I love that. I want to watch episodes now with that information in my brain. Well, you know, this wouldn't have been the final scene in the shooting draft. There was another scene. It was a tag and it was Harry showing the camera crew around Syracuse.

What? Yeah. Yes. Oh, my goodness. Rob L. There's a deleted scene where we see the Syracuse branch. Yes. I guess the camera crew follows Harry back to work. It's also in deleted scenes, and I thought we should end the episode with it. Let's hear it. What's your fascination with the Scranton branch? We got all the same drama and wackadoos as them. This guy Mike, same lunch every day. Chef salad, 15 years.

And Janelle, she's an African-American woman working in HR. She wears wigs. Must have three, four wigs. Like, what's your hair gonna be today? I don't know. The audience could get into it. You know, like, what's it gonna be today?

And we even got a Pam, too, except her name's Sharon, and she's pretty funny looking. She's in love with this guy, Matt, and he's really ugly, too. They got kind of a will they, won't they thing going. Only everyone's rooting for won't they. I cannot stress enough how unappealing these two individuals are, truly. If they ever got together, it would destroy your project. Are we seeing these people as he's describing them? Yes!

There's a whole montage. Oh, my. And you see everybody. Goodness. Wow. Well, that is a great way to end this episode. Everyone, that was Turf War. I have to say, I really enjoyed this one. I'm going to be honest. I think there have been a few clunkers in season eight. This one is not one of them. I really, really liked it.

Also, huge thank you to everyone that wrote in with their questions and comments, to Warren and Halstead and Danny for answering all of our questions. And also to Steve Burgess and Zach Woods and Rainn Wilson. Wow, we had a lot of people help us out on this one. All right, you guys have a great week. We'll be back next week with Free Family Portrait Studio. The last episode of season eight. All right. See you then. Have a good one.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Our senior producer is Cassie Jerkins. Our in-studio engineer is Sam Kiefer. Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy. And our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbico. Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. ♪

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