Webisodes: The Podcast & The Office Ladies Podcast Pilot

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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 Lovers podcast podcast just for you.

Each week we will dive deeper into the world of the office with exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes details, and lots of VFF stories.

We're the Office Lady 6.0.

Hello there.

Hi there.

How's it going?

It's good, you know, I'm cozy.

We're at home today.

We are recording from home like the olden days.

The olden times.

I'm wrapped up in a blanket because my closet doesn't get any heat.

I have on my my cozy slippers that I love.

We're cozy, guys.

It's going to be a cozy kind of day.

It really is.

Today, we're going to be breaking down another webisode.

We're breaking down the webisode called the podcast.

This is layered.

We're

getting a podcast about an episode called The Podcast.

So this was a three-part series.

And, you know, it's all about the character Gabe.

It's really centered on him as he tries to start a podcast for the Sabre website.

Yes.

And we thought after we break down this webisode, it might be fun for us to talk a little bit about how we started Office Ladies.

Yeah.

So this is something we've never played for you guys before.

And you all that have been listening from the very beginning, it's our, well, it's our version of our pilot, right?

Jenna?

It's our Office Ladies pilot.

Yeah.

Gabe is going to be making his podcast pilot in the webisode and we thought maybe we should share the Office Ladies ladies pilot with you all and we also hold some podcast related fan questions from our digital mailbag and we're going to read those so it's it's podcast palooza today on office ladies podcast palooza i like it you like that i do but to kick things off here are some stats about the podcast webisode my lady loves some stats I do.

Stats, stats, stats, stats, stats, stats.

That's your song.

Is that my clubbing song?

Would I dance to that in the club?

Not two shots and be like, stats, stats, stats.

Stats, stats, stats, stat.

I can see it.

I can see it.

This webisode was released in January 2011 during the seventh season of The Office.

It was directed by one of our writers, Charlie Grandi.

And like Angela said earlier, it was a three-part series.

And they were written by Kelly Hannon, Jonathan Hughes, and Mary Wall.

Kelly Hannon was our writer's PA, so she was their production assistant.

Jonathan Hughes was one of our writers' assistants, and Mary Wall was a producer's assistant.

And these webisodes were a really cool way for them to break out of those roles and get to create content.

Yeah, you know, Jenna, when we started breaking down the webisodes, I got this great email from Karen Angelou.

She worked at NBC when we were launching all of these webisodes, and we traded messages back and forth.

And I wanted to share this email she sent.

It's about how we started a digital writers program and really we were, well, Carol said we were pioneers.

I love it.

Again, the webisodes were bringing new things to the industry.

Okay, here's what Carol wrote in her email to me.

She said, Angela, I listened to subtle sexuality on my drive to work this morning.

It brought back so many great memories, as did the accountants episode.

Lady, first of all, I just love that Carol is listening to our podcast on her drive to work.

Love it.

Love it.

It made me so happy.

Carol was just so much fun to work with, and I love that our podcast brought us back together.

She goes on to say, I was in so many meetings with Greg Daniels and other NBC executives and the sales team trying to sell the idea of these webisodes and get sponsors to sponsor them.

She said, Here's my favorite part, lady.

She said, our digital writer program, with your writer's assistance, was the first of its kind, and as far as I know, the only one of its kind.

She said she used the success of the office digital content to pitch and create online series for Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, Heroes, Parenthood, and she said a ton of shows we've probably never even heard of.

Wow.

She goes on to say, after the success of The Accountants and

the subsequent writer's strike, she literally wrote,

Okay, that was her.

That was was her.

She said she worked with Greg and NBC to achieve a few goals.

Number one,

give the junior writers identified by the showrunners a chance to showcase their writing skills.

Number two, compensate them for writing additional digital content throughout the year.

Number three, collaborate directly with the show creators on creative concepts outside of the normal episodes.

Number four, showcase supporting cast and give talent and or other show production staff a chance to write and direct if they were interested, like Mindy and Charlie, Ginsalata.

It was really a place where people could create in a way that they couldn't normally on the regular episodes.

That is so cool.

The web episodes really were like the first time that some people directed, like Kelly Cantley, like Randall Einhorn.

Yeah.

That was their first time directing for the show.

And now those people are directors.

Yeah.

It was almost like an apprentice program for some of the aspiring writers and for people to work outside of their normal roles on the show.

Exactly.

Carol said that they enlisted the junior writers or writers' assistants and they would come to their weekly NBC digital meetings.

They would collaborate with the NBC digital team on future episodes and different things they could tie webisodes to.

They also strategically tried to target times of the year when the webisodes would keep the audience going and engaged.

For example, while we were on hiatus or if the show was interrupted by like the Winter Olympics, what could the audience still find that was new and original content?

Smart.

And Carol answers a fan question, Jenna.

No kidding.

What's that?

She says, I think one of your listeners had a great question as to why, if Erin and Kelly had a girl group, why was it never referenced on the linear show?

Carol said they were always trying to pitch these webisode and then original broadcast airing crossovers, but the only time it actually happened for them was with Parks and Recreation.

So, the show was going to be shooting at the Grand Canyon during season four, and there was a B story where April and Andy are checking an item off Andy's bucket list, and they extended that story through a digital series about what happened to them on the way to the Grand Canyon.

But they never got to do that for our show, but they did get to do it for Parks and Rec.

But Carol said, you guys truly were the pioneers.

And she said, I cherish my signed third floor poster, which currently hangs in my office still to this day.

She doesn't work for NBC anymore.

She now is the vice president of comedy and animation creative advertising at Fox.

Way to go, Carol.

But I love that a little piece of the office webisodes is in her office still today.

Yes, that's very cool.

We haven't broken down the third floor yet.

No, we haven't.

But anyway, wasn't that great information?

Thank you, Carol.

Thank you, Carol.

Now, Angela, am I correct that you, Brian, and Oscar wrote a webisode that unfortunately did not end up being produced?

Yeah, we did.

We actually were trading like notes with Paul Lieberstein at the time.

And then they were trying to find a slot for us to have our webisode series.

But there was this backlog of webisodes they had already promised to other like writers assistants.

So we were sort of like towards the bottom of the list.

And by the time they got to us, they had stopped making the webisodes.

So we kind of just missed out on it.

But we had a lot of fun writing them and Brian was going to direct them.

Do you think, like, could you, do you still have the script?

I do.

I do still have it.

Should we,

should we like read it?

Sometime?

Maybe get Brian and Oscar to come in and read your webisode

on Office Ladies.

That would be so much fun.

Yeah, I would love to hear it.

I would love to hear it.

Okay, I'll ask them.

I can't remember what it's about.

I know you gave it to me at the time to read it.

And I remember it was really funny, but I don't remember the plot of it.

So

I will have to go back in my digital clutter, but I have all of it.

And I remember I even have our brainstorming note sessions that we had with Paul.

And I remember we landed on us writing a St.

Patrick's Day webisode.

Yeah.

What?

It was a four-part, I believe, I think it was four parts.

And I think

I think Kevin gets lost in the St.

Patrick's Day parade So I remember logistically we had to figure out how to film these and then stay on budget That might be also why it got pushed to the bottom of the list Because ours was a pretty big budget, but yeah, I still have them I think you need to dig these out and I think we need to start a text chain with Oscar and Brian and see what everyone's avails are.

To read the St.

Patrick's Day webisodes we wrote.

That would be so fun.

Yes.

Well, I love hearing about that writer's program, and I love that our show was part of something that was helping people break out like that.

I think that's really cool.

I know.

I love that, you know, our show was a pioneer in many ways and many platforms.

Well, now, Ange,

to round out our top of show, I thought I could read two letters from our digital mailbag that are podcast related.

Okay.

The first one is from Lindsay M.

in Philadelphia who said, not a question, but more of an FYI.

Oh, for your information.

Why am I so proud that I know what FYI is?

Why am I so, like, why, that's nothing to brag about.

Everybody knows what FYI is, but I clearly was so tickled that I was like, I had to say it.

Well, you know what?

It might be a good flex because she's going to tell us.

about something that we don't know the meaning of.

Oh, okay.

That she thinks we should be aware of.

Lindsay said, you need to stop saying, quote, slid into their DMs.

It does not mean what you think it means.

It doesn't mean like you just found them.

I found you online and

I'm popping in here to talk to you.

No.

Was it?

No, apparently not, lady.

What's it?

Lindsay said, according to dictionary.com, it means sending someone a direct message on social media slickly and coolly, often for romantic purposes.

When you slide into someone's DMs, you are messaging them in hopes to receive either nudes, hookup, or a relationship.

What?

And according to Urban Dictionary, it means when you start a direct message chain on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, when you slide into someone's DMs, it's with the hopes of booty.

It's a booty call, Lindsay said.

Please stop saying you're sliding into people's DMs.

Oh, we've said it a lot.

Listen, I knew that it meant that, but I thought it also meant just

I'm reaching out to chat.

I thought it

like sometimes it means booty call, but I thought sometimes it meant just like, hey there.

Yeah, I didn't know it always meant like, like, yeah, I want, you know,

booty.

Booty and nudies things.

I thought it had more of a universal meaning.

Here's what I'm going to say.

What?

I'm not going to stop saying it.

Really?

But

no.

Like, no, no, no.

You're just, because you're like, I'm going to keep sliding into people's DMs.

I am.

You're just.

I slid into Denny Gordon's DMs, and now we're going to have her on the pod.

Denny Gordon, famous director.

She's coming on the pod to talk to us about her time on the office.

How else do you say it?

I guess you could just say, I DM'd her.

i dm'd her yeah it doesn't sound as fun it doesn't we could i'd rather slide in we could make up our own like we could say i skidded into her dms i cartwheeled into her dms yeah i did a yeah a forward roll a forward roll

I don't know.

You know what?

Because I could just, I know how slowly my forward roll would be

and how unsexy it would look.

Well, by the time I got there, my neck would be all out of wax.

Oh, yeah.

You throw your back out.

Don't throw your back in.

Drop it into someone's DM.

No, I need to slide in.

You need to slide in.

Actually, I really just need to stroll in.

I like this.

That's the safest way.

I strolled into their DMs.

That's what we're going to say.

Done.

I like it.

We found it.

It sounds better than skidded in, too.

That sounds a bit.

Skidded, I don't like it.

Sounds like you're going to scrape your knee or something.

Exactly.

Strolling in.

No one's getting hurt when you stroll in somewhere.

It took us a while, but we found it.

We're strolling into people's DMs.

Thank you, Lindsay.

Thank you, Lindsay.

And now finally, Sam L in Ithaca New York said, congratulations on completing the series on your wonderful podcast.

And so glad you'll be keeping the fun going.

We are Pocket Bandits.

We're a Danish-American instrumental funk rock trio based in central New York State.

Three friends and longtime musical collaborators who play a lot of local gigs, but have separately played shows with bands like Evanescence, Celtic Thunder, Hansen, and a whole host of others over the years.

Those are some big names.

I know.

I love Hansen.

I like Evanescence.

Sam L goes on to say, we love the office.

We actually played our first show under the name Save Bandits

before we realized there were a bunch of bands on the internet that have already used the name.

So we became Pocket Bandits.

And we stuck to referencing the show in some of our song titles.

And here's the part that's so sweet.

In honor of you starting the Second Drink portion of your podcast, because everyone, that's, you know, every Monday we rerun the rewatch in order.

Right.

And we call it Second Drink and we put little tidbits at the top, little extra tidbits.

Yeah, every Monday.

Every Monday, Sam said, we we want to share our new song second drink awhile in case it might get a grin out of y'all and maybe the podcast listeners too hope it brings you a little joy today so i grabbed an audio clip this is pocket bandits playing their song second drink

Very nice, right?

Yeah.

That's some funk rock.

Yeah, I hear it.

I do too.

You know, I'm big on guitar riffs right now.

I'm enjoying that guitar.

And that's Simon on drums, Samuel on organ and bass keys, and Joe on guitar.

Great job.

Yes, I loved it.

Well, listen, why don't we take a break?

And then when we come back, we will break down the podcast webisodes.

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Hey y'all, I'm Maddie and I'm Poodle.

And together we host the podcast Reality Gays.

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Well, we are back and the webisodes, the podcasts, the first one is called Gabe's Podcast.

You know, they all have a title.

So this is Gabe's Podcast written by Kelly Hannon and directed by Charlie Grandi.

Here's how it starts.

Gabe is going to approach Erin at front reception, and he just says, hey, can you send a fax to Joe?

And Erin says, do you want the general fax line or her personal fax line?

Joe has a personal fax line?

She has two

fax machines.

Hey, hey, we were supposed to get a fax with Clark Duke.

Oh, that's right.

We had not gotten on that.

Yeah, and we were going to fax each other.

Yeah, we're going to fax like bits.

Exactly.

Aaron goes on to ask Gabe if he's read Oscar's blog this morning.

And you can really tell Gabe is super annoyed about Oscar having this blog.

Yeah.

Oscar announces he actually has just published another blog.

It's not even 11 a.m.

He's already put out another blog.

I love the name of his blog.

It's really great.

Oscar's blog is called There's No Accounting for Taste.

And Oscar explains, it's anecdotes from his life as an accountant mixed with decorating tips.

It's kind of the finer things club meets the accounting department.

Yeah.

And Joe loves it.

Apparently, Joe Bennett is a huge fan.

So much so.

that Oscar's blog is on the Sabre website.

Gabe can't believe it.

Gabe cannot believe it.

I mean, this is a big deal.

He has a talking head where he says, to make a name for yourself, you need to get something published on the Sabre website.

The Sabre website is the mandatory homepage of every computer in the company.

So every single computer in the company is seeing Oscar's blog.

Yeah.

But here's the thing.

I think Gabe is mostly jealous that Oscar has Joe's gaze.

Oh, yeah.

Joe loves this.

Yeah, that Joe has favoritism with him, that she wants to engage with him.

Like we learn as the webisode goes that Joe is constantly reaching out to Oscar and giving him notes on his blog.

I'm like, Joe, what are you doing?

You're running a whole company.

What are you doing?

You're not Oscar's editor.

Hey, she loves There's No Accounting for Tate.

She does.

She loves it.

She loves it.

And while Gabe is bummed, he wants to catch Joe's eye.

So he's decided.

he's going to start a podcast.

And he asks Kelly if she'll be on it.

And she's like, no.

You know what?

This got me curious.

Like nowadays in 2025, I'm watching this webisode and the idea of a podcast just is so part of our culture.

But this was 2011.

And I was like,

were podcasts big in 2011?

Like blogs were big.

That was a big deal.

Everybody, there were mommy bloggers and that whole thing was taking off.

And just we had had like our MySpace page blogs.

I did a blog for tvguide.com.

Like blogging was it.

But what about podcasting?

So guess what I did?

Did you find out what podcasts were happening in 2011?

I did a little deep dive on the history of podcasting.

The history, not just what was happening when this episode came on.

but the history of podcasting.

I can't wait.

I had to go to the beginning.

And here's what I found out.

You always always do.

You need the beginning.

You need the origin story, lady.

Well, the podcast feed was created by Dave Weiner,

and the first podcast was Radio Source by Christopher Leiden.

It was released in 2003,

and it's still around.

It's history's longest-running podcast.

Oh,

but the term podcast was not coined until 2004.

This writer, Ben Hammersley, wrote an article in The Guardian, and he used the word podcast, but he only used it one time in the article.

I found the article.

And here is what Ben said.

Quote, MP3 players like Apple's iPod in many pockets, audio production software cheap or free, and web blogging an established part of the internet.

All the ingredients are there for a new boom in amateur radio.

But what to call it?

Audio blogging, podcasting, guerrilla media?

That's it.

He was like wondering, what should we call this boom in like people having their own little radio stations?

Yeah, he was spitballing.

He was like, here's a few ideas I have.

Well, the word podcasting took took off.

In fact, in 2005, podcast was the word of the year by New Oxford American Dictionary.

Yay.

Also in 2005, Apple introduced podcasting to iTunes.

But it wasn't until 2014 that podcasts really started to become popular.

And that is credited to the popularity of the True Crime Podcast serial,

which, by the way, is the first podcast I ever listened to.

Yeah, me too.

Sam, you have been working in podcasting for a very long time.

When did you start working at Earwolf?

Probably 13 years ago, 12 years ago, maybe.

So what year was that?

2010

or 2011, maybe.

So right around...

the time that Gabe was starting his podcast.

Yeah.

You were working in podcasting.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Well, in 2011, when this webisode was released, Adam Corolla set the Guinness World Record for the most downloaded podcast of 2011.

He was the podcast king of 2011.

Guinness Book of World Records.

Wow.

Yeah.

But in general, podcasting did not really explode into like pop culture until 2014.

Apparently, podcast listenership tripled

between 2014 and 2019.

Crazy.

That is crazy.

And we didn't even come on the scene until 2019.

Exactly.

Well, a lot has changed in podcasting, even just in the six years that we've been doing it.

And like, it's grown even so much since we started.

Absolutely.

I also have noticed that So many television shows now have their own podcast, You know, so sort of the way we did DVD commentaries and that was just part of our job.

Once we got the job on the show as an actor, that it was just part of the package you signed up to do.

And it seems like there's a lot of shows now that have these sort of after-the-episode podcast recaps.

Yes, yes, it's true.

Well, back to this webisode.

Kelly, like we said, is not going to do Gabe's podcast.

And she has a talking head where she explains that she can't be the subject of Gabe's podcast because she's a rising pop star and she's really concerned about overexposure.

Yeah, she doesn't want to just, you know, wear people out with all of her fame.

She's getting really famous.

She really is.

She's already done three blogs.

She says she's done Oscar's blog.

the subtle sexuality blog and Aaron's subtle sexuality fan blog.

I mean, just so many blogs.

So many blogs.

Well, Gabe is now going to hit up Creed, and Creed seems really surprised that Sabre has a website.

I do love what Creed says to Gabe.

I love your podcast.

And he's like,

there isn't one yet.

I haven't done it yet.

It just kind of cracks me up.

And then Gabe tells, and then Gabe tells Creed about Oscar's blog, and he's super curious.

He wants to check it out.

He goes onto his computer.

And on Creed's screen is his own website.

This tickled me so much.

So, you know, we've already known that Creed had a blog called Creed Thoughts, right?

And that's been around since about 2007 at this time.

Ryan mentioned it in the job, but now we learn that Creed has a website.

It's called Creed's WNBA Appreciation website.

It has stats, teams, players, news, archives.

And the opening page is an article titled WNBA Draft Advice.

Cassie, would you be following Creed's WNBA appreciation site?

Absolutely.

I mean, Cassie is so awesome, actually.

It is.

And Cassie, he has archives.

This means he's been doing this a while.

I hope he's still doing it.

I know.

Creed has a talking head now where he says, look, I love basketball and women.

How does no one else get this?

This is like the no-brainer to Creed.

He's ahead of the trend.

Yes.

Yeah.

Well, Gabe is still searching for someone to be on his podcast, so he approaches Meredith.

Meredith is showing Creed that she can write with her feet.

Gabe is going to skip Meredith.

He's like, okay, she's doing her writing with her feet.

I'm going to move on to Kevin.

And Kevin is so excited.

He spits out his bagel.

He cannot wait to be on Gabe's podcast.

Yeah, he has a talking head where he says, you know, it's such a good match for him.

He's Irish.

So he is a natural sayer of stories and yarn.

Yeah.

And And that ends this first webisode.

Well, we're moving on to the next part of the podcast webisode.

It's called the first entry.

It was written by Mary Wall and directed by Charlie Grandi.

Yeah.

Gabe is sitting next to Kevin.

He's got a little recorder.

Kevin is just stapling some papers.

And Gabe is kind of narrating.

He's wondering, like,

what happens when we stop for a moment and ask, why we do activities like this?

Why do we staple?

Yeah.

Kevin answers and says, these things need to be stuck to those things.

At which Angela interjects and says, who is going to listen to this nonsense?

Gabe turns to her.

He says, Angela, a rare instance of brains and beauty, a fairy tale princess stuck in a tower of paperwork, stoically spinning receipts into gold for the rumple steel skin we call the man.

Angela's charmed.

She's so delighted.

She smiles.

So this scene is the first time we get to hear Gabe's podcasting voice.

Did you notice he's kind of whisper talking?

Yes, he's like stapling, you know, stapling, stapling.

Yes, and he's he's getting the sound of the stapler.

It's very ASMR.

It really is.

And it is.

And lady, I told you, I found the most amazing podcast.

It's called The Office, A-S-M-R.

Oh, yes.

Yes, you did.

Here's how it's described.

The Office is a great show to fall asleep to.

This is a podcast narrating each episode in a calm, relaxed way to help people fall asleep without screens.

Amazing.

Amazing.

So, like this guy, he describes the episodes in a soothing voice, and you can just lay there and kind of imagine them.

Yes.

As you fall asleep is what it is.

Exactly.

It gets 4.6 out of 5 stars.

And I thought we could hear a little bit.

Let's hear it.

Kevin's very excited that pregnant Pam and Kevin are eating a lot together.

Second breakfast, lunch, second lunch, first dinner.

As they eat some kind of mac and cheese in the kitchen.

One last ultra feast, says Kevin.

Well, I have to say his voice is very soothing.

He's doing a very good sleepy time voice.

Yeah.

And you know, if you're a huge fan of the show, your mind is filling in the picture.

Yes.

So you can just listen and fall asleep.

Well, this podcast goes up until season six, episode 21, Happy Hour.

And then there aren't any more.

I don't know if he stopped doing them or if he's coming back to finish, but there are six seasons of

The Office ASMR podcast for you if you need a soothing The Office description to fall asleep to.

Well, now Kelly and Aaron are going to march into the bullpen.

They're going to go over to accounting.

Kelly is furious because Oscar posted a picture of her eating a chili dog in his blog.

Well, here's the thing that cracked me up.

She's not mad that she's eating a chili dog.

That's not her issue.

It's the fact that he did not crop out the other people in the picture.

She wanted it just to be her.

So she gave him permission to use the photo, but she was on the condition that he crop everyone else out.

And he says, I'm sorry, I didn't have time.

She's like, forget it.

We're never going to be in your blog again.

Gabe will do your podcast.

Angela pipes in and says she would also be interested in doing the podcast.

His flattery worked.

I mean, he's called her a fairy tale princess.

Come on.

Yeah, she's in.

Now we're in the conference room.

It's Kelly, Aaron, Kevin, Creed, Angela, and Meredith.

And the whiteboard behind them says, quote, having it all.

Yes, this is the subject of Gabe's podcast.

This is what he wants everybody to kind of think about.

What does having it all mean to them?

Yeah.

And, you know, I guess they're staying after hours to have this conference room meeting.

And Lady Creed has my favorite talking head of the entire the podcast webisode series right here.

About the Tupperware?

Yeah, I think we should hear it.

Okay.

To tell the truth, I'm not too excited about staying tonight, but my sister is having a Tupperware party.

And if I was there, I would just buy everything up.

You'd buy it all up.

Buy all the Tupperware.

Also, Creed has a sister.

Oh, yeah.

Who sells Tupperware?

That would be me.

I would buy it all up.

I could not go to a Tupperware party and not leave without a whole set.

My Tupperware cabinet is a hot mess again.

I know.

Ours is too.

So is my sock drawer.

Again,

both of those areas, I clean them constantly.

I'm always like,

where do the socks go?

I don't know.

Why are these two areas of the home?

Why do they undo themselves so consistently?

I don't know.

Why?

I have a basket of socks without their partner that I just, I won't give up because every once in a while I find the other one.

So.

What is that?

I don't know.

I don't know where they go.

And also, I don't know how to store a Tupperware.

Do you stack it without the lids, one inside the other, and then put the lids on the other side?

Or do you have the lids on top of the container and you don't separate the lids in the containers?

Like, how do people do it?

Because mine's always a mess and I'm looking for the right lid and I can't find it.

Well, I prefer to pair them.

I like to put the lid on the container and then store it together.

Like they are best friends and they want to be stored together.

They don't want to be separated.

Okay.

But I'm the only person in my family who does it.

So if anyone else unloads the dishwasher, they just willy-nilly throw it in the cabinet.

I can't get everyone on board with my system.

And I mean, I think I just answered my question: why my Tupperware cabinet is always in disarray.

It's because I'm the only person attending to it.

You have multiple systems.

What's with the socks?

The socks, no one's like, I mean,

I don't know.

I'm just saying, like, also the junk drawer.

Why?

Why does, why do I organize these spaces and then they disorganize themselves?

When I organized my makeup drawer like three years ago and it's still great.

It's terrific.

Well, it's because you're the only one using it.

Mm-hmm.

You're right.

Every place in our house that's what I call sort of like a community space is always the most cluttered space.

Yeah, because there's multiple systems at play, not one person's system.

Yeah.

Okay, where were we?

I don't know.

Well, Gabe is now going to ask everyone, what does it mean, having it all?

What does that mean to you?

And Kelly says, well, it's a job in a family.

Aaron says the same thing.

They kind of like give each other a little squeeze, like, oh, we said the same thing.

And then Angela says the same thing.

Yeah.

And then Meredith says, I have a job in a family and it ain't shit.

And then she goes, wait, wait, shouldn't I be saying this to your cameras?

Where are your cameras?

And Gabe, lady, he says something something that speaks deep to you and I's heart and soul.

He taps his little recorder and he goes, it's an audio podcast.

Yes.

We laugh about this all the time.

We actually got a fan question, lady, from Maddie F and Daytona Beach who said,

for Office Lady 6.0, can we incorporate video?

What do you think?

I would love to see a video version of the podcast while I'm at lunch and pretend I'm at lunch with you both.

I bet we can convince Sam to hook this up.

Oh my God, Sam, this is your job to help.

Maddie went on to say, I'm glad the podcast is continuing since I've been re-listening from the beginning again anyway.

Cheers.

Well, Maddie, we have discussed many times the idea of adding a video element of the podcast, and it boils down to this.

I don't want to.

Yeah, I mean, it's a podcast.

Aren't podcasts just by definition something you listen to why do we have to watch everything why does everything have a video like I like the idea of something that I just listen to and I think once a camera's there it changes how you share it's not as intimate I feel like I would be aware of the camera

in some way the camera would be like this extra person in the room that I would

I would clock in to the camera.

I just like that there's not this third thing in the room.

It's just me and you having a conversation.

Well, listen, we tried it very early on back in the Airwolf studios.

Josh and Lee came in with two cameras and they set up lights for us.

And we tried to record the podcast while we were being videotaped.

And it was horrible.

We didn't even put that podcast out.

We stopped in the middle and we were like shut off the cameras.

I was so self-conscious.

I was so like,

I don't know.

I didn't like it.

Also, sometimes I don't want to brush my hair before we record and I want to wear my sweatpants and I want to be in my cozies.

And I just don't want to feel like I'm on display.

Oh, I know.

Because then there's always snarky people that are like, ew, is that what her chin looks like now?

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Exactly.

You know, I don't need the, I don't need the snark comments.

And I just, I don't know.

Yeah.

Maddie, you're so sweet.

Maddie just wants to have lunch with us.

I know, Maddie.

I just loved what you said.

And thank you so much for re-listening from the beginning.

And I just so appreciate you.

But yeah, I mean, our husbands really did try.

They came in.

And Jenna, it's so funny to me when you just said, we were like, shut the cameras off.

Cause there were two different reactions in the room.

One.

You got kind of in your head like with the cameras there, right?

Yeah.

And it kind of shut you down.

It did.

I began to perform to the cameras like an idiot.

I'd be like, well, then

that's what she said, but I eat it to you.

I was like, oh, God.

It was a hot mess.

But Maddie, thank you.

We would have lunch with you, Maddie.

So we would.

I'd love to have lunch with you.

Yeah.

Well, in the end of this webisode.

Gabe is going to cave.

He is going to do a video podcast all on Meet the Press,

which is really,

spoiler alert, going to be kind of just a talk show.

Yes.

I mean, but look, Meredith has all the equipment, you guys.

She has video equipment, lights, release forms.

In her van.

In her van.

And Gabe sees his moment to,

you know, have his sort of irreverent 80s punk scene.

What?

What is this 80s punk scene that he thinks he is?

I don't know.

He's going to, it's going to be classy, refined, and edgy.

So buckle in.

Well, this brings us to the final installment of the podcast webisodes titled The Debut.

It was written by Jonathan Hughes and directed by Charlie Grandi.

And sure enough, everyone's in the conference room and they've set it up kind of like a talk show space with a couch and

has the camera.

Yeah, there's like a little sofa and a table with a plant and two coffee mugs.

And then Gabe's in the chair like the host.

Off to the side, Creed's going to be playing music he's the band yeah Kevin is there he's worn his toupe

I was wondering is anyone tracking the toupee how many times is the toupee in the series I know it's in training day he wants to impress D'Angelo yeah I think he wore it to Cam's wedding

did he wear it to shroot farms Halloween

think he wore it to shroot farms I don't think he wore it to Angelo's wedding no no but yeah that's a good question I'd be curious for someone who's tracking how many times we see this wig.

Kevin's going to offer to be Gabe's sidekick.

Gabe was not planning to have a sidekick, but so be it.

Kevin is now the sidekick, even though he keeps messing up all of the introductions.

He's not a great sidekick so far.

Yeah, no, he's not a very good sidekick.

Well, Gabe is going to welcome his first guest, and it is Kelly Kapoor.

Yes.

So here's the deal, you guys.

Ryan is going to give Kelly the tips that you need to be a great talk show host.

Ready?

Here they are.

Wave as you enter, flirt with the host, tell a mildly amusing story, act surprised when you're asked to share about your project you're there to promote, and push up bra question mark.

So let's see how the Dunder Mifflin employees do as a talk show guest per Ryan's tips.

Are you ready?

Okay.

Here is Kelly's interview.

I was going out to dinner the other night, went to this Mongolian barbecue place.

Basically, they just give you a bunch of raw food, you put it in a bowl, and then they cook it up for you.

But I didn't know this.

My boyfriend didn't tell me.

So I'm just sitting there eating a raw bean sprout being like, they should call this place Mongolian Salad Bar.

Craziest stuff happens to me.

I love that she's like, the craziest stuff happens to me.

All right, she waved.

She was a little flirty.

She told a mildly amusing story.

What do we think?

Did she check off all the things?

I think she did pretty well.

We didn't get to her talking about her project that she's there to promote, but so far, yes.

Next up is Meredith, and she just plays the cowbell with her feet.

Creed is really into it.

He's tapping his foot along with her.

Mm-hmm.

And now we have Creed's interview.

Let's hear it.

The problem, Gabe.

with the question of having it all is that it deals with externals.

What have I done?

What do I own?

None of this matters.

What matters is what's happening internally if you're happy from within.

That is an amazing answer.

Look at me.

I'm the most content person I know.

And I live in a tent with a woman made of old soup cans.

How do you do?

Okay, so I'm supposed to rate that.

Well,

I think he didn't tick any of the boxes.

Well, I do think he had an interesting share, but then it went south.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But so far on Ryan's list, Creed's interview did not go great.

No.

I mean, Meredith's didn't either.

True.

And so here's the thing.

I was thinking about this and Jenna, you and I have done a ton of talk shows together.

I mean, we've done them separately on our own, but then we also did a whole bunch together.

And I wondered how many things we checked off of Ryan's list.

Oh, okay.

I looked at a bunch of our interviews and I picked one from when we did Seth Meyers because that's one of my favorites.

Oh, same.

Yeah.

So I wore a push-up bra.

So I can tell you I've already hit one of the things on the list.

There you go.

You wore that great suit.

I loved it.

Yes, I borrowed that suit from Lindsay Price.

She's my de facto stylist when I have to do things.

She goes into her own closet and brings me things.

It's amazing.

I love her.

I love that.

Well, okay, so check, push-up bra, check.

In this interview, when we walk out, we wave, lady.

So check.

We did it.

And we tell a bunch of different stories.

And here's one we told to promote our book.

So I think that checks another box.

Oh, yes.

And let's see if we tell a mildly amusing story, okay?

Okay, let's see.

So you're going back, this podcast, is you guys recollecting your time together on the show.

Obviously, you were both there the whole time.

How often do your memories differ?

Oh my gosh.

Well, when we started writing this book, there was one that came up right away, which was that when you got, she got us backstage at the Emmys on the actual stage.

Here's what happened.

Okay, now listen, here's the thing.

She was hungry.

I don't like to be hungry.

Yeah.

Okay, I'm not one of those actresses that doesn't eat food.

I like to eat the food and I eat a lot of food and I was very hungry.

Sure.

And we couldn't find food anywhere.

So I said, Angela, come on, we've got to get something to eat.

So I found this nice lady and she had a headset and a clipboard.

Yeah.

She walked very fast.

And she kept going shh, shh, shh, mm-hmm.

And she took us to this little like tent, like a dimly lit tent.

It was not a tent.

It was a giant curtain on the Emmy stage.

The like Emmy presenters and people were right there.

And she was like, shh.

But there was a whole like charcuterie station.

Yeah.

And there were these cookies.

Yeah, and so, but we didn't realize we were, I forgot this story.

When we were writing the book, Angela said, we have to tell about that time that Lawrence Fishburne was given a stink eye because you were eating the cilantro next to him.

I mean, I vaguely heard him say something like, who the F are these folks.

And then I said, Jenna, wrap it up.

Shove the salami.

Oh, wait, that's not bad.

But you know what I mean.

That's what she says.

Let every move.

Oh, wow.

That's so funny.

I forgot we told that story.

When we were writing the book, I forgot the story, and then I forgot we told that on television.

Well, you know what?

We also talk about the dance that we made up where we file papers and we did the dance lady.

I remember that.

Yeah.

But Seth was great.

I think we checked off some of the boxes.

I think we did an excellent job.

I'll have you know, I have run into Lawrence Fishburne since

and he is an absolutely delightful gentleman.

When you're not eating cheese right over his shoulder before he's going out on stage, he's probably a really nice guy.

I didn't bring it up.

I didn't bring it up.

No, don't, don't.

But he is a gem of a human.

So, yes.

That's a full circle moment.

It was a full circle.

I mean, when I ended up in a conversation with him, I immediately thought, oh my gosh.

Yes.

Does he know?

Does he remember?

He doesn't remember.

I'm sure that I crashed the food table.

At the Emmys.

It's one of my favorite stories.

Listen, I'll get you into some adventures when i'm hungry you no doubt about it

well after creed's ending to his interview talking about the lady made out of soup cans gabe is done he's like just forget it forget it yeah all he wanted was a simple discussion about business and he got this freak show that's what he says yeah everybody storms out yeah they're ticked off yeah this is not going to happen gabe is not going to have a podcast, he's thinking.

But then Oscar comes in.

Yeah, and Gabe's like, you'll do my podcast?

He's clearly so happy that someone is going to do his podcast.

And as he starts to interview Oscar, Meredith is like, nah-uh, not with my cameras, you don't.

She grabs both of them.

And as she leaves, the tripod catches the blinds and she drags half the blinds out.

That was not planned.

That just happened.

And I thought that was really funny.

That was fun.

So that's it for the podcast.

It's not going to happen.

No.

We see a title card at the end that reads this

Gabe Lewis Productions, number one.

Sadly, this will be my first and last podcast, as Oscar has decided he desperately needs me to help him with his blog.

It was a tough call, but in the end, the blog offered the kind of proofreading experience one cannot pass up.

Also, I'd like to think of myself as the type of guy who does the unexpected.

I guess that's the punk in me.

Signed, Gabe.

Well, that's where the 80s punk comes in, lady.

Yeah, I do love that.

It was the opportunity of proofreading that one could not pass up.

Yeah.

Because everyone loves to proofread.

Well, there you have it, everybody.

That is the webisode, the podcast.

You can see it over on Peacock, and you can also see it on NBC's YouTube.

Well, we're going to take a break.

And when we come back, we are going to share with you guys our very first time trying to do a podcast.

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This show is sponsored by Liquid IV.

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Hello.

from my Airbnb.

I am

staying in an Airbnb while I'm in Chicago doing my play.

That's right.

You said it was great because your family was joining you for part of that time and you wanted a home.

I did because we're going to be here for a little while.

But, you know, I have used Airbnb for shorter trips as well.

Yeah.

Are you ready for this?

What?

So one of my mom friends at the school,

she went to Iceland with her kids and they got an Airbnb.

In Iceland?

In Iceland.

Wow.

I was like, okay, you're going to have to tell me which one that is because that looked amazing.

Some trips are better in an Airbnb.

If you're traveling with a big group of friends, maybe a larger extended family.

If you want to get into a more local experience, I like it for this reason.

And here's the thing.

Also, if you've got a great space that you know people would love, you can Airbnb your home while you go and stay somewhere else.

Yes, and who knows?

Maybe I'll come stay in your place.

Your home might be worth more than you think.

Find out how much at airbnb.com slash host.

Hello, we are back.

And in honor of Gabe starting his podcast in this webisode, we thought this would be a fun time to share our pilot episode of Office Ladies.

Yes.

So you guys, I was going through my digital clutter recently and I found it.

It was buried way back there.

So here's the thing.

At the time that we recorded this, we didn't even realize we were doing a pilot of anything.

We didn't know we were podcasting or anything like that.

We had been cleaning out our garages and kind of organizing all of our office memorabilia.

And, Jenna, we were trading messages about it.

And we said, you know what?

Before we clean out all these bins, maybe we need to document some of this so we don't forget, even if it's something we could give our kids someday.

Yeah, we kept calling each other and being like, oh my gosh, look at what I found.

And then that made me think of this.

But we were also like, you know, who knows, maybe one day we'll write a book.

We need to get these stories down.

So I went over to Angela's house and we just recorded ourselves on her iPhone.

I had just found a bunch of photos from our office Halloween episodes.

So I said, Ange, I'm going to come talk about all my memories from doing Halloween episodes.

And, you know, We did it.

And when it was over, I don't think we really thought much of it because at the time, we were really more in like archive mode.

Yeah, I didn't think anything of it.

But I remember Josh was like, what did you guys do out there?

And I said, well, we kind of recorded our memories of Halloween episodes.

And I was like, here, do you want to hear it?

And he listened to it and he was like, Ange, you know, I think this is a podcast.

Which was so wild because at the time I was working on splitting up together and Oliver Hudson had literally like the week before said to me, Jenna, you should start a podcast.

I think you would like podcasting because he knew that I liked being at home in sweatpants.

So that was like now Josh was saying this could be a podcast and Oliver Hudson was like, Jenna, you should do a podcast.

Yeah.

So you and I were like, wait, is this something?

And so Josh was like, guys, I'm going to edit it.

I'm going to clean it up a little.

I'm going to add some music to kind of move things along.

And he did.

And he said, what do you think?

And we were like, oh my gosh, maybe this is something.

Yeah.

I mean, this is what we sent out to different companies when we started taking meetings for doing a podcast.

This is what we gave them as an example of what our podcast might be.

So we thought it might be fun for you to hear how it all started.

Yeah, here it is, everyone.

The Office Ladies Pilot.

Okay, this is March 7th.

It is Jenna's birthday.

She is 45 today.

I am.

We just went on a hike for her birthday.

And now we are sitting in what was once my rundown garage that we have made into my office.

Office/slash guest room slash pool house slash kid game room.

Game room.

And Jenna and I are really excited.

This is the first time we are going to read some of our pages out loud together.

While Jenna reads, she's going first.

I am eating a turkey wrap and chips and salsa, so I hope that's not annoying.

Well, I'm just really excited to listen to this later and transcribe it and hear your chips.

I think that is going to be really fun for me.

That keeps on giving, channels.

All right.

So it was my job to dive deep into the Halloween episodes.

Not just the Halloween episodes, but just Halloween in general on the office, because it was a very special time.

It was.

We had a lot of fun.

And I was thinking about why.

Why was it such a very special, highly anticipated holiday on the set of the office?

Well, first of all, Pam always had candy on her desk.

And one of my favorite candies personally is candy corn.

You love candy corn.

And I'm eating.

And they would put candy corn in my candy dish the week that we shot Halloween episodes.

And the first year they did it, I ate so much of it.

And I think the props people were so annoyed with me because they had to keep refilling that dish for continuity.

And then I actually got sick.

I actually got too much candy.

I was like a stomachache from eating too much candy corn.

I was like a child.

It's like what our parents tell us.

Yeah, don't make it sick.

It did, but it was just right there.

So I was thinking about besides the candy corn, why did we love it so much?

And I thought about it.

Our regular wardrobe was so routine.

Every character basically had a uniform.

Like Dwight had mustard shirts, Pam was pastel cardigans and pencil skirts.

Angela, you were just high necks in gray.

Gray, charcoal.

I literally have a line where I say I improvised that I was so proud of that they were like, Amy Adams was like, what's your favorite color?

And I said, gray, charcoal, shades of gray, shades of gray

Phyllis basically just dressed in purple

right or tiger print oh no leopard print leopard print animal print or animal prints or purple at least and he got the preppy plaids and interesting belts he always had some

interesting belts

and if you think about it our hairstyles never really changed either so I feel like we just really craved any chance to break out and Halloween was the chance it was a big chance it was a huge

it wasn't just a slight breakout it was a huge

huge breakout it was like the most exciting thing to happen to the wardrobe department, to the hair and makeup department.

Everyone was very excited.

And you know, it was equal among genders.

I remember Rain getting so excited about his costumes.

So sometimes people ask me if we ever had any say in what our characters dressed as for Halloween.

And the very simple answer to that is no.

Absolutely not.

Absolutely not.

So many of our costumes were plot related.

There was like the joke that you could wear the same white cat costume year after year, even when you were pregnant, which is a very funny, snarky scene that we have.

Or the time that Creed, Dwight, and Kevin all dress as the Joker.

Or the time when Pam dressed as Charlie Chaplin just to find out she was the only person to dress up in a costume at her new job.

That was when she was off at art school.

And then she couldn't take off her hat because then she looked like Hitler.

So the costume choices were mostly dictated by the story that the writer wanted to tell

that happened to be on Halloween.

But I feel like there was one exception.

Do you know who I'm thinking of?

Oh my God, can I guess?

Yes.

Mindy Kaling?

Yes!

Mindy Kaling!

Mindy was also on the writing staff.

She got to be part of picking her own costume and she always, well, Mindy loves to dress up.

Like she loves to go big, right?

Yes, she does.

And she had the best costume.

She was Carrie Bradshaw.

She was Snookie.

Katie Perry, and then Lilu from the Fifth Element.

And I have this picture of you and Mindy.

You were like a black widow.

I took my camera that day.

That's like cold open we shot.

Yeah.

Didn't get used.

Yes.

And she was Lilu and like she had a multipass.

Lilu matupas.

Multipass.

Lilu multipass.

I don't know if she's.

You haven't seen it all?

Uh-uh.

Jenna, this is a great movie, and I think it still holds up.

I'm just going to say that.

Lilu matipas.

What does that mean?

Are you saying her last name, or are you saying Lilu has a multipass?

Like,

she's going to outer space.

You have to have this multipass to get on this ship.

Is there like a Metro card?

Kind of.

Oh, you have to see this.

Bruce Willis is in it.

I do love Bruce Willis.

Chris Trucker is in it.

But this Lilu costume was basically basically white gauze.

So much skin.

Yes, well, you have to see it because she's in like this.

Oh, God, I don't even know how to explain it.

But she is the fifth element.

Okay.

Lilu.

All right.

Okay, so I guess Mindy Kaling and I was right.

Mindy Kaling.

I want to talk about one of my personal favorite episodes of The Office, which also happens to be our very first Halloween episode.

Okay.

It aired during season two and was called, appropriately, Halloween.

I cry at the end every time I watch it.

So the plot is very simple, if you don't remember.

Michael is told that he must fire someone during the month of October due to cutbacks at Dunder Mifflin.

But in true Michael fashion, he waits until the very last day of October, which also happens to be Halloween.

Greg Daniels wrote this episode, and I remember him telling me that the inspiration for the episode was that he had always wanted to do a story about someone being fired, but from the point of view of the boss rather than the employee.

He said, we always see stories of the people being fired, but rarely stories about about the person having to do the firing.

And I always thought that Greg's decision to set the story on Halloween when everyone is dressed up and excited for our office Halloween party made the whole thing even more delightfully uncomfortable.

Oh, so tragic.

Like no one wants to get fired when they're dressed up like a clown or something.

It's depressing.

But the one problem that this plot presented for Greg was that he would actually have to fire someone on the show.

And he didn't want to fire any of the core cast members, even though many of the supporting characters at this time were still under weekly contracts.

You guys were not considered series regulars yet.

Oh no, not at all.

You know how you say you have a photo of the exact moment you knew we'd be best friends?

Yes.

I have a photo of the exact moment I was made series regular, and you and I are jumping up and down, giddy, holding hands, jumping up and down, because I got the news while we were on Booze Cruise.

That's when we became series regulars.

But this was before Booze Cruise.

Yes.

So he could have any of us fired any of you guys, but he didn't want to.

But he also didn't want to hire a new person just for one episode, establish them, and fire them because it felt dishonest.

Like it felt, he said it felt like cheating.

So he had to fire someone we'd already seen on the show.

So we had two stand-ins at the time, and maybe we should tell people what a stand-in is.

A stand-in is a person who fills in for the actor after the rehearsal of a scene while the crew adjusts the lights.

They walk where the actor would walk or sit or stand where the actor would sit or stand during the scene and the crew figures out where to put the cameras and the lights.

And then when it's time for the camera to roll, the actors are called back to the set and begin shooting the scene.

So, we had two stand-ins: they were Creed and Devin.

And both Creed and Devon had also appeared on camera in the background of some conference room scenes or in the annex by the break room.

Maybe they would like cross in the deep background of a scene like they were delivering mail.

I remember we had that mail cart that really made no sense because we didn't have a mail room, but whatever.

But they'd never spoken.

They've been established, so that was enough for Greg.

But then, Greg, who is the gentlest man, had the dilemma of picking who to fire, Creed or Devin.

I can't imagine how that weighed on Greg, because he really is just a kind, kind-hearted person, and it just must have wrecked him.

So Greg spoke with both of them, and he found out that Devin had just been cast in an off-Broadway play in New York.

So this was all Greg needed to hear.

He decided Devin would be fired since he had this job to go to.

To go to.

And Creed went from being a non-speaking stand-in on our show to getting a five-page scene with Steve Carell.

No audition.

Greg had never seen him act, handed him a five-page scene with Steve Carell.

The scene was so popular with fans and Greg was so delighted that he started writing more stuff for Creed.

And then Creed eventually also became a series regular.

Yes.

And it was all because Greg needed someone to fire.

So in addition to this being the episode that launched Creed into the office family, it is responsible for a number of firsts.

This is the episode that features Jim and Pam's first air high five.

Aww, Jam, Jam, Air High Five.

Jam Air High Five.

It is also the first time Pam is seen wearing her hair down rather than half up, half down, which I call the Pam mullet.

And it was a huge debate about whether or not this hair change could be allowed.

It went several rounds with the producers and writers before being approved.

Would Pam look too cute if she wore her hair down?

They decided to go for it.

And then the next time you see a hair change for Pam is Casino Night.

I mean, if we know a lot of details about hair and stuff like that, it's because these were huge discussions.

We just always wanted to stay true to the integrity of who these people were and not, as the success of the show grew, like zhizh them up too much.

They were still in Scranton in a paper company, even though the show was gaining more popularity and we were sort of becoming a little bit like, I don't know, like fancier.

Well, this was true of wardrobe as well.

They only shopped at places that our characters could realistically afford to shop at.

So if Pam had to wear a pair of jeans,

I wore a pair of jeans from the gap.

I did not wear a pair of $200 designer jeans.

Right.

And also, our wardrobe department was amazing.

You know, they made sure like your pants weren't too long or things like that, but they did not fit you, like alter things the way most TV shows do.

And after the office, I worked on a show called Your Family or Mine.

And the women that did the wardrobe also did the wardrobe for friends.

And those women looked amazing on Friends.

And I have never looked so kabam like ever in my life.

They altered it every everything.

They altered like where your shoulder hem is and where like the insane, like everything fit me like a glove.

Yeah, most shows tailor clothes to your body.

Yeah.

And that's why everybody looks so fabulous on TV.

They said to me, do you know what's the difference between just a normal person walking down the street and someone walking down the street on a TV show?

And I I said, What?

And they said, Alterations.

It's 100% true.

Because most people like to figure out how to blow out their hair and put a little bit of makeup on, but having clothes fit you like that.

And they were blown away because I was like, Oh my gosh, look how this fits me.

Oh, you're going to take that in, you're going to sew this.

And they're like, Angela, have you never had your clothes altered on the office?

I was like,

no, no, because we had to look realistic for that world.

Another thing about Halloween is people dress up as our office characters for Halloween on Halloween.

Which I love so much.

Which is crazy, right?

When I get tagged as White and Angela, I love you.

You are a Halloween costume.

So I also want to say that of all the photos that I get, I think that the most popular, the one I see the most, is the Pam Cat three-hole punch gym.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, those are the one.

That's the one I get the most.

I get just myself in an Argyle sweater with usually the girls have their hair in a headband or our slick back pony and they're all holding a cat stuffed animal.

I get a lot where girls are wearing the white cats.

Another first.

This Halloween episode was the first time since our pilot that the creators of the original British series of The Office, Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais, visited our set.

Yes.

They stayed almost an entire day.

One day when we were filming, we were all geeking out.

Before they left, I asked for a photo with them and some of the American producers of the show but I am the only person in the photo who is obviously dressed in a Halloween costume do you have it yes you can kind of see like Jim has like one circle of his three hole punch yes when I look at the photo I like to imagine that I was doing a like a school play about a cat and all these people came to see see me and I posed for a picture backstage yeah that's backstage at your cat play cat play yeah

here's my one story about Ricky Gervais so they were on set we were all kind of nervous about it and I hadn't really been in scenes yet but after lunch, I had a talking hedge, and I come through the lunch area and I see Ricky Gervais, and I'm introduced to him.

They're like, Ricky's actually going back to Video Village now because he's gonna watch everything from lunch on to the end of the day.

And you were the first thing he started watching?

And I was like, Great!

And they were like, Angela, you're first up.

And I said, Oh, fantastic.

And I look to Ricky Gervais and he goes, Don't worry, I don't tisk too loudly.

And that's what he said to me.

That's amazing

for all of these reasons i love this first halloween episode but i especially love the end and i don't know if you remember the end but at the end michael hands out candy to little kids and i cry every time i'm getting choked up thinking about it i remember there was a big debate over how that final moment should be played out.

There was a discussion as to whether or not the kids should be nice to Michael or if they should be annoyed by him because he was going to be cracking jokes while he handed out candy.

And the writers and producers also discussed if Steve should be happy or sad while handing out the candy.

It was decided that they would start on a spy shot of Michael looking sad and lonely inside of his house alone on Halloween night.

He's just fired someone.

Then you hear the doorbell and when he gets to the door and sees the kids, he lights up, he makes his silly jokes, and the kids just laugh and laugh and are delighted by him.

And he makes this connection.

I'm crying.

Yeah.

And it's just beautiful and kind and heartbreaking.

And it's moments like this that make the office so special.

We can spend an entire episode laughing at Michael Scott or finding him annoying, but in the end, he will break your heart with his kindness and vulnerability and his desire to have what we all want, which is just to love and be loved to return.

To be in return.

Yes.

And

that is heartbreaking and so sweet and so real, isn't it?

It's just like such an honest moment.

And I think that's what I think Greg Daniels was so great at in our show is finding these just real life moments that were so honest.

And you've got to know firing someone was so hard for Michael because all he wanted to do was be liked.

And this dysfunctional office family was truly his family.

It was such a great choice to have him go home and you see why he's so needy at work.

Yes.

You know?

He's so lonely.

He's just so lonely.

And I loved that the kids delighted in him.

And there was this thing that Steve did with his face.

He just looked like lit up inside you know when they laughed you saw that joy come over michael oh it was so sweet if we ever get to do a reunion episode

i just need to see michael scott with his kid yes and and he's the best dad best dad yes and his kid yes just

thinks he is everything yeah Exactly.

And him and Holly are just happy.

Yeah.

It would make me so happy.

And maybe he still annoys people at work, but he's like the best dad.

The best dad.

And I think it hit me even harder now that I have kids.

Yeah.

Because I just know what kids bring to your life.

The episode was written by resident genius Greg Daniels.

It was directed by, do you know, Paul Feig.

Oh, Paul Feig.

Well, you know, I was going to guess Ken Kwapas or Paul Feig because they're...

In the early years, that's a good guess.

Yeah, and they also, we gave them a lot of the big, like, milestone episodes.

During his time on the show i'm gonna give you some fast facts about paul fee he directed 14 episodes of the office but he also spent an entire season where he was a consulting producer that's right and he was there every day on set when he left i was like no paul don't i felt so safe with him there it was a dream he also i think hosted the most cast viewing parties of anyone in his home with his incredible wife Lori.

Yes, and their home was beautiful.

Beautiful.

And just so warm and inviting.

I love it.

They put out a little like snackity snack.

Snackity snack in the kitchen, and then we would all get our stuff and we would go watch the show together.

We did that so much.

So much.

And Paul.

So many viewing parties.

Paul and Lori are just such great party hosts.

Paul is one of the best-dressed people you will ever meet in your life.

Full suit with tie.

I have never not seen him in a suit.

And his Instagram is all of him in suits with cocktails.

You have to see it.

Because it's very enjoyable.

It's very impressive.

Paul, we're about to deep dive on your feet on Instagram.

Don't get freaked out.

Also, did you talk about what the crew would do on Friday when it was Paul Feig's episode?

They would all wear a tie.

Oh, yes.

Yeah, it would be Paul Feig Day, suit day, every Friday when Paul Feig directed.

And all the crew members, the camera guys, they would all wear ties.

Halloween did not end with our Halloween episodes.

In order to edit the episodes in time to air during the actual week of Halloween, we filmed our Halloween episodes like usually in August, like months before.

So every year we got two Halloween celebrations.

First was the week that we shot the Halloween episode, but then there was actual Halloween.

And during actual Halloween week, our crew would all dress up and we would have a costume parade at lunch.

And the crew went all out.

Yeah.

We would shoot a whole day with them all in costumes and us dressed as our characters.

One year, I don't know if you remember this, the wardrobe department dressed as the characters from our show.

And I have pictures.

That is hilarious.

Although, this guy was a props guy.

He wasn't wardrobe, but wardrobe dressed as us oh my gosh that's amazing i know that's pretty great because i think something that people say a lot but was very true for us and maybe it's true for them too we were like one big family we were not just the cast it was the crew yes we looked out for one another we enjoyed being together this is a story that's near and dear to my heart when my son weston was one years old i wanted to dress him as a wimbledon tennis player because i had a little shirt from wimbledon like a little polo shirt from wimbledon that had a little logo on it.

And it just seemed like an easy outfit.

You know, the players just wear all white.

So I had the shirt.

I put white shorts, little white sneakers, a little white hat.

And when Phil Shea, the head of our props department, heard what I was putting together, he arranged for someone to make him an actual tiny, perfectly proportioned tennis racket and bag.

I know.

A real tennis racket.

I know.

Like not a thing, not plastic.

It was like out of metal.

It was literally the cutest thing on the planet.

It made the whole outfit.

And then I sewed a little yellow squishy ball into his pocket.

So it looked like he had a little bit of a ball coming out of his pocket.

Out of his pocket.

And it was so sweet.

I brought Weston in to work at lunchtime so that he could be part of the parade.

And I have a picture of it.

I have a picture of Weston and Isabel and Lee.

And Weston's in this little outfit.

And I was coming across photos and I came across it and I didn't have it in my Halloween photos.

And I was like, why is Weston dressed as a tiny Wimbledon tennis player?

And then I remembered it was Halloween.

Our workdays were long, but they were not as long as a typical television show.

No.

We averaged about 12 hours a day, and it usually was something like 6 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

It was rare to go as late as 7.30, but it did happen occasionally.

But it never happened on Halloween.

We were always wrapped early.

Always.

And I think it's because so many of our crew members had families with young kids and the producers wanted to make sure that everyone was home in time to celebrate with their families.

That's right.

And you know, Greg himself is a very big family man.

I think that those things are important.

They were important to him.

And I think when you're on a show where your showrunner, creator has a family, they just go into it thinking about people's families.

I always felt that way.

I felt like they knew when I went to them when I had Isabel and I was going to be bringing her to set.

I felt like I could go and have a conversation and they would help make it work.

I know that it was very important to Steve that he'd be home for dinner with his family every night.

Yes.

He would come in first thing in the morning, 5.30, 6 a.m.

So that he could be finished by 5.30 at night.

And then some of the people who didn't have kids would stay later and then work to that 6, 6.30 timeframe happily, you know, for him.

In fact, there were a lot of younger people who preferred coming in at 8 a.m.

and working late.

They did not want to come in at 5.30.

But once you have kids, you're awake anyway, you know?

You don't want to miss bedtime.

You don't want to miss that different bedtime.

And it can be made to work if the people who are in charge make it work.

And it happened on Halloween.

Also, every year, Matt Sohn, who was one of our camera operators, and then later he became our director of photography and even directed some episodes.

He would throw a party at his house after work for everyone and their families.

And he lived in this great neighborhood for trick-or-treating.

And we'd show up and he would have these little tables that had crafts for the kids.

Oh he had it was so cute.

Their like front room of their house had little low tables with little chairs.

Yes.

It was like kid paradise over there.

Little stickers, projects.

You could make a little pumpkin

and then food.

They'd order pizza and then we'd just go out and canvass the neighborhood.

And even cast members without kids would come.

I know BJ Novak used to go over and hand out candy because someone had to man the door, right?

Like if everybody leaves, someone has to be there and hand out the candy.

And BJ was like, I'll do it.

I'll never forget one of the years we went, Isabel was Tinker Bell, and she was so excited when she rang the door that people gave her candy.

She couldn't believe it.

She was like, what is happening?

But it was really sweet that we all did that.

Even though we'd spent all day working together, we still shared these occasions with one another.

It was really sweet.

I had this

professor in college.

I'm going to get really nerdy for a second.

And he was my creative writing professor.

And he used to say, you know, what's a pleasure to do is a pleasure to experience.

So if you're writing and you love what you're writing, I'm going to love reading it.

And I felt that way about the office.

We so loved what we were doing that I think it comes through.

I think we cared a lot for each other.

We were very invested in each other's lives.

And I think now the show still resonates because when you watch that, you feel it.

We were genuinely connected.

Yeah, and we still are.

We still are.

Yeah, that was our home.

Air high five.

Air high five.

Boom.

Well, that was so crazy for me to listen to after all these years.

Isn't that wild?

I mean, it was your 45th birthday.

Yeah.

We had just a weird thing.

We had just gone for a hike and then we were having lunch.

I'm so sorry, you guys.

I was eating a turkey wrap.

I'm, I apologize because I know you have written in, you don't like us to eat on the podcast, but I didn't know I was podcasting at the time.

I just was

having an afternoon with my best friend.

I feel like I talked really fast.

You think so?

A little bit.

Yeah, but I also, by the way, think it's very funny that I brought a document.

I know.

You are so organized already.

From the beginning.

And you were so relaxed.

It's like, we're all there.

Even from the very beginning, we're all there.

It is funny to me, though, that.

Even though we were there to talk about Halloween, we did have the sidebar banter, like me asking you about the fifth element and you hadn't seen it.

Have you seen it?

You know, I think I've seen parts of it, but I would do it as a rewatch.

Really?

I would break it down.

I would, if you're interested.

Yeah.

I would take it on.

Oh my gosh.

Sam Cassie, have you seen the fifth element?

Oh, yeah, many times.

I mean, that's a good one, don't you think, Sam?

Yeah, I think that'd be a good watch for Jenna.

Okay, I'll do it.

It's sci-fi-y, right?

But doesn't it also have a little.

I think that qualifies.

Anything that's in space.

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

I don't mind space.

Okay.

I watched Fifth Element when I was a kid, so I don't really remember anything.

But I want to point out that it is a film from 1997, like The Edge.

So I think Office Ladies has a 1997 theme going on.

All right.

Yeah.

Maybe we need to watch it.

Well, listen, we hope you enjoyed that.

Thank you so much for writing in, sending in your questions and comments.

Carol, Angelo, thank you so much for sharing about the behind the scenes of the webisodes at NBC.

And yeah, I can't wait to see what you guys thought of our pilot episode.

We'll see you next week.

Have a good one.

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 Rhys-Dennis.

Office Ladies is mixed and mastered by Chris Basil.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

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